Who Am I?

Hello!! I am tangerrine and I am a average league player. I know that's concerning, seeing as you're here to take advice from me but, uhhh, #trust??

Neeko has been one of my guilty pleasures as of recently, hpwever I main Azir and Kindred. After I saw Neeko as a part of the Season 13 Mini Guide Contest, I knew I just HAD to make a guide on her. My beginner friends have also started trying out Neeko sooooo this is kinda meant for them too.

What make me qualified to make this guide?

Uh. My cat was named Neiko before Neeko even came out soooooo I'm better!!

PROS + SUPER fun passive! + Game-changing ultimate! + Good Waveclear AND roaming + Good CC + Easy to pick up + Lots of outplay potential

CONS - Falls of really bad :( - Struggles HARD when behind - SQUISHY - AND SHORT RANGE?!?

Neeko, the Shape-Shifter! Neeko is a VERY fun champ! Using her Inherent Glamour and Shapesplitter you can make amazing outplays AND using her Pop Blossom you can really help out in teamfights, making her fun level worth playing because you (hopefully) won't be inting! Neeko is a perfect laning champ! She has excellent wave clear AND significant roaming which allows her to have a huge map presence without falling behind in her own lane, helping her teammates and still hurting the enemy laner she is against. Her Shapesplitter's passive makes for easy CSing if you're a newer player and her Blooming Burst and Tangle-Barbs are an easy-to-pull-off combo, that can instantly push a wave under tower if you need it. Using Shapesplitter and Inherent Glamour you can also have a TON of fun while outplaying the enemies. If you ever fall behind, or just straight up fall off, you can easily still make a big impact with your CC from Pop Blossom or just even Tangle-Barbs! [/td]

SORCERY

Neeko benefits a lot from short trades and poking, which is what Arcane Comet excels at! It offers a hit of extra damage that you can easily land by using your Tangle-Barbs to CC them.

Neeko really needs early mana, and having Manaflow Band REALLY helps get some extra mana every time you land a successful trade (when it's off cooldown)

Neeko scales REALLY well with the bonus AP that Absolute Focus gives over time, and trust me, any little bit counts early game. Transcendence is an alternate option you could run if you like to use your abilities TOO much, as it gives a bunch of ability haste later in the game.

Neeko this is kind of a personal preference, but I like Scorch better. Yet, Gathering Storm is also perfectly viable. With Gathering Storm, it helps you gain a lot of AP in the later game, scaling massively with every 10 minutes. However, I prefer to use Scorch for the 20 extra burn damage every TEN seconds, it really helps with Neeko's early game poking to help you hopefully damage the enemy enough to get a kill or to make them back off, letting you push and roam.

Neeko really benefits from the extra attack speed, as it helps her get out her Shapesplitter's empowered autos faster in the early game. The adaptive force next is just the better option, as you really aren't meant to tank anything. Finally, the last one is up to matchup. Armour if AD, MR if AP, and health if you just aren't sure AND they have a balanced team comp.

DOMINATION

This is Neeko's better build into melee champions. Against ranged champs, you can suffer a lot from going in with your full combo, usually getting chunked because of your small range. However, against melee champs, you have the upper hand. You can benefit from the bonus damage from Electrocute and also take favourable trades because you outrange the melee champs.

Personally, I prefer Taste of Blood, because I LOVE the extra sustain it gives for each one of my short trades, it makes it all the more worthwhile. However, seeing as all of your combos rely on at least one CC ability, I think Cheap Shot would also be an excellent choice if you would prefer the bonus true damage.

In the mid-lane, Eyeball Collection is probably just the best and easiest to stack. However, in support, it's really up to you. In lower elo, I wouldn't recommend using Zombie Ward because you don't know if the enemies will ward at all so it would be harder to stack, and ghost poor (as long as you are actually warding) would be pretty beneficial.

All runes of course are just up to preference, HOWEVER, I think there should be no debate on why Ultimate Hunter is the best for Neeko. As Neeko, your Pop Blossom is just TOO good to not take the extra CDR on your ultimate, since it's the only thing that keeps you from being completely useless when behind or super late game.

Neeko really benefits from the extra attack speed, as it helps her get out her Shapesplitter's empowered autos faster in the early game. The adaptive force next is just the better option, as you really aren't meant to tank anything. Finally, the last one is up to matchup. Armour if AD, MR if AP, and health if you just aren't sure AND they have a balanced team comp.

FLASHJust always take flash. Best and most vital summoner spell in every sense of the meta. You can flash to get close to an enemy to land Pop Blossom

IGNITE Ignite is a very strong spell, giving Neeko the extra kill power she really needs in lane. She can poke the enemies down and finish them off with a little Ignite.

TELEPORT Teleport is your farming lane and Mid-game spell. You want to run this into matchups where you don't think you'll be able to do much BUT farm, or when your team will need you and your CC in the later parts of the game for every objective. Better for teamfights rather than laning.

