Hello all, and welcome to my first guide on MOBAFire: Jungle Wukong. While I can and often do play whatever role is required of me in games, my favorite role by far is the jungler. I've played pretty much every jungler to some degree, and I've found Wukong to be an incredible jungler. Speed, power, a stealth mechanic; there's really not much about him that doesn't lend itself well to jungling. Plus, Wukong's ulti is, in my opinion, one of the most imba ulti's in the game currently. As a note, while I always welcome constructive criticism, please try the build in it's entirety before voting on it. Thanks, and enjoy!

Wukong is, in my opinion, an underestimated jungler.

PROS:

Fast clear time
Malleable Build: can be tanky or dps based
A stealth mechanic to help with ganking
RIDICULOUSLY good ulti
He's a freakin' monkey

CONS:

No CC to speak of (aside from the ulti pop-up)
Slightly mana-dependent
Slightly weaker early ganks (since no CC)

My rune mockup is fairly standard for an AD champion, but I'll explain my choices in-depth here.

MARK OF ALACRITY: I chose attack speed marks for a faster jungle and more early-game gank potential. 15% attack speed makes a big difference at the early stages of the game, both against creeps and against champions. With the attack speed marks, Wukong clears the jungle at an exceptionally fast pace.

SEAL OF RESILIENCE: The armor runes are very standard for almost every jungler. The additional armor is just too good to pass up for that early game farm.

GLYPH OF WARDING: One weakness of many junglers is that their item choices don't often lend themselves towards a lot of MR. With the flat MR runes, you're able to offset this weakness fairly well, especially for those early game ganks on mid.

QUINTESSENCE OF DESOLATION: Ah, armor pen... The bread and butter quints of almost every AD champion in the game. Who doesn't want to hit consistently harder?

My mastery choice for jungle Wukong is a fairly standard build for an AD jungler. Increase your overall damage wherever it's feasibly possible, along with the improved Ghost in the offense tree, as well as improved smite in the defense tree. Of course, as a jungler, you'll need to take the additional damage and defense vs creeps for a smoother jungle route.

Items, at the end of the day, are often very situational. Do they have lots of AP damage, or is their AP carry very good? Maybe forgo the Zeke's Herald for some earlier MR. On the whole however, the item progression I use here is the one I use most of the time.

Like many junglers, a nice safe start is to get the cloth armor with 5x health pots. Try to limit your potion usage to no more than one (1) potion per creep camp. If everything goes well, early ganks will help your item progression significantly. Upon going B for the first time, you can either finish up your madred's razors, get basic boots, or even go straight to Wriggle's if the killing has gone well enough. Again, this is part of feeling the flow of the game; do what you feel needs to be done to be as successful as possible; i.e. clearing the jungle faster, or ganking more consistently.

A special note here: the boots of mobility are AMAZING on jungle Wukong. They allow you to be basically everywhere you're most needed as quickly as possible. Again, faster jungle clears, and more successful ganks. These, along with decoy, will net you more kills than you realize.

Getting an early brutalizer here really helps with ganking. The extra damage and armor penetration is just golden. Eventually upgrades into Youmouu's Ghostblade, which makes for a fantastic item for Wukong.

I bet your asking yourself, "Why Zeke's Herald?" The reasoning for zeke's is fairly simple: CD reduction and health; the extra attack speed and life leech is just icing.

Trinity force makes for a GREAT item on jungle Wukong. The extra health and movement speed is awesome, but the extra damage proc is the real coup de grace here. This will make your nimbus strikes and crushing blows hit like several tons of bricks. Then decoy out, get reset, and do it again. I play jungle Wukong as a strong hit-and-run champion, able to get in and out in the blink of an eye. With trinity force, the enemy squishies will think very hard about pushing out at all.

Finally, Banshee's Veil makes up for that low MR I mentioned earlier, as well as giving you another way to dodge enemy spells aside from Decoy. Plus, more health means more survivability, which means more dead enemy squishies.

Please remember that none of these items are set in stone. Try to get a feel for who's doing best on the enemy team, and what is the best course for countering them. Your job as jungler is to shut down the enemy lanes, either by outright ganking, or just by pushing them out of lane for a bit, so build accordingly. That said, I always build a wriggles, and almost always build the brutalizer; both of these items are just too useful.

The skill sequence I choose is refined for the fastest jungle clear one can achieve with Wukong.

We start with Nimbus Strike because it's an INCREDIBLE jungle clearing tool. As most of the creep camps have 3 creeps, Nimbus will hit all of the creeps at a particular camp (with the exception of the wraith camp), and the attack speed boost is perfect for jungling. You'll typically want to put a point in Nimbus Strike every time you can until it's maxed (except at level 6, which is of course the ulti).

