Ne Zha - Time to snowball the jungle

Ne Zha is a 'he', by lore, background and developer intention.
However, please forgive me and everyone else for occasionally referring to Ne Zha as female, it happens at times...

"But there is no jungle!" - Common SMITE player

In fact, SMITE does have a jungle, through the 'full-time jungler' role of other MOBAs is extremely difficult, given the low exp/gold gain of camps, the large distances, the number of camps and the lack of proper HoG scaling.
HOWEVER, Ne Zha's passive makes her an incredibly powerful camp cleared, to the degree where full-time jungling with her actually will get your MORE exp and gold then the other players.
To show up some values:
If noone else touches the jungle and you dont get any kills or assist, you will be ~25% ahead in gold, compared to your midlaner and maybe 1-2 levels.
If you get some kills and assists along the lanes, you will often end up with TWICE as much gold as your side laners and often reach level 20 before 20:00
Even if teammates steal buffs or you die in an early gank or an enemy is getting fed, you will be able to keep up (in level) whilst still having a slight gold advantage.

This shall be a short chapter directed at what jungling actually is, in first place, for those who aren't familiar with the concept:
Generally, you will play 2-1-2 in Smite. This means, two players on left, one good pusher on mid and another two on right. In other MOBAs, however, you often see 1-1-2 1, which means left lane will be a solo player, whilst the 5th player is jungling.

Jungling means he will stay off the lanes, rush from jungle camp to jungle camp, clearing them in record times to gain the same (or more!) exp and gold as his laning teammates.
Jungling gives two large advantages: Firstly, you have a 5th player constantly in the jungle, invisible to the enemy team. This means the enemys must expect ganks at every given time, without any warning or 'MIA call' whatsoever. This is even more of an issue as the jungler will be stacked full of jungle buffs, making him a very powerful player, exspecially early on.
Secondly, one player jungling means there are TWO solo lanes. As everybody knows, solo laning gives more gold and exp then laning with two people. Effectively, this means both the left and the mid laner will be ahead of the enemy team in exp and gold.

There are a few noticeable issues with this strategy:
Announce, as early as possible, that you will be jungling.
This means you say it right in the pre-game lobby.
If you feel like your teammates have no clue what this means to them, explain that the left laner will have to play 1on2. Ask him to pick a character who can handle such situations (Hades and Ao are good examples).
Your teammates will try to explain that there is no jungler role in SMITE.
Jungling in SMITE is something you usually don't. This means telling your team you'll do it will get you called troll, n00b and probably some other names. You need to be ready to deal with that.
General META suggests that teams usually get 2-3 buffs early on from their side of the jungle.
This means that, depending on the early-jungling capability of the teams, you will find some buffs empty on your first two jungle trips. This is bad, as it severly reduces the amount of exp and gold you can gain quickly. Ask your teammates on right lane NOT to take the speedbuff, but go for a gold camp instead (gold camp will have respawned by the time you arrive at right lane).
In the first few minutes, you are EXTREMELY prone to ganks. And even later on, a well-placed ward can ruin your day.
One major point of this strategy bases upon deception: If the enemy knows you're jungling, he can easyly gank you. Keep your head low in the first few minutes and try not to be seen or heard at any costs. Later on, check enemy builds to ensure nobody is using wards. If so, buy wards yourselves and clear your dear jungle off those pesky eyes.
This strategy conflicts with the two first golden rules.
The Golden Rules of Gaming dictate:
Rule #1: Don't rely on a stranger in your team, assume him to fail.
Rule #2: Assume the enemy is smart and not going to make any mistakes.
Jungling contradicts those two rules, because you assume your left laner to defend his lane 1on2 (which isn't a given) and you as well rely on your enemies not realizing you're in a vulnerable position right behind their lines.
There's not much that can be done about it at this point.

1. PASSIVE - Righteous Spirit

   
   Blah blah, AoE upon death, blah blah. Doesn't matter, you don't intend to die.
   The more interesting 'passive' of Ne Zha is her attack chain combo. If you keep attacking, her first two strikes are normal. The 3rd one will be 50% slower, but deal 50% more damage. The 4th attack is 100% slower, but deals double damage AND hits as a small AoE. Don't think much about this passive, just whack away at your enemies.
   
