Hello. I am Pure Panphobia. I am a jungle main of 4 years and have spent a lot of time at the beginning of each new season, as Riot constantly changes the role I love to play, learning how the jungle has changed and the best ways to clear it. What follows in the next sections is an overview as to how to efficiently clear the jungle, navigate the jungle, set up plays, react to plays, where to ward and where to look for wards, efficient ways to gank, out-of-the-box gank ideas, and a few other tips as well.

Pro's + Can Go Invisible + Tankier Around Enemies + High Damage Output + Has A Decoy Ability + Attack speed steroid + Has An Empowered Auto Attack + Has A Big AoE Crowd Control + Low Ban Rate There's a reason I call Wukong the "Off-Meta King". He brings so much good to the table and has a relatively low list of bad aspects. Most important of his pro's is that he is almost never banned, he is deceptively tanky, and he has crazy high damage output. His ganks are strong, but so is his 1v1 ability. Wukong is a strong jungle champion.

Con's - Can Get Low When Clearing - Susceptible To CC - Requires Some Practice - Only CC Ability Is His Ultimate - Typically Perceived As A Top Laner - Heavy Mana User Early Wukong has his perks, and yes there are a lot of them, but he also has a number of flaws. Without practice, it is easy to take a poor route when doing your first clear, causing you to get to low HP during the process. CC can stop his gank before it starts or interrupt it if it is in progress. He has no crowd control outside of his ultimate, which has a moderately high cooldown. Wukong is also typically thought of as a top lane champion in lower ELO, so if you're in that range your team might be a bit unhappy with your choice. Nevertheless, I feel the pro's of playing Wukong in the jungle outweigh the con's for sure.

PASSIVE ABILITY 1

Stone Skin (Passive): Wukong gains bonus armor and magic resist whenever enemies are nearby. A bonus of 4/6/8 per enemy based on Wukong's level. This may not seem like a lot, but remember all the work we've put in to being deceptively tanky.

Q

Crushing Blow (Q): This ability empowers Wukong's next auto attack, causing it to deal 60 scaling to 150 damage per skill point scaling also with 110% of total Attack Damage. After landing this ability, the enemy hit with Crushing Blow has its armor reduced by 10% scaling to 30% per skill point for the next 3 seconds after the attack.

W

Decoy (W): Upon activation, Wukong becomes invisible and is replaced by a decoy, which you cannot control and does not attack or move. After 1.5 seconds, the decoy will spin and deal 70 scaling to 250 magic damage per skill point, also scaling with 60% of Wukong's Ability Power to an all enemies near it.

E

Nimbus Strike (E): Upon activation, Wukong dashes forward to a target, striking up to 3 enemies, dealing 60 scaling to 240 physical damage, also scaling with 80% of your bonus attack damage. Following this ability, Wukong gains 30%, scaling to 50% bonus attack speed per skill point, for 4 seconds.

R

Cyclone (R): This is Wukong's Ultimate Ability. Wukong's staff extends and he begins to spin in a circle for 4 seconds. All enemies hit by this ability are knocked up for a brief time and Wukong gains 5%, scaling to 40% each half second, movement speed. Enemies caught in this ability take 20, scaling to 200 per skill point, physical damage, also scaling with 110% total attack damage, per second in which they're caught in the ability, capping at 800 + 440% of total Attack Damage. The only drawback is that Wukong cannot use other abilities while using Cyclone.

Wukong has a HUGE variety of item build options. You can go Full AD and your abilities will delete squishy targets, you can go bruiser and still pretty much delete squishy targets while being able to out duel pretty much anyone, and you can even go an almost full tank build while still putting out crazy damage. It all depends on what you want to do. In this section, I'm going to lay out your options and explain which items are best in each build type.

Lethality

Youmuu's Ghostblade is a great, cheap, highly efficient Lethality Item that yields a pretty high Attack Damage bonus at +55 AD. It also gives good utility in the way of an active that grants bonus movement speed. It's highly Gold Efficient as well, as it only costs 2900. I'll usually grab this right after Duskblade of Draktharr if I don't need sustain.

Duskblade of Draktharr is the most damaging of the Lethality items, so it also gives the best benefit, especially for champions with an invisibility mechanic like Wukong. The raw +55 bonus Attack Damage, along with the ability to reveal/disable enemy wards and the Nightstalker passive that grants bonus damage based on the amount of Lethality in your build makes it a strong buy at any point in the game and gives an instant power spike.

Edge of Night is a defensive/offensive item which grants AD, Lethality and Max Health as well as an active which grants a spell shield for a short time. This is an expensive buy but can be worth it if you're against a lot of CC.

Damage Items

Infinity Edge is a high damage item which allows you a chance to critically strike and increases the damage done by critical strikes. It adds a lot to your damage output from your abilities due to the high AD scaling, and it allows a chance for your Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet to critically strike when proc'd for a massive damage increase.