CLEANSEI really only see myself taking this into matchups like Ahri and Veigar because of their lockdown CC and Neeko's short range.

HEALUsually I would take Ignite when I'm playing support, but sometimes I like to take Heal if my ADC wants to go Cleanse or Exhaust.

EXHAUSTI've only ever taken this spell as support, when my adc (for some reason) takes Ignite. It gives a good slow down and also damage reduction from whoever you put it on. The only way I ever see this being useful mid/top is against burst assassins.

BARRIERThis is ALSO only good for burst assassins. If you want to take this because you are worried about dying too much in lane, I would just work on playing super safe and farming with Teleport.

INHERENT GLAMOUR (Passive): Inherent Glamour is an innate ability where you can see a selection of allied champions, and an empty spot in then middle. Selecting any of the champions will set a quick cooldown on the other champions. While disguised, Neeko can use basic attacks while keeping her form. Taking too much damage from enemy champions, or casting any ability will end the disguise and put Inherent Glamour on cooldown.

BLOOMING BURST (Q): Blooming Burst is a normal spell, where Neeko throws a seed into the target area, bursting up to 3 times, dealing magic damage magic damage to enemies within. 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 50% AP) If the seed kills an enemy unit OR damages a champion/large monster, it will bloom again after a short delay. This cannot happen more than twice per Blooming Burst.

SHAPESPLITTER (W): Shapesplitter is just really two abilities in one. The passive makes basic attacks (on-hit) gives Neeko a stack of Shapesplitter, up to a maximum of two. At 2 stacks, Neeko's next basic attack is empowered, dealing bonus magic damage and granting her bonus movement speed for 1 second, consuming the stacks. Activating the ability turns Neeko invisible for half a second, and sends a clone of her current form out in the direction cast. Recasting the ability while the clone is still out will let you control it for the brief moment it is alive.

TANGLE-BARBS (E): Neeko throws a spiral thingy in the target direction, dealing damage and rooting enemies it passes through. When the tangle-barbs hits one enemy unit, it is empowered for the rest of its travel, increasing its size, speed, and root duration.

POP BLOSSOM (R): Neeko channels for about 2 seconds, in which a circle is created around her. (THIS IS NO LONGER INVISIBLE WHEN Inherent Glamour IS ACTIVE) Once the channel is done, enemies are thrown up into the air, while Neeko gains a shield for each enemy caught in the animation. Once they are brought back to the ground, she deals magic damage and stuns all enemies within the field.

| Uses | The recent rework of this passive is INSANE. Now, you can become ANY entity on the map, from minions in lane to STEALTH WARDS to JUNGLE CAMPS, and even into HEIMER TURRETS OR NAAFIRI DOGS. Basically, you just want to use this ability to really mind-trick someone and ruin their whole life. Make them paranoid, make them count every minion coming into lane, and make them question everything they've ever thought they saw. Popular ways to use this ability are to turn into a 4th minion in the wave and catch the enemy off guard when they get too close to CS, thinking you're not there and it's safe. Another way could be to wait for the jungler after becoming one of his camps. One of my personal favorites is to roam as my jungler, making the enemies all think that the jungler is bot side and ganking, when really my jungler is up taking herald. It really messes up people's jungle tracking.

| Uses | This is your damage ability. You'll be using this for your trades and your poke. You can also use it to farm on really low health minions, as it will burst if it kill just one or hits the enemy (if they are close enough to the minions). When you have Arcane Comet, this ability becomes VERY easy to poke with. You can hit the enemy with one or maybe two blooms PLUS your comet. Just be careful of your wave if you don't want to farm it. Where I think this ability also shines is burst combos. It works best AFTER you use your Tangle-Barbs. If you stun them, especially through minions for the empowered root, you can throw your Blooming Burst and have them take the full 3 blooms AND you can auto attack on top of that, hopefully with your empowered Shapesplitter auto attack for maximum damage.

| Uses | The hearthstone of the AD build (which sadly I'm not going to talk much about in the detailed guide) and the essence of all the best Neeko clips. Your outplay potential with this ability is crazy. It's essentially a very short Shaco ultimate. Using the ability makes you go invisible very shortly, potential stopping anyone from point and click targeting you, and you and your clone both gain movement speed. You could easily use this ability to escape any scenarios or to chase someone just a little bit more. You can now control the clone's movements after you cast the ability, meaning it is even easier to fake being the clone and make the enemies chase the actual clone. Also with the clone, you can send it into fog of war to gain quick vision or even in the way of somebody to block skill shots (like Blitzcrank) OR to block tower shots while you tower dive.

| Uses | Tangle-Barbs is just a classic old root ability. Someone mispositions? Tangle-barb 'em. You want to burst them down with all three of your Blooming Bursts? Tangle-barb 'em. You want to lock them down for someone else to combo onto them? Tangle-barb 'em. The list goes on. Just use it when you need someone to stop moving for a second (and hopefully send them back to base)!!

