Wukong is one of League's older champions, and besides a short stint at the top last year, has been more or less untouched the last few years. In this guide, you'll learn what you need to know to play the Kong, from runes to itemization. Depending on what lane you play him in, Wukong swings between having a terrible lane to having a good one.

Abilities

We'll start with Wukong's passive. Wukong's passive is Stone Skin, which increases his Armor and Magic Resist by a flat amount for every visible enemy champion in 1400 range. Hover over it and you'll see that it covers most of your screen. So long as you can see an enemy champion inside that range, you'll gain 4/6/8 armor and magic resist for each (clones count too). From levels 1 to 8, you gain 4 each, levels 9 to 12 you'll gain 6 each, and from level 13 on, you'll gain 8 each. Wukong's passive is regarded by many as boring, and even useless, but it certainly isn't in teamfights. In fact, I'm sure you'll be glad you have it when you barely live on 3 HP. You'll gain up to 40 points in both resists when all 5 enemy champions are nearby, giving you an extra boost of survivability when you go in, even if you aren't building for it.

Wukong's Q is Crushing Blow. It's an empowered auto attack, adding both significant damage and 125 extra range to your next auto attack. In addition, it'll shred the target's armor by a significant amount, scaling with the ability rank. It also has the perk of resetting your auto attack, meaning that you can get an extra quick second attack right after the first. You'll want to put a second point into this ability early, however, even if you don't want to max it first. The reason being that Wukong's rank one Q will add a measly 10 damage to his auto attack, with 0% scaling. Putting a second point into it will raise the base damage to 40, as well as giving it a 10% AD ratio.

At rank five, the base damage will go all the way up to 130 base with 40% AD scaling. That's pretty impressive, because that damage is actually added to Wukong's normal auto attack, essentially giving the ability a 140% total AD scaling, as well as shredding a total of 30% of the target's armor.

Wukong's W is Decoy. When Wukong uses this ability, he goes into Invisibility for 1.5 seconds, leaving behind a clone of himself. The clone will have the same stats as Wukong, as well as the health and mana that he had before he used the ability. After 1.5 seconds, Wukong's clone will disappear while performing a spin that deals a moderate amount of magic damage to enemies standing around it. An important thing to note is that when Wukong uses this ability, he is moved a short distance in the direction of his cursor, even if he's snared.

This means that it can be easily used to block single-target skillshots, no matter what direction they come from. Another thing to note is that when Wukong uses his W, enemies will see the decoy and think that he just stopped in place. A trick to use is just pressing S on your keyboard, which will instantly snap Wukong back to his idle animation, which might confuse the enemy into thinking you used your W. This is the ability you want to max last.

Wukong's E is Nimbus Strike. This is likely the first ability you want to put a point in at level one. When used, you dash to the target, dealing damage to them and two other nearby enemies. Wukong also gains bonus attack speed on use, making this an attractive ability to max, as the bonus attack speed scales with ability rank from 30 to 50%. Many Wukong players max E first after putting two points into Q.

Wukong's ultimate is Cyclone. When used, he spins in a circle, dealing a good chunk of physical AOE damage over time that knocks up enemies the first time they're hit. The spell lasts for 4 seconds, during which you can't cast any spells (you can Flash though) and gain a decent chunk of move speed that increases the longer you stay in your ult. You can cancel the spell early by pressing R again, but you'll immediately lose the movement speed buff. Your ultimate has a massive 110% Total AD scaling per tick and it ticks once a second. That adds up to a grand total of 440% total AD over 4 seconds plus the base damage.

Laning

Wu is normally played in either top, mid, or jungle. In this guide, I will be explaining how to lane, meaning that I will discuss how to play in the top lane as well as the mid lane.

In the top lane, Wukong is at a natural disadvantage while facing most meta champions. Top laners in general will have some form off CC, sustain, shielding, or a combination of those three things. Since Wukong has none of those things, top is generally full of difficult matchups. In the top lane, you most often want to play for farm. Most champions have the ability to deny you farm, and as such, jungle pressure is very helpful.

