Hello everyone. I am Zoma, a platinum Neeko top onetrick. I've been playing since season 7 as a Diana and Lissandra mid main, peaking D2 rank playing mainly Lissandra mid. However, in the last LOL seasons my interest in the toplane increased as I realized how much I hate getting autofilled and how often it happened when queued mid. The problem was, few mages/assassins can thrive in toplane, so I searched for a viable pick. That's when I got across Neeko.

Since then I've been in love with the champion and all the things she can do. If you want to play Neeko however, I'd recommend you play her mid or support, as she is best suited for these two roles and toplane can be rather unforgiving for most mage players. The most part of Neeko's playerbase are midlaner mains, so although I'm a toplane main, I'll include some useful info for midlaners too.

Some information I included I got from practice, some from watching good players. I don't perfect every concept I'll discuss here, because if I did, I would be rank 1 in the ladder. See this guide as a guide. It is still up to you to practice and apply to your own games. I'll add more information and video examples with time.

Right now I am leveling my only account in silver elo because well... my other accounts are in a kind of a long vacation, but I assure you, I'm reformed now and I write this guide as an very act of reformation, and I'll be glad If I can help the people of the community.

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Toplane Neeko exceels at harassing juggernauts and peeling against melee champions, and if you're good enough, you can do some good teamfight initiations too. The great point of Neeko is that you can build almost anything on her without griefing your build. You can go full tank with Iceborn Gauntlet as your mythic and still deal relevant damage to minion waves and kite melees to death. You can peel for your teammates with Everfrost, land multi-man ults with Hextech Rocketbelt or maybe even become a AD hypercarry with Kraken Slayer.

On the other hand, neeko faces heavy competition from other champions who can fill these niches. Why play tank Neeko if you can just pick Ornn instead? Why play peeling focused when you can just play something like Morgana, Lulu or Seraphine? Why play for agressive teamfight iniations if Kennen, Vladimir and Lissandra can do that better than her? And so on. The only edge Neeko has over these champs is that she can adapt post-draft. That, if you don't consider the sheer fun of playing her of course!

Why no one plays Neeko?

Neeko is not exactly hard to pick up for new players, but she's frustrating for many people because she has a LOT of counterplay, demands agressive and proactive play while being difficult to execute, abilities can feel clunky to use and out of synergy. For comparison, imagine the gameplay of a popular champ. E.g Yasuo, Katarina or Vladimir, what do they all have in common? Fluid to use abilities, outplay potential, counterplay exists but is low, not that hard to execute. And Neeko? Like I've already written, for most people her alities feel clunky and need practice to hit constantly, less outplay potential, high counterplay, very difficult to execute and be rewarded. She is a champion that you need to put more effort to get the same reward from playing popular champs, and even compared to unpopular ones E.g. Lissandra she feels outclassed and unrewarding. Meanwhile, if Lissandra had a laning phase, I'm sure that many people would pick her up, a very simple to solve problem.

NEEKO ABILITIES OVERVIEW

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	Q - Blooming Burst is the most basic trading tool in Neeko's kit. You'll be using it a lot during laning phase to harass your oponent. The skill has a high base damage so it can win lane by itself if you are good at hitting it. You'll typically combo it with the CC from your other abilities to guarantee that the two small explosions land as well, dealing a lot of damage. It also gives you the ability to clear waves from distance as the range is higher than people may think. You tipically max it first when playing AP Neeko.
	W - Shapesplitter can be seen by some as a ability that is out of synergy with Neeko's kit. That's not true, in fact, I'd say it is a extremely imporant part of her kit and what makes AD Neeko and Neeko top in general, possible. The passive is basically the charm of the AD Neeko build, giving a huge kiting potential and that's why you should max it first when going AD. The active is also extremely useful for a lot of things as you'll see in the Mechanics section. This ability can save your life or even win the game sometimes.
	E - Tangle-Barbs as your main CC ability, you should avoid using it for no reason. In fact you should only use it when you're very confident that you can hit and if you don't, back off because it is a very important cooldown to protect yourself in trades, especially when playing AP Neeko. The skill is generally used through minions to make it larger and faster, when doing this, is preferable that you get really close to the minion to empower it faster, increasing accuracy.
	R - Pop Blossom is your game-changing ultimate and the main cause of satisfaction (and frustration sometimes) of playing AP Neeko. Landing it can feel difficult, so you'll prefer using it after landing an empowered E, or getting a flank. The initial animation can be hidden with P - Inherent Glamour, and you ALWAYS want to do that. Even if your opponent see you transforming and knows you are going to ult, he won't know the exact time so you can still catch people by surprise.
	The best (and most bugged{second most after viego got released actually})and more fun passive in the game, Inherent Glamour can feel useless sometimes, but plays a great part in the fun aspect of playing Neeko. It can give you additional stats(attack speed, health regeneration and movespeed) as well as give you the melee status if you disguise as one(dealing bonus damage to turret plates and getting melee benefits from Grasp of the Undying). You should definitely make use of it whenever you can, to get the stats, to confuse enemies and to hide your Pop Blossom initial animation.

