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Bumba's Mask
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Potion of Magical Might
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Boots of the Magi
Polynomicon
Gem of Isolation
Breastplate of Valor
Focused Void Stone
Magi's Cloak
Stone of Gaia
Ethereal Staff
Witchblade
Warlock's Staff
Chronos' Pendant
Book of Thoth
Obsidian Shard
Bancroft's Talon
Demonic Grip
Pythagorem's Piece
Rod of Tahuti
Purification Beads (Old)
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Fist of the Gods
Blink Rune
Telkhines Ring
Divine Ruin
Pestilence
Wall of Absolution
Y
B
A
X
Hello, Subzero here. I make guides.
Polynomicon-enhanced basic attacks. Her large amounts of CC, mobility, and her zoning tools make her very skilled at contesting objectives and counter-jungling.
Nu Wa.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:
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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.
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Winged wand
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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? |
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pillars of heaven
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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flame strike
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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. |
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:
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Fog
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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. |
Polynomicon.|
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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. |
Here's an outline of the ideal ganking process:
Polynomicon'd basic attack. Polynomicon attack.|
Pillars of Heaven
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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. |
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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. |
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:
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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. |
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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? |
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. 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. Clay Soldiers to trigger your Snake Form, for another ten or so seconds of empowered basic attacks.
Warrior Tabi and 
Golden Bow won't be nearly as frightening against your Breastplate of Valor. 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.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.
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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. |
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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. |
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Magi's Blessing
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Witch Stone
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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. |
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Warlock's Sash
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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Bancroft's Talon: Get this if you want more lifesteal and an enormous amount of magical power. |
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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. |
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Pythagorem's Piece: If you love lifesteal, and possibly have a few mages you want to support, get this. It makes a difference. |
Rod of Tahuti.|
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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blink
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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. |
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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. |
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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?
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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. |
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.
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flame strike
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Locking Down Enemies |
flame strike
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Gem of Isolation), and an easy bodyblocking tool. 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.
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.
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.|
fog
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Dealing Damage |
fog
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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. 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.|
pillars of heaven
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Flanking and Initiation |
pillars of heaven
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A Final Note |
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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.
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path of flame
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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.
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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.
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I still think that at least one point in Soldiers is necessary just for that snake form. Extending all of your passives for an additional ten seconds, including the 2x damage from Pillars of Heaven, is a particularly big deal early on when your CDR isn't built up. The splash damage isn't to be underestimated either, I've killed people by splashing her basics off of stray minions who happened to get in my way that would've otherwise completely negated my attacks without the splash. Honestly, I feel that
EDIT: I also just realized your build contains no attack speed items. Granted, she got her ASPD gains per level buffed with the Kali rework patch, but I find that without
Basics are her primary damage source late game, do not neglect them!
After playing with her a bit more, I find that an additional 10 seconds of her buffs simply isn't necessary. Each to his own, I guess, but I have had great success as it stands right now. (Also, I think a fight lasting longer than ten seconds before she reaches level 14 is probably not going to be in her favor, extra buff duration or not.)
Maybe it's because I haven't seen much Nu Wa's, but I don't really see how she could be like Chronos or Freya in terms of damage output. She's always been more like a utility-oriented Ao Kuang to me.
I still think that at least one point in Soldiers is necessary just for that snake form. Extending all of your passives for an additional ten seconds, including the 2x damage from Pillars of Heaven, is a particularly big deal early on when your CDR isn't built up. The splash damage isn't to be underestimated either, I've killed people by splashing her basics off of stray minions who happened to get in my way that would've otherwise completely negated my attacks without the splash. Honestly, I feel that
EDIT: I also just realized your build contains no attack speed items. Granted, she got her ASPD gains per level buffed with the Kali rework patch, but I find that without
Basics are her primary damage source late game, do not neglect them!
Okay, first, it grants only a physical protection aura, which isn't of much use in the jungle, and even in lane it isn't that useful since you might not even be facing a physical god.
I'm afraid I don't follow your second point. I already mentioned that they help push, and (correct me if I'm wrong) you seem to be saying that they help on ganks, presumably by bodyblocking. Well, for them to be effective, there must be at least a couple of them, which translates to leveling it up as a priority. Bleh. Not for me, thanks.
