Let me begin this guide by stating that I am not the best League of Legends player I've ever encountered, nor am I in the top ten. However, I am passable enough to do well most of the time, and enjoy the game in the process. This build is intended for those players who are in a similar skill range as myself, which I would categorize as the bulk of LoL players.

I don't believe in taking active effect items. That's not to say they aren't spectacular in a lot of cases, but I am far too lazy to press an extra button, and to be honest, I'd more than likely forget to do it in the heat of battle anyway. If this sounds like you, read on.

Wukong is a spectacular champion. He is especially spectacular because my 5 year old nephew thinks that his name is Monkey Kong, as the champion reminds him somewhat of Donkey Kong, whom he knows from Mario Kart on the Wii. Therefore, Wukong will hereby be referred to as Monkey Kong. Knowing that, know also that this guide will not make you the most deadly, unstoppable Monkey Kong the game has ever seen. What it -will- do however, is make you a Monkey Kong that's adaptable to any situation with very little variation to the build.

Monkey Kong is a versatile champion who can fill a large number of roles. The role I tend to enjoy filling most is that of an invincible ping machine that will later turn into a moderately tanky smash machine. I'll get into that in more detail later on.

Pros
* You are a Monkey
* You have an incredible ability to chase and when needed, escape.
* Great burst damage
* Fairly tanky, but capable of dealing large amounts of damage.

Cons
* There is no skill that allows you to throw your own feces at enemy champions.
* Mediocre long-fight DPS for a large portion of the game.
* Silence. SILENCE. GRRRRRR.
* Cannot drop mushrooms all over the map that deal 2000 damage each and make would-be escapers cry.

Let's be honest. The above listed rune build has been ganked straight out of every other Monkey Kong guide on mobafire. And why? Well, if you want really specific details, read one of the other guides. They all go into them.

Since getting kills for any Champion early is almost certainly going to give you a big boost to any game, I tend to build Monkey Kong's masteries more offensively. 22/0/8 to be specific. With Monkey Kong's skills, you'll have no trouble at all laning, since you will be an invincible pinging machine for quite a few levels against most any champion that can't silence you. More on that later. Defense to me seems to go to waste for the first eight levels or so, and the goal of course is to have a few kills under your belt by then, and let your items do the defending.

However, as Monkey Kong can also be built and treated somewhat like a Stealth-Nasus with his similar Q, a 0/21/9 build can also work quite well, should you choose to build him as more of a tank. For the purposes of this guide however, let's just stick with the above listed setup.

As any other guide worth its beans will tell you, there are many different item combinations that can work well. For my Monkey Konging needs, I tend to gravitate a little bit towards the items that turn my Monkey Kong into a sprinting rocket ship launched from one of those rocket-ship-launching things that the coyote bought to catch the road runner. Except with a staff that he whacks people with.

Speed, and Burst damage are the name of the game. Your goal is to get in, smash something hard enough that it's going to want to run away, then finish it off as it runs with your amazing chase potential, or stealth the **** out of there if it's a bad situation, with enough speed to reach even that bush waaaay across the lane before they can see you.

You'll start the game off with a Sapphire Crystal, a Health Potion, and a Mana Potion.

I skip Doran's Blade or Doran's Shield in order to get Sheen faster, just like I would were I playing Nasus. You want to build your way to a Sheen as quickly as possible, because it will make your Crushing Blow deal a large amount of burst damage. This is very useful for the laning phase. I tend to lane on my crystal and pots until I have 1200 gold, and then base to purchase Sheen, and Boots.

From there, you'll skip your advanced boots for now and go for a Zeal, as this will raise your speed a bit on its own, and get you some very useful crit and attack speed while you build towards your Trinity Force.

Before the Phage, I like to grab the Boots of Swiftness. 99% of the time, this will make me the fastest champion on the map at that point in time. Other good choices if you find the extra speed is unnecessary are Ionian Boots of Lucidity for a bit of cooldown reduction, or Mercury's Treads.

Next of course you'll want to finish off your Trinity Force, as it's only going to cost you another 1600 gold or so to do it, and it combines all three of your items strengths and amplifies them.

After the Trinity Force is up, you have a choice. You can go straight out to build your Warmog's Armor, or just get the Giant's Belt for a bit of survivability until you can afford more. If you find yourself in a lot of fights where you're taking damage early, I'd go for the Warmog's straight out. If not, grab that Giant belt and head for an Atma's Impaler.

Atma's Impaler will turn you from a moderate damage dealer into a force to be reckoned with. Before you buy it, you'll probably be sitting at about 120 attack damage if you've followed this guide to the letter. As soon as you get it, you're going to have about 160 attack damage (which will increase as your health goes up from finishing and building Warmog's), a lot of extra armor, and even more extra crit. Remember, you're building for that one big hit that will have your enemies wetting their pants.

