@Riot - Any upcoming plans for Mundo? I feel he's left out in all the Juggernaut updates.

Hi League Boards and Riot, worstbaroncalls here. A little info about me. I hit Plat 3 season 3, got to Diamond 2 season 4, and am currently stuck between Plat 2/Plat 1 this season because I suck :p Anyways, I usually tend to play tanky/bruiser-ish guys, ie Juggernauts. This season, I've played a good bit of Dr. Mundo, and I find him relatively fun, though a tad bit on the weak side. I was excited to see the recent Juggernaut reworks, and when I heard that there were more upcoming, I was curious to see what you would have in store for Mundo.

However, from what I've read, only Shyvana and Olaf have upcoming Juggernaut reworks/updates? This confuses me because, IMO, Mundo is almost the archetypal Juggernaut. I could be wrong because my win rate with him does suck, but his overall play pattern seems to be to dive the opposing team and get to their carries, all the while relying on his pure tank items and innate damage to create chaos in team fights. No gap closers, hard to kill, slow moving, lots of damage. Juggernaut.

Despite pretty much building pure tank, he isn't a true "tank" class of champion because he is actually a poor initiator and he provides poor CC. Rather, he does best following up an initiation, joining a fight instead of starting one. And, though he has a permaslow, it's hard to land, and blocked by other minions/champions, making it a very difficult tool to peel with in team fights. No, Mundo goes hard and dives fools; I always viewed him as THE Juggernaut.

Which is why it confuses me he's receiving no attention, or at least none that has been mentioned. He's actually not doing great right now in the current meta because he's extremely binary. Either he is tanky enough and does enough damage to crush in teamfights, or he just dies very quickly after rushing in. That is what all Juggernauts essentially do, but he is a little different in that he doesn't do anything else besides that. Even Garen has a goal of killing the villain now. So, Mundo has to survive all the damage thrown at him and then deal a lot of damage by sheer virtue of sustaining the damage he's taken. However, despite Mundo being potentially the tankiest champion in the game, he actually has zero defensive steroids/non-ultimate sustain. Garen has his W, Skarner has his W, Shyvana has her passive, and Olaf has his ultimate passive. Darius is in the same boat, but he is built in a way where he can take advantage of the current set of bruiser items.

And this is where Mundo's problem comes in. A Juggernaut needs to have tankiness and damage. However, because Mundo has zero defensive steroids and he does primarily MAGIC damage, he is shoehorned into a pure tank build that isn't quite tanky enough and doesn't do quite enough damage. Mundo does damage BECAUSE he survives. All of his damage comes from simply leveling up because the base numbers are honestly very high. But, if he can't survive, then he can't do damage. That's why he usually builds pure tank. None of the bruiser items really fit him. However, his only real defensive "steroid" is his ultimate. If left unchecked, he is essentially unkillable. However, his ultimate is WAY too easily countered. Ignite is the obvious adversary, but Morellonomicon really hurts Mundo really bad!

So, with his ultimate healing halved, Mundo doesn't survive long enough at all (even with Visage), and if he doesn't survive long enough, he doesn't do any damage, killing his entire purpose as a champion. Because, frankly, that's all he does: Not die and deal ambient damage while not dying. And, it really doesn't help that he has become easier to kill since mostly all defensive items were nerfed. Now, he REALLY doesn't last as long in fights.

This then leads into Mundo's next major problem: itemization. He is a primarily magic damage Juggernaut, so he doesn't make great use of the new items. Sterak's Gage could be useful, but I really don't see myself purchasing it over Sunfire, Warmog's, Thornmail, Randuin's, etc. Titanic Hydra has potential, too but, once again, Mundo does more magic damage anyways and due to his lack of defensive steroids, he just dies faster if he builds an item with no resistances. Dead Man's Plate is the only real item I think he can really take advantage of because it provides armor and HP like Sunfire, and it gives him more movement speed, which is awesome! But, because defenses were nerfed, and his ulti is so easily counterable, he doesn't really get to do his job very well anymore.

Anyways, so you can see the dilemma that Mundo is in. Riot, do you have any plans of potentially buffing him a little bit? Or at least some sort of mini-rework in the works? Because, IMO, Mundo is the archetypal Juggernaut and really could use one or the other :)

tl;dr: Mundo is a Juggernaut left in the dust. He is forced to bulid pure tank because he lacks defensive steroids and has so much innate damage. However, his ultimate, the thing that makes him tanky, is too easily countered, making him die too fast in team fights. Defensive items were nerfed, too, so this doesn't help. He also doesn't have enough damage because his damage only adds up if he lives longer in teamfights, which is harder for him to do currently, and he doesn't take advantage of new bruiser items because he does primarily magic damage. Help him Riot!!!