1.1.4
* Added a (work in progress) counter section describing how to counter a certain champion.

Alright then,lets get started.

This is my first guide,and possibly my last depending on whether or not I feel like doing another. I'm a gold ranked player (1531 elo) that mainly plays solo tops. I main Rumble,and play many other solo tops like Cho, Irelia, Garen, Jax, and a few others that I play now and then.

This build focuses mainly on the mindset of an annoying monkey,someone who pops up out of nowhere to harass then backs away to farm and what not.

The main problem in my opinion for Wukong is his sustain, he rarely gets the opportunity to stay in the lane and constantly farm unlike Garen or Nasus. Seeing as how he gets brief farming moments,I try to incorporate a more aggressive style of play so I can get the farm I need and keeping up with the creep score.

In a regular Wukong game I'll be getting at least 200 cs before we either win or they surrender. If not,I most likely failed horribly or got extremely fat.


*LOOK! Bro, is your game about to start and you want an easy way out?!

CLICK ON THAT CHEAT SHEET BRO! CLICK ON IT QUICK! CHEAT SHEET!

I acknowledge that I'm not extremely good, but I do know what I'm doing with solo champions.

Pros

· Very powerful mid to late game
· Has potential to match the damage and cancel the damage of some other ad champs like Tryndamere.
· Easy farm with E into auto attacks
· Extremely satisfying sustain
· Isn't too overpowered, is balanced on the scale of fotm solo tops.

Cons

· High skill cap
· Unless farmed well, level scaling will stay fine, but items will obviously fall off.
· Items are the most important scaling for this champ, without the right amount of damage, he will have no presence in a fight whatsoever.
· Good use of W and E requires practice, could easily screw up E by jumping into attacks, which shouldn't happen but seems to haunt some monkeys.
· Overall requires a good amount of experience to play at a high rank.

Crushing Blow
Wukong swings his staff at the foe dealing additional damage and lowering the opponent's armor.

This skill is part of your bread and butter, which is into . Make sure you commit when you do this combo though, if you don't you might just waste mana.

Decoy
Wukong disappears leaving behind a clone that stays in place that eventually deals damage to all enemies around the clone.

We only put one rank into this in the beginning for obvious reasons. The only upgrade for leveling it is the extra damage, the cool down is long enough to use twice or three times in a team fight so that's perfect to get in, deal some damage, and decoy out.

Nimbus Strike
Wukong flies at the target enemy sending out two other clones to deal damage and increases Wukong's attack speed.

We max this mid-game for the attack speed, and get a rank into it at level one to pull of our combo. This is your chasing and potentially your escaping skill as well. Use it well, and make sure you think before you use it.

ie. You see 2 caster minions at the back and the enemy champ near them, you can into the enemy and hopefully take out the two other minions. Follow it up by either finishing your combo or out of the conflict.

Cyclone
Wukong lengthens his staff and starts spinning rapidly, dealing damage per second and speeding up as he spins. The first hit on every enemy will knock them up, consecutive hits will not.

After initiating, into the enemy, your target and start your . Leave after doing enough damage with and either go back if you were successful, or go back in with the same combo.

Stone Skin
The more enemy champions that are near Wukong, the more magic resist and armor he gets.

Use this to your advantage to rush in and cyclone all the enemies. This is why you don't need much magic resist or armor items.

9x greater mark of desolation

These marks will give you the necessary amount of damage to trade efficiently. Without this, don't even think about going up against the damage of Yorick and Nasus.

9x

Wukong lacks in trading like I said,so these runes will help against caster tops like Rumble, and of course all the other ap champs on their team.

*You can replace these for cooldown reduction per/lvl runes instead if you'd like.

9x

Again with the trading and the overall fight. The main problem that I see however is that you get focused quite a bit with auto attacks when you start spinning...these counter that a bit, but can't cancel out the damage of course.

*You can switch out for mana regen per/lvl runes, but I don't recommend it, only use those if you don't have these yet since you can't afford it.

3x greater quintessence of desolation

These quints along with your marks of desolation are your main damage factors next to items since all of Wukong's damage comes out flat besides his ultimate. If the enemy fails to understand that you hurt, you will have the funnest time spinning at full speed throughout the fight.

The masteries I run are quite simple and basic for an AD solo top.

Offense

21/9/1

These masteries for the offense tree are essential for the laning phase, which is the most important part of this build. You may switch out the extra armor penetration for life steal, they are both good but because I want to last hit better I get the armor pen instead.

Defense

21/8/1

Armor and magic resist will help immensely compared to mana per level or movement speed (which we have ghost for) and the health regen will of course help for the laning phase.

The last 1 point is self explanatory.

This item will be your main choice against most champions. If for any reason you feel the enemy is going to be extra annoying (Like Yorick, Nasus, or Fizz) get a and build it into a philosopher's stone.

On your first blue pill back grab your madred's razor and a .

On your second back, finish your boots into either , or .

