[WIP]

The follow sections are a WIP, I will move content from the build options here as time progresses.

Plans for this guide:
Complete matchup information with tips and tricks to navigate the matchups
Rumble montage to inspire you to learn Rumble (video)
Rumble mechanics that will help you reach peak Rumble performance (video or clips)
How to navigate mid-game by understanding Rumble's champion identity and have good macro as Rumble
Different ways of using Rumble's ultimate and how to maximize your impact on teamfights

[WIP]

[WIP]

[WIP]

[WIP]

Max R > Q > E > W

Start Q or E:

In most ranged matchups you will want to start E to farm the first two waves safely. Once you hit level 2, start using your Q immediately to help build heat.

In matchups when you need early priority (i.e. they have an early invading jungler vs your tank / scaling jungler), start Q level 1. When the enemy walks up to the wave trade with your Q, but make sure to hit the wave as much as possible. You will lose some HP and CS, but it is important to get the early push for these matchups - and since you have D shield into range matchups, the auto attacks don't really hurt too much.

Once you are level 3, you can start building your heat and start taking aggressive trades. The most important part of a trade is whether you hit your E and whether you blocked damage with your W. Rumble's basic kit is not very complicated as all you need to do is walk at people with empowered Q, so you just need to pay attention to your W usage and making sure you can hit those E to catch up to your enemies.

Rumble's can poke with his E, but his primary trading pattern is running after his enemies with his Q after hitting E. Against ranged champions, it is battle of attrition since you will be trading HP for their HP and mana - meaning getting good value out of your W is crucial for getting winning trades. When you are walking to CS in ranged matchups, use your W before you last hit as it makes you an easy target for poke.

You can put another point in W at lvl 8 if you are losing a lot of health in lane, to get some extra HP value.

If your laner wastes their key trading / peeling ability, you can start walking up very aggressively and try to go for an aggressive trade.

Starting items:
Doran's shield into ranged matchups. You can also go Doran's into some melee match ups if you want to play it safe. It is just a good item vs champions with poke. There are some melee matchups where you want Doran's shield because of their poke: Kassadin, Zed, Akali

Doran's ring: Other melee matchups

Dark seal: If you are feeling confident. The sustain from other items is great for Rumble, since the only resource he has is health.

Build path:
https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/sorcerers-shoes-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/dark-seal-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/hextech-rocketbelt-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/shadowflame-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/void-staff-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/rabadons-deathcap-64x.png > https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/zhonyas-hourglass-64x.png

How your build typically goes:

You want to back when you have 1325 gold (usually around lvl 6 if you are csing decently). This gets you magic pen boots + refillable + a control ward. Switch your trinket to a sweeper here. The best spot to ward is the dot bush in the river on either side of mid lane - depending on which side you are going to play on.

If you don't have enough on your first base, the priority buys are: refillable / dark seal / boots / amp tome.
Usually I go for dark seal + refillable, + boots if I can. If you have money for amp tome it's worth it still even though it delays your sorc boots power spike as it gives you decent wave clear.

Dark seal > amp tome. You always want to buy a dark seal if you can, since Rumble primary identity is roam + snowball. Almost never buy mejais for these reasons:
- You are immobile so you are prone to getting caught when you don't have flash / zhonyas
- You are low range so you have a chance of dying when using your basic abilities
- Sets you back if you don't have a lot of stacks
Essentially, not worth the risk - high chance of throwing the game.

Usually after boots, your build typically looks like rocketbelt > X > void staff > deathcap > X

Where X is one of these items:

https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/shadowflame-64x.png
https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/demonic-embrace-64x.png
https://www.mobafire.com/images/item/zhonyas-hourglass-64x.png

Shadowflame: If their team is primarily squishy / they are not building MR
Demonic: If their team builds a lot of health
Zhonyas: If you are snowballing / ahead / have a bounty on your head

Shadowflame is the go to choice, as it gives a good chunk of AP and allows you to burst squishy targets very easily.

While you lose some of the burst potential from not going Shadowflame, Demonic in most scenarios does more damage in most games, as the burn synergies well with all the AOE in your abilities and penetration in your build and you get close to the same amount of ap with the HP from rocketbelt. Since the durability update, everyone got more health and resistances so shadowflame is more of a early to mid game item when people don't have levels (and tankiness), and demonic is better late game as even squishies have around 2.5k HP late game.

While this may be controversial, building Zhonyas second is a trap most games. It is a very situational second item, unless you are stomping or they have AD mid and jungle. Specifically I would build this against Zed and Rek-Sai, as the active is useful against their ultimates. Other than that, if you build Zhonyas second, it leaves your build in an awkward state and most of the time you'd rather have more damage in your build. If you need Zhonyas badly, build it before Rabadons, and have Rabadons as your last item. However, Zhonyas is typically a great last item as it gives you the necessary safety late game.