Against most tanks, you won't be doing very much damage without Conqueror and a Black Cleaver. Most, if not all bruisers will annihilate Wukong in straight fights.

The mid lane, however, is a completely different story. Mid is home to squishy mages and assassins, all of whom Wukong can easily take completely out in just 2 or 3 trades. Your job mid is to simply play as an assassin.

You don't have any way to farm from range, so you will take harass from enemies with ranged damage. However, once they get close enough, you can easily close the gap and burst down your opponent. While Wukong excels in short, bursty trades, he is also able to duke it out in extended trades. The attack speed steroid Wukong gets from Nimbus Strike allows him to break 1.00 attack speed quite easily, meaning that sticking on your opponenet for even a few more seconds is likely enough for you to send your enemies packing.

Once you get your first back, the extra power from your items will be enough to continually attack and force your opponents out, or at least to force them to play farther back and be wary of you.

Roaming is also essential. When Wukong roams, he brings about extreme pressure. Your massive damage is enough to strike fear into the hearts of pretty much any enemy, whether they are top laners or bot laners. The stealth EQR combo will decimate the HP of a target and knock them up to set up for your allies.

Teamfights

Wukong's teamfighting is quite strong. A good idea is to flank the enemy and quickly kill a priority target. You can quickly get in, kill someone, and CC your way out with your ultimate. You can quickly eliminate a priority target and disrupt a team, allowing your team to collapse on the disoriented enemy. Killing a squishy ADC or mage will likely be your primary goal, and after that, even if you decide not to run, you can do a lot of damage with your ultimate.

Items

Wukong's AD scalings are massive. Therefore, AD is what you want to build. When you spawn in, you immediately want to buy either a Longsword and Refillable Potion, or a Doran's Blade with a health pot.

After your first back, you want to buy a Serrated Dirk and Boots of Speed if possible. If you have the gold though, you might want a Tiamat instead. A Tiamat adds to your waveclear, and allows you to roam more easily, as well as increasing your HP regeneration.

You want to build towards Lethality. A good first buy is either Youmuu's Ghostblade or Duskblade of Draktharr. Both give you incredible power. Duskblade give a massive chunk of damage on the first auto attack landed on an enemy champion after exiting stealth, as well as providing vision denial, and Youmuu's gives you increased movement speed, allowing you to roam far more easily.

After you finish one of those two items, build towards the other. Both items are must-haves for Wukong. You should finish boots as quickly as possible as well, preferably building Mobis, but Tabi's and Merc's work well situationally.

Your third full item should either be the Black Cleaver or a Sterak's Gage. Both give increased survivability as well as a general boost to damage. Once again, once you've finished building either item, start building towards the other.

Now for your last item. If you bought a Tiamat earlier, now is the time to fully upgrade it. A Ravenous Hydra is good for the raw damage it provides, as well as its lifesteal. The Titanic Hydra, however, will synergize well with your Sterak's Gage, adding to your survivability. Its active effect also grants an auto attack reset in the same vein as your Q - Crushing Blow, giving you another burst of damage.

Runes

The primary rune tree you should take on Wukong is Domination. For a keystone, Electrocute is the clear winner. It is the best choice on Wukong, lending you extra damage on your combo. As a plus, it is easily procced during your trade pattern. Your first minor rune should be Sudden Impact. It works very well with your E - Nimbus Strike and W - Decoy, giving you a temporary bonus in lethality.

Your second minor rune should be either Zombie Ward or Eyeball Collection. Since you'll have a Duskblade, you'll likely kill a good number of wards, stacking Zombie Ward surprisingly quickly. Eyeball Collection is good as well, stacking on takedowns. Each stack of these runes will grant you bonus Adaptive Force. Your third minor rune should be Relentless Hunter. The bonus movement speed you gain is invaluable, making it much easier to roam or chase down fleeing opponents.

Your secondary tree should be Precision. Take Triumph for the heals and extra gold on takedown, as well as Coup de Grace to help secure kills.

That's the end of the guide! After reading this, you'll know all the basics and be ready to pick up the Monkey King to take him for a spin. GLHF!

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