Neeko skyrockets to top of League of Legends meta after mega buffs
Riot GamesNeeko is a bit more than a strong tomato after her recent League of Legends buffs, skyrocketing to the top of the tier lists as one of the game’s best mid laners. Her win rate has increased by almost 5% after patch 12.4, and her popularity is only rising.
Neeko hasn’t seen much play in League of Legends since her release.
The Curious Chameleon deceived everyone for a few weeks with her clones, but once the novelty wore off, all that remained was an inferior burst mage. She was only sparingly picked in pro play, most commonly as a mid laner but sometimes in top or support.
Running into the last update, Neeko had a 49.17% win rate at all ranks (which dipped to below 47% at points during the patch) and was one of the lowest picked mid laners at 1.31%. She was unpopular, and lacked power.
Riot GamesThe narrative has completely flipped now.
Neeko’s win rate is now up to 52.37%, and her playrate is slowly increasing too. According to LoLalytics, her win rate is the third-best in mid lane behind Veigar and Anivia. It only gets better at higher elo too, with her winrate breaking 55% in Diamond games.
It’s all thanks to her mega League patch 12.4 buffs, which avoided most of the fanfare amid the release of Renata Glasc and much needed nerfs to Zeri and the enchanter Smite top strategy.
In the February 16 update, Neeko got a damage buff on her Q, as well as a cooldown decrease on her Shapesplitter W clone. However, the biggest change was reducing her hitbox size from one of the game’s largest at 80 units down to a typical mage size of 65 units.
It seems small, but given Neeko takes a lot of damage when engaging, being able to dodge a key CC ability with the smaller size stacks up. That buff pushed Neeko straight back into the League of Legends meta.
We adjusted Neeko's hitbox to not be tied for largest in the game, should be similar to most other mages!
— Phlox (@RiotPhlox) February 8, 2022
However, it wasn’t just the patch 12.4 buffs that pushed Neeko up the ranks. She also was one of the champions who benefited most from the Glacial Augment rework in Season 12, making it a very viable option and giving her more diversity (although Electrocute is still the best keystone).
While the trickle-down effect to pro play won’t happen for another week, Neeko mains and budding Curious Chameleon enthusiasts are rejoicing the resurgence of their strong tomato.