Jungling Rammus!

Hello everyone and welcome to my Rammus Jungling Guide, I recently I was against a team with a Rammus and he was jungling, I thought that was odd at first but they started to dominate us with ganks and Rammus got his full build very fast. The next day I decided to try this out myself. With some practice it started to work very well and I was getting a lot of great ganks off. In this guide I will tell you my jungling order, my build, and what to do during the stages of the game. Now lets get started.

Here is some proof that jungle Rammus is awesome!

Pros

-Great Ganker with powerball
-Looks awesome
-3 second taunt
-Great AoE
-Hardest champion to kill in the game
-Great AD because of passive
-He's a flippin armadillo
-Awesome skins
-Great Jungler
-Ok

Cons

He's easily kited
-Prone to silence
-Useless without mana
-His damage starts to tone down in late game
-Powerball can be hard to hit with creeps in the way
-You need a good, organized team to perform well

-Excellent survivability in Jungle with W.
-Can go from creep to creep very fast with powerball.
-His jungle speed is godlike.
-Easily the best ganker in the game with powerball, taunt and red buff.
-Most of the time your health will be in good enough condition to gank right after level four.
-Cloth armor for jungle flows nicely into his build.


While Rammus may be a good lane presence, he is easily kited, and zoned out of exp. This is why I think Rammus should always be jungled with, as you can see he is good at about everything you need to be to be a top notch jungler. There is no reason you shouldn't jungle with Rammus.

Once your little armadillo spawns at the pool your going to buy a Cloth Armor and 5 health potions. Next put a point in your W move and head out towards the blue buff golem camp. (Warning: You will most likely humiliate yourself in an embarrassing death by the golem if you do not have runes, they may seem like only a minor improvement but trust me they make the difference in early jungling. At low summoner levels it is highly suggested that one of your teammates leashes the golem for a little bit to tank damage. The last thing you need is the other team laughing their ***es off because you died from a creep.) Anyways, initiate the golem with an auto attack and immediately pop your W and a health potion, keep attacking and spamming your W until he's low enough to be finished off by your lovely summoner spell smite. After this you will level up and put a point in powerball. Next, roll on down to the wolves and hit them in the center with your Q it should hit all of them. Then pop W and a health potion and attack them until there dead (DO NOT USE SMITE). After that use your Q to speed on down to the Wraiths. Hit them in the center, pop W health potion and attack until dead. After this head on down to Lizard Buff, rinse and repeat with the addition of smite. Next kill the 2 golems. You should be level 4 now, put a point in taunt and check if the lanes need a gank, however your health will probably be low so recall. Pick up your Ninja Tabi and keep on jungling and ganking until mid game.
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Full credit goes to stonewall for making this video! :)


Blue= Jungle Path and order
Yellow= Dragon killing
Orange= Ganking Opportunities

Next I will talk about ganking and when you should do this. First off, if you don't know what ganking is, it's when someone else comes to ambush and attempt to get a kill with the help of anyone else currently in action. It is crucial to League of Legends that you gank well and efficiently, so don't spend too much time on a gank because you will lose exp. and make sure you get the kill. Also don't gank too much because you might become under leveled. Jungling is one of the best ways to have ganking happen, because you will always be out of action, so the team will never know where you are and can sometimes forget to call mia. The reason Rammus is such a great ganker is because of his powerball spell and his taunt. Powerball gives you insane speed so the victim being ganked will not have time to run when you come charging in. As well as this you have a taunt which can stop them from getting away and keep them from getting a quick kill off one of your teammates during the gank. When attempting a gank it's good to have the lizard buff and golem if possible because the lizard slows and golem can keep you from running out of mana in that crucial moment where you need to get one last taunt off. It is normally a good idea to gank when either the top, bot, or mid lane is being pushed close to the turret. The opposing champion(s) should be over halfway down there side of the field giving you a wide area to get behind them and go in for the kill. Also something to keep in mind is that unless immediate defending is needed you should charge up your powerball a little bit in the brush before you charge in because the extra speed can make a difference. Ganking can also make people rage giving you one less person to worry about ;). In addition getting early kills on the teams carry can keep them from farming and shut them down in late game. I'm pretty sure you don't want a fed Master Yi, slicing your team to pieces because he wasn't killed in early game.

*THIS PART IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, PLEASE REFER TO THE ITEM BUILD UP TOP*

Core Items

Basic tank item giving you extra dodge and the armor that is always great for Rammus, it is easily built from the cloth armor as well.
This is a great item for Rammus, giving a nice health boost and a good amount of armor, unfortunately it's not wise to buy more than one now because the recent patch made the passive unique.
Amazing item for Rammus because it stacks with your defensive ball curl. DPS champions will regret attacking you when they realize they're only killing themselves!

