Hi, I'm 'Volcano Choir' or 'VRSlashGnR' and I've been playing League of Legends since Season 1. This is my first time writing a guide but I hope to provide you with one that will continuously be updated and bring you a wide variety of builds (however starting with two AP mid builds against an AP and AD lane). A lot of the champions I play are highly mobile champions with gap closers such as Lee Sin, Maokai, Renekton and Nidalee. I'm currently at Gold V, however one champion I've found myself doing well on throughout multiple seasons is Nidalee.

I've played Nidalee since early Season 2 and consider myself quite proficient in playing her as an AD, AP and hybrid bruiser at top and a mid-game dominant AD mid and AP carry mid (either focusing on Javelin Toss or Aspect Of The Cougar). Despite only being Gold, I've had no trouble in defeating higher tier mid-laners with Nidalee.

I hope that this guide will be an encyclopedia for Nidalee players. My aim is to help lower ELO players master this champion to rise through the tiers. For now, this guide will focus on building Nidalee as an AP Carry as that is the style of Nidalee play I think is most viable at the moment. However, I will be working on other item builds and expanding this guide to include AD Nidalee and support Nidalee (and even jungle Nidalee).

Check tab 1 for a Nidalee mid guide against AP lanes and tab 2 for a Nidalee mid guide against AD lanes.

AP Nidalee Pro's

-High mobility with Pounce and Prowl allowing you to travel through bushes quickly and jump over obstacles in the map
-Extremely high poke potential with Javelin Toss
-Great gap-closer against enemies with Bushwhack/ Pounce
-Exceptional at chasing down enemies and escaping
-With her rework, has high assassin type burst damage in Cougar form when combined with Javelin Toss
-High utility with vision from Bushwhack and Attack Speed buff and heal for ADC's in teamfights with Primal Surge
-Good manafree clear early since the rework to give Aspect Of The Cougar at level 1.


AP Nidalee Con's

-Can be quite squishy
-No crowd-control from abilites (and generally does not build any items with crowd control)
-Often relies on getting a good Javelin Toss off.
-Hard CC and suppression is a huge threat to her
-Can be quite hard to master fully
-Can be mana hungry in human form

Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration is a great item for Nidalee, as you can harrass with auto-attacks well (especially with Primal Surge) and Takedown has AD and AP ratios.

I get 4 Greater Seal of Armor to deal with autoattack harrass and the general need to have some armor. I find that getting 5 Greater Seal of Scaling Health helps make you less squishy late-game which benefits you a lot, especially in Aspect Of The Cougar

Greater Glyph of Magic Resistance is a necessity in the mid-lane as you most likely will be going up against another AP mid and it will help mitigate their damage.

Finally, Greater Quintessence of Ability Power will help give you higher early damage so you spears will hurt a bit more.


Other options for this build are Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power.

Prowl (passive)
Nidalee's rework stems from the change to her passive Prowl. Her initial passive stays the same with Nidalee gaining a bonus 10% of movement speed while moving through bushes. This makes her roam extremely strong and you should be making use of bushes in roams, chases and escapes.

However, the new part of her passive was to allow Javelin Toss to 'mark' enemy champions like Bushwhack did. However, Nidalee can also Pounce on 'marked' champions with increase Pounce range and decreased cooldown on using Pounce on 'marked' champions. This has given Nidalee a bit more of an assassin edge. Additionally you get 10% increased movement speed when someone is marked and 30% if you're moving towards a marked champion.


Javelin Toss/Takedown (Q)
Nidalee's Spear is her defining ability and is what makes her truly deadly. It is her poke and it is also her initiation ability with the rework. Rusty pre-rework Nidalee players may need to practice landing Javelin Toss with it's reduced width however the change to the damage scaling on distance from where you threw it instead of how far you are when it hit's has allowed Nidalee to throw spears and then also chase after enemies while still dealing maximum damage.

Takedown is Nidalee's most important single target damage in Aspect Of The Cougar. As it does extra damage based on missing health, do not make the mistake of using Takedown before Swipe as you will do less damage to your target. The only time when this is acceptable is if you think you won't be able to get your Q off before hitting your E. It also synergizes well with Sheen and allows you to do a large amount of damage with your auto attack with both the Sheen and Takedown proc. Remember that Takedown has increased range which makes it perfect for getting that last hit in!


