Amumu needs an update
Over the past couple of years, many champions have had reworks, both good and bad, but now it's time to look at one of League's forgotten champions, Amumu.
From his lore we find that he is cursed to forever be alone. "His touch is death", states the lore page, yet playing him feels very different. His kit is very one dimensional as a hard engage champion who is struggling with no other real upside. The Curse passive that amplifies the magical damage enemies take after receiving an auto attack or being applied by other abilities doesn't benefit him unless he is built as an ability power champion, or has a magic damage threat(s) on his team that can consistently follow him. His Bandage Toss is a great ability that is the core of the champion that makes him the hard engage champion he is. The Despair and Tantrum abilities is where I start to see the issues however. Both are AoE damaging abilities that offer a non-cohesive play style with the rest of his kit. The damage seems too low to matter if you are a tank, and once again promote him to be played AP, but then the physical damage reduction from his Tantrum seems out of place. The issue with him being build as a hard engage AP champion is that once he is in a fight and has used both is Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy he becomes a waddling cry baby who has to try to stick on targets while having no way to do so until his cooldowns are back up. A large AoE stun in Curse of the Sad Mummy helps this but with how the game state currently is, there are so many way to negate or reduce this ability to the point where this ability/play style feels bad. However I feel like I have a decent idea of what direction to take this sad mummy and make him retain his identity as a hard engage champion and as the sad mummy he is.
Support. As a support, much like the hard engage champion Alistar, he could be used to initiate fights in flashy ways with keeping the Bandage Toss ability as is. But this is where a rework would need to be introduced. To follow the theme of Amumu as lonely and trying to make friends, there are many options on how to tune his kit to fit thematically and functionally. "His touch is death", but what of his tears? Could there be a way to change Despair to be an AoE heal and/or damaging ability? An interesting idea for a mechanic to go along with it, implemented as a passive, would be deaths of near by allied champion, minions, and/or large minions would increase the range or effectiveness of the heal or make enemies take more damage to seek revenge on those who killed his "friends". A new ability could be introduced in place of his Tantrum that allows him to protect allies from incoming damage or abilities. Maybe have him throw some bandages in front of an ally that nullify similar to Morgana Black Shield, but spiced up to not have the exact same mechanic. Maybe he retains the physical damage reduction from the Tantrum but he can spread his bandages out to allies and give them armor and a shield, or damage reduction. There are so many options when the bandage theme he has is paired with him wanting to find friends. Finally the ultimate ability of Curse of the Sad Mummy. I still feel this ability could go unchanged and his gameplay would be fine, but once again there is room to incorporate the feel of him trying to save his friends. Maybe to could became a large AoE slow for enemies but a speed boost for allies. Or keep the stun (maybe have to tweak it down on damage or duration) while granting something usefully to allies while the ability persists.
Amumu was the first champion I unlocked and the first I bought a skin for. He has a dear place in my heart, but has been locked alone in the bottom of champion pick rates for too long. I would love the see him changed in some way that makes him not a one dimensional champion who is stretched between either building full AP to fit his kit, or build tank to fit his playstyle.
Thank you for reading, --SupportUltDelete (ryry1233)
