Neeko's Talent Search

Let me be very clear: If you're bored of the same old meta comps and you're looking for something fun to chase, this is for you. This is not a team comp you can force nor will it grant you a mountain of LP. It has a lot of requirements, so it might take a few tries to get it to work in the first place.

Now that we this out of the way, let's take a look at the core concept of one of the most unique comps in Set 10: Neeko's Talent Search.

This comp makes use of a Headliner effect that most players are probably completely unaware of, because it requires a contested unit that is also unpopular as a Headliner choice: Neeko.

Neeko's Headliner Bonus: She gains +200 HP and grants +20 Mana to the unit she copies.

Neeko's ability makes her cosplay the highest health unit of your board. This is often a frontliner, so running Neeko as a Headliner will often grant mana towards a unit that might not even need it. In a normal game this Headliner effect is quite forgetable, but there is one Augment in the game that opens up the door for a new strategy.

A new prismatic Augment that was added in Set 10 is called Talent Search. It activates the Headliner effect for every single unit on your board, while also granting 100 HP and 10% Attack Speed to your actual Headliner.

This Augment can be quite powerful to activate the Headliner effect for all of your Legendary units, but we will use it for something else. We will fill up our board with as many Neekos as possible. Thanks to Talent Search, every single Neeko will now funnel 20 mana into the highest HP unit on our board.

There are a ton of different units you can use for this strategy. You can make Jhin fill up your bench with Rifles or have Sona cast her ability as fast as possible. Whichever unit you want to use for this strategy is up to you.

Something that is a bit tricky to get used to is the part about Neeko funneling the mana towards the highest HP unit. If you end up running Neeko multiple times, but one of them has a Warmog's Armor, then your tankiest Neeko will end up receiving most of the mana, making the setup pointless. This can also happen if you add KDA to your team. The bonus HP, especially on KDA unit might shift the highest HP unit towards your frontline.

Another aspect you have to be careful about is mana lock. A lot of units are very unforgiving with their mana lock, so if they are stuck in an animation the bonus mana they would receive while a Neeko is casting would get lost. Make sure you go for a Carry that isn't affected by this.

There are some Augment combination that can make this tech much more powerful, but it does require a lot of setup. For example the Augment What The Forge will transform all of your items into Ornn Artifacts. This can be potentially amazing, because it gives you access to the Artifact Trickster's Glass.

With the help of Trickster's Glass you can create more Copies of Neeko and therefore maximize this effect even further. Pandora's Items is also a very useful Augment to potentially roll Artifacts from any source into Trickster's Glass to achieve the same result.

One of the problems you will likely face is a lack of Neekos in your shop. This unit remains extremely contested because she is a core part of Superfans, who are dominating the meta, especially in the early mid game.

You also require a very powerful carry that is capable of winning a fight with the help of the mana funnel, while also being your highest HP unit. This means your best bet is often a 2 Star Legendary, so you will have to reach Level 9 at some point in the game.

While you can buy Neeko as your Headliner, keep in mind that her Superfan item is a Warmog's Armor, which would ruin the strategy. This means you can't run Superfans with Neeko as your Headliner.