CHOOSING YOUR PLAYSTYLE/ADAPTATION

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Neeko is like a rpg mage character who can equip heavy armor and legendary swords. So, even if you function better as a mage, you can resort to other options for adaptability and fun. There are many possibilities and playstyles to choose from, I'll explain some of them here.

BURST MAGE NEEKO

Burst Mage Neeko is the standard playstyle and the preference of most of Neeko's playerbase. With this build, you're a strong early game champion that can do well against every mage/assassin in midlane (you do have counters, but they aren't as opressive as in toplane) and can have a good sucess as a toplaner or support. You'll look to play agressive and snowball in most matchups, so for this version to work, you'll need to know how to use your skillshots and combos properly. Your sidelaning is decent but you can't overextend as much because you're not a good duelist and once people catch you and they avoid your CC abilities(most assassins and skirmishers have tools to do that), you're dead, so you will mainly just respond to sidelane waves and not push agressively unless you're very confident you can 1v1 the enemy, but that's rare. Ideally you'll want to be grouping as much as you can and looking for picks. In teamfights, your main goal is to hit your Pop Blossom into as many people as possible abusing the engage capability of Hextech Rocketbelt. Given that you will stack other AP damage items alongside it, you will be capable of solocarrying games if ypu can achieve that. Many people believe that Neeko's engage is very predictable and avoidable, however, people in soloQ screw up constantly, even at higher elos. A chinese player known as MaiLe1 has perfected this Neeko playstyle and managed to hit rank 1 in the china superserver. This playstyle potential to carry games is big and if you are able to play agressively enough and outsmart your opponents, you can definitely climb very high in the ladder.

PEEL/ANTI MELEE MAGE NEEKO

While the burst mage build looks to engage agressively, this variation's main goal is to make the life of enemy assassins and bruisers difficult. Your laning is still strong and you have potential to make some agressive plays, but not to the extend of the burst mage playstyle. You 1v1ing and sidelaning is a bit stonger due to the fact that Everfrost gives you a bit more of waveclear and another form of CC to stop most splitpushers. You'll be focusing on getting utility items. This could be considered the most optimal build for toplane as it brings the balance between sidelaning and teamfighting, and you can always add a early Nashor's Tooth to help you stand your ground in the side lane. In teamfights you're looking to wait someone engage and follow-up or let the enemy engage and respond. Your engage response is extremely good because you can CC their frontline while zoning the backline. This build is also better at getting picks in the jungle because it has more CC. Can be a good option if you are a player who wants to play the lane safe and still be relevant with good utility for your team. Probably the best playstyle for new Neeko players.

AD/HYPER CARRY NEEKO

AD Neeko is a very opressive cheeser and lane bully in the toplane. This playstyle looks to play very agressive and get early solo kills, split push and scale as an AD Carry, you need to max W - Shapesplitter as it gives insane kiting potential and self peel capabilities. Even if you are behind and can't solo kill your opponent in side lanes, by the moment you get a good amount of attack speed(1.4+) you start to farm lanes and jungle camps very fast and come back to the game. Probably the most skill intensive playstyle of Neeko as you need very good micro/spacing combined with vision control and map awareness to not feed your oponnent. If you ever get behind, expect your team to flame the hell out of you and it will be hard to play in disadvantage! As with every ADC character with self peel and lane pressure, with AD Neeko you can hard carry games if you have the mechanics. This build is rarely played by pro's/high elo but it's definitely viable there. It is also not a toplane exclusive playsyle, she can perform well as a midlaner or adc, in fact I'd suggest you start playing her in the midlane then move to toplane when you're feeling comfortable. Crit items are preferred but anything with onhit effects works well ( Wit's End, Nashor's Tooth, Blade of the Ruined King, Titanic Hydra). Her build makes her very squishy but I classify her survivability 7/10 because of all the sidelane pressure and self peeling.

