Setup 1 is Standard

Setup 2 is Standard but best against hard AD carries


Setup 3 is for anti casters such as kassadin / anivia / annie, it's setup so that your auto attack harass can out harass their spells with your heal.

Introduction



If you like this guide plz check out my Miss Fortune Guide.

:: Update :: 4/4/11
- I have decided to revamp this guide for current times. I'm currently 1527 elo and have learned alot more when I first started this guide. The meta game has extremely changed as well.

- I'm reworking the how to lane against section, and I added a metagame section. I also changed the late game section. Most important of all I added a how to carry section from my MF guide.



Wanna make friends ??

If you are lonely and looking for fun people to play with add me in game (PinkPWNAGE). We play everyday around 7pm-2am Pacific time (whenever i get back from the laboratory I work in). Must be kind, friendly, willing to listen to me bark orders occassionally, and erm... Nice?? Arguative people are annoying on skype 0_o. People who talk a little too much are also a little annoying.[/b][/u] The people we play against in normal are extremely high ELO. My normal ELO is most likely around 1800 elo. There is not a single game we que there isn't someone in ranked solo que below 1500 elo. Usually there are 2 people in 1600-1800s depending on how low the peoples elo we que with are. Yesterday we got paired against Haoz (number one player in 3s atm), teddefreddeh and negrpl0x (people in top 20 in 3s). Also went up against transambird (2k+ solo que was top 25) recently. These games are great practice for ranked.

Update: we've been extremely full recently, if i dont respond to you its because im getting spams of messages, just keep messaging me for game if u see me sitting in lobby. Once we will were usually full for a couple hours.


Pros.
1. Excellent Ganker
2. Extremely Mobile
3. Superior Mid-Lane control, un-matched by many champions
4. Great pusher! You can solo towers easily late game.
5. Great farmer after level 6 (once u get cat form)
6. Great jungler after level 6 and jungle control with ur traps
7. Great early game carry / pusher till about 25-45 mins.
8. Great poker / harasser / an indirect initiator - ( This is due to her javelin, if farmed correctly your javelin will do 20-60% of someones health. This with your heal, allows your team superior poke / harass in a stand off. The health you take for your javelin will also give your team the edge it needs to intitate, which is why I labeled her as an indirect initiator.

Cons.
1. If your teem excessive feeds you will not be able to carry the team alone. As you are pritty squishy, and you do no damage to tanks
2. Takes a high skill cap (intensive microing required, this is why i enjoy her)
3. Very weak late game against (tanks / AoE / Stuns and CC)
4. Fed tanks will destroy you
5. Easily focus fired



Nidalee is very much like a feral druid in WoW and I have the most fun playing her out of any other toon. You will be constantly clicking like a mad man. So if your micro isn't at least average Nidalee might not be for you. If you play starcraft it'll be a piece of cake lol.

Many people don't understand the power of Nidalee and will fail against you because of it.

I will constantly be updating this guide. Especially the How To Lane Against part.


Items

Your first trip to base should consist of items 2-4 or as close as you can get (explained late). But if your forced back to base get in this order.
Start- Doran's ring / Health pot


1.
Doran's ring

2. Ideally you will want to get lichbane on your first back, or get rank 1 boots and whatever you can of lichbane. Prioritize sheen before blasting wand.

3. Deathcap or crystalized scepter

4. Deathcap if you got crystallized scepter, zhonyas is great, since the current meta game is alot of anti carries such as malphite and xin

5. Void scepter if they have heavy magic res or mejais because at this point if you haven't won it's going to be massive team fight trading

6. Crystallized scepter for max ap, you can get a survivability item such as banshees if you feel u need it

Lichbane - This is another core item for Nidalee, better than trinity force and cheaper. This is what gives you immense burst. Don't go wasting the proc on a minion if an enemy is in range.




Getting Started


1. ALWAYS go mid with nidalee or take a solo lane while someone jungles. This is extremely important: Nidalee is an excellent carry, and I can solely carry any team including a PUG to victory as long as they aren't noobs and feed (SADLY RANKED SOLO QUE IS ALL FEEDERS). All they have to do is hold their own. It's funny when you get the people who haven't seen good nidalee players, and they are like "nidalee in mid?? Shes just gonna get owned when she transfers lanes" and then they are quickly silenced when I'am 13/0/0.

