LoL Wild Rift Wukong Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

S+ Tier

Class: Fighter

Recommended Lane: Jungle

Best Wukong Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Wukong guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Wukong, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Wukong is a vastayan trickster who uses his strength, agility, and intelligence to confuse his opponents and gain the upper hand. Wukong can be played as a Baron Lane Bruiser or a Jungle Fighter capable of bursting down opponents and snowballing the game to an early game victory.

Wukong Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Wukong Wild Rift in this patch.

Bruiser Monkey King

This is the standard Baron Lane Bruiser Wukong Wild Rift build. This item build is a balance between damage and survivability which makes it a good choice for beginners.

Black Cleaver – Grants a good amount of attack damage, health, and ability haste. It also grants the Rage passive which increases movement speed on attacks and more on kills and the Sunder passive which reduces the enemy’s armor for each instance of damage landed against them.
Mercury’s treads – Provides magic resistance and Tenacity which reduces crowd control duration. Buy Plated Steelcaps instead when facing champions with strong auto attacks. Upgrade with the Teleport Enchant so you can split push the top lane and far lanes and still be able to be present immediately on big clashes and objective takings.
Divine Sunderer – Grants max health, attack damage and applies anti-health attacks
Sterak’s Gage – Grants a high amount of HP and attack damage as well as the Lifeline passive which provides a shield when your HP drops below a certain percentage.
Amaranth’s Twinguard – In-combat durability
Guardian Angel – Restores your life upon taking lethal damage which grants you a second life and a means to overextend and create crucial space for your team.

Assassin Monkey King

This Wukong Wild Rift build is geared for a Jungle Monkey King which increases his burst damage output by a lot in exchange for less survivability.

Youmuu’s Ghostblade – Grants bonus movement speed which allows you to roam more efficiently and it also grants bonus magic damage and attack speed on your first attack.
Duskblade of Draktharr – Grants the Nightstalker passive which provides bonus physical damage and slows the enemy on your first attack after being unseen for at least one second. The Nightstalker passive synergizes well with your W, Warrior Trickster, because it refreshes its effects if you wait long enough while invisible.
Mortal Reminder – Provides the highest amount of armor penetration and it also grants the Grievous Wounds on all your physical damage.

Runes for Wukong in Wild Rift

Listed down below are the best runes for Wukong in Wild Rift.

Conqueror – This is currently the best rune for bruisers and Monkey King can easily activate the full bonus with his combos. Together with his passive, he will deal 25% more damage. Electrocute is the alternative Keystone Rune which you will use when playing as a Jungler to deal more burst damage on your combos.
Brutal – Increases your AD and armor penetration.
Hunter – Titan – Grants bonus HP and Tenacity for each unique takedown.
Sweet Tooth – Increases HP regeneration and grants bonus gold when eating Honeyfruits. Pathfinder is your alternative Inspiration Rune when playing as the Jungler so you can gank and path through the jungle more efficiently.

Bonus: The Champion Resolve Rune grants 10% more damage to champions which means you can reach 35% bonus damage from this rune and in combination with Conqueror and your passive, but you’ll lose 5% of the bonus damage each time you die so use at your own risk.

Spells

In our Wukong Wild Rift Guide, here are the best champion spells that you can equip on him.

Monkey King benefits from early snowballing so play aggressively and get some kills using Ignite.

Smite is a required Summoner Spell when playing as a Jungler. Upgrade into Chilling Smite when playing ahead to secure ganks and upgrade into Challenging Smite when playing against a strong early game jungler like Lee Sin or Olaf.

Flash allows you to do offensive and defensive plays which are otherwise impossible without it so get it every single game.

Skill Order

3rd, Nimbus Strike, is maxed first because it is a great source of mobility, damage, and attack speed, which boosts Wukong’s overall DPS. His 1st, Golden Staff, is maxed next because it is another good source of damage and it heals Wukong as well. 2nd, Warrior Trickster, is maxed last as it provides enough utility with just one level in it. Get a point in your ultimate whenever possible.

Abilities

Crushing Blows

Passive

Wukong and his clones’ attacks and abilities apply Crushing Blows to the target for 5 seconds (max 5). For each stack, Wukong and his clones deal 3% increased damage to the target.

Golden Staff

Passive | Active

Passive: Enhances Golden Staff’s empowering effects on attacks every 12/10/8/6s, increasing bonus damage by 50%. Champion takedowns reduce the cooldown of this ability’s passive by 2s; getting a kill refreshes it.

Active: Empowers the next attack to deal (50/70/90/110 + 35/40/45/50% Attack Damage) bonus physical damage. Wukong and his clones’ attacks reduce Golden Staff’s cooldown by 0.5s. After casting this ability, Wukong’s next attack gains a bonus range.

Warrior Trickster

Active

Becomes invisible for 1s and dashes forward, leaving behind a clone at his original position.