FRINGE PLAYSTYLES

The following playstyles are for those who believe in Neeko supremacy above all else and don't care about meta. So I'll put them under spoiler, feel free to skip them.

Neeko combos are not hard to learn, the only difficult aspect is that in some of them you need to time the spells perfectly for them to be optimal.

Ultless trade: (stack W empowered auto) E + Q + auto(empowered).

Your main combo pre-6. You'll want to empower your E through minions to give more sucess.

Unexpected Burst: (stack W empowered auto) Q + auto(empowered) + Ignite(optional)

This is a combo that you can use to finish off low hp targets especially if you take Electrocute and combo it with Ignite

Quick Root(E Buffer): E + Flash

Useful for surprising enemies and make your E harder to react to.

Confident ult: R + E + Q > R + E + Flash + Q


A combo to use against close targets if you know that you'll land your E to prevent their escape. Risky combo so be careful. The variation is a teamfighting combo with great value, remember to approach people with Inherent Glamour disguise before using it.

Standard catch: E + R + Q

This is your one shot combo for laning phase, you'll have to empower your E for it to work.

Cute Combo and The Cutest Combo: Disguise + R + Protobelt + Q + E >> Disguise + R + Flash + Protobelt + Q + E


Your main teamfighting combo for flanking and initiation. Expect to get many triple and quadra kills from this. The longer you can wait before the Flash + Hextech Rocketbelt, the cleaner the combo is. These combos can also be done with Stridebreaker, in this case, their are more for initiation and utility than for damage.

AFK Combo: Everfrost + Q + R + E

Your main peeling combo with the Everfrost build, you can lock your opponents for almost 5 seconds with it, even more if the E is empowered.

TRICKS AND MECHANICS

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• Q has bit of extra range if you're clicking at the edge of the circle indicator, if your cursor leaves it, you'll move to use the ability. If you're able to use it in smart cast without indicator your combos will be faster and you may land more Qs, but you need to practice it a lot.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view
  
  
  Spoiler: Click to view
• E like other abilities can still connects even if it passes a bit on the side of the opponent.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view
• You can get bonus stats from Inherent Glamour disguise: Base health regeneration, base attack speed and base movement speed. You can lower your ranged but not gain range. You can get the melee status disguising as one, for the purposes of bonus damage to turret plates and [[Grasp of the Undying] benefits. You'll want to disguise as the ally with the highest movespeed to roam the map/get to lane faster.
  Example of champions with high HR: Vi, Pantheon, Qiyana, Sylas, Lillia
  Base attack speed: Amumu, Zac, Yasuo, Dr. Mundo, Nocturne
  Movement speed: Master Yi, Jax, Kha'Zix, Shaco, Shyvana
• You can escape ganks with W if you run in a direction, send your W clone there and run the other way. The typical way to use this is to send your clone in the direction of your turret and run in the direction of the river.
• You can prevent yourself from taking turret shots with your W clone. The same applies for minions so you can push faster.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view
• You also can get good flanks using Hexflash over walls WHILE disguised then comboing after. In this case, you need to use a hotkey for your passive.
• You can block skills with your W clone. Like Nunu's Biggest Snowball Ever! and Kled's Chaaaaaaaarge!!!. You can also stay behind it when walking foward to block skills like Zoe's Sleepy Trouble Bubble and Ahri's Charm.
• You can prevent targeted skills and auto attacks from hitting you by making them lose target if you use W during their initial animation.
• You can use W to safely facecheck bushes and activate traps like Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap and Teemo's Noxious Trap.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view
• You can use E during W invisibility to catch opponnents by surprise, even more useful after leaving bushes invisible.
• You can use your passive while invisible with W to mislead your opponents/hide your healthbar/gain bonus movement speed to escape.
• You can engage with R > Blast cone.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view

What to Ban

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	Hard counter to Neeko due to all her range and annoying abilities, also one of the most popular long range mages so if you don't like mirror mage matchups this is going to be your ban.
	Luckly, good Qiyana players are rare, but her mobility and high burst make counterplay against her quite difficult. You need to play very careful once she hits level 6.
	A very popular champ that also counters Neeko. Wind Wall is a hard counter to you and he can close the gap easily and outdamage you. Some Neeko players don't find this matchup difficult because they are yet to meet good Yasuo players.

