Dr. Mundo Build Guide by Uqly

QUICK REFERENCE

You're in champion select and just clicked Dr. Mundo. Here's what you need to know.

Masteries as mentioned above. 1/21/8

Runes as mentioned above. greater mark of desolation greater seal of vitality
Acceptable alternatives:
Mark: greater mark of vitality
Seal:
Glyph: greater glyph of vitality
Quintessence: greater quintessence of vitality

Summoner spells:

Starting items:

Item core:



Additional (counter) items:

Against physical damage:

Against auto attackers:


Against magic damage: with the standard core, you are not gonna die to magic damage.

No particular threat:


Skill priority order: R, Q, W, E.


Have fun smashing! More detailed explanation below.

INTRODUCTION

Hello readers, I'm the summoner known as Uqly from the US servers.
In this guide I will explain in detail the mechanics, builds and playstyles that suit Dr. Mundo. There are many ways to play him, but this guide will only focus on the most effective way to do so (in my opinion). The most important thing to remember while reading this guide is that everyone has his own way of playing certain champs, and their item builds accomodate that playstyle. This is my interpretation of Dr. Mundo, featuring my favored builds and playstyles. I hope you enjoy this guide and that you might learn a thing or two. If you liked or disliked my guide, please rate it accordingly. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Kind regards,
UQLY

DR. MUNDO'S BASICS

Dr. Mundo is a tank, but not just a tank. In terms of survivability and dps, he is one of the best tanks out there. If built right, this guy can take a hell of a beating and dish out a substantial amount in return. This build focusses on Mundo's passive ( Adrenaline Rush) and his ult ( Sadism). These two abilities make Mundo exceptional. Adrenaline Rush provides an effect similar to the passive granted by Force of Nature, an item that is in my core for good reason. Combine all these effects with Spirit Visage and what do you get? That's right, a tank that regenerates faster than he can be damaged.

Only one of Dr. Mundo's skills is able to scale ( Burning Agony), and does so poorly. In return, Mundo's skills are based upon percentages and high numbers. This allows us to focus entirely on survivability, item wise, and makes Mundo near impossible to kill if played well, once your core is assembled.

Mundo's main purpose in any game, is to soak up EVERYTHING the enemy team throws at your team. Mundo is also an initiator. Hit something with your Infected Cleaver to slow the target, then run at them and keep tossing those cleavers at them to keep your target pinned down. If he's lucky, your team catches up with you and your target quickly, granting him a swift death. If he's unlucky, your team will not catch up fast enough and your target will die by infection from your mass cleaver spammage. Disabling Mundo is not possible. Since the cc reduction from Burning Agony and Mercury's Treads stack, they won't be able to hold you off for long. Continuous slows from your cleavers will make sure they cant move away from you and your Force of Nature and Sadism allow you to run like the wind and catch any opponent. I usually pick Exhaust and Ignite for summoner spells, just to make sure your unlucky targets never get hopeful. Exhaust is also a great tool to stop those assassins that think they can sneak past you and attack your squishiest team member.

A great place to play Dr. Mundo is the solo lane. You can use your cleavers to last hit every minion from great distance if you are up against a duo that decides to harass you during your early game or you can dominate your lane by setting up shop between the enemy's minion wave and his turret and cleave his behind whenever he decides to come in XP range.

PRO'S AND CON'S

PRO

- Mundo rarely needs to b to base because of his amazing regenerative capabilities and lack of mana.
- Mundo has one of the highest HP stats in the game.
- Mundo deals amazing damage, even tanks aren't save from his cleavers. They deal damage based on health%.
- Mundo has amazing slows, and can prevent any single target from running away.
- Mundo is hard to disable because of his incredible crowd control reduction, allowing him to chase and escape freely.
- Mundo deals outstanding AOE damage.
- Mundo smashes really, really hard when he toggles his E.
- Mundo has great movement speed, allowing him to catch anything.
- Mundo is an amazing farmer.
- Mundo refers to himself as Mundo.

CON

- Mundo has no hard CC like stuns, roots, silences, etc.
- Mundo is very susceptible to Ignite, using this build.

DR. MUNDO'S SKILLS

Below a detailed description of Dr. Mundo's skills. I usually level his skills in this order: R, for more survivability and sustainability, Q, for easier last hitting, harder harrasment, ganking and escaping ganks and heavy DPS output in 1v1 fights, W for easier farming, and E last, for more smash.

