Feels like everyone forgets that Neeko can disguise as other champions

BeatzBoyFTW·Mar 28, 2019·13 votes·10,758 views

Played a ton of games with & against Neeko players, and 90% of them have never fully utilize her disguise passive at all, since Neeko's burst, catching off potential & DPS power already does the short work that disguising became highly unnecessary in almost every situation.

I felt that Riot needs to step up & do some short power shifts into using her disguise passive since that's literally Neeko's theme & niche, instead of just simply catching enemies & bursting them off like what you see in a typical fed Lux would do.

21 Comments

BoltonatorMar 28, 20196 votes

Neeko? Who is Neeko? Neeko is not here.

NaalithMar 28, 20196 votes

I don't think Riot needs to adjust anything. Tricking people and playing mind games are activities that are right at the ceiling of skill cap, so it's no surprise people aren't using it as often as they should.

It could also be a matter of wanting to use disguise only when it matters. It's true you can shift basically whenever you want, but is reminding the enemy of that fact necessary? Also, each time you successfully prank someone they will be more suspicious next time.

Ultimately her disguise is a tool to use in specific situations dynamically as the player sees fit, so people who haven't played a lot of Neeko will need a ton of practice to get used to it.

FOR JUSTICEMar 28, 20196 votes

its just super gimmicky, and 99% of the time it fails not because youre not positioning properly or such, but rather because your ally reveals you by throwing some ability.

SpecterVonBarenMar 29, 20194 votes

This is the real problem. The second you or the person you're mimicking use an ability the jig is up and if someone sees a champion just wandering around and not using abilities then they will get suspicious.

And who should you pretend to be? And to what end? Neeko is squishy and only wants to get close when ulting. Why disguise yourself to scare people off when you can just hang back and not take damage?

If Neeko was a hard engage tank then you could pretend to be a vulnerable squishy to trick them into getting close to you. It does nothing to escape enemies because one hit and it ends and if they are chasing you already then they know it's you and not suddenly Singed.

karolmoMar 28, 20196 votes

People on high elo doesn't fall for it. Like no one will believe when playing against Neeko that it's caitlyn who's trying to farm on mid at minute 40.

It's like shaco's clone or lb's passive. They work until the enemy starts paying attention.

There are some uses (Like pretending the jungler is coming to a certain lane to cause the enemy laner back off, or to pretend your jungler is on bot to catch the enemy team off guard with a nashor steal) but trasnforming constantly is just dumb. People doesn't fall for it anyway, so why bother

oh my goodnesssJan 17, 20201 votes

personally, shaco's clone can really trick people out and it's so much better compared to neeko's passive

flibitydooMar 28, 20196 votes

because no one cares, and the concept of catching someone by surprise doesn't exist

your opponent doesn't care who you are they just want to stack 5 bleed dots on you and dunk you the fact that you have a healthbar that indicates you are on the opposing team is all the information they need and they will treat you all the same regardless of what champion model you have

the premise of bamboozling your opponent by pretending to be someone else doesn't matter if everyone plays hyper aggro champions with the "I'm the hero in my own singleplayer world" mentality where you never have to consider what your opponent is doing or react to what they are doing since the only power that matters is hitting your enemy first and hitting your enemy hard.

2Charmnot2CharmMar 29, 20196 votes

Because there is so many ways to tell a disguise from the real deal that it's not worth it other than to hide the ult animation.

All you do is copy looks, you do not have the attack speed, attack damage, passive, anything that champion has in their kit/items to do any long con baits. Minions don't die within 2-3 autos from adc? Tank/fighter auto attacking too fast despite not having any attack speed? Passive is not stacking (Things like Ashe, Cait, Draven, ekko)? The list goes on, so long con plays is out of the question outside of low elo.
Not using spells on minions to quickly clear, or not using spells to engage when you're disguised as the engage/diver champ is another dead give away. "I wonder why this is walking towards me instead of using her hookshot!"
And of course mapawareness. Enemy jungler spotted on a ward top side 10 seconds ago? Then unless jungler has teleport it's obvious that Neeko is bot. Sure you can bait players into thinking jungle isn't bot (or top), but that's too much effort and time wasted doing nothing while your enemy laner is free to manipulate the minion wave how they please if they didn't decide to roam. You could have just ganked one of the lanes with your jungler together and actually get something productive going.