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	Probably the hardest counter to Neeko top. In midlane, at least you can spam your abilities and back off because the lane is short, but in the toplane she can combo and run you down pretty easily. At level 6 if you are in her R range you're half dead already and using your ultimate will make it worse as it will only serve to lock yourself in place for her to finish you off, giving all the ways she has to avoid it. Champ's also quite tanky so even if you manage to land a Tangle-Barbs you won't have the damage to kill her. Ban this from iron to challenger.
	Very similiar to Akali, but at least you can protect yourself with your ult to gain some time, she doesn't scale well and is harder to play than Akali.
	Busted champ since release, laning against her is fine but she can outperform you in teamfights and can make a brutal snowball even from one kill.

This is my personal ban list, I notice that a lot of mid mains in general struggle against Fizz and Zed too so if any champion tilts you, it is always a good idea to ban them.

Laning

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To understand how to lane better, you need to go through some basic general concepts/fundamentals, especially if you play midlane. Things you need to know about are basic wave management, spacing and vision. They sound simple but if you can really know to apply these concepts and use them right you'll reach the top of the ladder. Many people nowadays have already heard of them, but it still helpful to review them.

Wave Management

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The first concept to understand is the even minion rule. It implies that if there's a equal number of red and blue minions colliding, the wave will automatically push in the direction of the most distant turret. That's because the minion wave with the closest tower arrive sooner. I'll post some examples of these techniques, the videos may be a bit laggy because I have bad specs, can't do much about that unfortunately.

You can clearly see that the enemy wave has the closest turret, the enemy minions arrive sooner and overpower my minions, automatically pushing against me.

Based on this, you can control minion waves to put you in a good spot to deny farm to your opponent, harass or kill them. Per example, in this video, the wave is in a good spot for me because my minions are dying, thus denying my opponent's farm, and if my opponent and me trade kills, I'll get more benefit.

Freezing occurs when you let the enemy minions alive and let them overpower your own minions, but at the same time you do not let them reach your turret.
It is tipically used when ahead, to make your opponent lose farm even if they play safe, to setup ganks and all-ins. You can also adopt this to play safe yourself, as it makes you difficult to gank and all-in and also makes it easier to farm. You need to kill just enough minions to avoid the crash, you can also tank the wave a bit if you can. This technique is a bit difficult to master but you get used to it. The freezing in this example itself was not perfect.

Slow pushing occurs when you have the lane control and start to kill enemy minions slowly. More of your minions will arrive and create a big minion wave.
You use this when you want to go to base, wants to setup dives, harrass under tower or surprise all in before the wave crashes to make your opponent miss a huge amount of exp and farm.

Fast pushing occurs when you kill the enemy minions as fast as possible to crash your wave to the enemy tower. You typically do this when the minion wave is not in a good spot for you and you want to reset it, are in a hurry to go back to base/roam or killed your opponent and want to take his turret.

Remember that these tactics are more easy applied in toplane because the lane is longer so you have more space to manage the waves.

Spacing

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Spacing can be explained as a broader term for kiting. Basically, every champion in league has a zone of influence defined by the range of their abilities and auto attacks. Spacing consists in playing around that zone of influence to avoid your opponent abilities and hit them with yours. Ideally, you want to be inside your zone of influence, while being outside of your opponent's.

As a Ranged toplaner, most of the times you gonna have a larger zone of influence than your opponent, but you'll mainly pay attention to the most dangerous ability of the opponent. If I'm against Darius, my main focus will be to not get closer than 535 units of him, because that's the range of his Apprehend, if he wastes the ability though, you can move a bit closer to 460 units, his Decimate outer range.

