Help, dirt poor Rammus!
 

When I play as Rammus, I usually go

Doran's Shield
Cloth Armor>>>Heart of Gold
Ninja Tabi/Merc Treads
Raduin's Omen

The only thing is, I have incredibly slow games if I don't get a bunch of assists from my laning partner early on, I'm just a terrible farmer. I can last hit, but if they have ranged denying me, it's a rough game.

I've seen a few games where I die first, and at a point I'm underleveled, underfarmed, and just don't have the beef to tank like I should.

Help!

Rammus isn't too item dependant. I always wait to finish the Randuiin's and let the HoG pay itself off before building, seeing as you only really need the proc later when there are more team fights / you have more armor / MR.

Build HoG and Warden's Mail then move into a GA / Thornmail / Banshee's. After one or two of those finish Randuiins.

If you find that you're just getting denied too hard game after game, you could consider starting off in the jungle instead. Rammus may not be the fastest jungler out there, but he does a decent job of it and afterwards Powerball+Taunt makes him a very powerful ganker.

I go
Q/E/E/W/E/R with R as the highest priority, then E, then W, then Q
Ruby crystal
HoG
Boots (tabi/merc depending on team)
Sunfire

After this, it depends:
Magic heavy, I go with a banshee or FoN, depending on whats hurting me (i.e. morgannas snare keeps getting me killed, I'd go for a banshee. If Im just getting melted by casters, I usually try to get FoN)
Physical heavy, I usually grab another sunfire, or if im dealing with a warwick, a thornmail.
Then GA

I find it very easy to net kills once you get sunfire. In most 2 on 2 situations, your ult+sunfire+taunt+teammate dps with net you easy kills.

I can attest to this, last week I was in a game with a jungle Rammus on my team. I was skeptical to say the least but didn't say anything.

Seeing a friendly Rammus powerball into your lane for a gank is quite a glorious sight.

Personally, i max out his w first so you don't have to worry about items. Just be smart when using it and you can run in and run out pretty easily, plus, at i think 4 stacks, it gives, i think, 25 extra attack damage.

you can always consider rushing a catalyst to build into a banshees late game and that should help smooth out your laning phase

Just start off with Cloth armor + 5 HP pots. And focus on farming and not taking too much damage.

And if there are HUGE creep waves, use your ult. Your ult has such a short cooldown, it is worth it.

My brother really likes playing Rammus, but found the laning phase unbearable with him, so he started jungleing with him. As was already said, having a friend Rammus poweball into you lane is a welcome sight.

Thanks guys! I'm going to stop getting a Doran's item first, and probably go with the Ruby Crystal or Cloth Armor + 5 HP pots. Gonna use my ult earlier in the laning phase to get creep kills, and jungle every now and then.

I'll also hold the Heart of Gold longer and rush a Sunfire Cape for extra farmability.

:D