Monkey King
From Dota 2 Wiki
For the in-game item, see Monkey King Bar.
| Hero | Strategy | Counters | Equipment | Gear | Responses | Sounds | Lore | Old Abilities | Changelogs | Known Bugs |
Monkey King
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Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is a melee agility hero, best known for his slippery nature and his ability to do Mischief, deceiving his enemies by turning into trees and other objects. Armed with his magic extending staff, the Monkey King slams the ground with Boundless Strikes, and leaps to the treetops to have advantage over his foes with Tree Dance. Perched on a tree, he gains a clear view of his surroundings, allowing him to jump down on unsuspecting targets, dealing heavy damage and slowing their escape with Primal Spring. As a carry, the Monkey King is granted extra damage and lifesteal from Jingu Mastery after landing consecutive attacks on his opponents. In a teamfight, at Wukong's Command an army of clones is sent out across the battlefield to fight for him, while he himself has his armor increased. Together with the help of his clones and his team, the Monkey King is one heck of a force to be reckoned with.
Contents
Bio[edit]
 Sun Wukong, the Monkey King
| |
| Play "There's a lot of stories about the Monkey King. Some of 'em are even true." | |
| Role: |  Carry /  Escape /  Disabler /  Initiator
|
| Lore: | For 500 years the mountain pressed down upon him, only his head free from the crushing weight of the stonewrought prison the elder gods had summoned to halt his childish rebellion. Moss grew along the lines of his exposed face, tufts of grass sprouted from his ears; his vision was framed in wildflowers reaching from the soil around his cheeks. Most thought him long dead, tormented by the gods for waging war against the heavens until naught but his legend survived. But, as the stories go, the Monkey King cannot die. So he waited. Until the gods came to offer a chance at absolution, he endured. And when they did come to name the price, Sun Wukong accepted their charge: he would accompany a young acolyte on a secret pilgrimage, protect him from demons and dangers of the road, and guide the man home in possession of a coveted relic. Do that, and humbly obey the human's commands in service to their holy mission, and Wukong would prove himself reformed. For a change, Sun Wukong fulfilled his oath to the gods with honor, and atoned for the sins of past insurrections. The acolyte, much learned in hardships, was returned to his home temple, relic in hand; and Wukong-finding himself for the first time in proper standing with any gods of consequence-was content for a short while to give up his old thirst for adventure and glory. But the Monkey King was born for mischief...and offending the gods never gets old. |
| Voice: | Bill Millsap (Responses) |
Abilities[edit]
Boundless Strike
Monkey King enlarges his staff and slams it against the ground, stunning enemies in a line and damaging them with a critical hit based on his attack. Has True Strike.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.5
Cast Range: 1200
Effect Length: 1200
Effect Width: 150
Critical Damage: 150%/175%/200%/225% (
250%/275%/300%/325%)
250%/275%/300%/325%)Stun Duration: 0.4/0.8/1.2/1.6
22
100
Modifiers
Boundless Strike Stun: Dispellable with strong dispels.The legendary Jingu Bang grows to match its master's will, ensuring no enemy can escape the Monkey King's reach.
Notes:
- Boundless Strike's effects are instantly applied within its whole area. There is no travel time.
- The effect starts 75 range in front of Monkey King and has an actual length of 1125, adding up to 1200 effective length.
- It can hit units up to 1350 range away (75 starting distance + 1125 length + 150 width).
- It can also hit units 75 range behind Monkey King, due to its radius and starting position.
- Causes Monkey King to perform an instant attack on all hit enemies. The stun is independent from these attacks.
- These attacks have True Strike, and can therefore never miss. They also ignore disarms.
- Can proc any attack modifier on all of the hit targets normally, with cleave being the only exception.
- Also procs
Jingu Mastery, placing the debuff on all hit enemy heroes, or adding to the counter if already debuffed. - Does not proc
Echo Sabre's cooldown, but does proc its slow. Since it does not proc its cooldown, all hit targets get slowed. - Despite the audio,
Daedalus has still only a chance to proc. Boundless Strike does not guarantee chance-based effects to proc. - Since Boundless Strike has an ensured critical hit, crits with a lower value have no effect if they proc (higher crit value takes priority).
- Jingu Mastery loses a charge whenever Boundless Strike is cast, regardless of whether it hits a unit or not.
- The bonus attack damage is applied to all hit targets, and it does lifesteal for each hit target, despite using up only one charge.
- The sound during the cast animation is audible to everyone.
