Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Rammus, the Armordillo
Rammus is a jungling tank. He employs exceptional map mobility and amazing single-target disables to lock down high-priority targets, ensuring kills for his team.
Rammus’s passive is Spiked Shell. A percentage of Rammus’s armor is converted into bonus attack damage.
Powerball causes Rammus to roll into a ball, continuously gaining bonus movement speed over a short time but disabling his ability to land basic attacks.
If Rammus collides with an enemy during Powerball, the effect ends, damaging and slowing surrounding enemies for a short time.
I take Powerball at level 2 and leave it at rank 1 until I’ve maxed his other abilities.
Defensive Ball Curl gives Rammus significantly increased armor and magic resist for a few seconds.
Additionally, any enemy who attacks Rammus while in Defensive Ball Curl is damaged in return.
Also, Defensive Ball Curl and Powerball are mutually exclusive: Casting one of these abilities will immediately end the other.
I take Defensive Ball Curl at level 1, bringing it to rank 3 by level 5, leaving it there until levels 12 and 13 for the last two ranks.
Puncturing Taunt forces target enemy to attack Rammus for a short time, lowering the target’s armor in the process.
I take Puncturing Taunt at level 3 or 4, depending on how quickly I want to gank. I max it by level 10.
Rammus’s ultimate is Tremors. Tremors damages all nearby enemies, including structures, every second for a few seconds.
As with all ultimates, I take Tremors at levels 6, 11, and 16.
Rammus’s early ganks are extremely potent, so I head to gank mid at level 4. Note two things:
First, I start Powerball early. Because the movement speed bonus increases over time, the later you show up while still hitting the damage and slow, the better.
Second, I make sure to come in behind Gragas. This means that his retreat is through me, and I’m able to land Puncturing Taunt even after he Flashes.
I turn on Defensive Ball Curl immediately after taunting, dealing a little extra damage and mitigating the turret counter-attack.
It’s important to note that attempting to clear major buffs without Smite ready is just asking for trouble.
While you can get away with it if your opponents aren’t paying attention, the crafty Gragas steals the Golem buff thanks to Explosive Cask and a ward.
The same gank rules apply at any stage in the game. I wait in the wings until I see Gragas return to lane.
I open up with Powerball and get behind him, forcing him to collide into me with Body Slam.
Puncturing Taunt pulls him back in after Flash and I edge forward to tank the turret for Vladimir with Defensive Ball Curl.
Gragas dies again despite a heroic attempt to push us away with Explosive Cask.
When invading the enemy jungle, always have your team sit in the brush. As Caitlyn walks up to their Golem, she only sees Soraka.
As soon as Shaco reveals himself, I Flash to get into range for Puncturing Taunt.
This move gets me just in range of her right as she Flashes away, so she’s locked up attacking me as Shaco picks up the kill.
When diving enemy champions behind their turrets, check to see if you have allied minions on the way.
Here my minions are the first to the turret so I loop behind Janna, forcing her to burn Monsoon before I’ve even stuck her.
I push in with Puncturing Taunt, Defensive Ball Curl, and Tremors.
While I’m able to deal significant damage underneath the turret she manages to escape with Summoner Heal and Howling Gale.
However, I just push back in with a new minion wave, focusing on Caitlyn. With Powerball I take my time looping around behind her and dodging her Yordle Snap Trap.
I always want to initiate first as I’m best-suited to tanking the enemy turret.
With Puncturing Taunt and Defensive Ball Curl we take down Caitlyn and I lead the way onto Gragas and Janna, picking up another kill on the latter.
I attempt to disrupt Gragas and Udyr with Powerball, actually helping my team slay Gragas with a Puncturing Taunt as Udyr runs away.
I attempt to chase with Powerball, forcing him to burn Flash to escape behind his minions.
On Dominion, Rammus works best as a roamer, taking advantage of his significant movement speed through Powerball, Boots of Mobility, and Speed Shrines.
Even from early levels, look for teammates who are about to capture a point, just like Tristana here on the Quarry.
Thanks to my arrival I’m able to lock up Gangplank and ensure that we take over the Quarry without worry.
A small tactical note: Because Powerball begins cooling down after the effect ends, turn it off right before you start capturing points or the Greater Relic in the middle.
Canceling the ability like this will allow you to re-activate Powerball quickly after finishing your capture.
By investing heavily in movement speed through runes, masteries, and items like Shurelya’s Reverie, Rammus can enable captures through picking off retreating enemies.
After locking up Garen with Puncturing Taunt and then landing Powerball once he starts retreating, I lead my team in on Gangplank.
While he has a small lead on us, I activate Shurelya’s Reverie and tag the Speed Shrine.
With the extra movement speed, I quickly grab Gangplank with another Puncturing Taunt, hitting Powerball immediately after the effect ends to prevent his escape.
For runes I take armor penetration marks, flat armor seals, magic resist per level glyphs, and either gold over time quintessences on Classic or movement speed quintessences in Dominion.
These runes give me great early game damage for jungling or early combat while also setting me up to tank late-game and cover the stats I need most.
My masteries are. 0/21/9, taking increased movement speed and neutral buff duration in Utility and taking pretty much every durability increasing mastery I can in Defense.
I also grab Bladed Armor in Classic, which will damage enemy monsters who strike me, giving me faster jungle clears.
I take Smite and Flash in Classic for fast jungle clearing and ganks, while Exhaust and Ghost allow me greater map mobility and team fight control in Dominion.
In Classic I open with Cloth Armor and five Health Potions for quick jungling.
I take Boots of Speed quickly to open up ganking opportunities and then transition into late-game by taking a Philosopher’s Stone and Heart of Gold for extra income.
I take Aegis of the Legion to support my team and grab Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads depending on what damage type I fear the most.
From there I upgrade to Shurelya’s Reverie and continue along the tank path:
Sunfire Cape, Frozen Mallet, Force of Nature, and Randuin’s Omen are all excellent choices.
Generally, err on the side of too much armor, as it will let you tank enemy turrets and give you bonus attack damage.
In Dominion, I look for similar key items, but in a totally different order.
Opening up with Boots of Mobility lets you get to any capture points that need your help.
Quickly grabbing Shurelya’s Reverie after will aid in this goal and help your team navigate the map as well.
After, focus in pure tank items again, with items like Sunfire Cape, Force of Nature especially for the movement speed boost, Randuin’s Omen and Frozen Mallet.
Thanks for tuning into the Rammus Champion Spotlight. Please subscribe to the Riot Games YouTube channel above and don’t forget to thumbs us up just below the video!