The Ultimate Guide to Master Neeko like a 1-Trick
Are you window shopping for a new Champion to focus on, or an experienced player looking for the missing link to master Neeko? We’ve got you covered in our ultimate guide here to 1 tricking the curious chameleon.
Ability Rundown
First, we’re going to start off with a rundown of Neeko’s abilities while highlighting any recent changes in case you’re a returning player.
In the past, Neeko’s passive enabled her to transform into an allied Champ, but now this ability offers a new layer to her gameplay. Rather than just being able to transform into allies, she can now also shift into the form of non-epic monsters, minions, traps, wards, pets, and plants. While doing so, Neeko can retain their attack speed, which comes in handy later when we’ll talk about how you can master Neeko in the jungle. Keep in mind, though, basic spells will break the disguise, but channeling her ult will not.
Her first ability has stayed the same, throw a projectile that blooms multiple times on Champion hits or unit kills.
For Shapesplitter, there has been the following change. Neeko can now redirect her clone by reactivating the ability to send it to a specified location. In addition to this, it can also play her laughter and taunt. Other than that, every 3rd hit still deals extra damage while also granting additional move speed.
Neeko’s Tangle Barbs were not changed; you’ll throw it, and if you hit an enemy, they’ll be rooted, and your spell will be empowered. It will increase in size and speed, and it roots for an extended period of time as it travels through its first target hit.
The biggest combo change for Neeko comes to her ult, Pop Blossom. You can hide your ult’s channeling, as we mentioned above, while disguised, but that’s not all. Compared to before, it knocks the enemy upward as you’re about to launch into the air. After landing, you stun the enemy for a set amount of time, which we suggest you make a note of.
Neeko’s Combos
Her combos mainly center around her ult, and with Pop Blossom changed, it’s now a reliable tool to engage and lock down enemies.
If you have flash available while disguised, you can hide the channel of your ult and flash right into the enemy team to knock them up, stun them, and then have your team run over them. You will need to keep track of a few factors, though, such as; does the enemy team have tenacity? If not, and you already have 4 points in your Tangle Barbs, you can cast your ult, flash, then as you land, cast your E. This will create a perfect CC chain, granting you a free Q hit too.
If they do have tenacity, you should try to keep your E up and not throw it away. With the gap available in the CC chain due to their tenacity, they can react to your root after the ult’s stun ends. In this situation, your ult is just there to create pressure and open up an engagement for your team.
While it may sound like your Q is going to be difficult to land without the perfect CC chain, you do have another option. You can cast your ult, and as you’re about to go airborne, Q flash the enemy target. This will knock them upward, and your Q will hit 3 times even if they have tenacity.
In summary, Neeko can access a perfect CC combo with reliable engage. Additionally, she can use Shapesplitter to sell the fake more convincingly, while Inherent Glamour may help you trick the opponents.
If you want to master Neeko using her Inherent Glamour, we have some tricks for that too! This leads us to our next section.
Ganking and Clearing Jungle
With Neeko’s new passive, you can use those minions and monsters as a jungle Neeko. Start by stealing a melee minion’s appearance, giving you the wildly high attack speed of the minion to clear your first buff quickly.
Now, we’ll run through the full detail of a default jungle path. You will start with W on your red buff and smite it as you kite away to save some time. Skill Q on level 2, then go to your Krugs and, afterward, to your Raptor camp. Before you finish the raptors, you want to steal their appearance. Put another point into Q at level 3, then transition into Wolves, transform into a mini-raptor, then kill Blue & Gromp, which should full clear after just over 3 minutes. You’ll still have a smite charge available, too. You can also skip out on the raptor tech and, to stay healthier, utilize Neeko’s range to kite camps.
When it comes to ganking, be it as a jungler or laner, you can seriously test the enemy’s ability to count. Transform into a minion and hide within a lane’s wave. This will be especially strong with stacked waves, and you can pivot from that to dive or counter-gank. You may want to time this when your queue is later at night, so you’re preying on some tired players.
Neeko’s Builds
With jungle out of the way, we will run through some item builds and runes for our final section. There are really two main approaches when it comes to these, the typical on-hit or the mage-style approach.
On-Hit Neeko Build
Starting off with the on-hit variant, you’ll often see this used for top lane and jungle, with the potential for running it as an ADC, though we wouldn’t recommend that.
The on-hit variation focuses on heavy trading, so we suggest taking PTA and your W for laning and jungle clear. For items, we’d suggest Nashor’s Tooth, Guisoon’s Rageblade, Sorcs, Kraken Slayer, Zonya’s, and whatever utility you think you’ll need. For the sake of the example, we’ll go with Ruunan’s Hurricane for the AOE damage.
These items and runes deal with consistent DPS, just like an ADC. You can make some slight adjustments to your runes for laning or jungling, but nothing major is needed. Laning on-hit Neeko wants Overheal instead of Triumph and Gathering Storm instead of Waterwalking, and that’s really it.
Given that you’ll often be in a ranged vs. melee matchup, having W and PTA will be the difference maker for dominating the lane. Depending on which enemies you’re facing, you may be able to trick them into wasting a cooldown on your clone, making it easier for you.
After auto-attack trading, you’ll be faced with a choice, do you need range poke capabilities in the form of your Q, or do you need an all-in option with your Tangle Barbs? This will be completely up to you. The skill order, however, is set in stone. Start off with W, and then choose between E or Q. Afterwards, max your W first, then your E, and then your Q, with a point in your ult as soon as you can.
Mage-Like Neeko Build
Next, for the mage-like Neeko, there will be a few adjustments to make. You’ll either want your blue jungle item, a Doran’s Ring or Spellthief’s Edge, a Hextech Protobelt, Shadowflame, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff, and our Beloved Sorcerer’s Boots.
As a jungle or support mage-Neeko, you can rush those boots to increase proactivity, but we would generally recommend buying them after your first item.
In the rune department, we have a few more drastic changes. In the jungle, you can use Dark Harvest, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Relentless Hunter, Perfect Timing, and Cosmic Insight.
For laning, you will want Electrocute, Taste for Blood, Eyeball Collection, Relentless Hunter, Manaflow, and Scorch.
As a jungler, you’ll find it easy to multi-proc Dark Harvest in fights, and Perfect Timing will enable highly profitable diving opportunities. On laner, you’ll want the extra power of Electrocute and Scorch combined with the sustain of Taste for Blood to trade from high range with other mages or deadly assassins.
As you go forward, remember, Neeko can be played with the two different styles for a few different roles. You can constantly DPS like an ADC or high-range all-in burst like a true mage. Find out what you prefer, get out there, and start playing until you master Neeko and enjoy!
