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How to counter Neeko, League of Legends’ newest champion
League of Legends’ patch 8.24 is on the horizon, bringing with it new champion Neeko. We run down how you can counter her on the Rift.
A brand new champion is on her way to the ever growing roster of the Summoner’s Rift. She’s a stealthy, chameleon trickster, with the innocent looks of Zoe, combined with a mechanical mishmash of Leblanc, Shaco and Zyra. Yep, she sounds terrifying already. Don’t be fooled by her light-hearted demeanor, her bright colours, and her cat-like, wide eyes; she’s a force to be reckoned with.
In light of the looming threat she brings to the mix, we’ve gone ahead and looked through how you can counter her if enemy teams pick her, while we’ve also looked at how she fits into team comps – you never know when you might need a shape-shifting chameleon. With patch 8.24 imminent, Neeko The Curious Chameleon is here to shake everything up again – we hopped onto the PBE so you can be ready when she officially drops onto the Rift.
Who is Neeko?
First things first, just who is the Neeko, the newest champion on the Rift? She’s a solid midlaner that can disrupt enemies with the use of her passive ability, Inherent Glamour, which sees her disguise herself as an ally champion, hopefully confusing enemies in the process. The illusion, however, breaks, and the cooldown is increased when she’s either dealing damage, taking damage, or by casting her Blooming Burst or her Tangle-Barbs. She’s still able to use a couple of other abilities whilst disguised, such as her Shapesplitter, as well as her Pop Blossom, so it’s well worth looking out for those.
As the newest champion in the game, she brings a few new tricks to the meta, such as her Blooming Burst, which sees her throw out a seed projectile into a targeted area, which blooms and deals Area of Effect (AoE) damage to anyone in the vicinity. If the burst damage kills or damages an enemy champion, or a large monster, it will bloom a second time, dealing reduced damage.
Her Shapesplitter, meanwhile, has two parts: as a passive, every third basic attack deals bonus magic damage, and momentarily increases her movement speed, while as an active, Neeko will briefly become invisible, gaining a spurt of movement speed; sending a temporary clone of herself, sprinting, in a chosen direction.
Her Tangle-Barbs, on the other hand, is a magical surge of energy that damages and roots enemies that it passes through; and rooting the last enemy champion it hits for longer. Handily, if it hits two or more enemies, it grows in size, speed and duration, too. Her ultimate sees her charge up in the shape of a fluorescent green flower. A moment later, she leaps up into the air, gaining a shield, as well as slowing nearby enemies. Upon landing, she releases energy, dealing massive damage and stunning enemies in the area. All tricky abilities, but not completely uncounterable.
A look at how Neeko’s new abilities will look in game
© Riot Games
Countering the Chameleon
The element of surprise is Neeko’s game plan. Although she’s a strong champion with the capacity to outplay any given enemy, outthinking and outmaneuvering foes with the use of her passive, Inherent Glamour, combined with her ability to quickly confuse and dash out of an unfavourable situation, she’s by no means overpowered. As useful as a ganking tool, her passive falls short in lane. While it’s useful to mimic your allies to help get the drop on enemies, it can only be used so many times to trick, and, more than anything, annoy her lane opponent.
As long as you have your wits about you, and you pay attention to her whereabouts, her deceptiveness becomes increasingly less problematic. If you can’t see her anywhere on the map, it’s just a case of being well aware that the champion that stands before you, could, and most likely is, Neeko in disguise. Her whole schtick is about giving you a false sense of security, waiting for you to let your guard down, before getting up close and personal, popping her ultimate, and deleting you. If you don’t let her get into melee range, it will be much more difficult for her to properly catch you out with her full combo.
Neeko’s Winter Wonder skin
© Riot Games
Champions with hard Crowd Control, long, poke-oriented, range, and displacement abilities, will be the strongest counters to Neeko. She’ll have a hard time getting anywhere in lane versus a Zoe continuously throwing out Paddle Stars and Sleepy Trouble Bubbles, an Azir poking away with his Sand Soldiers, or even a LeBlanc, jumping in with her Distortion, before teleporting straight out again.
She’ll be at a disadvantage, especially in the early stages of the laning phase. You should try and put her on her back foot as soon as possible, chunking her out, forcing her back. She’ll be wanting to at least stay even, biding her time for the perfect gank, or a well timed roam. It may be obvious, too, but don’t let her snowball. If you can keep her stuck in lane, without a kill to her name, you’re doing something right.
She’s also particularly weak against hard engagements. A Nocturne flying in at full pelt with Paranoia, Vi’s Assault and Battery, or even Camille’s Hextech Ultimatum will all upset Neeko, letting you get an edge over her. Run at her at full speed, stun her, and burst her down; she’s squishy to say the least.
Adding her to your own team composition
Neeko can hard carry a game with the right ingredients. There’s going to be scenarios where she feels somewhat useless, especially if she leaves the laning phase heavily behind. She does have the ability to ramp up, scaling as the game progresses, but getting there might not be so easy.
If Neeko is babysat in lane, she’ll obviously have a better time, but you should never rely on your jungler, with the likelihood of this happening, being extremely low. Your jungle Shaco mostly will prefer taking your blue buff, or aimlessly invading, rather than helping out in the mid lane.
A composition with a strong frontline will fit comfortably around Neeko. Once the latter stages of the game are in motion, she’ll have the tools to turn the tides of a teamfight, with the use of her massive AoE damage and her CC potential. If she can survive long enough, or not get picked off, before the fights even begun, she’ll work wonders. In this case, a Tahm Kench would be ideal, allowing her to use her ultimate, before being swallowed up, and taken to safety, so she can reset, and continue dishing out the damage.
We’re in a top carry meta, with tanks taking a backseat, but honestly, the more tanks the merrier, when Neeko is concerned. The more time she has to perform in a teamfight, the higher chance you have of winning. If the enemy team are busy taking on Sion, Ornn, or even Urgot, it will be impossible to get near your Neeko, indiscriminately dealing damage.
A curious conclusion
Neeko is yet another strong addition to the cast of League of Legends. She’s a champion with tons of playmaking potential, one that fits comfortably in the mid game meta. She’s extremely dynamic, and hits like a truck, but by no means, does that make her invincible.
Neeko, like any well designed champion, has her downsides, and can be exploited in such a way that she doesn’t harm the overall experience of the game. It’s not clear what she’ll look like in the months to come, and if she’ll shift roles, or not, but don’t be surprised to see her in the jungle, or even played in the support role. Keep your eyes up, though.
