LoL Wild Rift Rammus Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

A Tier

Class: Tank

Recommended Lane: Jungle

Best Rammus Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Rammus guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Rammus, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Rammus is an Enigma who roams the Shuriman desert. His origins are a mystery to everyone, the only truth is that he is protected by a spiked shell and that he stops for no one. Rammus is a jungle tank with lots of defenses, crowd control, and unparalleled roaming capabilities. He is one of the strongest counters to high DPS auto-attack carries, ok? ok.

Rammus Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Rammus Wild Rift in this patch.

The Unbreakable Armordillo

Boots of Furor [This item has been removed from WR]

This is the standard item build for Rammus Wild Rift which focuses on increasing his defenses and overall utility. With this item build, you will be able to tank so much damage and dish the same damage back, and more.

Bramble Vest is your first item because your 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl scales with armor and therefore this will increase your clear speed by a little bit. Rammus’s jungle clear speed is not ideal so optimizing it is important.
Sunfire Aegis grants an increasing AoE damage. You’d want to stick to your enemies to deal damage so this item is a great addition to your kit.
Boots of Swiftness decreases slow effects on yourself so that the slow penalty from 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl is minimized. It also grants the highest amount of movement speed bonus so you can roam more efficiently. Upgrade with the Stoneplate Enchant to increase your survivability in the middle of fights or upgrade with the Locket Enchant to shield your allies during team fights.
Thornmail is the perfect item for Rammus since you’ll be forcing the enemy’s ADC to fight you. In combination with the active effect of your W, Defensive Ball Curl, you’ll be dishing out tons of return damage to your enemies.
Crystalline Reflector offers another layer of return damage thanks to its Mirrored Force passive. Plus, it reduces physical damage you receive every time it procs.
Iceborn Gauntlet has the Spellblade passive which grants bonus damage and slows the area where you attacked. The slowing effect’s area scales with armor and with the bonus armor from Aftershock and 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl, you will create large slowing AoEs.
Abyssal Mask increases the magic damage received by enemies around you. This is perfect for Rammus since you deal magic damage and if you have another ally who deals magic damage, that is even better for your team.

The Mystical Armordillo

Alternatively, you may opt for this Rammus Wild Rift build.

Searing Crown – Attacks and damaging abilities burn enemies
Randuin’s Omen – Attack to heal from enemy Critical Strikes
Mantle of the Twelfth Hour – Recover health when you are low on heath

Runes for Rammus in Wild Rift

Listed down below are the best runes for Rammus in Wild Rift.

Aftershock is simply the best Keystone rune for Rammus because it stacks with his 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl. Once activated through his 1st, Powerball, or 3rd, Frenzying Taunt, you should activate 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl so that the defensive bonuses will stack, granting you a huge amount of resistances and return damage.
Gathering Storm grants bonus AP that increases as time passes by. This allows Rammus to have some AP even if he builds purely tank items.
Conditioning grants increasing armor and magic resist bonuses so he can be a tanky monster in the late game.
Pathfinder stacks with your passive, Rolling Armadillo, granting you the most effective roaming potential in the whole game.

Spells

In our Rammus Wild Rift Guide, here are the best champion spells that you can equip on him.

Smite is a must for junglers. It will allow you to farm jungle camps without being too far behind from laners and its active effect helps in killing jungle monsters faster and for securing Epic Monsters such as Drakes and Rift Herald. Upgrading smite depends on your matchup and game state, if you are having success in your ganks, Chilling/Blue smite is better so you can slow down enemies. But, if the enemy jungler is forcing you to duel them, Challenging/Red smite is a better option.

Ghost allows you to counter enemies who are attempting to kite you even while 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl is active. You can run down enemies and taunt them while Ghost is active.

Flash is always viable in any champion. You can use Flash to pass through minions to hit your target champion with your 1st, Powerball.

Skill Order

The on-hit effect, bonus defenses, and return damage of 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl will allow you to clear your first buff healthily so it is your level 1 ability then level up 3rd, Frenzying Taunt afterward to help you clear your next camp faster. Afterward, max 1st, Powerball first to maximize your roaming potential in the early game. Max 3rd, Frenzying Taunt next to increase the taunt duration but you can also choose to max 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl if you are finding yourself struggling to survive fights. Put a point in your ultimate, Soaring Slam whenever possible.

