Season 13 Neeko Rework Abilities Revealed

The Dev Team at Riot Games has a job to keep the game fresh. This includes updating older champions who no longer fit the theme. And while some cases like Corki and Tryndamere require full scale VGUs (Visual and Gameplay Update), some like Yuumi just need a bit of love. Neeko has been continuously falling out of favor since her release. So instead of buffs to her numbers, it’s time for the Neeko midscope update to be released.

Neeko Midscope Abilities Leaked

With patch 13,8 going live on servers tonight, it’s time for the PBE update. That means that the Neeko midscope update will probably arrive on live servers on the next patch. Riot Phlox, who is a designer on the Summoner’s Rift team at Riot Games, detailed the rework and gave some insight. He mentioned that their main goal was to preserve her current playstyles while improving trickster gameplay. Mage, attack speed and even tank Neeko will still be viable. There are also some minor jungle changes added that could be looked at later on.

Skin VFX for Neeko's passive, she has to stand close to her target in order for her passive to channel, then she can choose when to transform.
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Neeko Reworked Passive Ability Revealed

Neeko has a new and improved passive ability. She will no longer inherit the attack speed and movement speed from the target she disguised as. But her passive will now have a flat cooldown of just 6 seconds. Get ready for some tomfoolery. If Neeko is within range of 300 units from non-epic monsters (Drakes, Rift Herald, Baron Nashor), minion, trap, ward or plant for more than 2 seconds, she can consume their Sho’ma. She can click on her bar to become that unit and then click on her face on the HUD to return to her form. She can alternate between these two forms until she presses the little X on the HUD and clears that Sho’ma. The disguise is also no longer broken when taking damage. But it does breka when she deals damage. The only way to reveal Neeko as an enemy is to crowd-control her or eliminate her. 

Neeko Reworked Q Ability Revealed

Her Q ability is losing 5 flat damage at every rank but will now scale 5% better of ability power at every point in the game. The ability will now also bloom unconditionally. Previously it would only bloom if it executed a minion, champion, or jungle monster. A new feature added to her Q ability is that it will now do 30-70 bonus damage to jungle monsters. This means that Neeko is getting a lot more wave clear. With an improved jungle clear as well. 

Neeko Reworked W Ability Revealed

Her new W ability is really expanding upon her Trickster playstyle. After casting her W ability, Neeko can use the ability again and send the clone in a new direction. The clone will also imitate and replicate the animations and sound effects Neeko does when using her Q and E abilities as well as Dance, Joke, Taunt, Laugh, and Recall. The passive on her W ability which enabled the attack speed and on-hit build will now also do 50 bonus damage to jungle monsters. Spotting the real Neeko will be the real gameplay mechanic now.

Neeko Reworked E Ability Revealed

Her E ability stayed pretty much the same except for losing 10 flat damage at every rank. To compensate for this, it will now scale 5% better with ability power. This is the same adjustment her Q ability underwent. The major change here is that her E will now always root for 2 seconds. Previously it was supposed to hit ‌at least one enemy s to get the full duration from 1,8 to 3 seconds., Otherwise, it would last just 0,7 to 1,5 seconds. 

Neeko Reworked Ultimate Ability Revealed

Neeko will no longer shield herself when casting her ultimate ability. The cooldown has been increased from 90 seconds flat at all ranks to 120/105/90. The ability also lost 50-100 flat damage at every rank on top of a 30% decreased AP scaling. And while these are legit nerfs to her most powerful ability, the new effects might make up for it. Neeko will now jump in the air after channeling the ability and suspend all nearby enemies. After 0,6 seconds Neeko crashes to the ground and deals damage. The total duration of the crowd control effect is 1,25 seconds in total. 

You might have never heard of a Suspension effect so this is how we can break it down. It’s a stun that is removable but acts as Airborne, which cannot be cleansed. Yassuo’s ultimate ability acts like this and can be cast on this form of crowd control. A unit that is stunned is unable to control its movement, declare attacks, cast abilities, activate items or use summoner spells. So it looks like Neeko will be the new Diana in the jungle to all Yassuo mains.