Rammus REALLY needs to be looked into.

Mister Struggle·Oct 20, 2013·1 votes·912 views

I feel as though, in total, Rammus' kit is too strong, and here's a few reasons:

A whole 3 second taunt, which forces you to hit yourself (explained later)
A passive which gives damage for stacking armor.
An active which works WITH Thornmail, which basically makes you hurt yourself more than him, and, in cases of being taunted, FORCES you, to hit yourself.
His Ultimate, it does WAY too much damage for it's massive AoE. He doesn't need to do damage as a tank, but he does.

Let's talk about the taunt. I Feel like Rammus' taunt is a bit too overpowered, because it makes a champion target him for a whole 5 seconds (Increments of 0.5 per level: 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds(Thank you for the correction)) and can be used in conjunction with his W, which is a good mechanic in theory, until you realize that for a whole 5 seconds, which is a teamfight, you're immobilizing someone, while they do damage to themselves, and take damage from other sources. I feel as though reducing the taunt's time would be VERY effective in altering his kit. (.75/1.25/1.75/2.25/2.75 seconds)

I also feel like his W should be completely overhauled, considering the fact that thornmail is an item. Used in conjunction, it can make you deal tons of damage to yourself, while Rammus takes next to none. There is no punishment for Rammus taunting an ADC, just benefits.

If Riot REALLY wanted to balance out Rammus, I feel like a passive overhaul should take place as well, because a tank doesn't need attack damage, especially when they do as much damage as Rammus does. I think a passive along the lines of "Rammus gains Bonus Armor and Magic resist according to the amount of enemy champions around him (2/4/6/8/10)" kind of thing. This reduces the damage he deals, as well as helps his tank role.

The last but CERTAINLY not least thing to look at, is Rammus' ultimate. The AoE damage it provides is great, but it's too great. If a team is inside of Rammus' ult for the whole duration of a teamfight, everyone takes a bonus 500 damage, which doesn't seem like a lot, considering lots of champions do more damage with their ultimates, BUT, Rammus is a tank, not a carry, therefore should have less of a damage impact with his ultimate. I don't have any ideas for a change to it, but something needs to happen. Rammus can literally build no damage, and do tons still. He needs to seriously looked at.

Feedback appreciated, Thank you.

TL;DR

Rammus OP, please nerf.

3 Comments

ThalesOct 20, 20131 votes

How fortunate for you that Riot has nerfed Rammus's taunt so retroactively it's never scaled up to five seconds! The actual duration is 1/1.5/2/2.5/3. Certainly, this is still a long time, but considering the almost melee range of the ability, and Rammus's lack of hard gap-closers, I'd say that's pretty fair.

His W is effective, but it's not like even it plus thornmail seriously damages an ADC. ADCs all build lifesteal, in large enough quantities that they probably won't be shredding their own health particularly much. To be sure, Rammus taunting an ADC is good, but that's more because it's three seconds of hard CC coupled with the possibility of drawing the ADC out of position. Neither Rammus nor the ADC are likely to drop very much in health.

Rammus's passive and W are what allow him to clear jungle. He's already a slow jungler, and you seem to be proposing Riot remove his only practical sources of damage to jungle camps. Besides, the passive you propose is just Wukong's. Rammus's current passive is flavorful and doesn't draw too much power budget.

You actually understate Rammus's ult's damage. In fact, over its duration, it deals nearly as much base damage as Fiddlesticks's Crowstorm! However, that damage, though indeed massive, is distributed across a whole eight seconds, and the AOE is not so large that it's likely to hit many people, especially not for the entire duration. Compare him to Garen or Udyr, the other two super-short-range characters. Each is capable of putting out far more sustained and burst damage than Rammus, and are just as hard to peel off when they get in range.

Rammus is strong in solo queue, yes. He has consistently held one of the highest win rates across all elos for quite some time. But there's a reason he doesn't show up in tournament play too much. He's quite vulnerable to well-coordinated teams, who get a better sense of where he is, and can punish his weak dueling, finicky if powerful ganks, and lousy front-lining. He might warrant a rework, to better balance him between solo queue and competitive play, as well as to make his kit more interesting, but he's in a perfectly fine spot.

Mister StruggleOct 20, 20131 votes

I was still under the impression that they had not changed his taunt, because yes, at one point, it did last for 1 second each rank. But you make some decent points. I still feel as though Rammus is not in a good place. As you stated, he WRECKS solo queue, but not because of one certain ability, but because of his all around kit, and the damage it deals, while he takes none.

ThalesOct 20, 20131 votes

You seem to be missing most of my points. First off, a review of his patch history at Lolwiki shows no indication of his taunt ever lasting for one second per rank. If it ever did, it hasn't for well over a year. Secondly, though he's certainly good in solo queue, no champion "WRECKS" solo queue. That consistently high win rate? 54%. That's high only by League standards, where Riot has done an incredible job at ensuring that no champions are too dominant in solo queue.

His damage output is not so high as you assume. Though I concede that ult has big numbers, those are mitigated by the fact that he'll realistically never be building MPen or AP, and that it's such a small AOE over such a large duration. Against anyone who can peel Rammus off, it won't deal anywhere near that full damage. The best case scenario is very good, but that's not a realistic scenario.

Similarly, you overstate his tankiness. Certainly, a 120/120 defense steroid is very good, but its duration is not the longest. At only 6 seconds, that's no good for sustained engages. And Rammus's base health is pathetic. Compare it to Singed, Mundo, Garen, Trundle, or Alistar, all of whom are tankier. Certainly, he is durable, but not to the point of ignoring damage.

If you're so convinced of his power, why don't you give him a spin? Or a roll, as I think is more appropriate to the character. I think you'll find that he's not such an unstoppable monster after all.