| Uses | This is Neeko's "best" ability. It might not be her most fun (*cough cough* Inherent Glamour *cough cough*) but it definitely is her most impactful. It's an AOE, high damage, and super long CC ability. That's one of the best things a character can really have. This is also where Hextech Rocketbelt really shines, because you can use it before or while you are channeling the Pop Blossom and it will give you a dash to secure you get someone into the blast OR waste someone's flash. Early game, you want to probably use this after your burst combo, tangle-barbs size+ , and it should be able to kill if the enemy was around 60% hp. Later in the game, you can use it for two things. Either to prevent an all-in, as you can most likely CC them out of their damage OR make them run away, or just straight up kill them. The other way you could use it is during team fights. Using Flash/ Hextech Rocketbelt/a blast cone to jump onto a group of enemies to set them up for your team to engage. If your team is slow or you want to stop dying after you engage, you could also use Zhonya's Hourglass right after the spell is activated, and it will keep going.

LANING

You want to make sure you level Q or W first, as those are what you will be poking with. Also, you want to be focused on trying to get at least ONE kill pre-6, especially against the easier matchups. Try to poke early on and make them waste potions or maybe even spells

You DON'T want to take E level one because trying to poke with it would ruin your wave and make it very hard to continue a slow push.

Once you reach level 2 with Arcane Comet or level 3 with Electrocute, then you wanna start using your full combo, to chunk the enemy even more.

Try to keep farming, as that's how you will earn your gold. Don't push up into the enemies tower unless you plan to recall or to roam, which is kind of a bad idea pre-6

POST-6, Hopefully you have your first item component, either Lost Chapter or Hextech Alternator, and you can do a real chunk of damage, try hitting them with one or two combos, and then on the 2nd or 3rd one, engage with your ultimate. That should secure you the kill if it's safe to engage.

TRADING TIPS

When trading, if your opponent has a dash, or is smart and can use flash wisely, try and bait out their dash and then next time the get too close (when the dash is off cooldown), use your R in your combo and they just can't escape.

ROAMING

To roam, build up a slow push and crash it into tower, as you crash it into tower, you should be free for a very quick roam or a recall. You can use this roam to place vision, try and gain the "essence" of creature to turn into with [[inherent glamour, AND/OR gank a lane.

If your enemy does this to you and roams, best thing you can do is ping for it and farm in your lane. As Neeko, you have an AMAZING ability to take towers with Shapesplitter's passive, so use it to your advantage. Also with Shapesplitter, you could use it to escape tower range if your person reappears in the lane!

If the enemy laner makes a bad roam, (roams when the wave is still at their tower), then you COULD counter-roam, and gank the side they are ganking OR gank the opposite side, but tower platings could be very important so I recommend just taking those.

As Neeko, you should be taking towers in a sideline. Its almost no contest. Shapesplitter's passive in the mid-game is SO strong at taking towers that it might as well be your 9-5 job. Just make sure jungle is warded so you can escape quickly if someone tries to interrupt your money-making. Speaking of interrupting money-making, if you want more CS or just want to ruin the enemy jungler, TAKE THEIR CS! It prevents everyone else on the enemy team from taking it and if you are already there, you might as well!

A good rule of thumb when split pushing is to "mirror pressure," Essentially if you notice your top laner is pushing super hard in his lane, you could push bot lane, forcing the enemy team to split up to focus both of you, leaving the jungle and objectives wide open, OR they group on one of you, leaving the other to take the tower in their lane.

Another good way to "mirror pressure," is to push the lane OPPOSITE of the current objective everyone will be focusing on, especially if you have Teleport. This will make it so you can take a tower if the enemy team goes to take baron/dragon, OR the enemies try and stop you from taking the tower and YOUR team gets the baron/dragon.

(If you want to learn more about split pushing and "mirroring pressure," watch the Shen main xPetu or read one of his guides.)

If you notice your team is setting up for an objective, make sure you are getting there. In the mid-game is where Neeko is the strongest, and you can make sure you kill at least one person with the CC you provide and the burst damage you can give. (BIG TIP: TARGET THE JUNGLER WHEN TAKING DRAGON OR BARON, SO YOUR JUNGLER DOESNT HAVE TO WIN A SMITE BATTLE)

The late game on Neeko is VERY tricky. Your damage kind of plateaus, while everyone else's damage and tankyness keep scaling up. You have to look to play with your team. You shouldn't really be going solo anywhere because you lose the ability to 1v1 in the late late game.

You have to try and position really well, because if you push too much to try and land your short-range abilities or overstep trying to hit an ult, you could very easily die for no reason and potentially throw the rest of the game away from one stupid play (probably not that bad in lower elos, but still.)

Try and use Inherent Glamour or Shapesplitter to trick the enemies. Notable methods are entering a team fight disguised as a minion, getting close with your team, and popping your Pop Blossom. OR sending your clone at the enemies to condition them, make them let their guard down, and then one time you fake being the clone and run at them, popping your Pop Blossom

Overall, just stay with your team and try to use your CC to help everyone live or to help them secure the kills.