At level 2 put a point in crushing blow, then at level 3 or 4 (this varies based on how early you want to gank; try to judge the lane situation, and whether or not you could actually land a kill) put a point into Decoy. Following Nimbus Strike, the ability to max out next is Crushing Blow. It's an incredibly powerful attack. Also, remember to use Crushing Blow on turrets for some extra DPS.

Like with most champs, always put a point into your ulti whenever you're able: 6, 11, and 16.

My summoner spells are fairly self-explanatory: Smite and Ghost.

Why Smite? : In my opinion, EVERY jungler should have smite; no exceptions. The benefits far outweigh the possible benefits from other summoner spells here; more income, guaranteed claims on important creeps (buffs/dragon/baron). If you're jungling, you NEED smite.

Why Ghost? : Honestly, here it's a preferential toss-up between Ghost and Flash. On Wukong, I prefer ghost, as it allows one to move around the map at a much faster pace. I can't even count the number of times Ghost has allowed me to jump into a team-fight and turn the tides in my team's favor. That being said, Flash has some incredible uses, not the least of which is being able to jump walls, something Wukong can't do on his own like Tryndamere or Shen.

Other Options: Truthfully, none of the other summoner spells appeal to me at all for a jungling champion. When comparing the risk/reward of each of the other spells, they just pale in comparison to smite/ghost or smite/flash. Don't get me wrong, feel free to experiment with exhaust or ignite if you so choose, but I feel you'll eventually come to the same conclusion I did: the utility of smite and ghost/flash is just too good to pass up.

Ah, and here's the part you're really interested in: how to jungle Wukong.

After buying your Cloth Armor and 5x Health pots, head up to blue and get ready. A good place to wait for it to spawn is at the choke point to the river. An early gank at blue is always possible, so be vigilant in watching for the opposing team. This is also the reason I don't start at wolves; it's just too easy to miss the enemy team heading in to gank you and your blue. Ask whoever is in mid for a leash, then go to town, using smite when it seems prudent (either to claim it or to get it low quickly).

After blue go wolves > wraiths > double golems > red > wraiths.

Assuming you did everything right, this will get you to level 4, and prime ganking time. Check your lanes: is the enemy pushed, or are they pushing? Any enemy champs at low health, but not going B? Remember that jungling is the most fluid role on the team; you do what is necessary when it's necessary. If all the lanes are pushed in your teams' favor, continue to farm those creeps. If not, help whoever needs the help the most. A lot of these decisions can make or break a game early on, so make good decisions. This will mostly come from experience, and getting a feel for what you can or can't do.

Upon going B for the first time, this is typically where each lane will start to show who's manhandling whom, so be sure to help out whoever needs it the most. That being said, top or mid will typically be the juicier targets for ganking, and are the lanes that will make or break your teams hold on the game.

GANKING: Ganking with Wukong is surprisingly easy, even without a true CC. Watch for an opportunity, then use Decoy to move out of the bushes and close in on your target. This will often take the opponent totally by surprise, and set up your team for some easy kills. Remember to ALWAYS ping your intended target before you move in: your team should always know who to go for first. Also, remember that ganking doesn't necessarily require a kill. If you can burn a summoner spell like ghost or flash, you've done enough. Don't dive needlessly, as it can easily backfire.

A special note: once you get wriggles, remember to ALWAYS have a ward down, at either dragon or baron. This not only allows you to counter the enemy team if they go for either of these high-priority targets, but a well-placed ward will also help to prevent enemy ganks on your team. I cannot stress this enough: ward ward ward. Buy a couple extras if you have to; map visibility is EVERYTHING. Also, encourage your teammates to ward as well; one person cannot possibly keep all the necessary wards up. Top should be warding their own bushes, as should bot. Seriously, there's nothing more important than knowing where your enemies are and where they're going.

Once the laning phase breaks down, i.e. one or more lanes have started to roam, one of the most important things you can do is to counter-gank. This is the reason for having the move speed 5 boots: to be able to be any where at any time. If you see the enemy team start to move in for a big gank, Decoy > Nimbus > Ulti will almost always shut it down, assuming you're not completely outnumbered. Play smart: don't sacrifice yourself needlessly if it looks like there's no way your teammate can escape their impending doom, but try not to let your teammates die if it could have been prevented.

In closing, I hope you find Wukong as enjoyable to jungle as I have. He's a tricky champion, and makes for some brutal hit-and-run style play. Remember to play smart, gank often, and, for the love of Pete, WARD. The jungler is the most fluid and often the most game-changing role in the game. If done right, you'll dominate. If not, well... Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you like it, vote +1. If not, please leave a comment explaining why, and I'll take it into account. Happy Hunting!