Nu Wa

[wurmjack13]

So I've been using this goddess quite a bit lately and she's been working out alright, but I feel like there's ways to better use her abilities.
Here is what I do with her abilities:
Fog: I use this when first entering battle and when retreating. I also use this to occasionally make a sneak attack to come out with a shining metal attack.

Clay Soldiers: With this one I use it if I'm in a bad situation and need a distraction quickly. I also use it when I'm in the fog by sneaking behind enemy gods and releasing the clay soldiers from behind for a surprise attack.

Shining Metal: This is definitely my fav ability, esp. since it has a super short cooldown. I use it to mow down long lines of minions, as well as to hit several gods at once of they happen to be in such a position where i can hit them all at once.

Fire Shards: This is basically my last resort attack, I use it when there's just way to enemy gods around and things aren't going well for my team.

Please let me know what I can do with these abilities to better use the character.

[discofleshpot]

Hit your clay soldiers with shining metal to make them explode for lots of AOE damage and an AOE stun.

[TheLethalCorgi]

You could also use the fog to combo with teammates like medusa

[Jezereal]

Combo is 2/3 THEN 1 into them, activate the root after the 1 goes off, but before the stun wears off. basic to death, since they should be around 20%. And fire shards to escape any others that come to assist. As a 2.9k worshiper Nu-Wa. This works best, and always will with this kit.

Getting around the minion AI and abusing it, is the part that takes like 1k worshippers to figure out. Because time and time again it will fk you over, until it becomes so ingrained in you what minions do, that you will dream about it. When you finally understand minion AI enough, you will hit bombs no one would dream of being possible (Mid-charge and max range, after 180'ing.) There are a bunch of other trade secrets, but I'll let you figure them out, It's more fun that way. This should be more than enough to start snowballing, and remember glass canonn-wa isn't the best build.

[SweetSolanaceae]

I tend to do 1, then 2/3 once I'm in the enemies face.

Most players expect Nu Wa to be in the back throwing out shining metals and potential stuns, not actually in your face like Nemesis would be, which makes stun combos very easy to pull off and is deadly with a team comp involving gods like Medusa or Chang'e.

[Jezereal]

Taking someone from behind by surprise is always best. But most times I engage form in front, it depends on the lane situation. If I can spare the bomb to their face, I will. Because its gonna do alot if correctly used. You don't get an option to alway be behind them. 95% of the time, i clear wave then wait for their mistake, then kill them in 3 seconds. Nu-Wa has the potential to be JUST as hurtful as Poseidon. It just requires ALOT more skill then whirlpool kraken, vel spam.
Here we have to use full kit rotations, and know what we are doing. Once you know the bomb will connect with the player, go full out on them. Chances are after level 9 they will die.

[discofleshpot]

I love building Poly on Nu Wa because it's always second nature for me to basic after the combo. Gives some really great burst damage!

[CountlessClouds]

Depending on your preference, you can build her a variety of ways.
I prefer to max her 2 fast, since the Clay Soldiers can be terrifying to enemies early game and wreck minion waves and towers
I always max cdr since I now know instinctively when my soldiers expire and that there will be only maximum 2 second window without her soldiers out which is especially great for tower killing.
Her 4 is great for sniping enemies near death, or revealing junglers, hidden Loki's and Ao's, or applying an on-hit effect.
Try to remember to call out that your ult is ready so that if a teammate can't keep up the chase, you can still get them. She's also the only god who can knock an enemy out of the sky. I can't tell you how many times I've creamed a retreating Thanatos or a Rama that's trying to wait out a fight

If you want to do max power with Fire Shards grab Obsidian Shard.
If you'd like to use her 1 as an offensive weapon, take Spear of the Magus.
Gem of Isolation helps her 1 help even more when used for escapes(does anyone know if her soldiers apply Gem? I've never found any info on yes or no) and adds some utility to her 4 since any surviving enemies will be slowed allowing your teammates to more easily finish them off

My usual build:
1. Shoes of Focus
2. Chronos Pendant
3. Pen(Spear/Obisidian) or Rod of Tahuti
4. whichever of the previous I didn't pick
5. Gem or Bancroft
6. whichever of the previous I didn't pick
I might alter the order or switch Bancroft for Divine Ruin depending on the situation

And most of all, ward, WARD, WAAAAAARRRRRRRDDD!!!! Nu Wa lives and dies by warding

[RG TheArtOfRuin]

Using the clay soldiers and detonating them for the AoE stun is definitely an essential combo to utilize no matter how you're playing her. To fend off incoming Gods if you're hanging back and being more of a support role or for initiating group attacks and taking enemies off guard if you're being more offensive. Using fire shards solely as an escape or delay is silly to me personally, as you can use it to clean up any fleeing enemies anywhere on the map with low health.

I've personally always played a more offensive and engaged Nu Wa since I started using her and a lot of people really don't expect it I find, just like SweetSolanaceae was saying.

[Jezereal]

For glass cannon I don't reccommen poly. Ever, at all. Never found it useful enough to benefit me. I do shoes of focus start, build vamp second, then start on sash, then thoth. Build into rod or chromos, then build the other one, then build spear. That's for full glass canon nu-wa, and melts anyone under 2.5k health like butter. For an actual non-pub stomp nu-wa build its, sash, thoth, cdr boots, mail of renewal, pythags (or spirit robe), rod of tahuti.
Enemies can be finished off without poly, and I'd rather save the spot for something more useful then damage that can replaced by another item. Lifesteal on Nu-Wa is incredibly overrated, and NEVER EVER build bancrofts, i'm fine if you think you need poly, but buying bancrofts is a horrible choice, pythags and divine are the only good situational picks.