Neeko Neeko Kneecaps!

It's your girl, DaBatzy, here with an all-new post dedicated to our lovely little chameleon, Neeko! For those who have been watching my streams of League of Feeding, you know I have picked up Neeko for some time now as I try to progress to the ultimate Mastery 7. I have enjoyed Neeko since her release on PBE as her kit is one that I adore as a summoner who plays mostly high burst/damage roles; however I did what any mage should not do, I took her as support. Now before I dive right into my horrible life-making skills, I want to go ahead and break down Neeko's kit for you guys, just in case you don't know anything about her. If that's the case, get gud scrub. Just kidding.

Also, it's needed to be said that I'm not a master at League and my antics might not always be right or work, but I do enjoy my experiments and try my best to understand gameplay mechanics!

KIT REVIEW

Neeko's passive is truly unique as it lets you shift into another ally champion. Whether I was in jungle or I'm supporting down at botlane, I typically use this when coming around tri-brush to collapse on the enemy botlane. I also transform into longer ranged champions to provide additional poke or to stay a safe distance while hitting turrets.

This ability definitely packs a burst. Heh, get it, blooming burst? Okay, you're right. That was a pretty lame pun; however, it still is incredibly true. As a support, this ability is mega handy when it comes to laning phase if you can land a q on the enemy champion. The double/triple burst provides maximum damage that usually requires the enemy support or ADC to back early. I also use it as a zoning method to keep the enemy ADC from farming.  It's definitely punishing.

Shapesplitter is an ability that can be used in a lot of different ways depending on your playstyle. Firstly, her passive on this ability gives an on-hit stack regarding to Neeko's auto-attacks. After the second stack, her next auto attack does increased magic damage and gives her movement speed. I also take advantage of this passive to auto enemies for additional poke and to cause some added burst to my Blooming Burst ability. Now the active part of this ability allows Neeko to become invisible for .5 seconds and sends a clone in the direction you choose. I usually use this to sneak up on enemy champions with an ult or to misdirect a champion as I run away since it also gives bonus movement speed.

Tangle-Barbs gives Neeko the ability to either wombo-combo the enemy with a Blooming Burst or can be used to flee/help teammates to safety from rampaging enemies. The cool thing about this active is that if it hits one enemy, it grows and the time of the root duration is increased. We all know how annoying Morgona's root is, so Neeko's is just a little more of a flea bite, but still pesky when it hits multiple enemies. It also gives your ADC or fellow teammates a clean shot to attack in safety while the enemy is rooted too.

At last, we're at the final ability of Neeko's, her ultimate, also known as Pop Blossom. The ultimate is by far one of my favorites in league as it's packed with utility, damage, and crowd control. My only issue is that I sometimes wish her shield was more of untargetable since I sometimes day quickly as Neeko jumps upwards. I think that's mostly me misjudging the damage output of my enemies, but oh well. The other cool thing about this ability is its massive stun. This sets up the perfect frontline for a team fight or contesting of dragon or Baron.  I usually pop my Shapesplitter before I ultimate to trick them into a certain location to make sure I have a full lockdown of at least the enemy team's main threat.

                                                                        THE JUNGLE FAIL

You see, when our chameleon first made her debut, I was thinking of two roles I wanted to use her for. The first of those roles was a position I stopped playing after Season 7, Jungle. I gave up with this role, honestly. I used to enjoy taking Rengar-kitty and flailing onto enemies out of bushes. Hence where the Savagery comes from in my Summoner name, PoonofSavagery. He was the first champion I learned the rotations on and did pretty decent on, however, once Jungle made a shift and the tank meta came crashing down, I ran for the hills and never looked back. That is until Neeko got released.

Now, before you question my unconventional methods, let me tell you, I was more focused on her early use regarding laning phase and thought her Blooming Burst ability(Q) was perfect for jungle clear with a good leash to start her off with.  I thought wrong. She doesn't do nearly as much damage to jungle monsters in those first three levels and requires such a hard leash. It ultimately set me behind my enemy junglers each game.

After that, I looked at her other utilities and saw the perfect "gank" ability and CC for team fights. Pre-level 6, ganks were rather difficult if you didn't land your initial Tangle Barbs to land a nice snare on the enemy; however, you could provide some massive poke if you got to proc your Q on the enemy champion. The only thing is the long CD of both these abilities. Her Q is 7 seconds while her E is 12. This means, if you miss both of these, you lose the opportunity to secure a kill or hard poke. It is necessary to practice these combos

It's the after level 6 part that I saw the best opportunity. Neeko's passive, Inherent Glamour, allows her to camouflage as an ally champion and doesn't break until she damages a champion or is damaged herself. If you combined this with using her Shapesplitter, she is invisible and gains movement speed. This is perfect to trick or flash ult onto the enemy champions down bot lane, or any lane/team fight. I typically go for champions who are currently being an effective threat to their lane. This is where I'd pop her ult, giving a snare as well plus the burst, I was sure to get an ally a kill and push an objective. Now this part is essential for Neekos who are playing midline who roam bot. She has a substantial amount of burst damage to effectively help out bot or top, which is why I thought jungle would be a decent fit too.

This did NOT go as planned, mostly due to my awful jungling skills and lack of rotation/counter jungle knowledge. I really hope to wonder master the jungle with her and have more effective ganks when it comes to that area of expertise. I lived and I learned.

 SUPPORTING MY WAY TO M7

People kept telling me to put an end to my sin the moment I locked in Neeko support. See, as an ADC main I know the pain of kill stealing supports but I also know that juicy taste of victory usually outweighs who got how many kills. Aside from the obvious, I have to say I really did enjoy taking Neeko down botlane. I ended up spamming her within that last few days in hopes I might acquire that that sweet Mastery 7 with her and low and behold, your girl did it!

I found that using my Q in early laning phase provided a really clean burst to the enemy supports(who I usually focused unless it was a tank). It also provided me a way to zone out the ADC's since the supports were constantly having to back or wasting mana to save themselves. I know my ADCs got a little salty with me over a few last hits that popped my auto stack, which almost always gave me the kill. The most important thing is that it worked! For the most part. I think with Neeko support and poking as much as I do, you are incredibly mana hungry which can lead to a major downside if you're also having to leave lane for low mana purposes. That can cost you a team fight or a push on your turret that you can't afford. I also struggled the most with tanks. This week I saw a lot of weird combinations of botlane duos. We had a Nautlious/Mordekaiser, Garen/Yuumi(PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN),  and Singed and Yasou. It was difficult to burst down the enemy takes and if there were too many of them on the enemy team, I had to pause my damage building to get magic penetration. 

The other benefit of taking Neeko support is her roam mid. After I got level 6, I could easily run up the river and behind my midlaner's enemy with my shapesplitter and ultimate, or even land a tangle-barb followed by a burst. It helped keep midlane ahead and let our jungles focus other lanes. This also gave me chances to help out our jungle if he was getting countered hard as I could quickly follow up with them.

I also played around with my rune pages a lot during these games as I had multiple suggestions from fellow players and friends. I really enjoyed the Domination/Sorcery tree runes the most; however glacial augment was exciting to play. I watched a Darius rage quit at the sheer chaos I was causing.  I'm going to post my mastery pages that I experimented with below just in case any of you want to try it or have any suggestions!

I hope you guys enjoyed my little break down of Neeko as we prepare for this wicked Star Guardian skin! As I mentioned before, I'm still trying to learn my ins and outs when it comes to game mechanics but I hope there are some things you might be able to pick up that is useful from this or at least had a laugh at my failure.

See you in the Digital!