Bushwhack/Pounce (W)
While Bushwhack has been nerfed, it's still an ability to consider levelling first as it allows you to peek at bushes and level 1 Pounce will allow you to move quickly around the map to get in position to plant defensive/offensive wards and traps. Additionally it will allow you to get away by jumping away/over walls if you get into a level 1 fight rather than wasting a flash. Remember to place Bushwhack in good bush positions where enemy champions are likely to walk through. Additionally, I like to pressure enemy laners with a few traps placed in lane as - with the new Nidalee Mechanics - getting marked is extremely dangerous for an enemy. However, be careful with wasting mana doing so.

Pounce is partly why Nidalee is Nidalee, her high mobility. This ability allows her to travel around the map at a faster rate along withe the Prowl passive. The direction of Pounce is based on where the mouse is pointed so it's easy to dodge skillshots with it. The new Pounce is a bit more complicated then it's predecessor. With the cooldown mechanic changes to it and the change to Prowl, you can take advantage of Pounce in a variety of ways. If you see an enemy champion step on Bushwhack and they're at an open angle for a Javelin Toss, throw a Q and get in your increased pounce range for a Pounce Swipe Takedown (W+E+Q) combo. With your decreased Pounce cooldown to 1.5 seconds, you can either Pounce on them again as they are fleeing to continue your cougar damage or Pounce away to land a higher damage Javelin Toss as well as to get yourself to safety from return damage.

Here are some other cool tips with Pounce. The first is a new one that has only recent come up because of the new cooldown mechanics of Pounce. When chasing an enemy, you can pounce towards minions that are on the way and use Takedown to kill one quickly, reducing the CD to 1.5 seconds allowing you to get another quick Pounce off soon after while you're on the chase. The second and third are different in that many long-time Nidalee players are aware of. The second is to use Pounce to reposition yourself quickly to get a good angle for a damaging Nidalee Javelin Toss. While pre-rework Nidalee work switch to Aspect Of The Cougar to Pounce away to maximise the old Javelin Toss damage, post-rework Nidalee should Pounce to get a clear line of sight for a damaging spear. A quick Pounce, switch, spear will make it extremely hard for enemy champions to dodge spears. The third tip is using Pounce to get around the map quickly. This map here will show you all the spots on the map that you can jump over to allow the most efficient movement around the map.




Primal Surge/Swipe (E)
Primal Surge is your sustain and utility ability. It can allow you to get a quick few autoattacks off in good situations with the attack speed buff and will help you stay in lane longer (especially with blue or post-Chalice). You can also use it after someone has engaged on you and you're in human form to get a couple of quick auto attacks in before completing a Javelin Toss and Cougar W+E+Q combo.

As the cooldown is constant at 12 seconds at all ranks (pre-CDR items), you need to know when to use it in team fights for maximum efficiency. You can use Primal Surge on your ADC at the beginning of a teamfight, allowing him to put out more DPS at the start of the fight and you will also be able to heal him back up once it's up again (provided he's alive) when the initial burst of the fight is done and it will allow your ADC to flourish. Late game it heals for a large amount with the amount of AP you will have so don't be greedy with it and heal your team mates with it (Although healing your team mates is not exclusive to late game, remember to heal!).

Swipe is Nidalee's main AOE damage ability. Like Pounce, the direction in which Nidalee Swipe's is based on where the mouse is facing. As mentioned before, you should use Swipe before Takedown as it will allow maximum damage output. However, you should also consider that in a combo (especially in lane with minions around), using E after W will allow potential cooldown reductions for Pounce if you kill a minion.

While any of Nidalee's abilities have merit to be taken first, I generally find that getting Bushwhack/ Pounce first allows for maximum early utility in mobility and map awareness. However, if you do wait to level, grabbing E and Q once you're in lane is much more effective (Q over E in most situations). If you're in a lane that you can easily kill at level 2 and have poked them down early with auto-attacks and spears, grab Pounce so you can go all-in on them and kill them/force a recall/burn their summoners.

