Wukong Rework in Patch 10.6

Wukong reworks have been a heavy focus for Riot Games’ developers and something League of Legends fans have been eyeing for a long time. Thanks to @RiotAugust, who has been working on the Wukong rework project, the monkey king’s reworked stats and abilities have already hit the PBE and will receive much-needed love and climb the ranks of the League of Legends relevant champion pools again.

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Here’s what’s being changed:

Base Stats:
HP: 577.8 @L1 > 540 @L1
Magic Resist: 32.1 @L1 > 28 @L1
Mana per level: 265 base (+38 per level) > 300 base (+40 per level)

The base stat changes are being applied so that Wukong isn’t played that much into the mid lane where mages thrive. The additional mana bump gives this spell-based assassin more capabilities to initiate fights or look for opportunities to kill without losing the ability to fight back when going back in the laning phase.

Passive (Stoneskin):

Gains 4/6/8 armor when nearby enemy champions. Wukong also gains 0.5% hp regen per 5 seconds. These bonuses are increased by 50% when Wukong or his clone hits an enemy champion or large monster. This ability stacks up to 10 times.

Being removed in the mid lane and being promoted to the jungle, Wukong’s passive lets him have much-needed survivability and sustain in jungling. Also, this lets him have better chances of fighting AD based champions for a prolonged duration of time.

Q (Crushing Blow):

Bonus Damage: 30-130 (+0.5 Bonus Attack Damage)
Bonus Range: 75-175 (increasing per rank)
Mana Cost: 30-50 (increasing per rank)
Cast time also scales with attack speed

Updated: Crushing Blow’s cooldown is reduced by 0.5s every time Wukong or his clone deal damage with basic attacks or abilities.

The biggest takeaway about this update is Wukong’s ability to reduce the cooldown with every attack or ability. This gives Wukong an easier time to spam abilities and deliver a flurry of combos.

W (Warrior Trickster):

Updated: Using Warrior Trickster will make Wukong dash for 250 range that can go over small walls.
Removed: AoE damage when despaws
Cooldown: 20-16 (decreasing per rank)
Mana Cost: 60 at all ranks
Steal Duration: 1s at all ranks

Additionally, Warrior Trickster’s clone now has interactions with all of Wukong’s skills. Wukong’s clone deals damage mimicking his basic attacks or ultimate ability for 60-80% damage.
Basic Attacks: The clone will try to attack enemies who have been recently attacked by Wukong
Q: Empower’s the clones next attack
E: The clone gains the attack speed buff
R: The clone will start spinning and knock up enemies who haven’t been knocked up yet.

The clone now acts as an essential tool for Wukong’s overall kit instead of acting as an escape mechanic. The clone acts almost similarly to Zed’s shadow which makes it a high-value target when spawned.

E (Nimbus Strike):

Damage: 80-240 + 0.8 Ability Power magic damage (increased per rank)
Attack Speed Bonus Duration: 5s at all ranks
Cooldown: 10-8 (decreased per rank)
Mana Cost: 40-60 (increased per rank)
New: Wukong now overshoots for 75 range of the targeted unit.

The overshoot from Wukong’s reworked Nimbus Strike acts as a double-edged blade which may or may not give him an advantage is it places him a small distance behind the enemy. This ensures that he is able to cover much needed distance and continue to beat down the opponent with his combos.

R (Cyclone)

Spin Duration: 2s
Knockup Duration: 0.75s
Movement Speed while Spinning: 20%
Damage: 1.1% Total Attack Damage + 4-8% max hp
Tick Rate: Every 0.25s

New: Cyclone can now be cast twice within 9s. The second cyclone can knock the opponent up again.
Updated: Wukong can cast skills to cancel Cyclone

Being able to cast Cyclone twice helps Wukong deal in-between damage during fights. This is especially helpful when Wukong finds himself in an awkward situation where the enemy dodges his ultimate or wants to disengage.

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Currently, @RiotAugust has been test-playing Wukong on the PBE where he is constantly studying Wukong’s new kit. He aims that the champion will receive minimal buffs/nerfs when he finally comes out globally.

Which Lanes will Wukong Play In?

Jungle

Wukong is expected to make the bulk of his appearance in the jungle because of the buffs he received on his passive and W. Also, thanks to the distance buffs in his W and E, he will also make an excellent ganker.

Top Lane

Wukong also thrives in the laning phase thanks to his improved ability to harass and sustain in lane. Because of the AD majority in the Top Lane it makes it a perfect environment for the monkey king to have an easier path to leveling.

Mid Lane

While Riot Games decreased Wukong’s magic resist and base hp, Wukong can still go to the mid lane when paired up against AD midlaners such as Jayce, Corki, or Zed. Wukong also makes an excellent roamer with great wave clearing abilities in his E and W.

Wukong Runes:

Conqueror

Conqueror is probably the only relevant rune you can run on Wukong if you want to abuse his increased survivability in extended fights. Wukong will be able to abuse the Conqueror stacks with the lessened tick timer in his ultimate ability.

Other Concerns About the Wukong Rework:

In overview, Wukong received a major upgrade which will pull him out of being outdated. Riot Games has done a great job giving Wukong a new kit while retaining his identity as a champion. Thanks to his new kit, he will be able to receive much-needed playtime in both the regular and professional scene.

Although, it also looks like some of these abilities fair a little bit too well on certain match-ups. The passive, especially, might provide Wukong too much survivability as a jungler which will allow players to go for more aggressive gank or invade plays.

Overall, it is too early to say whether the Wukong rework deserves to be criticized since a lot of these stats only look good in paper. To really see how the monkey king fares in the meta, we’ll have to wait and see in actual gameplay.