- The reason for this is you NEED the level advantage as Nidalee, without it you will not succeed.

Reason behind cleanse and flash- (Ghost / Flash is perfectly fine as well, maybe teleport flash if u are solo top)


1. Cleanse not only saves you from certain death (saves me at least 4-8 times during a game). But it also helps you lane early against certain heros. This is like your PvP trinket in WoW, would you dare step into WoW arena without a trinket??? Hell no...

2. Flash + pounce is GODLIKE, you can obviously use it to get away from ANYONE attacking you, but you can also use it to gank. THey will never expect you flashing / pouncing them from a mile away. Use this wisely.

3. If the enemy team does not have very much Stuns etc, then get ghost or teleport or exhaust. Clarity is not necessary if you are playing right.



I hope this helps someone out there, any feedback you have is totally appreciated.

My last 2 games were 13/0/0 and 10/0/6 or something. They were an early surrender right before base went down.

(4/4/11)

- With the types of new champions coming out and various buffs/nerfs, the meta game has completely changed. A couple months ago this game was dominated by ranged AD champions supported by supports and tanks. This is still true today for arranged, but for solo que the meta has changed to tanky dps / anticarry champs / diving champs. For example to counter ranged AD champs nowadays the popular champions are Irelia / Urgot. However at this current point the game is evolving to kill these type of champions.

The now current popular champs are teemo, renekton, urgot, corki, zil, shen of course, nocturne, sion.

The good news is nidalee is great for this changing meta game. The current meta game at decent elo involves pushing/tanky dps (hence teemo is so popular and is a popular ban). Nidalee excels at pushing and poking tanky dps.

Early Game

1. Start with Doran's ring

2. Peck at your opponent with auto attack and javelin if they get sloppy. You don't want to force a toe to toe battle until level 6

3. Gank them if they get about 30-50% hp (you must be at at least lvl 6 for cougar). You must lure them into a false sense of security, don't play too agressive the entire time. Just peck at them from time to time, pretend that your main focus is creeps. When your in cat form don't just pounce them when they get in range, run bak a bit i they auto attack you let them feel like they are dominant. Then once minions are fighting each other and they are wide open, either use takedown then pounce, or use flash to pounce to takedown. You can jump on them from a mile away with flash and pounce and they will never see it coming. It should be GG for them, if they manage to get away switch quickly to human form for auto attack and pray you throw a nicely aimed javelin that finishes em. Even if they get away don't worry, use this to your advantage. Now it's time to out level them, keep farming those creeps and make that tower pay with as much damage as possible. Put the pressure on and make him regret using his Blue pill, make him understand that if he leaves the lane again that tower will go down. If you played right you should be probably a level or half level above them. Try to have their jungler get rid of their flash on his first gank attempt if he has no easy ganks open.

4. If they come back from blue pilling they will be alot stronger as they have bought an item and you have nothing, so don't try too much to push a kill, just keep farming the lane knowing that you are ahead in EXP and gold. If you can push the kill by all means go for it. There are times when I'm 3-0 before leavin the lane.

helps with your early ganks. You should be able to pull a gank if your opponent has not blue pilled yet. Granted, your team may need your earlier than you want, help if you can of course. In no way am I saying deny leaving your lane when necessary.

6. Now that you got your items and your about lvl 13-14. You have to pressure your opponent back to base, which should be easily achieved. When you do, now it's time to go gank in other lanes. Since you have an enormous EXP and item advant you will rip through anyone. I'm not saying that you can only leave your lane now, there are plenty of earlier times you can, but I feel this is standard.



