Hello there, I'm FireGrass! I've been playing LoL since the Vlad patch. Back in the day I used to watch a good bit of HotshotGG's stream, so it's not a huge surprise I find myself maining Nidalee. I play Nidalee as a top lane bruiser. I like this build because it gives you strong poke, mixed with solid team fighting presence. It also allows you to become a split pushing monster. So with out further adieu, here is my guide!

Pretty standard setup.



A more mobility set up for increased split pushing.

These are your core items as Nidalee

DORAN'S BLADE: This is your ideal starting item. Health, Damage, Sustain, it's got everything you want in an early game item. Grab 2 if you are able.

TRI-FORCE: This is your bread & butter. The moment you finish this item is a huge power spike. It's like a doran's blade on steroids it just gives you a little of everything you need as bruiser nidalee.

SPIRIT VISAGE: The best magic resist item for you. It gives you nice health/regen, magic resist, and it increases your heal on yourself.

GUARDIAN ANGEL: It gives you an extra life. Diving into the front lines in cougar form is dangerous, this helps you out should anything go wrong. The Armor & MR don't hurt either.


IDEAL START:

AGAINST STRONG ADS:

Start Cloth & 5 Health pots against heavy damaging AD bruisers.

SUSTAIN START: sight ward

Use this against ememies who can harass you well, but won't kill you outright.


BLADE OF THE RUINED KING: Pick this up if you want some more damage after you build tri-force.

RAVENOUS HYDRA: Pick this up if you are super fed and want to blow people up.


FROZEN HEART: Great item if you need more armor. Great against ECT.

BANSHEE'S VEIL: I find myself taking Spirit Visage over this most of the time, but it's worth the pick up up against someone like

ATHENE'S UNHOLY GRAIL: A nice item if you are up against a double AP comp, or if you simply want to increase your poke potential.

FROZEN MALLET: Buy this item if you need to kite someone

STRONG LANE MATCH UPS:
WEAK LANE MATCH UPS:

Best Choice


Take these if you want to be more split push focused


Decent choice against someone who will burst you down


Switch into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

EARLY GAME:
Focus on farming and harass as much as possible. Don't worry about kills as much dominating lane. Your gonna want to come out of laning as far ahead as possible.

MID GAME:
Pushing pushing and more pushing. Just keep shoving top lane and take as many towers as you can. Thanks to your passive you can move through the jungle extremely fast. This makes it very tough to stop you from pushing your lane alone, use this the open up the map for the rest of your team. If you manage to get your tower down early roam mid and pressure it. Your objective right now is just to push as much as possible.

LATE GAME:
Solo pushing isn't as easy anymore, but at this point you should be built up and strong. Use your traps to help your team control objective, but push whenever possible. Nidalee is a great backdoorer.

TEAMFIGHTS:
Nidalee is a very strong fighter, but you have to exercise extreme caution. You can't just dive straight into the fight, you will get locked down. Use your spears to poke as much as possible until your team can engage. Once your team has engaged a fight keep poking and look for opportunities to jump on squishies. Once you find your window, pounce in and burst them down. If you manage to kill them you now have two options. If you are still healthy stay in cougar form and continue to wreak havoc over the fight. If you are low, jump back out, get back into human form, and heal up. Throw a few spears, and repeat.

AD nidalee is a very strong, very versatile champion. I hope you find her as fun to play as I do!