Snakes in the Jungle: A Guide to Jungling as Nu Wa

Hello, Subzero here. I make guides.

Nu Wa is an interesting goddess whose kit makes her uniquely adaptable to the jungle. I play her as a close-range, stealthed, burst mage, who weaves her abilities with Polynomicon-enhanced basic attacks. Her large amounts of CC, mobility, and her zoning tools make her very skilled at contesting objectives and counter-jungling.

She is going to be played a lot like Mercury, with a focus on early farm and mid-game control, and great transition into late game, possibly even better than the god of messengers himself.

I like her kit, I like her playstyle, and hopefully, you will like her too.

Also, to use this guide, you must have a grasp on what a jungler does, and I will assume you already know the basics of jungling. This guide isn't about how to jungle; it's about how to jungle as Nu Wa.

I recommend looking at this guide if you need a refresher course on the jungle.

Note: For the record, this was my first true, in-depth jungler's guide.

TormentedTurnip has helped me immensely with his detailed reviews and advice. I strongly urge to check out his works; his specialty is Arena (pretty much the authority on Arena in this site), but the level of detail in his guides will benefit anyone. He also likes Avatar, which just increases the cool factor.

BestMinionEver is the jungle expert of this site. His guides are all awesome, and you should definitely take a gander. He has helped me with learning the jungle, and has essentially helped all my guides as well.

I tried to make a different sort of guide by dividing it into nontraditional, intuitive segments (rather than early game, late game, etc), and I was wondering if this is better or worse than a normal one. I'm thinking of changing my jungle guides to reflect this. Please leave feedback!

This is an important question: Why pick Nu Wa jungle over, say, Thanatos or Fenrir? The short answer is that Nu Wa has several unique advantages that you may wish to have, as well as some disadvantages. The long answer is this:

Strengths

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Versatility: Every one of Nu Wa's abilities carries a unique utility: her fog grants stealth, Clay Soldiers tank towers, flame strike stuns towers, etc. You won't find this kind of utility is any other jungler.

Winged wand

Mobility: With this build's early maxed fog, you will be very, very fast. Who needs a leap when you can move at Bakasura's speeds?

pillars of heaven

Team Play: Nu Wa is an enormous boon to your team in any teamfight, whether it is 2 on 2 or entire teams. As such, she transitions far better to the late game than any assassin like Fenrir.

Counterplay: Nu Wa's counters many junglers (and is adept at counterjungling). Enemy Loki Vanish? Just use your own stealth, and the Loki had just wasted his. Enemy Thanatos in the air? Just hide your entire team with fog! It's hilarious.

Weaknesses

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Low Damage: Nu Wa is very lacking in damage compared to other junglers, and until you finish Polynomicon, killing anyone will highly improbable. Nu Wa relies more on CC and coordination to carry out a gank, rather than pure damage. This also translates to slow clear speeds.

Useless Skill: Clay Soldiers is completely worthless until later levels, which is why I don't bother leveling it. This gives you only three skills to use, which is naturally quite limiting.

High Skill Floor: Nu Wa is like Artemis, in that you must be able to hit your abilities and basic attacks independent from each other. You must be able to hit with Flame Strike without any help to take full advantage of her kit.

The first order of business is: what to purchase? As a jungler, Bumba's Mask is a given. Your early clear speeds are slow, so get a Hand of the Gods. Finally, try purchasing either a few Mana Potions or Healing Potions, or alternatively, a Potion of Magical Might. The latter will drastically help your early clear speeds.

Now, where to allocate your sole skill point?

flame strike

Flame Strike: This is your main damage skill, as well as a enemy god deterrent and one of your clear skills. Keep in mind though; that just because it deals the most damage at close range doesn't mean you should feel forced into using it that way. Its passive effect will assist your greatly in clearing your first camps.

Use whatever jungling route you wish. Since your clear speeds are slow, you should start by trying to maximize your movement speed, so buy Shoes of the Magi. The penetration it gives will serve you far better than any cooldown reduction.

I shouldn't have to spell this out, but after hitting with flame strike from point-blank range, start whacking the weakest minion with basics to maximize your DPS while minimizing the damage you take.

Unfortunately, flame strike by itself is not enough to clear camps. You're going to need more power. And that power comes from an unlikely source:

Fog

Fog: Even if it is over 10 seconds, this is still Nu Wa's most damaging ability, and you should absolutely prioritize this above flame strike. Use it to clear camps, use it for mobility, and use it for ganking. This skill is cheap enough that you can afford it. Also, for the love of all the gods, keep attacking, or you will become stealthed and jungle camps will refresh their health.

