How to Counter Amumu (5 Tips)
Amumu is one of, if not the strongest Jungler right now. Whether he is going full tank or AP, he seems to deal tons of damage while being incredibly tanky.
With a very high win rate at nearly 60%, he is one of the best picks right now.
With such a high win rate, it is important that you learn how to counter and play against him to decrease his chances of winning the game.
In his current position, he is very strong, but he is not impossible to beat. Let’s discuss some ways you can counter Amumu and reduce his win rate.
How to play against Amumu:
- Invade his jungle and steal his camps
- Skirmish with him pre-6
- Secure Objectives like the Rift Herald and Dragon
- Purchase penetration items
- Fight in the open rather than around objectives and in the jungle
1. Invade his jungle and steal his camps
Amumu needs to hit level 6 as fast as possible to unlock his Ultimate. His Ultimate is an incredibly strong tool that should result in a kill every time it is used. Many Amumu players will limit ganking in the early game and focus on power farming to hit their level 6 power spike as quickly as they can.
However, it’s not uncommon for an Amumu to gank a lane once in a while before his Ultimate is up. You can use this to your advantage by invading him and stealing away his camps when you know where he is on the map. For example, if you know he is ganking your Top laner, you could invade his bottom side jungle and take away his camps. This will reduce his gold income and delay his level 6 power spike.
If Amumu isn’t ganking at all, no worries- you can still invade his jungle and steal away his camps if you know where he is on the map. You can find out where he is by going into his jungle and placing wards around his camps or around high traffic jungle routes. Alternatively, you can use the Scryers Bloom and shoot it into his jungle to see what camps are up and which ones have been taken.
There are many different ways you can track the enemy Jungler in League of Legends. If you know how to track them properly, you can gain a huge advantage in terms of gold and XP, and also make them fall behind and make their ganks fail. For more on this, check out our guide on how to track the enemy Jungler.
Here are some warding locations that will help you track the enemy Jungler in League of Legends. If you want to know more warding locations, check out our in-depth warding guide which outlines all the best warding locations in the game.
If you’re able to see what camps are up and if you know where Amumu is at any given time, be prepared to run into his jungle and take away his camps. In particular, if he is low, out of mana or running towards a nearby lane, you should be able to invade him and take away his camps. If he is healthy or headed towards that side of the map though, you may have to think twice.
Why is invading and stealing camps so important?
There are a plethora of reasons why invading and stealing away camps is important and we’ve covered the number one reason already: it’s to deny the enemy gold and XP, which in turn reduces their ability to get things done.
Delaying a champion’s major power spike will reduce their ability to impact the map in the early game. This will increase your allies’ chances of winning their lane. Denying gold will reduce their gold income and delay their first major power spike. Reducing a champion’s gold income limits what they can do as well.
Overall, a good Jungler will always try to invade the enemy’s jungle as that is one of the best ways you can always gain a lead over the enemy.
2. Skirmish with him pre-6
We’ve already talked about invading Amumu in the early game to steal away his camps, but did you know that Amumu is incredibly weak in the early game? His high mana costs and “unhealthy” clear make him a weak early game Jungler. This can be exploited by many Junglers in the early game.
If you can, play an early game Jungler against Amumu. As he struggles against invades and early duels, picking someone who can do exactly that will make it hard for him to survive the early game if he is under constant attack from somebody constantly invading and fighting him. If he decides to fight you, you should have an advantage, or if he doesn’t want to fight- you can steal his camps away before retreating.
Furthermore, as his clear isn’t healthy, you can often invade him while he is on his first clear (at around camp 3 or 4) and look for an early kill. Alternatively, you could look to fight him at the Scuttle Crab.
There are many Junglers that counter Amumu. This includes the likes of Olaf, Hecarim, and Kayn. Other early skirmishers may be good against him, but they tend to fall off in the later parts of the game (and in team fights) like Nidalee or Lee Sin.
To state the obvious, if you have vision on his jungle camps, you will be able to see what HP he is currently at. You can then use that knowledge to decide whether you want to invade and try to kill him or not.
Learn what other champions are good and bad against Amumu by checking out Amumu’s best and worst matchups!
3. Secure Objectives like the Rift Herald and Dragon
As a Jungler, it is important that you try to secure every objective on the map. Securing them offers you a ton of stats that can help your team win the game. Furthermore, securing objectives like the Dragon will enable you to get an early Soul point or Soul Dragon.
Good times to make the call for Dragon are when:
- Your bot lane and mid lane have priority. This means you can secure the objective on your own or with them for free.
- When Amumu isn’t level 6. If he attempts to steal the objective, he will be unable to impact the follow-up fight without his Ultimate.
- When Amumu is on the top side of the map. It will be impossible for him to contest the Dragon if he is nowhere nearby.
In many cases, you will be able to solo the objective if you’re strong. If you can’t, then you need to call for help from nearby lanes. However, they need priority to be able to help you.
Post level 6 or whenever Amumu has completed his first item, he can secure these objectives on his own pretty safely. Taking them off the board prevents him from being able to secure these objectives for his team.
Furthermore, the same scenario exists for the Rift Herald. You should look to take the Rift Herald at your earliest convenience to give your team a gold and tower advantage. Preferably, securing this objective before the tower plating has fallen will give you and your laner(s) a ton of additional gold that can allow you to get your next item faster.
4. Purchase penetration items
As Amumu will be very tanky, make sure you invest in items that offer armor penetration and magic penetration. For ADCs, APCs, fighters, and Mages, it’s important that you buy these items otherwise lots of your damage will be blocked by Amumu’s defensive stats.
Here are some items that offer armor penetration.
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Lord Dominik’s Regards
This item is good on champions like Draven and Sivir.
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Black Cleaver
This item is good on champions like Jayce and Illaoi.
Here are some items that offer magic penetration.
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Liandry’s Anguish
This item is good on champions like Brand and Zyra.
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Void Staff
This item is good on champions like Sylas and Syndra.
You can learn more about these items and more in our new item guides which break down all the new items for Season 11.
5. Fight in the open rather than around objectives and in the jungle
Since Amumu’s Ultimate has a huge radius, if your team is bunched closely together, you will be allowing him to CC your whole team. While grouping is incredibly important especially in the later stages of the game, you need to be slightly spread apart so he is unable to get his Ultimate off on your whole team.
Remember Amumu’s Ultimate was changed in patch 10.22 and is no longer a root: it’s hard CC which is far more impactful in team fights as you cannot move or use any abilities or Summoner Spells.
So you know that you shouldn’t group closely together, what else? Avoid fighting in areas that are quite tight or enclosed. This means that you shouldn’t be fighting around objectives or inside the jungle as players will usually be grouped quite closely in these areas of the map.
Fighting in the river or in a lane (away from a tower and objective) will increase your chances of winning the fight.
Additionally, you can look to harass and poke him down as much as possible from afar and get him low. When he is low on HP, it will be impossible for him to initiate a fight as he will most likely die. Amumu will use his Q to engage with, so you need to watch your positioning whenever you try to poke him down. However, A good Amumu may flank in team fights to avoid being poked down. Make sure you have your warded at all times so you can disengage/ reposition as soon as you spot him.
Wards for sieging Mid inhibitor as the red team
If you want to learn more about team fighting against Amumu or how to play against a champion who wants to hard engage, check out our Everything You Need to Know About Team Comps and Teamfighting in League of Legends guide.
Conclusion
That about sums up the major things you need to be on the lookout for to counter Amumu. We hope this guide has offered you valuable information to counter the ancient mummy.
Thanks for reading! To learn more about Amumu’s builds, counters, and more, check out our Amumu champion page.
If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants’s stream.
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