However, if you're playing AD Neeko against Irelia, her zone of influence can vary greatly. Her gap close Bladesurge has a range of 600 units, that alone exceeds your autoattack range, and she can extend that even further with the presence of low health minions through the reset mechanic, meaning that she has a bigger zone of influence during the most time. It doesn't mean however, that she can blindly jump on you and win the trade, spacing is just one aspect of the laning phase, always consider the bigger picture in things like who has more dps, who has more damage from minions and if you can regain zone of influence advantage through movement(which in case she lands her E and resets her ability you can't).

Spacing has a greater impact in the midlane and is what makes good Orianna, Syndra and Azir players annoying to lane against, these champions have a large range of influence and can bully most characters. In mage mirrors matchups, most Neeko players tend to just stay far back and don't trade at all. That's a very bad thing to do if you want to climb, so always remember to try to almost always stay in range to hit your opponent with Blooming Burst, if you are standing way too far back and walk up to use it, your opponent will know and just walk away! So you want to maintain your opponent inside your zone of influence! This takes a ton of practice to get really good at, even proplayers don't have perfect spacing.

Other Aspects of Laning

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You don't need to have impeccable vision to climb in soloQ, but anything that can increase your winrate is worth learning. Most common warding spots for toplane are these:


Pink wards = Red side/Green wards = Blue side

1. Defensive wards used to anticipate dives. It's very easy and common to get dove in the toplane and most of the times you will need to give the exp and cs of the minion wave because outplaying multi man dives is difficult(Don't worry that much if you're below diamond though).
2. Defensive wards to prevent cheeses, especially at early levels. Most Darius and Urgot mains will hide in these bushes expecting you to walk foward to all-in you. Warding these bushes is also useful to prevent lane ganks, however rare, many toplaners don't expect them.
3. Wards to place if you're in the middle of the lane so you have enough time to respond to ganks.
4. Wards to place when you're playing agressive. These are mostly "outplay wards" because if you're this extended you'll not be able to run away and may resort to a desperate play to kill your oponent or buy time trying to escape through their jungle.
5. Deep wards to track the enemy jungler and know their intention ahead of time. Can help coordinate counter-ganks and 2v2s with your jungler. Go for these when you just pushed your lane, have wards and don't know what to do.
6. Utility ward that you place when roaming mid, your midlaner will like it.

You should only buy Control Wards during laning phase when you have heavy lane pressure and wants extra vision, if you buy them when behind, you're throwing gold away as the enemy will contest and break it easily.

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Farming is the most basic aspect of the laning and people talk about it a lot, but still can't do it efficiently. I'd say that if you ignore 80% of the teamfights and focus on farming instead, you'll climb. You can be terrible at the game, but if you focus on farming, you'll be strong every game and able to carry without thinking much, especially in low elo. If you are in Bronze, Silver and Gold and are able to get 6.5cs/min every game you will climb automatically.

Neeko laning and midgame overview

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Every playstyle of Neeko have a strong laning. If you are able to hit your spells you practically insta win almost every lane. Play more agressively when pushing and try to land some Tangle-Barbs as most matchups cannot punish you inside your minion wave. When not pushing, priorize harassing people when they go for CS with Blooming Burst and Shapesplitter empowered autos. As a champion with strong early game, you should be able to leave laning phase in advantage most games once you learn to play her.

In the midgame you can either split push or group with your team looking for picks and fighting for objectives. If you are AD or have Everfrost as your mythic then you probably can apply pressure in the side lanes. Be always mindful of the objectives that are coming up to group and contest if you can. When splitting, you can switch your trinket to Farsight Alteration and place Control Wards in their jungle to see if people are coming for you. Remember that it is better to apply pressure when your team can get other objectives in the other side of the map, otherwise you might get killed in vain.

