League of Legends: Tentative Rammus Changes

The PBE is a wonderful place for those who have accounts to try out some of the latest League of Legends changes. Think of it as a test drive when you’re getting a new car. You don’t want to just get the car without trying what it has to offer. It’s the same thing with the PBE, this time Rammus is the car. Not one, not two, not three, not four, but five things have been changed with the little Armordillo.

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His ability list is as follows:

Passive – Spiked Shell
Q – Powerball
W – Defensive Ball Curl
E – Frenzying Taunt (no longer Puncturing Taunt)
R – Tremors

According to champion.gg, Rammus can be played in both the jungle and in the top lane. He’s played as a jungler 79.56% of the time while he roams the top lane 16.85% of the time. For the sake of the majority, we’ll be focusing on Rammus as a jungler.

He’s not exactly the strongest jungler, but he’s also not the weakest. He’s just, well, kind of boring. His win rate is at 49.81% which ranks him 21/41. His play rate reflects his win rate quite well and sits at 1.49% which ranks him 26/41. Now, you’ll never get kills as Rammus as he averages just under four per game (3.77).

Most of Rammus’ changes are to make him feel as if he has a defined role throughout the game.

Passive – Spiked Shell

As it stands, Rammus’ passive (Spiked Shell) just granted you attack damage based on how much armor you have. According to Surrender at 20, the changes are as follows:

[Removed] No longer gives 25% of armor as AD
[New] Rammus deals 8-20 (+10% Armor) bonus magic damage with his basic attacks.

This change will still encourage Rammus to keep swiping away with auto attacks but has the potential to actually deal more damage if you go up against someone that doesn’t have any MR. This is perfect for ganking in the mid game against those squishy mid laners. Get that Powerball rolling and head right in there.

Speaking of Powerball…

Q – Powerball

Ah, Powerball. A staple Rammus ability. Powerball is where you’ll start most fights and how you’ll evade most of them, too. The biggest thing with Powerball is that you just have to hit Q once and you’re on your way. According to Surrender at 20, that’s all about to change as you’ll see below.

Maximum movement speed adjusted from 155% to 145+5% per level
Duration lowered from 7 to 6
Collision detection size reduced and made more consistent
Damage reduced from 100/150/200/250/300 (+100% AP) to 100/135/170/205/240 (+100% AP)
Cooldown reduced from 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 to 16/13.5/11/8.5/6
Slow changed from 20/25/30/35/40% to 40/50/60/70/80%
Slow duration lowered from 2 to 1
[New] spell is now channeled and can be interrupted

Right there at the bottom. The spell is now channeled and can be interrupted. If you’re the Rammus player, that’s quite unfortunate for you. If you’re going up against a Rammus, you can stop the Armordillo before he begins to spin and really alter a team fight or a gank.

W – Defensive Ball Curl

Out of all the abilities within League of Legends, this one might be the most self-explanatory. He curls into a defensive ball. There’s no attacking to be done with this ability, just defense. Defensive Ball Curl picks up three new changes as seen below:

Bonus armor adjusted from 40/60/80/100/120 to [20 + 50/55/60/65/70%]
Bonus magic resist adjusted from 40/60/80/100/120 to [20 + 50/55/60/65/70%]
Cooldown reduced from 14 to 6
[New] Slows Rammus by 60% during the effect
[New] Can be toggled off early
[New] While defensive ball curl is active, Spiked Shell (P) deals 150% damage and also deals Spiked Shell’s damage back to enemies that basic attack him.

The biggest deal about all of this is that Spiked Shell can get proc’d while his W is toggled on. Think of it as Thornmail but really powerful. The cooldown on Defensive Ball Curl has always been one of Rammus’ biggest downfalls. With the change from 14 to 6, more users will be inclined to use it whenever they can instead of hesitating to use it.

E – Frenzying Taunt

Circling back to the first page, we said that Puncturing Taunt was renamed to Frenzying Taunt and quite frankly, it fits better. Puncturing Taunt used to just reduce armor on the opponent. Frenzying taunt does so much more as you’ll see below:

Renamed from Puncturing Taunt to Frenzying Taunt
[New] Casting Frenzying Taunt grants Rammus 20/25/30/35/40% Attack Speed for the duration of the taunt.
[New] Frenzying Taunt’s Attack Speed bonus constantly refreshed while any of Rammus’ other spells are active.
[Removed] No longer reduces the target’s Armor by 5/10/15/20/25

Rammus can go fast. We already know that. However, his auto attacks can go a lot faster with Frenzying Taunt activated. The word frenzy means “a state or period of uncontrolled excitement or wild behavior.” That’s exactly what Rammus will be doing here while his attack speed goes through the roof.

R – Tremors

Next to Powerball, Tremors has to be Rammus’ second most known ability. The little fella’ makes a ton of earthquake-like ruptures around him. He’ll still do that, but it’ll do so much more as seen below:

Damage reduced from 65/130/195 (+30% AP) to 40/80/120 (+20% AP)
[New] Slows enemies in damages by 8/10/12% for 1.5 seconds, stacking up to 8 times
[New] Deals double damage to structures

Previously tremors just did damage and that was it. Now you’ll deal damage, slow enemies and double down on damage to structures. The last part is the most intriguing. Now when you’re doing your late game push into the opponents base, you can flick on Tremors and take down that last inhibitor tower and roll your way to victory.