Abilities

Rolling Armordillo

Passive

While out of combat gain, 32 Movement Speed, increased to 96 during Powerball.

Exit combat after not taking damage or using abilities for 5 seconds.

Powerball

Active

Enables Rolling Armadillo and accelerates up to 110% bonus Movement Speed over 6 seconds. Colliding with an enemy deals 105 magic damage (105 + 100% AP) in an area, knocking back and slowing enemies by 40% for 1 second.

Activating cancels Defensive Ball Curl and puts it on cooldown.

Defensive Ball Curl

Passive | Active

Spiked Shell: Attacks deal 10 bonus magic damage 8 (8 + 10% Armor).

Active: Brace for up to 6 seconds, slowing Rammus by 30% while gaining 83 Armor (30 + 70% Armor) and 27 Magic Resist (10 + 35% Magic Resist). While curled Spiked Shell deals 50% more damage and also applies to enemies that attack Rammus.

Frenzying Taunt

Acive

Taunts an enemy champion or monster for 1.25 seconds and gain 50% Attack Speed for 5 seconds.

Soaring Slam

Active

Hop into the air and slam down, dealing 125 magic damage (125 + 50% AP) and creating aftershocks for 4 seconds.

Aftershocks deal 35 magic damage (35 + 20% AP) every second and slow enemies incrementally by 12%, stacking up to 60%.

Soaring Slam’s range increases with Movement Speed. Aftershocks damage structures.

Abilities Analysis

Passive: Rolling Armadillo

Rammus’s passive grants him bonus movement speed when out of combat. Rolling Armadillo, along with his 1st, Powerball makes Rammus one of the most prolific roamers in all of Runeterra.

Rolling Armadillo is great with the Pathfinder Rune as they stack. Literally, no other jungler can keep up with your roams if you plan it well.

Q | 1st: Powerball

Powerball grants a huge accelerating movement speed bonus to Rammus, more so if out of combat thanks to Rolling Armordillo. Colliding with an enemy deals magic damage to a small area and knocks back and slows those who are affected.

Powerball is Rammus’s primary engage and roaming tool. You can easily execute ganks from behind using this ability because of the large movement speed bonus. At its later levels, Powerball has a low cooldown so you can simply spam it to roam around the map.

Thanks to the bonus movement speed from Powerball and your passive, Rolling Armordillo, you’ll be fine and actually be better off by going the long side when ganking. The long side is going through the back near the enemy’s turret so that they’ll have less room to escape to and this also lessens your chance of being detected by enemy wards.

Powerball has a small hitbox so you’ll rarely hit many enemies with it. It activates when you collide with minions as well so be careful on traversing the lanes and if the enemy tries to hide behind their minions you can use Flash to go over them.

Because of Powerball’s small hitbox, it will be hard to hit all monsters in a camp. To hit all raptors, for example, you must position yourself in the middle of the camp before casting your Powerball. This way, you’ll have a more efficient clearing which is important for Rammus because his jungle clear speed is slower than average.

If you leave your jungle camps to react to a fight, walk a little before activating Powerball because if you might collide with a jungle monster following you which will prematurely end your Powerball.

The duration of Powerball can be seen in its ability button and an effect happens on the screen in the later stages of the ability.

Powerball is a channeling ability so be careful when playing against Soraka because her 3rd, Equinox can cancel your Powerball. The same goes with Lulu’s 2nd, Whimsy.

You can use your ultimate, Soaring Slam while using Powerball and the faster you are, the farther you can cast your ultimate. More on this later, ok? ok.

W | 1st: Defensive Ball Curl

Defensive Ball Curl grants Rammus’s famous “hit back and your dead” gameplay against ADCs. When this ability is activated, Rammus gains bonus armor and magic resist and those who attack Rammus are dealt magic damage. Defensive Ball Curl has a passive component which makes Rammus’s attacks deal bonus magic damage based on his armor.

Defensive Ball Curl is usually used in combination with 3rd, Frenzying Taunt which forces an enemy to attack Rammus.

Make sure that you have activated your Aftershock rune first using your 1st, Powerball or 3rd, Frenzying Taunt before activating Defensive Ball Curl so that Rammus’s armor and magic resist will increase twofolds.

