Major Wukong buffs are coming to League’s PBE

A Wukong rework has been on the cards for some time, but only now is it coming to full fruition. 

Riot is targetting the staff-wielding Monkey King with major changes across the board, focusing on his Crushing Blow (Q), his Warrior Trickster (W), and his ultimate ability. 

In terms of win rate, Wukong has dropped down to a miserable 47.22 percent in the jungle position, one of the absolute lowest in League of Legends. His outdated and lackluster kit has been his shortfall, and over time, he’s fallen out of favor. To combat this, and help to transform Wukong into a worthwhile champion again, he’s receiving a well-needed update. 

As well as a pure stats boost to Wukong’s Q, increasing its bonus damage, its range, and its armor shred duration, it now has an entirely new effect. Whenever Wukong or his clone deal damage with basic attacks or spells, Q’s CD will be reduced by 0.5 seconds. To balance this, its overall cooldown is being increased from 9 to 5 to 10 to 6 seconds, and its mana cost from 40 to 30 to 50. But its cast time will also scale with attack speed. 

Next on the long list of changes, Wukong’s W, similar to Kindred’s Q, has had a 300 range dash added to it, allowing him to jump over small walls. Its stealth duration has been decreased from 1.5 to 1 seconds, though, it no longer deals AoE magic damage on despawn, and its cooldown has been increased from 18 to 10 to 22 to 14 seconds. It’s mana cost, however, has been decreased from 50 to 70 to a flat 50. 

But the biggest change to Wukong, and the one that has the potential to make the most impact on the champion, is his ultimate. It can now be cast a second time within a 7 second period. The second cast will not knock up enemies hit by the first, and its spin duration has been reduced from 4 to 2 seconds, but it will give him the opportunity to close gaps.

Each of the experimental changes to Wukong will available to test on League’s PBE today.

Full list of Wukong changes

Base Stats

• Magic resistance: 32.1 to 28
• Health: 577.8 to 540

Passive – Stone Skin

• Armor: 4/6/8 per nearby champion to 5+1/level
• MR: 4/6/8 per nearby champion to removed
• Now grants 1 percent max health regen per 5 seconds
• Bonuses (armor and regen) are increased by 4x when 3 or more enemy champions are nearby
• Now checks for enemies every 0.25 seconds (from every 1 second)

Q – Crushing Blow

• Bonus Damage: 10-130 (+0 to 40 percent AD) to 30-110 (+0.7 BAD)
• Bonus Range: 125-75 to 175
• Armor Shred Duration: 3 seconds to 4 seconds
• [NEW] Whenever Wukong or his clone deal damage with basic attacks or spells, Q’s CD is reduced by 0.5 seconds
• Cooldown: 9-5 to 10-6 seconds
• Mana cost: 40 to 30-50 mana
• Cast time now scales with Attack Speed

W – Warrior Trickster

• [NEW] Added a 300 range dash that can go over small walls (the same as Kindred Q)
• Stealth duration: 1.5 seconds to 1 second
• No longer does AoE damage on despawn
• Cooldown: 18-10 seconds to 22-14 seconds
• Mana cost: 50-70 to 50 mana
• The clone now mimics Wukong’s attacks and ultimate but deals 30-70 percent damage
• Basic attacks: the clone will attempt to attack enemies Wukong has recently attacked
• Q: empowers clone’s next attack
• E: the clone gains the AS buff
• R: the clone starts spinning and will knock up enemies that haven’t been knocked up already
• The clone mirrors Wukong’s animation state on spawn
• Attacks from towers instantly kill the clone

E – Nimbus Strike

• Damage: 65-205 (+.8 BAD) physical to 80-260 (+1.0 AP) magic
• Attack Speed buff duration: 4 seconds to 5 seconds
• Cooldown: 8 seconds to 10-8 seconds
• Mana cost: 45-65 to 40-60 mana
• Offset distance from unit dashed to: 0 to 75
• The dash now follows the target, similar to Lee Sin Q

R – Cyclone

• R can now be cast a second time within 7 seconds. The second cast will not knock enemies hit by the first
• Spin duration: 4 seconds to 2 seconds
• Damage per second: 20-200 (+1.1 TAD) to 1.2 TAD +2.5-8.5 percent (+1 percent/100 AD) max health MS while spinning: 5-40 percent based on time >>> 20/30/40 percent based on skill rank
• Time before you can cancel the spin: 1 second to 0.5 seconds
• Tick rate: 0.5s to 0.25s
• Each tick of damage now applies Conqueror
• Attack range while spinning: 175 to 50 (This will make Wukong get closer to his target)
• Wukong can now cast other spells to cancel R, stopping the spin
• E’s attack speed duration is refreshed while spinning
• Added a buff timer to the spell icon to show how much spin time is left