Tree Dance
Ability
Target Unit
Target Unit
Affects
Self / Trees
Self / Trees
Monkey King jumps to a tree and perches atop it. While perched, he gains the Primal Spring ability-a channeled leap attack. If Monkey King's tree is destroyed, he falls and is stunned for 4 seconds. Taking damage from player controlled units or Roshan while on the ground puts Tree Dance on cooldown.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 1000
Damage Cooldown: 3
Day Tree Vision: 800
Night Tree Vision: 400
Unperch Stun Duration: 4
1.2Modifiers
Bounce Leap: Undispellable. Tree Dance Activity: Dispellable with any dispel. Bounce Perch: Undispellable. Tree Dance Hidden: Undispellable. Unperched Stunned: Dispellable with strong dispels.Sun Wukong dances nimbly along the treetop canopy, always just out of arm's reach.
Notes:
- Leveling up Tree Dance also levels up
Primal Spring.
- The cast of Tree Dance is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Cannot be cast while rooted. However, getting rooted while already leaping does not cancel the leap.
- Monkey king leaps to the target tree at a speed of 700, reaching the tree within up to 1.4 seconds.
- Leaps in an arc, with a top height of 192. During the leap, other units may pass below Monkey King.
- Although it visually looks like Monkey King is above the ground while perched, he still is considered to be on the ground. The height is part of the animations.
- Tree Dance has several different cooldowns which activate at different times.
- Upon cast, the leap duration is added to the cooldown, resulting in a cooldown of 1.3 to up to 2.6 seconds, based on the distance.
- Upon reaching the tree, it goes on cooldown for 1.2 seconds, which matters only if the cast cooldown was skipped (with e.g.
Chakra Magic). - Upon unperching with a move or attack command, it goes on a 1.2-second cooldown. Does not go on cooldown when unperched in other ways.
- Upon taking player-based or
Roshan-based damage greater than 0 while on the ground (excluding damage flagged as HP Removal), it goes on a 3-second cooldown. - All of these cooldowns are unaffected by percentage-based cooldown reductions. Flat reductions and cooldown resets work.
- During the leap, Monkey King is disabled, unable to perform any actions. The last given order gets queued up and executed as soon as he lands.
- During the leap and while on a tree, Monkey King gains flying vision, but has his vision reduced to 800/400.
-
Moon Shard's bonus night vision and 
Darkness still work, while 
Nightmare does not affect Monkey King's vision while on a tree.
-
- While perched on a tree, Monkey King is hidden from sight. He can only be seen with flying vision.
- He can also be seen when standing 2 levels of ground higher than the tree Monkey King sits on, allowing wards to spot him when the ward is on an elevated ward spot.
- However, he cannot be seen when getting hurled in the air by spells (e.g.
Toss). Only standing on high ground may grant vision over him.
- While on a tree, Monkey King can perform any action normally, with some of them unperching him, while others do not.
- Casting
Boundless Strike, 
Mischief and any item ability does not unperch him. - Casting
Wukong's Command, moving and attacking does unperch him. - Directional Move and Patrol have no effect when ordered while on a tree, so that Monkey King stays perched.
- While on cooldown on a tree, Monkey King is disarmed and he cannot move, which prevents him from getting off the tree with move and attack commands.
- Forced movement unperches Monkey King as well. This includes the effects of
Blink Dagger, 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 
Force Staff and 
Hurricane Pike.
- Casting
- While on a tree, Tree Dance can be cast again, targeting another nearby tree. All trees within cast range are highlighted with a white glow.
- Monkey King gets only stunned if his tree he leaps towards, or he sits on, gets destroyed. Getting unperched in other ways (e.g. forced movement) does not result in a stun.
- When on a tree created by
Sprout or 
Iron Branch, Monkey King does not get stunned when they get destroyed or expire.
- When on a tree created by
- The Tree Dance activity modifier only appears during the leap and is responsible for the jump animation. Dispelling it does not cancel the jump.
Primal Spring
Monkey King springs out from his tree perch, damaging and slowing enemies in the area where he lands. Damage and slow amounts are in proportion to channel duration.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Cast Range: Global
Max Leap Distance: 1000
Radius: 375
Max Channel Time: 1.6
Max Damage: 140/210/280/350
Max Movement Speed Slow: 20%/40%/60%/80%
Slow Duration: 4
19/ 130/Modifiers
Bounce Leap: Undispellable. Tree Dance Activity: Dispellable with any dispel. Spring Slow: Dispellable with any dispel.Leaping from the safety of cover into the midst of his enemies, Sun Wukong attacks without mercy.
Notes:
- This ability is automatically leveled whenever
Tree Dance is leveled.
- This ability is only active during the cast time of Tree Dance, during the leap from the ground onto a tree and while on a tree.
- It is inactive while leaping from a tree to another tree, and while on the ground.
