Ne Zha Joust, in depth guide

Hey guys! I've played smite for about a year and have every current god at least mastery 1. After using every god none of them could match the enjoyment and devastation I had with Ne Zha. She is without a doubt my favorite and my best god and after using this site to get myself started with almost every god I decided to give back by making my own. I might get wordy at points, so if you are already confident in how to play Ne Zha and just need a solid build look at my items section for situational picks. Hopefully you find this guide helpful. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Ne Zha is by far my favorite god. I've spent hours upon hours playing her in versus and ranked and her ability to jump in and kill is unmatched. As the title says, this guide is mainly for Joust since thats where I use Ne Zha the most, but it does apply for all game modes and can easily be adapted to any situation. Below I will go into more depth on the situations and different ways to utilize Ne Zha so you can completely annihilate your enemies!

Your first ability is Ring toss and it is your main ability. It is an EXCELLENT clear and can quickly rack up damage on enemies. It is a line that bounces between enemies up to 8 times at max level applying protections debuff and slow. Use this to poke and repeatedly pepper the other team with small damage before using other abilities to finish them off. This ability will add stacks to your passive on each hit helping you critical strike chance. TIP: When trying to use this ability quickly, aiming at minions and letting the bounce hit enemies will help you be more accurate.

Your second ability, Flaming Spear, is a buff. This buff gives you attack speed, heals, and most importantly a critical strike chance. The attack speed is almost useless because it isn't enough, but the critical strike chance can combo to make your third ability deadly. Also the heal can help keep you in fights and has saved me countless times.

Your third ability is Artillery Sash and this is your main ability to initiate attacks and kill. Upon hitting it stuns the opponent and then you jump to them dealing damage when you land and has the ability to crit. This is the ability you want to use to initiate all of your attacks and combos well with flaming spear. It has a lot of utility as it can be used to kill, save teammates, or force retreats.

Finally your ult is the bread and butter of Ne Zha's offensive capability. You throw your opponent into the air before getting three crits and sending them back down. This is a line that can be hard to hit on its own so almost always use it with artillery sash. As soon as you land after hitting artillery sash ult to finish them off. Be careful where you use this because you will fall straight back down and be an easy target. If this ability does not kill you can use ring toss to finish them off or artillery sash to chase (if it is not on cool down).

Regardless of the other team I always start with bluestone and then the core in the order above. Once you get to your 4th item, everything depends on team comp.
This is my go to item. I always get this item if I am facing a team with a low health pool and my team is aggressive. The physical power you get from the passive allows you to go in and single out the major player on the other team. I know it seems weird getting a stacking item this late, but trust me it is worth it. By this time in the game your ring toss should be able to clear and your other items will allow you to be strong early game.
This item is amazing for matches where you need to stay in the fight a little big longer. Perfect for enemy teams with higher health bars, the health and cooldown reduction give you more sustain. Also the passive gives you a major speed boost when using flaming spear, allowing it to be used as an escape.
The situation for this item is very similar to that of transcendence. However, some games when you are down getting a cheaper crit item quick can allow you to get back into the fight and level the playing field.

NOTE: Unlike the other items on this list, if you don't get transcendence 4th do not try to build it later

After your 4th item, it becomes more personal preference. I recommend always getting at least one crit item. Although some people prefer fatalis to stay on their opponent, I usually go with double crit items to end the fight quicker.

This is where I'll explain how to use Ne Zha and kill everyone in your path.

Without an escape, playing Ne Zha is all about patience and playing smart. Always remember to use your potions effectively and know where your teammates are and how they can help you escape if you decide to initiate. Regardless of how you play, Ne Zha is all about getting damage with ring toss then using your buff to critical strike on your Artillery Sash. Ne Zha is heavily ability based. There are two main ways to attack with Ne Zha:

Strategy One: Go hard or Go to Fountain
This strategy is a little more risky since if you fail, your pretty much dead. But basically you wanna find the enemy with the lowest health and abuse them. This is typically a god like Ah Puch, Loki, AMC, Scylla, or Artemis. They are the biggest damage dealer on the other team and don't have much of an escape. Going in and getting a lucky crit will almost always kill them allowing your team to push. This high risk high reward strategy works best on squishy enemy teams with an aggressive tank on your team like Bacchus, Xiang Tian, Ares, and Ymir . It is most effective mid game from about when you buy heartseeker to half way through transcendence stacks.

Strategy two: Patience is key
This second strategy is probably where you wanna start with Ne Zha and definitely better early game. The nuts and bolts of this strategy is sitting back and using ring toss to poke. Let your teammates do and take most of the damage. Once someone on the enemy team is feeling confident enough to push you leap on them and punish them. Another big part of this strategy is hitting with Artillery Sash to force retreats. A lot of times early game enemies will recall to get items and regen while one stays behind to clear the wave. When they step up to clear you can jump on them but then back off avoiding damage and forcing them to retreat as well. If done effectively this can lead to early damage on the tower as well as a level gap since you are preventing their clear. This level gap is huge for any assassin.

Both strategies work very well and can be used back and forth within the same game depending on situation, items, and team comp. Any time an enemy god steps up to either clear a wave or challenge you, Ne Zha can easily single them out with massive critical strikes. Don't forget that with Ne Zha, you are the bully, and you should punish any foolish attempts to challenge you.

In summary Ne Zha is an amazing and fun god to use. Nothing feels better than an enemy god coming up to challenge just to get turned on with a 900 damage crit, or sniping someone with Artillery Sash and then using your ult to kill them from full health. Without an escape she can be very difficult to play and requires a lot of patience and knowledge of your team and the enemy team. I really hope this guide helps you guys and thanks for reading.