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Protector of Heaven and Earth - Nu Wa - Conquest Mid Lane

5 0 116,794
by LinkNightblade updated March 28, 2017

Smite God: Nu Wa

Build Guide Discussion 4 More Guides
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Nu Wa Build

Finished Build

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Spear of Desolation Spear of Desolation

Starter

Build Item Soul Stone Soul Stone
Build Item Shoes Shoes
Build Item Chalice of Mana Chalice of Mana
Build Item Multi Potion Multi Potion
2

Optional Items

Build Item Doom Orb Doom Orb
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff

Anti-Healing Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Healthy Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Spear of Desolation Spear of Desolation

Nu Wa's Skill Order

Mysterious Fog

1 X Y
Mysterious Fog
2 11 12 14 15

Clay Soldiers

2 A B
Clay Soldiers
3 6 16 18 19

Shining Metal

3 B A
Shining Metal
1 4 7 8 10

Fire Shards

4 Y X
Fire Shards
5 9 13 17 20
Mysterious Fog
2 11 12 14 15

Mysterious Fog

1 X
Nu Wa condenses moisture into fog at her location which then rolls forward away from her. She and all allies are Stealthed while inside the fog, and have increased movement speed. Attacking breaks the Stealth effect for 1s.

Enemies that run into the fog take damage, and continue to take additional damage again every second they are in the fog.

Ability Type: Ground Target
Damage: 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Damage Per Tick: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+10% of your Magical Power)
Lifetime: 6s
Movement Speed: 10%
Radius: 20
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 13s
Clay Soldiers
3 6 16 18 19

Clay Soldiers

2 A
Nu Wa conjures Clay Soldiers from the Earth. If she marked a target while summoning them, they will pursue target until it dies. If she summoned them with no target, they will attack enemy gods who damage Nu Wa, or closest enemies.

Soldiers live for 10s. First they will dash at enemies within 30 units, applying a stack of protection reductions. Stacks up to 3 times, stacks last 2s. They will basic attack after that.

Ability Type: Summon Pet
Number Conjured: 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 3 Soldiers
Soldier's Health: 200 (+20% of your Maximum Health)
Base Movement Speed: 365 / 380 / 395 / 410 / 425
Dash Magical Protection Reduction Per Stack: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20
Basic Attack Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 Per Hit
Range: 40
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
Cooldown: 16s
Shining Metal
1 4 7 8 10

Shining Metal

3 B
Nu Wa launches a mass of shining metal, damaging all enemies it hits. If it hits one of her Clay Soldiers, it explodes, dealing additional damage and Stunning enemies.

Ability Type: Line
Damage: 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 / 250 (+75% of your Magical Power)
Minion Explode: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+25% of your Magical Power)
Minion Stun: 1 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4s
Range: 65
Cost: 50
Cooldown: 8s
Fire Shards
5 9 13 17 20

Fire Shards

4 Y
Nu Wa flies up into the clouds, gaining visibility on all enemy gods, and summoning fire shards from the sky to damage each of them. As she lifts off the ground, she can pass through player-made deployables.

Ability Type: Global
Damage: 100 / 175 / 250 / 325 / 400 (+30% of your Magical Power)
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 110s

Introduction

Welcome to my guide for the Guardian of Heaven and Earth, Nu Wa. This guide will touch on what to expect in the Mid Lane and how to play there. I'll also give some of my tips and tricks I've found when playing as Nu Wa and how best to take advantage of what her skills can do for you and your team. And I'll go over her Pro's and Con's as well to help give a clearer picture on where Nu Wa stands currently.

I'll also explain the builds I have listed as all 3 are very acceptable and viable builds that have some leeway in what can be built for them.

Mid Lane Basics

While in the Mid lane, there are several things to keep in mind. This is often referred to as one of the hardest roles cause there are a multitude of things to keep in mind (and these usually apply to all mid laners, not just Nu Wa). Among these things are map awareness, VGS use, team awareness, setup and positioning. I'll touch on the most important mid lane basics.

