Why Support Mundo Works

As I said in the podcast (Low Elo Episode 28 - Questions Answered) I finally found out where our beloved Dr. Mundo should go. He does everything that many other non-healing supports can do, and he can actually be relatively powerful without much gold. Here's the skinny on what I've been testing for my now-famous support Mundo. 

What's something that supports need to have to be successful? One word- crowd control. Okay, maybe that's two words, but every support in the game has some form of it. Taric has a stun, Janna has a knock up and a slow, Soraka even has a silence, Alistar is a giant cow full of it. One big way a support supports the team in the current League of Legends meta is to apply CC to the enemy champions. Now, if you've ever gone against a support Nunu (which is pretty popular right now, and acceptable in high-level and championship play) then you know what a detriment his spammable ice ball can be to your farming AD-Carry needs. 

Now take the annoyance factor from Nunu's ice ball, and multiply it by, let's say (to be conservative) ten million billion. Mundo's cleaver is the very definition of spammable. Much moreso than Nunu's iceball. Also, it does more damage (with a percentage of the enemy's health tacked on) and has a 2 second cooldown. 

If you're experienced enough to understand what 'zoning' means during the laning phase, then you know what this one skill is capable of doing IF you can hit it. Heck, even if you CAN'T hit them with it, you still can force them back and zone them out. Hitting it consistently means you are about to feed your AD carry kills. 

One skill does not a support make, however, so look at his others. Reduced crowd control from Burning Agony, his W (plus a token amount of damage - unless you go magic pen Mundo, but I have yet to test that as support) and the biggest flat attack damage steriod in the game with Masochism, his E. At level 5, Masochism gives a flat 100 boost to attack damage + .85 per 1% of your health that is missing. At 1% health, Mundo gets a bonus of 184.15 AD. 

That amount of damage coming from a support can catch an enemy by surprise. You will get kills. Even though it is not optimal to get "kills" on a support, in almost every game I find myself in a kill or be killed situation, and if I were playing any other support, even tanky ones like Taric, Leona, or Nunu, I have no hope but to run away. With Mundo, you can just murder their face (your results may very, use with caution :) 

Last but not-at-all least is the ultimate. Sadism. This is what makes Mundo a sponge, and the ultimate champion to screw with your enemies' minds. With the movespeed buff and heal you can erase all the damage that was done to you. You can make enemy Karthuses rage when their ult fails to kill you, you can get away from four man ganks bottom. It's fabulous. 

Here are some tips for using Mundo's ultimate successfully.

1) NEVER FORGET - it costs 20% of your max health to cast - too many Mundo's use the Ulti as an "oh crap" button right after they've taken a bunch of burst damage. Don't do this! You're just helping them kill you! 

2) USE it while running away/avoiding damage 

3) Use it preemptively as a gank is coming in from your team, then go balls to the wall. 

The perfect ganking situation is this- Jungler comes to bot lane (via bushes or through lane) you use your ultimate out of the enemies' vision, then charge in super fast and begin spamming your cleaver. AD carry and jungler catch up and secure the kill. 

Of course this can go wrong in a thousand ways, but that's the idea. 

Anyway. I am becoming a bigger and bigger believer in the power of support Mundo. If you're tired of the same old support, give him a try. I'm still experimenting with runes, masteries, and builds, but I will be back next week with a few build options, and I would love to hear any feedback you may have.

Jungle Speed Does Not Equal Win

Since the Mundo craze that began after IPL a few months ago, the only thing summoners seem to care about when it comes to the jungle is jungle speed. Sejuani’s free week made me decide to pick her up (and buy a skin to prove I’m not a noob :) after not playing her since she came out, and I am having a blast and participating in some very one sided matches.

Nowadays, when people discuss junglers and their relative strengths, the first thing they say is “this champion has a slow jungle” or “this champion’s jungle is faster than that one” as if a jungler’s worth in League of Legends is only the speed with which he or she can clear the jungle.

This is simply ridiculous and a result of a ranked solo-queue mindset that is cancerous to both the fun of League of Legends as a game and it’s purity as an eSport.

Solo-queue creates some REALLY bad habits in summoners. Firstly, everyone attaches far too much importance on the first 5-10 minutes of the game, aka the “laning phase.” Summoners select champions, runes and even masteries based on their expectations of who they will be laning against.

How many times have you seen a solo-top lane summoner purchase ninja tabi because their opponent is AD? Even when in team fights Mercury Treads might be more important?

Since the pros discovered how to lose with Mundo, all they talk about is his fast jungle speed. And although it pains me to admit it, Mundo is really, really strong in the first 15 minutes of a game, but once team fights begin, I think he’s extremely weak and therefore a bad choice.

The reason I’ve always been a fan of Nautilus (who is receiving some attention at the pro level and likely receiving a nerf because of it in the upcoming patch-sadface) is not because of his jungle speed but because of the utility he brings to teamfights.

People in solo-queue are looking for a reason to give up. They let early ganks and kills make them think the game is lost. This is why jungle speed is considered valuable, and it’s a very bad reason.

Team fights win and lose games. Not jungle speed.