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The Complete Amumu Guide
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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Fortify
Flash
Ability Order
Cursed Touch (PASSIVE)
Amumu Passive Ability
Introduction
6/9/11: Guide published. Enjoy.
Hi, my name is Schweppes, and this is my Complete Guide on how to play Amumu in pretty much every role he can take: Main tank, off-tank/AP, and Jungle tank.
So Why

Because

I will say two things first, this guide is very long, and this guide is not oriented toward ranked play, but there's no reason I can see why it shouldn't be completely viable in such a situation. You should read through it at least once. I cover a lot of concepts in this.
Yes. Picking
Amumu allows you to fill in roles that are often missing. By picking him at the selection screen and NOT LOCKING IN IMMEDIATELY (because no team oriented player should ever do this) you allow your team to see what you're intending to play. This allows them to pick accordingly, and gives you a chance to change your build/champion if need be.
If you have a well balanced team that has an AD carry, an AP carry, a support, and an off-tank/fighter/jungler, then going main tank is a good idea. If you have a very meaty team already and don't need to really worry about tanking, then going AP off-tank can be very rewarding. Also, you should very strongly consider jungling if no one else is. The benefit of the experience boost from having basically three solo lanes is so much greater than going main tank.
Amumu isn't an amazing ganker, but he can clear the jungle very quickly and easily, especially once he hits level 4.
So why 3 builds in one guide? Because each role that
Amumu can fill is covered in one guide... it's your one stop shop for everything
Amumu.

If you have a well balanced team that has an AD carry, an AP carry, a support, and an off-tank/fighter/jungler, then going main tank is a good idea. If you have a very meaty team already and don't need to really worry about tanking, then going AP off-tank can be very rewarding. Also, you should very strongly consider jungling if no one else is. The benefit of the experience boost from having basically three solo lanes is so much greater than going main tank.

So why 3 builds in one guide? Because each role that


The first thing I want to address is the function
Amumu plays. If you don't already know,
Amumu is a tank. This means that, like other tanks, his primary role is take damage, initiate team fights, and use crowd control (CC) to protect your team mates and stop the other team from doing what they want. This translates into two very important points about your k/d/a ratio that makes a lot of players rage at tanks: you won't (and shouldn't) have very many kills, though you should (and hopefully will) have a lot of assists, and that you WILL DIE...
Now obviously dying is bad no matter what, but it's important that if anyone is dying, it's you... meaning that in a "good game" your deaths should be greater than your AD and AP carries combined, who should be dying as little as possible. This does not mean dive into a 1v5 fight and sacrifice yourself for no reason. If someone is playing stupidly, you dying isn't worth it because the odds are the person you tried to rescue will die to, making your death pointless.
One more thing to know about playing a tank: good players/team will not focus the tank. If you're not taking damage, you're not doing half of your job in team fights. Unfortunately,
Amumu doesn't have a taunt like
Rammus,
Galio, or
Shen. The best way to make the other team to attack you in this case is to PUT YOURSELF IN FRONT. The tank should NEVER be behind anyone else (except maybe the off-tank in certain situations). The other method is doing enough damage to be dangerous, something
Amumu does very well.


Now obviously dying is bad no matter what, but it's important that if anyone is dying, it's you... meaning that in a "good game" your deaths should be greater than your AD and AP carries combined, who should be dying as little as possible. This does not mean dive into a 1v5 fight and sacrifice yourself for no reason. If someone is playing stupidly, you dying isn't worth it because the odds are the person you tried to rescue will die to, making your death pointless.
One more thing to know about playing a tank: good players/team will not focus the tank. If you're not taking damage, you're not doing half of your job in team fights. Unfortunately,














The two runes in common are
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and
Greater Quintessence of Health. You primarily deal magic damage, so Magic Pen is the easiest way to increase your damage output. Also flat HP Quints give you an awesome HP boost early game.
Main Tank:
Greater Seal of Armor: Flat Armor. Helpful early game, helpful all around. You're a tank and more armor is better.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: MR/level. Though MR is important, you don't need it as much until around level 6, which is when it starts evening out with the flat MR.
AP Off-Tank:
Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power: AP/level. You're building AP, much better than flat AP since you aren't going to get early ganks anyway.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: Flat CDR. CDR/level only get an extra 2% CDR at level 18, and having more CDR sooner (doesn't even out until 14) is much more useful.
Jungle Tank:
See
Greater Seal of Armor and
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction above.