Void second: If you have AP top and AP jungle, i.e. heavy magic damage you should consider getting void staff second. Most teams will build MR early, so you need void staff second to stay relevant. From here build Shadowflame, Demonic or Zhonyas - or alternatively you can go rabadons at this point if you can buy two needlessly large rods on your base.

Void staff vs Rabadons: While Rumble does benefit from AP, he benefits more from penetration due to his high base damages in his Q and R. This is why Void staff comes before Rabadons in our build. Void staff synergies well with flat magic penetration because the % is applied first to the enemies MR and then the flat magic pen afterwards. Having both in your build is a good idea, but void staff is more of a necessity on Rumble than Deathcap, as I've seen other high ELO Rumble players skip Deathcap in favour for one of the X items I mentioned before.

Morellos: This item is not bad, but you really don't have space in your build for this. The only time I would build morellos is if 3 out of the 4 roles (Top, Mid, Jg, AD) have a champion that needs healing reduction (e.g. Aatrox top, Sylas jg, Vlad mid, Samira AD). Otherwise let your other laners build anti-heal. If you decide to build it, go oblivion orb after you get your upgraded boots, and then finish rocket belt before completing Morellos.

This build is only viable if:
-The enemy team is completely squishy (no tanks or bruisers top lane / jg)
-You are the solo magic damage dealer on your team (except support)
-Your composition have decent CC / follow up for your ULT, to finish off weakened targets

Even under these circumstances, I'd still prefer to go rocketbelt in most cases.

Night harvester is a bad item ever since the durability update, since everyone has increased health (so the damage passive from night harvester is less relevant since people have more health) and increased resistances (so the lost magic penetration from rocket-belt mythic passive makes you feel like you do even less damage now).

This build is rather rigid, as you cannot afford to go Zhonyas, Demonic or Morellos second. You need to go Shadowflame second for the magic pen. Other than that most of the other ideas from the rocketbelt build apply here as well. Dark seal when you can, and rush boots.

This rune page has a good balance of scaling from the sorcery tree and good roam potential with the relentless hunter rune - which synergies with the eyeball collection rune. Taste of blood is good early for the sustain. Gathering storm + absolute focus is good for rumble as oftentimes you are going without a deathcap by the time you hit 3 items, so these two runes make up for the lack of AP without a deathcap.

Without absolute focus and gathering storm, Rumble has a low point at lvl 14, 15, 17 and 18 because when you level up all you are gaining is some extra shield and move speed from your W. By having these scaling runes, it increases the damage in your kit at these later levels when you maxed out your damaging abilities.

Different variations of this setup:

-Win lane, Win game
Treasure hunter > Relentless Hunter if you need to snowball your lane to win the game
Nimbus Cloak > Absolute Focus Since you are playing for your lane, the extra move speed makes your all ins even more deadlier.

-I like to roam
Celerity > Absolute Focus if you want to roam more in the game
Zombie ward > Eyeball collection if vision is important in the game (i.e. they have assassins / dive threats)

First Strike is a good rune even into ranged match ups since Rumble makes an insane amount of money from all the damage he does. In team fights you can easily make 200 - 300 gold off Q + R positioning and it lets you snowball your item lead very effectively. You can go rocketbelt or night harvester in this build, but rocketbelt is preferred as you can use your rocketbelt to ensure that you proc your first strike.

Approach velocity is a very slept on rune, as if you hit your E it might catch your opponents off guard since they won't realize you have +15% move speed towards them and give you a good trade. Alternatively you can go Cosmic Insight if you value your summoners more.

When you go the first strike build, you won't have access to your boots early so build rocketbelt components and once you get your boots build sorcs ASAP.

Relentless hunter is good for this setup since you can drop ults in other lanes for free money. Alternatively, you can do treasure hunter if you want to be ahead of everyone in items:
300 gold from boots + 550 from treasure hunter and money from first strike easily can get you a free item by late game.

This build is for fun, as there is NO GUARANTEE in any game you will get Dark Harvest stacks. While this build is primarily played as a roaming build where you try to help your weakside lanes reach late game (i.e. you are not the win condition for that game), you can also play it as a scaling one shot build (with night harvester).

Another reason why you might play this build is you are confident that your bot lane will win their lane in draft and snowball. This means in the game, your bot lane will get first turret and then rotate mid to get more plates meaning you need to sidelane. Rumble is not a very good sidelane champion since he can't waveclear safely in a 2 vs 1 scenario against certain supports and can't push up too far since he has no mobility making him prone to getting caught. This is why you will push the side lane out as much as you can safely and then rotate mid to help your bot lane siege mid for plates / counter gank their jg or bot lane.

Scaling one shot build:
Night harvester > Rocketbelt I am just trying to have fun
Absolute Focus > Celerity We want as much AP as possible
Treasure hunter > Relentless Hunter I want to get as ahead as possible to one shot fools