   
   

2. 1 - Universe Ring Toss

   
   Basicly, this is a quite long-ranged chainlightning. You toss it at something and it will bounce around alot. This ability will be priorized second and is more of a utility tool:
   -It slows enemy it hits for a brief moment.
   -It reduces the hit enemy's armor for a few seconds.
   -It gives you a speedbuff, based upon the number of hits.
   Lob this at somebody you're chasing. Lob this at a minion wave to get a short burst of speed. Lob this at a group of two players to annoy them with a lot of pinball noises and some decent harass damage.
   This is neither a nuke, nor a critical skill, but it can help out in many situations.
   
   
   

3. 2 - Flaming Spear

   
   THIS is your butter & bread.
   Activating this self-buff gives you 15% more critical hits and a powerful attackspeed buff. Whenever you engage an enemy that isn't terribly underleveld, activate the buff to vastly increase your damage potential.
   As well use it early and mid game for clearing jungle camps faster.
   Actually, use it whenever it's avaiable and you can melt someone's face, because that's what this skill is meant to do.
   
   
   

4. 3 - Armillary Sash

   
   This is a mobility skill and it is no mobility skill.
   This skill throws Ne Zha's Sash as a projectile, pulling you to whatever enemy GOD (does only work on gods, bypasses minions) it hits. Since you can't use it to get OFF an enemy, it's an initiation-only ability and cannot be used for escaping.
   The pull has a small stun attached to it, accordingly you can use it to stop channeled abilities like Arachne's Life Drain (assuming she's not sitting on your head) or Thor's Beserker Barrage.
   Use this as gap-closer on fleeing enemies or to stun potential threats.
   Mastering this skill is important for Ne Zha, as it makes up a core of her ganking potential (you can use it to follow someone who just used a leap/dash to escape).
   
   
   

5. ULT - Wind Fire Wheels

   
   This is a dash-styled moved, as well as an initiation, a finisher and an escpae. Actually this versatility is a downside, because it will be on CD very often, simply because you can use it everywhere.
   During your ultimate, you can DOUBLE the damage dealt by clicking the autoattack button whenever Ne Zha is about to slash the enemy, up to three times. Be advised these 'ult crits' are not enhances by Deathbringer's passive.
   If used offensively, make sure you actually hit an enemy. This ultimate can only hit one enemy, but will inflict assured moderate damage to him, with no chance for him or his team to defend. Most often, you will use this on a low health enemy to finish him off. Keep in mind that, after the ult, Ne Zha will jump back to the position he came from, which means you CAN use this for a level 5 towerdive. (But make sure to hit, nothing sucks more then dashing into an enemy tower without hitting something. As well, be advised that you will NOT perform the ultimate, if the first contact with the enemy already kills him (the first strike). He will just die and you will stand next to him.
   Alternatively, you can use this ability to set-up an enemy or delay his escape. There's this nimble guy running off with sprint, still on high health and your allies cant reach him? Drop your ult on him. The ult takes ~3 seconds and will negate most of his Sprint's duration, as well permitting your teammates to get closer. In teamfights, you can use the ult to trap the most dangerous enemy and ensure your teammates got 3 seconds to prepare a devasting burst when he comes back down to the ground.
   As last resort, you can abuse your ult as a simple dash. Given it's good range and small hotbox, you can utilize it to quickly get out of a sticky situation, dodge an ultimate or build distance. This is probably the worst way to use that ult, but it's better then dieing.

Jungling with Ne Zha is quite straight-forward: Auto-Attack the main minion of a camp. The only reason Ne Zha can jungle, is his powerful passive Auto-Attack combo. You can entirely focus on attacking the main minion, as the two side minions will die by your AoE strikes.
Occasionally, the minions will randomly circle around you, or the main minion may spawn on the side of the camp. In this case, keep hitting him, but realign every 4th strike to hit all minions of the camp, that's what AoEs are for.

First Jungle run

Death's Toll

Hand of the Gods

Second Jungle run

Warrior Tabi

Regular Jungling

Solo'ing the big buffs

Deathbringer

Later on...

Ganking as Ne Zha comes quite natural, given you're an assassin type god. It's your DESTINY to gank and kill people.

