How to play Doctor Mundo’s rework to its full potential

Doctor Mundo, Zaun’s resident mad “doctor” had a rework earlier this year to make his gameplay feel more modern. With that change, Mundo lost a little bit of his straightforward nature, with a new passive mini-game and a couple of key changes.

It’s worth looking to professional players and highly ranked solo queue stars to see exactly how to optimize the new Mundo’s kit. From abilities to build, there’s a lot to hone if you’re looking to grab the reins of the rework and learn how to play Mundo.

Is Dr. Mundo a top laner or a jungler?

The truth is that while Mundo can be played in either the jungle or the top lane, he’s strongest as a top laner. There are still ways to play Mundo as a jungler that will be covered in this breakdown, but the focus will be on Doctor Mundo as a top laner.

Most of Mundo’s kit remained similar during his rework, but the most noticeable one is his new passive, which allows him to ignore crowd control effects the first time he’s hit by crowd control. When he ignores the crowd control, a Hextech capsule launches off of Mundo, costing him a portion of his health. Walking over the spot where the capsule lands will substantially reduce the cooldown until he can next ignore crowd control.

Apart from this, his kit is similar to before. His Q throws a cleaver that deals % current health damage and his W gives him damage reduction for a short duration and heals for enemies struck. His E deals damage to a target, and if it kills the target it sends the corpse flying, dealing damage to enemies behind it. His ultimate, as iconic as ever, grants enormous amounts of health regeneration, bonus attack damage, bonus movement, and increased base health.

How to play Mundo rework like the pros

Most professional players choose to take Mundo to the top lane, opting for Grasp of the Undying as their keystone rune. Mundo is great at getting in slap fests with other melee top laners and Grasp rewards him for short, purposeful trades with exactly what he wants, more maximum health.

As secondary runes from the Resolve tree, most pros take Demolish, Bone Plating, and Unflinching. These help Mundo’s lane dominance, with more Tenacity giving him increased use in team fights. As a secondary tree, the popular choice is Inspiration with Magical Footwear and Approach Velocity, both allowing you to close in on a target struck with Mundo’s cleaver with more ease.

If you are going to take Mundo into the jungle, his sustain can be lacking early, so Fleet Footwork helps him clear more healthily and keep up with laners during ganks thanks to a burst of movement speed. The secondary rune choices in Precision for Mundo are Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and Last Stand. The secondary tree of choice is still Inspiration with the same two options as top lane Mundo.

Mundo tends to build Sunfire Aegis or Frostfire Gauntlet, pairing the tank mythic with Plated Steelcaps and filling out the rest with defensive items that best match up into the enemy team. Mundo’s passive already lets him ignore a lot of crowd control, so Mercury Treads have lessened usefulness on him. Mundo can be reliant on other champions for damage, so make sure you have good carries to back you up if you want to lock in Mundo.