you know how there are three lanes on the map, and jungles in between? monsters spawn in those jungles starting at around the two minute mark. usually teams send one person mid and two people to each side lane... but in high level play they only send one person to the top lane. the fifth person does "jungling" which is killing the monsters in the jungle for gold and experience. this way the solo top lane is able to level up faster, and team gets more gold and experience overall. also the other team has no idea where you are while jungling, so you can surprise them with ganks very easily and usually pick up a kill or two.
Makes plenty of sense. I can see why it'd help to jungle.
rammus is probably in my top 5 most played champions and i always jungle with him. you can play him in lane, but once you get good with him (and your account hits level 20) you should probably learn to jungle with him. he's been nerfed though and his jungling might not be easy if you haven't done it before. good heroes to start jungling with are warwick, trundle, amumu, nunu, and xin.
I've always been told that Rammus is a very weak jungler in comparison to everyone else that jungles.
if you're in lane then you will want an hp regen item like regrowth pendant or doran's shield so that you can take harassment. make sure to last-hit creeps, and don't push your lane too far if the other team has a jungler (actually this applies to every champion lol).
I have a conflict with that. I always stay in the lane, but I'm always struggling to figure out what I should start with.
I usually go with Cloth Armor + Health Potions because it gives me that offense boost that I love thanks to Rammus' passive ability, while giving me the defense to handle pretty much anyone who tries to sneak in and hit me with a physical. It also eventually helps me to set up Thornmail since it's reduces the price.
I also only buy two health potions because it means getting my items sooner.
However, I've been having more or less the same early-game success with Doran's Shield. Less armor and offense, but I have health regen. It DOES put me at zero gold as well, but it's so much more safe than my alternative purchase. A problem I've seen is that the shield doesn't really help me out towards the later half of the game, and I typically end up selling it.
The first thing I focus on getting item-wise is Heart of Gold > Mercury Treads > Aegis of the Legion, since I've been told that those are typically decent choices for Rammus in the early portions of the game.
I'm having a similar problem with the later two items after Heart of Gold, though. Mercury Treads is fine, since it gives me that Magic resist while also granted tenacity and +2 movement speed, but I'm REALLY starting to love Ninja Tabi. It's 400 Gold cheaper, gives me dodge chances, more defense (which means more offense), and still have me with the +2 movement speed that I desperately need.
I've been more fond of Tabi lately because of that.
I'm also wondering whether or not Aegis is also any good to buy over anything else, like Thornmail or stronger armor.
I also typically buy whatever helps me more with what I'm having trouble with. If I see a team of majority spell casters, I go for the Treads.
Also, I have a question regarding the consistency with purchasing items. I tend to buy all of the fragments before the items themselves so I can have those decent boosts before buying the actual item. For example, I buy that crystal thing before Heart of Gold for 475 Gold since it gives me a hefty HP boost. I do this for pretty much every item, but I'm wondering how often I should be doing this.
I know that doing it too often is dangerous because it takes away my presence from a lane (since lane is pretty much all I do with Rammus), so knowing when to call myself back for a new item would help a bunch with my consistency with protecting my turrets and keeping champions away.
I usually don't see the point to health regen over defense for Rammus, especially considering how efficient he is with his defense curl. That isn't to say that I disregard it. Typically, if I'm having more magic trouble, and Thornmail is my typical next product, I usually opt for Force of Nature instead. If I already have Thornmail, then Force of Nature is typically my next item.
After I get those two items, I'm usually at this point (assuming I have Aegis):
1) Heart of Gold, Mercury Treads/Ninja Tabi, Aegis of the Legion, Thornmail, Force of Nature
2) Doran's Shield, Heart of Gold, Mercury Treads/Ninja Tabi, Aegis of the Legion, Thornmail, Force of Nature
I've been opting for that Spitfire item that grants +45 Defense (and offense, obv) and does 35 damage to surrounding enemies, or Guardian Angel. I have been experimenting with other items as well, but I just don't feel like I know exactly what I SHOULD be doing during the later half of the game.
There's another item that I shoot for every now and then. Randuin's Omen always seemed effective, and Glacial Shroud is something I've considered but never tried, and I'm not sure how helpful it'd be.
I want to do Frozen Heart since it gives so much Defense, but that defeats the purpose of the Taunt to Defense Curl setup's intention. I've even tried Atma's Impaler once, but it was kinda meh.
I've also given Shurelya's Reverie. It helps, but not so much so.
As for Rammus spell chart flow, I'm curious as to why you start out with the curl over his roll. I always found the spindash (lol) to be the best thing to start with since it's amazing for movement, goes well with Flash for possible early ganks, and is a great way to avoid getting ganked early game, since I typically don't focus on movement speed until after I've gotten my Heart of Gold.
My flow is usually to start with spindash, then alternate between Taunt and Defense, leveling up Tremor whenever it allows me to. Once I have everything maxed out except for the spin, then I finish up until Level 18 with the spin itself.
Is that set you gave me primarily for jungle Rammus? Because that's what I'm assuming, and I know I can be pretty wrong about that since I'm barely still getting the hang of everything.
Most of the guides I've read also emphasize the important of the spin as your first skill, so I'm curious, is all.
you'll pick up a lot of this stuff just by playing and watching what good players do.
Good players play Rammus?
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Thanks for the feedback so far, btw. We should play sometime so you can help me out with that too.
