Rammus

Rammus is a pure engage jungler. Powerball fires him across the map and turns a routine gank into an arrival nobody dodges, Puncturing Taunt drags an enemy toward you while shredding their armor, and Defensive Ball Curl charges whoever hits you a share of their own damage. Spiked Shell converts part of his armor into attack damage, which means every defensive item is also an offensive one.

He is a sharply specialised champion, not a generalist tank. Against a team leaning on basic attacks he is close to unplayable for the enemy. Against a fully magic composition he loses half his point and goes back to being a slow armadillo with a taunt. Check the draft across from you before locking him, because no champion on this roster depends on that read more than he does.

His strength is an engage almost nobody can refuse. Powerball covers an absurd distance and slows, the taunt is targeted so it cannot be dodged, and chaining the two pins a target long enough for your team to finish it. Add obscene resistances while he's curled, a taunt that strips armor and therefore helps your physical damage dealers, and an ultimate that hits structures too: Rammus takes towers.

The weaknesses are plain. His damage outside the taunt is mediocre, he never threatens a carry alone, and once his abilities are spent he has nothing to offer for a long time. He has no sustain, no shield, no heal. Powerball is easy to interrupt: one slow or one well-timed root cancels the whole arrival. And his mana is tighter than people remember in the early jungle.

In the jungle you're not a farmer, you're a travel threat. Your camp clear is fine but nothing more, so don't insist on a full route before moving. The second you see a lane where the enemy is standing too far forward, come in on Powerball from the longest angle available, because the ability builds speed with distance travelled. Rammus's best gank starts outside enemy vision, not out of a bush three steps away.

Save the taunt for the target that matters rather than the first head you see. Used on someone running, it turns them around and gives your laner the time to catch up. In a tower dive it does a different job: taunt the enemy so they stay inside their own tower's range while you soak the shots curled up. Watch your mana, two failed ganks send you straight back to base.

Your first spike isn't a level, it's your first armor item. Spiked Shell converts it straight into damage, so every defensive purchase also makes you more threatening, which is true of almost nobody else. Tremors at six adds objective pressure few junglers have: you can take a tower with two allies where other teams need four bodies.

The second spike comes when you start stacking cooldown reduction. Rammus is a three-button champion: the faster those buttons return, the more often he actually exists in the game. A Rammus who can curl on every trade and taunt twice in a single teamfight completely changes how the enemy team is allowed to engage.

You open, and you open on the right target. A taunt spent on the enemy tank is a wasted taunt: the play that wins the fight is rolling into the backline and forcing their carry to hit you while your team walks in. Curl up immediately after, because the only thing you want is their damage spent on you in the worst possible place for them.

Defensively, your taunt is worth as much as an engage. When an assassin lands on your carry you don't kill him, you turn him around, and that's enough. Watch a common trap: don't roll into a grouped team unless your own is ready to follow. A Rammus who engages alone dies in the middle of five enemies having achieved nothing except handing over a bounty.