Wukong Build Guide by Nhmopolis

Introduction

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Hello and welcome to my guide on Wukong, The Monkey King. Wukong is currently sitting as number one on my favorite characters list. He is extremely entertaining character to play as, as well as extremely useful. He is a great solo and that applies to lanes, back doors, and even in 1 vs 2 fights. He Is also Extremely good at ducking out of a fight when the situation gets bad.

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Champion Spot Light

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Abilities

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Wukong's Passive, Stone Skin

Wukong's armor and magic resistance increase for each near by enemy champion.
Warning:Does NOT increase if enemy champions are invisible:Warning

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Wukong's "Q" Ability, Crushing Blow

Wukong swings his mighty staff with incredible speed, crushing his opponent. This attack deals additional physical damage and reduces the enemy's Armor for a short duration.

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Wukong's "W" Ability, Decoy

Wukong becomes invisible for 1.5 seconds. An uncontrollable decoy is left behind that will deal magic damage to enemys near it after 1.5 seconds(time that Wukong is invisible).

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Wukong's "E" Ability, Nimbus Strike

Wukong dashes towards a target enemy and sends out images to attack up to 2 additional enemys near his target, dealing physical damage to each enemy struck.

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Wukong's Ultimate, Cyclone

Wukong's staff grows outwards and spins it around, dealing damage and knocking up enemies. Wukong gains speed over the duration of the spell.

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Wukong Lore

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During the chaos of the Rune Wars, an enormous runestone was lost deep within the Plague Jungles. It remained there, untouched for centuries, emanating a potent magic which infused nearby wildlife with sentience and vitality. A group of monkeys who were particularly empowered by it came to worship the stone, and their leader - a wise sage - became convinced that he could harness its power to make the monkeys immortal. He performed an elaborate ritual, but things didn't go as he expected. The runestone was destroyed, and instead of granting immortality, it produced Kong, a monkey who carried in his heart the strength and power it had contained. Kong was driven by an unquenchable desire for greatness. He sought out every beast and monster the Plague Jungles could offer, eager to find a worthy opponent, but none offered the challenge he craved. He asked the sage for advice, and learned about a legend of hairless monkeys to the north who, with wits and might, had bent the world to their will. Kong left, journeying north, determined to discover if the legend was true.

He crossed the Southern Wastes and then the Great Barrier. On his way, he happened upon Master Yi, who was deep in meditation. Kong asked him who the strongest warrior in the north was, and Yi told him about the League of Legends. The tale intoxicated Kong, a place where he could battle the strongest fighters in the world was, to him, paradise. Kong asked Yi to introduce him to this League, and to teach him the ways of humans, so that he could be a fitting champion. In return, he would honor Yi by using Yi's Wuju style to become the greatest warrior Runeterra had ever seen. Admiring his passion, Yi agreed, but under the condition that Kong would one day teach the lessons of Wuju to a pupil of his own. In the spirit of this agreement, he renamed Kong Wukong, and gave him a weapon suited to his unusual nature - an enchanted staff that the young Doran had crafted. The weapon was an unrivalled masterpiece. Guided by Yi, Wukong joined the League of Legends to prove himself as the best, and to show the world the true power of Wuju.

"Only in combat do you learn who you truly are."
Wukong

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Ability Break Down, Tips, and Tricks.

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Wukong's Passive, Stone Skin

Wukong's passive becomes a great asset in team fights. It also has a large range of 1400 which also helps if there are multi-fights going on. Both his armors increase from 4/6/8 per enemy champion in the range of his passive.

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Wukong's "Q" Ability, Crushing Blow

Crushing Blow diminishes the targets armor by 30% for 3 seconds.
Its best you use this to open up a fight with this move, especially if you can before you use Cyclone. It makes the first 2 to 3 seconds of the ultimate that much more punishing.

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Wukong's "W" Ability, Decoy

Decoy leaves behind a life like clone of Wukong behind and deals damage after 1.5 seconds.
This is a great harassment tool, using it right after using nimbus strike on your target.
It is also a great thing to use to run away with. It looks the exact same as when you hit "S" to stop your champion and you can easily fake being a decoy then use your actually while enemys look for you in near by brush.

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Wukong's "E" Ability, Nimbus Strike

Nimbus Strikes your target and 2 other near by enemys.
This is the other part of Wukongs harassment. You can also use this move as another escaping tool, launching your self and near by enemy minions and jungle monsters.

