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Wukong Update- Progress Report!

RiotRiot Lutzburg·11/27/2019, 11:01:08 PM·1 votes·72,659 views

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you all an update on the status of the Wukong changes we've been working on for the last few weeks.  When we last spoke about it, the team and I were beginning to dive into the existing work we had started earlier in the year.  We regrouped and defined a few key goals for what we wanted to accomplish with these changes, based on the feedback we got from Wukong players.  Those goals are:

  1. Give Wukong more tools and agency to make proactive plays during the laning phase
  2. Provide Wukong with quality-of-life improvements where possible
  3. Shift Wukong's power curve towards early game instead of late game

Wukong has a very sharp win rate percentage based on game time, getting as low as 42% before Baron spawns to as high as 58% once the game has gone on for 35+ minutes.  These changes should help smooth out that curve, so that Wukong feels competitive in the early game without dominating team fights with his innate tankiness and high burst damage.

For the quality-of-life improvements, I did my best to listen to the fans and focus on the areas you cited as most frustrating- high mana costs and low Passive/R satisfaction.  In addition to these upgrades, Wukong is gaining extremely powerful new tools in the form of** a free-target dash, more convincing clone deception, and a physical damage shield**.

Here is the change list we're currently working on.  Note that these changes are relative to THE LIVE GAME; not the last version you saw on the PBE or on our forums.

P- Stone Skin:

  • REMOVED- Wukong no longer gains resistances for nearby enemy Champions
  • NEW- Whenever Wukong is invisible to the enemy team for at least 1 second, he gains a temporary physical damage shield based on his maximum health.  After being spotted, the shield disperses after a few seconds

We've been experimenting with a new Passive that grants Wukong a temporary physical damage shield.  The idea here is to increase Wukong's lane power and outplay potential while reducing his innate tankiness in team fights.  We've been trying a handful of different versions, but here's the most recent.  Note that it might change!

We see this as a tool to reward extended trading patterns, incentivizing Wukong to dip in and out of brushes and use W as a re-engage tool rather than just an escape tool.  We're hoping this manifests in some cool top lane brush out-plays!

Q- Wuju Strike:

  • Mana cost lowered to a flat 30 from 40
  • CD reduced by 1 sec at all ranks
  • NEW- Spell's cost is refunded if it kills a unit 

W- Warrior Trickster:

  • Now instantly dashes towards the player's cursor instead of a short range blink
  • Dash is 350 range and 1200 speed.  Can NOT go over walls
  • Clone is now treated as a stationary Champion and will attack nearby enemies, prioritizing the last enemy Wukong damaged
  • Clone's attacks deal a scaling 50-100% of Wukong's AD based on spell rank and apply on-hit effects
  • Clone looks identical to Wukong's animation state on spawn, and animates as if he pressed the "S" key

E- Nimbus Strike:

  • Tertiary target range check increased significantly
  • Now deals magic damage instead of physical

R- Cyclone:

  • Tick rate increased to every .25 sec from .5 (damage halved to compensate)
  • Damage ratio increased to 1.25 AD/sec from 1.1
  • Bonus movement speed is now a flat 30% instead of ramping up 5-40% over the duration
  • E's attack speed buff now pauses while R is active
  • Wukong can now cancel R early by casting another ability or recasting R

Hoping these buffs make it more attractive to channel Cyclone for the full duration, rather than always canceling it after the knock-up.

We're aiming to push these changes to the PBE sometime in December.  Based on your feedback, outstanding bugs and a general balance pass, we aren't able to provide an exact release date just yet.  We're still exploring some experimental mechanics outside of the update's original scope, which takes extra time we didn't initially account for.  I understand this news will frustrate some of you, but I hope this list proves that we're committed to meaningfully improving Wukong's play experience. 

