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Ambessa Build Guide by

The ALP Guide to Ambessa Jungle

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2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author AverageLilliaPlayer

Ambessa Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (2) More Ambessa Guides

Runes: Damage

1 2

Domination

Electrocute

Sudden Impact

Grisly Mementos

Ultimate Hunter

Precision

Triumph

Legend: Haste

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2

Flash

Smite

Items

Jungle Pets

Red

Blue

Green

Lethality

First Item

Damage

Situational

Bruiser

First Item

Bruiser

Situational

Ability Order Standard

Ambessa Passive Ability

More Ambessa Counters

Champion Build Guide

About Me

Hello, my name is Average Lillia Player (or ALP for short) though ingame I go by Yoon. As the name suggests, I main Lillia and prefer to avoiding laning as a whole, often queuing for Jungle or Support (but mostly Jungle). Almost all of my time in the game is spent making extremely strange picks in the Jungle work out, anything from meta to borderline throwing, I'm determined to make it work.

Champion Introduction

Abilities

Items

Ambessa, the Matriarch of War
Diver, Skirmisher, Fighter, Assassin, Top Laner, Energy, Physical

Clearing: Above Average [3:28]
Ganking: Average
Speciality: Mobility
Why Jungle Ambessa? Ambessa is fun even when losing due to her ability to dodge very important skillshots in battle. She's hard to catch, and when ahead even harder to kill. Although point and click CC is her absolute counter, she still can dish out plenty of hard hitting damage at all points in the game and is a menace to backline characters. It is very hard to go wrong with Ambessa in the jungle due to her reliable clear and easy to learn kit. Though she is difficult to master.

Pros and Cons

Pros

➺ Easy to Learn
➺ Easy Backline Access
➺ Highly Mobile
➺ Good Clear
➺ Great Skirmisher
➺ Great Damage

Cons

➺ Weak vs CC
➺ Difficult to Master
➺ Weak Early Ganks
➺ Requires Critical Thinking
➺ Skillshot Ultimate
➺ Squishier than Expected

Builds

LETHALITY

Building Lethality early and then moving into bruiser items is her most optimal build path, in my opinion. It gives her the damage she needs to get kills early to snowball into being tankier.

BRUISER

Bruiser is definitely fun, but situational as too many characters can do too much damage to Ambessa before she can get truly fighter-esque.

CRIT?

The crit strike and attack speed builds with kraken, navori, or collector are bait. I haven't found much success with them as then Ambessa becomes TOO squishy to hold her own in team fights.

Skill Order

Q
Cunning Sweep
1 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 9
W
Repudiation
2 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18
E
Lacerate
3 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13
R
Public Execution
6 / 11 / 16

> > >

starts Q for the two charges and extra damage on the second cast. Its a lot a early game damage despite its longer cooldown. It is also the ability she maxes out first for the same reason. For level 2 we go into W or E depending on if we are starting on a side of the map with more AOE camps or more single target camps. We max out E second for the damage and W last.

Ability Usage in Jungle

PASSIVE ABILITY

Drakehound's Step

➺ After casts an ability, inputting an attack or movement command causes her to dash in the direction of the target or location. This dash cannot pass through terrain.

➺ Also, Whenever casts an ability, she generates a stack of Medarda Maxim after the ability for 4 seconds, refreshing with subsequent casts and stacking up to 3 times. Basic attacks consume one stack each to become empowered.

➺ Medarda Maxim causes 's auto attacks to have bonus range, attack speed, bonus physical damage, and restores energy.

➺ In the Jungle, is used as a ganking tool, primarily to chase or run away. It is exceptionally good at dodging skillshots from all sorts of champions.

➺ This scales off of .

Cunning Sweep

➺ swipes her Drakehound's in front of herself in a semicircle, dealing physical damage to enemies hit. The damage is doubled to enemies on the outer edge. Against monsters, this deals extra damage.

➺ If this hits at least one enemy, can cast within the next 3.5 seconds.

➺ In the Jungle, this charge of Q is best used on AOE camps and as a dash tool to get in closer to enemies. Since the second charge of Q procs no matter what you hit, using it on minion waves to get closer to an enemy with the passive dash is an optimal gank technique, especially pre level 6.

➺ This scales off of and does percent maximum health damage.

Sundering Slam

➺ slams her twin drakehounds in a line in the target direction, dealing physical damage to enemies hit. The damage is doubled to the first enemy hit. Against monsters, deals bonus damage.

➺ In the Jungle, the second charge of Q does a hell of a lot of damage and is used as a killing tool for both camps and champions. It can be used to start a camp before you get to it to lessen clear times.

➺ This scales off of and does percent maximum health damage.

Repudiation

➺ braces herself for up to 0.5 seconds. After the fact, she gains a shield and smashes the ground in front of her to deal physical damage.

➺ If the shield mitigates any amount of damage taken before Ambessa smashes the ground, 's damage is increased by 50%.

➺ In the Jungle, is great in the early game to make have a healthier clear. In the late game, it is an incredibly large shield capable of keeping her alive in bursty situations and tower diving/surviving tower dives.

➺ Both the shield and slam scale off of .

Lacerate

➺ spins her twin drakehounds around her to deal physical damage to nearby enemies and slow them for a short time. If using your passive with this ability, you will spin twice.