Playing from Behind

If you lost your lane or your team is feeding, your main focus will be reducing the gold deficity as much as you can, that means:

• Not forcing even numbered fights. Instead, play around getting picks on vulnerable enemies, wait for them to throw.
• Farming as much as possible. You don't want to pick most fights when behind, so you main focus will be grabing side lanes waves and jungle camps.
• If you feel like your team comp is better (scale more, more range, good meta picks, has particular counters and balanced classes), don't desperate and try to stick together, many people tilt thinking that they are losing, when their team comp is just better and the win will come naturally.
• Don't drag down or tilt your team, especially if they are winning. Some games you'll just get carried, that's normal. Don't force anything dangerous, just do your task.
• If you get flamed, don't discuss or respond, it is not worth. /mute and play your game. Rarely you will learn something in these discussions.
• Try to get vision in objectives before attemping to contest, avoid facechecking them when you don't see enemies on the map. Don't overvaluate them. If the enemy is getting their third dragon, don't kill yourself over it if you're behind, play to get back to the game so you can contest the 4th.
• If you are ahead and your team is feeding, don't forget the game still 5v5. Don't try to 1v5 and give shutdowns to enemy. You'll always play around your team, even when they're behind. Always pick unfair fights and shotcall for your team.

Teamfighting as Neeko

Your teamfighting style will vary depending on your Neeko playstyle and the team comps. When you play Burst Mage Neeko, you'll be focusing on getting good flanks while disguised to land Pop Blossom in multiple people with The Cutest Combo, this is not a easy task. On the other hand, if you build Everfrost, you will preferably play fights front-to-back, peeling your carries and zoning theirs. While AD Neeko will play the fight like a ADC should: Taking care with your positioning and dealing damage while dodging skills.

Neeko Late Game

Many players say that Neeko falls off lategame, this is a misconception. What really happens is that good engages become more difficult due to the enemy being able to peel their carries better and kill you easily, but your 340% AP ratios still keep your damage relevant and you still can 1v9 teamfights. Tracking enemy carries Flash is very important at this stage. If you have Flash and enemies carries don't, you can easily win fights and close out the game. But remember to not engage alone and to only go where you have vision of. If you play AD Neeko, you're a lategame powerhouse like other ADCs, always stay behind your frontline and watch your positioning.

Flash is basically mandatory for every game. If it fits your playstyle, you can choose to play other summoner spells like Ignite and Teleport or Ghost, but I don't like it very much especially in matchups that you insta-die without flash e.g. Riven With her being a agressive early game champion, Ignite gives Neeko the ability to have more kill pressure in the toplane. I take it almost every game because you just lose so much kill pressure without it, the fact that it gives 60% grievous wounds makes it even better as many toplaners have combat sustain. If your playstyle is more team-oriented and safe, or you're playing tank neeko, or even if you feel like you simply won't kill your opponent, take Teleport instead of Ignite. It also gives the ability to get good flanks and as Neeko your flanking potential is decent. Exhaust is a very situational summoner spell that can be taken against champion with huge all in potential that you can retaliate and kill them after surviving their burst damage. E.g Diana, Tristana, Lucian and Nocturne Ghost is a really underrated spell for Neeko, if makes the life of juggernauts even harder and save you in situations where even flash can't, like when you got ambushed by enemy Fiora and need extra movespeed to run away. It's taken mainly against Darius so you can use yours when he use his, matching his movespeed. It is also surprisingly useful in teamfights to reach high range threats and force their resources.

When it comes to runes, Neeko has a huge variety of options, and most of the time, it comes down to personal preference. Into some matchups, some runes can be better than others, but as Neeko you're never reliant on just one rune page, you can flex between almost every rune and keystone. Here I will explain all the options that I have tested and consider viable choices for Neeko, you can read the explanations and try to build your own playstyle, as I already said, think of Neeko as a rpg character that can easily change classes, but if you want standard rune pages, the ones at the top of the guide are enough.

RUNE TREES

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As a very adaptable champion with multiple playstyles, Neeko has a huge variety of items. Some of them are very niche while others are better for most games. Considering that the most popular playstyle is the Burst Mage, Hextech Rocketbelt is gonna be your weapon of choice for basically every game. Less popular choices like Night Harvester and Luden's Tempest are still viable for those who enjoy them. First I explain the boots options and then I'll approach the items for every playstyle and their uses.

