Hi I'm Keithioapc and welcome to my Dr Mundo support Guide! I achieved Diamond by the skin of my teeth at the very end of Season 3 by maining Janna. In Season 4 I have been trying out lots of unconventional supports and my favorite and most successful by far has been Dr. Mundo.

I hope this guide inspires you to try something new and have some fun in the process.

Pros:

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- Great poke. In lane you bully and zone the opponents with it, and later on you can be annoying during sieges.

- Great personal sustain. You cannot be bullied out of lane. You can abuse this by playing aggressively, which draws the fire off of your ADC.

- Tanky. You soak a lot of damage in teamfights, and in lane if the enemy attempt to all in you they will almost certainly lose the all in.

- Good sustained damage output, without building any damage items. Between the % hp damage from your Infected Bonesaw and the AoE from your Heart Zapper, you are a serious threat to the enemy.

- Good at chasing. It is very difficult for enemies to run from you, since your cleavers keep them permanently slowed.


Cons:

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- No hard CC. The only CC you provide is the slow from your cleavers, and while this can be a good peeling tool, it is far less than most other supports would provide.

- No burst damage. Obviously many supports lack burst damage (Janna, Soraka, etc) but some have it (Annie, Zyra, etc). Mundo is one of the have nots.

- No hard engage. Dr Mundo's idea of engaging is activating Ghost + Blunt Force Trauma and running into the enemy. It can work, but it pales in comparison to say a Sona's Flash + Crescendo.


Verdict

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At first glance, it seems that Dr Mundo's kit does not provide the defining characteristics of what a support is. However in practice what I have found is that his laning phase is fantastic and his ability to deal damage while soaking a ton of damage is great in team fights. There is no denying though that he does not fit the typical "mold" of a support hero... but that's why I find him so fun to play!

Quintessences

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Dr. Mundo's main strength as support is his laning phase, and Greater Quintessence of Health does a fantastic job of solidifying that. If you wanted to sacrifice laning power for late game tankyness you could opt for Greater Quintessence of Percent Health.


Marks

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The only real option here are the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. The overwhelming majority of your damage output is magical, especially in lane. You might be tempted to take Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration, but trust me you will not be spending very much time autoattacking.


Seals

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Greater Seal of Armor are a must, since your primary role is a tank. In teamfights you will often dive onto the enemy ADC, so these are quite essential.


Glyphs

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While not as mandatory as armor, magic resist is still hugely important making Greater Glyph of Magic Resist the obvious choice. However if the enemy is extremely focused on physical rather than magical damage I could see picking up Greater Glyph of Armor or even Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction. In the case where you are facing only physical damage in lane, it would of course make sense to have Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

I think this one is mainly a matter of preference, there is lots of flexibility here.

I like Exhaust the most, because I really feel it is essential for a team to have at least one exhaust and the support (you!) is usually the one to grab it. Exhaust can really shut down a lot of one person's damage in late game team fights, and it is great at winning fights in lane or just securing a kill with the slow (although you have Infected Bonesaw for that ;p). While I think it isn't as great as it was in Season 3 (the old improved exhaust mastery was very strong), it is still something I feel is very strong.

Ghost, while seemingly not the most powerful, is pretty versatile. You have no gap closer, you way to initiate is just running in, and Ghost helps that. Also sometimes I just use it to run to a fight I am too far from to get there in a timely manner. With ghost and Maximum Dosage, you can make some pretty funny escapes which will be sure to infuriate your foes. Most commonly I use it simply to get around faster in the course of a team fight to reach my priority targets.

Ignite is something I might take if I were playing with a very bursty ADC like graves.

Flash can let you suddenly disengage from a fight to allow you ultimate to tick longer, and buy you a few seconds to regenerate and reenter the fray.

Barrier is not something I would recommend. You should already be durable enough without it, having barrier will just make the enemy want to focus your squishy allies instead.

Heal is risky to take when you are already so weak to ignite, do you really want to encourage the enemy to use it on you more?

The rest of the choices I feel are so weak that they are not worth mentioning.

Maximum Dosage > Infected Bonesaw > Heart Zapper > Blunt Force Trauma


By far the two most useful parts of Dr. Mundo's kit are his Q, Infected Bonesaw, and his ultimate, Maximum Dosage, so max those first.

Take the first point of Blunt Force Trauma at level two because one point in it is very strong, however further levels are not great so max Heart Zapper before spending any more points in Blunt Force Trauma.

