Wukong Build Guide by Khair ad Din

Introduction.

Hello and welcome to my guide Wukong: Spin N' Win. Wukong is my second champion purchase, and by far my favorite champion thus far. So why don't we skip the boring usual stuff and dive right into what ya'll came here for?

I use Wukong as a burst damage champion. I utilize cooldown reduction and AD gear (explained in depth in items section) to be able to jump in and deal insane amounts of damage very quickly. CDR is essential for Wukong to be able to catch up on enemies with Nimbus Strike or unload huge damage/lower armor with Crushing Blow.

Differences Between One And Two.

The only real difference between the two builds is the items. I stay with the same masteries and runes, because they are beneficial to both item setups. Where the difference is found is gear. Build one is for maximum punishment, and Build two is used for a tankier Wukong.

NOTICE: If you use build two exactly like my setup, you are sacrificing your cool down reduction.. This build is for maximum survivability, not damage output!

Pros/Cons.

PROS:

Strong damage throughout game.
Stone Skin allows for tankiness without tank gear.
Decoy provides excellent assassination and escape chances.
Relatively easy to use.

CONS:

Runes.

Marks:
Greater Mark of Desolation: Only viable marks for Wukong being a melee champion. I feel any other mark is a complete waste.


Seals:
Greater Seal of Armor: Helps early game lane sustainability and tankiness. I choose these over the per level ones because I feel the flat boost is a greater advantage early game, than compared to having 18 more armor (if you do the math) late game.


Glyphs:
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Increased tankiness. I choose the per level ones this time because early game your magic resistance is higher than armor, and the extra resist endgame I find to be more vital because it is harder to stack magic resistance items.


Quintessences:
Greater quintessence of desolation: Armor penetration is vital to putting out the most damage quickly. When the build is finished you end with 59 armor penetration, which is brutal numbers even to tanks
Greater Quintessence of Health: Another tank rune. I have used these with build two and found success when I need the extra tankiness. It helps in boosting Atma's Impaler as well.


SIDE NOTE TO RUNE CHOICE: People have questioned my rune choice (mainly seals and glyphs). I defend my choices because the tankiness allows for a lot of first bloods and early game kills, even allows for turret diving earlier to finish off the runners.

Masteries.

After some deliberation with the new masteries, I came to the conclusion that these are so flexible it's hard to say one setup is right, and another completely wrong. However, this setup I feel benefits Wukong the most. 21/0/9

Offense I feel is pretty standard to how many people will build their trees. I want to point out the 4 points to Sorcery is greatly needed in a burst damage build that requires low CDR. That mastery along with Weapon Expertise , Sunder , and Executioner are required in my opinion, the rest is really preference.

I go with utility for the rest because it has a lot more benefit than defensive with only 9 points left. the tier one choices are up to you, but I feel you need Swiftness and Runic Affinity .

If you choose defensive over utility: I would choose Resistance , Hardiness , and Vigor . You're doing this to be more tanky, and with only 9 points, this is about as good as you're going to get. Durability gets an honorable mention, especially if you're building atmogs.

Summoner Spells.

: A great spell I almost always take. I prefer this over Flash because Decoy can be used to quickly (and stealthily) initiate, and Nimbus Strike is a closer on it's own.

: I like exhaust because with the damage output of Wukong, a lot of enemies will be running, and Wukong has no built in CC/slow after his Cyclone is used.[/color]

OTHER VIABLE SPELLS:

: This is often the go to choice for Wukong, and I will never deny it's usefulness, I have nothing against this spell, I just prefer Ghost, if you go for this, then remove Ghost

: Another skill if you want more killing power, I feel Wukong has what it takes to get the job done, but if you're having trouble finishing, I would definitely consider this. Replace Exhaust with this (on mastery tree as well).


: It seems that Teleport is a love or hate summoner spell. I feel its usefulness is very diminished end game, where the other spells maintain their use until game's end, but it can come in handy. Replace Ghost with this (on mastery tree as well).

Guide to Choosing Armor Penetration/Reduction. WHICH Is Better And WHY

I will be using the League of Legends Wiki for my basis of this informational section dedicated to showing how Armor Penetration works, which is better for Wukong, and why. I am adding this section because most people DO NOT understand how ArP actually works! Sorry for the text wall, it's the only way I know how to portray this effectively!

