Wukong Update- Progress Report!

Riot Lutzburg

NA
Hi everyone, I wanted to give you all an update on the status of the Wukong changes we've been working on for the last few weeks.  When we last spoke about it, the team and I were beginning to dive into the existing work we had started earlier in the year.  We regrouped and defined a few key goals for what we wanted to accomplish with these changes, based on the feedback we got from Wukong players.  Those goals are: 1. Give Wukong more tools and agency to make proactive plays during the laning phase 2. Provide Wukong with quality-of-life improvements where possible 3. Shift Wukong's power curve towards early game instead of late game Wukong has a very sharp win rate percentage based on game time, getting as low as 42% before Baron spawns to as high as 58% once the game has gone on for 35+ minutes.  These changes should help smooth out that curve, so that Wukong feels competitive in the early game without dominating team fights with his innate tankiness and high burst damage. For the quality-of-life improvements, I did my best to listen to the fans and focus on the areas you cited as most frustrating- **high mana costs and low Passive/R satisfaction**.  In addition to these upgrades, Wukong is gaining extremely powerful new tools in the form of** a free-target dash, more convincing clone deception, and a physical damage shield**. Here is the change list we're currently working on.  Note that these changes are relative to THE LIVE GAME; not the last version you saw on the PBE or on our forums. **P- Stone Skin:** * REMOVED- Wukong no longer gains resistances for nearby enemy Champions * NEW- Whenever Wukong is invisible to the enemy team for at least 1 second, he gains a temporary physical damage shield based on his maximum health.  After being spotted, the shield disperses after a few seconds _We've been experimenting with a new Passive that grants Wukong a temporary physical damage shield.  The idea here is to increase Wukong's lane power and outplay potential while reducing his innate tankiness in team fights.  We've been trying a handful of different versions, but here's the most recent.  Note that it might change!_> _We see this as a tool to reward extended trading patterns, incentivizing Wukong to dip in and out of brushes and use W as a re-engage tool rather than just an escape tool.  We're hoping this manifests in some cool top lane brush out-plays!_**Q- Wuju Strike:** * Mana cost lowered to a flat 30 from 40 * CD reduced by 1 sec at all ranks * NEW- Spell's cost is refunded if it kills a unit  **W- Warrior Trickster:** * Now instantly dashes towards the player's cursor instead of a short range blink * Dash is 350 range and 1200 speed.  Can NOT go over walls * Clone is now treated as a stationary Champion and will attack nearby enemies, prioritizing the last enemy Wukong damaged * Clone's attacks deal a scaling 50-100% of Wukong's AD based on spell rank and apply on-hit effects * Clone looks identical to Wukong's animation state on spawn, and animates as if he pressed the "S" key **E- Nimbus Strike:** * Tertiary target range check increased significantly * Now deals magic damage instead of physical **R- Cyclone:** * Tick rate increased to every .25 sec from .5 (damage halved to compensate) * Damage ratio increased to 1.25 AD/sec from 1.1 * Bonus movement speed is now a flat 30% instead of ramping up 5-40% over the duration * E's attack speed buff now pauses while R is active * Wukong can now cancel R early by casting another ability or recasting R _Hoping these buffs make it more attractive to channel Cyclone for the full duration, rather than always canceling it after the knock-up._ We're aiming to push these changes to the PBE sometime in December.  Based on your feedback, outstanding bugs and a general balance pass, we aren't able to provide an exact release date just yet.  We're still exploring some experimental mechanics outside of the update's original scope, which takes extra time we didn't initially account for.  I understand this news will frustrate some of you, but I hope this list proves that we're committed to meaningfully improving Wukong's play experience.  Thank you for your patience, -Lutzburg

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Infernape (EUW)
Tbh I preferred the original prototype kit's passive.

Blukachu (EUW)
So basically we have the exact same chamo with a couple of sweet buffs? Im kind of happy with this. I think its to do with the fact that the goals for the changes have changed from the last time Wu was on the PBE. Does that mean you guys are happy with Wukong still building lethality and being a squishy assassin? Because thats what these changes suggest... just a handful of buffs to his existing kit.

TSM Doubledîck (EUW)
Reason to switch AD ratio into AP ratio on his e? For real wtf, the rest of changes were insane, but this one makes no sense

Inra (NA)
His passive suggests they want him to build bruiser health items

LÈ APE (EUW)
***

Inra (NA)
Do you guys want him to be more of an assassin or more of a bruiser? The shield passive suggests bruiser. Also please for the love of god buff his q at rank 1. I don't know if you purposefully left it out but the 10 damage for 40 mana is a pain.

Minecraft (EUW)
> **TSM Doubledîck \(EUW\) said:** Reason to switch AD ratio into AP ratio on his e? For real wtf, the rest of changes were insane, but this one makes no sense its damage not ratio, now a single cloth armor doesnt make me useless its good

Huzzl3 (EUW)
But they didn't?

Omikron (NA)
It's still an AD ratio it just deals magic damage, I still agree that this makes it near impossible for him to build anything but tank now though. Don't see how he's going to keep anywhere near the same damage profile since he can't realistically get magic pen.

Blukachu (EUW)
Without nerfing his numbers or changing his scalings theres no way he builds tank... they cam do whatever to his passive. Maybe his E doing magic damage might have an effect but honestly 1.25 scaling ult plus decoy now autoing up to 100% ad is plenty to keep him full lethality.

Blukachu (EUW)
Get off the 'q rank 1 so bad' bandwagon. Its old and was never accurate and is being buffed anyway

Poldy Scarecrow (NA)
Compared to the previous rework iteration, he's lost the bonus resist around 3 people/ Q heal/ extra range after ability & the wall dash. I'm really disappointed by their removal especially the heal and wall crossing. He still doesn't have much counterplay and his options are still really limited imo. I know outspoken people like Harambe basically wanted live version with buffs but keeping it so close to live doesn't solve much of Wukong's issues at all.

Minecraft (EUW)
Thank you so so much, these changes look amazing. I got a couple of questions and criticisms though: While I do agree with the duskblade like passive, I kinda dislike the shield for some reason, I don't feel like it really fits in (I play both bruiser and assassin Wukong). Have you had any other ideas on this passive like maybe tenacity or an attack speed/cdr steroid? Are these all the changes being made, meaning the previous changes you announced are being reverted? Is the old new stacking passive still in the kit or did you leave it out? I appreciate your work so much, this looks like the perfect update to me apart from what I have mentioned.

Blukachu (EUW)
They want you to explore other build options but tbh with thos change list im 95% sure lethality will still be best build.

Blukachu (EUW)
Yeah same tbf. I liked the idea of stacking passive. But these changes are much morw straight up buffs than the last proposals so i cant complain.

SS5DEJAN (NA)
So did he lose the damage increase mark his passive had? So now he lost his armor shred, damage increase, and resistances? On top of that his E now deals magic damage, will it at least scale off AD still? He definetly seems more bruiser now but I'm worried because bruisers in general arnt in a promising spot right now either. Guess we will see.

dfloob22 (NA)
Small thing, but can someone do a quick check to make sure %hp effects apply to wukong's clone(s)? On live, %hp effects do not apply to the clone so if he goes cinderhulk or overgrowth you can tell the difference really easily.

Yinox (EUW)
Does Wu still have armor shred on q ? Can you give it damage for love of god ?

Omikron (NA)
ok idiots downvote me because you don't understand that AP/AD ratio doesn't determine the damage type...

Black T Poison (NA)
Make his q a mid range skill shot that slows on impact(he extends his rod and slams it down). Having an empowered auto attack on a champion in 2020 is so boring.

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