Monkey King and the journey to gaining MMR.

Intro to Monkey King

position 2 hero. As many mid heroes, he has a good early game, extremely strong mid game and acceptable late game. His main characteristics are his high burst physical damage, good escape mechanisms and strong teamfight presence. All of this combined make Sun Wukong a formidable foe to go up against, and without effective counter picking and caution, he can become an unstoppable force of nature. This is a guide on how to dominate with Monkey King, as well as how not to get dominated by him.




NOTE: Skill build is broken at the moment.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High physical damage burst and output, similar to the likings of heroes like Templar Assassin and Phantom Assassin.
• Effective escape mechanicms that need a special 'approach' to be countered.
• Relevent at all stages of the game, good hero to increase MMR.
• Extremely good teamfight ulti that can be used effectively for pushing high ground and getting solo pick offs.
• AOE stun and crit.
• Good farming tools.
• Can transform into a banana.
• Very fun to play.
  

Cons:

• Relativily Squishy. Low armor for an agility hero.
• Escape mechanicms can get easily countered by certain heroes-items.
• Weak against any kind of silence, invisible hero and damage over time skills.
• High CD skills make him reliant on good initiation (just like Sven) from his team.
• Any kind of force movement can completely cancel his ulti. (explained below)
  

Skills and how to use them.

• Boundless Strike

  : The most straight forward of his skills. Lane harash, as well as creep clearing. Good 2 second AOE stun and damage gets amplified by your damage items (making rapier a good choise for MK). It has a very high cooldown, so you will use it only once or twice per gank/teamfight. This skill has two uses: Lockdown or damage. If you need the lockdown, cast it at the start of the fight. If you have enough lockdown from your team, cast it after you get added damage from your passive to completely melt someone. If you don't desperetaly need the extra stun duration, never max this first.
  

• Tree Dance

  : Works kind of like a Blink Dagger, meaning you can't use it when you take damage, making damage over time heroes like Venomancer very effective against you. Their is no mana cost on this, so in a mid-lategame scenario you can use it to push lanes and go around the map. It's not super fast, mostly good for passing over terrain. I could easily see this being combined with a Blink Dagger or Force Staff for extreme manuvering around the map. To get down from a tree simply right click next to the tree, you don't have to use Primal Spring.
  

• Primal Spring

  : This skill can be used only while being on a tree. The longer the channeling the better the damage and slow. It takes some practice to get this right, and channeling for the full time is not always recommeneded (heroes leaving the AOE). If you catch a hero at full channeling you will deal 340 damage as well as 70% slow for 4 seconds. Magic damage and slows are mostly effective in early game, so this is a no brainer: Max it first. If you catch someone, the slow can easily guaranty a kill, and the damage is amazing too. Also use it for farming camps and clearing creep waves (good flashfarming skill).
  

• Jingu Mastery

  : Great passive, great damage and lifesteal. This is why Echo Sabre is a recommended item on this hero. Landing 4 hits on someone only results in their death. With phase boots you can easily tower dive, since you have good sustain from the lifesteal. Max this first or second. If you face a melee mid it is advised to max it first, since you can easily land hits on them. Generally a good early game skill, and a good carry buff. Buy slow items to compliment this skill.
  

• Mischief

  : More like a fun skill than something useful. People can attack you while you have changed your form, and you will transform back immediatly. It can be good in certain situations, but it is not adviced to use this as a gameplay mechanic. If you try to hide into the trees, any decent player A-clicking his way will hit you. The rune trasnformation is very bad (run hovers a lot lower than the actual spot). I don't think good players will get tricked by this. Althought, it can be useful in courier sniping missions (transforming into a tree and waiting for courier to pass in mid), but it falls into the category of shenanigans, since Monkey King is not an optimal roaming here, he needs farm. When active, Sun Wukong dissappears from the minimap, but don't try to travel with 100 movespeed around the map.
  

• Wukong's Command

  ]: Extremely good ulti in the right scenarios. You can skip it early if there are heroes that can easily go out of it. For me this skill has two great uses: throwing it around a certain hero that you target, so his teamates can't reach you without getting killed, and using it to push highground. It has a high duration making it very good for pushing (securing an area around their barracks in which they can't enter). Going out of this will completely cancels it, so any kind of forced movement from the enemies (or your dumb teammates) can completely ruin your ulti. To me this feels more like a defensive spell that an offensive. Soldiers get all effects from Monkey King making items like Echo Sabre, Desolator, Eye of Skadi and Diffusal Blade very good. Note: Since illutions count as heroes, Diffusal Blade mana burn is the hero value. You can cast while juking with trees for some clutch triple kills.
  