Adrenaline Rush (Passive)

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The immense regeneration from your passive Goes Where He Pleases (combined with the defense tree masteries) give you incredible HP regen. This means that in lane you can poke recklessly without really respecting the opponent's poke at all. You are more than happy to draw their fire, because unlike your ADC partner you will just regenerate the lost HP. I don't even hesitate to take a shot from the enemy turret if it means landing a cleaver. This passive lets you get away with being very aggressive in lane.


Infected Cleaver (Q)

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Infected Bonesaw is the most important tool in Dr. Mundo's kit as support.

In lane you use it to constantly poke the enemy. In short order they will learn to respect the clever as you zone them away from being able to last hit or harass your ADC. They are not even safe from your cleavers while under tower. It is important to learn to be able to walk right past the minion wave to hit the enemy with cleavers from the side, or to wait for a minion to be about to die and throw a clever through it right as that happens. Don't worry about hitting all the time, but your job in lane is to constantly be trying to line up a good angle for cleavers. Don't take too long to find shots though, it is better just to spam it - a lot of the time you can rely on your enemies to walk into the cleaver ;p. It is best to ignore the health cost, pretend cleavers are free, because they pretty much are.

Also be sure to aim your cleavers at the right target in lane, generally the enemy who has less sustain. For instance once the enemy ADC has a Vampiric Scepter I will prefer to target their support, or if they have a support Alistar who is spamming his Triumphant Roar I would prefer to go for the ADC. If they have single target sustain like Soraka's Astral Blessing or Nami's Ebb and Flow, then it doesn't really matter who you whack since they will just focus their sustain onto your target, unless one person has much less magic resist.

If you are laning with an allied ADC who is a very opportunistic autoattack harasser like Caitlyn, the slow from landing a cleaver really helps them also follow up with one or even two autoattacks against the target.

Cleaver also makes warding much safer. You can check to see if enemies are in a bush by throwing a clever into it. If it collides with an enemy it makes a distinctive "thunk" sound, a sound which you will come to love. The cooldown is so short that you can (and should) check just about every bush with a clever.

Cleaver also scales very well into the game past the laning phase. It does % HP damage, meaning it improves as the enemies level up and buy more HP items even if you aren't buying any damage items. It is great in sieges because of its long range and low cooldown. The % damage means that if you are trying to peel tanky bruisers off your ADC you are actually doing pretty good damage to them.

If you see a gank coming landing a cleaver often slows the enemy down and prevents them from closing the gap and getting a kill. If the enemy has already closed the gap however it will likely not be enough to save a life. This same idea also applies to team fights later on; if an enemy is approaching from the side you can potentially delay them with cleavers and prevent them from contributing to the fight before it is too late.

Cleaver is also fantastic for preventing enemies from escaping, even if they have flash or an escape, a constant rain of cleavers usually ensures that you and your team will catch up in short order.

It is important to note that this ability does magic damage but does NOT scale with ability power, which severely limits the number of useful offensive items you can buy.


Burning Agony (W)

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Heart Zapper doesn't really come into its own until the mid game because you will only have one point invested in it until level 8, but it is still quite good.

In lane if a fight happens and you are at full HP you should certainly use it, because the enemy should be focusing on your ADC and not you it doesn't really matter if you hurt yourself some. If however you are low HP and your ADC is high HP and you are the priority target it may be best to leave it off.

Sometimes if you are just trying to run for your life, it is good to have this on because the CC reduction it provides you will actually save you more life than it costs to have it on by getting you out of stuns and slows faster.

Although obviously you should only have it on when you start fighting someone in melee range (or are running up to them, for the CC reduction), you shouldn't turn it off the instant they get away from you. There will be a four second cooldown before you can reactivate it, so it is often best to leave it on while you chase them down or move to a new target.

When the opportunity presents itself, be sure to move in between two enemy champions so you are hitting both of them with this ability rather than just one.


Masochism (E)

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Blunt Force Trauma provides an amazing AD steroid as soon as you put one point into it at level two. Most of the time, this is irrelevant, since you will just be throwing cleavers at the enemy and not actually whacking them. However, if an enemy Taric/Leona/Jungler tries to go toe to toe with you they WILL regret it (although usually when these engages happen you should focus the enemy ADC instead).

There is not much to say about masochism other than be sure to use it, it is worth the HP cost even if you only hit an enemy champion once during the duration. The cooldown is also very short (7 seconds), be sure to reactivate it in fights.

