Wukong: Crit King of the Dynamite Stick

Build and Guide Wukong: Crit King of the Dynamite Stick

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build

The added defense and low cooldown of Great Sage make it a great early pick. Grab Shadow Clone after and Monkey Business at Level 4. Any other level that doesn't allow for Monkey Business should prioritise Great Sage.

Items

Claves Sancti

Flashy Boots

Slikk's Sting

Fenrir's Tooth

Spear of Longinus

The Beast

Arcana

Focus any and all Red Arcana into Attack Damage and Critical Chance. Purple arcana can be used for Life Steal and Max HP. Moving onto Green arcana, focus on Armor and Armor pierce. In higher tiers, look into gaining additional Attack Speed and Cooldown Speed where possible.

Talents

Execute, Roar, Disrupt

Introduction
Wukong is an absolute monster in the right hands, and it doesn't take all that much time to master his craft. With a bit of planning and foresight, Wukong is a force to be reckoned with, pushing out high burst damage in a barrage of surprise blows before bowing out on the encounter. He isn't there to start a fight, but he'll appear to mop up.

Prioritising Attack Power above all else, Wukong sits in a fairly unique position where his Abilities rarely dish out damage. Instead, the fuel a more powerful auto-attack on use, with his trusty stick skyrocketing his Critical Chance by 15% at all times. Highly mobile and hard-hitting, he strikes fear into his enemies the moment he's spotted rolling through the river. Thankfully, he turn invisible.

Skill Build
Wukong enjoys a range of benefits from his 'God of War' passive skill. Once any of his abilities have been used, his next auto-attack deals significantly more damage that scales with any Attack Power bonuses from items and additional levels. On top of this, that very same auto-attack gains significant gap-closing capabilities, causes the Wukong to lunge toward his target at high-speed to deliver the blow. On top of an always active 15% Critical Change buff, Wukong's aim is to rapidly fire off abilities and auto-attacks in sequence to reap the benefits of high-hitting pounces with high critical hit chance.

To ensure he's able to proc his passive more and more, Wukong's first ability, Shadow Clone, turns him invisible for a time and grants a massive 40% Movement Speed boost so that he can reposition, move between the brush or edge closer to his target and lunge in with a powered-up strike.

Great Sage further cements his gap-closing capabilities by causing Wukong to quickly roll in the target direction and gaining sizeable, temporary, Armor and Magic Resist. You'll usually want to open with this to make the most of the additional survivability, but its quick cooldown makes it great for keeping the assault going or backing out if things get too hot.

Then there's Monkey Business, a simple enough ultimate ability that sends nearby enemies up into the air, stunning them for 1 second. The only ability of Wukong's to actually deal damage, it's an AOE strike that can deal massive amounts of pain should it critically hit everyone found within. Thanks to the stun, it's easy to make the most of the passive proc to deal some hefty follow-up damage.

There isn't really a strict answer when it comes to building Wukong's abilities. The main thing to keep in mind is that proccing his God of War passive is the priority, so keeping cooldown times low is how Wukong is able to thrive in a fight.

Due to the additional armor granted, picking up Great Sage at the start of the fight is in your own best interests. It may not mitigate too much damage later on, but a fixed 100 point boost to physical and magic resistance in the early levels can severely diminish the amount of damage you take when tumbling in to smack your target with a weighty stick. The roll, followed by the lunge of a procced auto-attack means Wukong can effectively deal with ranged opponents on his lane with relative easy, as once he's close, there's little they can do.

As the fights go on, figuring out where to put your skill points get a little tricky. Having more at your disposal is key, so unlock Shadow Clone and Monkey Business at Level 2 and 4 respectively. If you're not looking to creep along the brush with Shadow Clone all that often, you'll be better off focusing any additional points into Great Sage to both lower its cooldown and increase the defensive stat bonus it awards upon use.

If you're building with little Attack Power or have trouble farming the cash needed to stay ahead of the game, keeping both of your main skills fairly even in point distribution will have them come off cooldown together more often, allowing higher burst damage through God of War.

Recommended Talents
You can likely see where this is going. With so much focus on simply killing whoever he happens to run into, Wukong can make great use of a bunch of different traits; so picking one from the pile isn't always that easy.

As an Assassin-class character, Execute is bound to be the pick of choice. It's long-range strike can quickly secure a kill should the opponent be getting away with little health once Wukong's various rolls are out of play. It's also a great way to finish one target off in a team-fight so that you can immediately jump on another without much thought. It won't proc God of War, of course, but it's a finishing blow that certainly has its uses.

If you're looking for increased damage potential across numerous figh scenarios, Roar may be something to look into. Granted a generous 60% Attack Speed boost on top of a worthwhile 10% raw increase in Attack Damage for a whole 5 seconds, this can be a great way to make the most of Wukong's static 15% Critical Hit boost – especially when he's out of abilities to proc God of War's more potent strikes. Great for fighting off single-targets or the Abyssal Dragon, it's a good choice for quickly bashing down towers, too. Your focus might be elsewhere in a team-fight, though, so it's best to use it just before heading into the fray.