When attacking, armor penetration and armor reduction are applied to the target champion's armor in the following order:

1) Percentage armor reduction
2) Flat armor reduction
3) Flat armor penetration
4) Percentage armor penetration

Percent armor reduction does just that, cut targets armor by a percentage..
If the target has 30 armor and you have 20% armor reduction, the target will take damage as if it had only 24 armor.
30 − (30 × 0.2) = 30 − 6 = 24
NOTE: Percent armor reduction works more effectively on champions with greater resistances!

Flat armor reduction subtracts a flat number from the total left AFTER the percent reduction.
If the target has 30 armor and you have 20 armor reduction, the target will take damage as if it had only 10 armor.
30 − 20 = 10

Flat armor penetration IGNORES a flat amount of armor, IT IS DIFFERENT THAN REDUCTION!
If the target has 30 armor and you have 10 armor penetration, the target will take damage as if it had only 20 armor (it does not actually reduce it to 20).
30 − 10 = 20

Percentage armor penetration IGNORES a percentage of armor. Again it is VERY DIFFERENT than percent armor reduction.
If the target has 30 armor and you have 20% armor penetration, the target will take damage as if it had only 24 armor.
30 − (30 × 0.2) = 30 − 6 = 24
NOTE: Again the percentage is more beneficial if your opponent has higher resistances!

So as we can see, with Wukong, the percent reduction from Crushing Blow is added first. Followed by the flat reduction from The Black Cleaver. Then the flat armor penetration from your marks, quints, and Youmuu's Ghostblade. Then lastly the percentage armor penetration, which would be from Last Whisper if you bought it.

So let's do some math shall we?

If you opponent has 200 Armor:
Crushing Blow will subtract 30%. 200 - (200 x .30) = 200 - 60 = 140 Armor left.
The Black Cleaver will subtract (assuming you have the 3 stacks) 45. 140 - 45 = 95 Armor left
Your Marks, Quints, and Youmuu's Ghostblade now penetrate. 95 - 44.93 = 54.07
So in the End, your attack's hit as if the opponent had 54.07 armor. Assuming they started with a very substantial 200!

Adding in Last Whisper at this point, since it is calculated last would subtract 40%. So the remaining 54.07 - (54.07 x .40) = 54.07 - 21.63 = 32.44

As you can see, the minimal amount of reduction at the end of the ArP stack does not make a significant difference, and 2290 you spend on Last Whisper can be used for much more beneficial items.

Still having trouble? See my source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Armor_penetration

Build One Item Order/ Alternate Items.

: 100 health, 10 damage, and life steal, very useful early item, even with having to sell it later.

: My preferred choice of boots, I find the 15% CDR extremely useful because using Wukong's skills as often as possible is crucial to damage output and burst damage AKA why you're using this build.

: Damage, life, chance to slow, and the start of Trinity Force, very useful early on grabbing those quick kills.

: I grab this item so early for the increased CDR, the same reason you grabbed the Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Having this much CDR early makes you a real pain to enemy champions.

: grabbing Sheen before Zeal is entirely a personal preference, I like the Sheen damage proc (better burst damage) over the movement speed and critical chance increase of Zeal, but the choice is entirely yours.

: Attack speed and damage, health, mana, critical chance, movement speed, slow, and 150% bonus AD rolled into one item... Do I really need to explain this choice?

: Traditional AD item. Great AD boost (60+ potential 40= 100 extra AD). Lifesteal comes in handy for Wukong as well.

: More damage, more critical strike chance, more CDR AND more armor penetration? YES PLEASE! Not to mention the active ability allowing even higher movement and attack speed.

: I grab this mainly for the passive, considering I have nothing to help counter CC. You do not have to grab this and often I won't, because you can use your Decoy to jump in front of snares and stealth after being CC'd if you need to run.

: Again adding to your damage and speed substantially. Also gives armor reduction which makes the armor penetration you have even more deadly.[/color]

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS:

: Increased damage and more armor penetration, however the percent armor penetration is applied last and is less beneficial because all the other reductions take place first.

: Armor for tankiness, attack speed and damage, the passive can definitely come in handy as well for taking out tanks or champions like Warwick and Nasus who end the game with high life pools

: Great item if the enemy AD or DPS champion is giving you trouble.