But even with Fog, your clear times are dreadful. Solve this with Polynomicon.

Polynomicon: This item has everything you need: it gives more burst and more damage, it helps Nu Wa keep her health up, and it gives a good amount of magical power and mana. Without this item's passive, ganks are going to be very unlikely.

Also, even late game, you will have a tough time soloing even the Gold Fury. My advice? Don't.

Here's an outline of the ideal ganking process:

1. Enemy is unaware of your presence and are extended.
   
   
2. You sneak behind an enemy, and when in range, you activate fog. You hit them with a Polynomicon'd basic attack.
   
   
3. Enemy inevitably uses an escape.
   
   
4. You put that Water Crystal to good use and chase after them, stunning them with a flame strike and/or using your pillars of heaven.
   
   
5. You envelop them in your fog again and hit then with another Polynomicon attack.
   
   
6. If you chose not to use your flame strike or pillars of heaven in step 4, use it now. Cue dead enemy god.

This is all, of course, an idealization and you will be unlikely to ever have a gank this good. You must take steps to maximize the chances of a successful gank, by eliminating enemy sight, acting quickly, and working well with the laner (or laners). And remember, a gank that takes too long is essentially a teamfight, not in your favor.

Nu Wa does not deal a lot of damage. That's the truth. Proper teamwork is the key to a successful gank.

Pillars of Heaven

Teamwork Assisting Tool: This ability has a 60-second cooldown for a reason. It's not the flashiest or most damaging ultimate, but you can trap and nearly stun entire teams like this. It has an enormous delay, so try to use it after flame strike or another form of CC if you can. You can even use the corners to block enemies like Anhur's pillar.

Of course, teamwork would be a lot easier and efficient if you just had a little bit more CC. That is the reasoning behind your next item.

Gem of Isolation: This synergizes amazingly well with fog, and it will essentially turn pillars of heaven into a root. It is a bit pricey, but the results and stats this item gives is well worth it.

That's your core build. All of these items are extremely important and cannot be substituted.

The enemy jungler is your greatest enemy, and he will be the god you will be directly fighting the most. Fortunately, Nu Wa is really, really good at counterjungling. As a jungler, you have three ways of reducing his effectiveness:

Warding: It's very simple; if the enemy jungler is more predictable, there is less of a chance that his ganks will be successful, therefore wasting his time, and lowering his farm. Even if you are the jungler, you have a duty to ward.

Invasion: Aka stealing their camps. This requires A: The enemy jungler to not be there, and B: Speed in both clearing camps and getting the hell out of dodge. Nu Wa can easily do the latter, but the former requires patience. And wards, because how else are you going to know of the enemy jungler's absence?

Both of the upper solutions require mere warding, which is a no-brainer, and you should be warding anyway. The latter solution is a little more complicated.

Fighting (and maybe killing) the enemy jungler. Or at the very least, forcing him to recall while you don't.

Fighting in the jungle can be complicated. Not only due to the narrower corridors, but the fact that an enemy or ally can pop in without notice, as both of you are distracted with each other.

Dueling in the Jungle

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Nu Wa is a good duelist, and a very good one against melee gods. Your flame strike is a good way to ambush enemy junglers who are busy with their camps, as well as giving you the time to run if necessary.

Your fog is best used to strafe around the enemy jungler as he tries to hit you with his attacks. Tries and fails. It deals a massive amount of damage over time, which means time is on your side.

Don't feel rushed and try to spam your basic attacks, other than the single Polynomicon strike. Let the fog do it's job. Use that time to reposition yourself if necessary, and wait for Polynomicon's cooldown to end.

Your flame strike is useful now, stunning the enemy and granting you a free hit with a basic attack. If the enemy is still alive, you can use your pillars of heaven now or later. Later is preferable, due to the third triggering of Polynomicon, but not strictly necessary. Remember, in this case, your goal is to hit them with it, not trap them, as this is a duel and there is nothing to set up.

Now, you can afford to spam your basics. This carries the danger of exposing yourself, but at this point the enemy should be very weak. Lastly, if you have to, use Clay Soldiers to trigger your Snake Form, for another ten or so seconds of empowered basic attacks.

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• Build against the enemy jungler if necessary. Nu Wa is blessed with a somewhat flexible build, which can help you greatly. The enemy Mercury with Warrior Tabi and Golden Bow won't be nearly as frightening against your Breastplate of Valor.
  
