Hello, I'm a new player to LoL, currently level 18. I started playing Rammus a lot during the free week since he was available, and I tried out jungling with him and turns out I'm actually pretty good with him. I'd love some Rammus jungling tips, or overall tips to help me improve my jungling. Thanks!
I use AS reds, armor yellows, flat CDR blues, and more armor quints. I start W then take Q, after that I max in the following order R>E>W>Q. For items I like to go quill coat into mobis. Rammus is relatively bad a clearing, so I tend to focus on wolves/wraiths when my buffs aren't up and otherwise I try to gank more than farm the jungle. Flash is imperative on Rammus for flashing over minions in ganks. If the enemy team is heavy on auto-attackers I'll actually rush thornmail after Ancient Golem is done. If not, I look to itemize for CDR/HP/Resist based on enemy team damage sources.
Take your W first for quicker Blue clears then max your W as quick as you can. Take your Q after getting blue so you can clear the rest of the jungle faster. Each rank of W makes it that much easier to clear. Also, Rammus is one of the few junglers I take a lot of armor runes with too jungle because it A) helps him survive the jungle and B) returns more damage on his W. Also Rammus Autos pretty decent but it's slow so maybe some attack speed.
your best bet for ANY JUNGLER is to play a CUSTOM MATCH and try to solo jungle just to see how you do, and test different things in there
The unique thing about ramus compared to most junglers is his insanely high mobility, which means you should be grabbing buffs then ganking, then taking wolf or wraith then gank then take the other one then gank.
Rammus wins games by high lane pressure.
Always build him almost purely tank.
I prefer a 0/21/9 build to get the bonus buff timers on him and stay highly durable.
Build defensive items, there is never any reason ever in league outside of just having fun that you need to invest in AD / AP gear to give ramus damage, he gets damage from stacking armor, so stack the crap out of armor and health.
Sunfire is almost a must, spirit of the golem a must, merc treads unless a heavy AD team is a must, the rest is more about what you want
thornmail + his W = AD champs melt against him.
Maxing W like mahnigguh said isn't always the best option, for ganking, maxing you r E ( taunt ) is 10 times better because longer taunts = easier kills on enemys
everyone seems to have a different play style and i have had the best experience with maxing W first. it's not the only way but OP will have to figure out what works best for him. For me at low levels one rank in e is all i need to get a good gank because the damage from W does most of the work. (damage from W a quick taunt plus an adc and support doing their part = fo sho kill, but that is all about team work so...)
as for building pure tank... realize that armor's damage reduction falls off at about the level you get when you have a Thornmail and Sunfire... so building more Armor just for the stacking effect is wasted because Rammus' passive falls off late game as well. I like to build an Abyssal Scepter because it A) it gives Ram MR since his Armor is about maxed. B) makes every spell he has do more damage because it increases his AP and decreases everyones MR. After that a Rylai's or a Warmogs are both solid choices. This is just my experience though and not the only way to play him.
VISION VISION VISION - As Rammus, your biggest weakness is invasions by the enemy jungler. Unless you want to get murdered repeatedly by that enemy Lee Sin you need to keep wards up especially when red or blue buff is about to spawn. Also remember to actually watch the minimap. Vision only helps you if you actually use it.
Combo your Ult. - You can use your other abilities while your ult is active. There are some clever tricks that you can pull off if you take advantage of that. For example, using Q while your ult is active can let you finish off that fleeing enemy.
Rammus is a split-push monster - Your ultimate is one of the only skills in the game that can damage enemy towers. If your team can handle the 4v5, don't be afraid to go after a tower while the enemy is tied up.
Watch for Tower Aggro - Be mindful of the position of enemy champions if you activate your ult near a tower. It is very easy to accidently tag an enemy champion and draw fire from the tower. Rammus is tanky not invincible ;)
1.) Armor runes, defense masteries.
2.) Always ALWAYS get homeguards on him, no matter which boots you pick up (I like mobi for low price/high coverage) but homeguards+Q mean there is no penalty if you have to back, you'll be right back in the jungle in no time (speed boost wears off at 2nd turret) This means safe jungling, and less down time, it's pretty much gp5 in the pocket, late game it means you can defend split pushes like a beast.
3.) Do not underestimate the MR on your curl, you aren't JUST anti AD.
4.) Always take flash, not ghost (and not tp, cause homeguards). When you are ganking you have to be able to jump the minion wave or a body blocking ally, if you can't you lose a lot of your threat.
5.) Tank towers for your team, rammus' armor outscales turret damage at all points of the game after you have 3 points in curl.
-Early/mid game this means easy shallow turret dives if necessary -Late game this means communicate with your team instead of pushing down mid against their entire team when you're sieging call your team into the jungle if you have vision control and go take a side lane tower, you can easily tank the damage and enemies often leave towers WITHOUT creep waves near them unguarded and usually arrive to late to stop a full team siege against an unprotected tower.
6.) Don't be scared. You're Rammus - If your team IS in position to teamfight, just go in and curl, if they blow all their cd's on you than your team is gonna win the fight.
7.) Sunfire is an excellent first item on him (After golem), speeding his jungle clear, amplifying his defenses, and giving him more presence in a team fight (since you want to be right in the middle, in conjunction with your ult, you will be pumping MASSIVE AoE damage. You can't let them ignore you.
8.) Banshees>Visage if need MR on rammus. It makes it that much harder for them to keep you off of their precious fragile things they keep in the back.
9.) Abyssal/Sunfire/Thornmail if you just want to have fun and are way ahead, All of those items amplify eachother. Sunfire Aura/Tremors/thorn damage all effected by -mr aura, and you still get to stay tanky... just not as tanky as you are when you are being superseriousrammus.
10.) Consider buying your mobi+homeguards with quill stone if you can't afford golem on first back. The gold generation of simply being in the game more often, and the extra presence is usually more valuable than getting an early kindlegem.
