Monkey King: A Guide to Sun Wukong in Dota 2

Monkey King blends mobility, control, and sustained damage. He jumps between trees, scouts safely, and punishes mistakes with stuns and high-impact strikes. Played well, he controls vision, starts fights on his terms, and survives long enough to turn skirmishes into wins.

Monkey King’s Core Kit

Boundless Strike

Boundless Strike slams the staff in a 1100-length line, applying an instant attack with a guaranteed critical hit and a brief stun. The strike uses True Strike on those hits and can trigger on-hit effects. It applies or consumes Jingu Mastery as if it were a normal attack and can lifesteal on every target hit when Jingu is active.

A few points matter in real games:

• It hits slightly behind Monkey King due to the start offset, and can reach up to ~1250 units when you account for width and start distance.

• It does not unperch you during Tree Dance, so you can cast it from a tree.

• It has no travel time; effects apply instantly across the line.

• Cleave doesn’t apply, but most attack modifiers do.

Shard upgrade (Alt-Cast): when enabled, Monkey King leaps to the end of the staff line and applies Primal Spring on landing at 60% of max channel power. The leap briefly locks your actions and follows terrain height; upward forced movement cancels the Spring. This version inherits Primal Spring rules and costs no mana, but it only works if you have Primal Spring learned.

Tree Dance

Tree Dance jumps to a target tree and perches there. While perched, you gain flying vision but reduced day/night vision (700/500), can cast abilities and items, and you’re hidden from normal ground vision. Casting Wukong’s Command, moving, or attacking will unperch you; Boundless Strike and Mischief do not.

If the tree you’re on is destroyed, you fall and take a 4-second self-stun that pierces debuff immunity. Taking player or Roshan damage while on the ground puts Tree Dance on a short cooldown, which limits escape once you’re hit. You can chain Tree Dance from tree to nearby tree within range, letting you cross the map, scout high ground, and place wards in hard spots.

Primal Spring

While perched or during the jump to a tree, Primal Spring becomes available. Channel, then leap to a target point (up to 1000 range by default) and deal area damage plus a slow based on channel time. It doesn’t break Tree Dance when started from a tree; you commit when you release or get interrupted. Damage and slow ramp each server tick during channeling, reaching strong values at max channel. Forced movement on you or losing your tree cancels the cast.

Practical uses:

• Gap close from trees with immediate impact slow.

• Farm clumped creeps when you have enough mana regen.

• Chain after a Boundless Strike stun to keep targets controlled.

Spring Early

When channeling Primal Spring, Spring Early replaces it as a sub-ability. Pressing it ends the channel and jumps immediately, trading power for speed. It cannot be shift-queued.

Jingu Mastery

Hitting the same enemy hero four times (three with a talent) gives you four charged attacks with bonus flat damage and lifesteal. Charges last a long time and apply to any unit you hit, including buildings and wards. However, any cast of Boundless Strike consumes one charge whether it hits or not, while still applying the bonus damage and lifesteal to all struck targets.

Notes that guide decisions:

• The four setup hits don’t need to be rapid; the debuff refreshes as you keep hitting the same hero.

• Charges are dispellable and are lost on death.

• Without Aghanim’s Scepter, Wukong’s Command soldiers neither add stacks nor benefit from Jingu. With Scepter, each soldier tracks stacks independently and gains the bonus damage (still treated as creeps for some interactions).

Mischief and Revert Form

Mischief disguises Monkey King as a nearby object, rune, unit, or tree. The disguise hides his minimap icon and makes creeps and towers ignore him. Transforming grants 0.2 seconds of damage immunity, which can negate big single hits if timed well. Taking damage, attacking, or casting breaks the disguise. Revert Form returns you to normal and shares the same brief cast.

Practical value:

• Juke through trees after breaking vision, then stand still as a tree model.

• Block narrow paths by transforming into a tree.

• Time the 0.2s immunity against telegraphed nukes.

Wukong’s Command

Monkey King spawns invulnerable soldiers in a fixed formation around his cast position. Soldiers copy his attack (with most item auras and modifiers) and only target enemy heroes and similar units inside the ring. If Monkey King moves too far from the center or dies, the army disappears. He also gains significant bonus armor for the duration.

Key details:

• Soldiers attack at a fixed 1.2-second interval; attack speed items don’t make them swing faster.

• Raw damage and armor reduction scale this spell well, because hits are guaranteed at their interval if the target is inside the ring and in vision.

• The formation has two rings by default (a pentagon and a nonagon). A talent adds a third ring and increases cast range and leadership radius.

• Many item effects copy to soldiers (e.g., Radiance aura always on), while some exceptions exist (e.g., Bash doesn’t work for soldiers).

Scepter upgrade: spawns passive soldiers near you at intervals, with special rules (no spawning while invisible, perched, disguised, or dead). With Scepter, soldiers can gain and use Jingu charges independently, separate from your own stacks.

