In a recent update, Riot Games discusses a couple of things they plan on bringing to League of Legends, including a preview on the changes they have made to one of the oldest champions you’ll find in the game: Dr. Mundo.
Riot also talked about their design philosophy when they updated Dr. Mundo, which is basically composed of three points. First of all, they want to make some visual and thematic adjustments to Dr. Mundo so that he will fit the visual evolution they have planned for League of Legends.
That being said, they still wanted the champion to embody a “dark comical” theme. As such, Riot shared an image showing the changes they have planned, which isn’t much. Basically, the team decided to keep Dr. Mundo’s big and purple appearance, but they have made him more intimidating.
As you can see, the champion has two character models where Dr. Mundo appears to be wearing a badly-tattered straightjacket and a satchel is situated comfortably on his hip. Although, he’s holding different items for each model.
In the first model, he’s holding his signature cleaver, while on the second one, it appears that there is smoke coming out of the nodes on his arm and he’s holding a piece of broken glass that has some kind of blue liquid in it.
He also looks significantly larger and more purple in the second model. We assume that the second model is what he will look like when he uses his ultimate. Without a doubt, the new model Riot has planned for Dr. Mundo looks more modern.
Not only that, but it definitely matches the style of the recent champions. What the developers need to do now is release a kit that will match this modernized appearance.
Moving on, the last two points are tied together. What Riot wants is to make significant changes to Dr. Mundo’s kit that will offer gameplay improvements, all while keeping both his ability to throw cleavers and his “super-tank regeneration.”
Along with that, they also want him to be a “very simple champion.” In other words, Riot Games wants to keep Dr. Mundo’s original design and not drastically change his character. As such, Dr. Mundo’s redesign is more of a slight rework rather than a complete, built from scratch rework.
As for Dr. Mundo’s character in general, he’s currently fallen out of the meta due to the fact that he basically can’t do anything except absorb damage. Other tanks, such as Ornn, Malphite, and Sett, are significantly better in lane, as they provide more utility and they can become stronger early on in the game.
In order to lessen Dr. Mundo’s uselessness, Riot plans to focus on CC-immunity, which can be likened to the ultimate of Olaf. For his kit, the developers want to design it based on the idea that the champion “goes where he pleases.”
By providing Dr. Mundo with a trustworthy CC-immunity, this will be able to diminish his weakness. It will also open up a path for him to access enemy carries. So far, we can say that this redesign is a good thing, as this is Riot’s way of pinpointing the good qualities of Dr. Mundo while fixing his flaws.
