Disclaimer

Note that these builds are for fun only, they work really well but they're only situational...
They're only good to snowball because you sacrify your mobility (what makes your Rammus an utility champion, a minimum good at whatever point) to get some other cool characteristics.

TODAY's PATCH 12.12 BEST BUILD IS HEALING RAMMUS WITH CONQUEROR, IT'S AN ABSOLUTE BANGER, GO CHECK IT OUT

Controllability : Determines how much you can alter how a champion can play, the most controllable the champion is, the more you can impact the skills' usability from this champion.

TrueDMG : A champion where his true damage is a big factor on the fights who occur ( Ahri won't be a TrueDMG whereas Camille will be).

Mage : Not really only mages but the champions that generally are the most based on spells and that deal magic damage, most of the time they're squishy but the taunt will be less effective on them.

Assassin : The champions who rely on a burst you just need to tank to win a trade, you'll need to tank their burst with Defensive Ball Curl and maybe even Gargoyle Stoneplate's active if needed.

AbiliBruiser : A bruiser champion, which means for this guide a champion that's not that's more tanky or that has more survivability than for example mages, that rely more on abilities than on AAs, generally, Mathe-tanky-ly correct is the best build to face them in a 1v1 situation.

AttackyBruiser : A bruiser champion, which means for this guide a champion that's not that's more tanky or that has more survivability than for example mages, that rely more on AAs than on abilities, which means you can taunt them and they'll AA more than for example AbiliBruisers, which then means that you will deal and reduce more damage to/from them.

No-Kill : A champion that's so tanky that none of you can die, or that if someone dies, it'll just be taking too long, so you should better clear some camps than kill him, since allies and enemies can also come.

ADC : The sort of champions that Rammus counters the most since this kind of champion highly relies on AAs, which is what Rammus prefers, ADCs usually have high attack speed, are very squishy and may deal a lot of damage to tanks, but not to Rammus since he stacks too much armor.


Early-game :
If you're in lane. | If you want to have a faster clear speed, but less HP. [RECOMMENDED]

ABILITY SEQUENCE

1 W

2 Q

3 E

If you want to have more HP at the end of the clear, but a slower one.

ABILITY SEQUENCE

1 W

2 E

3 Q

Mid-game :
Jungle.

ABILITY SEQUENCE

1 W

2 Q

3 E

4 W

5 W

6 R

7 W

8 E

9 W

It's definitely better to max your Defensive Ball Curl since you gain a lot of resistances, that can mkae you tank unexpected damage especially in the early. For those who think that Powerball is the one who's worth to be maxed, you're wrong. You can simply think about what would give a better Powerball : less cooldown, more damage and a better slow. Besides the slow, nothing is very good in a gank, taking Defensive Ball Curl is better since you'll deal more damage over all while tanking more, and it would also be better to max Frenzying Taunt since it's a CC, a CC with a duration scaling on the level of the ability. For a gank, you don't need to chase for very long a champion, you just search to lower the HP bar a lot, but also make the enemy use a summoner or even die. Since a lane isn't that long, upgrading Powerball won't be good enough since you already force a choice when ganking, and don't need to go deeper than that.

Lane.

ABILITY SEQUENCE

1 W

2 Q

3 E

4 Q

5 Q

6 R

7 W

8 W

9 W

Having a Q that deals more damage, that slows more and that has less cooldown is something good in lane, it can make you evade from trades taking too long, or chase someone after a short trade, or even just poke someone with your Q or CS better since your W doesn't work good if you don't have minion aggro.

After that, you basically want to max → , since a better taunt means a bigger damage output, and more damage means easier kills and bigger impact on teamfights which also means that you don't need another Q to chase after.



Ant-Scriptum : To do Raptors, AA once the Crimson Raptor then activate Defensive Ball Curl and full AA the Crimson Raptor, the other Raptors will automatically die.