Thank you for your patience,

-Lutzburg

223 Comments

Decoy Reborn11/28/2019, 2:43:36 PM35 votes

Hey Lutzburg , Thank you for letting us know that you've been sacrificing time for this work and spending energy ,speaking of mana problems reducing 10 mana from an ability like Q isn't a big solve , We would like a new mana pool stats 265 compared to other Bruisers / or any Top laner !!, and i personnally think doubling the w dash and making it unable to go through thin walls at least makes no sense and , the main problem who makes MonkeyKing in a bad spot especially in the Top Lane is his lack of Q's early Damage but you only reduced 10 Mana on it but no damage changements also would prefer to keep the prototype Q heal was kinda healthy for Wukong , providing him sustain because its a really reasonable to make him viable and that's every MonkeyKing's Hope ! [ Warrior trickster ] : the new W is good but as i mentioned 350 range but cannot go throught walls makes no sense [ Nimbus Strike ] : i know you guys want to shift MonkeyKing nature from being an assassin to a bruiser but his e was the only tool we're opening trade making it dealinp magic damage and not making him scale with physical will hurt him soo much !! also we would like to keep the prototype's one [ Cyclone ] : his lvl 6 r still remain bad because it deals less damage than garen E !! but i still like the new R Changements !! finishing with passive i surmise the new passive would fit ! despite the previous one was good too ! and one last question aren't volcanic and general wukong getting a new game visual update ?? :) Thank you again !! MonkeyKing Hope our love will rise again !! MonkeyKing

Infernape11/27/2019, 11:25:25 PM31 votes

Tbh I preferred the original prototype kit's passive.

Joeda8911/28/2019, 12:39:54 AM31 votes

First of, thank you for continuing to work on the monkey. though I do have some major concerns about this iteration, its all just initial concerns. It is entirely possible that when I play this version on the pbe, that all my concerns will be alleviated and I will love this version more than the other one that went up several months ago.

I'm a bit disappointed. Aphelous and Diana are about to break the game in half but these changes felt so...restrained. Couple of major concerns:

P- Stone Skin:

REMOVED- Wukong no longer gains resistances for nearby enemy Champions NEW- Whenever Wukong is invisible to the enemy team for at least 1 second, he gains a temporary physical damage shield based on his maximum health. After being spotted, the shield disperses after a few seconds

I'm really concerned that this passive will be even more useless than his current one. The armor/mr wasnt great but it was always on/always helping. Wu has 0 ways to keep enemies fighting so why wouldn't they just avoid fighting until the passive wears off. There are already a tone of anti-physical champs in the game and having another physical shield seems flat/disappointing. Even the other passive of gaining a huge amount of arm/mr but needing at least 3 enemies felt better.

Q- Wuju Strike:

Mana cost lowered to a flat 30 from 40 CD reduced by 1 sec at all ranks **NEW- Spell's cost is refunded if it kills a unit **

This change is fantastic. This is the shining light so far. Nothing bad to say. If anything else about this ability changes please keep the mana refund.

W- Warrior Trickster:

Now instantly dashes towards the player's cursor instead of a short range blink Dash is 350 range and 1200 speed. Can NOT go over walls Clone is now treated as a stationary Champion and will attack nearby enemies, prioritizing the last enemy Wukong damaged Clone's attacks deal a scaling 50-100% of Wukong's AD based on spell rank and apply on-hit effects Clone looks identical to Wukong's animation state on spawn, and animates as if he pressed the "S" key

This is probably the biggest disappointment in the whole kit. This ability has the most potential design but this is just kinda useless. The damage is only useful for jungling. Lets be honest. No one is going to put early points into this ability. It's going to be a 1 point ability for a long time. So I dont really care if the ad goes up as it scales. Dashing quickly is way less useful than escaping over walls. Not even close. W should have been where the damage mitigation was placed, not his passive. IF AN ENEMY DAMAGES MY CLONE I SHOULD BE REWARDED! Please implement this. This is one of the few ways wu players can really express themselves. The number of aoe abilities now is insanely high. Clone is not a damage mitigation ability in the current state of the game. It may feel bad/frustrating to chase a wukong and have him dash over a wall but guess what. Its frustrating for every champ that does. Why do those other champs get a way out but not wukong. It's always frustrating when a champ dashes over a wall regardless of which champ it is so please don't single out wu.