Adrenaline Rush (passive)

"Dr. Mundo regenerates 0,3% of his maximum health each second."

Mundo's passive gives him an effect like the passive effect of a Force of Nature for free. They stack with each other. This gives him amazing regeneration throughout the game, and ofcourse scales with how much health Mundo has. A very good reason to stack health. This passive benefits from Spirit Visage.

Infected Cleaver (Q)

"Dr. Mundo hurls his cleaver in a line to damage a single enemy, dealing magic damage equal to 15 / 18 / 21 / 23 / 25% of the enemy's current health (minimum 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 damage) and slowing them by 40% for 2 seconds. If Infected Cleaver hits a target, it refunds 50% of the cost."

This is Dr. Mundo's so called 'bread and butter' spell. This is why Mundo is amazing. The damage this thing deals combined with its utility and ridiculously low cooldown make you shine, if you can aim it. This ability makes your enemy's tanks think twenty times before getting in the way of one of these to save their allies. If this hits your target, keep closing in on them and keep spamming this skill until your target is dead. This skill also makes it very easy for Mundo to down the big creeps, the dragon and baron Nashor.
Not a very big deal, but the 50% health refund you get for hitting a target with this skill benefits from Spirit Visage.
Use this skill to last hit creeps in your lane, to harass, to check bushes, to chase, to initiate and to facilitate your team's retreat.
A quote from Corporate Mundo sums it all up: "Mundo's ABC of succes: Always Be Cleaving!".

Burning Agony (W)

"(Toggle): Dr. Mundo drains his health every second to activate Burning Agony. While activated, it will deal 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 (+20% of ability power) continual magic damage to nearby enemies and it reduces the duration of stuns and slows used on Dr. Mundo by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%. "

This is what Mundo uses to farm minion waves and/or annihilate enemy teams with during a team fight. 100 damage per second at rank 5 might not seem much, but believe you me, that damage starts to add up when you're hitting 2 to 4 people every second with this! An important thing to note about this ability, is that it deals damage immediately upon activation, making it another great tool for last hitting (multiple) minions.
Another thing about this skill to note, is the 15 to 35% crowd control reduction it gives while active. This reduction stacks with any tenacy effect you have, making it near impossible to disable you while this is toggled on.
Also note this skill has no cooldown. You just turn it on or off, and it drains your health while it is on. When you have completed the core build as I described it, you can leave this skill on, because you will regenerate faster than it drains you.
You use this skill when you initiate, when you are fighting, when you are escaping, when you are farming. The ONLY time when you should consider turning this skill off is when you are tanking a turret and one or more heavy dps at the same time.
This skill makes "Mundo go where Mundo pleases!"

Masochism (E)

"Increases Dr. Mundo's physical damage by 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 for 5 seconds. In addition, Dr. Mundo also gains an additional 0.4 / 0.55 / 0.7 / 0.85 / 1 damage for every 1% of health he is missing."

This skill makes Mundo hit really hard. The original name was 'Activate Chuck Norris Mode', but it had to be changed to avoid lawsuits and such. This is what you turn on when you're hitting stuff, basically. You'll be shocked how devastating your auto-attacks will be. This is the reason I'm using armor penetration runes. Do NOT underestimate this skill. Do NOT forget to use this skill.
Turn this on while smashing up your enemy turrets when you forced them to b, and they will crumble at your feet.
As Mundo would say: "Mundo smash!"

Sadism (R, Ultimate)

"Dr. Mundo regenerates 40 / 55 / 70% of his max Health over 12 seconds. Additionally, he gains 15 / 25 / 35% movement speed for the duration."

This is Mundo's ultimate skill. It makes him regenerate a HUGE portion of his total health, at the cost of 20% of his current health. This skill benefits from Spirit Visage, making it even more amazing.
When you hit level 6 and you pick this skill up, you never have to b again, except when you feel like shopping. The sustainability this skill provides is amazing, and the enemy in your lane will hate you intensely.
The regeneration will keep you alive while the enemy team tries to focus you down in a team fight, allowing you to eat all the bad stuff they throw at you and shrug it right off, like it never happened. Be wary of Ignite on the enemy team, it ruins your ult.
The movement speed this ability gives is amazing, and allows you to catch any opponent without much trouble. Do not hestitate to use your ult to chase down an enemy. The cooldown on Sadism is ridiculously low and you should always use this ability when your health drops to 60% of total, or below. Use it to keep yourself topped off nicely.
"Rwaaargh! Corporate Mundo!"

