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I believe Riot wants Wukong to be a Midlane Assassin

Wukong Airlines·10/28/2018, 5:03:37 PM·31 votes·15,782 views

2 Days ago, we finally got another vague response from Meddler about Wukong {{hallelujah}!!!, which discusses nothing about changes or future works, rather, the same words that are being said every 6 months -----> [ Wukong on the strong side, he's a good midlaner, he falls off with MMR ].

He explains that Wukong with certain "degenerate" builds tend to have almost no counterplay, but never tries to solve the problem and takes feedback to shift Wukong from Assassin to Bruiser.

I have a feeling we've misunderstood Riot's intentions and reasoning all this time and tried so hard to offer a solution when they wanted to keep his playstyle the same [binary, no bruiser kit, useless early but proceeds to 1 shot squishies bec of items].

As of this patch, in champ select, you can no longer see Wukong in the list of Toplane champions, not sure if it's a bug, or just to send a clear message to take our boring unopular monkey out of toplane and play him somewhere else.

34 Comments

iiGazeii10/28/2018, 5:13:09 PM28 votes

I'm pretty sure champions show up in champ select lists based on which lane they are played in, not a category Riot places them in. A while back, Swain showed up in the botlane list because of a spike of APC Swain.

option paralysis10/28/2018, 9:27:49 PM8 votes

the thing I can't believe meddler said is that wukong is on the strong side in the jungle. like what ? does he even play the game ? literally play any kha/graves/camille/xin zhao/noc etc. and you can invade him all game long and wukong can't fight back. not to mention if you play wukong jungle in diamond ++ you're begging to lose.

ModKnightsKemplar10/28/2018, 9:10:43 PM8 votes

I'm not sure why "he's not a high priority for us because he isn't causing problems and he's healthy in one lane" always gets ignored. It's the same as it is for so many champion main communities; no one champion can trump the greater mission. There are much more important problems for Riot to deal with atm than focus on a champ that's doing relatively well.

feintfiend10/28/2018, 6:40:38 PM4 votes

He needs a full on rework to turn him into a high skillcap AD assasin He should keep the idea of having a clone I'm really not sure why he isn't on the VGU list

Mokiller510/28/2018, 6:01:53 PM4 votes

As a OG wukong main from season 3, im good with any and all wukong changes as long as they keep his W the same, and part of his ult also the same.

W gives insanely fun juke potential and his ult makes you feel like a badass when you get all 5 members.

PsychoWhite10/29/2018, 2:52:53 PM3 votes

The problem is that an item meant for ADCs (Stormrazor) is built on empowered AA assassins and assassins of other kinds. Rengar/Wu/Garen/Graves/Zed/Talon all build Stormrazor in combination with Duskblade, Wu can also build Trinity Force which makes you a walking(and invisible) Houdini in teams that are not prepared to face tilt.

Now I'm not saying Stormrazor is a core item to all of those champs, but I've seen it in all of those and wasn't prepared for it. What separates AD assassins from ADCs in terms of itemizations is that ADCs build Crit while assassins build Lethality. Stormrazor makes it so you have some of both worlds. There are also ADCs who built Lethality but it's just MF.

But now you have to think that, a lot of people playing Wukong play him ONLY for that one shot potential. Remember how some Wu players were complaining about Electrocute nerfs? The Wu players need to choose what they want. Do you want a bruiser who takes some time to kill people? Or do you want to wave your magic wand and make people disappear? I'm pretty sure Riot doesn't want the outcry of all those 16yos complaining about Wu not being able to make people disappear with 2 buttons. Don't blame Riot, they created a monster but it's the people who embraced that monster. At the time of writing Wukong is the 2nd highest WR champion after Karthus(?) in Top Lane according to champion.gg, for some reason Wukong mid isn't even shown in champion.gg right now.

Sunbreaker10/28/2018, 6:34:37 PM3 votes

But Wukong has pretty much the perfect assassin kit(target selection, mobility, high AD ratios, an escape) with the only hint of him being a bruiser being his passive which just looks misplaced compared to the rest of his abilities. There can't be realistically a bruiser build for Wukong which is better than his lethality build unless he gets extreme kit changes. Maybe Riot doesn't want to invest in a full blown rework for him because he already has a place in the meta, as a midlane and jungle assassin with teamfight capabilities.

invisiblecat110/28/2018, 5:24:22 PM2 votes

This is something to be scared of, as if Riot is already trying to force him mid, then when he gets reworked he will become unplayable top

For example, Graves was good at adc, until his rework where he was forced jungle Or Zac who was playable top, but his rework forced him to jungle

DeathBurst10/29/2018, 7:20:15 AM1 votes

It's not that Riot WANT him to be an Assassin, it's that they are FORCED to balance around his Assassin's playstyle because that is currently his optimal playstyle. They are not happy about it, but it's a problem they can't solve without some extensive work, like a VGU or something of that scale. And that takes time and resources, so they have to decide which champ goes first and who keeps waiting. But Wukong will get his turn eventually, and no Riot don't want him as an Assassin.
Filters in Champ Select are entirely automated and based on what the commuity plays, not on what the devs think. Once again, it's not what Riot WANTS, it's what they are FORCED to work with.

MagmusOverlord10/29/2018, 5:01:16 PM1 votes

I don't play Wukong but why not force him to be played as a bruiser, like how pyke is being forced to take lethality in PBE right now. I mean they are willing to go that far to make Pyke an assassin only champ, why not do the same for Wukong?

Its not good design but if they are willing to do it for one champ, they should be able to do it for another champ. Consistency should be sought for.

The thigh guy10/29/2018, 6:49:32 PM1 votes

Riot just wants every champion to be an assassin. Look at how they buff things and nerf thing.

When they nerf they shave off a minuscule amount of damage, or they GUT the utility

When they buff they load a crap ton of damaged. But never give much in the way of utility.

Fraggleroc10/28/2018, 5:44:59 PM1 votes

gives the impression that Riot does not care about some of their champs... not all of them anyway.

They forgot that their game is centered around these champions.

Death by Glamour10/28/2018, 5:17:31 PM1 votes

Its not just wu that need this treatment, j4 noc and arguably panth should also be included