League of Legends champion Wukong has long been overdue for an update, and that’s exactly what Riot is working on right now. The team’s lead gameplay designer, Mark “Scruffy” Yetter has now unveiled their plan to rebalance the Monkey King, shifting him away from mid and toward top/jungle, but without any significant visual changes.

As for when the changes are supposed to hit PBE (Public Beta Environment), there is no news other than “soon.” In the previous few seasons, most notably in the previous season, Wukong has had an exceptional win rate in the mid lane due to a rise in popularity for AD bruisers dominating this lane - including the likes of Pantheon and Irelia, who don’t seem to be in line for a rebalance very soon. For example, Wukong’s win rate for mid has been almost 55%, higher than top (50.5%) and jungle (47%), both lanes for which he has been created in the first place. The rebalance will supposedly see him coming back to his roots, position-wise. Scruffy also says that “We also don’t expect to fully destroy mid Wukong, just make it more even with the other roles.”

This is, however, not his only return to roots that was promised: Scruffy also adds that they will “add a new tool to be tricky and clever” to the Monkey King, although there are no indications of what this could mean. Previously, his passive and W ability Warrior Trickster was supposed to get a complete overhaul, but the new developments are shelving those ideas in favor of something else, as goals are being “refocused.”

But if you’re a fan of Wukong’s rugged look, do not despair: visual reworks are not in the cards very soon, because he adds that, “Also, based on other high priority VGU projects getting the focus of our art resources, we’re wanting to ship changes without much visual change so that we can get the new gameplay out there.” This means that, if you’re itching to see what changes they’re making to the champion - like most players are - you won’t have to wait until he gets a whole new skinline before you can dive in, at least on PBE. As to what to expect in the actual game, that’s anyone’s guess at this point.

Speaking of champion upgrades, Riot Games will let players decide through its Champion Update Poll in order to prove they’re listening to their fanbase. A new list will be available later this year, while the next ones in the rework queue are Volibear and Fiddlesticks. With the amount of time it has taken Riot to ship out Wukong’s changes, let’s hope they won’t make this the norm.