I just climbed silver, and I though I'll share my invaluable wisdom so that you guys can do the same.

At the time of writing I have been playing Amumu for over 6 months and I have well over 408749 mastery points on all my only account.

The main reason why I like Amumu is that with any other champ my winrate is abysmal. With Amumu, I can (barely) maintain a 50+% winrate, which is great! Also, it is a very odd feeling, but the more I play Amumu, the more I feel I share things with him. For instance, ever since I picked him as my main, started climbing and playing more and more game, my social life is starting to look a lot like his!

PROS + Free Elo When I picked him up, after playing a variety of other champs (including Riven) I magically started to win games after games. Because this champ is really easy and strong in low Elo environments.

CONS - not Lee Sin You won't kill people using "dragon rage" or fancy combos, you'll just drown them in your tears (maybe they just die of boredom).

SUNFIRE AEGIS Amumu used to rush Demonic first. Nonetheless, after Demonic nerfs I started rushing Sunfire: advanced calculations and a 5 minutes testing in practice tool told me that : - it deals similar damage - bami's helps more your clear than blasting wand - gives more health - has armor - is less expensive, so you can get one and have a dark seal for free

DARK SEAL I almost always pick one on my first back. Since you're that tanky you'll be able to get charges and abuse it's low price tag. I only upgrade if I have 10 stacks and 2 items (enjoy the "free" mouvement speed).

SORCERER'S SHOES This items will allow you to deal more damage. You can also use Mercury's treads or Plated Steelcaps if the need arises.

EVENSHROUD I really like Evenshroud : I think it's passive gives your team a lot of damage and it's resistance stats are somewhat comparable to Jak'sho (it is the same except for 200 health and the passive ; since you're building demonic next, just build evenshroud and a giant belt for roughtly the same price!). I went to replay tool and looked at a random teamfight: demonic did 74 damage ; sunfire 113 ; and evenshroud 225. That's how much damage it amplifies! When I'm full stuff and need more durability I sell evenshroud for Jak'Sho.

DEMONIC EMBRACE Your AP item of choice, it's burn and passive has good synergies with your build. Sometimes I build it second if the ennemy team has lots of AD.

ABYSSAL MASK I'd say Abyssal is the item that I'm the most likely to forego if I have to adapt.

GARGOYLE STONEPLATE I didn't like this item at first, but when you activate it (provided you don't forget) you'll like the humongous shield it provides. When I play with activable I feel like a proplayer. I think this build makes you near unkillable, unless you're CC locked by a thresh under a turret (not speaking out of experience).

THORNMAIL I pick it against heavy healing matchups (Kayn, Warwick, etc...). You can stop at the bramble vest since the grievious wounds passive is the same.

LIANDRY'S ANGUISH This is a mythic, so you'll buy that instead of evenshroud/jak'sho. I pick it when I'm ahead and against lot's of AD (so that I don't need magic resist). I then give my shutdown because I'm much more squishy and proceed to loose the game. Great damage though. Buy at your own risk. (the idea behind this item is that with sunfire, demonic, liandry and your W, the ennemies burn VERY QUICKLY and objectives too)

FROZEN HEART Good against auto-attackers who rely on attack speed (adc, jax, kled,...)

FORCE OF NATURE Lately I tend to build Abyssal Mask, but this one is great too.

ANATHEMA'S CHAINS Good if only one of the ennemy is fed or only one has a different damage type (full AD ennemy team with one AP champion).

Those are mostly AP items that you can't really afford to buy because it'll always be better to build more resistances. Maybe if we had more inventory slots?

RYLAI'S CRYSTAL SCEPTER The slow is great to make ennemies stick with you.

ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS I stopped buying it when I realize I can't use activables.

BANSHEE'S VEIL You'll like the spellshield when you dive in, and it's pretty cheap.

Items that I tried but think they're inferior to the previous ones.

RIFTMAKER This item gives you health and omnivamp. It'll make you much more tanky than liandry's while still being an AP mythic. Some people use it with Amumu. I think it is great, but somewhat indecisive: neither going tank, nor opting for the great burn that liandry's provides.

ICEBORN GAUNTLET I tried buying this when I don't need magic resist, but it never seemed to work well.

FIRST CLEAR
I always go bot to top, like 90% of junglers in this ELO. So for the remaining of this paragraph I'll assume the ennemy jungler started bot. I think this is good because that way, you know where is the ennemy jungler: the same place as you, on the other side of the river. I almost always full clear first: one of your goals is to get to level 6 as soon as, since your ult is so powerful.

