Monkey King/Guide

Carry
More information needed.

Ganker/Roamer
ability to roam is top tier. His ability allows him to jump tree to tree, with low cooldown and no mana cost. You can go from one lane to other in a few seconds without the enemies knowing, as they can't see you while you're in a tree. When you're ready to strike, an ally with stun will be of great help, as it can help you to fully channel. Commonly you're building a to increase the success rate. also allows him to place wards without any effort, seeing that you can go to any place in the map in a few seconds, place the ward and enemies will rarely know which tree you are, and if they notice, you can simply jump to another tree, and the best part is that no hero can keep up with your mobility. Once he gets level 2, you can use a skill point in, empowering even more your ganking abilities by stunning dangerous or fleeing foes.

General

 * Unlike most melee heroes, Monkey King has an attack range of 300, allowing him to attack other melee opponents without fear of retaliation.
 * Take advantage of Monkey King's ability to hop from tree to tree to retreat into the treeline around the edges of the map whenever he is threatened.
 * Due to Monkey King's ultimate being unaffected by attack speed and Boundless Strike relying solely on raw damage values, players would have go for raw damage and agility in order to maximise these skills. Take note not to forgo attack speed completely, as attack speed helps with Jingu Mastery and his basic attacks.


 * Boundless Strike's damage depends entirely on Monkey King's basic damage, so building up high damage and agility items will tremendously increase its damage output.
 * Boundless Strike's critical multiplier is not significant until later in the game, when Monkey King has more damage.
 * Boundless Strike's damage output is augmented by the damage bonus from Jingu Mastery. Use Boundless Strike when Jingu Mastery stacks are available to deal high damage in the early game.
 * Boundless Strike is affected by Jingu Mastery and will apply a counter stack and expend a charge as if it were performed by a basic attack.
 * Each hero caught by its reach will have a counter stack applied onto them.
 * Boundless Strike will expend only a single charge regardless of how many enemies are hit. Try to maximise the potential of each charge by hitting clumps of opponents at once.
 * Boundless Strike will only trigger off of one hero's counter if the resulting strike hits multiple heroes with a counter stack of 3.
 * Because of its long cooldown, Boundless Strike should be used carefully.
 * Levels in Boundless Strike increases the stun duration by 0.5 seconds and critical multiplier by 20% per point. It may be wise to invest just a single point in Boundless Strike during the early stages of the game for the purpose of interrupting abilities, if your team has other heroes with disables.
 * Use Boundless Strike to hit enemies through trees, high ground, and other obstacles.
 * Use Boundless Strike after jumping on an enemy with Primal Spring to deal burst damage.
 * In some circumstances, Boundless Strike should be saved to disable or interrupt targets after they have used a disable or escape ability.
 * For example, Boundless Strike should be saved to interrupt after he starts channeling.
 * Boundless Strike has a fairly quick animation and impact time. Monkey King can turn around and land a Boundless Strike to momentarily stun his opponents, even when retreating with low health.


 * Tree Dance has no mana cost as well as a very low cooldown. Use this ability to bypass cliffs and transverse across the map quickly.
 * Tree Dance is placed on cooldown whenever Monkey King takes player-based damage, similar to the mechanics of, making it near impossible to use as an escape mechanism once Monkey King is engaged in combat.
 * Monkey King is disarmed while perched, but he is able to use items and his skills without restriction.
 * and can be used while on a tree without causing Monkey King to jump off.
 * Items like or,  and  will force Monkey King to descend from his tree.
 * Take the opportunity to place s in unorthodox and hard-to-reach places that can't normally be accessible by other heroes.
 * While perched in a tree, activating Tree Dance again will highlight nearby trees that are within range of being perched from your current tree with a soft aura.
 * Monkey King is masked in the Fog of War while he is perched in a tree. Enemies require flying or unobstructed vision in order to target Monkey King while he is perched.
 * However, when Monkey King jumps from one tree to another, he can be seen and targeted as if he were on the ground.
 * Be wary of opponents with items and abilities that can destroy trees, such as and . If Monkey King is perched on top of a tree while it is destroyed, he will be stunned for 4 seconds, which would almost guarantee your demise.


 * This ability cannot be canceled by Monkey King. If the channeling is stopped by Monkey King, he will still cast the spell for a reduced amount of damage and slow.
 * Use Primal Spring as an emergency escape ability if Monkey King is being attacked, as Tree Dance will be placed on cooldown if he takes any damage from other heroes.
 * Primal Spring can be used immediately after a Tree Dance jump. Using these 2 skills consecutively makes for a very good gap closer with a max total of 2000 range.
 * Unlike most spells, Primal Spring does not have a visual indicator to denote the maximum cast range and instead locks and prevents the targeting reticle of the spell from exiting its maximum cast range.


