The return of the Monkey King (A Solo Lane Guide)

A few months ago, our beloved Monkey King went on a journey, not unlike his old journey to the west. In his stead, he left in charge a comrade to take his place as an assassin. Hun Batz. An odd little fellow. Well, now our monkey king has returned. And he's brought with him a set of skills unmatched by his previous days. For our Monkey King has learned the arts of trickery. He has grown stronger and wiser.

He went from this:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
To this:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

He had learned the following skills:

Undefeated Body: When Sun Wukong is below 50% health, he gains +10% critical chance and +20 protections, plus another 1% critical chance and 1 protection for his current level.

That is his passive.

The Magic Cudgel: Sun Wukong's Magic Cudgel grows in length, and he slams it down, dealing 90/140/190/240/290 (+50% of your physical power) damage to all enemies 55 ft infront of him.
Cost: 50 mana.
Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Master's Will: Sun Wukong strikes around him, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+50% of your physical power) damage and knocking up all enemies.
Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 mana.
Cooldown: 12 seconds.

72 Transformations: Sun Wukong transforms into an Eagle, Tiger, or Ox, and charges forward.
Eagle: Is the fastest of the three forms. Immune to Slow, Root, and Knockup effects.
Tiger: Mauls the first enemy he hits, stunning it for 0.6/0.8/1.0/1.2/1.4s and causing 100/170/240/310/380 damage.
Ox: Knocks aside all enemies in his path and causes 50/90/130/170/210 damage. Immune to Slow, Root, and Knockup effects.
Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 mana.
Cooldown: 15 seconds.

But our Monkey King learned one special move that was his crowning glory. The Ultimate Trickery that even Loki himself could not master:

Somersault Cloud: Sun Wukong leaps up onto his cloud, leaving a decoy of himself behind to fight. While on the cloud Sun Wukong regenerates 5% of his health per second. He may leap off before the duration expires, dealing 140/190/240/290/340 (120% of your physical power) damage to all enemies in a 20 ft radius. The decoy inherates 50% of Sun Wukong's current strength and defense.
Cost: 100 mana.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.

In battle he was to use his most damaging skill first, magic cudgel, so he may smite forth the impudent minions that dare attack him, followed by his 72 glorious transformations, and then his own will, for he was, indeed a master.

His ultimate ability took priority over everything. Then his first ability, then his third and at last, his second.

The Monkey King had risen once again.

His Battle Kit gave him certain advantages:

Sun Wukong was a versatile master of disguise and trickery. He was able to confuse his opponents extremely well, as well as deal out extreme amounts of knowledge, in the form of pain. Our Monkey King has the propensity of being able to deal out more damage when he realizes he's at low health and is thus a force to be reckoned with. Furthermore, he not only gains protections during such a time, he is a slippery one, able to extricate himself from tight situations.

However, our Monkey King does have the problem of loosing his ability fuel, or mana rather easily in the early moments of battle, for he is most definitely reliant on his abilities to win. But the king has no time for meditating, and must instead get a blue buff from the jungle to sustain him through the early moments of battle.

As our Monkey King Journeyed the lands, he found a few items that helped him gain power and wisdom.

These included a Mystical mail, which not only granted him armor and protection, but harmed anyone around him as well, setting him with an advantage during the early stages of battle.

After acquiring his mail, our master steeled his resolve and worked hard at his goal until he attained Transcendence, which allowed him to expend his energy with greater efficiency.

However, our master needed to aid his feet, for some terrain were difficult to traverse unaided. Hence, he bought the Warrior's Tabi. Not only did it aid the master in his movement, but it gave him the added bonus of a little more power to his furious kicks.

The Mail granted him protections against demons who used physical weapons, but those of a magical nature were still able to harm our dear Master. He found an Ancile, a sacred roman shield from the journey to the west, which he used to protect himself from the powers of magic. This Ancile not only increased his health, but also gave him the ability to repeat his abilities with greater frequency.

It seemed, however, that the frequency was not enough. He wanted to be able to use his abilities to their fullest potential. And furthermore, his foes, now stronger, had armor that he had to penetrate. Travelling North, our Master found the Wrath of the Jotunns which he used to his side.

One mail, however, wasn't enough. Our master repeatedly found himself in situations which forced himself to extricate and escape against his own will to carry on battling. He wished to counter this. And so he found himself the mail of renewal. A mail that granted him the ability to heal his energy and health upon vanquishing a foe.

With these items, he entered the battlegrounds of the gods. He started battling in one lane, without any help, save one god that kept returning from the jungle to aid him occasionally. This is why, he decided to gain a few eyes in the jungle so that his enemies would not ambush him.

Now he was ready to Battle.

Chronos

A Chronos is a wonderful ally for Sun Wukong because of the amount of slows and stuns he can produce in a short amount time. His Auto attacks are one of the most damaging of the mage auto attacks. This, coupled with Wukong's ability to CC will force the enemy back rather quickly.

As someone who has battled a couple of times against Chronos, as Sun Wukong, I know that Chronos can be extremely pesky to fight against. One of the greatest problem is what makes him a good ally as well, the amount of slows and stuns. The best way to counter Chronos is to keep moving, just like him, and keep juking his stop time and time rifts. Further more, keep poking Chronos with your one, literally as soon as you start, you want to make Chronos feel uncomfortable with the reach you have with your one. You want to push him back as far as possible as quickly as you can.

Sun Wukong

Since you obviously won't have Sun Wukong as an ally (considering you are him), what's the best way to counter yourself? To be honest, a mirror lane of Sun Wukong vs. Sun Wukong can be very challenging. The best way to work out this lane is show him that you are the Alpha Monkey of the troop by poking him as much as possible and juking his pokes, just like Chronos. If there are two monkeys following the same guide, good luck to ya.