It is also worth noting that if you stack a ton of HP (EG you buy Warmog's Armor) you will gain less bonus AD because you are missing less of a % of your HP. For instance being down 1000 HP with 3000 max HP is 33% missing HP which yields +33 AD from (maxed) masochism, but if you had a Warmog's Armor you would only be missing 25% HP and therefore only get 25 AD. Pretty minor but worth noting.


Sadism (R)

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There are a few different ways to use Maximum Dosage. The greediest way is to save it until you are low HP. This both minimizes the HP cost of activating it, since the cost is based on your current HP, and it will maximize the HP regen you get out of the Second Wind and Perseverance masteries. The problem with this approach is that you may well die before your ultimate expires, and therefore waste it. If you are super greedy you may well die before you have even regenerated more than it cost to activate. Also if you wait until you are low HP it is very likely that an enemy will throw an ignite on you, greatly diminishing your healing and ensuring your early demise. Knowing if the enemy has an ignite available is actually very important in your decision making here.

Alternatively you can use it right as the engage happens (or even as the engage). The idea here is that you regenerate the cost as you close on your targets, plus regenerate off their initial barrage, plus you get in position faster from the speed.

Sometimes I might even use my ultimate if I am not in the fight simply to walk to it faster to get there in time to contribute. It wastes the HP regen aspect, but it is better to show up late than to not ult and not be able to contribute to the fight before it is over.

Starting:

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+ + +

Relic Shield is fantastic on Dr. Mundo, the addition of this item is one of the things that makes him much more viable in Season 4 than he was in Season 3. It gives him tons of staying power in lane, great gold income and some sustain for his ADC.

You honestly won't need to use your Health Potion most of the time because your sustain is so ridiculous, but just in case things go wrong it can be nice to have. Most commonly I use it when the enemy all ins us or their jungler comes for a gank. Remember a lot of your HP regen is based off of how much health you are missing so you don't need pop the pot as soon as you are missing 100HP, save it for when you might actually die.

Where you place your Stealth Ward is of course up to you, but with the addition of the red trinket I like to place it farther away, in front of dragon or the solo mini bush just above dragon or at the red buff (if I'm purple side), rather than in the tribush or lower river area. The reason is that those lower river spots are so much more susceptible to being swept with the red trinket.

Sometimes (like when the enemy jungler is Evelynn) I opt to get a Vision Ward at the start rather than the Health Potion + Stealth Ward.

The choice of trinket is really a personal thing. The red trinket does provide more bush control, however I don't really care if the enemy hits me when I'm in the bush because I have so much HP regen, plus I tend to push them to their tower pretty quick. If you are coordinated with your jungler though having a sweeper makes it much easier for him to gank successfully. I prefer the Stealth Ward though because it lets me get away with having to buy fewer wards before I purchase my core, which accelerates the rest of my build.


Core:

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targon's brace -> ->

Get targon's brace as soon as possible, because it generates stacks twice as fast it gives you twice as much gold plus twice as much sustain for your ADC on top of the improvement in HP and HP regen.

You can play a lot of champions as support in Season 4, but what I always tell people is that if you do not buy a Sightstone you are not really a support, you are just a mage or whatever who is mooching in the bot lane. Also the HP it gives is useful on tank supports like Dr. Mundo. Before you get your Sightstone it is recommended that you maintain at least one active Stealth Ward. If you started with a Stealth Ward be sure to replace it once you get your Sightstone, as you no longer need it (I almost always forget to do this at first and remember later ;p).

Get Boots after you are done those two items. Do not pick up the boots early just because you don't have enough gold for the other items, save up instead.


Luxury:

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From here I will rate each item with a number of according to how strong they are. They each have their own pros and cons and you should understand why you are buying them. The relative strength of these items is heavily dependent on the enemy team's composition. Even an item with one cleaver is something that has its place, all the items I will list here are good items, some are just generally more useful than others.

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Spirit Visage's self healing amplification works wonders with Dr. Mundo's passive Goes Where He Pleases as well as his ultimate Maximum Dosage and the defensive tree mastery Perseverance . Not only that, but generally you'll want at least one MR item, and this one comes with HP and CDR which are both pretty good. The only time I wouldn't get this item is if the enemy team completely lacked magic damage, or if their magic damage was single target that I expect would be aimed at someone else (for instance they have a Fizz but no other magic damage of note). Even then this item is still very strong, but stacking armor would just be better.