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Wukong's Ultimate, Cyclone

Cyclone cause Wukong to spin around in circles lifting enemy champions up into the air and smacking near by enemys with his staff for 4 seconds. While in cyclone mode his movement speed steadily increase. This move can be stopped before the 4 seconds is up.
This move can easily change who is winning the fight for the fact it deals tons of damage and lifts enemy champions into the air. Also like most of Wukong's abilities can be used as an escape tool. You first launch your enemy into the air and use the benefit of the steadily increasing movement to run away.

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Also in this short clip, it goes into a more detailed explanation of Wukong's abilities

Ability Sequence

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There is a few ability sequences I recommend. They also depend on the scenarios your in, depending whether your in top lane or bot lane. You usually max nimbus strike and crushing blow depending on your feelings but when soloing I buy decoy first just to help me get away in sticky situations when its 1 vs 2. Whether you max out Nimbus Strike or Crushing Blow is of personal choice.

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When soloing Wukong, you should take a point in decoy first just in case you accidentally over extend and start to get pummeled by 2 enemy champions. Using a decoy usually tricks, and even if they think its a fake and know your around still you still get 1.5 seconds of invisibility which is a great thing to have if retreating.

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When being in bot lane with Wukong against enemy squishy champions I'd take my first point in nimbus strike. Since most often squishy champions are ranged I use nimbus strike to close the gap and be able to deal damage of my own. Also taking nimbus strike makes you become focused since you are getting close and personal, this is great if your have to tank for your lane partner while you distract and deal close damage they can deal loads of damage from afar, more then often landing your lane first kill.

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When dealing with tankyer enemy champions I'd take my first point in crushing blow. Crushing blow weakens the targets armor by 30% for 3 seconds. Any attacks That hit the affect champion get the benefit of the armor reduction. By hitting them with crushing blow it makes them a lot less tanky then the felt they were going to be.

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If you feel like evening out Wukong's abilities, select abilities like the sequence above. If you choose your ability before you see the enemy champions I personally would start with a nimbus strike to catch fleeing enemy champions or to open up a fight to distract for you lane partner. It also attacks more then one target if they are with in range. Its really good if your dealing with enemy champions stacking up in the bush.

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Items

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Wukong's Items focus manly on attack with a bit of speed and a bit of health. Wukong's items are also very important to him so its best that this part of him is built to the best. When soloing I usually start out building more tanky. When fighting in bot lane I start of building more towards life steal and damage unless my partner is squishy, then I build tanky to tank for them. Through this explanation I while explain why you should choose these items versus other items in the begining.
Both these builds are extremely similar, there main differences are just what you take in the beginning and what you build from there.

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When beginning Wukong lane, first take a Doran's Blade. This leaves you with no left over gold so you have to survive off the life steal and your normal health regeneration. Buying Doran's Blade does numerous things for Wukong, It increases his attack which also increases his ability damages, increases his health to help him be a bit more tanky in beginning, and gives him life steal helping him when he farms.

Next thing to be bought is Mercury's Treads. It gives you your full speed, and gives another 25 magic resistance. It also gives you 35 tenacity to help free yourself from stuns, slowers, freezes, sleepings, ect.

After buying Mercury's Treads I would buy The Bloodthirster. I buy this because In total it can give you 100 extra attack damage and 20% life steal. This is great after a large battle, instead of having to return you can simple stick around and farm the lane to regain your lost health. Buying it earlier also helps you to max it out quicker getting full pay out.

After wards I start building up to Warmog's Armor. The three items that go into Warmog's Armor are Giant's Belt, Ruby Crystal, and Regrowth Pendant. It doesn't matter which one you buy first its personal preference. I recommend buying the two smaller parts first so you get the bonus of regeneration now helping you to not have to recall as much while still getting some additional health. Warmog's Armor unique passive increase you health another 350 and another 10 health regain after you cap.

After buying Warmog's Armor I then focus on Atma's Impaler. Reason for pick Atma's Impaler is because of its passive. 1.5% of your max health is added to your attack. For example if your max health is 3000 Atma's Impaler gives you 45 extra attack damage. This also adds to your abilitys since their given a boost from physical damage.

Next thing to be bought is what I consider Wukong's ultimate item, Trinity Force. Although a iconic item it helps Wukong in every way. Increased attack speed and movement speed is great to have so Wukong can catch up to fights and flee from fights. Also allows him to deal more damage by being able to attack faster. The increased mana and ability power doesn't do as much as the other 2 parts of Trinity Force but steal does a great deal. With increase mana storage your less likely to have to pull out of a fight do to being dry on mana. The increased ability power also helps your decoy deal a little more damage after fooling people. The last part of Trinity Force is probably best. It gives increased damage and health, and since you have Atma's Impaler it further increases your damage from the health items in Trinity Force.