When the ability is cast, the clone moves in the direction of the left joystick, automatically attacking nearby enemies and mimicking Wukong’s Golden Staff, Nimbus Strike, and Cyclone. The clone deals 20/30/40/50 % of Wukong’s damage. Additionally, the clone takes 50% more damage and does not gain the empowering effects of the Golden Staff’s passive when it mimics the ability.

Moreover, the clone will cast Cyclone when Wukong casts it.

Nimbus Strike

Dashes to a target while sending clones to 2 additional targets dealing 60 physical damage (60 + 80% bonus AD). The clones strike the original target if there are no additional targets for 15% damage. Gains 35% Attack Speed for 4 seconds after dashing.

Wukong can now move and pass through walls.

Cyclone

Active

Extends his staff and spins to gain 20% Movement Speed, dealing physical damage equal to 128 (220% AD) plus 8% of enemies’ max health over 2 seconds. Enemies that are hit for the first time are knocked up.

Cyclone can be recast once within 8 seconds.

Abilities Analysis

Passive: Crushing Blows

Wukong gains 3% bonus damage to champions and monsters for each attack or ability damage he lands. He can stack this passive to each enemy individually for a maximum of five times for a total of 15% damage boost.

Wukong can easily stack his passive due to the fact that his clones can also stack his passive and each cast of Cyclone can add up to four stacks.

Q | 1st: Golden Staff

Golden Staff is an auto-attack reset ability that increases the damage of Wukong’s next attack and heals him at the same time.

Golden Staff’s heal Wukong for half the amount when used against minions but still use it on them for a safe way to heal and at the same time, it is a good way to secure last hits especially for the Cannon minion.

The reduced healing works only for minions, when used against Jungle Monsters, it will still heal you for the full amount as if you used the ability against a champion.

Golden Staff has a passive component that adds a bonus range to your attacks. 150 range doesn’t seem much, but it can help when trying to reach ranged champions or kite melee champions.

Each auto-attack of Wukong and his clone reduces the cooldown of Golden Staff by 0.5 seconds and so in the later stages of the game, you will be able to use Golden Staff consecutively especially in combination with 2nd, Warrior Trickster.

W | 2nd: Warrior Trickster

Warrior Trickster is Wukong’s signature annoying ability. It is the ability that allows him to trick his opponents which can be taken advantage of in countless offensive and defensive scenarios.

When cast, Wukong dashes a little distance forward and turns invisible for a short duration while leaving behind a clone that attacks enemies near it for half the damage.

The clone simply stands when there are no nearby enemies so, for this reason, you can simply do nothing and enemies will go past you thinking that you have already cast this ability. Once they turned around, you can cast this ability and go a different direction.

This doesn’t work as much against beginner level opponents because they tend to simply button mash until they get a kill or die but you will “condition” them to fall for this trick after a few successful escape attempts using the straightforward use of the ability which is to cast the ability and run.

You can also do a “fake recall” by doing the recall animation then activating your Warrior Trickster. Another trick you can do is to bait your enemy’s abilities by using your 3rd, Nimbus Strike then canceling it using Warrior Trickster.

You can use this ability to get closer to the enemy when you are ganking by casting this ability while in the bush near your target. The invisibility will allow you to get closer to the target without having to use your 3rd, Nimbus Strike, which you will then use to get closer to them if they use flash or their other dash ability.

Clones will also cast your ultimate, Cyclone, and will deal half the damage but only if you are not damaging them by your own cyclone at the same time which means you won’t deal more damage if you and your clone are hitting the same target and it will be better to use the clone’s Cyclone to cover more ground and knock up more enemies instead.

E | 3rd: Nimbus Strike

Nimbus Strike is your main engage and gap closer. This ability is a targeted dash ability that makes Wukong leap forward to target and damage them while sending clones to damage two nearby opponents as well. If there are no nearby enemies, each clone will strike for 15% more damage which means the ability will deal 130% more damage if there are no other enemies nearby and it will deal 115% damage to the main target and 100% another enemy if there are only two enemies.

Nimbus Strike also increases Wukong’s attack speed after it lands but this ability’s greatest strength is that it follows the target enemy even if they use their flash or blink abilities so try to predict when the enemy will use their mobility abilities so you can follow them with Nimbus Strike.

You can use Nimbus Strike to cross walls as long as there is a visible target across the wall. You can use a ward to have vision of jungle monsters and use them to escape.

R | Ultimate: Cyclone

Cyclone is an AoE damage ability that knocks up enemies hit for the first time and deals percentage of max HP-based damage over its duration.

Clones will also cast Cyclone for half the damage but damage from both the clone and Wukong does not stack. Only the damage from Wukong will register if an enemy is hit by both the original and the clone’s Cyclone. 3

A good way to utilize the clone’s Cyclone is to cover more ground to knock up and damage more enemies. With the clone and the bonus movement speed from Cyclone, it is possible to damage and knock up all five enemy champions.

You can use Cyclone to chase enemies with its movement speed bonus.

Be careful when trying to re-cast Cyclone because it will end an ongoing spin prematurely.