Ra

Now Ra is very squishy early game unless he's starting as a support tank-ish Ra. If he's building magical damage, make sure you do the same thing as with Chronos. Dominate the lane by poking him. Make sure your Magic Cudgel hits him and a bunch of his minions so that everyone knows you mean business with him.

Jukes are important, as always.

As an ally, Ra is extremely helpful with his slows and heals. However, this can turn off your passive and if you're the kind of guy that'd rather do high amount of damage at low health, then being around Ra unless absolutely necessary isn't really all that vital. Plus you have your own heal with your ult.

Neith

Now Neith is a tough one. The juking and poking is important, but one thing that's scary about her is her broken weaves. Keep a respectable distance from them. In case you are rooted, use your 3.

Get out of there. If she's rooting you and there are no minions around, a gank is probably on its way.

As an ally, Neith is almost indispensable because of the amount of utility she has with her roots and stuns. I can't tell you how many times I've been chasing an enemy and falling just short, only to catch up thanks to a root/stun from Neith.

Tyr

As an ally, his knock ups and damage will work well in tandem with those on your own. Since the both of you fill the same role, the both of you will do the same work, twice as efficently.

As an enemy, juking his fearless, his bread and butter, is the best thing you can do to keep yourself one up over him. Keep poking and juking, knocking him up with your two as much as you can. This is one of the few situations where I'd prioritize my 2 over my 3 because of Tyr's passive.

Skill Order

Level up your, the magic cudgel, first. Why? The wave clear on this thing is not bad early game, and phenomenal mid game, during the laning phase. Sun Wukong's bread and butter is this skillshot when it comes to farming. All you have to do is make sure you're in line. It also doubles as a beautiful poke mechanism.

After levelling up your 1, you can level up your 3, 72 transformations, because of its phenomenal uses. Coupled with your 1, you'll be able to clear your wave easily in Ox form. If the enemy jungler arrives for a gank, go for eagle form and get out of there to the safety of your tower. Do note that if you are using your tiger ability, it's easiest to be within striking distance of your foe so that you can immediately stun them.

As for your two, Master's Will? You level that fourth so that you can start slowing about your enemies when you see fit. It's also a good escape mechanism when you're being chased and your 2 is on cooldown. It makes for a great de-positioner and allows you to set yourself up for landing shots.

Remember to level up your 1 once more during level 3, Somersault Cloud.

From their, your priority should be 4, 1, 3, 2, in the order of damage and utility.

Items

Start off with Mystical Mail. Rank 2. Simply because Mystical Mail rank two keeps you tanky enough for early game and with enough poking and prodding (especially if you manage an early kill), you'll be ahead to have a full mystical mail by the five minute mark. Couple that with the fact that gods are extremely squishy early game and Mystical mail gives you a free damage passive, and you'll have an excellent early boxing potential against enemy gods.

Build into transcendence and rush it as soon as possible. Wukong, to many, is an auto-attack based god. Not to me. Wukong's abilities are extremely strong and he should be used as such. I cannot stress enough how much his mana pool is important throughout the game, so rushing transcendence next is vital.

Warrior Tabi must be the third item for Wukong, mainly due to the fact that that added mobility and power will work well with Transcendence to give your abilities and Autos more punch.

By this time, the midlaners will be in constant rotation and will be quite strong (Especially someone like Agni) so it's best to stack up your Ancile. This item not only gives you some flat CDR to start off that CDR cap, but also builds your health.

Couple that with Jotunn's Wrath and you not only get enough CDR to use your abilities constantly, but you get penetration to get the added damage from Transcendence and Tabi to do some work to tankier gods.

The last item is situational.

I like mail of renewal. It allows me to survive fights. Plain and simple.

Solo vs Solo + Jungler

Have Wards set up from your Eye of Providence. The Jungler'll probably be hidden behind one of the boulders, ready to enter as soon as signaled. Make sure you stay on your half of the lane, close-ish to your tower. But if you really do want to push hard, be prepared and keep an eye on the minimap.

Before the jungler enters your lane, pop your Ult. This will force the jungler to use his attacks on the decoy, not knowing the difference until it's too late.

Chased by enemy in jungle

Use your 3 in eagle form to gain as much distance from them as possible.

Ult. Take an unpredicted direction.

Voila!

Chasing an enemy

Use your 3 in eagle form to close distance. Attack. Ult if necessary and close their escape.

Enemy missing in your lane/dead, but no minions to help out + low tower

Ult. The decoy will be targetted and you can kill the tower. Get out of there if the decoy dies too early.

Teamfight

Use tiger to stun the squishiest one and focus him down. Ignore tanks. Use 3 to chase if needed. Use ult in case one ally dies to keep the amount of people in the battle the same (and heal up if needed). Priority is healer, damage dealer, bruiser, tank. Always.

1v1, you have health advantage health

Use your 1 as much as possible in conjunction with the tiger form on your 3. Use 2 to slow 'em. No need to use 4 unless you're far too low to engage.

1v1, enemy has health advantage

Your passive kicks in here. Use that to your advantage and never stop with the auto attacks. Occasional Knock up and stun is advisable.

Ult when you feel you cannot fight for much longer and retreat in case the enemy is still at a high health advantage and that gap cannot be closed. If it can, smash back down and fight.

The Monkey King has chosen you work with him in battle. He places great trust in you, Mortal One.

Use this trust wisely, for the Monkey King's Honor is at stake. The false immortals arise, and it is up to you and the Monkey King to protect this world from Evil.

Be careful, fellow warrior.

Be careful.

Long Live The Great Sage