The First Jungle Gank-

Around 4 minutes in the enemy jungler or your jungler is going to gank an exposed lane. The exposed lane will be clear, it will be whoever pushes out past halfway of their lane. They will also gank a second time at around 6-8 minutes.If you know the enemy jungler will gank your friends, you may have to head to that lane to help, 30% of the time you will make it to either get a kill or save a friend. When you hit 6 theres probably around an 80-90% chance you will get there and be useful with cougar pounce and ghost. Nidalee runs super fast with cougar pounce spam. Noone will expect you to be there so fast and you will almost always be there to help keep your teammates alive, or be there to clean up the enemy scraps. Just remember that since you were mid and your early game is good, they should not be able to stand toe to toe against you (most champs).

If you see your champ leave his lane -

IF AT ANY TIME You see the champion leave, you call the MIA, or mad Ping it. And run safely towards the direction you think he is going. If the lane he is heading to isn't in danger then push your mid lane hard. If he is going somewhere into a team fight YOU FOLLOW AND HELP, you are the carry, there is no excuse for you to miss a team fight. If you are low you are just gonna either have to push your lane hard to put pressure on their tower or back.


The first dragon kill -

The first dragon team fight really dictates momentum of game. Everyone should be there except maybe the top laner. It is important you either have this warded around 5-7 minutes onward. Your trap is a great tool for control of dragon, keep this trapped at all times if possible.

Your job is to push push push. The higher ELO you are the more towers matter, they give gold / exp to your entire team. If you farmed right you should be able to stand toe to toe with most champions.

Ask your jungler for blue and red if possible. If you are not an extremely aggressive player you should probably let your jungler have it. If your not using buffs to full potential don't gimp the junglers potential.

Buy 1 or 2 wards every time you back.

Trap everywhere and anywhere. Exspecially around dragon and baron, whoever controls these wins the game.

Don't forget to heal those in need.

Ward the map so you can constantly harass with javelins.

This will be around 30-45 minutes. At this point the tanks may be strong enough to take your harass. You will have to push towers as a team. What you will do is just poke them until they have to back or they make a stupid engage. Nidalee is perfect for tower poke because you can not only do insane damage with your Q, but you can also heal any poke your team receives. A great combo for nidalee in arranged is Lux your AD damage could come from ezreal. Late game with this combo all you need to is have the entire map warded. If they walk out in the jungle, snare + Javelin + lux ult + AD carries harass and they will either die or have to back. You will have complete map control and can baron / drag all day long.


At this point of the game you will be more of a support / pushing role. Heal your teammates exspecially your AD carry for the attackspeed buff. Your heal should heal most squishes from half to full. Poke towers, lichbane will destroy towers. Poke champs with javelins. Cougar form in when safe for max damage.

(If your enemy plays super defensively and doesn't even bother leaving their turret, don't force it, just farm and gank other lanes)

Ashe: Whenever I lane and play against a Ashe I know I'm going to rape em. It's a very simple lane strategy against Ashe. Stay behind minions to eat up her multi shot if possible, sometimes you will get hit but that's what your heal is for. Harass her with auto attacks, you will win if you go toe to toe since you have your heal (obviously not if shes spamming W on you). Pre heal before an auto attack harass if you got the mana the attackspeed bonus is awesome. Watch out for that stun arrow at level 6, save your cleanse just for it. If Ashe gets a dorans blade its a auto win for you (dorans blade is very common). Simply peck and harass her, when shes at 30-50% hp pounce in or flash / pounce in for the kill. If she has flash and is getting away or just getting away, finish her with a nicely placed javelin and any auto attacks you can get in. You can even turret dive 100% safely if you have flash up. If she does get doran's shield, it'll be a bit more challenging to gank, you will have to play a little bit more agressive to get her at the gank range. If you gank her just once, it'll make it that much easier to do it again. However if she did get lifsteal she will OOM trying to keep up laning with you as long as shes using abilities and have to go back, you might want to make her use as much mana as possible before level 6 (her ultimate).

