Jungle Amumu: revamped for the new meta

With Cinderhulk being the center of attention in the current meta, the beefcakes have become relevant once again, and the original AP terror of the jungle is back and healthier than ever.

The objective of this guide is to adapt to Amumu’s early game weaknesses, and allow you to scale into a terrifying raid boss post 25 minutes.

RUNES:

I’m a firm believer in “champion damage dealt” being a very important factor for ALL roles. That being said, I gear most of the rune page toward helping survive the early jungle/prolonged farming routes/late game versatility. The magic pen negates any MR taken from runes/masteries enemies may be using making your early game damage insane. I opt into MR glyphs because the meta is pretty AP heavy, but every now and then you find an AD heavy comp, so flat CDR will serve more useful.

1. 9x Greater Mark of Magic Pen (red)
2. 9x Greater Seal of Armor (yellow)
3. 9x Greater Glyph of Magic resist(blue)
4. ALT 9x Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction(blue)
5. 2x Greater Quint of % HP
6. 1x Greater Quint of Move speed

MASTERIES: Every match should have a different set of masteries, according to enemy composition. But this is your standard for every page: Amumu is naturally one of the slowest champions on the rift, so having the quint+mastery points allows for more reliable chase, faster positioning for Bandage Toss/Flash Ults, and most importantly, faster clear times 😀

Also, its key to become as tanky as possible while playing Amumu, because his kit/play style requires you to go all in on a fight, and stay in until you win or lose. Another note I want to add is most people don’t approve of Perseverance and Second Wind, however they play a crucial role in synergy with item builds and not falling behind on your level 1-4 jungle clear.

Skill order:

The trick to knowing how to utilize Amumus kit in the jungle is understanding which camps have importance over others, unique pathing, and being able to “read” the enemy team jungler. He is one of FEW champions that deals CONSTANT dps regardless of fight circumstances. He is also one of the FEW initiating/tank/jungles that can 100-0 an adc or squishy in a single spell rotation. This becomes incredibly useful in mid-late game teamfights when ADCs begin hitting their 4-6 item thresholds, being able to erase them before they so much as heal or flash, let alone get off a spell rotation.

Start/route/5 minute dragon:

If you’ve been jungling since the beginning, then there is no way you haven’t tried your hand on Amumu. And you also know that enemy teams LOVE to try and invade against us, particularly making blue buff a key target. A common misconception with Amumu is he needs blue to jungle. WRONG. Yes it expedites the clearing process, but is it worth getting caught level 1 or worse, starting gromp then getting ambushed by a red buff enemy jungler while you have 200 hp and no smite for blue? 

So after lots of trial and error, I created a jungle path that allows amumu to SAFELY hit lvl 4 before his first back, get both double buffs, and set himself up for a free uncontested 5 minute drake. MAKE SURE YOU ASK YOUR TEAM TO WARD BLUE FOR YOU AT 1:45!!!!

• Red start- Do not smite right away, save the smite as a self heal once you’ve taken a bit of damage from the camp(we start W here because the damage per second more than doubles the DPS of spamming Tantrum rank 1)
• Raptors- you should already be chugging your first health pot. Auto each small raptor once then spam Tantrum/Despair until the camp is cleared
• Blue buff- Do not smite. You should be chugging your 2nd pot and the DPS from WE should drop the camp rather fast.
• Gromp- smite the gromp immediately and clear. 
• Take river skuttle crab closest to you (required to hit lvl 4)
• SHOP: Chilling smite/cloth armor/2-3 HP pots
• At this point your top lane or mid lane is being ganked by opposing jungler (this is a common gank window so please tell your solo lanes to be aware that you ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO COUNTER GANK)
• Your entire purpose pre level 6 is to secure Drake ASAP (hence why we have TWO points in W and not E). At 5 minutes it is HIGHLY HIGHLY unlikely that bot lane has warded this high in the river. So your safest bet of avoiding being spotted on your way to dragon pit are as follows: Blue side should run through red buff jungle BELOW red camp, do not run anywhere near the red bush near raptors/river as its potentially warded. Just hug the wall above Krugs and use bandage toss over the drake wall. begin chugging all of your potions IMMEDIATELY. Pay attention to the way enemy mid/bot act for the next few seconds. ANY sign of reaction to river, and you need to leave asap. As for red side, generally the safest path to the pit is through blue side jungle, pass the gromp/blue buff, and walk straight in. not very many places to expect early warding on red side. Now basque in the praise of your teammates because they’ve never seen a lvl 4 Amumu solo drag.
• DON’T BE GREEDY: Once you manage to kill drake, JUST BACK in the pit. Don’t run out, Don’t try to get another camp, JUST SHOP
• From here it’s pretty basic Amumu knowledge: prioritize gromp/raptor camps for smite, but make sure to FULL CLEAR whenever possible.
• DING, you’ve hit level 6. Go ruin mid or bot lanes day with an easy flash/ult into free bandage toss/e combo. gg snowball ez

ITEM BUILD:

Here’s where my guide seems to REALLY stand out from the rest. My itemization choices AND priority on backs.

1. Catalyst>ROA is your core item. Put all effort into finishing this item asap.
2. Cinderhulk>Chilling smite upgrade. You already have fast clear speed and respectable AOE DPS. Cinderhulk rush isn’t necessary, although has proven worthwhile before ROA (circumstantial)
3. I don’t believe in sightstone on Amumu. Instead upgrade warding trinket @ 9
4. Glacial Shroud> Frozen Heart begins your journey into godliness. At this point it should be about 20-30 minutes into the game depending on the the pace. Most ADC wont have nearly enough lifesteal/attack speed/armor pen to handle your pressure, let alone ALL THREE. But you are still subject to being popped by mages, proceed with caution
5. This is where I start to balance out my build depending on matchups. Do I need Merc Treads to deal with back line peel? Do I need Ninja Tabi for a full AD team? Am I the only form of AP damage? Is there another front line initiate on my team?
6. I round off the build with Thornmail.. the bane of all ADC existence. Remember that 8 magic pen we took from runes? Well that thornmail return damage hurts even more now. GL trying to lifesteal off me nerd ^.^
7. 6th item can go anywhere. You already do enough sustain damage to carry prolonged teamfights, but some teams itemize MR, so to make sure you dont hurt your own Mid laners chance of blowing someone up, I tend to get Abyssal. Stacks with Amumu passive, gives you the much needed MR you are missing from your build, your full spell rotation now does 200-400 more damage top end. flex

CONGRATULATIONS! You no longer have to rely on Sejuani/Gragas/Zac for AP engage in the jungle, seeing as they are banned 90% of the time anyways! GL and have fun