I've been playing LoL for a while now, and I'm steadily raising my ELO by playing jungle Amumu.
I was wondering how I can be hard-countered. In 10 games, I lost only once, and I manage to win even when my jungle gets invaded.
I'm sure there a way to counter Amumu, but it seems like the people I play against don't really know how to — they steal the 1st blue and then think it's over.
What is the best counter to jungle Amumu?
Let's make some assumptions about jungle Amumu:
The first option (as you mentioned) is to steal Amumu's blue. Amumu relies heavily on tantrum to clear his jungle quickly, but this can quickly consume his mana. This prevents him from ganking and drastically slows his early jungle. (note: With jungle camps now providing health/mana, Amumu can still manage the jungle without blue. In times long past, stealing his blue completely destroyed his first jungle clear).
The second option is to ward/counter-gank. Bandage toss gives Amumu a strong lvl 2 gank. With map awareness and a key ward, the opposing jungler can counter-gank Amumu early before he has any defensive items.
Some junglers also have strong skills when dueling Amumu. Mundo, Shyvanna, and Lee Sin will typically win duels without outside help, and these champions excel at counter-jungling him as well. This can be especially true since Amumu tends to jungle with low health early on.
As the game progresses, Amumu's ganks will rely on hitting with bandage toss. Keeping wards in common gank locations and using minions for cover minimize his chances to succeed. Purchasing MR can help, and having cleanse or a QSS help immensely with escapes. Amumu is also susceptible to silences/stuns, so a team with high CC can prevent these. Also, a Banshee's Veil is very effective vs Amumu.
Janna deserves a special mention, as her ult will directly counter Amumu's if he doesn't kill her first.
tl;dr: Amumu is a tanky jungler and great initiator. He can be shutdown the same as other junglers via counter-jungling and early invades. His strength comes through mid to late game, but if he doesn't succeed early, he'll never get there. Strong early-game junglers who constantly steal his jungle are the best counter to him.
To counter amumu you want invasive control jungling. Someone with high mobility and good clear times, such as Shyv/Mundo/Nunu. The main goal is to bully you hard enough to make your presence a lot less threatening. They need to ward your jungle so they can safely steal and bully you out once you're behind.
In low elo games, however, it's usually not worth banking on that. Invasive jungling really requires your lanes to be on the ball and receptive to what you're doing - something you can't always rely on in solo queue.
Find his Jungle times. From my experience, he get's somewhat low at red, at around 3:20-3:40 so you can maybe attempt to kill him there. If not, check when he's ganking, and kill the minions in his jungle where they have spawned (remember all the small camps are 1:00, buffs are 5:00).
Quicksilver Sash
Quicksilver Sash is the answer to Amumu, I've found (and it seems to be at very high Elo as well). This gives the champion some magic resist to counter the damage, but the important part is the active ability. This will allow players to instantly escape Amumu's ultimate, which is truly his big game-changer. A well-placed Amumu ultimate can easily swing a team battle in his favor and it's very, very difficult to overcome without careful positioning and good reaction time (which players at low Elo often lack).
Lets see now. Amumu deals mainly magic damage over a long time, and his E is most effective versus fast attacks. If i was to counter amumu, I'd pick Warwick with Magic Resist in defense masteries and prolly flat/scaling MR Blues or simply Mercury. Warwick may not fully sustain through amumu's W, E etc etc, but he will have a great chance.
Amumu deals magic damage over a long while and tanks better against high attack speed. I also assume that you as a tank and jungler run flat Armor yellows. Tanks now have scaling MR, so i assume that your blue runes aren't invested into additional Magic Resist.
TL;DR
Warwick's Q > Amumu's (jungler) armor, Warwick's W < Amumu's E, Warwick's Armor, MR and Sustain (runes, Mercury, Passive) > Amumu's Abilities + auto attacks.
Warwick with mercury threads, flat armor yellows and early Q focus has a chance versus jungler Amumu (I think...)
I would use pages like that to find best counter to amumu: http://www.picklol.net/amumu
and I'd pick Lee - he is very very good as counter to amumu because of he escape and push.