Difficulty = Easy


Tristana: This will be alot tougher for a gank, don't force it. She will always have a lifesteal item at start so any harass you do will be negated unless its heavy harass. Focus on your last shotting on minions, out farm her till level 6. Now comes gank opportunity, if she is dumb enough to jump in on you punk her in cat form. When she knocks you back with her ulti either flash / pounce to her to kill or away from to heal. DO NOT fight at her tower and if you do be prepared to switch to cat quickly to pounce away, if she jumps in front of you and knocks u back into turret could be death for you. Shes going to be killing minions quickly as levels progress, but you can match her with cat form, make her hesitant about getting close while your killing her minions. You may have to stay her longer than the basic strategy i provided. If she dare leave her lane, wipe the minions ASAP and destroy that tower, and warn your partners of course. If you can destroy her tower your in great shape as if she's dumb enough to come into the open it'll be an easy gank. Outlaning her is tougher than most others but takes a lil practice, your tower push is probably gonna be your ticket to safely leave your tower out of your lane to gank. Tristana's DoT lowers your heal, remember to wait till its over to heal.

Difficulty: Hard


Ezreal

Ezreal is another champ I'm completely confident laning against, as long as you understand him than it's 100% guaranteed lane domination. First off my past main champ was ezreal so I know him well. Since the standard and usual Ezreal item builds never have any type of life regen or life steal they will never ever be able to keep up with your healing, the most they will usually have is 2 health pots. All you have to do is avoid his long distance shot by standing behind a minion of yours just like Ashe (except it's easier). His 2nd spell, the one that goes through minions and hurts enemy champs and heals allys literally was nerfed a while ago and tickles, just heal through it and laugh knowing he wasted mana using it.

You must watch out for burst attempts, as thats all he will really be able to do against you in a lane. He will be waiting to get you with his teleport/attack ability in then his mystic shot (the long range shot) along with his auto attacks. This can take out about half your HP but thats only if his teleport shot hits you and not a minion, just stay huddled in minions and you'll be fine. At level 6 when he gets his ultimate is also when you have to worry a bit. His ultimate can take out about a quarter of your hp, he will do this and then his burst chain that I just explained. To counter this just make sure your at full hp.

The reason this is easy to lane against, is that Ezreal cannot constantly keep up his harass and burst attempts, after maybe one or 2 bursts he will be out of mana and be useless. The other reason is as i mentioned earlier he will have no health regen or lifesteal so all you have to do is pick em to about 20-35% and then gank him like you would ashe ( takedown/pounce/swipe / flash when he teleports). He will HAVE to go back to base probably 2 times before you must, just take advantage of that time and get as much EXP as possible. You should be about 1 full level above him without a gank, I have a feeling this is where EXP runes would prob help if you had a zilean on your team.

Tip: Play passive for the first 4-5 levels. EZ has one of the strongest early game lanings.

Extra Tip: Ezreal needs ganks and gold to be effective; AP Ezreal is gimp now and AD requires alot of gold, starve him of a gank and keep the pressure on and it'll be urs eventually. If he dare leaves his lane to gank a teammate for that money he needs, make that tower pay. You can easily take out a tower in 2 openings if u push the minions right and are about lvl 7-9.

Difficulty: Easy


Anivia

If you took cleanse this should be not much different from other champions. It is IMPERATIVE that u took cleanse. Anivia's ranged stun can be devastating when trying to harass her. Otherwise do just as you would with ashe or ezreal, peck at them, keep them at no more than half health at level 6, play very non-agressively, then go all out on a pounce and maybe flash in and burst them once you hit level 6. Make sure of course you let the minions push to just ouside your turret range: this way your opponent should be in the middle of the lane and gives u plenty running space to gank them on escape. If the anivia plays extremely defensive your just going to have to keep farming, or harass their tower. There's really no reason you shouldn't get a gank unless the Anivia knows how this plan. If they have flash, alot of them do, save your flash for his, or for his ice wall. You have all the tools, use them wisely. Remember to keep your health at at least 80% as anivia can put up a good burst attempt, keep your finger over cleanse for the stun.


Difficulty: Easy to Moderate


Twitch (updated mad)

I decided to update this as Twitch is the flavor of the month and times have changed.
Twitch is now one of the hardest carrys in the meta game. His mid / late game is an unstoppable force if fed.

