The Rammus rework hit the public test realm this weekend and brings with it a new ultimate and visual effects for the 11-year-old League of Legends champion.
Three months ago, Riot Games Lead Gameplay Designer Mark Yetter outlined changes that the balance team wanted to bring to the historically one-note champion. Changes to the Rammus’s ultimate and other abilities were highlighted to give Rammus more playstyle options.
The VFX changes are also live on the PBE for players to test the limits of the new animations across all skins available for Rammus.
Props to those who caught it!
Sweeper Rammus now indeed holds a Red Card when taunting an enemy. 🟥 pic.twitter.com/Imrqpzzekc— Sirhaian, Hyped for Vex (@Sirhaian) April 2, 2021
New Rammus ultimate update
The old Rammus ultimate was a stock ability that had little skill or nuance involved. The ability, Tremors, would shake the ground under the armadillo and slow and damage enemies with ability power. Tremors would follow Rammus for the duration and cast for one and a half seconds. Soaring Slam, his new ultimate, has the champion jump in the air and pounce onto a target location. Rammus deals magic damage in the targeted area and creates aftershocks that damage enemies for three and a half seconds. Enemies who are hit are slowed for a short duration, and the ability deals more damage depending on how close an enemy is to the center of the target. Another wrinkle added is that if cast while in Powerball, Rammus will knock up opposing players near the center.
The new dynamic ultimate gives Rammus the ability to inhibit multiple champions and have more impact in team fights. The Powerball knock-up also scales in distance with movement speed. This means as Rammus gains more movement stats, he can jump into the fight from further away. This is similar to Warwick’s current ultimate.
Rammus’s other abilities have also had their numbers tweaked, with nothing yet to be confirmed for the next patch. Currently, his Powerball has had its damage lowered and his Frenzying Taunt duration has decreased. Rammus’ basic attacks can now extend Defensive Ball Curls’ duration up to four seconds.
Rammus VFX updates
As one of the oldest champions in the game, Rammus had some of the oldest particle and visual effects. His Frenzying Taunt and Defenisive Ball Curl had been visually updated to be on par with current effects.
Also, Taunt is getting modernized. This is what it will look like now. It didn't make it in the videos above, but should be coming to PBE in the next few days. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/OV0cpvnqoD
— Sirhaian, Hyped for Vex (@Sirhaian) April 1, 2021
His different skins have also been updated to add more personality and particles to the bland style they had previously.
Molten Rammus (975) got a subtle recolor with some little added flames. pic.twitter.com/KdmCyItRE1
— Sirhaian, Hyped for Vex (@Sirhaian) April 1, 2021
