Hello there, my name is Dan, and this is my guide to Nidalee jungle. I find Nidalee jungle an enjoyable roll due to the amount of potential it has in snowballing the lanes and the game.

I believe Nidalee jungle is a strong pick if you are good with landing her Javelin Toss. Her mobility allows her to move around the map quicker, while her high damage output makes her ganking very effective.

Pros

-Pretty good sustain
-Has a high damage output (RIP oneshot spears)
-Can carry hard
-Good at counter ganking
Cons

-Squishy with no defense items
-Early game is not the best (definitely better with the new hunt)
-Ganking can be hard to pull off;
no hard cc/ ganks rely on landing spear

Passive : Prowl

Moving through brush increases the movement speed of Nidalee by 10% for 2 seconds, increased to 30% toward visible enemy champions within 5500 range.

Hitting champions (or monsters!!) with Javelin Toss and/or Bushwhack triggers a hunt, revealing them for 4 seconds. During this time, Nidalee gains 10% Movement Speed (increased to 30% toward the Hunted target) and her first Takedown and Pounce are enhanced against them.
Against monsters they are rooted for the duration.



Q : Javelin Toss / Takedown
Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 Mana
Range: 1500
Cooldown: 6 seconds / 5 seconds

Human form Javelin Toss: Nidalee hurls her javelin forward in a line, dealing magic damage to the first enemy it hits and applies the hunt debuff.
After having traveled 525 units, the javelin's damage will be increase by 2% per 7.75 units traveled, capping at 200% bonus damage (300% total damage) after traveling 1300 units.

Base magic damage: 50/75/100/125/150 (+40% AP)
Maximum magic damage: 150/225/300/375/450 (+120% AP)



Cougar form Takedown: Nidalees next attack gains 75-range (200 total range) and is modified to deal magic damage. The damage is increased by 1.5% for every 1% of the targets missing health, for a maximum of 150% bonus damage (250% total damage).

Hunt bonus: If the target is marked with hunt, Takedown deals 33% increased 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 damage: 13/67/167/300 (+250% AD) (+120% AP)


W : Bushwhack / Pounce
Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 Mana
Range: 900
Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9 seconds / 5 seconds

Human form Bushwhack: Nidalee lays a trap at a target location that arms after a very brief delay. When sprung by an enemy unit, they will take magic damage plus a percentage of their current health over 4 seconds (max. damage 150 vs. monsters) while also applying the [hunt debuff. Traps last for 2 minutes.

Total magic damage: 20/40/60/80/100 (+10/12/14/16/18% (+ 2% per 100 AP) of target's current health)


Cougar form Pounce: Nidalee lunges a fixed 375 units in the direction of the cursor, dealing magic damage to enemies within a 75 unit radius area around her landing point.Killing a unit will reduced Pounce's current cooldown to 1.5 second if it's currently higher.

Hunt bonus: If the cursor is near an enemy marked with hunt within 750-range, Pounce becomes a unit-targeted dash. Current cooldown resets to 1.5 seconds if Nidalee pounces to a hunted target
Magic Damage: 50/100/150/200 (+ 30% AP)


E : Primal Surge / Swipe
Cost: 60/75/90/105/120 Mana
Range: 600
Cooldown: 12 seconds / 5 seconds

Human form Primal Surge: Nidalee evokes the spirit of the cougar, healing a targeted 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%


Cougar form Swipe: Nidalee claws at enemies in a 180-degree cone in the direction of the cursor, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit.

Magic damage: 70/130/190/250 (+ 45% AP)


R : Aspect Of The Cougar
Cost: 0 Mana
Range: self
Cooldown: 3 seconds (both forms)

Human form: Nidalee transforms herself into a cougar, gaining a new set of abilities and has her range reduced to 125(melee).

Cougar form: Nidalee transforms back into her human form.

For my runes, I take 3 AP quints and 9 AP qlyphs, while taking 9 armor seals and 9 AD marks.I have thought about AP scaling blues and decided against it as Nidalee has a much harder time early game than late game.

These are the masteries that I find fit the best:
For masteries, I like to go the standard 21/9/0.

A must-have for junglers

Very nice for engages/ disengages

I would recommend the above spells, Smite and Flash. I would not recommend taking any other spells unless you are very good at wall jumping with Nidalee and have a plan in-mind that uses a different summoner spell.