Combos:

Trading combo: 3rd + AA + 1st + AA + 2nd out

Full Damage: 3rd + AA + 1st + AA + 2nd + AA + Ult + AA + Ult

Burst Damage: 3rd + 2nd + AA +1st + AA + Ult + AA + Ult

Sure Gank: 2nd (on bush) + 3rd + AA + 1st + Ult + AA +Ult

Team Fight: 3rd (on frontliner) + 2nd (walk to backline while invis) + Ult + AA + Ult

Wukong Early Game Guide

Wukong can win early game trades by making the enemy waste their abilities on your clone.

Try to hit the enemy with your 1st, Golder Staff through your trading combo to damage the enemy laner and heal yourself at the same time but if that is not possible because you are in a losing lane, use your Golden Staff to last hit minions instead.

Try to be as unpredictable as possible.

If you are playing as a jungler, always use 2nd, Warrior Trickster to get close to the enemy without them noticing. If you are close enough, save your 3rd, Nimbus Strike to follow the enemy if they use their flash or mobility abilities.

Try to be active in your ganking because you can solo carry games if you are fed enough and you are a great asset to your team if they succeed even if you don’t get the kills.

Always carry the Oracle Lenses to sweep for wards before you gank.

Wukong Late Game Guide

Wukong’s greatest asset in the mid and late game is his ultimate. Cyclone can knock up enemies in a wide area twice thanks to the fact that Wukong can move while casting it and that his clone also casts the ability.

Activate Cyclone once you are sure that your allies can take advantage of the disruption you create.

Your burst damage isn’t as reliable in the later stages of the game but thanks to your mobility, you are great at getting in and out of fights. You are also a reliable clean-up crew so make sure not to die early in the fight.

Wukong Video Guide

Synergies

For our Wukong Wild Rift Guide, we highly recommend using him with the following champions as they synergize well with him.

Zed and his shadows plus you and your clones will leave the enemy tilted and frustrated. Plus, these two snowballs well and if both of you have a good early game then it is an easy game for you.

Yasuo‘s Last Breathe can easily be activated thanks to the knock-up from your ultimate, Cyclone. After the extended knock up thanks to his ultimate, you’ll be able to reactivate yours which means that the enemies will simply be controlled to death without the chance of fighting back.

All Wukong Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll specifically show champions that can easily counter Wukong in Wild Rift.

Lee Sin is currently the only champion who can reveal you out of your invisibility and he has a stronger early game presence than you. Try to juke out his abilities and use your 2nd, Warrior Trickster, only after he used his 3rd, Tempest because he can reveal your invisibility with that ability.

Lulu can mark you with his 3rd, Help, Pix! When this happens, the enemy will see through your invisibility. She can also use her 2nd, Whimsy to stop and control you during your dash. Play carefully when against this Yordle.

Pros & Cons About Wukong

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Wukong in Wild Rift.

Pros

Wukong is a great Fighter Champion who is flexible enough to be played as a bruiser who can deal consistent damage and be a constant presence in a team fight and he can also be played as an assassin who can deal large amounts of burst damage in a short time.
Wukong has high outplay potential using his W, Warrior Trickster. It is a versatile ability that can be used in endless ways which add to Wukong’s replayability.
He has good damage all throughout the game and his ultimate allows him to be useful all throughout the game since it is a good ability to disrupt enemies.

Cons

Wukong is an early game snowball champion which makes him a lot like other fighters who depend on an early game lead in order to dominate. He doesn’t play well when behind.
When he is not having a good lead, he can feel useless without his ultimate especially in team fights.

FAQ's About Wukong in Wild Rift

How good is Wukong in Wild Rift?

Wukong is an (Tier S+) champion. He has amazing 1v1 capabilities, burst damage potential, and the ability to be disruptive in team fights.

What role / lane should I play with Wukong in Wild Rift?

Wukong plays the Baron lane and the jungle role. He is capable in both areas but he is played differently as he is usually played as a tanky bruiser in the top lane while he is played more like an assassin when he is in the jungle role.

What abilities do I level up with Wukong?

3rd, Nimbus Strike is maxed first because it grants the highest increase in his DPS then 1st, Golden Staff is maxed next to further enhance his damage and sustain. 2nd, Warrior Trickster is maxed last because it provides enough utility at its first level.

What items should I build with Wukong?

Wukong usually gets Black Cleaver and Sterak’s Gage when played in the Baron lane while he uses Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Duskblade of Draktharr when played as a jungler.

What Runes should I use when playing as Wukong?

Conqueror is the currently the best rune for bruisers and Monkey King can easily activate the full bonus with this combos. Together with his passive, he will deal 25% more damage. Electrocute is the alternative Keystone Rune which you will use when playing as a Jungler to deal more burst damage on your combos. His other runes are Brutal, Hunter – Titan, and Sweet Tooth for the Baron Lane and Mastermind when playing as a Jungler.

How can I be more trickier when playing as Wukong?

Avoid being predictable. Use 2nd, Warrior Trickster the first time then simply stop the second time. Use the recall trick and cancel your 3rd, Nimbus Strike once in a while.