Javelin Toss/ Takedown is maxed first as your spear is the main source of damage on Nidalee. Your E, Primal Surge/ Swipe is maxed second as it provides the most utility in lane with more sustain and more damage on swipe to clear waves. W ( Bushwhack/ Pounce) has little benefits of being maxed second as the cooldown for pounce does not get decreased with each level and Bushwhack does minimal damage early and is used for it's utility and map control.

These are the optimal starting items for Nidalee against an AP champion (if you're looking for an item guide for laning against an AD laner or a team heavy on AD, check the second guide tab). The extra AP, mana regen and health is great for early laning phase against the majority of champs as it'll allow your spears to hit hard and fly frequently. Some of the other options are Crystalline Flask (against particularly hard laners that you just want to farm and sustain against instead of fight) and Boots (against laners that you need to dodge a lot of skill shots to do well).

These are my suggested items for a full build Nidalee (minus enchantments and enhanced trinkets). After Athene's and Sorceror's Boots, the order is more situational. For example, if the enemy team is heavy on AD, you may want to get a Seeker's Armguard to get stacks on it and then build a Needlessly Large Rod and finish off a Zhonya's Hourglass or build into a Rabadon's Deathcap or build a Void Staff. Generally, I find that buying a Void Staff first is pretty useful as you'll be able to do a lot of damage to the whole enemy team. While it isn't as high in AP as Rabadon's Deathcap, a Void Staff is a cost effective items and ignores MR which allows you to do a lot of damage quickly. However, if you have a lot of gold and the enemy team isn't building all that much MR and probably won't for a while, spend the money on a Rabadon's Deathcap and you'll be able to destroy if you're landing those spears.

Athene's Unholy Grail
I see a lot of Nidalee builds that don't tend to get any CDR and go full damage and I think it's a build type that was a bit more viable pre-rework. With the frequency of Cougar Form combos increasing due to the Prowl change, CDR helps to increase the frequency and overall number of cougar form abilities to pull off in lane. Additionally with a Chalice of Harmony build-path, it helps with mana regeneration allowing Nidalee to throw more spears in addition to the magic resistance to deal with enemy laner damage. It's has a very cost-efficient build with cost-effective build items.

Sorcerer's Shoes
Sorcerer's Shoes give you everything you need in lane and for the game. The movement speed gives you enough to combine with your innate Prowl and Aspect Of The Cougar mobility to get into good position and get spears off and to chase and escape from enemies. While you could get Mercury's Treads against heavy CC laners and teams, it generally means you're sacrificing serious damage potential for more leeway in making mistakes in positioning. However if you are someone new to Nidalee that isn't great at laning or positioning and is finding it hard to use her mobility to her most effective, then Mercury's Treads could be an option.

Rabadon's Deathcap
Massive power-spike in AP damage. With the 90 from runes, Doran's Ring and Athene's Unholy Grail, the addition of 120AP plus an extra 87AP from the combination of Rabadon's Deathcap's passive and the Archmage mastery to increase AP by 36.5 (they stack multiplicatively)

Void Staff
Cost-effective. Penetration works excellently with Nidalee's Javelin Toss against even the tankier champions of the enemy side.

Zhonya's Hoursglass
Zhonya's Hourglass used to mostly be beneficial for Nidalee in damage while the passive was more of a safety-net against poor positioning. However with Nidalee's more assassin-like nature in cougar form due to Prowl's rework, Zhonya's means you can chase up marked targets and punish and burst them without dying afterwards. However if you're more into throwing spears from afar, you could possibly skip this entirely. Additionally if you're doing well and are ahead and the enemy poses you little threat even after jumping in with cougar, you could forgo this for an earlier Lich Bane until they start really noticing your cougar damage and focusing you down.