To complete Wukong's build I would finish up with a Frozen Mallet. My reasoning for this item is once more it increases your health and damage, and since your health becomes even more increased so does the pay out from Atma's Impaler. Also Frozen Mallet's unique passive also slows enemys by 40% for 2.5 seconds for basic attacks and with a character like Wukong slowing them is always helpful.

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Optional Wukong Items

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Some optional items for Wukong that are in the same neighbor hood for attack damage and speed are below and why they are good optional.


Infinity Edge

Infinity Edge is a great item to have as well, it deals tons of damage and also gives you higher critical hit rates. If I had to replace this item I would replace it with Frozen Mallet or The Bloodthirster, it depends on whether you would want to get rid of the extra health or life steal. Again personal preference.


Wit's End

Wit's End also helps you deal a decent amount of damage with its unique passive, while also helping you to shield yourself from oncoming damage. If I had to replace this with anything it would probably be Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet. Although Trinity Force is Wukong's ultimate item it is extremely expensive.


Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel is another good optional if your trying to build off-tank with Wukong. It gives you lot of extra armor plus give you a chance to slip away with that extra bit of life it gives you, if they manage to beat you down that low.


Maw of Malmortius

This item also gives your attack a huge boost along with a decent amount of magic resistance. Whats even better about this item is the lower your health gets the stronger your attack is which is good when making final stands with Wukong. Another good thing is if your fighting more ability power based people the deal tons of magic damage it makes it hard for them to finish you off due to the magic shield absorbing 400 points of magic.


Youmuu's Ghostblade

The items normal boosts are decent as well but what really stands out is the unique active. It gives a huge boost and can easily turn fights in 1 vs 1 or even 1 vs 2. Whats even better is the more you attack with it in the first 4 seconds the more time you have of the active. It also comes back very quickly to you so you don't have to wait ages for it again.


Last Whisper

Last Whisper is nice to have as due to its armor penetrating, mixed with Wukong's "Q" ability, Crushing Blow, you have 70% armor penetration for 3 seconds which is a great time to deal as much damage as possible especially with your ult.

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Masteries

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Of course like all other champions masteries are extremely important to the champion, but the one amazing thing about Wukong is that he can have a large variation of masteries. Wukong can go from Attack Damage, to Defensive, to utility, and to mixes of them. After each mastery I will explain more useful times to use this mastery and why you choose them.

This mastery shown above is good to use when your team doesn't have an Attack Damage carry. The large amounts of attack help you mostly in the beginning when both you and the enemy champions have little to offer in fights. Also having the physical and magic resistance also helps if your dealing with them having Attack Damage carrys as well. Even better is even more armor penetration, if you manage to mix this with your "Q" ability, Crushing Blow, and Last Whisper you have a total of 86% armor penetration.

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I find that this mastery is best when 1. harassing a lot 2. when your solo top. Its great when harassing because you get increased movement speed which helps after you dive in for a Nimbus Strike then need to back out before they get on top of you. This movement speed increase is also very helpful for when you solo top when doing things like returning to you turret or making a gank or needing to catch a low fleeing champion. It also reduces your time spent dead so you can make a recovery and get back to your turret quicker before it gets pushed to hard.

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This build is great when your team doesn't have a proper tank. It gives him much resistance and a lot extra health and some speed. It still gives him the right attack masteries to help out with a bit of damage so even though you have to tank for the team you can still pick up a few kills here and there to help feed yourself getting you build up faster. The other great thing about this build is it still gives you that armor penetration and attack speed so you don't have to rely on items as much.

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This build like the other defensive masteries is great to use when you doesn't have a actual tanking character. I recommend using this when your solo top. The resistance and extra health help you to survive being constantly pummeled by multiple champions. Also in the case of you being slayed you get extra movement speed and less time spent so you can quickly return to your turret.

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Summoner Spells

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Wukong can not choose from every summoner unlike the rest of all of his qualities. Most of them are based around himself seeing as Wukong is a solo champion. In this chapter I'll talk about which summoner spells are recommended for Wukong and why they are. I'll also talk about which summoner spells are not recommended for Wukong and why they are not.

