Rammus vs Locke Counter Pick

Rammus wins this jungle matchup at 58.9%, and with 421 games logged on patch 16.13.1 that figure rests on a workable sample rather than a handful of results. The mechanism behind it is simple: Locke wants to auto-attack, and Rammus punishes auto-attacks by existing. Defensive Ball Curl raises armor and magic resistance while returning damage to whoever is hitting him, which is the worst possible wall for a champion whose passive Silver Stake is an on-hit effect scaling with missing health.

• Damage type: Locke’s physical output runs into 35 base armor climbing to 111.5 by level 18, before a single item is bought.
• Self-harm: Soul Ignition costs Locke health up front and repays only part of it, so he enters extended fights below full.
• Conversion: Spiked Shell turns Rammus’s Armor and Magic Resistance into Attack Damage, so stacking resistances doubles as his damage build.

Both champions sit at 5 on the difficulty scale, so this is not an execution mismatch but a stat mismatch. Locke’s 655 base health, 2,508 at level 18 and 340 move speed do give him room to disengage, and Ashen Pursuit’s teleport-then-dash pattern is his exit once Purgatory misses. Rammus at 335 move speed cannot chase without Powerball, which telegraphs itself from a long way out. The tank side is detailed on Rammus.