This guide for nidalee is for the current nidalee as of February 24 2012 so if there are any nerfs or buffs on her after, then this guide MAY not be as good. Now, for explanations,Nidalee is not especially squishy hut she also is not beefy at all so be careful with her game play. I play her solo top as this role is the best suited for her due to the fact that she relies on money and a support nidalee won't be getting too much income after buying so many wards. At top, you want to just farm until your level six and just chuck spears every so often when you have the chance and heal yourself whenever you feel you are low. At level 4, you can set your own skill ward in the bush so that you are not screwed over by ganks if you are pushing. Also, take advantage of her passive bush ability and stay near the bushes when you extend. At level six, you can go aggressive, jump in, hit a bit, jump out right when your w gets off cooldown, then turn back to normal mode and heal yourself. Repeat and then kill them when you know you can, but make sure you don't fall for the baits.

These runes are purely based for her early game spear damage and heal due to the fact that any good nidalee levels heal first and she is extremely weak until lvl 6. This way, you can at least hit a good 200 if you time your spears right. (level 1 spear). Also, with the amount of ap you will be getting, you should be able to EASILY kill the enemy solo top UNLESS they are chosen specifically to counter nidalee.

For masteries, you can get either 22 0 8 or 21 0 9, I have shown the 21 0 9 due to the fact that it is very common but for 22 0 8, take out the buff duration increase and add it to the percent increase damage. This is purely again to add damage to nidalee's early game spear damage and late game spear damage because early game nidalee is bad and late game, you have a lot of chances to weaken the enemies before a team fight.

For items, people are almost certain to get magic resist against nidalee. This is why I like to get both the magic penetration items, 1 for spear chucking, and 1 to add on to your magic resist and decrease theirs not only for yourself but for the team. Also, the mejai is ONLY if your doing extremely well. If you are doing average, skip it, if you do decide to get mejai, i would sell the abyssal scepter because you will be generally spamming spears. You can always sell guardian angel but since you have a mejai, it would be safer to keep it just in case you "die" so that you don't lose your stacks. Now moving on, you want the first core item

The skill sequence is obvious, the normal ultimate levels, and any smart nidalee/good nidalee uses this skill sequence because your cougar is your main form of early mid game damage.

For summoner spells you can either get flash and exhaust, flash and ignite, or ignite and exhaust. I prefer the latter of the 3 because nidalee can already jump over walls and stuff like that with her cougar pounce and also she will be outrunning most champions due to her passive speed buff and her cougar speed buff.

Over all, I really like this nidalee build due to the strong early game cougar burst/spear chucking, and also the fact that she is insanely hard to kill at top lane. This is just about it and everything is explained so yea, have fun guys :D.