Riot previews the upcoming changes to one of League’s oldest champions.
Riot details the three points of their design philosophy behind Dr. Mundo’s update. First, they plan to upgrade Dr. Mundo visually and thematically to fit the visual evolution of League. They specifically state that they want to keep the “dark comical” theme. An image of the planned upgrade shows the team decided to keep Mundo big and purple but make him more intimidating.
The image has two character models. Mundo is wearing what looks like a tattered straight jacket and a satchel on his hip in both models. He’s holding his infamous cleaver in the first model. He seems to have nodes on his arm, with glowing blue smoke coming out of the second model. What stands out most is the second model is significantly larger and more purple. It can be assumed the second model will be what Mundo looks like after he uses his ultimate. His new look feels modern and matches the recent champions stylistically. The team only needs to build a kit to go along with the modernized look.
The second and third points go hand in hand. Riot plans to “make significant gameplay improvements to Mundo’s kit, while maintaining his super-tank regeneration and the ability to chuck cleavers”, and, keep Mundo a “very simple champion”. The team wants to stay true to the character’s original design and not completely change how he works. The rework seems to emulate the slight rework philosophy of the Ezreal change rather than the full “build from the ground up” rework like Kayle.
Dr. Mundo falls completely out of the current meta due to his inability to do anything other than absorbing damage. Tanks like Ornn, Malphite, and Sett fair better in lane, provide more utility and become tankier earlier. Riot’s way of alleviating his current uselessness is by focusing on CC-immunity, similar to Olaf’s ultimate. They plan to design his kit on the idea that Dr. Mundo “goes where he pleases.” Giving him reliable CC-immunity alleviates his biggest weakness. Dr. Mundo can currently be kited and CC’d until either he dies or the other team’s frontline kills the rest of Dr. Mundo’s team, both rendering him useless. The CC-immunity gives him free access to enemy carries and would force enemies to find less one-dimensional ways of kiting him. Riot is pinpointing what makes Dr. Mundo work while trying to find a way to fix his biggest problem.
Sources: Riot Games