People didn't forget Neeko can disguise, the gimmick is trash unless riot gives her the ability to use ally spells and stats.

InfernapeMar 28, 20194 votes

Yeah because it's a gimmick.

It's like LeBlanc's Shadow of the Rose. While nifty on paper, it was a shitty gimmick that fails to fool anyone paying attention.

Frog goes mooMar 29, 20194 votes

People usually aren't fooled by it is why. Unless you're playing normals or at a really low elo, many times people can guess just by the pace of the game and through vision on the map which champions are which at almost any given time.

ANearMissMar 28, 20193 votes

If they're not utilizing Neeko's disguise, they're just dumb. I normally disguise as my ADC and pretend im trying to last hit (I play support Neeko) unless i'm coming in while they're already there. Then i pretend to be mid or jg.

Jerry SeinfeIdMar 29, 20193 votes

that passive will never be good in league. If i see jax top and suddenly jax is runnin on my lane, it's pretty obvious it ain't jax. and sure let's say they're in FoW, that's still an enemy champ running at me (and in this specific case not using helicopter lamp).

Shaco and LB can atleast use their clone to an extent, and neeko's clone does give a similar yikes moment for your enemy. but the passive is garbage.

BigFBearMar 28, 20192 votes

I thought the same. Before she came out I thought player will do insane mind games and tricks with her. But nobody does that actually...

Moody PMar 28, 20192 votes

its a gimmick not a niche

the only way to make it valuable is to overhaul it or just slap some BS "gotcha" CC to people who hit the clone or something

Boochie PounderMar 28, 20192 votes

It's more like people don't know how to actually use her passive. Almost all of the neekos I see never disguise themselves. There's so many ways to use it, force a dive on you disguised as a low health champ, disguise yourself as the jg and walk over a ward opposite of where the jg really is, disguise as a full hp ally to back safely when you're low on health, force flashes and ults by disguising as an engage champ and using her W to run the clone into the enemy team, disguising as your adc to force a noc/zed/talon to burn their ult on you instead etc. One that oddly works is disguising as an ally who just died, and have enemy flash on you lmao [sg-zephyr] and of course, the easiest and most unused one i see, using it so her ult isn't visible during a fight

Original SinMar 28, 20192 votes

The only useful thing about her passive is hiding the ultimate channel.

Novae IdyllicaMar 29, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Original Sin,realm=OCE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=MwonzmN5,comment-id=000b,timestamp=2019-03-28T22:09:35.652+0000)

The only useful thing about her passive is hiding the ultimate channel.

And even then if you are running up to an enemy champion they are gonna hit you with something anyway and break it. If they are melee sure you might get the ulti off but the idea of being able to get on squishies and ulti q e or whatever your preferred combo is is really painfully unrealistic.

SpecterVonBarenMar 29, 20192 votes

The problem is that it ends upon taking any damage. As soon as someone sees you they're going to attack you or run away or attack you WHILE running away and so break the ability.

Wild GeeseMar 29, 20192 votes

They had a change in pbe for a little while where she gained 40% magic pen after breaking a disguise, I'm glad they didn't go ahead with it though.

Ultimately Neeko',s disguise is part of the power budget, but not her defining trait (only a unique trait); she has low range spells for a squishy mostly immobile range - in exchange se has her stealth and disguise to compensate and those are her tools to survive..

If players don't take advantage of her disguise they simply aren't playing optimal but it doesn't mean they must. Master Yi can win without using his meditate damage reduction - because sometimes you just don't need more survivablity.

If her defining trait was disguise it would have to be way more powerful, and she would be a defensive character.

FlashesMar 28, 20191 votes

Whenever I used Neeko, I would remember games where I'd use the disguise as an advantage to fool the enemy into thinking I had more cc than I did / less than I did. I made sure to only disguise people that were out of vision.

Also when I disguise someone who died, after they respawn someone tries to penetrate me, only to find out it's Neeko.

DedenneMar 28, 20191 votes

When i play neeko mid/jungle with a premade. I usually tranform into them and starts farming. Then they come from behind. The enemy will think they are me and i am then.