Situational Items

Mercury treads are a great addition against a team with high CC and/or casters. However I like to always get ninja tabi early on to help with jungling plus it builds from your cloth armor. If you are going to get mercury treads I would wait until later on when you hit your 2 or 3 item. Just make sure you don't have a useless pair of dodge boots slapped on your feet 45 minutes into the game against an all caster team.
This is a great all around item that gives armor, resist, and a great revive every 5 minutes. I normally buy this after finishing my core.
A wonderful item to pick up if the team has a lot of casters or a fed one. Even after the nerf it still gives great mana, health, magic resist, and a priceless spell bubble every 45 seconds.
A great overall item for tanks in general if the enemy team is very balanced with mages and DPS. Also a good buy if you already have a fairly balanced magic resist and armor amount. However, never ever ever EVER, rush this as your first item on any tank whatsoever except Mundo, because he does what he pleases. Health is completely useless when it comes to survivability without a decent amount of armor and magic resist.
This is an excellent item for Rammus which gives him extra armor, health, CDR, and an amazing active affect that can be used well in sequence with power-ball.
This is also a great item to get along with Banshees veil if the enemy team is very caster heavy, but I prefer banshees veil over this when I am just getting a little magic resist, because the movespeed you don't need for you have power-ball, and the mana in banshees veil can be very helpful.

Ghost Paired with powerball this can give you great chasing and running speed, as well as rushing to defend a tower. I prefer this over flash because of the recent nerfs on powerball and extra speed is needed. In addition I've always liked long term speed effects over short term burst movement.
Smite You gotta have this if you're jungling, self explanatory.

For masteries I like to go a 1-18-11 build. I make sure to get armor, damage block, and all the other good tank points in defense while going in the utility tree to get reduced death time, improved ghost, experience, and improved buff duration. Also I put 1 in offense for improved smite.

For Marks I like to take armor penetration to help with early game kills however you can switch them out for armor or health if you're worried about dying in the jungle.
For Seals I take flat armor to help with early game jungling and give you a little extra beef late game.
For Quints I like to take flat health for all my builds and champions because It greatly increases your early game survivability.
Lastly, for Glyphs I take mana regen per level to help out with your mana late game. This will help you from running out of mana right when you need a taunt to save an ally. Another option however is magic resist or cooldown. Once again runes are mostly a matter of preference and play style.

Rammus has a variety of moves that make him a great tank and jungler, it is important that you understand them, and know how to use them correctly.
Spiked Shell, (Innate): Rammus gains additional damage as his shell becomes reinforced, converting 25% of his armor into attack damage.

This passive is what makes Rammus such a killer tank. The more armor you get the more damage you will have, this means his W will increase his damage output! (Important against turrets and jungle).
Powerball, (Active): Rammus accelerates in a ball towards his enemies, dealing magic damage and slowing targets affected by the impact for 4 seconds.

This is what makes Rammus stand out as a tank and champion in general. It increases your movement speed by an insane amount and does damage+slow on impact. It's pure amazing for ganking, catching up to your enemies and getting through the jungle. It's also an ok escape mechanism. I level this once at level 2 and leave it.
Defensive Ball Curl, (Active): Rammus goes into a defensive formation for 6 seconds, increasing his armor and magic resistance and returning magic damage to attackers.

This is an awesome ability because it's like a free thornmail. It increases your armor and magic resist by a huge bulk and has a cool animation to go with it. This will make melee DPS regret they tried to 1v1 you. This is what enables you to jungle, I level this twice at 1 & 3 and leave it until taunt is maxed.
Puncturing Taunt, (Active): Rammus taunts the unit into a reckless assault, reducing their armor and forcing them to attack Rammus for a few seconds.

Amazing CC, amazing ability, there's nothing to hate about this. At full rank the taunt will last a whole 3 seconds and will normally mean certain death. It's great in team fights for getting the carry to attack you and it can keep you allies away from death. I level this once at start maxing this out once I hit level 4.
Tremors, (Active): Rammus creates tremors beneath him for 8 seconds, dealing magic damage per second to nearby units and structures.

This is quite a good AoE and nice for team fights. Whats unique about this ability is it works on turrets and inhibitors, how can you not love that!? Level this whenever possible.

As Rammus, you are the tank and your job is to protect your teammates. You have to initiate fights and show the enemies what your made of while your team chops them up. It is important to know how to play in team fights in order to win them. Your powerball is there for a reason use it to accelerate into the enemy team to start the fight off. Pop your ball curl, tremors and make sure to taunt the carry. Continue to spam your ball curl and taunt but not powerball. If you play correctly you will probably win the fight and there might be some runners. No worries, pop your powerball that shouldn't be on CD and chase those goners down. Then do a little dance as you get an ace and win the game!

-Charge your powerball for atleast 2 seconds when ganking someone from bush
-Enemy teams full of DPS are your friends
-Don't overuse mana
-If you are close up fighting someone and they start to run try to use taunt FIRST and then powerball because when you use powerball then taunt the slow from powerball is gone by the time taunt is up...if you know what I mean. Simple logic.
-Tremors kills turrets REMEMBER THAT
-People who call Rammus OP are just fat

These videos were not made by me and full credit goes to the makers. However enjoy these videos I found quite helpful...

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I'll see you around the Fields of Justice