You can cancel Defensive Ball Curl by casting it again or by using 1st, Powerball if you want to chase your enemies.

E | 3rd: Frenzying Taunt

Frenzying Taunt forces an enemy to attack you while giving you an attack speed bonus. With this ability and in combination with 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl, you’ll win most 1v1s, especially against high attack speed opponents. Well, maybe except for Vayne who deals true damage.

Be careful when using Frenzying Taunt when near monsters because you might target the monster instead. To be sure, drag the ability to your target or use lock unto your target first.

You should use Frenzying Taunt after knocking an enemy up using 1st, Powerball. Immediately use Frenzying Taunt after the knock-up so the enemy won’t have the chance to use their Flash or other mobility tools.

If you have an ally with you, you can pull the enemy by going in the direction away from their turret.

R | Ultimate: Soaring Slam

Soaring Slam makes Rammus jump in the target direction, damaging enemies in the area then creates Aftershocks which slows enemies continuously for four seconds while dealing magic DPS. The Aftershock can damage turrets.

Soaring Slam’s casting range increases with movement speed and so 1st, Powerball greatly increases your ultimate’s cast range. You can traverse almost the length of the screen in its maximum range. If Soaring Slam is cast while in 1st, Powerball mode, the center of your ultimate will also knock enemies up and deal the damage of 1st, Powerball.

You can jump through walls using Soaring Slam. It is a great way to start team fights and contest Baron and Drakes.

Rammus Early Game Guide

Rammus is a great roamer starting level 3. You have to focus on ganking after ganking to capitalize on his early game strengths.

Start with the Red Buff and ask for a leash (the act of your teammates helping you kill your buff) if possible. If your allies refuse to leash you, you can start on the Raptors if you want to gank the side lane or you can start on the Krugs if you want to gank the mid lane.

Your teammates on the side lane can help you until 0:25 without the risk of losing a minion. Afterward, go straight to the Krugs, which is the only camp that will grant you enough experience to reach level 3 before the Scuttlers spawn.

If you are leashed, you will have time to gank the red side of the lane before the Scuttler spawn. Gank that lane and help him clear that lane then ask for help to secure the Scuttler. Securing the Scuttlers are important to your early game roaming because it provides vision and more out-of-combat movement speed bonus.

If you were not leashed, head straight to the Scuttler, and hopefully the enemy’s jungler is there. If the enemy jungler is an AD champ, you’ll be able to duel them but if they’re not, avoid them and head to the other scuttler.

After killing one of the Scuttlers, gank your mid lane then ask again for help to secure the other Scuttler. After killing the Scuttler, check if your blue buff is still there. If yes, recall first then get your Bramble Vest and Ruby Crystal or Bami’s Cinder if you are successful in your gank. Switch your ward for Oracle’s Lens.

After acquiring these items, you can now double clear the Blue Buff and Gromp in a reasonable time frame. You’ll be able to do this by attacking the Blue Buff first then attacking the Gromp and then move to the center so that you’ll be able to hit the Blue Buff while the Gromp gets damaged by your Bramble Vest, Bami’s Cinder, and your W, Defensive Ball Curl. Make sure to try this out in the practice tool first before attempting to do this in a real game because if you screw this up, you’ll get set back by a lot.

Afterward, gank the blue side or mid, wherever the enemy champion’s more overextended.

You’ll be able to get your Red Buff again and recall just in time for the first Drake spawn if all things go well.

After the drake fight, recall then gank the blue side again before or after acquiring your blue buff.

Then, prepare to secure the Rift Herald.

Never AFK farm when playing as Rammus because you have a slow clear and you won’t be taking advantage of his superior roaming by doing that. Instead of doing a full clear jungle pathing, kill one camp (preferably the buffs, or double clear if possible) then gank then repeat all early to mid-game.

Rammus Late Game Guide

In the late game, your role transitions into an initiator, peeler, and ADC killer (That is if you are not hard countered by their ADC pick.)

If your team is ahead, you can use your ultimate, Soaring Slam together with your 1st, Powerball to jump into the enemy’s backline and kill or at least suppress their ADC.

