[DenAce]

League of Legend version: v1.0.0.70
Guide version v0.6 16/01/2010
Work in Progress Guide
By DenAce

Table of Contents
I. General Overview
II. Skills
IIa. Skill order
III. Summoner Skills
IV. Summoner Masteries
V. Runes
VI. Item Builds
VII. Playing as Rammus
VIII. Rammus vs. Champs


I. General Overview
Rammus is a...
-True Tank
-Anti-Carry
-Aggressive pusher
-Anti-Tower pusher

Rammus is not a...
-DPS
-Carry
-Jungler Jungle Rammus does work if done correctly
-Farmer


II. Skills

Q: Powerball - Rammus accelerates in a ball towards his enemies, dealing damage and slowing targets affected by the impact. Great way to initiate an attack, slows enemies down so you can do some damage to them. Also a great way to escape or cross the map.

W: Defensive Ball Curl - Rammus goes into a defensive formation, vastly increasing his armor and magic resistance, while returning damage to attacks. Good combo with taunt, protects you and damages others. Also good when you attack a tower when left alone.

E: Puncturing Taunt - Rammus taunts an enemy unit into a reckless assault against Rammus' hard shel, reducing armor temporarily. The reason why people hate fighting against Rammus. Melee units poison. Rammus' annoying technique.

R: Tremors - Rammus creates waves of destruction pulsing through the ground, causing damage to units and structures near him. Great tower destroying skill with Defensive Curl.


IIa. Skill order

1. Powerball
2. Taunt
3. Taunt
4. Defensive Curl
5. Powerball
6. Tremor

7+ Alternate between Tremor, Taunt, Powerball, Defensive Curl.


III. Summoner Skills
Flash: Get it, that short hop helps you initiate and run away. Nothing amuses me more than a Powerball flash into the face.

Exhaust: Blind + slow + reduce armor reduction makes squishes die.

Ghost: Makes you really fast. Works well with powerball.

Fortify: Taunting someone next to your tower then using Fortify makes them die quickly.


IV. Summoner Masteries

Offensive Tree: (optional:1)
Cripple (optional 1/1 if you get exhaust)

Defensive Tree: 21
Resistance 2/3
Hardiness 3/3
Evasion 4/4
Strength of Spirit 3/3
Nimbleness 1/1
Harden Skin 3/3
Veteran's Scars 4/4
Tenacity 1/1

Utility Tree: 8 (optional:1)
Perseverance 3/3
Good Hands 1/3
Haste (optional 1/1 if you get Ghost)
Awareness 4/4

V. Runes
Red: Armor Pen
Yellow: Armor
Blue: Magic Resist
Purple: Armor


VI. Item Builds
All item builds are basic outlines. You may want to switch items around depending on the champions you're with and against.

Starting item
Clothe armor
3x health pot
1x mana pot

or

Doran Shield
1x health pot

or

Saphire Crystal
2x health pot

Item Build #1 (great late game tanking, bad early game tanking)
Heart of gold
Heart of gold
Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads
Chalice
Warden's Mail or Thornmail
Force of Nature

If game lasts longer.
Sell Heart of gold's and replace with any of the following:

Warden's Mail or Thornmail (whichever one you did not get yet)
Guardian Angel
Banshee veil

Item Build #2 (Good amount of health and defense, but will get nuked by AP users early game, won't pick up until you get sunfire cape)

Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads
Chalice
Sunfire cape
Thornmail
Guardian Angel

Finish with any of the following
Sunfire cape
Banshee Veil
Force of Nature

Item Build #3 (good only if you don't die often, you can rush Leviathan first if you can get kills early)
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold
Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads
Chalice
Leviathan
Warmog or Force of Nature

Item Build #4 (good against lots of cc)
Catalyst
Boots
Leviathan
Banshee Veil
Ninja Tabi or Merc Treads



VII. Playing as Rammus
There are several different ways to play Rammus, which you should alternate between depending on the situation.

Laning Rammus
This is when you farm. Be sure to last hit only. Be sure to lane with someone. Get use to knowing when you can kill a certain minion. When you get your Taunt, you will be ready to get a kill. Wait for the right opportunity when your laning partner ready. Aim for the most squishy person. Powerball and flash over the minions into the enemy champion. Hit him once, then taunt. With your laning partner, you should be able to take down any squishy champion.