- Cannot be cast while rooted. However, when getting rooted while already channeling or leaping does not cancel the channel or leap.
- Since Tree Dance disables Monkey King during the leap, casting Primal Spring while leaping to a tree queues up the order, so that it is cast immediately once on the tree.
- Leaps towards the target area at a speed of 1300, reaching it in up to 0.77 seconds, based on distance.
- The damage and slow are based on the time spent channeling, meaning their potency increases per each server tick (0.03 seconds) spent channeling, up to 54 times.
- The damage increases by 2.642/3.962/5.283/6.604 per server tick, starting immediately, reaching 142.6/214/285.3/356.6 damage in 1.6 seconds.
- The slow increases by 0.377%/0.755%/1.132%/1.509% per server tick, also starting immediately, reaching 20.4%/40.8%/61.1%/81.5% slow in 1.6 seconds.
- Hitting the same enemy multiple times with Primal Spring refreshes the slow duration, but does not update the slow value based on channel time.
- The visual effecst at the target area during the channeling are visible to allies only.
- The channeling sound is audible to enemies, even through the fog of war.
- The Tree Dance activity modifier only appears during the leap and is responsible for the jump animation. Dispelling it does not cancel the jump.
Spring Early
E
G
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Self
Self
There is no description for this ability.
Cast Animation: 0+0
0Notes:
- Replaces Primal Spring until the channeling ends.
- The cast of Spring Early is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Immediately ends the channeling of Primal Spring, causing Monkey King to jump earlier.
- Cannot be shift-queued.
Jingu Mastery
Ability
Passive
Passive
Affects
Enemies / Self
Enemies / Self
Monkey King's attacks awaken the Jingu Bang's power. Upon the fourth hit on the same enemy hero, Monkey King earns four charged attacks that have bonus damage and lifesteal.
Required Hits: 4
Charges: 4
Attack Damage Bonus: 75/100/125/150 ( 150/175/200/225)
150/175/200/225)Lifesteal: 15%/30%/45%/60%
Counter Duration: 10
Buff Duration: 35
Disables both the adding of the counter and the buff on Monkey King.Modifiers
Quadruple Tap Bonuses: Dispellable with any dispel. Quadruple Tap Counter: Undispellable.Always sensitive to the moods of its master, the Jingu Bang radiates power when Sun Wukong's combat fervor is on full display.
Notes:
- Each successful attack done on an enemy hero while Monkey King does not have the damage and lifesteal buff places the debuff, or adds one to its counter if it already has the debuff.
- Only actual enemy heroes (including clones) can receive the debuff. Illusions and creep-heroes do not count. Allied heroes do not count either.
- The debuff's duration gets refreshed on each hit. The 4 hits do not all require to happen within 10 seconds.
- Boundless Strike's instant-attack also counts and is able to place the debuff/add to the debuff's counter.
- Upon hitting the same target 4 times, the debuff on the target disappears and Monkey King receives the attack damage and lifesteal buff.
- A charge gets used upon successfully attacking any unit, including buildings, wards and allied units, always applying the bonus damage.
- The lifesteal does not work against buildings and allies, and works against any other unit, including wards.
- Boundless Strike also uses Jingu Mastery's effects, hitting all enemies with the bonus damage and the lifesteal, but only using up one charge per cast.
- Even when not hitting any enemy, Boundless Strike still takes one charge of Jingu Mastery.
Mischief
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Self
Self
Changes Monkey King's shape to deceive opponents, using the environment nearby as inspiration for the disguise. Taking damage, attacking, or using any item or ability breaks Monkey King's disguise.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Set Movement Speed (Default): 200
Set Movement Speed (as Courier): 350
Search Radius: 350
3Modifiers
Transform: Dispellable with any dispel.Watch out for that tree.
Notes:
- This is an innate ability and does not need to be learned. It is not bound to any ability, but to Monkey King himself.
- The cast of Mischief is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Interrupts Monkey King's channeling spells, move orders and attack orders upon cast.
- When a tree is within 350 range upon cast, it transforms Monkey King into that tree. If multiple trees are within range, a random one of them is chosen.
- This means the transformation adapts to custom terrains as well.
- This includes spawned trees from Sprout and Iron Branch.
- When within 350 range of a rune spot, it transforms Monkey King into a random rune suitable for that rune spot.
- This means power-up rune models are used when at the river rune spots, and Bounty Rune model when at the other rune spots.
- When cast within Roshan's pit, it transforms Monkey King into the
Aegis of the Immortal.
- If Roshan respawned the third time, it also transforms into
Cheese, even though Roshan starts dropping Cheese on his second death.
