Hi everyone, I'm TRG Shaun Gyle, and this is my Nidalee Guide. I worked hard to make this Guide the best I could, and I would appreciate any and all feedback that you guys may provide (It's my first guide though). Nidalee is an excellent jungler because she got alot of clear for the jungle, poke for late and a huge burst + a great gapcloser for ganks. Without further talk, I present to you, my Nidalee guide. I put a fair amount of effort into this guide, i hope you like it. And above all, thank you for taking the time to read this Nidalee Guide.

Pros

+ Long ranged Poke + Bush reveal + Heal + Huge burst + High Mobility + Attack speed buff

Nidalee is a great pick in solo/team queue. She does have an in-built escape, Pounce + Prowl allows her to jumb over walls to enemys or to jungle monster to escape or engage. Her duelling potential is huge due to her good poke with Javelin Toss and her burst with Takedown. Most important when considering jungle Nidalee, is her Aspect Of The Cougar. These abilities except Takedown provide a good AoE clear and they cost no mana! That's totally broken with the new Enchantment: Runeglaive. You get Mana back without wasting some in the Cougar form. Moreover as you may notice due to Rod of Ages and Archangel's Staff it's a quite huge amount. And you can check bushes and reveal them by using Bushwhack

Cons

+ Susceptible to CC + pretty squishy + Can't start fights + Provides no CC

By playing Nidalee you haven't got any form of cc or engage (except 1on1 in jungle or when you catch someone off guard). You have to rely on your team that you can do your job by poking them with your Javelin Toss because your teamfight is pretty hard to play.

Skilling Order

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Prowl: Moving through bush increases Nidalee's movement speed by 10% for 2 seconds, which increases to 30% if she is moving toward a visible enemy champion within 5500-range.

HUNT: Hitting enemy champions and neutral monsters with Javelin Toss or Bushwhack will mark them as Hunted for 4 seconds, revealing them. Neutral monsters are also rooted for two seconds (perfect for Rift Scuttler; doesn't work against Dragon or Baron). While moving towards the hunted, Nidalee gains Prowl's bonus movement speed and ignores unit collision. Additionally, Nidalee's first use of Takedown AND Pounce against Hunted will have an empowered effect.

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Javelin Toss: Nidalee hurls her javelin forward in a line, dealing magic damage to the first enemy it hits.
50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+40% AP)
After having traveled 525 units, the javelin's damage will be increased by the distance it traveled, capping at 200% bonus damage (300% total damage) at max range

Takedown: Nidalee's next basic attack gains bonus range and is modified to deal magic damage.

Scales with ranks in Aspect Of The Cougar

The damage is increased by 1.5% for every 1% of the target's missing health, for a maximum of 150% bonus damage (250% total damage).
BASE MAGIC DAMAGE: 4 / 20 / 50 / 90 (+75% AD) (+36% AP)
MAXIMUM DAMAGE: 10 / 50 / 125 / 225 (+187.5% AD) (+90% AP)
HUNT BONUS: If the target is marked as Hunted, Takedown deals 33% increased damage.

You're going to want to max out first Javelin Toss before anything Else

• Try to hit max range Spears on jungle camps for better clear speed
• Try to use Javelin Toss to get over walls by hitting Jungle creeps
• Before any teamfight try to poke as good as possible

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Bushwhack: Nidalee lays a trap at a target location that reveals the location (even bushes) and arms after a very brief delay. When sprung by an enemy unit, they will take magic damage over 4 seconds and be revealed for the duration (Champions and Monsters will also marked with Prowl). Traps last for 2 minutes.
TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+20% AP)

Bushwhack: Nidalee lunges a fixed range in the direction of the cursor, dealing magic damage to enemies within a small area around her landing point.

Scales with ranks in Aspect Of The Cougar

Killing a unit will reduce Pounce's current cooldown to 1.5 second if it's currently higher.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 (+ 30% AP)
HUNT BONUS: If the cursor is near an enemy marked as Hunted within 750-range, Pounce becomes a unit-targeted dash. Current cooldown resets to 1.5 seconds if Nidalee pounces to a Hunted target. This can occur once for every time the target is hunted.

You're going to want to max out Bushwhack last.

• Try to scout brushes with Bushwhack
• Traps are good rooting the Rift Scuttler after hitting Javelin Toss
• Can be used to block ways and reveal enemys walking through the traps
• Can be used to mark jungle creeps with Bushwhack and to jump over walls with Pounce for a greater distance

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Primal Surge: Nidalee evokes the spirit of the cougar, healing a target allied champion or herself and granting them bonus attack speed for 7 seconds.
HEAL: 45 / 85 / 125 / 165 / 205 (+ 50% AP)
ATTACK SPEED: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60%

swipe: Nidalee claws at enemies in a 180° cone in the direction of the cursor, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit.

Scales with ranks in Aspect Of The Cougar

MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 130 / 190 / 250 (+ 45% AP)

You're going to want to max out Primal Surge after Javelin Toss and before Bushwhack.

• Skill this on lvl 2 for more Sustain in the Jungle
• Heal when needed
• Heal your ADC or APC (or yourself) when pushing tower, that triggers the passiv of Enchantment: Runeglaive that makes even more dmg on towers and the bonus atk speed helps to push towers even faster.