Talents That Matter

At level 10, you can extend the Boundless Strike stun or add Primal Spring max damage. At 15, more Jingu damage or Tree Dance cast range. At 20, shorter Boundless Strike cooldown or zero-cooldown Primal Spring. At 25, an extra Wukong’s Command ring or one less hit required for Jingu.

The talent choices reflect playstyle. If you’re fighting often around your ultimate, the extra ring at 25 changes teamfights. If skirmishing, the Jingu requirement reduction speeds up picks. Tree Dance range adds creative warding and jumps. Primal Spring zero cooldown reshapes map pressure.

Items for Monkey King

• Starting:

  • Tango, Healing Salve for sustain.

  • Quelling Blade for last hits.

  • Orb of Venom to secure early Jingu stacks and chase; soldiers can apply its slow during Wukong’s Command.

• Early:

  • Boots of Speed into Power Treads (stat toggling helps mana) or Phase Boots (damage and chase).

  • Magic Stick/Wand for burst sustain.

  • Blight Stone as a step toward Desolator.

• Mid:

  • Battle Fury to accelerate farm; cleave also applies with Wukong’s Command hits.

  • Echo Sabre to secure Jingu stacks through double-hit and slow; note soldiers no longer apply its slow, but Sabre still aids personal skirmishes.

  • Desolator for armor melt that scales Boundless Strike and soldier DPS.

  • Maelstrom/Mjollnir for attack speed and Chain Lightning procs; these can trigger off Boundless Strike and soldier attacks.

• Late:

  • Black King Bar to stay inside Wukong’s Command and finish Jingu swings.

  • Butterfly for agility and evasion, boosting Boundless Strike and soldier damage.

  • Aghanim’s Scepter for passive soldiers and Jingu synergy.

  • Abyssal Blade to lock targets inside your ring or to finish a pick.

  • Monkey King Bar versus evasion.

  • Eye of Skadi to slow and tank up; soldiers apply the slow.

  • Silver Edge for mobility and Break to punish specific heroes.

  • Radiance as a durable, farm-plus-fight option; soldiers inherit the burn.

• Utility:

  • Bottle suits the hero thanks to easy rune access via trees.

  • Orb of Corrosion early for HP, slow, and armor reduction.

  • Diffusal Blade to keep targets in your ring; soldiers can burn mana.

Playing Monkey King as a Carry

Monkey King wants safe farm into impactful skirmishes. His farming speed is average without items, so plan power spikes. Stack camps or push waves, then hide in trees to threaten a Primal Spring plus Boundless Strike. Keep Jingu charges in mind—enter fights when you can build them safely, or exit if dispels are likely.

In lane, abuse your 300 melee attack range to trade without counter-hits. Use tree lines to reset aggro and scout rotations. When you have Jingu ready, Boundless Strike across multiple heroes to lifesteal a chunk of health. In mid game, cast Wukong’s Command where the enemy must fight (chokes, Rosh, towers) and hold your ground with BKB.

Playing Monkey King as a Roamer

Tree Dance gives unique angles. You can leave vision, hop over cliffs, and appear behind defenders. Perch above lanes to scout, then channel Primal Spring for a clean slow into Boundless Strike. Because Tree Dance goes on cooldown when you’re hit, pick clean entries: start from fog, commit, then exit to trees before the return damage lands.

Roaming also helps warding. Perch on unreachable trees to place deep vision. Track heroes who cut trees or have forced movement tools—those can punish you. If your tree might get destroyed, queue Primal Spring to get off the perch on your terms.

Practical Tips and Micro Decisions

Boundless Strike builds around raw damage. If you plan to fight often without long right-clicks, favor agility and damage over attack speed, since Wukong’s soldiers ignore attack speed and Boundless Strike scales with base damage. Save the stun for channels or escapes when needed; otherwise, pair it with Primal Spring to secure kills.

Tree control wins games. Learn safe perches near common wards and power rune spots. When pressured, hop twice—first to create space, second to break predictable paths. If you expect reveal, transform with Mischief into a tree model that matches the area’s foliage and stop moving.

Jingu is tempo. If enemies can dispel, spend your charges quickly on nearby targets or creeps to heal now rather than lose them later. If you’re one hit from charges, don’t re-target mid-fight unless you must.

Wukong’s Command requires placement. Cast on your current position when possible to avoid getting pushed out. Fight near terrain that pins enemies inside the circle. Keep vision: soldiers won’t attack what they can’t see, so pair with allies who provide reveals or hold fights within daylight sight lines.

Strengths and Liabilities

Monkey King is elusive, mobile, and punishing in teamfights with the right items. He controls space with his ultimate and threatens lines with a long, instant Boundless Strike. He also relies on trees, suffers a severe stun if dropped from a perch, and needs items to farm and fight. Once enemies tag you, Tree Dance escape becomes unreliable, so plan entry and exit through fog and height.

Final Takeaway

Master the map’s canopy, time Boundless Strike around Jingu, and cast Wukong’s Command where the enemy must stand and fight. With clean vision and careful movement, Monkey King turns every tree into an opening.

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