If both teams are in a stalemate or in a losing game, you should instead focus on a safer playstyle and go front-to-back. Use your ultimate on the enemy’s tank so that they’ll be slowed down and easier to kite by your teammates then reserve your 3rd, Frenzying Taunt to peel (protect) for your backline.

Rammus Video Guide

Synergies

For our Rammus Wild Rift Guide, we highly recommend using him with the following champions as they synergize well with him.

Galio and Rammus is a tanky team fight nightmare. Rammus’s Soaring Slam is a perfect initiation tool to be followed up with Galio’s Hero’s entrance. They both have tons of CC and they are tanky in their specialized resistances which makes it hard for the enemy team to itemize against the both of you.

Nami‘s utilities, her healing, bonus damage, and movement speed buff greatly synergize with Rammus’s kit. Anyone who is caught by Rammus’s 3rd, Frenzying Taunt is a sure kill when followed up by Nami’s 1st, Aqua Prison.

All Rammus Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll specifically show champions that can easily counter Rammus in Wild Rift.

Evelynn is an AP jungler who outclasses you even before she reaches her own power spikes. She is stronger than you at all levels because she doesn’t even have to hit you to damage and kite you using her 1st, Hate Spikes. Avoid her at all costs and focus on lanes that are opposite of where she is last seen. Amumu and Diana are other AP junglers who are a threat to Rammus but to a lesser extent.

Vayne deals true damage through her 2nd, Silver Bolts. She can kill you even if you build full armor because she simply ignores your defenses. Do not engage her alone. Corki who deals primarily magic damage and Kai’Sa who deals %HP on-hit damage also great counters to Rammus.

Pros & Cons About Rammus

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Rammus in Wild Rift.

Pros

Rammus is a straightforward champion who is easy to learn. He’s a good champion to learn jungle rotations and ganking. If you want to learn to play the jungle role, Rammus is a safe pick.
Rammus is extremely tanky. With Aftershock and 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl, he can absorb so much physical damage. He also has bonus magic resistance but to a lesser extent.
Rammus is a great pick against double AD compositions because of his 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl which when activated damages those who attack you. Some champions who fit double AD comps are Yasuo, Master Yi, Tryndamere, and Jax.
His roaming capabilities are second to none. He is a tank but he has amazing mobility thanks to his 1st, Powerball, and ultimate, Soaring Slam.

Cons

Rammus’s clear speed is one of the slowest among all junglers. This forces you to play a roaming/ganking playstyle and if you lose all of your ganks, you’ll be behind on gold and levels.
Rammus is weak against AP junglers and other AP champions with strong early games. Because of this, Rammus is a poor pick when the enemy jungler has yet to pick their champion.
Rammus is a very team-reliant champion. If you want to carry the game 1v9 as Rammus, you’ll have to have excellent game sense and map awareness.

FAQ's About Rammus in Wild Rift

How good is Rammus in Wild Rift?

Rammus is an (Tier A) champion. He is a great counter to ADCs and AD-heavy team compositions with Yasuo, Master Yi, Jax, Jinx, etc. But he is a risky first pick because he is susceptible to meta counters like Evelynn.

What role / lane should I play with Rammus in Wild Rift?

Rammus is primarily played as a jungler who has excellent roaming capabilities and defenses. But, Rammus can also be played as a tank in the Baron lane.

What abilities do I level up with Rammus?

What items should I build with Rammus?

Rammus’s core items are Sunfire Aegis which helps him deal more DPS as long as he’s near enemies and Thornmail which solidifies his “hit me and die” playstyle.

What Runes should I use when playing as Rammus?

Aftershock is simply the best Keystone rune for Rammus because it stacks with his 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl. Once activated through his 1st, Powerball, or 3rd, Frenzying Taunt, you should activate 2nd, Defensive Ball Curl so that the defensive bonuses will stack, granting you a huge amount of resistances and return damage. His other runes are Triumph or Weakness, Spirit Walker, and Pathfinder.

What can I do about Rammus slow jungle clear speed?

Kill the Red Buff first then proceed to the Krugs. Afterward, gank or head straight to the Scuttler. Gank then kill one jungle camp then gank again. Do this over and over again the whole early to mid game. Never AFK farm.

List of all Wild Rift Champion builds

Last updated on May 19th, 2023