  
• Use your fog. You should have it on almost all the time, and it deals great damage and protects you from attacks, and most importantly, enemy melee junglers must be hit by it in order to attack you. It is a powerful offense and defense, and never underestimate it.
  
  
• The narrow jungle routes are a huge weakness, making your movements predictable and restricting your dodges, but it also applies to the enemy, too. And you have a ranged stun, which can help you kite even more effectively, or to escape.
  
  
• Your pillars of heaven are nearly unavoidable in the jungler, and on the narrower paths, they can even be used to bodyblock enemies, as well as proc multiple hits an a particularly slow-witted target.
  
  
• Beware of leaps. They can go through walls, not to mention your ultimate, and you can't. Be especially careful around gods who can do this.
  
  
• Clay Soldiers, even two of them, can be highly effective in bodyblocking enemy skillshots in the jungle, as well as hindering escapes. Your can go through them, the enemy can not.
  
  
• Map awareness is crucial. I cannot stress this enough. I know this is a generic tip, but retaining good map awareness in the middle of a duel can make the difference between dying and wasting both the enemy jungler's and mid's time.

You might at times find yourself having trouble with a particular god. Perhaps the enemy jungler is beating you, perhaps you need a bit of speed to gank, or maybe you are simply falling behind due to a bad gank.

Try to build around your situation. If the enemy Anubis is giving you trouble, a magi's blessing might help you far better than Focused Void Stone.

Defense

Breastplate of Valor: This is an extremely good defensive item against any enemy physical gods. The cooldown reduction is just icing on top of the cake.

Focused Void Stone: This is a multipurpose item that doesn't compromise damage while still giving a decent amount of protections. If you like being well-rounded, this is the item for you.

Magi's Blessing

Magi's Blessing: This is a ridiculously efficient item against enemy gods who rely on their CC. For instance, if Ymir is being a pain, this will pretty much make his ultimate useless against you.

Stone of Gaia: A pure magical defense item. It's passive will at least serve you better than Bulwark of Hope. Not much else to say.

Ethereal Staff: Like Focused Void Stone, this is an item that doesn't compromise damage for defense. Use if you would prefer a more universal form of defense, and against Bakasura. Beware, this item is quite pricey.

Witch Stone

Witch Stone: If you need more mobility and physical defense, and if there are a few pesky basic attackers on the enemy team, this item will serve you well. This also increases your attack speed, which is especially helpful when used with your pillars of heavenTeamwork Assisting Tool.

Warlock's Sash

Warlock's Sash: This is a better version of Ethereal Staff in every way, except that it requires a lot of work. You should never get this unless you've planned it beforehand.

Offense

Chronos' Pendant: If you really want cooldown reduction without sacrificing power, get this item. Personally, I find it unnecessary, but it's up to you.

Book of Thoth: This may be expensive, and the stacks are annoying to get, but there is no better option for raw magical power. Well, except for the Rod of Tahuti, but this is better first.

Obsidian Shard: If you want maximum burst along with good penetration, or more flexibility in your playstyle, get this item. Unlike Demonic Grip, it doesn't force you to hit with a few basics first.

Bancroft's Talon: Get this if you want more lifesteal and an enormous amount of magical power.

Demonic Grip: If you want to rely more on basic attacks and deal more damage as a fight progresses, this is the item for you.

Pythagorem's Piece: If you love lifesteal, and possibly have a few mages you want to support, get this. It makes a difference.

But if you are in no need of any of those items (unlikely, sure, but possible), feel free to rush a Rod of Tahuti.

Rod of Tahuti: Power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power soda power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power power. Have you got that?

These active items must be bought carefully. You must have a good eye for which ones will be useful and which ones won't work. Be careful with your choice, as you should have only one free active slot remaining.

Purification Beads: This item is so universally useful, this item must be considered in every situation. Especially when you consider that Nu Wa cannot make herself CC-immune with her ultimate. Upgrade this quickly if you are going to buy it.

Aegis Amulet: Whether or not you would be better off with Aegis Pendant is up to you. It's useful for avoiding the things you cannot dodge. Upgrade this ASAP if you plan to buy it.

blink

Blink: After some testing, I have come to the conclusion that this item is freaking amazing on Nu Wa, especially with fog. Just get in your cloud and blink behind them, and now they will have no idea where you are. With enough foresight, it can even be used as an escape. Just amazing.

Fist of the Gods: Very useful if you need more CC, or for countering Magi's Blessing. It's a free stun, not much else to say. Best of all, you still have another active slot.

Eye of Providence: If you are on heavy warding duty, this item is your best friend. Get this to level 3 later to ward map objectives.

