Introducing Monkey King
For years there have been teasers and speculations about Wukong entering the DotA/Dota2 realm. When bananas dropped earlier this year, players got hyped even more about the arrival of the Monkey King and when it was announced during The International this year, players from around the world were ecstatic about the prospect of the first Dota 2 hero.
Monkey King is the first hero that has not been brought into DotA (1), but is rather a purely Dota 2 based hero. No Warcraft 3 engine limitations can hold him back and his design is arguably years ahead of that of other heroes. Surely, Dota 2 has received patches and tweaks, but hero designs such as those of Wraith King and Drow Ranger is still very much outdated in ARTS (or for the very daring “MOBA”) games.
And one could say that Wukong lives up to the hype and potential that people have seen in him, with new unique abilities and interactions that could pave the way for a more vivid and fluid map interaction. He is the continuation of a trend that has developed itself over the past years with more complex hero designs and ability interactions.
Skillset
Monkey King has so far established himself as a carry and ganker that has high impact in the early midgame and can scale well into the later stages of the game, though also has high potential to fall off.
Through the mobility of Tree Dance, Monkey King can approach his targets quite easily and can avoid conventional scouting methods. Wards that aren’t placed on ward hills will not grant vision over the elusive ganker and even towers cannot spot him at the top of a tree. While he does become visible during his jumps, it can be difficult to keep track of him. Especially now that he’s a new hero with a new and unique design, people will have a difficult time adjusting to his unique way to approach targets.
To make use of his elusiveness, Monkey King can initiate from the top of a tree with the help of Primal Spring. It’s a great initiation tool with a strong slow--40% at level 1 is one of the better early game slows in the game, especially in an AoE.
Among his ten most picked up items, 
Shadow Blade fits the approach of a ganker quite well. Monkey King can turn invisible while on a tree and can walk off the tree without turning visible, allowing him to be stealthier and deadlier. The attack speed bonus is of course a huge benefit, as his passive ability Jingu Mastery requires 4 attacks on one hero to be effective.
As a result, 
Echo Sabre is the most important item in Monkey King’s current item builds. Not only does it basically guarantee 2 hits on a target for Jingu Mastery, it also synergizes incredibly well with his ultimate Wukong's Command . His soldiers all apply the Echo Sabre attack slow to their targets, turning his ultimate into an even better crowd control ability than it already is. Of course, Echo Sabre isn’t the only whose buffs the soldier adapt. 
Desolator or 
Skull Basher both have effects that soldiers benefit from and that can turn Wukong’s Command into a deadly trap.
These items aren’t only good because of Wukong’s ultimate however. Boundless Strike is Monkey King’s most fearsome weapon and it allows the hero to be the ganker and carry he is. Not only does it act as an extended arm to Monkey King, meaning that it deals physical damage and applies all debuffs and item effects as well just like any right-click would, its guaranteed critical hit allows Monkey King to farm and kill efficiently. Boundless Strike hits also apply the Jingu Mastery counter on hit enemies or uses up the bonus attack of it. It can be used as a finishing move in combination with Jingu Mastery, but its up to 2 second stun also allows the ability to act as an initiation tool.
Mischief is a very unique ability. Allowing Monkey King to transform himself into items or trees is incredibly unique and seems very gimmicky at best at first. The skill has a large variety of use cases however. While the occasional courier bait seems to be the most obvious one--Monkey King can transform into the current state of your courier, duplicating even cosmetics--but there are several other things one should know about this spell.
Under disguise of Mischief, Monkey King is completely ignored by creeps and towers. He’s treated as the inanimate object that he is. Even as courier, no faction will acknowledge his existence and his hero indicator vanishes from the minimap. Juking potential aside, Mischief can be a really useful tool to move around the map with. While Monkey King has 200MS as most objects he turns into, he’ll have 350MS as courier. This can even be used to move around in the early game before he purchases Boots, as it is faster than his starting MS of 305. (Note: While Monkey King can turn into a flying courier, he cannot use its speedboost and also cannot fly over trees and cliffs.)
