Dr. Mundo has always been an underrated pick in League of Legends. While he might not be a popular pick at high elos and professional play, his friendly kit as well as straightforward gameplay make him a widespread presence among normal levels of play.
Halfway through season 11, Dr. Mundo received a major rework that saw him get a new passive and reworked abilities while maintaining similar characteristics: a tank with a huge amount of health regeneration. He not only offers great damage in the early game but he also scales incredibly well into the later stages as he stacks health items and becomes an unkillable juggernaut.
Having said that, with all the great health items that there are within the game, understanding which are the best items for him can be troublesome. For this reason, we’ve created an in-depth guide on which items you should be building on the Madman of Zaun. Here are the best builds for Mundo in League.
Best Dr. Mundo builds in League of Legends (January 2023)
Runes
Resolve
Grasp of the Undying: There are only a few viable options when it comes to Dr. Mundo’s keystone runes. Grasp of the Undying is one of them and it’s the most consistent one in terms of activation. He can proc it easily during the laning phase by farming minions and then looking to auto-attack the enemy champion. What’s best about this keystone rune is that it synergizes with his build and can potentially scale infinitely thanks to the unlimited maximum increase.
Demolish: It is the only viable rune that can be chosen in this row of the Resolve Tree. Font of Life can only be proc’d with his Q slowly and Shield Bash is useless since Mundo has no shields in his kit. Demolish works great at all stages of the game and it’s exceptional in taking down turrets and keeping the pressure up on the sidelanes.
Second Wind: You can either choose Second Wind or Conditioning here, depending on the matchup. Dr. Mundo is most vulnerable in the early game since he doesn’t have access to great amounts of heals. For this reason, Second Wind is the better option in most scenarios since it increases the health generation to out-sustain the enemy laner. Conditioning will scale better at the latest stages of the game as it will grant lots of extra armor and magic resistance.
Overgrowth: In a similar fashion, you can also go for two different runes in this row. Overgrowth further increases the maximum health gained by the champion and is the most common choice for players. If your team has plenty of healing sources aside from yourself, however, Revitalize will greatly amplify all the sustain received and make you almost impossible to take down.
Inspiration
Magical Footwear: Rushing the Mythic Item as soon as possible is essential for Dr. Mundo. For this reason, the rune will save him the 300 gold needed to buy the boots and allow him to utilize those resources to rush the core items. Not to mention that Magical Footwear grant an extra 10 movement speed.
Approach Velocity: There aren’t other strong runes in the Inspiration tree, so Cosmic Insight is the only other option left. Remember that with this rune, the Smite cooldown to get stacks is lower, and it will also allow you to have Flash up sooner and attempt those sweet Insec plays more often.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +6 Armor (+8 Magic Resist if against magic damage champions), +15-140 Health (based on level)
Item build
Riot introduced new items during the preseason and Dr. Mundo is among the champions that have found a new Mythic item in his build. Before getting to his core item, however, let’s take a look at what starting items he has.
His best option is Doran’s Shield, which gives him extra health and increased health generation: in other words, everything he could ask for. Alternatively, Mundo can also start with a Ruby Crystal immediately in order to rush the other recipe items as soon as possible. As a trade-off, though, you will lose trading power during the first few minutes of the game.
The Mythic item that you need to rush and build on Dr. Mundo is Heartsteel. It grants 800 health but most importantly, it has a passive that allows you to deal extra physical damage that scales with the champion’s maximum health and also grants permanent bonus health equal to 10 percent of that amount. The sooner you build the item, the faster you will be able to start stacking the item and gain that valuable tankiness. Out of all the champions in the game, Dr. Mundo is one of the best at capitalizing on all the perks of this new item.
Once you purchase Heartsteel, look to get the tier-two boots. Depending on what damage sources the enemies have, choose one between Plated Steelcaps and Mercury’s Treads.
Following that, build a Sunfire Aegis to help you with your damage output as well as wave clearing. The item cost got reduced heavily with the new items, so his value has gone up significantly.
As a tank, it’s important to have both resistances stacked before the crucial teamfights. Spirit Visage not only grants you 50 magic resistance but also increases all healing, shielding, and health generation by 25 percent. The more health you have, the more valuable this item gets, which is why you usually build it as the fourth item.
If enemies are attack-damage heavy, consider going Thornmail instead. Titanic Hydra is also a strong item when looking to get even better wave clear, but remember that it doesn’t give you resistances.
To round off the build, continue building resistance items by either getting Randuin’s Omen or Gargoyle Stoneplate. The latter must only be built as the sixth item since the active shield is based on the champion’s maximum health. Randuin’s Omen, on the other hand, counters crit-based champions.
Below is an example of a full Dr. Mundo build:
