Duelist

Neon: abilities and tips

Neon is a Filipina Duelist who runs at full speed thanks to her bio-electric energy: she enters sites sliding, stuns and blinds before taking down her target.

Origin: Philippines
Release: January 11, 2022, patch 4.0

Playstyle

Neon is an aggressive entry: you advance fast, block vision with your walls, stun the angles with the bolt and go in sliding. Your speed makes you hard to hit, but you have no gun in hand while running, so you take out your weapon before the slide. You shine when your team follows right behind, on tight or open sites where your energy matters. Alone, you get punished: save your energy for the entry, not for pointless movement. Your ultimate is a precise beam while moving, and it lasts as long as you chain eliminations.

Abilities

Key CBasic

Fast Lane

300 credits · 1 charge

Two energy lines shoot out ahead of you, then rise into walls of static electricity that block vision. You can run between them to enter a site under cover, or use them to cut an angle and isolate a duel.

Key numbers

Wall duration: 4 s

Throw the walls on the angles that bother you, then run between them to approach defenders without giving them a line of sight.
Combine them with the bolt: one cuts the view, the other disorients those who fall back.
The walls only last 4 s: run between them right away, without lingering behind.

Key QBasic

Relay Bolt

200 credits · 1 charge

A bolt of energy bounces once and electrifies the ground at each contact. Players caught in the blast are concussed. So a single charge hits two spots.

Key numbers

Arming: 1 s
Concuss effect: 2.5 s

Learn the bounces on each map in a custom game: the first impact point must hit the corner you want to clear.
Throw the bolt, then slide into the zone as soon as the enemy is stunned.

Key ESignature

High Gear

1 free charge per round · 1 charge

You charge Neon's power to run faster for as long as your energy lasts. At the end, alternate fire triggers an electric slide that counts as a dash. You regain a slide every two kills.

Key numbers

Sprint: +35% speed
Sprint energy drains in 16 s of sprinting (patch 11.08)
Slide recharge: every 2 kills

Take out your primary weapon before starting the sprint: otherwise you slide with nothing in hand.
Save the slide for when the enemy is stunned or blinded, or to get out of a bad angle.
Don't sprint in the open for nothing: your energy takes 60 s to recharge from 0 to 100.

Key XUltimate

Overdrive

8 ultimate points

Neon unleashes her full power: her energy and a slide are filled. Firing channels a deadly electric beam, accurate even while moving. Each elimination extends the duration of the effect.

Key numbers

Beam damage: 54 to 30 head, 18 to 10 body, 15 to 8 legs depending on distance

Keep your crosshair on the head: the beam has no recoil, but it loses damage with distance.
Chain eliminations to extend the duration rather than defending in the back.

Strengths

Her energy gives her very fast movement: she changes position before the enemy reacts.
A single bolt concusses two zones thanks to its bounce, which clears angles before the entry.
The walls block the vision of several defenders at once and give you a lane to pass through.
The ultimate gives a beam with no recoil, and its duration grows with each elimination.

Weaknesses

She has no gun in hand while sprinting: an enemy who is waiting for her punishes her with no way to fire back.
Her energy takes 60 s to recharge, so wasting the sprint early in the round is costly.
On maps with tight or winding sites, her speed is less useful and her bolt can get in her way.
She depends on her team: if allies don't follow, she arrives alone and dies.

Tips

Take out your weapon before sliding, otherwise you arrive with nothing in hand at contact.
Don't sprint in a straight line in the open: change direction to stay hard to hit.
Train shooting while moving and the counter-strafe: your slide ends in an immediate duel.
Keep a slide to finish a duel rather than to flee.
Pair up with an Initiator: their flash or info opens the space you go into.

The aim to train

The Road2Radiant benchmark subcategories that matter most here.

Strafe Click
Clicking while strafing
You have to shoot fast while changing direction: the counter-strafe and clicking while moving win the duels after your slide.
Drills to improve
Dynamic
Clicking on moving targets
Your ultimate and your entries pit you against moving targets: tracking moving targets is your daily routine.
Drills to improve