Early clear is the most important thing for mages currently. As such most mages will now pick up Soul Stone over Sands of Time in favor of the extra damage Soul Stone provides. This item was recently buffed to restore 40 Mana to the user in addition to the extra damage. This has brought this item up to par with the other items. Don't get me wrong, Sands of Time is still a viable option for starting the game with however its passive is really only useful once you are down to half mana or less. That being said 10% CDR on a starter item can be and usually is extremely potent, especially on gods like Chang'e and He Bo.

VGS Use is probably one of the most important mechanics in the Mid lane currently. This feature allows for quick and concise communication to the rest of your team for who has crossed mid and where your enemy lane partner is. Use this even if you have wards up cause most people tune out the 'Ping' that occurs when an enemy gets identified by a ward or vision granting ability/item. That being said, in Mid Lane, unless you have the Gods Voice Pack, be prepared to spam the vgs system as the default voice is mundane and easily tuned out.

Map Awareness in conjunction with VGS use is going to be your saving grace, not only for you but for the rest of your team. You are in the center of the map and often have the most awareness as to where the whole enemy team is AS WELL AS your own team. The Mid Laner can often provide good advice on what to do and where to go. Always take into account what they are saying.

Positioning is a Key Factor for most mages. Most specifically Nox, Chang'e, Ra and Scylla rely on key positioning to get their damage off and to get kills. This isn't as true for Nu Wa as it is those 4, however when caught out of position with no back-up you will be most likely killed. If you need to take the time to re-position yourself, DO IT. Nu Wa has a good tool for positioning, not only for you but also for the rest of your team. That tool is Mysterious Fog. If you are out of position, you are extremely liable to be picked off by the enemy jungler or adc. You are usually the main source of burst damage on a team along with your jungler.

Pros / Cons

Nu Wa has several pro's and some con's to consider when picking her as your goddess. Depending on how you build her she can dish out the damage while keeping the distance you need as a mage to be effective against all sorts of enemies. Her utility is as stands: She has a Vanish/Positioning Tool and Zoning Tool with Mysterious Fog that increases movement speed of all allies inside its radius, a decently large AoE stun with her Clay Soldier and Shining Metal Combo that also acts as her main form of clear, however that puts her at a disadvantage when these skills are down. Clay Soldiers also has lots of other potential including to body block enemy abilities and basic attacks from hitting you, disrupting the balance of the minion wave, and to some effect, can act as a bit of a zoning tool if timed properly.

The reason most people pick Nu Wa is cause of her ult Fire Shards. This is a global ult and a very good one at that. Not only does it do damage to all enemy gods on the map at the time, but also reveals them for a few seconds. You can use this ult in many ways that benefit you. You can cause damage, and often kill fleeing low health enemy players, reveal enemy players if you need vision and need it now, or even to get yourself out of the battlefield for a few seconds as you leap high into the air while using it. This can get you out of a lot of high damage abilities like I'm a Monster and Release The Kraken! However that being said, while it is considered a leap (with the ability to chose which way you fall down), it cannot clear terrain walls and often cannot clear player deployable walls either. As well as, once you start your descent, your position is easily telegraphed making you a prime target for high damage abilities as you land.

Nu Wa is also, probably anyways, one of the most passive aggressive goddesses for Mid lane there is. Positioning is a key factor for her, albeit less so then other mages, but still important. She needs to be in the right place at the right time to make use of her Clay Soldiers properly as their AI is not usually what you would expect.

Our resident protector of heaven can also be used with some success in the ADC role with an attack speed build. This is due to her passive Strength of Wood. Used properly this passive can be used in Mid or ADC to gain an early kill and/or make it easier to land your Soldier/Metal combo with a nice coating of Fog.

Skills

Passive: Strength of Wood


After 5 successful basic attacks, Nu Wa's next basic attack will root enemies. The buff will be spent even if the basic attack misses.

Skill 1: Mysterious Fog


Nu Wa condenses moisture into fog at her location which then rolls forward away from her. She and all allies are stealthed while inside the fog, and have increased movement speed. Attacking breaks the stealth effect. Enemies that run into the fog take damage, and continue to take additional damage again every second they are in the fog. This ability has the potential to do 100% of your power in damage if an enemy is inside of the radius for the entire duration. Any ally inside the fog will be revealed by Revealing Ritual, any structures, an enemy Fire Shards or if they take damage.