With your Atma's finished, grab the rest of your Warmog's Armor if you haven't already, and to be honest, you can stop there. Those items are going to be enough to carry you through the rest of the game if you're playing properly.

If you end up in a long game though, expect most enemy champions to have a good amount of armor, or at least more armor than your armor pen runes will penetrate at this point, so a Last Whisper is a good next choice. Plus, who can argue with 40 extra attack damage? Nobody, that's who.

And in the event that you find yourself in such a long game that you have way more gold than you know what to do with, you can grab yourself...well..anything. At this point you'll probably shred through just about anyone, but I like Zeke's Harbinger. Sure, your tank is probably supposed to get it, and probably he hasn't, especially if you aren't playing ranked, so be a pal, help your teammates while you help yourself, and give your party a little group fight sustainability with lifesteal and regen.

But don't get that until last! The Monkey Kong is a badass, and badasses don't care about anybody but themselves. Don't give the Monkey Kong a bad name. All the other champions might start thinking he's gone soft.

Of course, there are many other options for you, and I don't think it's necessary to list them all here. The general rule of thumb is that if it helps you crit, it's good. If it helps you attack faster, you like it. Oh, and a lot of Monkey Kong players with their big burst damage find a good amount of use from picking up a Vampiric Scepter sometime early. I tend to skip it, because the playstyle this guide is designed for really only has it finding a good amount of use against minions, but, it's preference.

All in all, in an hour-long game (assuming I haven't built a Banshee's Veil or something of the like to counter an enemy champion, this is what my item build is going to end up as, without having to sell anything along the way:

Oh yes. This part of my guide differs from most of the other Monkey Kong guides out there. Warrior Trickster before Crushing Blow?! He's a madman! A maaaaadman!!!

Seriously though, it works, and not just because I told you it works. Because it actually does.

I open up with Nimbus Strike, because it's a long range, low cost mana ability that will not only help you last hit minions, but harass enemy champions. The problem is, your Monkey Kong does not like taking damage. It makes him sad, and a sad Monkey Kong is not what I want you to have. You need to treat your Monkey Kong nicely. And that is where Decoy comes in!

From levels two to approximately FOREVER you will become an invincible pinging machine with Warrior Trickster! I like to get it as early as I possibly can for harassing purposes. As early as level two, you'll be able to use a Nimbus Strike -> Auto attack -> Decoy combo to attack your laning enemies. You're not going to deal a significant amount of damage right away, but the simple fact that you can close to melee range, attack, and then stealth to safety before they can do anything to retaliate is going to be enough to keep your laning enemy from encroaching on your zone.

Starting at level three, you'll want to add Crushing Blow into the mix. Nimbus Strike -> Auto Attack -> Crushing Blow -> Auto attack (CB resets the auto attack timer for another instant auto attack) -> Decoy.

BEWARE: Doing this over and over again is very mana intensive early game, as you'll soon find out. If you can, melee the old fashioned way and conserve a bit to do your pinging. In the likely event that you can't get into range without being shredded early game though, the above method works wonders.

From there, it's a simple matter of getting Cyclone when available, maxing out Crushing Blow (for your burst damage), then Nimbus Strike, then lastly Decoy.

As for the Crushing Blow vs. Nimbus Strike debate, I tend to agree with UltimatePr0's (Currently highest rated Monkey Kong guide author) assessment of the matter. Crushing blows cooldown lowers with ranking, while Nimbus Strike's stays the same. If you'd like the details, go check out his guide. It's very well done.

Ghost and Flash. Flash and Ghost. I'm not going to list every single summoner spell and tell you what they do. That's what tooltips are for. Chase and Kill. That's the game. Flash and Ghost help you do both. They also help you flee like a little girl if you need to. Monkey Kong is very escape-y, which I enjoy. It frustrates enemy champions to the point where you may not even be targeted in group fights or chased after a while because they assume you'll be able to escape.

There are other good choices of course, but the only one I'll mention is Cleanse as a possible replacement for your least favorite between the above two. CC, and silence especially are killers for you, and Cleanse could mean the difference between life and death.

No, not the sexual kind, sweet-cheeks.

So maybe you've read a bit of the strategy that I listed in the Skill Sequence section. Maybe you've been lazy and skipped it because I'm too long winded, though, so I'll start all over again in true, long winded fashion!

Throughout the game, you'll be using a combination of most of your skills in order to harass and kill enemy champions. The idea for harassment is to either ping them without being pinged in return, or ping them harder than they ping you. Below are tested and proven methods to ping your enemies successfully.