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Flash

Flash is great on any champion for a lot of reasons, but most important is it makes for great get aways. Flashing over walls, flashing towards turrets, flashing towards ally champions, you name it flash can do it all. Another great thing about flash is of course flashing to enemys to catch them and deliver that final blow after he nearly escapes. Also great if trying to turret dive an enemy champion and can easily be used to duck out from under it.
Actual Description:Teleports your Champion to target nearby location under your mouse cursor.


Heal

I prefer heal when soloing. Its best when you have lower amounts of health to deceive your enemys. As soon as they launch at you, you heal yourself up and beat them right down for an easy kill. Heal is also great in team fights, being able to turn the tides by giving your allys some much needed health.
Actual Description:Restores 75 + (lvl x 25) Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. All targets healed will have a 50% reduction in heal amount from other summoner heal spells for 35 secs.
AoE range: 600


Exhaust

This spell is also great when champions try to dive you under turrets but only AFTER they hit so the turret will target them. Slowing them down under the turret helps you pick up a easy kill from the turret. Its also great when chasing down other enemy champions, slowing them down so you can deal more damage or slowing them down till help arrives.
Actual Description:Exhaust slows movement speed by 40% and reduces autoattack damage by 70% and ability/item damage by 35% for 2.5 seconds.


Ghost

This is an amazing spell for catching people and running away from people. The main is because of how long it last. The 10 seconds it last is a great opportunity to catch and and run through enough bushes to fake out you pursuer.
Actual Description:Your Champion passes through any unit and moves 27% faster for 10 seconds.


Cleanse

This spell is great for Wukong because when hit by any kind of debuffs Wukong is stuck between a champion in a hard place. He's not the greatest at escaping without his abilities so being able to minimize in coming debuffs works wonders for him and saves his life often.
Actual Description:Removes all disables and summoner spell debuffs affecting your champion and lowers the duration of incoming disables by 65% for 3 seconds.


Ignite

Ever had a problem with that champion who gets away every time just barley? Well do I have a solution for you. Ignite Deals damage over a course of 5 seconds. It also stops them from regenerating health to quickly which is great to use when they have a Health Potion or 2 activated.
Actual Description:Targets a single champion dealing 50 + (lvl x 20) true damage over 5 seconds. Also reduces the target’s healing and regeneration by 50%.

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Revive

All though its nice to be revived at will, there are a lot of better spells to use. Revives secondary, increased health, for a few seconds is usually not useful until the end when your getting extremely pushed and close to losing the game. It also has a Large time before you can use it, so the most you'll be able to use it in a hour long game would be 6 times in a game if your lucky.
Actual Description:Instantly revives your Champion at your team's Summoner Platform and increases your champion's maximum health by 200 + (lvl x 20) for 2 minutes. 9 minute cool down.


Surge

All though it would be nice to increase your attack speed for a short amount of time, the secondary part of increasing Wukong's ability power is completely useless to him since Wukong does not build ability power at all.
Actual Description:Empowers your champion, increasing ability power by 6 + (lvl x 4) and attack speed by 35% for 12 seconds.


Clarity

Having mana on the spot is nice and yes Wukong does use mana, but his abilities are not needing of much mana so a lot of other of the other summoner spells are much better for Wukong. The only benefits I see from from this spell is: it supports other ally champions, and prevents you from recalling for a few minutes at most.
Actual Description:Restores 160 + (lvl x 30) Mana to your champion and 50% of that to nearby allies.


Promote

The reason why I don't recommend Promote is because there is even little change it will deliver the final blow and get you the gold and there are more useful spells then this one. Plus Wukong has a bunch of attack, armor, and speed to clear out a lane quickly with out a promoted unit. Plus Promote is usually a mage spell since they can not clear out lanes as fast without using mana.
Actual Description:Promotes the nearest allied siege minion (in Classic) or super minion (in Dominion) to an anti-Turret Cannon, healing it, granting bonus stats (depending on level), and causing it to grant the caster gold for its kills.

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Smite

Smite should only be used of course when jungling and only when jungling. Its of course great for damaging some of those jungle enemys really easily saving you some time and most likely some mana.
Actual Description:Deals 420 + (lvl x 25) true damage to target enemy minion or pet.