However, I react to good gank opportunities: first after lvl3 when crossing the midlane: if ennemy midlaner is overextended, somewhat lowlife. And also toplane (you can skip one camp to react to a good gank opportunity).

Using Q to move between camps, you'll clear well under 3:30 and the scuttle spawn. If you look for a gank remember that the ennemy jungler is in the vicinity, so beware counterganks. Also dying for the first scuttle is the worst thing you can do, so do not hesitate to give it away (you can also run bot to get one).

If you have mid and/or top priority, it is easier to go for scuttle, ping it so that your laners are paying attention.

I usually full clear, gank, see if I can make scuttle, then go back to bot and clear the respawned two camps bot before going back, hoping I have 1650 gold so that I can buy the items in my first buy list. If not, I tend to buy Bami's and Dark Seal. Then I reverse clear and go top to bot so that I can immediately gank bot when I'm level 6. If you manage to get the two botlaners in your ult, it results very often in a double kill.

ALTERNATE STRATEGY

When I'm on blue side, I sometimes start on the ennemy raptors. If you start with E you can do this camp super fast because getting autoattacked reduces you E cooldown. I then take all their camps in this quadrant and gank top from behind. To do this you have to be sure that they start on their botside and that they have no wards in place.

If you do gank top, the ennemy jungler will likely invade your botside, so watch out.

Lane management is a very complex thing. And also I don't understand most of it. To keep things simple, two things can happen.

THE ENNEMY IS PUSHING LANE
"Traditionnal" gank: You have to walk onto them from behind. DO NOT use Q to gap close, just walk close to them and try to attack them. When they use their escape (Flash, Dash, etc...) is your time to Q.

YOUR TEAM IS PUSHING LANE
"Line" gank: you stealthily walk into the bush and wait for the wave to bounce (either your minion die to the tower, or since your minions are closer to their tower, their minions will stack and eventually push back). The ennemies will then walk past you, unsuspecting, and you'll be able to dispose of them.

This way of doing has several drawbacks that you have to understand:
- sometimes the ennemy wards the bushes, so you'll stand on a ward for 10 minutes wondering why they are not moving your way.
- sometimes they'll suspect something and throw spells at you. Especially those spells that gives vision on the zone (e.g. Lux)
- sometimes the wave will take a considerable amount of time to bounce, especially if your laner don't understand what you are trying to do.

WHEN TO GANK
When you gank, you show yourself on the minimap. So if your gank is unsuccessful, it is not neutral for you: you lost time, and the ennemy jungler acted freely on the map (stealing your camps, doing objectives, etc...). That is why you should only gank when you're almost sure to get a kill or at least a sizeable advantage (summoners, force ennemy out of line, etc...)

When my R is up, I always look for a botline gank, because if you manage to get both of them in your ult, it is very often a double kill.

GANK COUNTERS
Those champions are the one that you should gank with great care.

Killers
Illaoi : past 6, if she has ult, she'll tentacle you to death. And her R is not her only broken ability. If she E's you (which will be hard to dodge because you're not ranged) and you flee, you'll play this strange mario kart like minigame where you run for your life while trying to dodge more tentacles.

Teemo : past 6, you'll be walking into a minefield only to get blinded and poisonned to death.

Mordekaiser : past 6, you think it is a 2v1, and then it is no more because you get caught in his ult. If it's too bad, buy qss. Also, they have this enourmous shield that gives them great survivability, leading to our next category:

Baiters

Darius : he is healing like crazy with his Q and has an execute that resets when he kills an ennemy, so approach with care even if he is low.

Sylas : he also heals like crazy, has a stun, and the best ultimate in the game (your's).

Fleeters

Ezreal : when he'll tire with you, he'll just flee using his E.

Tahm Kench : it'll take forever to kill him. If you tickle him too much, he'll dive away.

DRAKES
I never do first drake before level 5 and bami's (at least). You'll have to set it up by getting a kill in the botlane. But even then at the beginning of the game death timers are very short, so be mindful.

For the other drakes, you'll have to be around everytime (or else your team will think you're slacking of). Do recall 40s before they are up at the latest if you want to be there on time.

HERALD
I tend to prioritize the first herald over the first drake. I heard streamers say the contrary, so here are my reasons:
- Amumu is bad at taking down turrets. So you'll have to count on your teammates (bad idea) or use herald.
- Sometimes one of your teammate is less bad than the rest of the team (maybe even less bad than you are). Reward him with free plates (and then jump on his back).

NASHOR
Yes.

ELDER
All you faults will be forgiven if you steal this.