Main Tank:


AP Off-Tank:


Jungle Tank:
See



Main Tank:


AP Off-tank:


Jungle Tank:

Main Tank: 9/21/0
This one should be pretty obvious. The "best" of the defense tree (since it kind of sucks to be honest). Also goes to the magic pen in offense since there aren't any decent utility masteries that you can get for 9.
AP Off-tank: 9/0/21
The offense tree is really more oriented toward physical damage, so this instead tries to build up your CDR. Having a 3 second cooldown on your bandage toss at 18 makes it impossible to get away from you and your constant
Tantrum.
Jungle Tank: 9/0/21
Slightly tweaked version of the AP build that takes the mastery for Smite and adds the Jungle buff time extension.
This one should be pretty obvious. The "best" of the defense tree (since it kind of sucks to be honest). Also goes to the magic pen in offense since there aren't any decent utility masteries that you can get for 9.
AP Off-tank: 9/0/21
The offense tree is really more oriented toward physical damage, so this instead tries to build up your CDR. Having a 3 second cooldown on your bandage toss at 18 makes it impossible to get away from you and your constant

Jungle Tank: 9/0/21
Slightly tweaked version of the AP build that takes the mastery for Smite and adds the Jungle buff time extension.













Other viable items:





















Other viable items:

















All other items are built for the same reasons as stated above.
A few things to cover. Many people forget what the laning phase is about. Players should focus on last hitting minions and zoning the other team as much as possible. Normally the AP carry will take mid, and the Off-tank will take top, leaving the AD carry and tank to take bottom lane. This allows for one of them to move over to dragon to help the jungler take it out when the time comes. There are plenty of guides on warding and zoning, so if you aren't familiar with those terms or want to improve, then look them up.
Remember,
Amumu is a tank, not a ganker, and not a pusher. Yes, he can clear minions fairly quickly, but because he's melee, he's easy to harass. Solo laning, though doable, is very hard and not very rewarding. Opt to take bottom lane (which should be a duo lane) with the AD carry. Let the carry get as many last hits as possible, and don't over extend. Call MIAs and if you're getting harassed a lot, ward the river. Use your
Bandage Toss to stop the other team from chasing your carry should a gank happen. As Main Tank, try to wait to go back until you can buy your Philosopher's Stone and
Boots. As AP try to wait until you can afford your Catalyst the Protector. Both of these help you stay in your lane as long as possible. The laning phase usually lasts until there are a handful of level 11 champs, at which point you move to team fights.
Remember,



So you don't have a jungler on your team and decide to take the role. Start with your
Cloth Armor and 5x
Health Potion. Run to the Blue golem and don't get ganked. If someone can leash for you (hit's the golem first then runs) that's even better. Either way, run up and auto attack it and activate your
Despair. As soon as you start getting hit activate your
Health Potion. Make sure that once it runs out, you start your next one. Use
Smite once the golem is below 445. Take
Tantrum and use it as often as possible to clear wolf camp and wraith camp. Always auto attack the big one down first, then the little ones. Keep
Despair up whenever fighting and keep using your
Health Potion. Clear the golem camp. Smite should come back up around this time. Make sure your health is as high as it'll get. Attack the Red lizard, keeping
Despair up and using
Tantrum as often as possible.
Now a note on
Smite. Some basic math is very helpful. It increases by 25 damage every level, meaning that every 4 levels it increases by 100 damage. So at level 1 it deals 445, at level 4 it deals 520, level 8 620, etc. By the time you get to Red lizard you should be level 4, so
Smite it once its health falls below 520. Recall to base and get your
Ruby Crystal. If you have to cover a lane do so, otherwise clear the jungle again. Setting up a lane gank is hard until you're level 6 and have at least Rank 1
Bandage Toss and
Curse of the Sad Mummy.
Pull at least one person from bottom lane to take Dragon around level 8 (or 10, if you're not fully geared/runed/etc). Clear the jungle whenever possible, but don't let lanes fall and make sure you're present once team fights start breaking out.










Now a note on





Pull at least one person from bottom lane to take Dragon around level 8 (or 10, if you're not fully geared/runed/etc). Clear the jungle whenever possible, but don't let lanes fall and make sure you're present once team fights start breaking out.
Once there are some level 11 champs on the field, team fights will start breaking out. At this point, all three builds play roughly the same. Make sure you take your place at the front. Don't engage under towers, but once the other team crosses the river,
Bandage Toss into the fray, toggle on
Despair, use
Tantrum as often as possible, and once your team starts to move in and the other team clumps together use your
Curse of the Sad Mummy to start turning the tides. Run out of the fight ONLY when you are sure you're going to die because you're being focused or bursted.
If you're being chased or team mates are being chased
Bandage Toss an intercept and keep
Despair up. If they want to keep chasing they're going to have their health bled off.
Flash really shines through at this point. Use it to jump walls or get out of a fight quickly, or use it if your
Bandage Toss hits a minion that moved in your way to reposition yourself.
Late game you should be able to tank towers for minionless tower pushes.




If you're being chased or team mates are being chased




Late game you should be able to tank towers for minionless tower pushes.
First I'd like to say thank you for making it all the way through this guide. I hope that anyone reading this was able to at least take something from it. Please leave comments as long as they're constructive, I'm very open to feed back or to opening discussion of what and why.
GL and HF.
GL and HF.
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