1. Get leashed on your Red Buff -- Don't Smite / Do your Raptors -- Don't Smite

2. Do your Raptors -- Don't Smite / Do your Red Buff -- Smite

3. Do your Murk Wolves : 2 AA with Defensive Ball Curl on each Murk Wolf and then full focus the Greater Murk Wolf -- Don't Smite

4. Do your Blue Buff, when your Defensive Ball Curl is over, attack the Gromp once and then double camp -- use 1 Smite but if u messed up use your 2 Smites on these camps

THORNMAIL

&

GARGOYLE STONEPLATE

+ Would first be in stats only 79.01% gold efficient HOWEVER : ° Defensive Ball Curl + Conditioning makes the gold efficiency rise to 127%. + It offers a thorn that makes the bread & butter damage source of Rammus a WHAPPING 125%-130% (scaling on lvls) more efficient!! + It applies 25% antiheal to any AA champ attacking you and 40% antiheal to those who you cc with Powerball or Soaring Slam but mainly with Frenzying Taunt.

+ Would first be in stats only 83.75% gold efficient HOWEVER : ° Defensive Ball Curl + Conditioning raises the gold efficiency to 182%. ° At 2 items & fully stacked with Conditioning on, Gargoyle Stoneplate's stats will raise the gold efficiency to 308.14%, without even counting Aftershock and runes shards!!! + The shield makes you a bit less killable and can proc Shield Bash with a surprising amount of damage and +(1-10)AR/MR scaling with everything.

To end, the assembled price is cheaper (5900G) than the the normal mythic + legendary item the other champions have to take (6200G+) and then these two items (and Plated Steelcaps) make your resists go approximately 600AR and 200MR when Defensive Ball Curl is activated, assuming you aren't fed enough to have 2 items + boots before Conditioning is enabled (12 minutes).

You can go in lane with Ghost + Powerball when you have reached Boots, it's almost a Teleport with less cooldown and you can use it to go anywhere -- Rammus TECHNOLOGY.

Having +5% movement speed given by some items is faster than having any tier Boots (except out of combat Mobility Boots) when for example you Powerball and then Ghost.

You can Ghost during Powerball to be faster and have a better engage with Soaring Slam (the range is scaling on your movespeed) during it.

If you're in the Powerball state, you can cancel dashes that champions do. For example, Akali's first Perfect Execution will be cancelled when she will hit you, it's useful when you want to avoid someone from dashing on you or anywhere you can reach and then flee. Note that this doesn't work on dashes that makes the dashing champion unstoppable and that Powerball overrides (and makes impossible ALL of the CCs from these dashes) Urgot's Disdain, Poppy's Heroic Charge and even Quinn's Vault.

If you manage to activate Defensive Ball Curl before utilizing Aftershock or getting Gargoyle Stoneplate passive stacks, it will maximize the amount of resists given since it is scaling on your own actual resists, it's better not to land your Soaring Slam properly in a teamfight to get more resists.

If someone CCs you and that your Defensive Ball Curl is activated, it won't leave, so you can be immobilized, stunned, or even knocked up while being able to tank naughty bursts or whatever.

You can use Soaring Slam as a Flash to escape or walldash out of a fight.

If you face a CC you do not want to take, Soaring Slam makes you unstoppable for approximately 1 second, which means that you have an approximately 1 second CC immunity frame.

Turrets are dealing physical damage, make sure to be the one tanking them no matter what when you have reached your 2 items spike.

PRECISION

Conqueror is the best rune if you want to make long fights especially in the mid-endgame, whether it is duel, skirmish or teamfight. You can very easily stack it with Frenzying Taunt and Defensive Ball Curl coupled with AAs, giving you a lot more healing and AD for your items such as Death's Dance to scale with.

Triumph is definitely the way to go, you don't need mana regen, maybe in lane but not a lot. Be careful though of Soaring Slam, it costs a lot of mana. Even if you heal a lot, Overheal is not that worth because it'll make Rammus be able to receive less damage (even 1 proc of Triumph along with Revitalize will make Rammus have more hp than Overheal's shield).

