I am a S3 Platinum 1 Elise Jungle.

I've been away a while, but I have been playing jungle Nidalee since the patch where she gained Cougar form lvl 1. This guide is awesome, you are far ahead of the trend right now, I saw the exact same transition with Jungle Elise.

I scanned through most of it, looks good Nid don't really care what you build on her so it's not a big deal. My two opinions on the guide you had mentioned Elise > Nidalee late game, this might seem trivial, but this is totally backwards, and IMO the only reason to play Nidalee over Elise.

Elise's early game is better due to the fact that her stun > spear, the stun outweighs the lack of damage that all champions deal with early game. Nidalee really starts to shine once you get a little bit of AP + 40% CDR, she is a late game terror. Between heals, spears, map control with traps, mobility, and split pushing, she has so many options. Where Elise really only has one job, which is to stun. You could build her into a pretty fierce split pusher but the mobility is nothing in comparison to Nid.

Please note my opinions are based on Ranked matches Platinum 1 - Diamond 3 skill bracket

My Acct is BEARCATLASERBEAM, I will verify later.

Wouldnt maxing q or e be better for damage or heal? I like the traps for defense but they just don't last long enough (only 2 minutes) to be worth maxing imo.

I haven't given much thought about the cost discrepancy (+200 gold) of Hextech, that's an interesting find there. I wonder if you benefit from the spell vamp proc on your Q as well? It's something you COULD replace BoRK with if you really wanted. She really is kind of like Evelyn right now, as in you can almost build what you want and get away with it. Is it optimal? I'm not entirely sure (probably for hybrid build lanes) about that, but my math leads me to believe no. This is why:

BoRK's purpose here is to peel damage with its passive (8% max health per AA) on your target (mixed damage is what you have left if they build any MR). It also makes buffs/dragon/baron faster to be secured if you're in a need of a quick objective. A slow, whether it be 25% or 40%, is a slow. The activate for it is meant to be an engage on the target while Iceborn Gauntlet is your perpetual slow (and slight physical damage spike). It is also worth noting that BoRK has a 3 second slow window while Bilgewater Cutlass and Hextech Gunblade have a 2 second window. I, myself, would prefer an extra second to catch up to my target just to land a point blank spear for a guaranteed gap closer. If they flash away, that % slow becomes less and less helpful, especially if the duration of it is lowered (even by a second). Now, comparing their actives for damage efficiency nukes; BoRK is 10% max health while Gunblade is a flat 150 (+40% AP scaling). They both deal magic damage, but I'm sure you can easily see the math is clearly in BoRK's favor (even with heavy AP builds for Gunblade).

You don't build Lich Bane in this scenario because you aren't building AP to begin with. You also are lacking the utility to stick to your target opposed to Iceborn Gauntlet. If Nidalee had CC and a more "reliable" gap closer, this would be a different story. Though, even then, I'm not sure you would go AP in the first place due to the strength of an AD build path for her. Trading for a Lich Bane also destroys your purpose to survive mid-late game, and Nidalee is extremely vulnerable in team fights due to the risky kit that encourages her to jump in with no safety. Your role quickly transitions from assassin to peeler in a team fight late game. While you may be able to get away with being a dominating assassin early game (no matter which build path you take), this becomes obsolete (the problem with Nidalee herself).

Discussing AP Nidalee unfortunately is something I can't comment on outside of the jungle. I'm unaware of the current AP bruisers strengths in lane vs an AD bruisers and the situations to pick such (recent patches make this uncertain due to some drastic changes). I can say though, currently AP Nidalee is not a wise choice for the jungle as I mention in this article. It only works in the jungle if your opponent is incompetent and doesn't take advantage of you. Believe me, they will try since Nidalee has a misconception as a weak jungler (and will be if inexperienced). You will also suffer from early clear speeds (this changes further down) and can set you back from getting ahead with your ganks, or even attempt to come back if you somehow manage to get behind (assume strong enemies, plan ahead to run into problems). It also forces your dueling to become more ranged until you can even build into a Lich Bane, which is counter-intuitive to the purpose of being a jungler.

I also want to mention, this build is subject to change within the next 2-3 patches. Nidalee is seeing future buffs due to her terrible team contribution. It's that bad, she has/is being compared to Urgot in the win rate department. While these are early statistic numbers, I been watching it closely with seeing either hardly/no change in improving, or simply dropping. I feel this statistic is correct with my current experience with her, and will continue to believe that she will be needing better team presence / survival to be considered a viable pick (all roles) for higher elo competitive play.

Again, thank you for the pointing out Gunblade. Despite the active not meaning much to the build itself here, it is an item to watch on her for any near future buffs she may receive. Though I cannot help but feel BoRK is going to still come out on top. Who knows though, Riot changes things all the time. Maybe it will be a sleeper OP item for her as time goes by. :)

Thanks for this build, I will definitely try some of this out. Especially the lifesteal proc on Takedown is a useful hint. But why Botrk (25% slow active) over Hextech gunblade (40% slow active)? And is the CC/defence trade-off from Iceborn gauntlet really worth more then then the raw power from Lich bane to Nidalee?