Lich Bane
This really completes your damage allowing maximum damage in your cougar form. In some builds, you can actually build this first (I build this first more commonly against AD laners) as it allows your cougar to flourish early while you cultivate more spear damage over time for the late-mid/late game. Remember to time your abilities to make the most use of the Lich Bane proc by getting an auto-attack in between abilities to get as many Lich Bane proc'd autos to cause maximum damage. Of course this is not always a reliable and consistent source of damage as it relies a lot more on good mechanics which is why it's often built last. It's extremely deadly at level 18 with a full build as it makes each Lich Bane proc'd auto-attack hit for 521.5. That combined with Takedown makes an auto-attack count to 1128 (my understanding on the actual math behind Takedown could be wrong but I'm fairly sure this is the right theoretical number before resistances and penetration).


Mejai's Soulstealer
If you get Mejai's you're probably overly confident or confidently destroying. If you're confident that you can rack up the stacks without dying then this is a great item. Of course it's an extremely risky item to get and I'd only get it if the entire team was doing well. I'd get it early in a total team stomp to rack up fast stacks.

Abyssal Scepter
Abyssal Scepter can be an alright item to get, especially if the enemy team has a lot of AP and need some magic resistance with some damage. However while the AoE magic penetration and the resistance is great, you have to be close to be taking that much magic damage anyway and making use of the range of Abyssal Scepter. Better to rely on good positioning so you can maximise damage output.

Morellonomicon
A good mana-item replacement for Nidalee that gives CDR and increased mana regeneration. You can swap out Athene's Unholy Grail for this against teams with a lot of heals or self-healing (champions like Swain, Dr. Mundo, Soraka, etc.)

Seraph's Embrace
Another good mana-item replacement. Tear of the Goddess is a build-path I regularly go for instead of Chalice of Harmony against AD mids (check the next build tab for a more in-depth guide to that match-up) as well as champions I feel I can beat without CDR. With Seraph's Embrace, your cougar all-ins are much less risky with more survivability with the shield from it's Unique Active and you also get 90AP just from the item (not including base mana and any mana from other items like Lich Bane). Charging up Tear of the Goddess is also incredibly easy with Nidalee. After you buy this, use two abilities at fountain then alternate using any Aspect Of The Cougar ability on your way to lane every time your Tear of the Goddess is on cool-down.

Deathfire Grasp
This can be an interesting build on Nidalee. Like Abyssal Mask, you have to be a lot further in than normal Javelin Toss range to make use of it's unique passive/active. However, Deathfire Grasp also comes with 10% cool-down reduction and as much AP as Zhonya's Hourglass.

Haunting Guise
Haunting Guise is occasionally bought by a couple of mid-laners to get cheap cost-efficient early game magic penetration. If you don't buy this early, don't bother buying it at all and definitely don't bother upgrading it to Liandry's Torment as without any CC it's hard to make full use of it's Unique Passive. If you do buy it, you should sell it mid/mid-late for a Void Staff

Rod of Ages
A Rod of Ages was more commonly found on Nidalee in past seasons when there was less variety in item builds for an APC. However, while Catalyst of Aeons gives great sustain in lane and a Rod of Ages with full stacks is a very gold-efficient item, it's just generally not an item needed for Nidalee as you shouldn't need that much health when you can't just position yourself properly. This is an okay item to build when you're having a hard time.

Banshee's Veil
If you are getting instagibbed by champions or having a hard-time against a team with a lot of CC, Banshee's Veil can be a great item to keep yourself alive. You get a great spell-shield every 40 seconds after you take no damage and gives you massive health-regen after it's popped. I'd still suggest something else but sometimes you need a bit of survivability to win the game.

Guardian Angel
While it does have a great passive, Nidalee is just not the type of champion that really needs this. However if you do find yourself getting engaged on late-game by people with unstoppable targeted CC that use all their burst on you, this can help keep you around for a team-fight.

Ardent Censer
This isn't an item I'd really suggest often on a carry Nidalee however it does offer a lot of utility. It still gives a small amount of AP as well as CDR and mana regen which are all helpful on Nidalee, but it's real use comes from the Attack Speed buff to allies when you heal them. At level 18, you can heal your ADC at massive amounts with full build as well as give them an extra 25% boost to their attack speed on top of the 60% from Primal Surge to combine for a massive 85% increase in attack speed. If you have a hyper-carry ADC (like Vayne, Tristana, Twitch, etc.) that's doing well, Ardent Censer could be a decent fit for Nidalee if the support can't make use of it.

