Nidalee Build Guide by d0tc0m

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my humble guide of Nidalee, The Bestial Hunteress, aimed mainly for Javelin Toss usage. The damage you can cause is just ridiculus, the only problem is to hit your target. Of course you aren't using just javelin, that would be like Teemo using just mushrooms... unthinkable. Only thing u have to do is to use your brain and cooperate with your teammates. Many players forgets the fact that LoL is TEAM game, don't be one of them...

This guide is NOT for absolute LoL(Nidalee) beginners, I WON'T explain what each skill does. It's just how do I play and why I do so.

*WARNING! THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE, I'M NOT PLAYING LIKE THIS ANYMORE!*

I'm not native speaker so please excuse my eventual grammar mistakes.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+ effective healing
+ exceptional mobility
+ farming, jungling 6+
+ harrasing that hurts
+ mana independence
+ pushing
+ but mainly - great fun

Cons:
- high skill required
- CC, AoE vulnerable
- squishy
- not the best team fighter

Summoner Spells

Spells to get:

Why this one? Nidalee is excelent escaper. You can use cleanse + pounce + (flash), then you are million kilometres away from your enemies. It saves your *** so many times, and when combined with Mercury's Treads you get 100% CC reduction for 3 sec. Isn't it great?

The flash-pounce combo is just amazing for escaping or catching up, you won't find any better spell than this one. However, use it wisely, it's cooldown isn't 10 sec...

Acceptable spells:

While Flash is almost nessesary, you might change Cleanse for one of theese:

Exhaust is good since we don't have any CC or slow.
Ignite if you really want that first blood.
Clairvoyance may help you with spear aiming, gank revealing etc. (haven't tried it yet.)
Teleport if you are fan of this spell... I'm not.
Ghost = Run, Forest, run! (changeable for flash too)

Nidalee says NO to the rest!

Runes

8,5 MrP
Greater Mark of Insight
for punishing everybody who dares to stay in range of Javelin toss. In this build I prefer theese over
15 ArP Greater mark of desolation
Greater Mark of Desolation
are great in early game. It stacks with yout main harrasing tool - auto attack. Also affecting cougar Q, but that's it. Your other abilities are calculated from AP! Think about the runes you really want.

6,8%
Greater Seal of Evasion Expensive like hell, but the best choice for you since Nidalee is vulnerable to all physical based heros like Yi or Xin Zao.
11 MP5
Greater Seal of Clarity Cheaper and usable option, even after the nerf.
27,5 AP
Greater Glyph of Force AP per lvl because leveleling with Nida is just fun, normally I have 2-4(5!) lvl adventage when going solo lane.
23,2 AP
Greater Quintessence of Force The very same reason as above.
78 HP
Greater Quintessence of Fortitude Extra HP is always nice, but isn't needed that much this time

Masteries

9/0/21

Standart caster build for offensive players.

0/9/21

More defensive build, especially good with dodge runes, you can take either AR or MR depending on what you prefer.

Skill Sequence

First spell:

If you are going for first blood and you don't have a jungler, take Primal Surge / Swipe.
If you aren't going first blood and you have a jungler, take Bushwhack / Pounce.
If you aren't going first blood and you don't have a jungler, take Primal Surge / Swipe.
If you are going for first blood and you have a jungler, take Primal Surge / Swipe.
Taking Javelin Toss / Takedown may be considered in 3v3 games to scout bushes/deal damage. Its dmg pretty low at rank 1.

Conclusion? heal > trap > spear

Maxing:

Max Javelin Toss / Takedown, or if you are having hard time with your opponents, give Primal Surge / Swipe additional point. Bushwhack / Pounce maxed last.

Items

Doran's Ring Health is important at begining since we aren't taking HP runes, mana regen and AP are self-explonatory.

CORE:

Mercury's Treads I personaly prefer these because of the MR and 35% CC reduction, it gives you really good survivability
Ninja Tabi vs heavy meele teams, in cougar with runes you have 28,8% dodge chance
Sorcerer's Shoes if you are self-confident or/and if you know how to not be dying with Nidalee

Morello's Evil Tome solves mana regen + gives nice AP and CDR, great item, thanks riot ;o)
Lich Bane, the reason why u destroy buildings so easily even without AD, just spam your abilities and let your enemies feel what 100% AP in damage means
Rabadon's Deathcap's AP boost... awesome, nothing to say more
Void Staff against MR stacking late game

6th is

SITUATIONAL:

You propably won't reach this point.

Zhonya's Hourglass The armor won't help you much late game - Tryndamere still kills you in few crit hits. However, the active will.
Banshee's Veil is always a good choice. HP + MR + bubble helps you a lot.

OTHERS:

Haunting Guise is quite considerable item. If the oppositing team have mostly squishy heros with low MR, you want to buy this. With your runes u have nice 28,5 flat MrP which is enough to deal almost full damage to those squishies. I would pick it after making Fiendish Codex, after purchasing you can sell Doran's Ring as all the HP you need is included in your new item.

Wall jumping

Woooo a picture, finally!!

Pounce is the reason why Nidalee is so mobile hero. On the picture you can see the jumpable walls, note that you can't jump to red buff lizard. It's quite essential for you to know where you can use a shortcut.

Javelin Toss

What to say... right using needs practising and... luck.

You can start using it at rank 2-3 if you are about 70% sure it will hit your target. Nidalee is mana hungry at low levels and when you miss, it's just wasting mana. For this reason, if you are laning with someone, wait for any stun/snare/slow and HIT! But remember, don't aim too long, just toss it before your target escapes.

On higher levels feel free to use it anytime u want to. Scout bushes, steal kills (seriously... don't), whatever. Mana shouldn't be problem even without blue buff.

Another picture, woooo!

Legend:

RED = killing at towers
PURPLE = early usables
STARs = WARDS if your team is so pro and buys them
-->
WHITE = Dragon/Blue/Red stealing? Yes, please.
ORANGE = don't forget to pouce!

Last words

I hope my work wasn't poinless and you will find this build useful in some way. I'm looking forward to feedback. Have fun, play safe and use brain,

.com

Changelog

2011-02-21 published

It's so empty here....

Build is still under construction, critise me, say your opinion!