Are you tired of getting stuck as support in ranked and losing because the carries can't carry? Have you ever wished you could carry as support? Well, now you can! I am going to walk you through how to build and play Ne Zha as support to carry your team!

Abilities:

Ne Zha is a physical ability-based god who has a good amount of crowd control in his kit. Utilizing these abilities, you'll be able to peel and set your team up like a pro. I am going to start by covering Ne Zha's abilities than jump into building and playstyle.

Ne Zha's passive is called Righteous Spirit. Ne Zha's spirit is strengthened as he successfully hits enemies with abilities and basic attacks. Each hit provides one stack and each critical hit provides two stacks. Stacks reset if Ne Zha has not taken or dealt damage in the last 10s. The maximum stacks are 20 and the movement speed per stack is 0.5%. This is really nice, especially with his ring bounce hitting multiple enemies. It provides enough movement speed to get in or out of a situation and to better help your team out.

Ne Zha's first ability you will level, even as support, and continue until it's maxed out is called Universal Ring Toss. Ne Zha throws the Universe Ring, bouncing several times, dealing damage, applying a Physical Protection Debuff for 3s and Slowing for 1s. Each hit also stacks a movement speed buff on Ne Zha for 2s. Subsequent hits on the same target deal 25% less damage. This scales nicely and does 75/100/125/150/175 (+20% of your Physical Power) damage on the initial bounce. As you level up the ability, it'll bounce 4/5/6/7/8 times. Along with the base damage, it also shreds their protections by 10/11/12/13/14 per hit. Not only do you get the damage and the protections debuff, but it also applies a 25% slow and 5% movement speed increase per bounce. This ability is good for so many things, from securing objectives in the jungle to clearing waves in the lane. As support, you will want to aim your ring bounce towards the back line minions, this will hit all three of them and typically hit one of the enemies in the lane. It will slow them down and give your Hunter a little bit of an early advantage.

His second ability is called Flaming Spear. Ne Zha empowers himself with the fighting spirit, igniting his spear for increased Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance for a short duration. Upon activation, Ne Zha is healed depending on how many stacks he currently has from his passive ability, Righteous Spirit. This provides 15/25/35/45/55% attack speed, 15% critical strike chance, a .75% heal per passive stack, and lasts from 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 seconds long. This is not typically used for the Critical Strike Chance in the support role, but more for in-lane sustain after you stack up Righteous Spirit.

Ne Zha's third ability is called Armillary Sash. Ne Zha throws out his Armillary Sash hitting the first enemy god in its path. The target is Stunned as Ne Zha yanks himself toward the target, dealing a powerful blow to all enemies in the area as he arrives. This ability can critically hit. Armillary Sash does 70/100/130/160/190 (+100% of your Physical Power) and stuns for 1 second. This ability is going to be used to engage the enemies in the lane, specifically the Hunter. It is also used as a peel in case one of your carries is getting chased down. One of my favorite combos with Ne Zha is Armillary Sashing the enemy then Universal Ring Tossing to stack more damage, your passive, and slow the enemy team.

Last, but certainly not least, is Ne Zha's Ultimate ability, Wind Fire Wheels. Ne Zha dashes forward. If he hits an enemy god, he knocks them skyward for 4s, unleashing a 3-hit combo (successfully timed attacks during the combo result in critical strikes), then smashing them back to Earth in his starting location. This ability hits one initial time upon knock up, the three-hit combo, and then again dealing additional damage to enemies in the radius as he lands for a total of five hits. While knocked skywards, enemies are not considered Crowd Controlled. Wind Fire Wheels does 30/50/70/90/110 (+30% of your Physical Power) damage per hit and damage (Initial/Landing): 50/105/160/215/270 (+65% of your Physical Power) upon landing. This ability is one of the main reasons Ne Zha is so good in the jungle, solo lane, and as support. Not only can you critically strike someone up to 5 times, but you're also pulling them out of a teamfight, setting up an engagement, peeling for the enemy, or just flat-out bullying in the lane. This can provide so many opportunities for your team to follow up with you on, especially if you grab a carry role on the enemy team for your team to bombard upon landing.

Playstyle

While playing Ne Zha as support, you will have to resist every urge to take kills from your carries. It is extremely hard to do, but you need to feed your team to get ahead! Ne Zha has a very unique kit, with three forms of crowd control, a protections shred that can affect the whole enemy team, and multiple movement speed boosts for yourself, so you can provide a tremendous amount of support. The first ability you will level is your 1, Universal Ring Toss. This will help in the lane phase, as stated above, you'll start by tossing the ring at the back archer minions to help clear the wave. After Universal Ring Toss, you're going to level your 3, Armillary Sash. Leveling this early will provide you with a nice 1-second stun to set up or peel for your carry, especially with how popular level 2 and 3 ganks are in duo lane right now. Then, you're going to level your 1 again to provide the extra damage to be able to invade the enemies jungle and back camps. It also helps apply more pressure in the lane as well. When you hit level 4, that is when you will level Flaming Spear. While it does add sustain, leveling your 1 is going to be the priority. Lastly, when you hit level 5, you will level your ultimate ability, Wind Fire Wheels. Upon getting Wind Fire Wheels up, your combo is going to be Armillary Sash, Wind Fire Wheels, Universal Ring Toss, then Flaming spear to chase down the enemy.