RUNES

Runes aren't nearly as important as the items you get in-game and the way you play, but together with a well-considered mastery page they can give you a great advantage on the battlefield, before you've even begun.

For marks I use greater mark of desolation, to make my auto attacks hit like a truck when I turn on Masochism. What might seem like a little bit of armor penetration practically ensures a kill every time you land a cleaver on a squishy target, toggle your W and pop your E and storm out at them like the boss that you are.
If they have time to think between ****ting themselves and having a heart attack, you at least get to waste their flash or ghost, or other escape mechanisms that have WAY longer cooldowns than your abilities.
Get armor penetration, be fearsome, smash like a boss.
Acceptable alternatives are greater mark of vitality.

For seals I use Greater Seal of Health for that little bit of extra health and regeneration via Adrenaline Rush at the start of the game. Easy choice.
Acceptable alternatives are greater seal of vitality .

For glyphs I use Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction to be able to throw more cleavers, smash like a boss more, and pop my ult to chase and/or regenerate more. Easy choice.
Acceptable alternatives are greater glyph of vitality .

For quints I use Greater Quintessence of Health for a big chunk of extra health at the start of the game, and thus more regeneration via Adrenaline Rush. Once again, easy choice.
Acceptable alternatives are greater quintessence of vitality.

MASTERIES

I'm not going to spend a great deal of your time on this, since it's rather straight forward. You can see how it is divided at the top of the page.

In the tenacy tree, pick everything that makes you live longer and you will total 21 points.
In the offense tree, pick the talent to boost your exhaust, because you are using exhaust.
In the utility tree, pick up 3/3 in the regeneration talent, we want more health regeneration kkty. Waste 1 point in the reduced spawn time talent, since we won't be dieing. Last, pick up 4/4 of the extra experience talent, to level up faster. Not many champions benefit more from this talent than Dr. Mundo, because you rarely recall to go b to base and you generally solo. This totals 8 points in the tree.

I chose to expand in the utility tree rather than the offense tree, because the offense tree just holds to much useless points for this build. We have enough cooldown reduction as it is, and it's rather easily obtainable through gear, and Mundo couldn't care less for crit chance or some extra AP.

SUMMONER SPELLS

1. Exhaust
2. Ignite or Fortify or Teleport (personal preference)

In my opinion, Exhaust is a MUST for Mundo. Dr. Mundo does not have any CC apart from his amazing slow. Exhaust proves to be great in filling this gap. Use it to save yourself from ganks. Use it to lock down their biggest DPS in team fights. Use it to secure the kill on that guy you just can't hit with your cleaver because there are minions in the way. Use it to disable that annoying assassin that tries to ignore you and go for your team's squishies. Combined with the mastery point you put in exhaust, this spell will grant you a couple of kills and save you a couple of deaths each match, guaranteed.

For a 2nd spell, I prefer Ignite, for that extra kick you sometimes need to finish someone extra fast. Ignite usually nets me some nice early game kills when I just can't finish them before they reach the cover of the outer turret, and with a good start, the rest of the game is usually easily decided. Also very useful in team fights later on, for burning down their carry or that low health Rammus or Alistar that thinks he can bait Mundo.

Another good pick would be Fortify, if no-one else on your team is getting it. This spell is often over looked, but can save your turrets a lot of health if a Yi dives out of the jungle and starts crumbling your towers.

Another good choice would be Teleport, for the same reason as Fortify, and for when you just want to shop/gank/defend/jungle and return really quick.

Spells that might seem interesting but are not worth picking:
- Flash, because Mundo doesn't need to run. You might use it to chase another flasher over a ledge, but since it's just for that, you might aswell pick something that's not so situational and actually useful. You could use it for a quick gank, but why bother when you can just cleaver them and run up to your targets.
- Ghost, because Mundo is already fast as lightning with this build. Also his ult is his own personal short cooldown ghost. Getting ghost is just overkill, a waste when you have more useful alternatives.

For everything that isn't mentioned here: NO.