Skill 2: Clay Soldiers


Nu Wa conjures Clay Soldiers from the earth. These soldiers have Health equal to 200 plus 20% of Nu Wa's maximum health, and deal damage with Basic Attacks. Clay Soldiers will attack the closest enemy when summoned and if you or an ally are hit by an enemy god they will switch to that god. Gods hit by their initial charge will take damage and have their Magical Protections reduced. For this ability alone, building Warlocks Sash is a viable option to make your soldiers tankier as well as yourself.

Skill 3: Shining Metal


Nu Wa launches a mass of shining metal, damaging all enemies it hits. If it hits one of her Clay Soldiers, it explodes, dealing additional damage and stunning enemies. The stuns from multiple soldiers DO NOT stack. Enemies struck by both this ability and an exploding soldier will take 90% of your power in damage. An exploding minion has 25% scaling.

Ultimate Skill: Fire Shards


Nu Wa becomes CC immune and flies up into the clouds, gaining visibility on all enemy gods, then summons fire shards from the sky to damage each of them. Any enemy god that dies while Nu Wa is channeling her ultimate will always give her an assist, even if the damage portion of the ability doesn't hit them. While this ability only has 30% scaling, on a non protected god at max rank, this will often deal around 500 to 700 damage depending on the targets (this is with a full, or nearly full, build).

Using Nu Wa's skills to your Advantage


Nu Wa is a passive aggressive mage. She excels at getting into a fight, finishing enemies off, revealing enemies for her team and re positioning her team mates. Knowing how to use her abilities to help your team as well as deal the damage you need separates the average Nu Wa players from the good ones.

With her passive built and ready to go, her standard combo is getting her soldiers close to, and preferably attacking, an enemy god so they lose some magical protections. At this point you explode your minions with Shining Metal, release your Fog over them followed by a basic attack to root them in the fog so you can get more damage off on them. Since Shining Metal is on a low cool down, you can use this ability to clear wave and a few seconds later poke at the enemy gods nearby. Shining Metal also has the ability to be fired through Terrain walls and player deployable walls, allowing you to reach fleeing gods despite any obstacle in your way.

Try not to use her ult on cool down as that is often wasting it. You'll want to wait for when someone flees with low health and no one can catch up or use it to reveal enemies when you and your team are in need of knowing where they are. This is useful to see if they are going after the Gold Fury or Fire Giant or to see if they are creeping up on your team while you take those objectives yourself.

Leveling your Skills


Nu Wa is one of the few gods I will not point skip on at level 8. You'll see that at level 6 I've opted to level up Clay Soldiers again instead of Shining Metal. This is cause rank 2 of the Soldiers provides 2 minions instead of 1. Getting rank 2 of this ability early allows you to upset the balance of the minion wave early on when its hard for your enemy lane partner to clear minions easily. After level 6, focus your skills like this.


Note: An alternative skill to use to clear your lane is your Fog. It can nearly take out a wave completely. You can also use it as an accessory to clear your wave if you stick with Shining Metal for your main clear.

Items

While Nu Wa doesn't have the best scaling for a mage, it still is decent and her abilities, when used properly, have an extreme amount of utility and are very useful throughout the game. When I play with Nu Wa I like to focus on getting a decent amount of Cool Down and power (or utility depending on team comps).

A good starting option for her is Soul Stone. The passive on this allows her to clear earlier then she normally would. Another option for when you want to play a bit more passively (and safely) is Vampiric Shroud or Sands of Time. Both options are decent for her. With your starter item, take Shoes, a Mana Chalice and your choice of either two Multi Potions, 2 Health Potions or 2 more Mana Potions. I personally like taking 2 Multi potions.

You'll want to start with Shoes of the Magi vs taking Shoes of Focus. The early pen that the Magi Shoes provide will give you a good early spike in damage, for both clearing wave and for poking the enemy.