Mercury's Treads
And finally, Merc Treads. This isn't really a common item on APC's as they want to be putting our damage, but if CC is heavily affecting your survivability and therefore ability to do damage, this can be a decent item. However, I would still not generally suggest it.

As soon as you buy, I'd suggest taking Bushwhack/ Pounce and switching to Aspect Of The Cougar and making use of bushes and Pounce to get to river quickly to place wards and traps down to get map control. If the enemy team isn't pushing or your team is just securing your own buffs, you can recall quickly to gain some of your mana back and running back into lane. Early, Nidalee isn't able to do too much damage but you can chip away a decent amount of health with Javelin Toss. Since you should be running Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration, make sure to harrass the enemy laner with auto-attacks and if you start to trade AA's, use Primal Surge to heal yourself and smack them with more auto's since you'll be able to get more auto-attacks in than they can. At level 3, you should be able to do about 440 damage (before resistances and penetration) on an enemy with about 620 health if you get a maximum-range Javelin Toss on them combined into a Cougar W,E,Q. I don't do this too often, but if the chance comes up to gank bottom pre-6, it may be worth it as most enemy teams won't expect it and it'll give your team the chance to burn some summoners or even pick up kills.

The mid-game is when you should be able to make the most impact upon the game as your ability to output damage gets substantial at this point and Nidalee's roam is extremely good. Make sure to push through river or jungle (passing through bushes and making use of Pounce to jump over walls if it'll make your route faster) to gank other lanes that are pushed-up or low as you can snipe them out with a Javelin Toss. Remember to put down Bushwhack traps on return to your lane so that you can mark the enemy jungler. Putting traps in river bushes and jungle entrances and exits increases the chance of marking the enemy jungler. As towers should be going down at this point, use your high mobility to get map control with wards and traps and be prepared to pick people off in the jungle. You can also throw blind spears into common bush camp spots just to check that you aren't being ambushed. If you manage to pick someone off, your team should be focused on getting dragon if it's up. With blue buff, you should be able to deter the enemy team by yourself as they'll fear taking a spear to the face.

You're going to have a few different roles in team fights. While you do have the ability to pick off people one by one with a spear + Cougar W,E,Q combo if you're extremely ahead, the best role for Nidalee is to hold back with your ADC throwing off spears and healing your ADC so that they can't put out more DPS. The benefit of staying back is that in team fights is that most enemy players won't have time to dodge your spears if they're coming from a blind-spot, especially if they are engaged with other members of your team. This also allows you to get maximum range damage which makes each one of your spears hit for massive damage. Once it gets towards the end of the teamfight and the majority of champions bursts are on cooldown, you can start cleaning up the fight, hitting people with spears and pouncing on them for a Hunted cougar combo.

I've already briefly talked about how to use Nidalee throughout this guide but I'll give you a few more advanced tips.

Invisible spears?

There are blind spots on Summoner's Rift that you can take advantage of to hit enemy champions with spears without giving them any time to see it. This can make the enemy feel as if they are getting hit by invisible spears. You should take advantage of warded areas and Farsight Orb to spot enemies and hit them with a spear from a blind spot. Below is a map showing the blind spots of Summoner's Rift, the circles are the blind spots that Nidalee can stand in to hit enemies with a blind shot (represented by the lines)

Nidalee Sense

Now this isn't really quite something exclusive to Nidalee, however it's extremely beneficial. When I'm talking about Nidalee Sense, I am talking about the ability to understand, perceive and predict where the enemy is. In teamfights, it's important to be well aware of where each enemy is and of all the angles you could throw a spear to hit the target of your choosing. Similarly, it's important to predict the movement of the enemy. For example, you can throw a spear into the fog of war by predicting where the enemy has moved to since entering the fog of war. Getting this down is about understanding the mobility and abilities of other champions and knowing how long it takes for your spear to connect to a target. Additionally, Nidalee's Javelin Toss has the ability to redirect enemy champions and perhaps draw them into hard cc or to keep off an engage due to the fear of getting hit by a spear.