ITEMS

Finally, you think. First, a short summary:

START -

1st TRIP BACK - finish and get - cost 1425 gold - get and sight ward when needed


2nd TRIP BACK - finish and get - cost 1590 gold - get and sight ward when needed


3rd TRIP BACK - finish - cost 1870 gold - get sight ward when needed


MID GAME - get sight ward when needed


LATE GAME - and get sight ward when needed





FINAL BUILDS:


AGAINST BALANCED TEAM -


AGAINST AD TEAM -


AGAINST AUTO-ATTACKERS -


AGAINST AP TEAM -



You start the game with a Ruby Crystal, nothing else. You have no better alternatives. Combined with your runes and masteries you will have a huge health pool and great regeneration at the very start of the game. This item is great for getting both FB or laning carefully and sustainable.

Next up, the first thing you want to do is complete Spirit Visage because of its amazing synergy with Mundo's abilities, and your Boots of Speed.

After that, finish your Mercury's Treads, so you're ready for some chasing, running, ganking, defending. Basically everything you do gets better with improved mobility (both the extra speed and tenacy contribute to that). Also, while we're at it, buy a Negatron Cloak as a start for Force of Nature. If you find yourself being harassed a LOT and you aren't directly facing AP users, buy 2x Regrowth Pendant first, instead.

When you farmed up some more money and are able to make your 3rd trip back, finish your Force of Nature. You are now ready to outsource some FACE!

Depending on the enemy team's composition, you decide what to build next. I will explain each path in short.

- Against a balanced team:
Buy a Sunfire Cape, starting with the Chain Vest. Now we have a decent amount of armor to counter the physical DPS, who tend to be the strongest and most dangerous opponents as the game progresses. The Sunfire Cape's passive also helps while farming/jungling and deals a great deal of extra damage in team fights.
After that, start building towards a Frozen Mallet, so no-one can ever escape you again. When the game gets to this point you need to increase your damage output to downsize those turrets yourself, since no-one else is doing it appearantly. Buy Atma's Impaler, activate 'Chuck Norris Mode' (press E) and send the enemy team on a corporate retreat.

- Against an AD-heavy team (like Pantheon, Garen, Renekton, etc.):
Get a Sunfire Cape, starting with the Chain Vest, follow up with Randuin's Omen, starting with the Chain Vest again. Finish your build with Atma's Impaler. Should the game progress to this point, you may notice there's some people running around you when you make your way to the enemy base and start your hostile takeover. That's the enemy team trying to damage you. You can outsource their FACE whenever you pleases.

- Against a team with 2 or more auto-attackers (like Twitch, Master Yi, Ashe, etc.):
Get Thornmail and watch them kill themselves while you regenerate through their damage. After that, don't stack any more armor, since that will only reduce the damage you do to them. Instead, focus on stacking health, so they have more room to kill themselves. First, build a Warmog's Armor, for some insane health and health regeneration (both from the item itsself and via Adrenaline Rush and Sadism). Next build Frozen Mallet so they can't escape anymore. At this point you can just run into their base and kill everything as you pleases.

- Against an AP-heavy team (like Annie, Ryze, Morgana, etc.):
You have enough magic resistance from your core items to make them weep, so we're just gonna stack health again from here on. This time start with Frozen Mallet, because those mages tend to be squishy. Make sure they can't run away and send them back to the mail room. Keep stacking health with Warmog's Armor. You can finish with Banshee's Veil in your last slot. Even though it gives mana which you don't need, it's still a good item for you. Health, magic resistance and a shield that looks shiny will make you the king of office romance.

There will not be many games where you can complete any of these builds. Typical game ends right after you've completed your core. Cherish the games where you can complete your build and enjoy the unkillable corporate power-house that is Dr. Mundo.

WORDS OF CLOSING

If you stuck through till the end, thank you very much for reading this guide. I hope I provided some useful suggestions by detailing my builds and playstyles and I hope you will enjoy playing Dr. Mundo. If you would like to discuss certain aspects of this guide or want some more details on specific sections, feel free to post. Same goes for criticism or when you've spotted flaws or errors in my builds.

This is a work in progress, I will keep the guide updated with every patch. I also plan to add some in-game instructional videos of myself playing Dr. Mundo, and perhaps a full-length game later on.

I do not intend to add builds for DPS-Mundo or Jungle-Mundo, because it is my opinion that tank-Mundo is the only way to effectively play Mundo.

Kind regards,
UQLY

HISTORY

August 16 - 2011
Guide published

August 17 - 2011
Chapter 'HISTORY' added