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Aspect of the Cougar: Nidalee transforms herself into a cougar, gaining a new set of abilities and melee attack range.

Triggering Prowl resets Aspect Of The Cougar's cooldown if Nidalee is in Human Form.

Each rank in Aspect of the Cougar increases the ranks of all of Nidalee's cougar abilities.

Aspect of the Cougar: Nidalee transforms back into her human form.

You're going to skill Aspect Of The Cougar at level 6 / 11 / 16

• Got a short cooldown
• When in Human stance hitting something with Javelin Toss or Bushwhack will reset the cooldown to 0. For example: Jump out of a brush with Pounce use Aspect Of The Cougar to transform to the human form, throw a Javelin Toss and when it hits the enemy transform to the cougar with Aspect Of The Cougar and jump to the marked target with the greater range on Pounce and burst the traget with Takedown, Swipe and another Pounce

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: These scale well with all her Abilitys and due to her great sustain with Primal Surge and Ranger's Trailblazer - Runeglaive you dont need any further tanky runes to survive in the jungle.
  
• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Scales well with Takedown and gives you even more speed to clear the jungle, then in the early level's you have to rely on your basic attacks aswell. Moreover you get more dmg for dueling, especially when your spells are on cooldown.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: You will need those in the early game when ganking the midlaner to take a bit less dmg. Can be replaced with Greater Glyph of Ability Power or Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power but I'm not a fan of this because you can be bursted even easier. Except if you play vs a full AD team, then go ahead.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: You will need those in the late game when facing a fed midlaner or a heavy magic dmg based poke. Can be replaced with Greater Glyph of Ability Power or Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power but I'm still not a fan of it :/. Here Aswell: Except if you play vs a full AD team, then go ahead.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Essential when jungling Nidalee, without them you take way too much dmg in the jungle.

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OFFENSE TREE Tier 1 Sorcery Cooldowns are nice to have and the best choice here, don't waste any further points here. Tier 2 Mental Force gives you a nice small ap bonus and Expose Weakness is good for ganking Tier 3 Executioner gives you a bit more burst especially in the late game when your Javelin Toss drops the enemy carry below 50% HP (save bonus though). Arcane Mastery Gives you more AP and Spell Weaving increases your spell dmg even further Tier 4 Archmage gives you a great AP bonus and Blade Weaving increases your normal attacks, its pretty useful while ganking or jungling Tier 5 Devastating Strikes 6% Armor and Magic pen? Here you go Tier 6 Havoc 3% bonus dmg? Nothing special to say about this

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DEFENSE TREE Tier 1 Block is good for ganking and Tough Skin is good for jungling. In both cases you take less dmg, that's always good. Tier 2 Unyielding let you suffer less dmg and Veteran Scars gives you bonus HP and increases your Sustain Tier 3 Juggernaut is the best choice here.

Core Item for Ap jungler. It gives you a small AoE clear and a nice onhit effect on your basic attacks or your Q Takedown. Moreover the Ranger's Trailblazer gives you great sustain by dueling jungle creeps or even smiting them. You got nearly infinite sustain through it.

Great for mages and the magic pen is always good. I wouldn't go for Mobility Boots you dont need the extra movementspeed, because you are pretty fast due to your passive Prowl anyways.

Due to its changes in it gives a bit more Mana wich synergies well with Archangel's Staff & Ranger's Trailblazer - Runeglaive moreover you get even more AP but less HP. Get it as soon as possible to get the stacks as soon as possible

Must buy for any AP Carry, it gives you 120 AP and 35% bouns AP

Get the Tear of the Goddess right after the Rod of Ages and before Rabadon's Deathcap. Stacking this item is pretty easy with Nidalee but rushing a low stacked Archangel's Staff makes no sense at all. It synergies well with Rod of Ages and Ranger's Trailblazer - Runeglaive. Furthermore the active is pretty nice to rescue you from sticky situation's especially when you don't go for Zhonya's Hourglass

Good item for breaking tanks. I prefer this over Luden's Tempest as you gain nearly the same amount of AP and as I said you dont need the bonus movementspeed Luden's Tempest provides. In the end it's more of a personal decision what you want to play on Nidalee

Jungle Nidalee is an extremely strong jungler both for solo queue and for team queue. Most of this is due to the fact that she is extremely mobile with her Pounce and she has resets on her cooldowns that allows quick skill rotations. This makes Nidalee's early game extremely strong and she can definitely snowball a game on her own. When playing Nidalee try to have a tank on your toplane, or at least one in your team, otherwise your team will have a rough time if it doesn't know how to play with a poke champion in its team.

Starting as Purple Team you will go for Gromp first and do a simple rotation over Blue Buff down to Red Buff.
As an advanced Nidalee player you may choose to start at Gromp and head for the enemy Red Buff to draw the First Blood, or when he started blue, to steal his Red Buff. If you do that try to go for your own blue afterwards and do the normal rotation.

When you start on Blue Team you will get a leash at Krugs and do the normal rotation over Red buff to Blue Buff.
Again as an advanced Nidalee player you may choose to invade the enemy jungle and try to draw the first blood or to steal the enemies Blue Buff.


It's important to know that these are only the standard routes. You can vary your jungle path around this main route, but to effectively jungle you need to ensure you control your buffs, have a sizable experience gain, and are healthy enough to respond to gank and countergank opportunities.