Who is Neith?

Neith is the Egyptian Weaver of Fate within Smite and is recognised as a hunter who relies on abilities much more than the other hunters in the game. Neith has recently soared back into the meta with flying colours and has seen attention in the adc, solo and mid roles in games with great ability to adapt to many different situations. Neith is known to have great escape, sustain and global presence with the use of her abilities and item builds.

Neith’s Abilities

Passive - Broken Weave

Neith’s passive, ‘Broken Weave’, will create - as the name would suggest - Broken Weaves which will spawn at the last location where an enemy God dies, the weaves then give Neith additional effects on the abilities she uses around them.

The way to avoid an enemy Neith using her passive to a great effect is to avoid ever standing around the weaves and wait until they disappear as they last for only a minute. The other way is rather simple, avoid dying in an area which may be crucial to your team after your death as the Neith will then be able to unleash her full potential on not only you but your whole team as well.

1st Ability - Spirit Arrow

When using her first ability called ‘Spirit Arrow’ Neith will fire a shot from her bow that will pass through everything in a line style targeter and each enemy that is hit by it will take damage and become rooted. If this ability happens to hit a Broken Weave then the ability will, instead, double in damage and apply the root to all enemies in an area rather than in a line.

A Neith with a good sense of awareness is the most difficult to play against the use of this ability with as they will likely exploit the idea that the arrow can travel through all obstacles. Whether it be a wall of the map or teammates, though, the ability can still be countered. To avoid this ability being used well it would be best to avoid the area around Broken Weaves as much as possible so the enemy will not be likely to use the secondary effect of the ability which could save the lives of others in the area. There is one thing that should always be followed, never walk in a straight line! The enemy Neith will always be able to hit you with this whilst it would be much harder to hit an enemy moving from side to side, the same applies to not ever being too close to her as no amount of movement will save you if you are standing right next to the enemy.

2nd Ability - Unravel

Neith’s second ability is called ‘Unravel’ and this will apply in a circular style of targeter, dealing damage to those hit and slowing their attack speed. The ability will then heal Neith for each enemy hit (including minions) and if any Broken Weave is in the targeted area she will be healed for an additional amount. This will remove the Broken Weave used.

There is only one way to counter this ability as Neith can still use it to a great effect without players being around as it will apply on minions and her Broken Weaves as well. To stop a good use of this ability you must aim to make the enemy Neith waste it, making her much easier to kill. She'll lose a great deal of her sustain potential (the rest being in her built lifesteal) and will therefore make her much easier to kill. Other than this there is no effective way of dealing with this ability.

3rd Ability - Backflip

‘Backflip’, which is Neith’s 3rd ability, is the most rage inducing ability to encounter if not approached correctly. Neith will flip through the air, damaging and slowing enemies that were in the area in front of her. It is very important to take into account that she will leave a Broken Weave at the initial point of her leap which would allow her to quickly and easily use the secondary effects of her abilities. The main pain of this ability is not related to the creation of the Broken Weave however, it is that the ability is a leap and will therefore not only just allow Neith to travel quickly but also become immune to most damage sources whilst in the air.

The best ways to counter this would either be to predict and prepare for it or to prevent the ability from ever being used. To prevent the enemy Neith from being able to use this ability you should aim to apply appropriate crowd control to her like a cripple or silence. These are forms which prevent the use of abilities and this will stop the Neith from setting up a devastating combination of abilities or performing the great escape against you. If you aim to predict and prepare you must be able to read the other player’s movements and if you are able to do so you should create an ambush at the point at which she will land. Be sure that you are nowhere near the Broken Weave that would have been recently created to further reduce her chance of escape, likely leading to her death.

Ultimate Ability - World Weaver

Neith’s ultimate ability, ‘World Weaver’, is what gives the character her deadly global presence. The ability will allow Neith to charge and fire an arrow across the entire map, seeking out the targeted enemy, damaging and stunning the target that then gets hit by the arrow. Neith is also able to fire this ability early though her results from the use of the ability will be diminished. Not only does this ability have the potential to execute on a global scale, it also has the potential to change an engagement or cause a death anywhere on the map due to the stun applied preventing further action from her target.

To counter this ability you should aim to position yourself in the least threatening place. You can tell when to do so as a targeter will appear over her target, allowing you to get into the range of a friendly tower or get another member of your team to block the shot. The ability will hit the first enemy to come into contact with it so the target is not always hit with the ultimate and the effectiveness of the ability can be nullified.

Counter Picking Neith

Picks that will do well against Neith are Gods that have high mobility and high control as these characters will not only be able to deal with her escaping potential but can also prevent the her from using any of her skills to a great effect.

I feel that, specifically, picks such as Nemesis, Ares, Poseidon, Serqet, Bellona and Ullr are all picks that work well against a Neith (though there will be others and this is based around the Gods that have done the best against her from personal experience). I believe that these are the best picks as all of these characters have a way of denying Neith what makes her good, though in different respects depending on the character such as Nemesis and Serqet directly countering her mobility with their own whilst the other characters are very easily able to prevent her from acting compared to others in the game due to the forms of control that they can apply to her (Bellona’s disarm and Poseidon’s cripple would be examples here).

Counter Building Neith

The best way to counter build Neith in terms of items would be to build defense and your own form of lifesteal (if applicable) to counter her ability to put out high damage and out sustain most others in the game. If you are playing a character that is much better at countering Neith than others such as any of those mentioned above then it would be much more effective to build cooldown reduction as this will allow you to use your own abilities that work well against her at a much more frequent rate. Specific items that work well would be ‘Magi’s Blessing’ as this item will nullify the root and stun that Neith is able to apply to people and will therefore reduce the amount of opportunities she has to kill you. Another specific item would be ‘Winged Blade’ as not only will this item increase your movement speed, attack speed, health and cooldown reduction but it also has the passive effect of negating a slow allowing you to use your own abilities against her more often and avoid the slow from her 3rd ability though the immunity to slows has a set cooldown of 30 seconds so you must still try not to get hit by the slow she applies if possible in order to not waste the passive of the item.

In terms of actives you should, like most other points of countering Neith, aim to reduce the impact of anything that she does and to follow this you should build actives with negating capabilities. From personal experience I have found that ‘Sprint’, ‘Purification Beads’ and ‘Aegis’ actives to be the best to use against her as these three actives can cleanse the slows she applies (‘Sprint’ actives), cleanse the root and stun she applies (‘Purification Beads’ actives) and completely negate the damage that she can deal on a huge scale with her abilities (‘Aegis’ actives). The only risk of these three is using an Aegis active as these can still leave you vulnerable with ‘Greater Aegis’ stopping your movement and ‘Aegis Pendant’ still leaving you open to having crowd control applied against you.

Good luck in stopping the Goddess weaving the fates of your games! For more updates on when I release more content, follow me on Twitter here.