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Sunfire Aegis is a great item to pick up to shore up your defenses against physical damage dealers while also improving your damage output by a lot. When you're in the middle of the enemy team and surviving the whole fight, it adds up to more damage than you might think. However if you are diving way deep or peeling one person off your ADC in your own back line or just dying too fast, other items might be a better choice.

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Randuin's Omen is very similar to Sunfire Aegis. I feel that since you have Infected Bonesaw you do not greatly benefit from the active effect of Randuin's Omen, however it can be nice if you are slowing multiple targets with it. I rate the item less than Sunfire Aegis because it is purely defensive, and you want to at least be enough of a threat that the enemy feels they need to focus you. That said, if you are planning on diving the enemy ADC or if they have a lot of physical damage in general this is still a fantastic item to get in addition to your Sunfire Aegis.

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Banshee's Veil is obviously great when the enemy has many magical damage champions, or just if the ones they do have do a lot of AoE that will hit you (such as Orianna). The reason I rate it so low is simply because you will already want to have Spirit Visage and as a tanky support it usually makes a lot more sense to improve your whole team's magic resistance by getting a Locket of the Iron Solari.

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In season 3 I valued Locket of the Iron Solari extremely heavily. If the jungler was not getting it, I would get it ASAP after my sightstone, even skimping on ward coverage to do so. However now with supports having more gold I am a bit more inclined to take the more "selfish" route of picking up items which focus on buffing my own champion's power rather than the whole team. This item jumps up a lot in value when the enemy has magic based assassins like fizz or leblanc who are fed, where giving your carries that extra bit of MR might just be the difference between life and death for them.

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I really like Thornmail. It is fantastic at what it does, which is punish the ADC for hitting you. The reason I rate it low is because they have the choice of not hitting you. There is nothing worse than having a Thornmail, diving to the back line, but being ignored and having your whole team die and then being focused down last. If you have bruisers on your team that don't have Thornmail, Thornmail is not a great item because the enemy ADC will just hit them instead. If the enemy has multiple ADCs then Thornmail becomes much stronger.

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Because Dr. Mundo does mostly magic damage but does not scale with ability power, Liandry's Torment is one of the few choices for boosting his damage. And boy, does it ever boost his damage! I would rate it higher, but generally I prefer to focus on improving my tankyness, as being tankier means you live longer to deal more damage and if you live longer it buys your team more time to do more damage as well. If you are in a good poke comp and looking to siege though, Liandry's Torment is just fantastic. Also if the enemy is either mostly all physical or magical damage rather than having to buy both kinds of defense you can just get the appropriate one and then get Liandry's Torment for some offense.

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If you plan to include Warmog's Armor in your build you might really want to consider using Greater Quintessence of Percent Health. Generally I think it is better to get armor or magic resist items rather than a Warmog's Armor. Also remember there are many things that deal damage based on a % of your HP, something you are already weak against, and buying Warmog's Armor just makes it even better against you. If the enemy lacks % hp damage though, I might think about getting Warmog's Armor.

Face of the mountain :

To be honest I have not tried getting face of the mountain in many of my games. For the cost it does not give any more gold income, you don't need the HP regen at all. It is essentially paying 1150 gold for 200 health, 10 cooldown reduction and the active. I prefer to instead get the other items and then if the game goes late I sell my targon's brace for another item. How good this item is depends on how good the active is which depends a lot on what you plan on doing in team fights. If you are running in, going ham and initiating, you likely will not want to use the active at all. If on the other hand you are going to be on the back line peeling bruisers off your ADC or preventing them from getting assassinated, it can be good.

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Typically very good in the laning phase to let you scoff at the enemy ADC's damage, and great late for the same reason because you'll often want to be diving them in team fights. Not so hot if you are going to focus on peeling instead. I mainly like Ninja Tabi the most simply because they are only 1000 gold ;p.

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Sorcerer's Shoes improve your damage, which can make your poke in lane completely zone out the enemy. If I'm getting a Liandry's Torment I am much more likely to want these shoes. The problem is that the damage comes at the expense of tankiness, and you are supposed to be a tank after all. However when my team has a really strong front line I feel this trade can be good, since I won't be going in alone. Also good if you are trying to peel (kill) bruisers off of your ADC rather than diving into the enemy.

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I'm not sure fond of Mercury's Treads for a few reasons. They cost 1200 gold. You really don't need tenacity that much, as you already have CC reduction from your Heart Zapper, plus you aren't the biggest threat on your team. If the enemy is hitting you with single target CC they are probably going to lose the fight even if you don't have tenacity. However if they have AoE CC from say a Jax or a Riven or just lots of magic damage in general, I might choose Mercury's Treads.