Build

Ne Zha support is going to start like most support builds, you'll leave the base with Guardian's Blessing, three health pots, three multi-pots, and Heavenly Wings.

Guardian's Blessing gives you +100 Health +5 Physical Protection and Magical Protection +7 HP and Mana Restore per Minion Assisted +5 MP5 +3 Gold per Minion Assisted and the passive ROLE QUEST: SUPPORT Assist with Minion kills to gain stacks. Each Assist is worth 1 stack. At 50 stacks Guardian's Blessing evolves, gaining 4 Gold Per 5s. With this item, you're not going to want to clear minion waves yourself, you're going to want your Hunter to get the final hit on them so that you get the Health and Mana restored for lane sustain.

Heavenly Wings increases the Movement Speed of allied gods within 55 units by 20% for 5s and makes them immune to Slows. This is an excellent tool to engage or disengage from the enemy team in the lane. It can make or break an early teamfight.

The health potion heals 250 Health over 25 seconds. You start the lane phase with under 1,000 Health typically, especially as an Assassin support, so you'll want the sustain from it. The mixed potion heals 125 Health and 75 Mana over 25 seconds. It goes extremely well with Guardian's Blessing, giving you Mana and Health on top of your passive from the blessing and health pot. Use the multi-potions as a priority over the health potions.

On your first back, you should be out of multi-potions, giving you an open consumable spot. Here, you will typically be able to get full boots and two wards.

As support, you're going to want to go with Talaria Boots. The passive makes them extremely good for getting back to lane quickly so you don't lose XP. Also, it gives you more movement speed so that you'll be able to rotate and gank other lanes more quickly.

Talaria boots give you +20 Physical power, +15 MP5, and 25% movement speed. It's passive gives you +20% additional Movement Speed after leaving the Fountain. This effect lasts 7s.

With the two wards, you'll want to place them near your Void camp and the enemies' Void camp. These will allow you to see when you are going to get ganked and increase your map awareness.

Next, you're going to want to go into Gauntlet of Thebes and Sovereignty, both of which are aura items that will help your team out during teamfights.

Gauntlet of Thebes gives you +275 Health and +15 HP5. Right off the back, this item gives you a decent stat boost, but it does have a stacking passive that will make it turn into Evolved Gauntlet of Thebes. Assists on a minion give one stack and God kills and assists give five stacks. Stacks provide 1 Physical and Magical Protection. At 50 Stacks this item evolves, providing an Aura of 10 Physical Protection and 10 Magical Protection.

Sovereignty gives you +250 Health and +45 Physical Protections. Allied gods within 70 units have their Physical Protections increased by 15 and their HP5 increased by 25. This is an incredible item for lane sustain and during teamfights. Team compositions usually run three physical and two magical gods, so Sovereignity should help mitigate a lot of damage.

After, your next two items will be Blackthorn Hammer and Heartward Amulet. Blackthorn Hammer affects your stats immediately and Heartward Amulet is an aura item similar to Sovereignty. At this point, you'll also make sure that you have the Fire Giant and Pyromancer warded with a Sentry Ward as well.

Blackthorn Hammer is an item that, at this point in the game, is a must-build item for anyone who relies on ability-based damage. Blackthorn Hammer gives you +35 Physical Power, +450 Health, and +200 Mana. While over 25% Mana, you gain +10% Cooldown Reduction. While under 25% Mana, you gain +50 MP5. Not only does it provide you a Health, Mana, and Power boost, it also gives you a unique passive that gives you cooldown reduction and MP5.

Heartward Amulet gives you +55 Magical Protections and +250 Health. Allied gods within 70 units have their Magical Protections increased by 15 and their MP5 increased by 20. Between Heartward Amulet and Sovereignty, you and your team are going to be extremely annoying to try to take down if you're near them for teamfights. With the aura protections and regeneration, your team will be an unstoppable force.

You should be hitting around level 12 by now, if you have not already, in which case you'll have your next relic spot open. For Ne Zha, I like Blink as my second relic choice.

Blink will allow you to teleport up to 55 units away instantly. This item can not be used if you have taken or dealt damage in the last 3s. This makes a really good engagement tool to pair with your Sash or Wind Fire Wheels to eliminate an enemy team member from a teamfight. It will also create amazing gank opportunities for you to rotate into the other lanes with.

To finish the build, you will sell the Guardian's Blessing and purchase Masamune.

Masamune is a hybrid item that provides you with +50 Physical Power, +100 Health, and +10% Movement Speed. For each enemy god within 55 units of you, you gain a stacking buff that provides 7 Magical Protection and 7 Physical Protection. Stacks up to 5 times. That potentially gives you another +35 physical and magical defense when you're in a 5v5 fight. The +10% Movement Speed will help you a lot as well.

When all is said and done, your build should look something like this:

With this build, along with a little bit of practice, you should be able to carry yourself as support. It will allow you to provide and carry your team to ensure your victory! I hope this works as well for you as it does and has had for me!

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