CONSEQUENTLY YOU MUST PRESSURE HIM HARD EARLY GAME. It is your job to make sure he gets a low Creep Score (CS). I REPEAT IT IS YOUR JOB TO MAKE SURE HE GETS A LOW CREEP SCORE. EVERYTIME U SEE HIM DISAPEAR CALL AND PING THE MIA. Get that mia call ready, because if he gets kills on your lane mates it might be GG later. Warn them not to be noobs and push past midway of their lane unless they got a pink ward.



Everytime you see twitch running up to last hit a creep you MUST CHARGE HIM WITH AUTO ATTACK HARASS / Cougar and make him back off. Eventually he will start popping his ult to farm creeps and peck you a bit. Jump out of the way and continue to keep him low on CS. He will eventually have to back at some point if your harass is strong. Use this opportunity to push the lane or go back and buy yourself and get a FREAKIN PINK WARD. If you have a pink ward or you have lots of HP and you know he doesn't your safe to push that tower to hell. Don't forget about junglers. Keep traps in the bushes.


Nidalee is one of the best tower pushers!! IT IS YOUR JOB TO PUSH SO HARD EARLY / MID GAME that their team has no opportunity to farm up their carry. Push hard and push early. The more passive the game gets early on the worse it is for you

He will destroy an entire team in his ult if fed late game.
Your lane presence should own him early on.

Difficulty: Medium (nerfs have made him alot weaker)



Mordekaiser:

At mid ELO and up you will not see a mord in mid. The middle carry needs to be a hard/soft carry to win it for the team. Mord is great early / mid game, however his end game lacks any type of carry potential. Knowing this, your gonna have to farm up. Don't stand near minions when he uses his cone ability. Harass him as much as possible, exspecially after and before he uses his one attack to charge his shield. Farm your gold, get your items, and know that in team fights you'll carry harder than him (if he gets fed kills, that may be another story).
Make sure you don't get caught in his cone AoE. Don't stand with minions, standing on the side making him use his cone on you is a great idea.

Difficulty: Hard



Vlad:

Arguably the best mid out there right now, he's weak before level 6. Knowing this, once he uses his Q harass him instantly and harass him hard. His cooldown on Q is long until about level 9. Push minions hard early on to deny him gold.
Early game you will dominate in the team fights more than he will. As mid to late game progresses you will become noticeably weaker. Push hard and push fast, encourage your team to push hard and be agressive when youve got the strength.

Difficulty: hard

Miss Fortune:
I'm currently midding MF now, and shes fun as heck and carries harder than nida mid to late game. Nida is a great counter to MF when it comes to laning. You can easily out heal any burst she can put on you. She will OOM at some point and have to back at least twice before lvl 10. During those backs you just do what u do best, farm minions and make that tower pay when she leaves. Watch out for jungler when u push hard or mia.

Easy


Karthus

Karthus is an extremely good person for you to lane against. All you must do is live through his harass and harass him with auto attacks. To live through his harass you have to heal through his q / e spam. Clearly u dont wanna get hit by ALL of them, but you should be able to live through most of it. Your rune should be Flat ap quints, arpen reds, yellow mana regen or dodge or armor or attack speed or magic res per lvl, blue magic resist flat. With these runes theres no way you will lose to a kasadin in lane. If ur doing ranked, and you know the kass will solo switch ur runes up.
All your going to do in lane is last hit, auto attack harass him as much as possible, heal through his harass, and push the tower. Prioritize our E skill to heal through harass. Trap your suroundings to not get gankd by jungler. If you are successful his CS should be relatively low.
The starting items you should get will be a little different. Get your dorans ring to start, fist time you back pick up the pick axe. This will make your auto attack harass on him even more potent, then boots. If kass doesnt get farmed he is useless in mid game team fights as long as he doesn't get fed kills. Make sure if you see him on the other team in ranked, you tell your team to pick up stuns.

- Difficulty : Easy

Tips

1. THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP TO BE ABLE TO CARRY : YOU MUST KEEP UP WITH THE TOTAL KILL COUNT OF YOUR OPPONENTS!!! This means that if you are 3-0 and opponents on your team are like 5 kills - 8 deaths, even though you and your team are doing well, you will not be able to solely carry your team as your opponents will be more powerful than you. This may seem like common sense, but it's imperative as Nidalee that they don't get this advantage: you are a squishy carry.