Sprint can certainly help Wukong rush in to speed up the kills, but he already has gap-closing covered by both his abilities and passive. For that reason, Disrupt can be a worthwhile choice in its place. Thanks to Wukong's massive auto-attack potential, silencing a Tower for 5 seconds is more than enough time for him to smash it down with a rapid combo of abilities and boosted auto-attacks. They even act as a great way to bow out of range if 5 seconds wasn't enough, or grants the time needed to jump in for a finishing blow before rolling back out.

Items
No matter the choice of build, you'll nearly always see Wukong start with the items needed to pick up Claves Sancti as soon as possible – and the reason is clear. Though he can't make us of the movement speed passive granted by the blade,  it's secondary effect of granting an additional 30% Critical Chance can't be ignored. Wukong needs Attack Power to thrive, so coming in with 100 and at least a 45% chance to land a critical strike with a boosted auto-attack means he's incredibly vicious just a few minutes into the game.

Reiterating on his reliance on proccing his auto-attack passive through the use of abilities, grabbing Flashy Boots for the 10% additional Cooldown Speed is a fairly easy choice, but don't feel like it's the perfect choice for every playstyle. The Attack Speed boost of War Boots will be noticed, while those truly meant for assassinating could enjoy the roaming power of Hermes' Select.

Back to building weapons, we're banking on those high-crit auto-attacks to do all the talking for a little while longer, with Slikk's Sting both increasing our chance to strike by another 20% while raising the damage inflicted with them by a massive 50%. The 30% Attack Speed and 5% Movement Speed boost is just icing on the cake. Now hoping to destroy an opponent without the need for repeated cooldowns, Fenrir's Tooth increases outgoing damage by 30% when our target is already below 50% - a true assassin's favorite time to strike. With 200 Attack Power on top, we're hoping 3-4 strikes is enough to put the nail in the coffin.

Lastly, we're looking to earn a sliver of Armor while keeping our damage potential rolling at high speed. Spear of Longinus gives 150 of melee mitigation while reducing the cooldown of our abilities by another 15%. 80 Attack Damage won't make too much difference right now, but the added ability to reduce the armor of our targets with each swing should allow us to deal with tanks a little easier – whether that's finishing them off or giving our allies an opportunity to strike back.

To complete our training as an assassin, The Beast is a simple pick that grants us 100 additional Attack Power. The best part, however, comes from the 25% Life Steal. Paired with our massive damage output and Attack Speed, The Beast allows us to regenerate lost health in the jungle in no time at all, meaning we're always ready to pounce on any target silly enough to roam the lanes unattended.

Arcana
With Wukong getting great joy from the smacks of his stick, the choice of Arcana is fairly simple; at least when it comes to the Red ones.

Whether they're Tier 1 or Tier 2, Red arcana should always be used to further boost Wukong's Attack Damage and Critical Chance stats. A single critical hit in the early game or laning phase is enough to have any opponent fearing for their lives, so being able to pull these off with little mid-match purchases can really catch them off guard. This can get tricky with Tier 3 arcana thanks to their numerous flavors. Your aim is still to finish off opponents in a flash, so try to stick with Critical Chance/Critical Damage/Attack Damage combos like Rampage, Obliterate, Atrocity and Blitz.

When looking at early Purple acrana, Life Steal should be more appealing thanks to Wukong's roaming tendencies, but this may change for minor survivability bonuses like Passion and Reinforce. If you want to play safe, stick with those; otherwise, grab things like Vamp, Fury. Tier 3 should be a healthy mix of Tyrant and Reave.

Greens set you into a similar position. At Tier 1, you can look to play safe with Armor bonuses to make up for what you're not picking up through items, or you can gain more tank stopping power with Armor Pierce arcana like Stab. In later tiers, the trend continues. Assault and Ravage are decent middle-ground picks, while Skewer and Focus edge out in Tier 3.

Early Game
As an assassin-class character, you'd expect to see Wukong spend most of the time in the jungle ready to gank lanes. While he's absolutely capable of this, the Jungle-specific item needed to make the most of that situation doesn't really play into his overall strategy. Instead, take up the high-damage roll in either the mid or bottom lane and start harassing your opponent with Great Sage. Popping this allows you to roll quickly and lunge at both melee and ranged targets with ease, causing respectable damage and mitigating most of what a single-target can dish back out due to the increased Armor granted upon use. Repeat this, especially with ranged opponents, to keep them from getting comfortable. When against melee opponents, rolling behind them as they farm will usually lead to your powered-up auto-attacks dealing damage to both minions and heroes in range.

