Guide · Jungle

Rammus Guide

the Armordillo

Tank

Tier A Jungle

Rammus, the Armordillo, is a tank champion of medium difficulty. Across our 259 analysed ranked games, Rammus is mostly played in the Jungle (100% of its games), with a 52.9% win rate in that role: tier A among Jungle champions (#12 of 48, ranked by win rate). Rammus's damage is mostly magic (65%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 56.1% in long games (over 35 min, 41 games) versus 50.0% in short games (under 25 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

4.2 / 4.8 / 12.5

ratio 3.5

Damage / min

470

CS / min

6.0

Gold / min

398

Kill participation

53%

Vision / min

0.81

Averages measured over 259 Jungle games played with Rammus, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Rammus is a jungler-tank who gains attack damage based on his armor and magic resistance. Powerball rolls over enemies, Defensive Ball Curl raises his defenses and reflects damage, Frenzying Taunt forces an enemy to attack him, and Soaring Slam leaps and lands with damage and a slow.

The engage

When: An enemy is within roll range.

Powerball rolls toward enemies, dealing damage and slowing; Frenzying Taunt forces the target to attack you; Soaring Slam lands in an area.

Defense

When: A carry is attacking your team.

Defensive Ball Curl greatly raises armor and magic resistance and reflects damage; Frenzying Taunt forces a champion to fixate on you.

See all 3 Rammus combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Taunt the enemy carry to force them to attack you. Defensive Ball Curl makes you very tough and reflects damage to attackers.

Common mistakes

Casting Defensive Ball Curl on an enemy who is not attacking with physical damage.
Using Soaring Slam without Powerball active when you can combine them.
Taunting the wrong champion.

Riot's official tips for playing Rammus

Powerball can be used as an effective escape mechanism.
Using taunt on a champion by your tower can cause the tower to attack your enemy.
Tremors and Defensive Ball Curl can be used late in the game to obliterate towers. If you're bogged down in a team fight, it is often valuable to break off and attack the buildings.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Sunfire Aegis, Thornmail, and Jak'Sho, The Protean (38 games, 68.4% win rate).

38 games · 68.4%

22 games · 59.1%

19 games · 68.4%

Starting items

Gustwalker Hatchling39.3% · 28 games

Gustwalker Hatchling

Health Potion70.6% · 17 games

First completed items, in order

Thornmail

Hollow Radiance

21 games · 61.9%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3696 gold, 65 CS, 3704 XP. At 15 min: 5742 gold, 99 CS, 6278 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Smite55.2% · 134 games

Ghost + Smite52.8% · 108 games

Smite + Ignite40.0% · 15 games

Most-played runes

Aftershock + Precision

52.6% · 190 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life100%

Conditioning100%

Unflinching64%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Alacrity100%

Triumph100%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Health scaling69%

Health scaling67%

Aftershock + Sorcery

57.6% · 59 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life100%

Conditioning98%

Unflinching75%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Celerity100%

Waterwalking73%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Health scaling81%

Health scaling85%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Rammus's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team48.8% · 80 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Thornmail 50.7%

Hollow Radiance 51.6%

Sunfire Aegis 55.2%

Jak'Sho, The Protean 63.6%

Kaenic Rookern 52.6%

Dead Man's Plate 50.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team53.3% · 60 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Thornmail 50.9%

Sunfire Aegis 58.3%

Jak'Sho, The Protean 68.2%

Dead Man's Plate 60.0%

Randuin's Omen 42.9%

Hollow Radiance 45.5%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team55.5% · 119 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Thornmail 56.6% ▲

Sunfire Aegis 52.2%

Jak'Sho, The Protean 57.5% ▼

Dead Man's Plate 64.5% ▲

Hollow Radiance 56.7% ▲

Protoplasm Harness 77.3%

The item that stands out most is Dead Man's Plate: 64.5% win rate, +5 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Rammus

Pay particular attention to when his Defensive Ball Curl is off. Rammus has much lower stats than a normal tank when he's out of the stance.
Rammus often stacks high Armor, leaving him especially vulnerable to caster damage while not in Defensive Ball Curl.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Rammus's matchups.

Rammus Jungle: what our games say

Laning phase against the Jungle average

Measure	Rammus	Jungle average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3696	4023	−328
CS at 10 min	65	69	−3
XP at 10 min	3704	3898	−194
Gold at 15 min	5742	6322	−580
CS at 15 min	99	106	−7
XP at 15 min	6278	6602	−324

Measured over 58 Rammus games with a timeline; the average covers 69 champions played Jungle in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min50.0 %76 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min53.5 %142 games

long over 35 min56.1 %41 games

Best result: long (over 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Abilities

PassiveSpiked Shell

Rammus gains bonus Attack Damage scaling with his Armor and Magic Resistance.

QPowerball

Rammus accelerates in a ball towards his enemies, dealing damage and slowing targets affected by the impact.

WDefensive Ball Curl

Rammus goes into a defensive formation, vastly increasing his Armor and Magic Resistance, and returning damage to enemies that attack him.

EFrenzying Taunt

Rammus taunts an enemy champion or monster into a reckless assault against him.

RSoaring Slam

Rammus hops into the air and slams down at a target area, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies. If cast while Rammus is in Powerball, Rammus knocks up enemies near the center as well.