Meddler sheds some light on Wukong. What does it mean for Wukong?

For those who have been keeping up to date with Meddlers posts, Wukong was a topic that he's been pretty tight lipped on in the past aside from saying that he does come up in conversation and they would like to update him, but last week (later in the day), meddler went a little more in depth on where Wukong currently stands for a gameplay update, Which I will provide a link to here.

Wukong - Crops up most often in our discussions as a pub stompy champion who doesn't particularly perform in high elo but often overperforms in low/average elos. Overall think he needs a gameplay pattern with more versatility to it, which would take substantial kit changes, not just small work. Other champs are in need of a VGU more though. Possible Duskblade nerfs do hit him noticeably, will be assessing him and other core users after those are out to see if we should do follow up on them.

and here I will talk about what I got out of this and where I think this puts him for a gameplay update in the future. Keep in mind this is just my take on what Meddler said and is just my opinion. First thing to note is pretty clear, Wukong is OP in low elo and doesn't see much use in high elo, to the degree that he seems to be the first champ comes to mind when talking about champs who are in a similar situation.

More Versatility This is something I was really exited about hearing. Wukong currently has a very singular build patter, singular combo, singular goal in a team fight, singular key rune. He is a champ with very singular tastes. Currently Riot is working to give more options in every aspect of the game, including champs. Now an important caveat to mention, this should not mean that Assassin Wukong will be gone, but rather revive bruiser Wukong, letting you play him in either of those styles, maybe even more.

"Substantial kit changes? I thought Wukong just needed a better passive?" for his current kit, yes. But looking at the long term Wukong does need bigger work done. No there isn't anything game breaking about his kit, but there are things that don't mesh well together throughout his kit that should be addressed when they update him. His W has pointless AP scaling which is fine if the plan was to give him another form of damage other then AD, but could be done in a MUCH healthier way then it currently does. He see's play in the jungle but has no mechanic made to help him there (considering jungle wasn't even a thing back when he was made), his Ult is one of the safest Ults in the game and doesn't have a lot of interaction with enemy champs. These can be pretty small on their own, but if they are going to do work on Wukong, they should try to fix any of his current problems and give him something that makes players go "I want to play Wukong because he does this one thing no other champ does".

Whats more, a passive change alone can be pretty substantial and can mess up a champs play style if done wrong. A popular one that seems to pop up often is having Wukong gain Armor/Mr through physical damage or AAs. While it would feel better then his current passive, that alone would require some changes to his base stats, possible changes to his kit as some skills may work too well with that passive while others may not work well enough. I think Riot would much rather adjust Wukong's entire kit so it all fits smoothly together rather then slap on a new passive and hope everything works right.

"If Wukong is behind VGU candidates, does that mean he's getting a VGU?" No, but it does mean that he's likely getting a gameplay update on the level of . Aatrox's gameplay update is going to end up being a very heavy update, on the level of a VGU without the splash art, lore and VO updates. This would likely mean that Riot requires the same amount of assets gameplay wise to update Aatrox as it would for a VGU. What that means for Wukong's kit and how much they will keep as is still uncertain for now. We will have to see how much exactly will be changing on Aatrox to know for certain, but its safe to assume it won't be something like an extra effect on one ability or a different passive.

On top of that, Wukong is pretty okay on the visual/lore standpoint. His model could use a tweak, but not to a major degree. His lore is fine, could use some more info, but so could almost any other champ who got a Lore update. He could use a VO update, but no more then almost every other champ, even less so then champs who mention "summoners". Half of his splash arts that needed updated got updated (and the ones that haven't been are not in a huge need for one tbh). All together, all the visual aspects of Wukong are good enough that he wouldn't really need a VGU, just a gameplay update.

"Hold up, I saw duskblade changes. whats going on with that" Yes, in that post, Meddler mentioned that they will be lowering the damage on the proc and changing how the passive works. This change will likely affect a lot of stealth champs, one of which being , seeing as its why his Assassin build has been doing well. If that change hits Wukong too hard, they may end up giving him some light work to help him.

"Well this is all well and good, but what does this mean for Wukong?" In simplest terms, I think this is the closest thing to an exact date Riot can give for when they think they will update Wukong atm. Obviously they don't have him scheduled yet, but would like to do work on him. Now this is just going to be some guess work on my part due to details I've put together, but I suspect we will see his update by the end of the year, if not finished, then at least it will be in the works. Here's why I think this:

• Wukong was right there with Aatrox when Riot was picking out champs they wanted to focus on when the Diver update was going to be a thing. With this new information that they plan on doing substantial kit changes (not just a new passive or something), we can now easily assume they knew they were going to do work on the two of them because they wanted to do extensive work on the both of them. Once Aatrox is out of the way, its likely Wukong will follow suit (after a few pressing VGUs get taken care of). This would also explain why they opted to update Xin before either of them, since over all it wasn't that much of a change for Xin aside from one new ability, the old ability being moved to his passive and his Ult gaining a new effect.

• A while back after the Vastaya were introduced, the question was brought up on weather Wukong's title would be changed. a Rioter replied that it would be, but they were going to be wait until they did his gameplay update to finally update his title, that way they could kill two birds with one stone. If his gameplay update was going to be years away, it would make more sense to give him a new title now, just like how they've been updating splash art and VO so there is less to do when they go to give a champ a VGU in the future.

• A comment from Rev3 about how Riots current update teams work, shed some light on how VGUs/New champs work. Pretty much there are about 5 teams working on 1 project, with a second project that is in the "Ideation" phase of development, which pretty much means there are about 10 champs being worked on at a given time. Wukong may not be getting a VGU, but he is behind at least a few VGUs as he is going to be a major project on his own. My guess is that he's not on the list for anything currently, but will make it into the next group after those are out of the way.

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In short, I think Wukong should be getting updated or at least be slated to be updated before the year is out, but I think the real deciding factor will be if Wukong gets a skin between then and now. If this update is as big as they are making it sound, then it should follow the same rules as a VGU, where they won't give the champ a skin until he gets updated, that way they don't have to take time to make assets for that skin, then then end up making all new assets after they get updated. I could be wrong on that of course, Wukong doesn't have a lot of particle effects to go on so it could very well be possible that he could get a skin and be updated in the same time frame, but I at least think it would be unlikely. But again, this is just my speculation. I doubt even Riot knows who they will be updating in the second half of the year yet, much less if Wukong will be one of them.