Legend: Alacrity is so good in duelling, it offers way more AAs so more Conqueror stacks (besides the damage dealt), the other runestone aren't as good as Legend: Alacrity.

Having Last Stand at 30% HP on this build with Revitalize will make hilarious situations where for example in a 1v3, you somehow heal health than you receive damage.

RESOLVE

Conditioning is a must have on Rammus, that the buff of both resists is worth a lot with this champion that can double it. Revitalize buffs omnivamp, Conqueror's healing when stacked, Goredrinker's active and Death's Dance passive, and it stacks with Spirit Visage, it's just too strong.

AS shard since it's better than the 2 other shards for Rammus, AR shard since you're Rammus and you don't need HP at all since Death's Dance's healing changed from scaling to HP to scaling to AD and you're focusing on AR since you're Rammus.

RESOLVE

Aftershock is the best rune for Rammus, because his point (atleast with the heal build) is to heal from the damage he deals with his Spiked Shell passive scaling with the armor he has, and Aftershock simply gives a lot of armor in bonus. However, it doesn't stay for long, and it has a pretty long cooldown (you cannot proc it twice in one fight, except if it's very long).

These 3 are interchangeable, just keep in mind that Demolish relates on you pushing turrets (if no splitpusher), Font of Life is purely teamplay which isn't the best for this build and Shield Bash is awesome for solo carrying but relates ENTIRELY on Gargoyle Stoneplate's shield.

Conditioning is the go-to since it matters a lot in terms of given resists, scales on yours so it's fabulous with Defensive Ball Curl, whereas Second Wind only gives sustain and Bone Plating gives damage reduction that you don't need.

Revitalize is the best for teamfights when you Goredrinker at 100 hp in 1v5, can basically heal you full health when you're full build, and it helps healing with basically everything on this build.

PRECISION

Last Stand works very well with this build in solo diving situations, even more where there are AAers such as Jinx, at 30% hp, in a 1v1 situation versus her, you'll basically heal more than the damage you receive. Triumph is the thing you need to survive all along a fight or after a dive if Defensive Ball Curl is on cooldown, couples very well with Revitalize. Anything else than these 2 runestones is not worth mentioning.

The less hp you have, the less hp you have to vamp + the more armor you have, and the AS shard is here to deal a lot of dmg with your Frenzying Taunt onto someone with your AAs.

Why Goredrinker and not Riftmaker?

→ Soaring Slam and Powerball have AP ratios but aren't your main sources of damage for this build, taking Goredrinker gives AD to scale with your AAs and Death's Dance's passive regeneration.

→ Goredrinker gives way more ability haste where Riftmaker gives a bit of omnivamp and AP, we saw that AP is useless in this build but why not omnivamp? Because with this ability haste given by Goredrinker, your abilities, Defensive Ball Curl (= op ability) included, have less cooldown.

→ Riftmaker will give a total of 17% (= 7% + 5*2%) omnivamp at 6 items whereas Goredrinker will only give 8% omnivamp, but first remember that Goredrinker has more than base omnivamp. Goredrinker heals for 20% AD and 8% of your missing health. In a fight, Goredrinker will heal way more than Riftmaker if you're able to use it's active.

Pros → When Defensive Ball Curl is activated, you reach 800+ armor and 300+ magic resist, 1100+ armor and 500+ magic resist with Aftershock. → Can literally 1v5 due to the vamp and the high amount of resists coupled with the damage he deals. → Can go out then in fights with his healing on Raptors for example.

Cons → Snowball / Risky build. → Less mobile.

SORCERY

Phase Rush is a revolution for this Rammus build, it cancels a WHAPPING 75% of the active slows on you, including your Defensive Ball Curl, and is activated by a simple Frenzying Taunt + Defensive Ball Curl + AA. It also gives your more movespeed which is further improved by Celerity or even Nimbus Cloak.

