Nidalee Build Guide by Zanryu

Introduction

Hey folks,

I wanna show you, how I like to play Nidalee as a supporter. Most people play her as a solo top char, but she's very vulnurable until level 6 if you want to play on AP.

Pros / Cons

Pros Extremely annoying for your enemies Very long range With hitting level 6 you receive a good burst sequence and high mobility Can increase the attack speed of your carry Very strong in early and mid game Great siege tank

Cons Very vulnurable to agressive people Sometimes steals/secure the kills for your carries Fairly weak in the late game

Important Notes

Nidalee has a hidden passive. Whenever she stands nearby a friendly champion with a lower level than her, he receives 1 EXP per second. (Range: 500)

Masteries

There are various ways to play Nidalee as a supporter.

Offensive Poker:

Run 13-0-17 for Spellsword , Greed and Pickpocket . This build has an incredible damage and gold generation power.

Important Note: Changing your form with Aspect Of The Cougar directly after a starting auto attack in Human Form will grant you 5 Gold instad of 3.

Runes

As mentioned before: magic penetration and manaregeneration are very useful in the early level where the true strenght of an AP[Nidalee is.

Additional ability power will even increase your terrific damage output.

Summoner Spells

Flash and Clairvoyance are a must have on a Nidalee.

Flash as the nobrainer summoner spell will allow you to flee in the first level without dying.

Clairvoyance is deeply underrated on a Nidalee it allow you to secure bushes and increases your sight above your normal sight range, which gave me some kills yet.

Items

You should start with these items as a supporter. Faerie Charm for mana regeneration, Health Potion and Mana Potion for sustain and three Sight Wards for securing the river and bottom bushes. I've seen many, many Nidalees starting with Doran's Ring, which I really doesn't support. Of course it give you some health and AP, but you can't buy the dominance on the lane without the additional wards.

If you hit level 6 you should have 520 gold together. If you are level 4 or 5 and see that it won't be enough until level 6, ask your carry to get some last hits. The Tear of the Goddess is the main mana source of Nidalee and can be filled very quickly through Aspect Of The Cougar.

As a supporter you won't get enough gold to snowball enough. So we need this item build out of Faerie Charm to increase our income. Of course when your carry isn't present you can kill the minions if he acceopt it. (I already seen carries which depends on their minion, even when dead)

Finally our boots. With Bushwhack / Pounce in catform you don't really need it earlier. If you have trouble with hitting the spears or you just need more heal you can also buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

This beautyful thing will double or even triple your AP immediatly and has more mana regeneration than the Tear of the Goddess itself.

Lich Bane is extemly powerful on Nidalee due the short cooldown on her cat skills. Additionally you can poke an enemy after healing somebody or throwing a spear at your enemy's face.

Rabadoom will increase your damage output immensly. There aren't any special things to tell about this item.

Finally upgrade your Philosopher's Stone into Shurelya's Reverie to increase some useful stats.

The last item slot is reserved for Sight Wards.

Additonal Items

Shurelya's Reverie isn't a must have item and even the sixth item slot can be filled with something except Sight Wards so I post a little compendium of other useful items for Nidalee.

Each of Nidalee's abilites, except for catform Javelin Toss / Takedown, procs its effect and can be very useful if you have to catch a mouse for your team while chasing it.

Skill Usage

Prowl is a very strong ability and you can dodge skill shots from enemies very easily if you got control over the bottom bush lane. While chasing or fleeing from the enemy team, remember to through as many bushes as you can to increase your survivability.


Human Form:
As our main harras spell you have to know that this spell needs some skill to be executed perfectly. Its damage raise on level 5 to 575(+1.625 per ability power) on maximum range and above. I said above, because you can run away after throwing your spear to increase the range between your target and yourself. The damage and range is calculated on hit. Even melee spears can do terrible damage if you Flash after throwing one.

Cougar Form:
Takedown is an execution ability, which adds a multiplier on your basic attack. Additionally Takedown resets the auto attack timer, but it won't multiply the bonus damage from Sheen or Lich Bane.


Human Form:
Bushwhack has the good feature to grant you sight for a very short duration. This allows you to scout bushes or scout behind the enemy tower to see if the next minion wave is already there or not. Many enemies run into the traps on purpose. Through the fact that the traps decrease the magic resistance of their target, your spears will even hurt them more if you throw one if they want to run into your trap.

Cougar Form:
Pounce is through its short cooldown extremly powerful. You can jump out of a bush to start a small trade with an enemy or jump above walls with it. This skill makes Nidalee so uncatchable.


Human Form:
This heal also increases the attack speed of its target by a huge amount. Even when your carry is at full HP, buff him when you want to destroy a tower or if a huge farm spot is under your tower. Due its long cooldown and its expensive mana costs it is still a powerful ability which can turn the tide.

Cougar Form:
I won't lose many words on Swipe. A cone shaped ability to damage targets in front of you.

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If you want to burst a target in Cougar Form you should use this skill sequence.



The gapcloser - damage - execute skill combo is very common and not that difficult. It will surprise some carries if you jump on them without even thinking that the supporter will deal about 50% of their HP in one short combo.

Team fights

Nidalee is very weak is large scale teamfights, but there are some possibilities to handle that.

Stay on range:
If you got Ionian Boots of Lucidity or other forms of CDR AND Lich Bane you can solely throw javelins into the mass and poke them with your improved auto attack. If the cooldown is up heal somebody (mostly your carry).

Right into the fight:
After throwing a spear and boosting your carry you also can jump into the mass and throw your bursty kitty combos on your foes. If somebody will use Ghost or other escaping abilities, shift to your human form, throw a spear after them, heal somebody and turn back into the fight. If you're lucky and skillful you kill him.

Terrific bot lane combos

Some carries are more useful with a supporter Nidalee and some are not. And even if there aren't that good, you can still secure the lane and allow your carry to accept the free farm.

Ashe's Frost Shot slow is very useful when you want to hit with your spears.


The most terrific range poke combo ever. In this setup you don't even need Sight Wards and are almost ungankable. Your traps and her Yordle Snap Trap can close the river for as long as you stay on the bottom lane. And if somebody runs into them they will eat a spear and Piltover Peacemaker.


Another powerful range poke combo with Hail of Arrows the slow is very strong and a reduced Heal maybe prevent your enemies to survive another spear.