 * Monkey King can apply a counter stack to each opponent through the use of Boundless Strike.
 * Each hero struck by Boundless Strike will have a counter stack applied onto them.
 * Boundless Strike will expend only a single charge regardless of how many enemies are hit. Try to maximise the potential of each charge by hitting clumps of opponents at once.
 * Boundless Strike will only trigger off of one hero's counter if the resulting strike hits multiple heroes with a counter stack of 3.
 * Charges of Jingu Mastery are dispellable. Keep a look out for enemies with the ability to do so.
 * If you believe that your opponents are going to purge or dispel you, use up your charges on nearby enemy or neutral creeps. Even if you are not dealing direct damage to your opponents, you will be able to recover a considerable amount of health from using your charges.


 * Jingu Mastery charges are lost if Monkey King dies. This applies even if he is holding onto the and reincarnates.
 * Depending on the circumstances, you can take the risk and fight and expend your charges in the hopes of recovering enough health. You may even be able to turn the tables on your pursuer.


 * Jingu Mastery charges are only granted after four successful hits on the same opponent. Try to stick to the same target in order to ensure you gain your charges as quickly as possible.
 * However, do not be too aggressive and reckless in pursuing an enemy for the purpose of activating Jingu Mastery, as you may end up exposing yourself to greater threat.
 * Alternatively, you can consider spreading out your attacks on multiple opponents, and quickly regain new charges once you fully expend your current load.
 * Jingu Mastery does not acquire new charges nor does it apply a counter on opponents when there are charges remaining on Monkey King.
 * Illusions do not benefit from Jingu Mastery, and as such, they do not apply or add on to the counter.


 * Use Mischief at the beginning of the game to transform into an, allowing you to run at 350 speed without any boots.
 * Use Mischief to block paths as a tree.
 * Mischief makes it very difficult to track down Monkey King when juking in trees, especially at the edges of the map.
 * Do not move when transformed unless absolutely necessary, as this will give away Monkey King's disguise.
 * Pay attention to the general foliage of the area when you have disguised yourself as a tree, as if you decide to reposition yourself to another part of the jungle, your current tree disguise may stick out, and Mischief does not retroactively refresh itself to fit in with the new environment.
 * Creative use of Mischief can allow you to escape from a tight spot, especially if you're in the jungle. Disguising yourself as a tree after your opponents lose sight of you in the jungle may just be enough to confuse them into thinking that you've teleported away.
 * If you believe you are about to be revealed with flying vision while standing on a tree, use Mischief to transform into a tree and blend in with the surroundings.


 * Soldiers from Wukong's Command do not benefit from Jingu Mastery and do not add to the counter of an enemy hero.
 * Soldiers do not benefit from any form of attack speed bonus whatsoever. Be sure to build up on items that increase raw damage and agility to maximise the effectiveness of this spell.
 * Soldiers are able to apply all on-hit and unique attack modifier effects, and are able to exude any auras that Monkey King happens to have on him.
 * Soldiers are not treated as illusions, so a works fully on each Soldier.
 * Take note of the boundary of Wukong's Command, as the ability will end prematurely if Monkey King leaves its radius.
 * Be careful of enemies with and heroes with spells that can push you out of the area, such as  and.
 * Being hidden, such as by, does not cause the spell to end prematurely. Soldiers will, however, still vanish if Monkey King is moved out of the area while hidden (e.g.).
 * To avoid being pushed or accidentally moving outside of the radius, try to position Monkey King so that he can use Wukong's Command on top of himself, so he will remain near the center of the circle.
 * Soldiers are invulnerable and cannot be targeted and are not affected by spells, so they are unable to intercept spells such as and cannot be chosen as targets from items such as.

Items
Starting items:
 * helps Monkey King stay in lane.
 * can save Monkey King in a pinch.
 * helps against lane harassment and can be upgraded to if needed.

Early-game items:
 * provides a decent early game stats boost.
 * helps Monkey King hit harder, and can be built later into a.
 * helps Monkey King get runes, which he can reach easily by jumping through trees.

Core items:
 * allows Monkey King to catch up to opponents.
 * makes it much easier for Monkey King to get Jingu Mastery stacks. The slow is very helpful as well and can be applied by the soldiers from Wukong's Command.
 * helps Monkey King lock down his opponents. His soldiers from Wukong's Command can also proc the bash modifier.
 * is useful for ganking with four Jingu Mastery charges, and can be used to escape or to stay inside of Wukong's Command.

Situational items:
 * grants extra attack speed, and its Chain Lightning can be procced by Boundless Strike and by the soldiers from Wukong's Command.
 * 's active slow helps Monkey King gank. His soldiers from Wukong's Command can also proc attack modifiers.
 * increases the damage done by Monkey King significantly as he is based mainly around physical damage.
 * helps Monkey King build up his Jingu Mastery charges without being interrupted.
 * gives Monkey King more survivability and strong slowing effect to help land the multiple hits needed to charge Jingu Mastery.
 * builds into as well as gives Monkey King more survivability earlier on.
 * allows Monkey King to hold enemies down long enough to get Jingu Mastery stacks.
 * is the logical upgrade of, and can be used to stay inside of Wukong's Command without risking death.
 * 's Maim can be procced by the soldiers from Wukong's Command, keeping enemies inside the area if they're trying to escape.
 * gives massive attack speed bonus to help Monkey King stack Jingu Mastery charges faster. Moon shard can be consumed later to be replaced by other items which grant attack speed and more utility, such as an or.