Ganking Rammus
This is when you ninja yourself out of the lane. Either go shop and enter another lane from the side or hide in the bush and sneakily walk you way out of your lane into another. With Rammus' taunt you should be able to get a kill in every 3v2 or 2v1 situation. Get the timing down when an enemy champion over extends. Stay in the lane after you kill them. Switch to tower destroying Rammus.

Tower Destoying Rammus
This is when you are either left alone in your lane, or you successfully killed or ganked enemy champions. Kill the enemy creep wave and let your creep push into the tower range. Be sure no other enemy champions are coming your way. When you think it's safe, run to the other side of that tower and start hitting it. You do this for a few reasons, you protect your minions from the oncoming enemy minion wave. You also add the amount of time you get to hit the tower by a few seconds. Use curl and tremor accordingly.

Tower Defender Rammus
You do this when you are getting pushed back heavily due to reasons outside your grasps. Examples are: you are against 2 ranged champs and you are melee, you are against a tower pushing team (Sivir, Alistar, Heimerdinger), your teammate ran out and died. Most competent people do not engage the tower with a Rammus next to it because of his taunt. Taunting someone by the tower and letting them hit you makes the tower switch targets to them.

Ever watch the zoning tutorial? It's time to put the tower zoning aspect into play. Learn the range of your tower. You can easily keep enemy minions from entering your tower zone, making tower pushing useless. Tank against the minions for a few seconds in curl until your minions make it here. You can't do this often, but this buys you enough time for your laning partner or ganker to come and assist you. Also, while those minions are out of range, if an enemy champion decides to walk close enough to you, taunt them and pull them into your tower range.

Team Fighting Rammus
You're usually one of the first in for the team fight. Be sure that your team is coming in behind you. Taunt any auto attacking DPS user or any main disabler. Twitch, Master Yi, and Teemo are examples of auto attackers. You can also taunt a melee character and pull them away from their team mates.

Be wary of your teammates situations. When a teammate is low, you can easily save them and buy time with a taunt. Buying time may give that person the ability to kill that one champion or escape to fight another day.

Tower Diving Rammus
There are times when you must dive in order to get a kill. Be wary of your current hp, your allies hp, the enemies hp, the amount of CC the enemy has, the tower range, and the amount of minions you have around the turret.

1. You should know how much turret damage you can eat before you need to get out. Remember to use Defensive Curl when the tower starts hitting you.
2. Your ally is important to add that damage you need to take them down.
3. The higher the hp that the enemy champion has, the more risker it is to dive. CC can be the difference between a kill and giving a kill.
4. The tower range is good to know because you need to remember your escape path.
5. The creeps amount of minions around the tower adds a small amount of damage against the enemy, taunting someone and letting them hit you will make your minion aggro against that champion.
6. It takes some practice and risk management skills to tower dive.


VIII. Rammus vs. Champs

Fear no more, for I shall explain the things you do against specific champions.

Blitzcrank: Last hit and stay behind enemy creeps. Use them as your wall against his arm. Try to keep the battle in the middle or near your tower. Getting a banshee veil is a good counter against him.

Katrina: Save your taunt for when she uses her ult. Your priority in team fights is to stop her ult.

Sivir: Getting harassed a lot by Sivir? Getting denied experience and gold? Get curl. Curl up when she auto attacks. Usually it has ricochet, bouncing into you and doing meager damage to you and more damage to them. Be sure to add feints into your taunts. Walk up to the Sivir and let her use her shield. They tend to get scared when you get close to them because of your taunt. Let them waste their mana.

Twitch: You're the anti twitch. Powerball takes out a huge chunk of his health, taunting him and bashing him with your armor pen runes destroys this rat. Be sure to have exhaust in hand so you can keep yourself alive.

Yi: Stop him early game. He's usually worthless before level 6. Get a Thornmail if you're having too much trouble against him.

To be updated...

[DanDinh]

Woah, you're quick

[DenAce]

I'm use to it. 10pg essay in one night is how college is like.

[Nanners]

As an avid rammus player there are a few flaws but overall its good. I don't think theres enough emphasis that Rammus cannot have a static item build. He needs to change his armor/mr/health components to meet his enemies class choices. This is very difficult. I've played Rammus for a very long time. Your item choices are good though.

Best starting item = ruby crystal. With hp quints you get close to 900 hp iirc, maybe even more.

Then.

1-2 Heart(s) of gold (best option) If you do an amazing early game and farm amazingly somehow, get 2. This includes getting firstblood. Most often get one.
OR
Aegis of Legion (I feel its better suited for another tank/semitank on the team who is just going to be big and in the way, not actually drawing the fire of their carry)

Then Merc Treads/Ninja Tabi.