Stalker's Blade - Warrior is the optimal Jungle Item for Wukong. It gives you a slow via the blue Smite and also lets you deal champion damage with Smite upon ganking. The cooldown reduction and +60 Attack Damage is also VERY useful and this is overall a great item on the champion.

Lord Dominik's Regards is less damage focused than the previous items on this list, but it allows you to ignore armor rather than penetrate it. It's hugely effective when the enemy team is quite tanky and you are trying to be an assassin. Since you're focusing on more assassination-style burst damage, this is a better pickup against tanks than Blade of the Ruined King, which is why I chose this item for the list.

Damage and Defense

Trinity Force, while expensive af, is a GREAT item on Wukong. That said, putting this item in a build as a jungler requires you to know what you can and cannot do with Wukong. You have to farm your jungle AND you have to gank successfully, or at least catch out the enemy jungler. Once you have this item though, your damage output skyrockets due to the Spellblade passive, your ability to pursue short distance is increased due to the Rage passive, and several useful stats are enhanced by this item as well.

VS.

Iceborn Gauntlet is a very good backup to Trinity Force. It's cheaper, it still gives cooldown reduction, mana and a Spellblade passive, but it also gives you a substantial amount of armor. What it doesn't give you is bonus HP, movement speed, or attack speed. Another difference is what the Spellblade passive does. Iceborn Gauntlet Spellblade deals half the damage of Trinity Force but it also causes an AoE slow for 3 seconds. The AoE slow size increases based on bonus armor, which you get more of as more enemies are around.

Overall my advice on these two items is that Trinity Force is the superior item overall, but due to how expensive it is you have to build it early, sometimes before finishing your jungle item. This leads to you being fairly weak in early game 1v1's if they happen, and this also means you become vulnerable to invasion if you get low on HP before finishing Trinity Force. If you are nervous about any of that, it is also effective to finish your jungle item and then build Iceborn Gauntlet, especially if you're against a heavily AD enemy team composition. Iceborn Gauntlet will give you a ton of mana once completed so you won't have mana issues past that point, and because you'll have your Stalker's Blade - Warrior finished you will be very strong prior to finishing Iceborn Gauntlet as well.

TL:DR - If you're comfortable on Wukong, build Trinity Force before you build Stalker's Blade - Warrior and then you'll have a massive power spike. If you want to be more safe and achieve a similar effect, finish Stalker's Blade - Warrior and then build Iceborn Gauntlet. There's nothing wrong with building Trinity Force after Stalker's Blade - Warrior, it just moves the power spike to later in the game. Considering Stalker's Blade - Warrior is a power spike on its own, you can weigh your options in game.

Tabi or Treads

Ninja Tabi are honestly strong right now regardless of circumstance, but particularly build these if you're against a very Auto Attack focused team. Enemy have a Yasuo, Jax, and a Jinx, build Ninja Tabi.

Mercury's Treads are much more situational, but if they have a lot of CC, these are a very good way to lessen the effects. Enemy Morgana and Lissandra becoming a problem? Good idea to build Mercury's Treads. Don't just build them for the Magic Resist because they simply aren't a wise choice for that.

Tank + Damage

Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk is the jungle item you want if you wanna be beefy. This item is not as strong as Enchantment: Warrior in terms of raw damage, but it still serves a purpose, especially when combined with Titanic Hydra and Sterak's Gage. It also has good synergy with Trinity Force because there's no harm in putting it off until second in your build, or even third. Works extremely well in the bruiser build.

Sterak's Gage Is another strong tank item that also give you damage. Recent buffs make it EXTREMELY strong when combined with a Trinity Force, it's great for negating burst damage both physical and magical damage. It synergizes perfectly with the bruiser builds. The base Attack Damage boost is amplified by Trinity Force and the extra Health amplifies the the damage from Titanic Hydra and is amplified by the passive of Enchantment: Cinderhulk.

Titanic Hydra is key if you're trying to go for the bruiser build. The beefier you are, the harder you hit, especially with the Crescent passive. It also works well with Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk, Sterak's Gage, and Trinity Force as they give a ton of health, which in turn increases the damage from Titanic Hydra. It also gives more Max Health to be magnified by Enchantment: Cinderhulk, which is then also converted into damage from Titanic Hydra.

My Standard Clear Path

(Numbers in parenthesis are subject to personal judgement. Invading is risky, but can be effective if you know for a fact the enemy jungler won't be there. Generally you don't want to fight without level 3.)


Following this path will ensure a healthy clear and leaves plenty of options for ganking. You can pretty much go by the numbers, though obviously ganks you have to decide whether you should or shouldn't on a game by game basis. Counter jungling is left to your discretion but if you go below and look at the Counter Jungling section you will see guidelines to follow when attempting to counter jungle.