Build Two Item Order/ Alternate Items.

: Even though this build is tanky, you still want damage output, this item is a great starter for both.

: Magic resist and tenacity, my first choice of boots when the team is heavy AP and/or has a lot of CC at their disposal. This item WILL save your life more than once.

: The reasoning for building this item in the order I do is listed in build 1, so I did not want to repeat myself. Here is the main source of damage in this build, I prefer to grab it early where the tankiness isn't as required.

: Increased tankiness, by game's end you will have over 3.5k HP, and this works in perfect unison with your next purchase Atma's Impaler.

: 45 armor, and a substantial boost in damage with your buffed Warmog's Armor. Great item for a Wukong who wants the best of both worlds, damage and survivability.

: My go to item when it comes to magic resistance. +76 is a great boost, comes with HP regeneration to help keep that high life pool up, and increased movement speed for all sorts of fun.

: Increases health which increases damage because of Atma's Impaler. Add in a nasty slow to the enemies (which is guaranteed to hit, unlike the Trinity Force which makes it viable to get both), devastating weapon.

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS:

: Same reason as build one, you will definitely not have a problem with AD champions using the tank gear plus this.

: If you decide Mercury's Treads and Ionian Boots of Lucidity are not your style, these are your best option. Be sure to grab an Eleisa's Miracle somewhere though.

: Most people's go to item if they are in need of magic resistance and the passive. I would not hesitate to grab this if you feel it is needed.

: Another item that helps both defense (armor/health) and offense (active ability).

Gameplay. MORE TO FOLLOW

Early game: Where Wukong dominates, his harrassment and burst damage has almost no equal. Use this to your advantage and rack up early kills. Remember to last hit minions, and use this combination for initiation:

Nimbus Strike, auto attack, Crushing Blow, auto attack, Exhaust (if needed) and repeat.
THIS COMBINATION IS YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER TACTIC IN FIGHTS.

If you have Decoy ready, you can use it to stealth in and out.
If Cyclone is up, use it AFTER the auto attack after your Crushing Blow hits.

As far as team fights are concerned, Wukong can be a great initiator, especially using his Decoy to stealth in, use the iniation combination from early game, using Cyclone after Crushing Blow. If your team has a tank, try and let him be the initiator, and remember to use Wukong as an assassin jumping in and out grabbing kills and fully utilizing Decoy.

IMO Wukong is NOT an auto-attacker, his main damage is from his abilities, and he is not very sustainable. So I like to burst in, hit my abilities, Decoy out and burst back in when my abilities are off cooldown, which is VERY quick considering his low cool down + CDR gear.

: I wanted to add more detail to this skill. A great way to initiate with this skill is to pop it by your team, or even in a bush. The opponents will think you are standing with your team. Sneak up on them, and unleash the fury!

Decoy is a great mechanism for escaping as well. However, do NOT use it then just run backwards in a straight line, opponents will catch on to this and "follow" you. I love running into a bush, using the skill and then running in the same direction I came from THROUGH your opponents. Many will not expect you to go back towards them. OR juke left and right with it.

The Stop Function: Pressing S will make your character instantly stop in place, causing it to look like you popped your Decoy. I have pressed S and stood still, and literally watched my opponent walk in different directions attempting to guess where I went, when I was in front of them the WHOLE TIME!

I will post pictures and videos detailing these techniques when I figure out how hehe. Anyone care to help me? PLEASE PM me!

Updates.

10/27/2011: Added Madred's Bloodrazor to Alternative Item section. Also changed build order ( Sheen before Zeal)
10/27/2011: Changed font colors using Kusoku's advice (hard on the eyes).
10/31/2011: Added more detail/tips/tricks to the Gameplay Section.
11/3/2011: Added a section explaining how ArP/reduction works.
11/4/2011: Switched The Bloodthirster with Frozen Mallet in build two.
11/7/2011: More explanation to my masteries and gameplay.
11/16/2011: New Mastery Tree
11/21/2011: Explained tree choices

Summary.

If you actually read through everything you are now ready to be a devastating Wukong. Please check back in periodically as I will be making adjustments based on my game experiences and your comments!

Constructive criticism is very appreciated, as well as general ideas, thoughts, or anything you'd like to share. PLEASE stay positive. Oh, and comment to vote.

Thanks,
Khair ad Din