E- Nimbus Strike:

Tertiary target range check increased significantly Now deals magic damage instead of physical

Looks fine. As long as it doesn't scale of ap it should be ok.

R- Cyclone:

Tick rate increased to every .25 sec from .5 (damage halved to compensate) Damage ratio increased to 1.25 AD/sec from 1.1 Bonus movement speed is now a flat 30% instead of ramping up 5-40% over the duration ** E's attack speed buff now pauses while R is active** Wukong can now cancel R early by casting another ability or recasting R

I really like the tick rate increase and the move speed being instant. That's gonna feel great. Was it really so out of the question to add some kind of attack speed scaling. I'm pretty sure garen e is still gona out damage a lvl 6 wukong ult. Realistically we are only going to get maybe 2-3 ticks in before it becomes better to cancels the ult to auto or q or e. This doesn't solve the problem that a DoT ult like his just feels bad unless we get something for hitting every single tick. A DoT ult is inherently worse that an ult that deals its damage up front. Lastly, could the range on r be increased by like 1-10 units so that it has the same range as q. Currently Q range is larger than ult range, so often you will hit a max range q then immediate r, only for them to be out of range.

Thank you again for working on the monkey. I may very well be in the minority but I still wanted to share my thoughts as a long time wu player.

HayashiSho12/2/2019, 9:44:54 PM12 votes

Wukong monkey king Passive “Admiralty/金钟罩”: Wukong gains a % of tenacity and HP for every enemy in range Q “Golden hoop/金箍棒 Jingubang(Chinese name)” : instant cast Wukong hits one enemy and reduces his defense for a few seconds. charge cast Wukong stretches his weapon straight ahead pushing the enemy or enemies back for a tiny range and slowing them. W “replace clone/替换术” : when Wukong is targeted from spells or traps he can use a clone to replace him( example if cait ults me or I got trapped from her, I can use W to summon a clone who will became the target of those spells) and wukong can blink for a small range and get a boost of movement speed for 0,5s. PS: w blink can’t overpass walls E passive “speedy cloud/筋斗云”: out of combat for 8s wukong can ride his speedy cloud for a boost of movement speed . E active “Grandchildren!!!/儿孙们！”: wukong jumps for a range not too small and neither too large and hit enemies for a circle , for every enemies hit in that circle will summon a wukong grandchild/clone that will attack one enemy(the one targeted by wukong) for 1s. R active “Party time/大闹天宫”: wukong summons an army of clones for a rectangular or half lunar size,this wave of clones will run and knock enemies up and do just a very tiny amount of dmg(if this ultimate does a huge dmg would be broken) . R passive “golden eyes/火眼金睛”: when the ultimate is at lv 1/2/3(champ lv 6/11/16) wukong can see through walls and bushes for a range of 300/350/400 . I’m a fan of wukong ,I love this character! I imaginate this for a wukong rework, I actually used every skills from the wukong of journey of the the west ,where wukong is inspired from. I actually think wukong should be a bruiser ad jungler so the most of his spells should wok on jungle camps too like E to summon clones for jungling. Actually the present Wukong has not too much connection to his really design, so I thought for a Wukong who actually has more skills from original design like golden eyes. I actually think Chinese fans would like this one and hope other fans would like it too , and obviously hope u riot guys can read my hints !

Poldy Scarecrow11/27/2019, 11:41:58 PM10 votes

Compared to the previous rework iteration, he's lost the bonus resist around 3 people/ Q heal/ extra range after ability & the wall dash. I'm really disappointed by their removal especially the heal and wall crossing. He still doesn't have much counterplay and his options are still really limited imo. I know outspoken people like Harambe basically wanted live version with buffs but keeping it so close to live doesn't solve much of Wukong's issues at all.

