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Am I the only one who feels concerned for Wukong jungle in S5?

MrWaffler·11/24/2014, 6:17:22 PM·4 votes·3,618 views

I absolutely adored playing my favorite monkey king in the jungle last season. He always got the everliving crap beat out of him on his first clear, but at the end of it I had enough health to pull off what I believe Wukong's biggest strength in the jungle is: the level 3 gank. The combination of invis + gapcloser + armor shred + red buff was almost always good enough to secure a first blood or at least blow summoners. I had Strategic Diversity in deciding whether to build damage Wuk for hard carrying games where I get ahead early or tanky Wuk to be a CC bot for my carries or even splitpushing Wuk where I utilized my E and Q to fast push towers.

However this season's jungle proves to be a little too harsh on the old monkey king to be able to pull off a great level 3 gank. Starting with buffs on Wukong is a virtual impossibility without a massive leash. Wukong gets beat black and blue by the new camps. I have had success in starting him Gromp and Krugs but the best results come from Krugs in terms of my health at level 3 with double buffs. I actually generally come out healthier in the new jungle like this than in the old jungle. However, at this point in the game my usually around 3:15 gank has turned into a more or less 4 minute gank. This is really problematic as by this point, the enemy laner is more than likely equal or even ahead of me in levels depending on circumstances.

Now the enemy laners (especially mids) can not only easily avoid ganks, but they have burst potential to even turn a gank around. This presents a vastly riskier gank that often times I won't choose.

I haven't had too many games worth of experimentation to determine better Wukong paths, but so far it seems his level 3 gank is no longer quite as strong. Tanky Wukong is still easily done by just farming the jungle and getting vision out (Sightstone is a staple on my Wukong jungle build) but I feel damage Wukong now will only be useful if I go an invade heavy route but with some extremely mobile monsters (LeeSin) running around that can outdamage me with base stats I don't feel like invading Wukong will be right in 98% of jungle matchups.

Does anyone here have some ideas on better strategies for my Wukonk2Stronk in this new jungle?

3 Comments

Reynard the ƒox11/24/2014, 6:32:46 PM1 votes

I feel like ALOT of former junglers have been pushed out of that role. I too main Wukong, and Sejuani on the side. Now there seems to be no reason to play them because the jungle beats them senseless, while the enemy Lee, Kha, or Rengar not only can gank just as well, but can do it more often because they have built-in sustain.

Poldy Scarecrow11/24/2014, 8:15:06 PM1 votes

You'll have to back early but once you buy your first upgrade he clears pretty well and the enchantment really suits him. The loss of level 3 gank is not such a bad hit imo considering most other junglers can't either and it gives him some more time to farm. Everyone's still trying to optimize their strategies for the new jungle so keep experimenting until you find one that works best for you.

Also, from my experience people hate wukong - threads or posts about him don't usually get upvotes and alot of people wouldn't mind if he was gutted. The only time I've ever seen any intensive discussion about him was wrt the new splash art lol.

Drunk Rummate11/24/2014, 8:17:23 PM1 votes

i think it's healthy that ganks are coming a little later. it means laners aren't simply at the mercy of the jungler and forced to play incredibly passive as a result.