I disadvise to gank without your ult being ready, as it's your only reliable tool of escape and a major role in your kit (namely as finisher). This means you shouldn't gank before level 4 at all.

Since your main location factor is jungling, you will usually have good access to two lanes at any given time. Always keep an eye on those two lanes to keep track of the enemys, their positions and their health. If your ult is ready and you see someone on low health outside of his tower, don't hesitate and gank him. Same applies if you see somebody on really low health (aka someone you can kill with your ult alone), even inside of his tower.
You can even gank a lane where the enemy(s) have full health, assuming your lane players are in good shape as well, you have high health, a few buffs and a level advantage.
Try to never gank against a numeral disadvantage and as well don't gank against a CC-heavy god when something that could kill you is nearby (f.e. a Ymir+HeBo lane).

First off, the mentality:
You musn't die. If you die, you will fall behind. You don't want to fall behind as jungler. Don't risk your life to get a kill. The only exception would be using your u lt to towerdive-onehit someone, if you're confident in your aim.
As well, don't hesitate to kill. You're the jungler, the ganker and a carry. As egoistic as it sounds, you get strict priority when it comes to kills. Don't wait for your allies to kill the enemy, just do it yourself. Don't hesitate to risk 'wasting your ult' on somebody who would gonna die eitherway.

Second off, the goal:
Killing an or multiple enemies. This is a primary goal. But just ganking them is a goal in itself, as it will often leave them on low health, forced to do a callback. This gives your teammates lane superiority.

Third off, the action:
Generally, you should initiate the gank, unless the lane has a powerful initiatior (like Ymir, Sobek or Hades). Announce your gank with VSG* (replace * with 1, 2, or 3, depending on the lane). If you want your teammate to initiate, add a VAA and/or ping the enemy. Often they will get the hint and move in.
Whatever the case, do NOT initiate with your 3. Often you can simply walk up behind enemies without much retaliation, no need to waste your only mobility tool. Just get close, then unload your 2 on somebodys back. In many cases you will get a kill before the enemy even retaliated.
In case they DID notice you, drop your 1 on your target, in order to get a speedboost. Close in, launch 2, whack away. Often they will now drop escapes or CC+running, maybe sprint or a safe recall.
NOW it's the time to use your 3. Pick the weakest enemy, pull yourself towards him, keep attacking.
If there's an enemy in range and on low health, but you don't think you can kill him with autoattacks (f.e. because he's springting away), don't hesitate using your ult to secure the kill.
As well, be aware of counter-ganks. If the enemy suddenly starts focusing you and you're in danger of dieing, consider using your ultimate to simply dash off, leaving them to your lanemates. There is no shame in trying, only in dieing.

If you arrived in Late Game... well, either you screwed up, your team screwed up or the enemys are one of those few that won't surrender easyly.
By the time teamfights regulary occur, you should already be (close to) level 20, with a noticeably gold advantage and hopefully fed.
For now, focus on getting every Gold Fury and Fire Giant. This is your primary lategame objective.

Keep roaming the jungle, clearing buffcamps (by now without using any skills) and gank whenever you see a single enemy (or a weakened one nearby a teammate) or any opportunity at all. As an lategame assassin, you can often drop enemies with your first four attacks. If an enemy is underlevel'd and a squishie, you may even drop him WITH THE FIRST CRIT (which may very well be your first autoattack on him whatsoever). Utilize that incredibly potential and kill anything that doesn't stick with it's team.