Laning
Midlane
As the early 7.00 meta still establishes itself, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to lane Monkey King in any given lane. Midlane match-ups can be unfavorable for him, but his high attack damage and attack range should allow him to farm on par with any hero, much like a Juggernaut has so far. While Wukong doesn’t have an innate regeneration ability, the new shrine close to the midlane would allow him to reset if necessary.
Monkey King’s low mana pool makes 
Bottle a solid pick-up and the new rune positions encourage roaming and ganking quite heavily. He is a fearsome 1v1 opponent, as awakening Jingu Mastery can quickly turn lethal for any opponent. That said, the lack of trees makes Primal Spring quite weak which makes Wukong vulnerable to ganks.
Sidelanes
It should be noted that a lot of people are theorizing whether or not the old safelane is now the new offlane and vice versa, due to various lane and terrain changes. Since pre-7.00 already saw more dual lanes, it’s not worth discussing offlane and safelane separately, as a defining, different playstyle between the two has yet to establish itself on the new patch
In either sidelane, Monkey King has a lot of trees to work with and with the assist of a support, he has a lot of kill potential. The up to 40% slow from Primal Spring is strong and with a setup can be ensured to hit. Even without a setup, the AoE and range of the ability is not to be underestimated.
If uncontested, Monkey King has the ability to farm stacks more reliably than a variety of other carries. Boundless Strike’s physical nature enables him to avoid the ever so annoying magic resistance on neutral creeps and the guaranteed crit boosts his reliable damage output.
As secondary carry of the team, it’s not unreasonable to pick up a Bottle for the very same reason as mentioned above. Item choices in general don’t depend on Monkey King’s lane, but rather his purpose in the game. Popular item builds can be found here.
A new era
Monkey King’s hero design fits him very well. In modern gaming, and this is especially true for multiplayer games, the concept of a Monkey King (or Wukong) is nothing new. You’ll find various multiplayer games with a hero or boss dedicated to the Chinese mythical creature.
Valve and Icefrog have done a good job at capturing the spirit of the Monkey King. He’s a playful and cunning character and most of his signature fighting styles and characteristics have made it into the game.
Climbing on top of trees, disguising as the Aegis of Immortal--the hero certainly has been designed with fun in mind and it does seem like something that could not have existed on the WC3 engine.
With this first barrier broken into, how long will it take for Valve to work on another, new hero? Before Underlord was released, it had been almost a year until a new hero was added to Dota2 and prior to Monkey King, it had been 3 years for a new hero to be added to the game (DotA/Dota2) in general, the last one being Earth Spirit in mid 2013.
While Monkey King does ring in a new era, an era full of new and Dota 2 “exclusive” heroes, the hero doesn’t seem to be the crazy and complex kind of hero that the likes of Earth Spirit and Oracle have been. But then again, who’s to say he needed to be?
cancer hero
first
just counter pick, he loses a lot if you have good crowd control
ez tree bait
Продам список просмотренного аниме.
Good hero. realy situational pick cause there are so many heroes that counter him. Timber, Visage, Batrider, Zeus, Sniper, Bounty, Sladar and any other vision enhancing heroes.
someone, take me to russia please..this SEA server monkey king each games, oh god..
He is glassy, but I think if they removed count on boundless strike and lowered the cast point on his ulti he would flow a little better and not feel like such a powerhouse.
someone, take me to SEA please..this russian server monkey king each games, oh god..
op hero. Impossible to lane against 1 vs 1. If you see 4 stacks on you then fight is already lost
Pure cancer for less than 5k mmr pub games
True that. This bastard is cancer.
4,5k and i almost never see him win a game, hes not op. But his mischief is broken in some situations, e.g. it just cancels swarm from weaver. There is no hero that can reliably cancel swarm just like that (since you can allways predust), but this guy can.