Item Build

Monkey King is a versalite carry, that can take advantage of any carry item, so build according to the situation. Here are some notable mentions that compliment his skills the most:

• Bottle

  : With all the runes lying around, it is a pretty good item to buy on pretty much anyone. If you plan to afk farm (not recommended in this patch) you don't 100% need it, since Echo Sabre can give you enough mana.
  

• Orb of Venom

  : If you have the item slot get this. I generally try to make better use of my item slots and only pick this up on supports, but it is not buy any means bad.
  

• Phase Boots

  : Boots of choice for our king. Makes you stay on the target to stack your Jingu Mastery hits. Extra damage compliments your Q.
  

• Echo Sabre

  : The holy grail. I think this is the best item to get on this hero. Slow and double attack guarentee at least 3 hits, making a fourth activate your passive. From their you can easily finish with your Boundless Strike. Mana and strength are things Monkey King needs. Get this every game.
  

• Vanguard

  : If you plan on making an Abyssal Blade it is recommended to get this early. Monkey King doesn't deal with physical damage well, and this lets you be an aggresive monkey that makes sure no one has a good time. Don't forget to dive towers with this.
  

• Desolator

  : Good for any hero that deals 90% physical damage. Your ulti soldiers will apply the debuff too, so extra point there. You can get this after Echo Sabre to deal some crazy damage.
  

• Diffusal Blade

  : I have not yet seen it being used, but I am convised it works just as well if not better than heroes like Juggernaut or Faceless Void. Slow enemies to stack Jingu Mastery, remove annoying buffs like frost armor, war cry and Guardian Angel. Special mention to your ulti that deals full mana burn to heroes. Neat.
  

• Manta Style

  : Great pair with Diffusal Blade. More split pushing, more fighting, as well as disjoint projectiles, remove silences and slows. Good pickup.
  

• Monkey King Bar

  : I am not sure how Monkey king ended up having to buy his own weapon. Anyway, great item to deal with evasion heroes as well as deal some damage. Ironically enough, this is not 100% recommended. Certainly not a must in every game.
  

• Eye of Skadi

  : I love this item so much, that I get it on Crystal Maiden if the game drags for too long. But how can you not love an item with the best stats in the game as well an attack modifier that slows attack and movement speed. I am pretty sure this is core for Monkey King since the slow and tankiness are things he needs. Also your ulti soldiers proc the slow. You can also pair it with desolator now.
  

• Battle Fury/ Mjollnir

  : Great items for farming as well as dealing damage to many people in fights. Soldiers proc both effects.
  
• Abyssal Blade/ Skull Basher: Great items for any carry. You can get your Skull Basher after Echo Sabre or Desolator for infinite lockdown.
  

Controversial pickups:

• Blink Dagger: I love mobility in this game. Blink truly offers extreme manuvaring around the battlefield. Climb tree, jump to other tree, blink repeat.
  
• Bloodthorn: Dealing with escape heroes, spell casters can be a problem. Get this and counter them all. Jump from the trees to the unsuspected victim, silence them and drag them into your van. ****... wrong guide.
  
• Divine Rapier: Great pickup for a late game scenario. Melt heroes with your Boundless Strike. Makes the game interesting, too!
  
• Ethereal Blade: Give tons of agility and extra damage, and the active is very.... I am joking, don't buy this.

Not recommended:

• Shadow Blade: When will people get this? Unless you are Slark this item is garbage to rush. Any decent player will counter you buy buying Dust of Appearance or even a Gem of True Sight the moment they see you holding a Claymore. Smart players buy this late game, when item slots for Dust of Appearance and gem are limited. Can be good to use to stay in your ulti, but generally not recommended.

Why should I take Monkey King mid?

Here are the reasons Monkey King is a solid mid hero:

• He is a carry that benefits from farm.
• Good wave clearing and harash. Melee mids can't lane against him just like a melee can't lane against Ursa.
• Good ganking capabilities. Using Mischief makes you disappear from the minimap like Blur.
• Requires some levels to be effective.
• Doesn't need babysitting, but a roaming support is adviced.
• Not the best late game carry to be taken safe lane.
• Bad offlaner, can get easily destroyed.
• Certaintly not a support.
  