➺ In the Jungle, this is a great clearing tool. After dashing close to an enemy, your slow can be used to get easier kills when ganking.

➺ This scales off of .

Public Execution

➺ PASSIVE: gains and heals herself for a percentage of the damage she heals to enemies with her abilities. The healing is reduced against non-champions.

➺ ACTIVE: Ambessa prepares a strike in a line in the target direction, then blinks behind the farthest enemy champion within the area and seizes them. She then suppresses the target for a short time, reveals them, then stuns them for another short period of time and deals physical damage.

➺ In the Jungle, this is used as a backline access tool to attack low health enemies or squishies with little to no mobility.

➺ This scales off of .

Objectives

DRAGON

can solo dragon, but she benefits a lot from having one teammate around to help at the very least. Some dragons, like or other high damaging dragons, make her solo clear much more difficult.

benefits the most from Infernal Soul, providing her extra attack damage capable of boosting her teamfighting efforts dramatically.

VOIDGRUBS

Grubs are not really an issue for at any point in the game and she has no issue soloing them. In fact, her AOE abilities on Q1 and E make her very speedy in the clearing efforts.

RIFT HERALD

can solo Herald and can easily dodge the charged attack with her passive. This also allows her to circle around the herald and clear it quickly by hitting it in the eye on its back.

VORACIOUS ATAKAHN

Voracious Atakahn will spawn in lower-action games with fewer kills/damage, taking root in whichever side of the map has the most drama within it. It cannot be solo'd by , so the rest of the team is necessary to help take it down. Because of the nature of 's close range abilities, she will likely be taking a lot of the damage from Atakahn as well, so be very careful when it comes to fighting on Atakahns pit. Voracious Atakahn grants a free, one-time use of False Life but instead of reviving right in the middle of the fight, you blink back to your fountain.

RUINOUS ATAKHAN

will likely see Ruinous due to her high kill power, even after all of her nerfs. Follow the same strategy as above! Upon slaying Ruinous Atakhan, you are granted Crown of Carnage which permanently boosts rewards from epic monsters slain aswell as 6 stacks of Bloody Petals.

BARON NASHOR

cannot solo baron and her wave clear is a bit lackluster in the grand scheme of wave clearing champions. It isn't the worst, but it isn't the best as she has to take time to weave in auto attacks. This makes baron a great objective, but not as good as elder if she has to pick between one or the other.

ELDER DRAKE

can solo Elder, but it should not be done alone as it is an incredibly large risk to her team and herself.

Clearing

RED SIDE

BLUE SIDE

Red Side is 's best starting side, though she can clear from either one. She starts with a leash on red buff if on botside, if not then she can just start blue. She starts Q into E then moves to and before rotating to her blue side or looking for a gank in mid lane.

optimally goes red side first, but if blue is botside it doesn't make too much of a difference. Instead of level 2 E, you go W for the shield on gromp. Start into and finishing on .

Core Items

LETHALITY

BRUISER

Feats of Strength

PLATED STEELCAPS
really, really likes having Attack Speed. That is her whole thing, so it's a no-brainer that for almost every game, she should be bringing these bad boys.

FEATS OF STRENGTH
Feats of Strength is gained by completing two of three objectives before the enemy team. These objectives include 3 epic monsters slain, first team to three kills, and first tower. For , first to three kills and first to three objectives are both rather easy. She isn't one for tower shoving despite her great wave clear, and prioritizes much better on killing .. both objectives, and people.

ARMORED ADVANCE
Upgrading AA grants you , providing a buff to and . You also gain a new passive, granting you a physical damage shield upon being attacked by an enemy. This is great, considering how much loves to attack ADC's.

Summary

IN CONCLUSION
-

EARLY GAME: Ambessa has a kill or be killed type of early game. If she doesn't get kills or assists early, she will struggle in the later halves of the game. But if she gets too reckless, she will never have a chance to catch up. It's a seesaw sort of type of gameplay, where you have to constantly be on the lookout for easier ganks and kills while also keeping yourself alive and well.

MID GAME: Hopefully, Ambessa has a few kills and objectives under her belt at this point. If not, stay out of small skirmishes and focus on farming to catch up on items rather than going in and dying. Ambessas always make the mistake of going in again and again when behind and it leaves them very far into the negatives.

LATE GAME: Ambessa is a great late game champion, especially with the shield on her W, which has some insanely good scaling and gives her a lot of ridiculous survivability. Her kill power in team fights is very strong and she is very pentakill capable, so long as she does not get stun locked.

Patch Notes

3/4/2025: 25.05 - E Damage decreased.
1/22/2025: 25.S1.1 - Replaced "Boots" section with "Feats of Strength" section, Added Atakahn to "Objectives" section.
12/12/2024: 14:24 - Repudation Shield Duration: 2 ⇒ 1.5 seconds, Shield Value: 85-350 (based on level) (+175% bonus AD) ⇒ 50-320 (based on level) (+150% bonus AD)
Lacerate Damage: 40/65/90/115/140 (+40/50/60/70/80% bonus AD) ⇒ 40/65/90/115/140 (+40/45/50/55/60% bonus AD)
11/20/2024: 14:23 - Sundering Slam Cast Window: 3.5 ⇒ 4 seconds
11/10/2024: Guide Created.