2. Play her like a feral druid in WoW. Use javelins at distance, jump in with takedown and spank, jump out when in danger and heal and javelin / auto attack, jump back in and repeat.

3. Jungling - you can dragon easily once you have your sheen and at least one other DPS item you got (a piece of your guinsoo or your guinsoo). Your DPS rotation for jungling should be , Javelin / Trap / Heal / Cat / takedown / Swipe / pounce / repeat cat DPS cycle twice / Javelin / Trap / heal / cat form dps rotation. Obviously your not gonna want to really solo dragon unless ur 100% sure its not warded.

4. Cleanse is your life saver, USE IT. Save flash for your oh shiet moments or when u know its safe to jump in for a gank.

4. Last hit as many mobs as possible, her attack speed is slow for first few levels so its a lil tougher then.

5. Setting up a standard level 6 gank (Ideal) : Constantly auto attack harass them here and there between level 1-5, make sure they are at 20-50% (depends on the hero) right when you turn level 6. Right before your about to turn level 6, ease off his minions, and let the minion line (the place where your minions and his fight) is just outside your turret range. This way your opponent should be in the middle of the lane, far away from his turret. Once you hit 6, get your cougar form, then either pounce and flash in, or just pounce in if u can. If they are getting away and are extremely low (30% f the time) you will have to quickly switch to human form, get in as many auto attacks as possible, and get that well placed javelin in. If your opponent has life regen items you will have to harass him hard before level 6. If your opponent also has Health Pots you must play agressively to get those pots used by level 6 and him at half health.
.

(taken from my MF guide)

You hear this all the time, I have 40 kills and 2 deaths yet MY TEAM STILL LOSES??

A good KDA DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE CARRYING

Carrying is leading your team to victory. This is done by.

1. Dominating your lane so hard it doesn't matter what happens in the other lanes because you will be tough enough to handle it - this means out farming them, getting kills on them , pushing their tower down.

2. Making sure every fight is a team fight and winning those fights. For example, if a lane gets ganked, be there if possible.

3. Playing extremely aggressively

4. Communicating effectively with team mates and keeping them from arguing - once a team starts arguing it's over for them. Keep this from happening as much as possible. Ping when people are in danger, ping when a gank is open, ping when you think they are doing baron or dragon. Communication is everything.

5. Control dragon and baron, whatever team controls these wins 90% of the time.

6. Ask for wards and ward a bit yourself, try not to delay the BF sword

7. Ping good engages

8. Steal neutral buffs




This means you do not have to be a carry champion to carry, you can be a tank / support.


How to do these with the different types of champions is out of this guides scope. I will however say how to carry with a carry champion.


Carry With A Ranged AD Champion

Your job is to farm as much minions as possible, shut down your lane and win it, make sure you are there for as many fights as possible (even ganks on sidelanes), never stop the momentum of pushing for your team (stay agressive exspecially on towers if possible), ensure that your there to support your team at a dragon fight whenever possible, do not die at all costs. If you die in the team fight the chances of quickly pushing after a successful wipe greatly diminish, also the chances of getting baron diminish.

If you can do all these things your KDA will come naturally.

To put this in better perspective lets exhibit these things on Miss Fortune.

1. Ensure you have the best minion farm in the game, the more the better
2. Get kills in your lane and damage his tower substantially
3. Ghost and run to a lane thats getting ganked if you can make it there to help in time. Know the diff. jungler times and when they will gank. Most junglers gank around 3:30-5:40 mins, know this and be ready.
4. Make sure your jungler or someone wards dragon
5. Poke towers as much as possible! It's your job to kill towers.
6. Let your team be aware of what ur capable of, if they are about to initiate and your oom or low on HP just spam BACK



PRO TIP

A good carry, if given a little fed, will take advantage of that feed and win the game with it. When noobs complain about going 6-0 first 6 mins and still lose a game it's their fault for not using that gold to it's fullest potential.
- For example, If i get a kill in my lane, I'm going to use that money to be even stronger than him again, so I can do it again since I did it the first time with even money, or just shut him out.