The Monkey King Wukong will be receiving a much-needed update to his gameplay kit during the 2019 preseason.
Wukong was released in July 2011 and his kit has remained largely unchanged outside of minor stat tweaks and bugfixes. The champion was a strong top laner during early seasons in both ranked and competitive play. But Wukong slowly became a less viable pick as League of Legends continued to evolve. Today the Monkey King has one of the lowest pick rates in the game, and a poor winrate to boot.Â
Developer Riot Games’ Lutzburg says that the design team is working to return Wukong to the spotlight with a preseason rework.
“We want to take this opportunity to improve Wukong and give him some new tools to succeed in Season 10 and beyond. These tools will include alternative build paths that focus on higher durability, and new ways to capitalize on Wukong’s tricky nature,” Lutzburg said.
Wukong’s new passive grants the champion armor and magic resistance when he is near three or more enemy champions. The Monkey King also gains bonus attack range on his next basic attack after using any ability.
The champion’s new Q deals less physical damage but now deals bonus magic damage that also heals Wukong. The Q now has an added passive that adds a stacking debuff after each auto attack that increases the damage dealt by a percentage. Auto attacks from Wukong’s clones can also stack this passive.
Wukong’s W still sends the champion into stealth and leaves behind a clone, but now the Monkey King dashes a short distance and can even use the ability to hurdle over small walls. The clone cannot move and will attack nearby targets for 50% of Wukong’s damage.
Speaking of clones, Wukong’s new E creates doppelgangers that also dash towards nearby targets. These clones can intercept spells and be targeted.
Lastly, the only change made to Wukong’s R is that it can now be canceled by activating another ability.
Expect these changes to hit live servers during the preseason update.
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