And for the last point, about using it with her ultimate; I would rather have the extra damage from fog instead of bodyblocking potential.
Also, they are the worst clearers in the game, and I can say that with 100% confidence. I'm honestly not sure where you got that from.
One of my reasons why is because of the passive protection from the buff alone. The protection scales and it saved my butt several times.
You talk about help pushing lanes, by providing more minions when ganking or help pushing you can actually still get exp. from the lane and actually help your struggling solo.
Another something you mentioned is the tower trashing, or tanking. Not only can the minions help you avoid damage with towers, it will tank for you (also if positioned right, it can also minion block the jungle enemies). Also I had many success with trapping players inside my ult. with her many minions.
Though they might not be great late game, personally they're the best clear over Flame Strike due to its versatility you mentioned, its support for lanes and in the jungle, and also its ability to tank damage. I had much fun avoiding deaths from a Freya by using these minions as a wall similar to the tequnique Ymir does when he runs away. Can I please get a more detailed and longer explanation of the need to choose Flame Strike over
S.M.S
You got me on the visual aspect of snake form. I mean, who can resist that slithering sexiness. To defend my identity, this is one of the few times that I will ever clearly state that yes, I'm being facetious. :P
Edit: oh, fix the grammatical error in your introduction. "...interesting goddess whose..." rather than its current "who's." so bd dwnvotd
Best description of Rod of Tahuti I have ever seen.
I think the "Why Nu Wa" section is a nice improvement over the standard "Pro's and Con's," as it gives it more room to really explain why the pro's are the pro's and the con's are the con's.
I don't really see how this is any different from "early to late game," other than different titles. At the end of the day, the content seems to be in the same order - you're going to have to start out in the jungle and clear a few camps before you do any ganking. That said, the segment returning to items between Ganking and teamfights makes sense. After all, it's not like you buy all your items before or after teamfights - you purchase them throughout the game. I think it's very logically ordered.
I do think you underestimate Clay soldiers, though. After all, they can be used as projectile shields (as long as you're careful about free lifesteal), which is incredible useful, such as against Xbalanque's
Other than that, I can pretty much agree with your guide. I don't play her that way in Arena, but that's because they're two very different roles in two very different game modes. And you certainly don't need my help on coding, formatting, and organization.
Oh, and you mean to tell me Nu Wa is not a stripper in her lore?! :O!
Again, thanks for the detailed review. I also just realized I should have mentioned you in my guides, since you've mentioned me. Sorry about that, it slipped my mind, I don't mean to belittle you or anything.
You're probably right in that I am underestimating
I see your point about blocking projectiles, but I can refute it: pretty much every projectile ability in the game either deals splash damage, hitting you, or passes through minions. They do a good job blocking basic attacks, but won't Fog help on that matter already? I believe Xbalanque is the only god with a non-piercing projectile that has a good chance of hitting you in fog, and in that situation he would probably trigger branching bolas anyway.
I'll be sure to give you a mention. Thanks.
I think the "Why Nu Wa" section is a nice improvement over the standard "Pro's and Con's," as it gives it more room to really explain why the pro's are the pro's and the con's are the con's.
I don't really see how this is any different from "early to late game," other than different titles. At the end of the day, the content seems to be in the same order - you're going to have to start out in the jungle and clear a few camps before you do any ganking. That said, the segment returning to items between Ganking and teamfights makes sense. After all, it's not like you buy all your items before or after teamfights - you purchase them throughout the game. I think it's very logically ordered.
I do think you underestimate Clay soldiers, though. After all, they can be used as projectile shields (as long as you're careful about free lifesteal), which is incredible useful, such as against Xbalanque's
Other than that, I can pretty much agree with your guide. I don't play her that way in Arena, but that's because they're two very different roles in two very different game modes. And you certainly don't need my help on coding, formatting, and organization.
Oh, and you mean to tell me Nu Wa is not a stripper in her lore?! :O!
I always thought Nu Wa was good as a jungler. I like your guide and hope that you continue to improve it.