At level one:

Nimbus Strike -> RUN LIKE HELL

At level two:

Nimbus Strike -> Auto Attack -> Warrior Trickster -> Casually stroll back behind your minion line.

Beyond:

Nimbus Strike -> Auto Attack -> Crushing Blow -> Auto Attack -> Warrior Trickster -> Casual stroll

It's important to remember that Crushing Blow (Q) resets your auto attack timer, so you get another free attack. It will also proc Sheen, and cause a great amount of damage once you have it built.

More often than not, you're going to get in, ping, and get out without a scratch. There are certain Champions, however, that you don't want to try this with. The most commonly seen examples of this are Soraka, Talon, Kassadin, and Cho'Gath. Each of them have the bane of your existence - Silence. Silence will cause you to die. A lot. Why? Because you can't stealth away while you're silenced. Don't let champions silence you. Let your laning partners initiate on them. Just kind of stand back and call them names while you wait.

Okay, that's not entirely true. You can ping through silence. Just be aware that you're not coming out unscathed. Plan your strikes away from minion waves, and plan to stay long or short enough to deal slightly more damage than they're about to deal to you. After a while, you'll get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

For Monkey Kong, Killing a champion is a lot like harassing a champion. Only faster and HARDER, and you get to use your ult!

Monkey Kong is not a great sustained damage dealer until later in the game. Early game, you have two options.

Option A: Burst enough damage onto an enemy champion to cause them to panic and run. Running champions deal very little damage, and with this build, you're going to be faster. And if you're not, Nimbus Strike will catch you up.

Option B: Just one shot people. It works really well, and you don't have to click a lot of buttons to chase people down and flash over walls and stuff. Got your lane pinged to half health? Finish the job. Be a man. Or a Monkey. Be something, anyway. Veiger's got Annie pinged low at mid? Speedmonkey your butt over there and steal his kill! And then teabag her corpse and taunt your own Veigar! You're an ALPHA MONKEY. He needs to know that he is your subordinate and that all future killing blows are going to be given to you, OR ELSE. If you don't get your way, start calling your own teammates the N word, tell them they're horrible players, and sit AFK at your base for the next 40 minutes. THAT'LL SHOW EM. Wait, no...the other thing. Don't be a jerk.

The information for Monkey Kong in game states that he is an easy champion to play. This is very true. Your spell rotations are going to be simple, and you won't have to change up what you do much dependant upon the situation.


Nimbus Strike -> Auto Attack -> Crushing Blow -> Auto Attack is your bread and butter. Open with it in most situations.

Once you've gotten through that rotation, you have a decision to make. If your enemy is near a turret and running, you may want to finish them off with Cyclone before they can get back to their tower. Cyclone knocks your enemies into the air, slowing their escape and preventing them from immediately flashing out. If your enemy is not near a turret, your speed, Ghost, and Flash will allow you to keep on their heels long enough to finish the job with auto attacks, further crushing blows, and if needed, nimbus strike to close the distance between you.

In team fights, you may consider opening with Cyclone, as it will knock all enemies into the air once, and deal damage all the while. This is an especially good option if your team lacks a good initiator. With your armor, and health, you're a pretty viable tank for a few seconds. Long enough for your team to get the upper hand in a fight, anyway.

I keep Warrior Trickster on cooldown as long as I possibly can, and use it only as an escape mechanism. In a pinch, it can be used to cause that tiny extra bit of damage to finish an enemy off, but it's generally not worth it. If you get through your rotation, and your enemy decides he's going to stay and fight, it's generally a good idea to Decoy out and live to fight another day. If you aren't fed a ton early, you probably aren't going to stand toe to toe with Mordekaiser and win until you've gotten your items built.

Monkey Kong is a very versatile champion. This item, mastery, and rune build will allow you to deal a great amount of damage in a very short amount of time, and still have the tankiness to take a few hits. More importantly, it allows a margin of error that a lot of the super ranked Pro builds out there will not give you. We all make mistakes in games. This build will let you survive them while still being a very productive member of the team.

With zero changes to the build, you have the capacity to be a stealthy assassin, a nuke damage champion, and your team's initiator when all is said and done. The only thing you won't be able to handle is a toe to toe fight with a tanky DPS.

This guide is also a work in progress. I fully intend to continuously update it as my own experience with Monkey Kong grows, and I decide to sit down and actually make some pretty BBCode to make this an easier read. Concerns, Comments, and Constructive Criticism are all very welcome. I urge you to try the build out, and let us know how it works out for you. I've had a good deal of success with it.

As I have time, I'll update this section with my own matches using this strategy and build. Please feel free to screenshot your own successes or failures with this build as well, and I'll be happy to put them up here.