This is more so a rant against support Neeko, rather than mid Neeko where this is less of an issue. In the bot lane I am worrying about not just all the things I would in mid or top (i.e. wave and enemy champ), but also where Neeko, the support, is. And because Neeko can disguise herself as anything (ward or minion) it is impossible for me to be constantly focusing on who Neeko could be while also trying to focus on my wave and the enemy champion.
That in of itself is not the issue, plenty of people play the “just sit in the bush and hope my ability hits” playstyle, however for Neeko she has absurdly high damage that is practically undodgeable when she’s a minion in the wave. All she has to do is get close enough with a melee minion, E, and she gets guaranteed 3 Q’s dealing 340(+100%ap) when she’s 6, and then she just gets a free ult off and you’re dead.
Again my problem isn’t with her shapeshifting, it’s her damage and how easy it is to get it off. And I’d even be willing to concede that damage isn’t the issue either, but how easy it is to get the extended CC off, or the knock up on her R, or even how often she can transform. But oh my god is playing against (and even with) a Neeko support so unfun, because unless you (or the enemy adc) is hard focusing on just the Neeko it’s always always going to end up the same. It’s just far too easy to pilot and there aren’t any trade offs like like long CDs or high mana costs that other mage supports tend to have (which I have my own rant on anyway)
Neeko was legitimately one of the most underplayed champions for a long time prior to the changes to her passive. Neeko without her passive, at least as support, is just a worse version of brand or lux, poking out of bushes to fish for combos.
Now Neeko is cool in the sense that she kind of gets to fulfill the fantasy they sought for her initially where she keeps the enemy on their toes and makes them focus on a little more than just the usual gameplay elements. Not a lot more, just a little, “does this wave have an extra minion?” “Jhin and Neeko reset at the same time, I should wait to make sure Jhin is actually Jhin before I do anything too crazy.”
The problem is that so many players have been conditioned to play the same way every game and focus on the core gameplay elements so when they suddenly take 500 damage for free because they didn’t count minions or were too trigger happy in a situation where they didn’t know where Neeko was, they get upset.