Animation Cancelling

Nidalee doesn't have too much too cancel but it does save you a lot of time. One ability you can cancel the animation of is Takedown. You can cancel the animation by pressing Q and auto-attacking an enemy at the same time and then clicking right after it hits will shorten the longer animation of Takedown.

Human Form/Cougar Form

This is one of the easier mechanics to master as all you need is quick fingers for maximum efficiency. All it requires is using an ability and switching forms and using another ability quickly. For example, you can Pounce and switch to human form mid jump allowing you to pull off a quick next ability. Similarly, you can quickly mark a target with a Javelin Toss, switch to Aspect Of The Cougar and then Pounce from range to close the gap on your enemy and pull off the rest of Nidalee's combo.

Advanced Pounce to Human Form

The pounce switch can be taken further however. After using Pounce and switching to human form, you can quickly throw a Javelin Toss towards enemy champions. This quick change makes the spears incredibly difficult to dodge and they are about as hard to dodge as blind spears and spears from Fog of War. Additionally, it will allow you to quickly Pounce to a good angle from where you have an open line of sight to throw a Javelin Toss.

Additionally, after engaging the enemy by pouncing on a Hunted and marked champion, you can finish your combo and Pounce back out and switch to human form and throw a spear from futher away allowing to maximise your damage. You can do this for two reasons, the first is if you do not have enough damage early to kill in one combo. Pouncing out before switching to human form will allow you to get a more powerful spear from a longer distance and also mark the enemy again allowing you to Pounce back onto them once Aspect Of The Cougar is back up. The second reason is you feel that you can not survive much longer up close and need to Pounce out to get away from the damage. You can also Pounce out and use Primal Surge to heal yourself and give you an attack speed buff to AA harrass enemy champions as they chase you down before you can switch back to Cougar form.

Pounce Cooldown Mechanics

With the changes to Pounce to get resets that shorten the cooldown of the ability, there are new mechanics involved in Pounce that make it very easy to chase enemies and to get in position for a quick spear at the enemy. As I mentioned before, you can Pounce towards minions and use Swipe or Takedown to kill a minion for a reset on Pounce.

The other method is much simpler as just requires the player to Pounce on a champion that's stepped on a trap and has become marked. The change to the resets enables Nidalee to put more damage down in cougar form with high mobility. This allows you to chase against even some of the most elusive champions ( Udyr, good god Udyr). After you Pounce to reduce the gap, you get a quick reset on pounce that will allow you to keep up with champions.

The last method is similar to the first but continues to a more advanced level. Like before, you Pounce towards a group of minions and Swipe. After killing a unit, Pounce and switch to human form, quickly Javelin Toss backwards towards another low-health minion to kill it and lower the cool-down on Pounce. Once Aspect Of The Cougar is back up, you can press R and instantly Pounce towards who you are chasing. This allows to reduce the distance extremely quickly.

Escape Mechanics

With Nidalee, you have a lot of options in your escape. As mentioned before, one way of escaping is by making use of Nidalee's Prowl passive and running through bushes to gain extra movement speed. Another mentioned before is by jumping over walls in the jungle, necessitating flashes from most other enemy champions to keep up with you.

However, a less frequently yet highly effective (and difficult) method of escaping is using Pounce to marked champions. Sometimes when I find myself surrounded with enemies coming in directions, I will use Javelin Toss to hit a champion further away so that I can pounce away from the majority of the enemy giving me more chance of survival. This method requires quick decision making and good aim on your spears. You must be able to find the angle amongst multiple enemies to hit your target so that you can pounce away. When choosing a target; a carry (you can take a high-priority carry out while they thinks it's hard for them to get hit. If the carry doesn't die, then you also have an escape and a means to finish them off by pouncing to the marked champion), a champion with low damage, a champion with low mobility or a champion that lacks any strong or hard CC. If you can find Q someone much further out or over a wall from the rest of the enemies, you will be able to put a big gap between you and then and you can then use Pounce again quickly with the reset on the cool-down.

Thanks everyone for reading my guide.

Updates
v1.00 - Finished mid builds

Upcoming Updates
-Working on AP and AD Top builds for Nidalee