Remember Clay Soldiers?

Clay Soldiers: This is where they shine. Use it to absorb enemy structure shots while the regular lane minions go and deal the damage. Nu Wa makes a potent split pusher due to her ability to deal massive damage to towers while having high mobility. In some cases, they can even be used to bodyblock.

How to Splitpush?

1. Make sure that lane is empty.
   
   
2. Get some vision.
   
   
3. Starting pushing a lane as quickly as possible until you reach the tower. Then attack it.
   
   
4. Prepare an escape, and don't get greedy.
   
   
5. Prepare for enemy retaliation and leave ASAP.

Pretty simple, but keep in mind the risks of splitpushing.

Remember that utility mentioned up there? This is where you shine.

You have two main jobs in a teamfight; using your CC to lock down enemies, and dealing damage. Nu Wa's versatility allows her to fill a variety of roles, ranging from being the main damage dealer, a support with CC, an initiator, or a ganker.

flame strike

Locking Down Enemies

flame strike

The goal of locking down enemies is twofold: Reducing enemy damage while maximizing your team's damage.

Nu Wa has a lot of CC. She has a stun, two forms of slow (with Gem of Isolation), and an easy bodyblocking tool.

flame strike is best used aimed at a single, carefully chosen target, and remember that the stun time is quite short. You can progress from here by using pillars of heaven to trap the target, or fog to slow them, or even Clay Soldiers to bodyblock them, depending on your level, or some combination. Even without any cooldown items, flame strike has a fairly short cooldown and can be used at least twice in nearly every engagement.

Clay Soldiers are powerful bodyblockers. With only 2-3 soldiers, I'd use it only in the narrow jungle lanes, but with all five, it can bodyblock enemies everywhere, and even plug the gaps in your ultimate. This keeps a target still for flame strike or another powerful but slow attack, and can also be used to counter enemy abilities like Sobek's Charge Prey or Arachne's Broodlings, or even other close-range abilities like Ra's searing light.

pillars of heaven aren't useful for suppressing enemies like flame strike, but they are amazing at repositioning entire teams or setting them up. This is Nu Wa's most potent weapon. Using this will force enemies either into a small square in the center, slow them into what is effectively a root, or force enemies to scatter from the edges of it's radius. In the narrow jungle corridors, it can even be an effective blocker, much like Anhur's Shifting Sands. Unusually, this ability can even act as its own payoff. Hit them with this, then stun them with flame strike, and at the end of the stun, they should be hit again.

Proper distribution of CC is something that comes with experience, but I can give a list of general advice:

• Selection boils down to your estimation of the enemy's capabilities. From there, pick the biggest threat that you can stop, and then learn the when.
  
  
• The best targets are enemies with interruptable abilities, like Sun Wukong's 72 Transformations and Guan Yu's Taolu Assault, or gods who rely on combos, like Agni or Anubis. You shut down a lot of their damage by countering their setup.
  
  
• Judge carefully whether it is better to shut down a target or to set one up.

fog

Dealing Damage

fog

Nu Wa can deal both burst damage and sustained, although the former is more efficient. Both involve some form of risk, as Nu Wa's greatest source of damage is extremely close range.

The first is simple enough, it's pretty much the ganking combo described earlier, with the addition of Clay Soldiers. You use all of your abilities in quick succession, and Clay Soldiers is used merely to trigger Polynomicon and your Snake Form if necessary. This kind of damage is best used against squishy targets, where you can quickly and semi-permanently remove them from the game. Or at the very least, remove them from the fight.

Sustained damage is a bit more complicated. The bulk of your damage will come from your basic attacks after you activate your Metal Crystal. As such, fog and flame strike are a lower priority. flame strike should be used to either set up pillars of heaven, or grant a free Polynomicon hit. fog should be used for the additional damage and stealth, depending on whether or not you can risk getting closer. Clay Soldiers is for the very end, to extend your empowered basics for an extra 10 seconds. Proper skill and timing is needed to trigger Polynomicon as often as possible.

Using one or the other depends on your current situation. If you are in a smaller teamfight, where killing one single enemy would effectively win you the fight, then by all means, burst. If you are in a larger scale fight, where steady and even damage is more effective, then do so.

pillars of heaven

Flanking and Initiation

pillars of heaven

Initiation is as simple as locking down enemies for your team to beat them down. The tricky part is that you have to do it first. The problem with that, is that your CC abilities have delays and are somewhat telegraphed. That's why flanking is important.