If there is a big AP threat like Gwen, you can take Nullifying Orb, otherwise take Nimbus Cloak since it can boost your Powerball or Phase Rush, so you can opt for a Challenging Smite.

Transcendence could be good but more speed (to go along with all the factors there already are) is more worth in my humble opinion. There isn't a lot of Ability Haste and the cooldown reduction doesn't act on an activated Defensive Ball Curl. Lastly, Absolute Focus isn't the way to go since you're not an assassin, Rammus will be likely to stay in a fight for a long time even at 40% HP, and also you do not need this AP to oneshot an ADC after reaching Thornmail.

Scorch sucks, it's only a lane poke spell. Waterwalking could be good not gonna lie, but you already have enough speed to choose Gathering Storm's scaling, that can make you deal way more damage to mages or other non-AA champions.

RESOLVE

Conditioning is a must have on Rammus, that the buff of both resists is worth a lot with this champion that can double it. Unflinching is the missing piece, what you've ever wanted. It forcefully gives 10% slow resist and tenacity for your Defensive Ball Curl and the enemies' CC/slows, all the way to 30%! At 50% HP, Unflinching will give you 25% slow resist, which, when coupled with Phase Rush, COMPLETELY cancels any slows, including the one from your Defensive Ball Curl !

You wanna take AS shard since it's better than the 2 other shards for Rammus, AR shard since you're Rammus, your Spiked Shell passive scales with AR and then HP shard for your Abyssal Mask to be maxed.

RESOLVE

Aftershock is the best rune for Rammus, because his point is to deal damage with Spiked Shell coupled with Defensive Ball Curl. (Note that Spiked Shell scales with the armor Rammus has, and Aftershock simply gives a lot of armor in bonus.

These 3 are interchangeable, just keep in mind that Demolish relates on you pushing turrets (if no splitpusher), Font of Life is purely teamplay which isn't the best for this build and Shield Bash is awesome for solo carrying but relates ENTIRELY on Gargoyle Stoneplate's shield.

Conditioning is the go-to since it matters a lot in terms of given resists, scales on yours so it's fabulous with Defensive Ball Curl, whereas Second Wind only gives sustain and Bone Plating gives damage reduction that you don't need.

Unflinching is the best because you're getting slow resistance to cancel your W slow, which can be efficient. Overgrowth also works since Gargoyle Stoneplate, Abyssal Mask and Demonic Embrace scale with your HP. You don't need to heal with Revitalize.

PRECISION

Coup de Grace works like a charm with your Spiked Shell and Demonic Embrace's burn, I figured out not a long time ago that it's better than Legend: Alacrity. Triumph is the thing you need to survive all along a fight or after a dive if Defensive Ball Curl is on cooldown. Anything else than these 3 runestones is not worth mentioning.

You wanna take AS shard since it's better than the 2 other shards for Rammus, AR shard since you're Rammus, your Spiked Shell passive scales with AR and then HP shard for your Abyssal Mask to be maxed.

Riftmaker > Evenshroud, why?

First of all, a full build Riftmaker Rammus deals as much damage as Evenshroud Rammus in every category with the quick combo : Q-R; E; W; 3 AA. But there are many things to look at :

Passive damage output :
Riftmaker Deals +3% magic damage then +6% then switches to true damage at it's cap, which is +9% bonus damage, it works on the output damage your and only your champion would do initially, so versus high resist tanks, this build will work a lot with the bonus true damage.
Evenshroud instantly make enemies receive +9% more damage for 4 seconds when cc'd by Rammus or Rammus is cc'd, however, it will work for every damage source he receives, works for your teammates, turrets and even monsters or minions. But, even though it's true damage, it's scaling on the damage received, a person receiving 10 damage per AA of Rammus will only receive 1 more dmg whereas Riftmaker will scale on the damage that Rammus would do if the enemy has 0 resists.

