After the rework, Wukong quickly became a top priority choice in many roles, especially in the top lane. Although his skill set hasn’t changed too much, maximizing the power of this champion is not something you can learn just through a few matches.
Below is a comprehensive guide on how to play the new Wukong after the rework so you can confidently use him to “dominate” every match in the near future:
The biggest difference between old Wukong and new Wukong
Before we officially start learning to play the new Wukong, we need to understand the key changes and differences from the old version. Most of his abilities retain their core identity and function, but there are some small details that change, requiring players to be more nuanced in their usage.
Overall, Wukong’s passive still aims to make him stronger, his Q still enhances his basic attack, W creates a clone, E lunges at the enemy, while his ultimate still spins and knocks up enemies.
In terms of gameplay, before the rework, he was quite similar to an Assassin, able to leverage his mobility and abilities to one-shot the enemy carry with the E – Q – R combo and then escape. Now, Wukong leans more towards a Fighter playstyle due to changes related to his scaling ratios.
In summary, the new Wukong is more suited and excels in prolonged team fights rather than short burst damage as before. Additionally, he also requires higher player skill as he has more potential combos, and his clone needs to be used for attacking rather than defending. In terms of in-game role, the new Wukong can be played in top, mid, and jungle, but he seems worse when facing AP matchups and stronger against AD opponents.
Now that we understand how Wukong’s abilities have changed, let’s explore his item build, rune page, and skill upgrade order.
For the purpose of this article, we will focus on Wukong’s top lane role as this will be his most common build path.
Wukong’s Item Build
To start, you have quite a few options depending on your matchups.
Buy a Longsword + Health Potion or Doran’s Blade if you want to play aggressively, Doran’s Shield if you want to play defensively, and a Corrupting Potion if you want to balance between both playstyles.
On your first recall, Tiamat is a good choice as it will help Wukong clear minions better and is an important component for building Ravenous Hydra later on (a very suitable item for Fighters).
After Tiamat, you can consider choosing between Galeforce or Black Cleaver, but we lean more towards Galeforce as the additional attack speed it provides is very suitable for his new Q.
Death’s Dance is the ideal item when combined with Wukong’s passive and the Conqueror rune, as it is a great item in extended team fights.
The third item is slightly more complex, but we recommend finishing Tiamat into Ravenous Hydra or Titanic Hydra depending on your game situation.
If the game seems like it could end quickly, go for Ravenous Hydra, but if you are looking to scale in power towards the late game, Titanic Hydra is the optimal choice.
If you are a new player or struggling to assess the match situation, go straight for Titanic Hydra as this will be the most suitable choice.
Remember that you don’t really need any specialized tank items thanks to Wukong’s passive.
If you want to try other options, here are some other items that can fit him depending on the matchup and your game situation.
Since Wukong is now a Fighter, the Conqueror keystone from the Precision tree will be the optimal choice in most situations.
You will want to combine this rune with Triumph, Legend: Attack Speed, and Coup de Grace or Last Stand.
Legend: Tenacity is also a good choice in certain matchups.
In most cases, experts recommend players to choose Domination as Wukong’s secondary rune tree, however, depending on the situation and your personal preferences and playstyle, you can make different choices.
Wukong’s Skill Upgrade Order
Some players advocate for the max skill order for Wukong to be Q, E, W, but others have recently preferred E, Q, W instead.
Wukong’s power thresholds haven’t changed too much, but note that his early game power threshold is currently weaker in terms of burst damage.
Levels 2 and 3 are decent all-in levels while level 6 is extremely strong.
Combo
Unlike the old version of Wukong, this reworked version will be much more flexible in how he can combine abilities and initiate fights. This means he has a lot of potential based on your situation – thus we will not list every combo for the new Wukong but focus on the most reliable combos.
The standard all-purpose combo of Wukong that you should use is E – auto – W – auto – Q – R – auto – R – auto – Q.
Wukong’s ultimate will reduce the cooldown of Q when dealing damage, so make sure to use Q before you use your ultimate. If played correctly, your Q can significantly reduce its cooldown when you finish your ultimate.
This means you can use combos like auto – Q – R – auto – Q – R.
How to Play Wukong
1. Laning Phase (Levels 1 – 6)
Step 1 (Level 1):
The reworked Wukong can still trade well using E, so don’t hesitate to poke your opponent with E and your basic attacks.
Step 2 (Levels 2 and 3):
Remember that Wukong’s clone is now a tool for attacking, so avoid using W on E.
Step 3 (Levels 3 – 5):
From levels 3 to 5, you have a choice. You can set up an all-in play for level 6 by taking down your opponent and controlling the wave towards you.
Of course, this depends on the matchup, but in most cases, Wukong’s level 6 is often stronger than his opponent as his clone can also mimic the ultimate.
When the early game and laning phase are over, it’s time to join team fights. In this section, we will introduce you to the two most popular playstyles of Wukong currently.
Option 1: Flank Playstyle
Although Wukong is no longer an Assassin, he still benefits from finding good angles to engage in a fight.
After your first ultimate activation, you will need to quickly decide whether to reactivate for a second time to take down the enemy backline or
If you choose to defend, you can look to re-engage with your E or W. Just remember to always keep your stacks to maximize Wukong’s passive.
Option 2: Direct Confrontation
If you don’t want to find an angle to flank the enemy, you will need to confront them directly to stack your passive and Conqueror and find a way to dive into the enemy backline.
If you can’t engage with E’s range, don’t worry as this means the enemy team has to back off too far and keep their distance from you. Once you get close to the enemy backline, refer back to the previous section and decide what to do with your ultimate.
Essentially, all of Wukong’s playstyle revolves around how to approach the enemy backline. Once you achieve this, your subsequent options are quite similar.