Nu Wa's mobility from her Water Crystal, as well as the benefits of her stealth, make her a pretty good flanker. Flanking, when done properly, is essentially initiation with the bonus of distracting and blindsiding the enemy team, making it all the more effective. Flanking is easy, you do it all the time when ganking. You get near an enemy team in their blind spot, and then simply initiate. Essentially, you are "ganking" a group.

The biggest foils to flanking are being spotted and not being fast enough. fog helps with both.

Unless you are flanking a group of 2-3, don't bother attempting to initiate with flame strike. Your pillars of heaven, if used to surround the entire group, will not only be one hell of a distraction, but it will force enemies to use their escape skills if they want to avoid being slaughtered by your team's area attacks.

You have two options from here: You can fight from behind the enemy, or you can make a safer choice and fall back to avoid being butchered by the angry group. If you have blink, this is where you use it to sweep your fog safely across the enemy team (like an exact opposite of Tyr's blink initiation, funnily enough) and get back in position. Either way, the speed bonus should help.

A Final Note

Don't forget the crucial part: none of these are ironclad rules. Nu Wa is not a robot with "modes." If you need to use flame strike to set up a Mercury, then do it, even if you are in the middle of dealing sustained damage. Learning to keep a cool head, and switching between her various roles to maximize her utility is the key to playing Nu Wa.

path of flame

This guy is an enormous pain in the ***. He has enormous area attacks that are impossible to dodge, even with fog, an equally large stun, and a dash that can negate your stun, as well as make your ultimate useless. Direct Confrontation Just don't. You should avoid fighting him directly at all times. If you have to, use fog to try to avoid his wide-as-Jupiter Flame Wave while trying to out-DPS him. If he uses his ultimate and Flame Wave, he'll be helpless for a few seconds. But then he'll just dash away. Ganking The biggest problem is that Agni can simply dash out of everything. Sneaking up on him is vital. Chain stuns, massive burst damage, and/or cripples are the only ways to take him down. And you lack all of them. There's not much you can do, I'm afraid. Tips and Tricks Fist of the Gods can help you lock him down, and Polynomicon will help with the burst damage. Watch out for his path of flame, because he can simply place a Noxious Fumes over it to instantly detonate. His ultimate is also a pain, but you'll just have to take it. He also has the fastest dash in the game, so try to use your fog to sneak past his wards as a precaution. Try to stun him as soon as possible. Most Agni's try to lay their Noxious Fumes as quickly as they can, so use that time to either run or get out of the fumes. At later levels, your Clay Soldiers can simply bodyblock his dash, which makes him much less of a threat.

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Thanatos isn't too much of a threat. I'd classify this matchup as a skill game. His biggest threat is the enormous silence on his Soul Reap, which will prevent you from using your fog to avoid his Death Scythe. The battle boils down to if you can use fog before he uses his Soul Reap. Direct Confrontation You can duel him, but it won't be easy. If you ambush him, he probably would have already used his Soul Reap, and you'll have an easy time. Just stun and kill. If you two just happen to meet, like in the mid camps, use your fog ASAP. His Death Scythe may be the blow that kills you, but his silence is his biggest threat. Aside from those two, the rest of his damage is from basic attacks, so you'll have the upper hand. You also have way, way more mobility than him, so once he blows all of his abilities you can just run circles around him and choke him to death. Ganking I have literally never seen Thanatos in lane. Ever. So I can't help you here. Tips and Tricks Use your fog to evade his Death Scythe and Hovering Death, although the last one is unreliable. Wiggling motions can really confuse enemy Thanatos's. His Scent of Death is a potent chasing tool if you are at low health, but Clay Soldiers and Gem of Isolation can help you get away regardless. Try to never be at low health, or Thanatos will come out of nowhere and slice you to pieces. You can use his lack of mobility to easily invade his camps or to ambush him. Most Thanatos's reserve their Scent of Death for chasing or that extra bit of power, so he can't keep up with you.

This guide was really fun to make. I had a blast playing as Nu Wa, and hopefully, you'll have fun too. Thanks for reading.

-Sub

12/13/13: Added Update Log, expanded and tweaked items, and explained splitpushing in more detail. Notably, the inclusion of Demonic Grip. Also expanded teamfights section.

12/20/13: Expanded playstyle, and added a counter-jungling section. Started Enemy Matchups section (Agni and Thanatos).

12/31/13: Expanded Counterjungling to add a dueling section. Also, I saw another jungle Nu Wa! I mean, she lost horribly, but still!

1/4/13: HEAVILY expanded and visually reworked the teamfight section.