- If Roshan respawned the third time, it also transforms into
- When cast anywhere else, Monkey King transforms into one of the following:
-
Animal Courier (using the team's courier's model), Iron Branch, 
Clarity, 
Healing Salve, 
Town Portal Scroll, 
Banana (new or peeled), 
Tango
-
- Monkey King's movement speed is set to 200 while transformed (350 when transformed as a courier). Besides with hastes, his movement speed cannot be altered by anything.
- Monkey King's selection box adapts to the disguise models. However, his collision size does not change.
- Monkey King's minimap icon is hidden to the enemy while disguised. In addition, his over-head health and mana bar is hidden to everyone, including the player.
- Auto-attack ignores the Monkey King, so that lane creeps, neutral creeps, towers and fountains do not automatically attack him.
- Units of players which have auto-attack enabled do not attack him automatically either, but can be forced to attack him. The ground-attack move also ignores him.
- Monkey King is still fully affected by every spell. He can be targeted normally. Attachable particle effects of spells still attach to him.
- Damage greater than 0 dispels the effect. Does not get dispelled by damage flagged as HP Removal.
Revert Form
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Self
Self
Reverts Monkey King's shape to his original form.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
1Notes:
- Replaces Mischief until the disguise ends.
- The cast of Revert Form is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Interrupts Monkey King's channeling spells, move order and attack order upon cast.
Wukong's Command
Monkey King creates a circular formation of soldiers that spread out from his position. If Monkey King leaves the area his soldiers disperse. The soldiers have Monkey King's attack and only target heroes. Monkey King grants bonus armor for the spell's duration.
Cast Animation: 1.2+0.37
Cast Range: 550
Interior Radius: 300
Exterior Radius: 750
Leadership Radius: 780
Number of Interior Soldiers: 5
Number of Exterior Soldiers: 9
Soldiers Attack Interval: 1.4
Armor Bonus: 8/14/20
Max Duration: 13
130/ 100
Modifiers
Fur Army Damage Bonus: Undispellable.Monkey King rips out a tuft of fur to blow at his enemies, charging each strand to transform into a copy of himself.
Notes:
- Upon cast, 14 clones of Monkey King spawn which immediately walk to their determined spot in the formation.
- The clones walk at a speed of 700 and have unobstructed movement, walking through cliffs and trees.
- The formation they take is always the same except when space is limited by the edges of the map.
- The interior soldiers form a pentagon within a 300 radius circle, with the tip always facing north.
- The exterior soldiers form a nonagon within a 750 radius circle, with the tip always facing north as well.
- The soldiers are invulnerable and unselectable, making them immune to almost every spell.
- The soldiers are hero clones of Monkey King, copying all attributes of Monkey King, with some special exceptions. They are not illusions.
- Their attack speed is locked so that they always do one attack every 1.4 seconds. Attack speed buffs and slows do not affect them.
- Their vision is reduced to 600, during the day and during the night. They provide the vision while walking to their spot and while standing there.
- The clones are only able to attack enemies they see. Invisible enemies and enemies inside the Fog of War are not attacked, even when inside the circle and within attack range.
- The clones also copy most of Monkey King's items, and are therefore able to use attack modifiers and bestow auras he had upon cast.
- The clones do not copy
Abyssal Blade, Aegis of the Immortal, 
Gem of True Sight, 
Skull Basher and 
Urn of Shadows. - The permanent buff of a consumed
Aghanim's Scepter (granted by 
Alchemist) and the base intelligence reduction debuff (Silencer's 
Intelligence Steal) are copied as well. - However, other permanent buffs (e.g. Moon Shard,
Duel) are not copied. - Since their attack speed is locked, Echo Sabre does not allow them to quickly attack twice. The slow is still applied though.
- Jingu Mastery does not work for the clones. They neither add stacks on enemies, nor gain the damage bonus if Monkey King had the buff on cast.
- Since the soldiers do regular attacks, their damage is reduced by damage block.
- The soldiers only attack enemy heroes, clones, creep-heroes and illusions which are inside the circle.
- Other units and any unit outside the circle are fully ignored, even when within attack range of a soldier.
- If Monkey King moves more than 780 range away from the center of the circle, or when he dies, the soldiers disappear and the spell ends.
- Recasting Wukong's Command while a previous cast is still active immediately ends the previous cast.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +100% Boundless Strike Crit
|
25 | +25  Strength
|
| +20% Magic Resistance | 20 | +40 Damage |
| +75 Jingu Mastery Damage
|
15 | +275 Health |
| 12% Evasion | 10 | +20 Attack Speed |
Notes:
- The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.
- Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
- The magic resistance is added as a separate instance, and therefore stacks multiplicatively with the base resistance.