Blukachu11/27/2019, 11:29:20 PM9 votes

So basically we have the exact same chamo with a couple of sweet buffs? Im kind of happy with this. I think its to do with the fact that the goals for the changes have changed from the last time Wu was on the PBE.

Does that mean you guys are happy with Wukong still building lethality and being a squishy assassin? Because thats what these changes suggest... just a handful of buffs to his existing kit.

Minecraft11/27/2019, 11:42:03 PM8 votes

Thank you so so much, these changes look amazing. I got a couple of questions and criticisms though:

While I do agree with the duskblade like passive, I kinda dislike the shield for some reason, I don't feel like it really fits in (I play both bruiser and assassin Wukong). Have you had any other ideas on this passive like maybe tenacity or an attack speed/cdr steroid? Are these all the changes being made, meaning the previous changes you announced are being reverted? Is the old new stacking passive still in the kit or did you leave it out?

I appreciate your work so much, this looks like the perfect update to me apart from what I have mentioned.

Wukong Airlines11/28/2019, 12:24:13 AM7 votes

@Riot Lutzburg, thank you for listening to us and give us a shield instead of resistances with requirements. I see those changes are really good [but it depends on the numbers] I wanna ask about the : Passive [is it still 2 parts with stackable damage % or just the shield]? [Q], does it still have the same passive [ranged auto attack after each ability]? and what type of damage will it have?

I'm still wondering if there's a possibility for additional CC or skillshot changes. why dont we try to give Q a skillshot range if we keep holding the button? with some sort of soft CC or side push/knockup ?

TSM Doubledîck11/27/2019, 11:30:35 PM7 votes

Reason to switch AD ratio into AP ratio on his e? For real wtf, the rest of changes were insane, but this one makes no sense

ValiantKiller11/28/2019, 12:44:33 AM6 votes

The first kit change back then to wukong was better to that version , if anything i liked about this new kit is his R otherwise nah i want the first changes. I want his passive to have resist , range on his skills cast and his q with magic damage and healing.

He was perfect in every where from trading in lane to jungle, just add that R changes to the first kit change and we will be fine to go. And please for the love of God, just hurry and let him out on live i can't enjoy playing your game anymore.

SS5DEJAN11/27/2019, 11:44:29 PM6 votes

So did he lose the damage increase mark his passive had? So now he lost his armor shred, damage increase, and resistances? On top of that his E now deals magic damage, will it at least scale off AD still? He definetly seems more bruiser now but I'm worried because bruisers in general arnt in a promising spot right now either. Guess we will see.

Burki11/30/2019, 11:16:56 AM6 votes

TLDR; MonkeyKing

  • Make him more of a trickster that works in every elo in the first way (play around Clone)
  • Damage dealt from the clone to champions or getting dealt to by champions should be rewarded (Heal/Stun/other)
  • Wall jumps with the clone give lots of utility and juke potential, thinking he can use the alcoves more than other champions
  • Ult gets stacks and gets increased range when getting a certain amount of those

First of all thanks for all the work you put in, I like all ideas, however I still want to share mine. Last time I focused on the Mechanical Aspect of things. Now I focuse on everything I want to add and share. I hope you like some of the ideas and I didn't waste your time reading this.

Passive: Stone Skin Questions after reading:

  1. Does he wear the shield everytime he's out of enemy vision? (for example in the Jungle)
  2. How exactly does it refresh, is there a punishment when its broken?

Ideas:

  • Should have a visual character animation as in the Prototype Rework imo :)
  • Like to test the Idea of a shield, sounds great for in and out combats and team fight engagements.