Early Game Strategy

Take your stout sheild, Tango(preferably pulled) and Quelling Blade and head for a bounty rune spot. First item we are going to get is Bottle for lane sustain and ganks. Don't forget that you are here to farm and not kill. Focus on last hits and denies, this will make you get you items fast and come online. You can always last hit all the creeps and land a Boundless Strike to clear the wave and harash your opponent. If the wave is close under your tower, use Primal Spring to clear it. I generally don't recommend ganking lanes unless you are 95% sure you will get a kill. Monkey King needs farm, and ganking slows it down a lot. Althought, I advice to always carry a teleport scroll and be ready to join any fight. After your Echo Sabre you can start being more active on the map. Any stun into a fully channeled Primal Spring pretty much guarantees a kill.

Mid Game Strategy

You should have 1 or 2 items by now. Help your team in teamfights and let your carry farm. Black King Bar is usually the adviced item against a stun heavy lineup. Generally play like a Templar Assassin: A good mixture of fighting and farming. You want a good transition into the late game, so don't take fights you can't win. At this point travelling with Tree Dance is adviced. Enemies can be anywhere. I don't have anything else to say for mid game gameplay, since the patch has made a lot of changes to the way we play. I will update the guide when I get a better grasp of what are the meta strategies.

Late Game Strategy

You should be a fat *** monkey by now, melting people with just a Boundless Strike. Buy boots of travel and start split pushing lanes travelling with trees, scouting ahead for enemies and clearing waves with Primal Spring and some hits. My favourite high ground stradegy is this: Get Aegis of the Immortal on monkey king. Go high ground and cast wukong's commend around their barracks creating a dead zone where enemies can't step. This will give you enough time to take down a tower. If they don't have any major blink initiators you can pretty much destroy everything along with your team. If they have, it is adviced for them to stay behind and buff you and let you do the work. When your ulti ends you can decide to either go back and wait it to come off CD or keep attacking with higher risk of being taken down. In any way, your ulti is a great tool for securing an area.

Playing against Monkey King - Strongest weaknesses

Now that we talked about how to play Monkey King, it's time to talk about how to counter him. Here are the basic aspects that make Sun Wukong weak in the battle:

• Tree clearing skills. Destroying a tree that Monkey King was on top stuns him for 4 seconds. Basicaly an instant death for him. Hereoes that are very good at this: Enigma, Timbersaw, Beastmaster, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Windranger, Lina. Heroes that can potentialy destroy some trees: Tiny, Io, Magnus, Undying, Techies or any hero with battlefury or Quelling Blade.
  

• Vision/global vision

  : Any hero that can give vision of Monkey King onto trees. Heroes that come to mind: Zeus, Spectre, Slardar, Bounty Hunter or any ward ***** that effectively wards the map.
  

• Forced movement

  : Canceling Wukong's ultimate is a big deal on countering him. Your best bet here is Vengeful Spirit and good old Force Staff. Some potentially good heroes can be Morphling and Spirit Breaker.
  

• Silence

  : Same ways you would want to counter a Faceless Void or Weaver, apply to Monkey King
  

• Damage over time

  : So he can't jump around trees to escape. Any hero along the lines of Viper, Venomancer and Queen of Pain will do just fine.
  

• Armor buffs

  : Lich, Timbersaw and Sven.
  

• Purging skills

  : Purge removes his Jingu Mastery buff, which can completely destroy his potential. Any natural Diffusal Blade carrier like Spectre or Juggernaut will do, as well as heroes like Doom {eat satyr), Oracle and Shadow Demon
  

As you can see, Monkey King has a lot of good counters and he is not so OP as people make him be. All heroes are OP if you don't pick accordingly, build spesific items to counter them. Any good combination of the above can easily shut him down. Don't forget to ward the map and you will be good. Here are some good heroes to go up against Sun Wukong:

• Timbersaw: Great armor, pure damage, no escape from trees. Can easily shut down monkey king.
• Spirit Breaker/ Zeus: Global vision, heavy magic damage.
• Slardar: Vision and armor shred. Your team can easily melt Monkey King.
• Vengeful Spirit: Cancel his ulti every fight by swapping him out.
• Venomancer: Damage Over Time means no escape from trees.

Heroes to NOT pick against Monkey King:

• Any illution hero( Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren): Remember when Riki's trick of the trades could target illutions and he bought 5 battlefuries and teamwhipped your team with one slash? Same concept, just with Monkey King ulti. Also Boundless Strike is an AOE skill.
• Man-fighting heroes: It's really hard to kill Monkey King in 1v1 scenarios.
• Low armor heroes ( Lion, Skywrath Mage): One Boundless Strike and I am die.
  

Outro

This guide is not complete, I probably have left many aspects of Monkey King out, but I will update it as soon as the meta becomes more stable. I hope you enjoyed this guide and learned a thing or two about how to play and counter Monkey King. Any suggestions/corrections are welcome in the comments below. Happy Dota 3!