- The evasion stacks multiplicatively with other sources of evasion.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
Tango helps Monkey King stay in lane.
Healing Salve can save Monkey King in a pinch.
Stout Shield helps against lane harassment and can be upgraded to 
Poor Man's Shield if needed.
Early-game items:
Ring of Aquila provides a decent early game stats boost.
Blight Stone helps Monkey King hit harder, and can be built later into a 
Desolator.
Bottle helps Monkey King get runes, which he can reach easily by jumping through trees.
Orb of Venom helps Monkey King slow heroes when building up Jingu Mastery stacks.
Core items:
Phase Boots allows Monkey King to catch up to opponents.
Echo Sabre 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.
Shadow Blade 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:
Mjollnir grants extra attack speed, and its Chain Lightning can be procced by Boundless Strike and by the soldiers from Wukong's Command.
Diffusal Blade's active slow helps Monkey King gank. His soldiers from Wukong's Command can also proc attack modifiers.
Desolator increases the damage done by Monkey King significantly as he is based mainly around physical damage.
Black King Bar helps Monkey King build up his Jingu Mastery charges without being interrupted.
Eye of Skadi gives Monkey King more survivability and strong slowing effect to help land the multiple hits needed to charge Jingu Mastery.
Vanguard builds into Abyssal Blade as well as gives Monkey King more survivability earlier on.
Skull Basher builds into Abyssal Blade as well as helps Monkey King lock down his opponents.
Abyssal Blade allows Monkey King to hold enemies down long enough to get Jingu Mastery stacks.
Silver Edge is the logical upgrade of 
Shadow Blade, and can be used to stay inside of Wukong's Command without risking death. 
Sange and Yasha's Maim can be procced by the soldiers from Wukong's Command, keeping enemies inside the area if they're trying to escape.
Moon Shard 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 
Assault Cuirass or 
Mjollnir.
Gameplay[edit]
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- Monkey King's name, lore and abilities are based on Sun Wukong, the legendary hero from the Chinese classic Journey to the West.
- In the novel, the Monkey King wields the Ruyi Jingu Bang, a flexible magical staff that can change size and length.
- The name for Mischief in Dota 2's Chinese client is "Seventy-two Transformations" (七十二变, Qī shí èr biàn), a reference from the novel to Sun Wukong's ability to change into numerous forms.
- Wukong's Command is based on one of the Monkey King magical powers from the novel. He creates clones of himself from his hair, which he pulls from the back of his head, and blows into the wind.
- Monkey King is the first original hero made for Dota 2. All previous heroes were ported from DotA.
- Monkey King is based on early concepts developed during the DotA era.
- An easter egg boss fight versus Monkey King was added to the 6.79 DotA map to hint at his upcoming release.[1]
- Monkey King's stats were revealed in the version 6.80 beta, but he was never added to the release version.[2]
- Monkey King shares design similarities with
Phantom Lancer, who may have been based on the earlier concepts of Monkey King.
- Several early ability concepts were considered for Monkey King's Dota 2 release, including a "pickpocket" ability.
- The Banana item, which only appeared in private lobbies, may have been an early hint to Monkey King's release. The item was removed on the same patch as Monkey King was released.
- Monkey King's default weapon is based on the in-game item,
Monkey King Bar. - Mischief's lore line Watch out for that tree is a reference to George of the Jungle, a classic comedy film.
- The Monkey King concept has been widely used throughout the ARTS/MOBA genre, with other Monkey King heroes appearing in League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Vainglory, Strife, and SMITE.
- The emblem on a ground made by Primal Spring is called a bagua, which is a Daoist symbol that represents the fundamental principles of reality.
- Monkey King's was voiced in his teaser trailer by Matthew Mercer, who also voiced the Monkey King hero from Heroes of Newerth. However, his voice actor was later changed to Bill Millsap.
- Monkey King's Chinese voice actor is Shihong Li, who also voiced Monkey King in the famous 1986 TV show, Journey to the West.
- The sound effect played during Wukong's Command (Play) comes from a Balinese music and dance called kecak. Accompanied by male chorus, this ritual song depicts a battle where a group of monkeys (Vanara) helped Prince Rama to fight the evil King Ravana.
- One of Monkey King's lines directed at Storm Spirit, "I've seen Xin and Kaolin. Where's your other brother?" implies the existence of a fourth spirit, presumably water.
Gallery[edit]
Monkey King in-game
Unused prototype abilities and early icons
Monkey King's design concept was originally considered for Phantom Lancer.
Monkey King's profile from DotA's 6.80 beta, with stats and old abilities
Hero icon progress
External links[edit]
References[edit]