If everyone is bunched up for a teamfight, consider your situation:
-Are you quite ahead of the enemy team?
-Does the enemy team lack CC?
-Doesn't your team have a better initiator?
If any of the questions apply, gank the entire enemy team, preferably from behind. Focus on taking down whatever vulnerable target they have in their back. Usually you should be able to drop that carry or mage who doesn't have an escape faster then they can react.
Depending on the enemy's team reaction, proceed:
If they didn't notice you (and that does actually happen at times), kill the next target.
If they DID notice you and now turn around to focus you, consider whether you can outdamage their entire team (which is viable if you got Golden Bow already. That AoE splash kills). If you don't think you'll succeed, check whether your team is engaging by now. If they are, STAY IN THE FIGHT. Preferably use your ult to get yourself a safe position for the next three seconds, whilst your team steamrolls the distracted enemy. If you die now, it's fine. Yes, at this point you're free to die, because you did your job: You killed a target and are in the midst of a teamfight. If you die now, your passive will cast a powerful AoE (equal to a supportive ultimate) across the entire teamfight. Your team must be really bad not to win the fight in your AoE.
In case your team didn't engage at all, try to escape, by means of your ultimate, your 1's speedboost or whatever mean you may find. Often this won't work, but whenever you manage to kill somebody out of his whole team and escape sagely, you will feel awesome.
Ne Zha's teamfighting potential skyrockets, if he joins a teamfight that is already running. If your team (or theirs) got a noteable initiator (Odin, Hades), wait until the fight starts, then approach from behind and kill stuff whilst everybody is fighting. Focus groups of enemys close to each other, given your AoE will deal loads of damage to all of them (exspecially applies if you have Golden Bow).

Rage

Starting with Hand of the Gods is a must, not only because of it's early jungling capability, but as well because of the objective-securing on high ranks. Since Ne Zha got no innate sustain, you will need the 5 health pots as well.
Leaves you with 1000 gold for your first item.
Given you need early offensive capability, you will need either Warrior Tabi or Death's Toll. The sustain of latter one is HIGHLY noticeable in the jungle (effectively increasing your hp regen from 10 to 15 per second (10 from potion, 5 from one autoattack per second). Accordingly, I STRONGLY recommend starting out with Death's Toll.
As next item, we obviously need boots. Again, you need damage and that rank 3 penetration early on, accordingly I would insist on getting Warrior Tabi next. The only other viable choice would be Boots of Celerity eitherway.
As third item, you need lifesteal, for both jungle sustain (that isn't reliant on health potions) and duelling capabilities. There's no reason for you not to use them, so I suggest taking Devourer's Gloves. Alternatives would be Soul Eater or Eye of Retaliation, in my oppinion Devourer's simply outdoes both of them (Soul Eater is simply weaker, whilst Eye's passive is useless to a squishy assassin).
Next up is a core item of any DPS build, even more so a crit-reliant one like Ne Zha (due to her 15% crit bonus during her 2): Deathbrigner
If you feel like you need more whoomp early on, you might get Deathbringer before Devourer's Gloves, though I advise against that (as you can't solo Gold Fury well without lifesteal).
Next up, it's all about maximizing your damage. Rage will turn your attacks from "occasionally spiking crits" into "constant stream of crits" and make your attacks MUCH more reliable for yourself and more lethal for the enemy.
Golden Bow synergizes well with Ne Zha's playstyle and gives you a great boost to jungling and teamfighting capability. Now you can nuke multiple nearby persons at once. Additionall you should now be able to onehit jungle camps (at the very least the gold camps), by critting the middle main minion.
Lastly, you need something to replace Death's Toll. I found Fatalis to be a VERY powerful item at this point. Together with the other items and your 2, it will grant you ~ 2.6 Attackspeed, which is just over the cap and accordingly will 'max out' your critting DPS. Previously, you could melt an enemy with four autoattacks. Now you do the same... in under two seconds. The speedboost of Fatalis is nice for your roaming, too.

Golden Bow and Fatalis are items that aren't strictly necessary for the build and could be replaced with others. F.e. you could take Eye of Retaliation instead of the Bow in order to improve your 1on1 capacity. Or grab a Voidblade to punch throug those bruisers. Eventually even get a true defensive item to increase your survival chances.
Against tank-heavy teams, getting The Executioner over Fatalis is a good idea.

It's up to you and your playstyle (and probably the enemy team composition) to figure out which items suit you best.

One slot is reserved by Hand of the Gods, but what about the second ability slot?
I would dare to claim it's all about preference and the enemy team composition.

If they have a lot of CC, get Purification Beads.
If they got burst ultimates, get Aegis Shield.
If they field chasing ultimates or you need more mobility, get Sprint.
If you want to troll an enemy team without CC, get Safe Recall.

All of these abilities have their reasons and it's up to you when you get which ability and when you spend money upgrading it.

With this build, you can overthrow the generic meta of SMITE by playing a successfull and self-sustaining jungler role, with a lot of roaming and ganking potential.

Pro

Con