Keep this strategy up for as long as possible, but don't get too eager with the towers. Due to the AOE nature of your auto-attacks, your opponent can hug their tower to have it automatically attack you whether you're aiming for them or not.

Mid Game
Hopefully with a kill or two under your belt, you're starting to feel the benefits of your item choices. You'll have each of your abilities unlocked by now, so it could be a good time to start roaming the battlefield.

Start to craft a strategy with your abilities at this point. Not only are they used to close gaps and trigger your auto-attack bonuses, but they're excellent for sneaking around, too. If you're ganking the top or bottom lanes, use Shadow Clone to sneak between the brush zones and use the resulting pounce to surprise your opponent. Similarly, you can use this when exiting the river brush to appear right behind your target to limit their chances of escape. Even if you're not really there, pulling this trick a couple of times will play mind games with the opposite team. They be increasing more cautious when you're not visible.

Due to your high-damage potential, Wukong can even act as a deterrent shield with a ranged ally like Yorn. Those who can attack the tower from outside its own attack range can be shielded by a Wukong just standing in front of them. Single opponents won't want to get close, leaving the marksmen with plenty of time to crumble the rock ahead. If you've taken Disrupt, roam a little more and look for opportunities to strike defenceless towers with your own boosted auto-attacks. Just attacking your opponents isn't the only way to apply pressure.

Late Game
By now you should have more than enough stopping power to demolish most champions on the field, but you lack the defence to simply roll into battle expecting a triple kill. Use your mobility to steal your opponent's blue and red jungle buffs to soak up additional cooldown reduction and Attack Damage. The mana can be useful if you're still killing off minions on each lane, but it's not the main focus.

At this point, you'll need to start picking your battles. Tankier heroes will still be too bulky to take down with simple auto-attacks, and you can't take too much damage yourself before succumbing to your wounds. Once you've managed to pick up The Beast, you'll have limited health regeneration, too, so don't get to hasty in your assaults.

As an assassin, you're best when taking on single enemies – either those plucking from the group or found roaming through the battlefield. When looking at a team-fight situation, you want to stay hidden as your team's ace in the hole, ready to pounce out of the brush and kill off damaged heroes with one or two strikes. Start by using Shadow Clone to edge closer to your opponent of choice – prioritising high-damage ranged opponents like Mganga, Valhein and Violet. The bolstered auto-attack here should be immediately followed up with Great Sage to dodge any tricky AOE abilities and strike again with what it hopefully another Critical Strike. If they're low enough and still surrounded by a few allies, opt to Monkey Business to land a final strike while stunning the rest, then quickly make your escape. The armor benefit of Great Sage mixed with the stun and attack speed should reduce the time the opposing team has to react to your surprise appearance.

With 'The Beast' in hand, you should have more than enough damage potential to heal back up in no time at all. Retreat to the jungles Great Sage and use Shadow Clone to traverse between the brush, throwing off any group of enemies that chased after you. Once safe, make us of the lunge to quickly kill off jungle enemies and push out lanes while your own team enjoys a team-fight with one high-damage opponent removed from the field. You can easily kill things like the Abyssal Dragon and Spirit Sentinel at this point, but being ready to pounce back into the fray will, risk assessment permitting, yield better overall results.

Just keep an eye on the encounters, don't get too greedy, and use the shadows to finish off any high-value targets.

FAQ/Tips
God of War doesn't stack with each ability used. Try to spend the boost before overwriting it with another. Even if on a minion.

On top of movement speed boosts and quick rolls, Wukong will travel a long distance to strike his target after any ability. You always have a way to chase.

Thanks to his sweeping auto-attacks, Wukong has a hard time hitting towers with an opponent sat underneath. Take Disrupt or let someone else deal with it.

Wukong has high damage potential, but low mitigation. Don't overstay your welcome in a fight and get out before you take a crippling blow.

Matchups
Wukong doesn't necessarily need to work well with others in order to survive. As an assassin, he's more interested in letting everyone else do the dirty work while he mops up toward the end. Still, paired up with allies who can reduce the damage likely to find its way to him as he dives in to fulfil his duty would help. Similarly, any character capable of singling out an opponent for him to prey on – like Grakk with his hook or Aleister's Magic Barrier – could work well here. Tanks tend to give Wukong a run for his money due to their bulky exterior and consistent stuns, but opponent's with slower burst capabilities, like Fennnik, will likely fall victim to his stick in no time at all.

When paired against a Wukong, the best you can hope for is to stay as a group. If going it alone, always have an escape plan and attempt to always keep something between you and him; like a lingering AOE spell, wall or minions. With high manoeuvrability and high outgoing damage, your focus should be on preventing him from triggering too many abilities. Stuns work wonders here, but keeping your distance when alone, or sticking with a group really is the best counter attack here. Use projectile attacks to check the brush for threats if you suspect he may be around, and try to stop him from holding onto the blue buff for too long. That cooldown reduction makes a difference.