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Thanks to Infected Bonesaw you can maintain pretty good uptime on Enchantment: Furor. It is nice to have but I prefer to finish my build before picking it up.

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Sometimes you just absolutely need that movement speed boost to rush to defend your nexus, inhibitor or baron. When you do, Enchantment: Homeguard is a must buy, but until you do (and usually after) it is worthless.

: Zero cleavers :'(

Spending 600 gold to upgrade your Sightstone into a Ruby Sightstone is a terrible investment. You don't gain any warding power, you are only getting 180 HP. The only reason I listed this item was because if you are full build then you may as well do it. Selling the Sightstone for a combat item is your other option, but in general that is a bad idea. Even if you have reached the point in the game where there's no point in ever entering the jungle, it is useful to be able to ward over the base walls while attacking or defending inhibitors.

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The fully upgraded red trinket, Oracle's Lens, is actually quite good. The 10 second true sight really lets you find more enemy wards, plus it obviously is essential for countering enemy invisible champions such as Vayne.

Videos

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If you prefer to see things in action rather than in abstract, here are two videos of me playing games as Dr. Mundo support with commentary. You can watch them if you want to get a clear idea of how I actually play him.

Disclaimer: profanity
Play Video Play Video

Tips

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As mentioned before, in lane your role is to make the enemies' life a living hell by throwing cleavers at them nonstop. This takes the pressure of your ADC and lets them farm at their leisure. I find it works particularly well when partnered with ADCs who excel at harassing the enemy as well (Caitlyn, Lucian, Sivir), however even if your partner is passive you can usually zone the enemy singlehandedly unless they have great sustain.

In team fights, you have the same role most tanky bruisers do: either go for the enemy carries to keep them away from your team's high priority targets, or to do the opposite and try to keep the enemy bruisers off of your carries. Which is better really depends on the game. The strong slow on your Infected Bonesaw is useful in both situations, because it either helps your carries kite or prevents the enemy carries from kiting you. If the enemy melee lack gap closers, your peel against them may be super effective. If you have assassins or a strong front line in general, going right for the enemy carries may be super effective because you may just straight up kill them. Sometimes the best thing you can do in a team fight is simply to run in, almost die, and run out with your ultimate, having one or more important enemy targets chase you rather than fight your allies. That can be hard to pull off though, and essentially relies on your opponents making a mistake (but trust me, they will).

Remember that you're a support so you ought to keep important locations warded. Now that you can only place 3 wards you can't just drop them wherever, you need to think about where they are best placed, which may be far away. Remember not to abandon your ADC in a situation where he cannot farm without dying though, and remember to drop by a lane (any lane) to make the most of your targon's brace stacks when they are maxed.

Above all else have fun :)

One criticism I have of many guides is that they list the majority of matchups as being favorable. I will endeavor to list as many matchups as "more favorable" (champion name in green followed by (M)) as "less favorable" (champion name in red followed by (L)), with also some listed as "neutral" (champion name in yellow followed by (N)).

My ratings are not so much based on considering whether the champion is currently strong or weak in the meta at the moment but rather based on how their kit matches up against Dr. Mundo's.

Disclaimer: Individual matchups vary a lot based on skill and playstyle, your mileage may vary.

Enemy Supports

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Enemy Marksmen (ADCs)

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Allied Marksmen (ADCs)

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Dr. Mundo is an unconventional support who is fun to play if you enjoy landing skillshots. He is deceptively tanky and still capable of dealing significant damage even while on a limited budget as a support hero. His main strengths are his poke (great for zoning the enemy in lane or sieging later on) and his ridiculous sustain, which combine to give him and his ADC a fantastic laning phase. His weakness is his lack of hard CC, it is probably a bad idea to take him if the rest of your team also lacks hard CC.

Q: Did you follow the Kartus Build Guide: Making a Guide?
A: Yes, it was very helpful :)

Q: Would keithioapc really appreciate it if you left him a question or a comment in response to this guide (whether you liked or disliked it)?
A: Absolutely ^^

Monday, December 9th 2014: Expanded the matchups section and made some cosmetic/minor changes in various places.
Sunday, December 8th 2013: Added a (only partially complete) matchups section and added another video commentary.
Saturday, December 7th 2013: Some minor corrections, a bit of information added to some sections, and a video commentary of a sample game added.
Friday, December 6th 2013: Guide started and uploaded.