Counter jungling is largely based on your own self confidence as a jungler and as the champ you're playing, in this case Wukong. Some keys to counter jungling are vision control, map awareness, communication, and knowing the jungle timers. I'll go ahead and address each of these.

Vision Control

Counter jungling is always best done when you can ensure your safety in the enemy jungle. The best way to do that is to ward, usually with a Control Ward or with a Tracker's Knife charge, and sweep with Sweeping Lens/ Oracle Lens to eliminate enemy vision. If you see the enemy jungler at his Blue buff and you're near his Red side jungle, then you can safely assume you'll get away with taking a camp or 2 from his Red side. Likewise, if you see the enemy jungler at his Blue buff and notice he's low HP, you can typically get a kill and take the buff if you're nearby. So anytime you venture into the enemy jungle, try to put out some sort of vision.

Map Awareness

So how do you know it's safe if you don't have vision in the enemy jungle yet? Part of it is knowing the typical route of the enemy jungle champ, but if you don't know that, then you can wait for them to show on the map. If they show bot lane for a gank, you can assume safely that his top side is open for invasion and vice-versa. If you see the enemy jungler gank mid from the top side, you can assume he's going to head to his bot side after the gank and you can then ward his top side to gain vision control. You can also counter gank if you're nearby the lane the enemy is ganking, and then if you kill the enemy jungler, his entire jungle is open for business until about 12 seconds after his respawn timer. You can also get a good look at the enemy jungler's HP if they show on the map, and if they're low you can likely invade them for a kill and a free camp.

Communication

If you want to invade and you're unsure about it, but you have a laner who could use a buff, especially if their enemy laner is dead, communicate for them to come with you and try for an invade on the buff of choice. This will give you a 2v1 advantage if you encounter the enemy jungler and even if you don't get the buff or a kill/assist, you can at least get some vision down so you can keep an eye on that spot. You can also communicate with your team to learn the location of the enemy laners. For example, if you notice the Orianna mid went missing, find out if she backed and what her HP/Mana was like. If she had a good amount of either and she didn't recall, she's likely getting Blue from her jungler, meaning red side is free.

Know Your Jungle Timers

Knowing jungle timers is very important when you're thinking about counter jungling, especially since it can play into the other tips I've talked about. First buff will usually respawn around the 7 minute mark. If you know what buff they took first, you can use that knowledge to your advantage. Example: The enemy Master Yi took Red buff first. It's 6:53 on the timer and he's ganking bot lane by his Blue buff. This means in about 7 seconds, his Red buff is gonna be yours for the taking. Likewise, if it's 6:53 on the game clock and you don't see Master Yi, it's safe to assume he's on his red side, so you can probably take Gromp or a non-buff camp from his blue side. If you're super sneaky and already have vision of his Red, you can move to it as it's about to spawn and cheese him out of his red buff.

Overview

This is true for all of League of Legends, not just junglers: Vision control is important. Having good vision and good vision denial can win games. It allows you and your team to know what is happening on more of the map and takes away the enemy's ability to do so. The more you can see, the more you know what you can and can't do. Particularly in low ELO games, the difference in victory and defeat is the black-and-white screen that happens when that one teammate is split pushing and cannot see any of the enemy team. Here is a chart to show you where, as a jungler, to place wards and where to look for wards to be placed.

Wukong doesn't have a huge variety of routes for ganking. His asset in this is the invisibility granted to him by his Warrior Trickster. He can Warrior Trickster just after activating Ghost and be on the enemy before the Warrior Trickster time runs out. With that tip, here's a chart of gank routes assuming you're blue team.

Wukong is EXTREMELY versatile in team fight situations. Depending on your build, you can serve many functions, and some of those functions overlap across builds. Either way, here's a breakdown.

As An Assassin

[*] Being an assassin means you are not the engage for a team fight. Your job is to sit back and wait til the fight starts, and then you use Warrior Trickster to sneak into the back line of the enemy team and delete the high damage, squishy carries. After that you collapse onto the rest of the enemy team.
[*] With either assassin build, you have MASSIVE damage output. Make the most of it by weaving auto attacks between abilities to proc Spellblade. Warrior Trickster to go in, auto attack twice, Nimbus Strike, auto attack, Crushing Blow. That should kill an enemy carry without fail.

As A Bruiser

[*] You don't have to be the engage BUT you can be the engage if you want. You'll have enough HP and tank stats that you won't fall easily. If you built a Sterak's Gage you'll be even harder to take down. And you'll have a ton of damage to drop on anyone who tries to stop you, as long as you have a team who follows up.
[*] If you don't engage, you can still delete squishies. Obviously it won't be as quick, but you have no shortage of damage.
[*] Very few champions can 1v1 Wukong with this build, and he can split push even while being tanky. If your team is unable to win with team fights, Just split push while your team groups to distract the enemy.

I hope you've enjoyed this guide to Wukong. If you have any questions or need any further explanations feel free to comment and I will reply. Happy jungling!