SUNFIRE CAPE. Epic awesome farming pushing teamfighting harassing cape of awesome armor and health! Perfect rammus item I love this item. With powerball you are a lane switching god (even moreso with ghost) This helps to eliminate your farming problems and is a great all around rammus item.

Depending on their team makeup, decide the next. Also I hate wardens mail. Frozen heart (buffed next patch even better) thorn mail, banshees veil, and force of nature all make far superior items. Warmogs can be good sometimes too. You don't need mana regen if you're not constantly spamming your skills, chalice is fairly useless and deviates you from getting into the thick of it for FAR too long.



Your runes are a bit off, armor pen runes are a poor choice for such a tanky guy. I've used Armor Marks/Glyphs, Dodge seals (a little bit of rape with nimbleness mastery for escaping), and HP quints. I just feel like armor pen runes aren't really going to help you much Needs a section on towerdiving low solos for the ganking section, and being a little tricky fuck backdoorer endgame.

[DenAce]

@Nanners
Thanks for the input. I'm still planning to add stuff to this guide. I typed this up in about 20min so I'm sure I'm missing a lot. Armor pen runes is actually an awesome choice with taunt. Give it a try and see how quick squishies die to you.

I didn't find Ruby crystals work well in the high ELO bracket. Often the person you're targeting will run away while you're trying to aim for first blood. Hence the manapot.

[MuscleMemory]

I've been having success with an early Rod of Ages, I like to be able to use all my abilities which catalyst allows and I actively watch the map to help team with ganks. I should try leviathon because I do always have the most assists on the team(ult of course helps this).

I will agree with Nanners that having a static Rammus build is not the way to go, but I would say that with just about every champion... you should always be looking at how to counter their carries...

For example most people would not get a thornmail on Tryndamere, but last time I faced Udyr he was wrecking our team and would just barely beat me so I picked up the Item and then he couldn't touch me.

[Nanners]

MuscleMemory, on 21 January 2010 - 12:15 AM, said:

I've been having success with an early Rod of Ages, I like to be able to use all my abilities which catalyst allows and I actively watch the map to help team with ganks. I should try leviathon because I do always have the most assists on the team(ult of course helps this).

I will agree with Nanners that having a static Rammus build is not the way to go, but I would say that with just about every champion... you should always be looking at how to counter their carries...

For example most people would not get a thornmail on Tryndamere, but last time I faced Udyr he was wrecking our team and would just barely beat me so I picked up the Item and then he couldn't touch me.

Yes but I believe as Rammus this holds more true than any other champ. Any sort of static build beyond basic first items (rushed aegis/heart of gold) will land you in a bad place Of course OP demonstrates this well, and has many different builds. I like the guide. I really like how he included force of nature, as it is one of my favorite items on a well balanced team.

[DenAce]

I was never a fan of rod of ages for any champion, unless you get fed early game. It takes about 15 minutes to utilize it's full potential and it takes about 15 minutes for you to actually build one as a Rammus. A chalice is enough for you to use all your skills as many times as you want.

A static build is also to give simple guidelines of what you should be building. I usually don't do these builds exactly every time. Everything is situational for all champions for item builds and the way you should be playing.

[fckforbeer]

DenAce, on 07 January 2010 - 08:53 PM, said:

V. Runes
Red: Armor Pen
Yellow: Armor
Blue: Magic Resist
Purple: Armor

Do you get flat armor/mr runes or?

[DenAce]

Flat armor/MR runes

[Kanova]

Well. I just did a fantastic game. I found that 3 Sunfire Capes, Ninja Tabi, Thornmail, Gaurdian Angel, do an awesome job. He has tons of armor, a bit of magic resist ( no problem with Curl ) good health and amazing ability to kill almost any champ. One for sure would be Kass. I have done this before where I would silence, slow then teleport behind.
But anyways. Back on track. This works really well. But of course change some items for certain champs, Ryze for example. Any caster can implode this guy if you aren't properly set up.
So, there's my to bits on Rammus. Good luck to beginner Rammus's.

[Dawc]

A POX ON YOU RAMMUSES'S'ES'SE'S'S! Quit making people want to play him. So annoying to fight lol.

Wanna be a pro rammus? Heres what you do...

5 malady's and a mana pot. It's the perfect build. That's what all the REAL pro rammus's do. X_X