Go Treads if the enemy is CC heavy or AP heavy, or both. Treads is the basic choice even if you're up against an AD champ since they most likely have some sort of disruption spell that could screw you over. Get ninja tabi only if you're against some auto attacker like Tryn or GP.

Afterwards start on your Trinity Force by getting them in the order of :

, then , and finally .

*Note You can get before you start your , or you can get it after , it's up to you whether or not you can afford it along with a or the entire itself. After finishing your tri-force, or during your building of whatever part of the tri-force you're on, you can build into .

Finish your build with a situational item.

Get if you're doing well and can already survive fights fairly easily.

Or get if, again, you can survive, but the enemies started stacking armor.

Get any of the defensive items such as Banshee's Veil, Force of Nature, Atma's Impaler, Thornmail, or Guardian Angel if you must, buy them corresponding to the situation at hand.

ie. I'd buy Thornmail if the enemy has an extremely strong AD or Guardian Angel if I'm the main target.

Early Game:

Try to avoid getting harassed, if need be use your Decoy to blow all the enemy's skills. Make sure you last hit as best as you can, he isn't a champion who scales really well without the gold for items. Blue pill back as soon as you need to, the faster you can get to your farm the better.

Mid Game

Farm.Farm.Farm.The main thing that has changed when you enter this phase, get red buff when your jungler allows, this will make you extremely strong, even if you were being stomped during the early phases. If you must get into a fight, make sure you do NOT rush in. Stand back unless you know you can take the hits. Wait for the cool downs to be wasted, then go ahead and destroy them with your ultimate.

Late Game

Follow your combo when you get into fights. It's important you don't fail and die the moment you get in. By now, the meta has shifted the mindsets of others to not focus Wukong until he has started spinning. Use this to your advantage to time your ultimate well. A good Wukong player will ultimate the moment he can. An awesome one will make sure his teammate get the best out of the knock-ups as well.

In this section I will go over the main solo top champions.

These champions are often played for that lane specifically and hard to find elsewhere. I will go in depth with the champions I know how to play extensively, but I will try my best for all the others as well.

First up, the most annoying, hard to counter, top laners... (I hate these champs D:<)

Yorick

By far, the most annoying champ in the game. Early game you will have pretty easy farm, as with any other lane combo. When the time comes where the enemy starts getting ballsy, it's time to step it up. Start thinking more about whether or not it's safe. You WILL lose chunks of health. It's inevitable, but farming is more important than losing health. Unless the enemy Yorick has speed over you, or has exhaust, try not to get into a suicide situation. Use your combo on him whenever possible, the problem here is that you will be forced to back off and pill back to base constantly.

Last game I played against him, I kept up with creeps, but fell off in experience. This is fine by me because I scale much better in levels than Yorick, and I scale (albeit less than him) pretty well with items.

Hopefully you can persist and not lose your mindset. Wait for late game to come then go full on, until late game try not to die and succumb to his annoying ghouls.

Vladimir

The second (in my opinion) most annoying champ for top lane. Unless you know what you're doing, and know his cooldowns as well as rune setup, try not to get harassed too much. When his Q is down, especially early game, take the opportunity to farm.

The main problem with him is his overall lane sustain. It's obviously the best in the game, next to supports, but you can't do anything to go against that. You can substitute exhaust for ignite if you can see Vlad on the other side in ranked play, but it's not very worth it as exhaust helps take down the damage of his ultimate.

* Note - Not all Vladimir players take top, it's highly likely they take mid, but if they do however go top, it's very, very, very annoying.

Try to land an exhaust if he pushed onto you to reduce the incoming damage. If he pools before you get to hit exhaust, try your best to live or ghost away. Often times ghosting away the moment he pools is a bad idea with the slow, but to get away from his range is near impossible, so your best bet is to stay away from him until he pushes to your turret. Other than that, it's the same as Yorick, but try to keep him away from farming by forcing him to harass you instead, which isn't always a good idea, but you can't argue that Vladimir under farmed isn't good.

Rumble

My main! He's extremely annoying, more so than the other two, in melee range. If you see him as your opponent, always get regrowth and the health potions, this is a no excuse build format, since he is going to be your worst nightmare. Unless your jungler is someone extremely tanky, do not attempt to gank him at level 6. His ultimate will wreck you along with your jungler if he places it right.

Avoid confronting him at all times, if you are low on health and he goes into overheat, do not chase him. I repeat, do NOT chase him. By personal experience, I know how easily Rumble can turn a full health champion into a pile of dust all the while being at only 50% or even 30% health. Unless you have exhaust, and your ultimate ready, then do not push onto him at this time.

The best time to actually get some farm and harass in is of course, when he accidentally over heats. Take this as a note for all your other games against Rumble, as he is the most vulnerable at this time. If you have to pill, and he's level 6 with his ultimate up, pill as soon as possible. A good Rumble can easily dive you without losing much health, it's essential you don't lose farming time as well, to the best of your ability, at least.

** More to come