This week on is it viable, we are featuring Chinese pantheon’s lotus prince, Ne Zha. Previously in season one this little guy was hardly touched if ever. Now with the changes in season 2, we ask if he is viable?

(This will be based around his jungle role and not his support role).

Now, let’s start with the boots nerf which hurt most junglers due to the extermination of early pen. This however, actually makes Ne Zha a bit more viable. Why you may ask? Most people don’t know this but Ne Zha has inherent pen in his kit. That’s right ring bounce, ring bounce takes away 15 flat pen PER HIT. That is extremely insane especially early, which the jungle meta is all about currently.

Boots also got its cost reduced, which means Ne Zha comes online a lot quicker than usual. With him getting that core build online as soon as 15-18mins (Joutuns into Deathbringer).

His passive may not be the greatest but it helps him a lot more than people assume. Him having that early hp5 means he can always be healthy for early invades and ganks. There have been countless times where you may have gotten poked out in solo lane in the first minute or two forcing yourself to use your health potion. This isn’t the case for Ne Zha since his passive alone can heal him to full by the time mid camps spawn.

Next on the list is, does he counter anyone? Ne Zha surprisingly actually counters a lot of the top junglers at the moment. Thor being a prime example. Ne Zha can immunity frame the thor double tap with his 3 (Armillary Sash), stun him out of berserker barrage, and even kill him early due to his early pen from ring bounce. He also counters bastet, a new popular pick in the NA scene right now. Ne Zha should win any one vs one against bastet assuming they are on the same playing field. Why? Because naturally, if played right, Ne Zha can immunity frame and even stun bastet out of her scratch animation putting it on cooldown. Also, if Bastet were to summon cats, that gives Ne Zha free targets to bounce off ring toss. Lastly, he has a really really good match up against Kali for the sole reason that his ult cancels hers. Ne Zha can ult Kali into the air for the entire duration of her ultimate (destruction).

Ne Zha is a very mechanical heavy character if not one of the most in the entire game. There’s a lot of little small “techniques” most people don’t even know about. As I have stated before, he has full immunity frames from damage in the animation of his sash after he hits a target. If a player does this correctly, they can even evade death. Another technique is resetting his attack progression. What this means, most gods can have their attack progression reset as you use a skill. Why is this helpful? Ne Zha has a really awkward hit chain with a really slow finishing hit that does double damage. When you are boxing someone one vs one, that extra second trying to get the final hit on your chain may kill you. To fix this issue, you can start an engagement by auto attacking twice then activating your 2 (Flaming Spear). This will reset your chain making you constantly hit extremely quickly for around four auto attacks.

Another great aspect of Ne Zha, unlike other junglers, he is still useful even when behind. Even if Ne Zha is 0-7 he can still take someone out of the fight for 5 seconds with his ultimate. This has amazing setup that people tend to overlook. Especially when it comes to ganks, he can combo with essentially most if not all mid lane mages getting them a guaranteed kill.

Conclusion.
Ne Zha is a very mechanical heavy god which can be extremely viable, if someone takes the time to learn to exploit what he has and avoid his weaknesses. He still has the issue of being really easy to counter with beads and easily to pick off if out of position, however if someone were to land the ne zha ultimate without the armillary sash prior this wouldn’t be an issue. Also, I personally feel that when it comes to late game due to ne zha having an amazing crit and attack speed steroid, he should use the ult to get out of bad situations instead of getting in. Ne Zha is an extremely good character and in my opinion the only thing that’s holding him back is player skill or the lack of effort to master him.

Got a certain god suggestion for this series that would like to see? Post it in the comments below!