Q: Wuju Strike Would love to test that out, however this only fixes some mana Issues. But we'll see when it's on pbe :)

W: "Warrior Trickster"

  1. I would love to keep it "Decoy"
  2. There are plenty Ideas for this one, all would be quality of life changes, all are optional and should ofc. not be seen as a package. However can be combined.
  3. Keep the dash over walls from the Prototype Rework. Enables ganks, escapes, to use the new alcoves, and jukes by standing still when facing a wall.

Ideas: Reward the Player when clone is used clever and successfully:

  • Attacking the clone lowers attackers Armor
  • Clone Auto Attacks heal Wukong for a percentage of his missing HP
  • Clone Auto Attacks put a mark on the enemy --> Wukongs Attacks or spells consume that mark, causing Healing/stun the target for a short time/refund CD on W/giving enemy the Grounded effect
  • After 2 Clone Auto Attacks against the same target, Wukong Heals/enemy stunned/enemy grounded

E: Nimbus Strike Nice changes!

R: Cyclone Also agree with these changes. Will continue mentioning that I would love to use Tiamat during ult :D

Ideas

  • Hitting Champions generates a stack on the ultimate, Max 3 Stacks --> The range increases (So does his staff) after getting 3 Stacks on it. This would make it better after a short time in team fights and may be a reason for not cancelling it. Also makes it better in 1v1 when the enemy tries to run away from it.

Cheers! <3 [slayer-jinx-catface]

Thighonia11/28/2019, 6:29:09 AM5 votes

Why the hard pivot away from the previous version? the previous rework was much more exciting and fit the theme better. I guess its not a one shot assassin though so it alienates the newer wukong players. Pretty disappointing honestly not sure how this smooths out his current problems when its just a straight upgrade to the current kit really.

LÈ APE11/27/2019, 11:32:21 PM3 votes

[deleted]

Donkey Kong Jr11/29/2019, 6:31:36 PM2 votes

Stop complaining about magic dmg guys.

Magic damage is definitely the right decision. I always read that it's bad for lethalitybuilds but you have to understand that lethality wukong doesn't fit well into the game because he has low basestats and needs a damage buff but that's not easy because wukong can quickly get too strong again like lutzburg or meddler said before. So now they are working on new ideas so that magicdamage fits into wukong's kit and wukong is easier to balance without going too far. Moreover many don't see that pure AD is a weakness of his earlygames there as meddler and lutzburg said he can be countered easily with only a little early amor. We want a Wukong update guys not only a buff so please understand their decisions.

Qustion to @Riot Lutzburg :

I am absolutely happy with both new versions but didn't really understand if they are mixed or the latest version is based on the current wukong. What is it?

And also a BIG THANK YOU for that Christmas present.

Judge HawkEye 12/18/2019, 7:42:00 PM1 votes

Hey, quick question. before Wukong went as bad as he is rn, I used to enjoy playing Wukong in the jungle. Will these changes affect his jungling game negatively? because as a jungler I would still love to play him there.

Thank you for your time.

Saìyan12/3/2019, 8:04:44 PM1 votes

Why cant wu just have his whole kit be ad dmg why this magic dmg on his e now? Also if possible i know everyone is bothering you already but can we get numbers to his kit so far? example. (like his scaling % how his E actually works now atk sped % this much % magic dmg but its flat 200 physicaly dmg etc.) cause i see that ap dmg and i actually choked i was drinking something at the time but this made me choke lol

CarnivorousSnake12/13/2019, 2:39:00 AM1 votes

I dislike the w since it can’t go through and trying to force him into top lane where he should be more comfortable in the jungle and plus his passive doesn’t make sense since you should gain a shield after you you’re spotted not when you’re invisible, with his e is no point when you’re building ad when it deals magic damage

Miss Genki11/29/2019, 10:44:05 PM1 votes

I don't like the new passive. It is directly tied to W. So until you have W you don't have a passive. It should be a passive on the W and do something else for his passive. Either that or allow it to function like Duskblade with an ICD after the shield has been damaged so you can use brush and FoW to your advantage.