Next you'll want a stacking item. Generally speaking Book of Thoth is the perfect item. It gives Nu Wa a large mana pool and a very large power spike early on giving her substantial damage. Another option here is to take Warlocks Sash and is considered the more defensive item. This option will make you tankier as well as your Clay Soldiers will benefit from this item as well giving you a substantial amount of lane pressure.

At this point you now want your next two items to be Obsidian Shard and Chronos' Pendant in whichever order you prefer. I personally usually opt for the pendant first.

Your last item is going to be your situational item and depending on the situation, you may want to build this item earlier (IE Divine Ruin for going against a high healing team comp). If you feel you don't need a specific item to counteract someone or something, feel free to pick up Spear of Desolation and then replace your Shoes of the Magi with Shoes of Focus. If you chose to go for an item other then Spear of Desolation or another item without extra cool down, keep your Shoes of the Magi and feel free to go for an item such as Soul Reaver, Ethereal Staff, Gem of Isolation, Bancroft's Talon or Pythagorem's Piece. Each of these items provide some utility for your team or extra effects for your abilities or a decent amount of sustain.

For Relics, generally Purification Beads and Aegis Amulet are the ones you'll want. Other options include Bracer of Undoing or Heavenly Wings. The Bracer can be used as both a panic button to regain a substantial amount of health if you just got bursted or it can be used to regain your abilities sooner rather then later, especially if time is of the essence and you can't wait 3 more seconds.

Laning Phase

While in lane, you'll want to focus strictly on farming for the first 5 to 10 minutes or so of the game. Nu Wa is quite weak early game and only comes online once she has at least 2, or maybe more, items online depending on which items she starts with.

Your main form of clear will be Shining Metal with help from Mysterious Fog. Try and get a Soul Stone proc for the extra damage as its now a persistent effect rather then a one time proc for a single ability. Ideally after the enemy uses their clear, this is when you'll want to spawn your Clay Soldiers. This severely upsets the lane balance to your favor.

If you use your passive well here, you can potentially get lots of early poke on your enemy lane partner and force them to back early setting them back severely.

Late Game/Team Fighting

During the late game, you'll be using your ult a lot to locate the enemy team, deal decent damage and to start acting as a battering ram. As you approach team fights, you'll be using Mysterious Fog to position yourself and your team mates correctly, more often then not giving your team an element of surprise. While in the Fog, all allied units have increased movement making this an ideal tool to get away from fights as well. Usually you'll engage and then disengage with it. Mysterious Fog also does a decent amount of damage late game and as such acts as a great zoning tool to force the enemies to walk a certain way in most cases.

When spawning your soldiers it is important to do this after the fight has started as they will go for the closest enemy, which is unfortunately and usually, a jungle camp. If you spawn them after the fight has started, they will instead go for the enemy players allowing you to start to control the enemies movements as the threat of a large AoE stun will make them scatter. If you manage to stun someone, it allows your team to exploit the opportunity you made and pummel the vulnerable enemy.

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1
Enigmatisty | July 16, 2017 9:47pm
This upcoming buff is going to make her quire reliable and fearsome from afar, I'd say.

Also, that finished build isn't a build that you should always build as Nu Wa. You'll want Warlock's Sash always for that extra bulk on your minions and Chronos is so and so because of how pricey it is.

Additionally, Polynomicon as a third or fourth item is quite good on Nu. Your combo allows for a free Poly proc, while the damage dealt with a fully stacked Warlock's + soldier shred is quite disgusting. It's because of that that I often rush Tahuti fourth as I can put off building Shard until fifth; or not at all if I want items like Ethereal Staff or Spear of Desolation.
1
CirclesAreRound (14) | March 22, 2017 9:37am
Wow! Someone made a Nu Wa guide for season 4, never thought I'd see the day.
1
overld1 (18) | March 22, 2017 3:00pm
I know right we barely see Nu Wa guides nowadays.
1
LinkNightblade (1) | March 22, 2017 4:32pm
I was asked to make one and show how to use her in mid. So I did. The fact that there were barely any other guides/builds was just a side effect. :P Even if she isn't Meta per say, she is still very potent when used properly.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author LinkNightblade
Protector of Heaven and Earth - Nu Wa - Conquest Mid Lane
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