Boots

	The prime choice for the AP Playstyle, Ideally you'll want to rush this every game, as the base damage values of Neeko are really high, the boost in power will be substantial. I don't remember ever taking other type of boots for AP Neeko.
	Your typical rush item when going AD/onhit variations. Enables you to kite your opponents better, especially in matchups like Tryndamere and Sett where you need good spacing. It makes you proc more Shapesplitter empowered autos, so you will begin to have constantly high movespeed.
	Situational boots to take in the toplane against auto-attack based champions that have ways to reach you in laning phase, like Irelia, Wukong, Kled. You can also take it against adcs even you're going AP, makes the laning a bit more bearable when you're behind.
	Very very situational in the midlane. Many people defend the use of this boots against CC and AP heavy comps for obvious reasons, I really think you should only take it against Syndra and Twisted Fate, or in rare cases if a LeBlanc or Lissandra is duo with their jungler. But don't expect it make a huge difference.
	Only taken against Nasus to deal with his Wither, even if you're AD it is still good and does it's job well.

MAGE PLAYSTYLE

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Mythics

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	This mythic is simply fantastic for Neeko, even more now that they added more magic penetration to it. The build path allows for you to have a very nasty powerspike with Hextech Alternator that boosts your already good early game. Once you complete the item, it enables you to make very good plays due to the synergy with Pop Blossom and Tangle-Barbs. Compared to most mages, Neeko isn't mana hungry and runes alone can make up for the lack of a mana mythic, there's no downside of buying Rocketbelt.
	The ultimate item for making the lives of melee players miserable. If you think you're not able to carry the game by yourself and need to focus on peeling for other carries, or if you find a fed assassin/bruiser in the enemy team and need a better chance against them, Everfrost is the way to go. Remember that you lose a lot of playmaking potential without Hextech Rocketbelt so it comes to you to evaluate what you're needing at that moment.
	Considered by most OG Neeko mains a noob bait, Luden's indeed is not that great. Rocketbelt offers a similiar burst potential while enabling good initiations and a bit of survivability, imo the item is completely outclassed. Without hitting ult, AP Neeko is just a worse version of Lux or Zyra, and by going Luden's you're losing playmaking potential. The only niche this item has, is that it boosts your waveclear.
	In general, I consider Night Harvester a bad item after all the nerfs the item received. It does the same damage as Rocketbelt and If you land your combo you will be getting the same if not more value out of Rocketbelt. Also, the mythic passive of Rocketbelt is way more useful.

Legendaries

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	One of the most broken items in the game and almost always worth to purchase as 2nd or 3rd item. Basically it makes almost impossible to itemize against you because you will oneshot squishies even if they stack MR. And contrary to what most people think, the item is still good against targets without MR due to the fact that it is cheap and can be bought after hextech rocketbelt and sorcery shoes to give a whopping 29/40% magic penetration, which will make you deal true damage to targets without magic resistence.
	A very popular item for Neeko, most people buy it every game because it's cheap and has a good synergy with Pop Blossom. But in fact, It is a situational item and not core. It delays your magic pen powespike and cuts your damage potential to carry fights, you will only want it early against ad focused champions and comps that can burst you hard during your engage. It's a great lategame option though.
	The biggest powerspike of most AP champions. Ideally you want it as a 3rd or 4th item after Void Staff. The absurd amount of AP makes you a teamfighting monster to the point that you can oneshot people with Pop Blossom alone. Of course in the lategame is difficult to find good engages, but if you find one, then it's game over for the enemy.
	Morellonomicon is also a situational item that's very popular. It gives a bit of survivability and ap for a cheap price. The passive of the item is of course, useful in a meta with so much healing. But some times if you are fed enough to buy your damage items, you should probably go for them instead, even if enemy has large amounts of healing. The reason is simple, dead enemies can't heal, and you won't burst them hard enough if you buy Morello.
	A incredibly underrated item, Nashor's Tooth is extremely useful when you're sidelaning. The synergy with Shapesplitter is great and you can do basically everything faster to save time (farming, turret taking, dueling and taking jungle camps). You also begin to do very relevant damage through auto attacks. It's very fun to trigger people when you kill them without hitting any ability.
	Horizon Focus may look very good because of the large amount of AP it gives and the bonus damage but don't be fooled, Void Staff simply outdamages this item for a cheaper price. Then you may ask, why not buy both? Well, you already have your mythic, void and rabadon as the core of the build. That leaves two slots to choose between Nashor's (that outdamages and has more utility than this item too) and a defensive 5th item option(typically Zhonyas). It simply don't has place in a Neeko build, but is not worst item in the game so definitely give it and see if you like it!