Passive duration :
Riftmaker's duration resets each time Rammus deals damage to an enemy champion, that's where Demonic Embrace does a part of it's job, because it acts like a Riftmaker passive's refresher, making your true damage a lot longer even though you stopped attacking.
Evenshroud resets on every immobilizing cc that Rammus does or gets, so, it should work in a fight but it'll surely stop before the Demonic Embrace burn stops.

Riftmaker gives omnivamp, sustain and AP whereas Evenshroud gives resists, Riftmaker gives more hp so more scaling on your runes and your items but Evenshroud scales more with Conditioning and your Defensive Ball Curl but like alot.

To conclude, I think having more armor means nothing when reached 1k+ armor (and 500+ mr) because, except if you're vs a full armor pen Darius or Yasuo (unsure if Yasuo dies or not) or vs a 20/0 Veigar, Mordekaiser and stuff, you don't need more in my opinion, better take more hp and the vamp of Riftmaker for the endgame.

PS : Aftershock's bonus AR and MR should be maxed when you have Conditioning and 2 items and Defensive Ball Curl, taking Riftmaker or Evenshroud doesn't change anything about it.

Pros → When on Defensive Ball Curl, with Riftmaker 1100AR & 400-500MR (depending on Abyssal Mask's passive) or with Evenshroud 1200AR & 450-550 MR (depending on Abyssal Mask's passive) -- without Aftershock. → Works versus any sort of champion, as long as it has to AA when Frenzying Taunt is on cooldown. → Hard scaling, you have high HP, resists and a very decent amount of AP (enough to oneshot squishies after Powerball- Soaring Slam'ing them before the Soaring Slam even goes away). → With Phase Rush runes activated and Unflinching over 25% slow resist and tenacity, your Defensive Ball Curl slow is obliterated and you gain massive movement speed with Celerity, you can even Smite to gain more speed with Nimbus Cloak.

Cons → Snowball / Risky build. → Bad early.

RESOLVE

Aftershock is the best rune for Rammus, because his point is to deal damage with Spiked Shell coupled with Defensive Ball Curl. (Note that Spiked Shell scales with the armor Rammus has, and Aftershock simply gives a lot of armor in bonus.

These 3 are interchangeable, just keep in mind that Demolish relates on you pushing turrets (if no splitpusher), Font of Life is purely teamplay which isn't the best for this build and Shield Bash is awesome for solo carrying but relates ENTIRELY on Gargoyle Stoneplate's shield.

Conditioning is the go-to since it matters a lot in terms of given resists, scales on yours so it's fabulous with Defensive Ball Curl, whereas Second Wind only gives sustain and Bone Plating gives damage reduction that you don't need.

Unflinching is the best with Sunfire Aegis because you're getting slow resistance to cancel your W. Overgrowth also works since Gargoyle Stoneplate and also mainly Titanic Hydra scale with your HP. You don't need to over-heal with Revitalize.

PRECISION

Legend: Alacrity is definitely the best for you to get a near-infinite amount of on-hit damage in one Frenzying Taunt, but Legend: Tenacity is worth mentioning, you're gonna get a lot of tenacity to endure the CCs and is viable since your damage is still very good Triumph is the thing you need to survive all along a fight or after a dive if Defensive Ball Curl is on cooldown. Anything else than these 3 runestones is not worth mentioning.

You wanna take AS shard since it's better than the 2 other shards for Rammus, AR or MR shard depending on the enemy team composition and then AR shard since you're still Rammus.

Pros → Excellent duellist, can easily kill an AA champion in one Frenzying Taunt. → Is tanky not only in resists but also in HP. → This build allows you to also out-trade melee bruisers such as Riven, due to your additionnal damage without needing the enemy to AA you given by the items with your build.

Cons → Bad Early. → Less mobile. → Less better in 1 versus multiple enemies situations when champions aren't in melee than the 2 other builds.