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Runes

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Runes for Wukong are like almost all of his other attributes, they're flexible. He has a wide variety to choose from from armor penetration, to speed, to resilience against incoming attacks, to increases in speed, to extra health, and just flat increase in speed. In this chapter I'll talk about the large mixture Wukong's runes can range from. Do remember though there is no specific ones you should group together. All the ones I list together her you can mix and match as you please. I recommend going flat instead of build up over levels, it will give you a better leap and give you better chances of early feeding. Again though it is personal preference.

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Greater Mark of Desolation
greater Mark of desolation

Greater mark of desolation is great for when dealing with more tanky like enemy champions and any kind of champion in general.


Greater Mark of Attack Speed

This mark helps you to deal damage faster, helping out when needing to attack multiple targets including champions, jungle monsters, and minions.


Greater Mark of Attack Damage

All though it doesn't give you a full point, it comes extremely close. With nine of these on, it will really help you in the beginning.

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Greater Glyph of Health

There is two upsides to the increased health, one of course is you get more health to survive and be more off tankish. The other is when these are combined with Atma's Impaler it increases the work of its passive.


Greater Glyph of Armor

Increase armor will help you very much when dealing with characters that are Attack Damage carry.


Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

This helps you with Ability Power champions especially ones that have annoying ultimate they can through from any where on the map like Ziggs's Mega Inferno Bomb or Karthus's Requiem. Of course also helps with any other Ability power moves.

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Greater Seal of Attack Speed

Again this seal helps deal damage faster and helps you farm faster and get to other targets quicker.


Greater Seal of Attack Damage

This seal allows you to dish out more damage then you already can. Again this really help in the beginning, being able to beat down champions in early bush scuffles.


Greater Seal of Armor

These also help you with early scuffles in bushes and also allow you to deal with Attack Damage carrys with a little more ease.


Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

This quintessence greatly increases you attack speed surly giving you a noticeable difference for just one alone. Like other attack speed increasers, it is great for dealing damage to multiple targets faster.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Greater Quintessence of Desolation

The huge difference in armor penetration added by this quintessence will quickly turn tanky champions in to squishy ones.


Greater Quintessence of Health

This huge difference in health will give you huge assistance in the beginning and latter on once Atma's Impaler is obtained.

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Harrasment

In this chapter I will talk to you about all the different ways you can use Wukong and his abilities to the best to harass enemy champions. It becomes a great asset to your lane slowly whittling them before you can set into the kill.

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What is Harassing?

Harassing is constantly attacking your enemy with out letting them land more blows on you or non at all, slowly whittling them down to lower amounts of health.

How do I Harass?

You harass by constantly landing combinations of moves on the and backing out. For example opening up with a Nimbus Strike then using Decoy or crushing blow and then Decoy if you use crushing blow second. The decoy tricks them and they usually start to attack it giving you tie to escape, dealing damage a few seconds later, and leaving them feeling like fools.

What are the advantages to Harassing?

Your advantages from harassing are numerous, but I will just name a few.
1. You typically deal more damage then they do.
Your Nimbus Strike usually lands before they even notice that your right in front of them, let alone give them time to react. By the time you Decoy it's to late for them to do much.
2. Sets you up for the kill.
After harassing for several minutes, if they haven't recalled, the are less then 50% which means if they are out from under the turret its a good time to give it all you have and kill the easily.
3. Helps you push the lane.
If your enemys aren't as bold as most players they will camp under their turret. This gives you a great opportunity to control your lane as you please.

Are there any disadvantages?

Yes there is, Mana cost. At level 3 with he three abilities used at once to harass, it cost you 135 mana, and if your just using Nimbus Strike and Decoy it cost 95 mana. This may not seem like much at first but after 3 or 4 harass attacks you'll be mana starved. To preform harassing well you have to balance out how much mana you use to what best suits your skills,

To Be Added

* A page on his decoy
* Final Notes
* Updates
* Through out game explanation
* After Game results

Updates

10/30/12- Guide name changed to, "Wukong- That Magic Staff

Special Thanks To

Special Thanks To

I also wanna give a special thanks to a few groups of people.
The First one being jhoijhoi because of their EXTREMELY useful guide about how to make mobifire guides through some of the text lay outs image inserting and ect. If you ever need a few tips on how to make your very own build I suggest go to jhoihoi's "Making a guide"

I also want to give a special thanks to the League of Legends community for making this amazing game possible and helping me evolve from a Huge noob to maybe just a minor noob.

And last but not least, thank you to anyone who reads this guide. Please feel free to comment and criticize this guide and tell me everything that is wrong about it. By doing that you make me want to improve my guide and I take your ideas (most the time) and throw them back into the improvement of this guide!