AD/ONHIT PLAYSTYLE

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Mythics

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	The main mythic of this playstyle. It offers the most damage out of the ADC mythics and the 3-hit passive has good synergy with Shapesplitter to deal a high burst of damage combo'ed together. It can shred tanks, bruisers, allow you to duel against people in a side lane and even become a lategame 1v9 carry.
	Not as powerfull as Kraken Slayer, this item is mostly built as a defensive tool vs a assassin enemy comp. If they have per exemple Kayn Jungle and Talon mid, they are very likely to camp your lane all game looking for free kills on the vulnerable ranged top. In these situations you need a extra bit of survivability to deal with them at least in teamfights.
	Stridebreaker is a fringe mythic choice for AD Neeko to kite your opponent better and to have some more utility in teamfights. It can combo with your Pop Blossom similiar to Hextech Rocketbelt and you still get to deal a significant amount of onhit damage when paired with Blade of the Ruined King, I don't really recommend going this build unless you really enjoy it because the crit route has more value and carry potential.

Legendaries

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	Runaan's Hurricane is a solid 2nd item to build if you plan on building full crit. It is cheap, gives a good amount of attack speed and makes your clearwave become insane. It also has a unique synergy with Shapesplitter 3rd auto because each of the item bolts count as 1 auto so if you have enemies nearby, you can proc Shapesplitter's passive every auto.
	The typical third item of the AD build and a powespike equivalent to that of Rabadon's Deathcap in a AP build. When you get this item your DPS becomes crazy and you can start to carry teamfights.
	This is a situational item against tankier comps, If you feel like you don't do enough damage with Kraken Slayer then you can build this item 3rd and delay your Infinity Edge a little bit. It got nerfed but still a top tier item because of all the tanks and bruisers thriving in the meta right now.
	Often built for the utility of grievous wounds and as a cheap way to get critical chance. It is a situational item, you don't really need it if your team has any of the others anti-healing items. If you're sidelaning against a champion with a lot of healing then it may be better to buy an early Executioner's Calling sit on it and complete your core items.
	A very good item to pair with Lord Dominik's Regards because basically no one will be able to tank your damage. Also, when you don't want to go the crit build, Botrk is kind of mandatory so you can have at least a bit more of onhit damage outside your W passive.
	Often your final item and a way to stall lategame teamfights so your teammates can come to your aid. Most adcs build this with a good reason, it can buy even more time than Zhonya's Hourglass in teamfights.

TANK PLAYSTYLE

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The tank playstyle is almost never played by Neeko mains but imo is quite underrated. I'll just list a quick overview of what you can build and you can experiment with what you want, you may get surprised!

It is said quite often that ranged tops are "braindead" or "unfair", what else is unfair? Nature and life itself, toplane imitates life. League of Legends itself is about being disloyal, it is not a sport with rules, but a jungle where who has more malice survives. So if you want to climb, you need to play the game as it is, not as you want it to be. Always try to drop your EGO and play around your champion strenghs and limitations. I know it is unfair when you get a ton of kills and CS and lose, but if you can't handle it, SoloQ, and especially toplane, isn't for you. Always remember that league is not about skill, but about mental and patience.

If you have the mentality to get better and climb, go for it, but if you don't have, there's no point ruining your own mental health so don't beat yourself over it. This is just a guide, so you still need to forge your own path and apply all the knowledge you may have gained, that's for sure the hardest part.

I struggle with the English language, so any corrections are heavily appreciated.

Lastly, I'll leave this toplane bingo here to show you some common occurrences when you play ranged top. And also some players that I recommend you to watch and learn from if you want.

I rarely play Neeko support so I can't help support players much. That's why I recommend https://www.twitch.tv/btanglol .For those who want to learn to play Neeko in this role this guy is the best out there. He typically streams at 7:30 PM PST and you can also join his discord if you want to talk with him, he even offers free coaching.

If you like the Burst Mage Hextech Rocketbelt playstyle, why not watch the most sucessful player in the world with it? https://www.douyu.com/topic/lolzxz?rid=5778661 is where Maile1 streams and https://v.douyu.com/show/8pa9v55KrGKvVrqA you can see his VODs. You'll be amazed at how good his laning and macro are.

Thanks for reading, I hope I was able to help you learn something.