Weird Picks #72: Rammus Mid

With Riven, Yasuo, and Zed mains all over Summoner's Rift, going up against full AD teams is not uncommon. Playing against a good Yasuo mid can also be extremely annoying for the majority of mages. However, for a Rammus it's trivial, and although your team may question your sanity at champion select, they'll change their toon once you start running down the enemy team 1v5 behind two turrets and mauling them.

Weird Pick #72

Rammus Mid

December 2016

Introduction

How to Play

Primary Runes: Aftershock, Font of Life, Conditioning, Overgrowth
Secondary Runes: Nimbus Cloak, Transcendence
Abilities: W, E, W, Q then prioritize R > W > E > Q
Summoner Spells: Flash + Ghost/Exhaust
Starting Items: Cloth Armor + 4 Potions
Core Items: Sunfire Aegis
Plated Steelcaps
Thornmail
Dead Man's Plate
Iceborn Gauntlet
Zz'Rot Portal

Why It Works

Mobility Stopper

Against champions like Yasuo and Zed, the most difficult part of taking them out is stopping their mobility and preventing them from pulling off fancy escape tactics. By taunting them with a point-and-click spell, Rammus prevents the highlight reel. The best part is, windwall can't stop any of his spells.

Perfect Scaling
In the scenario where you pick Rammus mid, you've already ascertained that the enemy is solely comprised of attack damage based squishies. This means that it's a simple matter to just farm up and build armor. The best part is, they can't snowball off you and will be forced to roam. As long as your team wards well, it ends up being a fairly simple and oppressive game.

Sick Roaming Gank Potential
After requesting a camp on the mid-lane Yasuo and killing him a few times with chain CC, roaming around as a two-man gank squad with your jungler is a cinch. Rammus is naturally an excellent ganker, and very difficult to stop even with wards. Combined with a Hecarim jungle, they can easily take over the game.

Potential Pitfalls

Weak Waveclear
Against champions with high waveclear like Malzahar or Syndra, Rammus will have trouble leaving lane at all as a result of his weak waveclear and difficulty actually getting close enough to the enemy mage to deal damage.

No Poke
Against a team composition that is kite and poke oriented such as Lux, Rammus mid is essentially a burden unless you can take down some early towers and roam/gank.

Low Range
This is the major reason why Rammus mid is simply a counterpick against a Yasuo or Zed mid, and will never be a "main" champion role. Melee mids without instant gap closers simply cannot contest against ranged champions.