@JayJayOkocha, according to Dotabuff, he has a 49.06% win rate in 4k–5k games.
У меня и 1к ммр нет, и эта обезьянка в каждой катке. Как по мне то герой так себе, контриться легко, но что происходит с моими тимэйтами это просто ужас!!!! 80% поражений если он не в нашей тиме.
ive ban the hero in all my ranked games haha.
Maybe an op hero prelandingstage.. but after late game he totally downscale alot.. if you have crowd control,his good as a dead monkey.
own him using OD mid
Glass cannon
OD is a great counterpick, just remember to buy Force staff to get out of Monkey's ulti zone.
bah , if u has the right item , this monkey shine like he find Buddha culai ini the end
this guy can be strong late game hero, 4 hit with 200% lifesteal dude + 800 damage phyisical
and i dont want to tell u what item is better to him
coz it will be a cancer in the world
despite what many ppl think, it's true he does some good dmg but I think its pretty balanced, maybe he just needs to be tweaked a bit.
someone, take me to european server please...this north american server monkey king each games, oh god...
I don't thing Harambe is OP right now, people just don't know how to play against him. I played a few games as MK mid and no one respected his passive, on the 3rd proc the enemy mid continued to play aggressively, result: 4th proc + strike = dead. Harambe still a agi hero with low HP and you can just burst him down with Zeus/Lina or break his passive with Silver Edge. Almost everything in his skillset is physical so you can always play high armor STR heroes against him, DK and Axe are good choices. For supporters, the force staff/euls + ghost scepter combo is always nice, force staff can cancel MK ult by pushing him out of the circle and ghost + TP is the best away to flee alive from him. The hero is stong, not OP, you just need to know how to play against him.
i think the damage at the start of the game needs some nerfs. the lvl 2 damage is just insane. besides that he is totally fine imo
hi mom
hi monkey
monkey ruins my pubs
Look at my monkey gameplay xD
ez counter , tree aghs , gg
IDK why people haven't thought of utilizing the fact that Wukong's Command automatically ends when MK goes out of the cast area. Heroes who can instantly force MK out of his ult like KotL's Blinding Light, Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap, or a plain old Force Staff are already hard counters to his annoying ult.
I think he got nerfed. For me the best hero of this meta is phantom lancer!
First game against him, I was Shadow Shaman.
I had full HP, cast my Ult. Then MK casts his ult and onehits me and the Invoker in my team. We both had full HP.
MK was level 8, I was lvl 6.
Later in the game I build a force staff to push him out of his Ult. Did it work? No. Why? My Force Staff was muted as soon as I was in the circle.
As I didn't read anywhere that it can mute all other spells, I think the hero is/has been buggy af.
So to all you people who think he is not OP.
When he can onehit 2 heroes in 1 second and gets an easy Ultra Kill in Lvl 8 with just 1 spell, unaffected by any other hero spells, it is op. Buggy but op.
DELETE MONKEY KING PLEASE :(:(:(:(:(
Played against him a few times, never been a problem. Pretty easy to counter imo. Definitely not broken.
He needs some tweaking with his disguise interactions and the fact that that even if you interupt him on his channeling prior to ult it doesnt go on cooldown and can just spam cast it
Maybe make his passive trigger on 6 procs and level 25 make it 4 or something along those lines, make his ult not have uam
дааа уникааален
он в каждой MOBA есть
ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНО УНИКАЛЕН
Large scale deforestation is needed when this hero is present
Сейчас бы скопировать модель из Heroes of Newerth и выебы....ться
Gggbbbbb
what is ARTS?
Наконец-то оптимизировали и сделали минимальный интерфейс игры!
Великое и лучшее обновление в Dota ЗА ВСЮ ЕЁ ИСТОРИЮ!
Браво!
Но где патчи 6.89? И 6.90-6.99?
Или я считать разучилась? (