Skill usage Edit

•  Powerball can interrupt jump moves such as Jax's  Leap Strike or Tristana's  Rocket Jump mid-jump.
  • Abilities such as Jax's  Leap Strike, Garen's  Decisive Strike and Xin Zhao's  Audacious Charge will not stop  Powerball if Rammus is accelerating in the opposite direction.
  • If an enemy Renekton uses  Slice and Dice through Rammus while he is using  Powerball, the ability won't be canceled.
•  Defensive Ball Curl increases Rammus's armor, which increases his damage due to  Spiked Shell by (10/15/20/25/30).
•  Powerball can be used as an effective escape mechanism. It also has a slight knock-up effect, and this allows for you to run into pursuers to momentarily disable them.
• As  Powerball speeds up continuously after the initial cast, it's sometimes better to let it speed up in a brush before rolling at someone.
• Flash can be used while in  Powerball to jump across a minion wave to catch your opponent off-guard.
•  Powerball can hit stealthed champions such as Twitch, Shaco, Akali, or Evelynn, dealing damage and knocking them back. It will also work against a  Camouflaged Teemo, knocking him out of stealth. This can be useful for chasing them if they go stealthed at low health.
• You can use  Powerball then use Teleport to be at a high speed when reaching your destination.
•  Powerball will damage and slow enemies reviving from pseudo death ( Guardian Angel or Zilean's  Chrono Shift) or Zhonya's Hourglass, granting an easy kill.
•  Puncturing Taunt can be used on enemies pushing your turret to make them attack you and causing the turret to attack them. It can also be used to take the focus off more squishy allies, allowing them to deal more damage than they would have had they been the focused target.
•  Puncturing Taunt can also be used to "pull" enemies towards your team as an enemy will be forced to get into attack range to hit you. This is more effective with melee champions whose attack range is shorter than ranged ones.
• When using  Tremors, you can use all your spells to keep enemies in range of this spell in order to maximize damage. This is possible because the ultimate is not channeled.
•  Tremors affects turrets, making Rammus a very good pusher, especially lategame when he can tank the turret for his team.
  • Backdooring is a simple matter because you can easily use  Powerball to run away before enemies catch up.
• Rammus can use  Tremors while using  Powerball, making it very useful for destroying towers or champions that are low on health and escaping.

Build usage Edit

Building armor is necessary to put  Spiked Shell to good use. Having a lot of armor will still result in a large amount of damage. However, do not disregard building magic resistance, as your high armor stat means nothing to the enemy team's AP mages. It can however be argued that building health will synergize better with the free armor and magic resistance provided by  Defensive Ball Curl.

• Chalice of Harmony can be helpful for laning mana issues and building magic resistance.
• Archangel's Staff is a more offensive alternative to his mana problems.
  • Get it if you'll be buying at least one more item providing mana e.g. Frozen Heart and/or Banshee's Veil / Odyn's Veil.
• Randuin's Omen in conjunction with  Puncturing Taunt and  Defensive Ball Curl allows you to slow the enemy team heavily and make chasing easier.
• Atma's Impaler synergizes well with  Spiked Shell, increasing his damage further while also providing armor.
• Thornmail is a very effective item on Rammus, as it reflects damage from auto-attacks (which the enemy is forced to use during  Puncturing Taunt) as well as stacks with the reflecting damage given during  Defensive Ball Curl.
• Shurelya's Reverie's active synergizes well with Rammus's  Powerball.
• Rammus's  Tremors and  Powerball can deal massive damage with some ability power. This makes Zhonya's Hourglass a rather potent item as it also provides a large amount of armor.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter can be a powerful item , causing  Tremors to slow a massive area and increasing  Powerball slow , and providing a high amount of health.
• Another powerful item is Liandry's Torment , which is applied on enemies attacking Rammus during  Defensive Ball Curl, and can also be applied with  Rammus's  Powerball or Tremors. It synergizes well with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, and also provides a generous amount of health.
• Sunfire Cape also synergizes nicely with  Tremors.

Jungling Edit

Rammus is a strong jungler, with exceptional ganks.  Powerball allows him to initiate ganks suddenly, and  Puncturing Taunt is a strong CC ability with a fairly long duration.

• Note that Rammus's  Powerball, whilst it still does damage, it has no crowd control effect on Baron Nashor or the Dragon. Also note that  Puncturing Taunt now has absolutely no effect on Baron or Dragon (it will not reduce armor or force either to attack you). Both skills will still affect all other neutral creeps as normal.
• Starting items: Hunter's Machete, Health Potion x5
• Skill progression:  Defensive Ball Curl →  Powerball →  Defensive Ball Curl → optional from here on.
• Jungling order: Blue golem ( Smite) → Wolves → Wraiths → Red Lizard ( Smite) → Small Golems → Gank
• Alternative order: Wolves → Blue golem ( Smite) → Wraiths → Red Lizard ( Smite) → Gank

Recommended builds Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting		5
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting		2	2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Countering Edit

• Avoid attacking Rammus while his  Defensive Ball Curl is active.
• Try to purchase tenacity items early to reduce the duration of his taunt from his  Puncturing Taunt.
  • Be careful; even with 35 tenacity  Puncturing Taunt will last for 1.95 seconds.
• Try casting a slow or stun when he uses  Powerball so that way Rammus cannot initiate with his full combo by using  Puncturing Taunt,  Defensive Ball Curl and  Tremors straight after hitting a target with  Powerball.
  • Be aware that crowd control abilities will not stop Rammus's  Powerball while it is active, but will slow/stun/snare him in place, allowing you to potentially dodge the attack.
• Rammus is an excellent counter to all AD carries due to his  Defensive Ball Curl and tendency to build high armor. It is wise to have a mage or a hybrid champion (e.g. Jax or Akali) take him down.
• Building a Last Whisper will penetrate his armor, allowing you to deal more damage to him.
• If Rammus is building AP don't let your guard down,  Powerball and  Tremors have decent AP ratios and low cooldowns.

Champion Spotlight Edit