Added kill potential when ganking

Also adds kill extra kill potential. Great for disengaging too

Would not EVER recommend

This spell exists for one reason; Trolls. NEVER USE

If you plan on taking a lot of damage from invading/ being invaded

Slightly better than barrier but still does not have much of a purpose

You are not Yi or Udyr; No purpose in taking this spell

If you absolutely hate flash, then this would be the runner up. Extra speed adds ganking potential

With Nidalee, I recommend maxing Q Javelin Toss first, as the javelins do a ton of damage.
(get it?)

I then max out E Primal Surge, as the heal and attack speed can help out in ganks and in clearing camps.


Lastly, I max out W Bushwhack, as the bushwhack deal very little damage and the pounce is used more for mobility than damage.


Take a point in R Aspect Of The Cougar whenever you can. Cougar form abilities scale off of the points in R.

Both of these items are good. The slow on the stalkers blade helps a ton when ganking, while trailblazer helps you clear camps faster, meaning you can get to ganking faster. It all comes down to personal preference.

Standard jungler start

Runglaive enchantment is a must have for AP junglers
I recommend the Rangers Trailblazer/Stalkers Blade

Pretty good stats; mana, health and AP. Pretty nice item to have. Also works well with Archangel's Staff.

I also highly recommend this item
After using Pounce to jump on someone, there is a pretty high chance of getting focused, and Zhonya's Hourglass can be the difference between life and death

Other items on Nidalee:

Rabadons Deathcap is great on Nidalee as it adds 120 AP and increases your total AP by 30%

Void Staff is a MUST if the enemy team is stacking MR

These two items are great if the enemy team has lots of AP

Morellonomicon is a good pick if the enemy team has sustain champions such as Swain or Vladimir

Tons of spears

If your getting focused by the enemy team, these two items are great
Randuin's Omen for AD, Banshee's Veil for AP

Recently I have started making this item a core part of my build
- Armor,Mana and CDR make this item a great one on Nidalee

Self explanatory (2 life's > 1 life)

These paths are made for red side so would be flipped for blue side



Black X: Start here
Red X: After clearing first camp
Blue X: After clearing second camp
Yellow X's: Possible places to go after third camp

Level one start with your Q Javelin Toss. Now that monster can have the hunt debuff applied to them AND be rooted during the hunt, Javelin Toss is a double win with her cougar form Q Takedown doing extra damage to hunted targets.

These are the wall that I know of that Pounce can be used to jump over:

Learning which walls can and cannot be jumped over will decrease time spent moving from camp to camp and also increase the amount of pressure you put on the map.

Ganking as Nidalee pretty much will always be the same combo
Javelin Toss -> Aspect Of The Cougar -> Pounce -> Smite(if you have it) -> Swipe -> Takedown
Q->R->W->E->Q
This image shows where to throw your Javelin Toss for ganking.
This is set for red side and would be flipped for blue side;

I have put X's over the areas I recommend you DO NOT use to gank. If you are waiting there to gank and the enemy jungler comes, you will be forced to flash over the wall or give first blood. If you wait at the opposite wall and the enemy jungler comes, you can simply hop over the wall.

After playing Nidalee jungle for a while a have found that Nidalee is a strong counter ganker. I have noticed that most junglers will stand still in bushes to not accidentally walk into vision. They are also usually not paying attention to their surroundings as they are usually looking for the best opportunity to start the gank, meaning that their screen is on the lane rather than themselves. During this time I have found it is very easy to kill them as landing your Javelin Toss is almost 100% guaranteed unless they have vision on you. However, before you engage the enemy jungler you should ping the lane you are counter ganking that you are about to engage, hopefully getting their attention, meaning you have the upper edge, and possibly securing one or more kills.

An example from red side
Blue plus: Your midlaner
Blue dot: You
Red plus: Enemy midlaner
Red dot: Enemy jungler

With AP Nidalee I believe that Team Fights>Split Pushing. That however doesn't mean that she cant split push, as her 1v1's are insane. However, her team fights are much better as there is always that time when you are waiting for someone to engage before all hell brakes loose. This time usually consists of poking, which Nidalee excels in.

With Nidalee your combo is pretty much always the same
Q(or enemy steps on bushwhack)->R->W->E->Q
Javelin Toss -> Aspect Of The Cougar -> Pounce -> Smite(if you have it) -> Swipe -> Takedown
If you have Stalker's Blade make sure to Smite before Takedown, as Takedown does more damage the less health your enemy has.

This concludes my guide for season 5 Nidalee jungle. I will continue to update this guide if I find something that works better or if something better is pointed out to me. I was inspired to write this guide as Nidalee jungle is very fun, but is being viewed as troll or not viable (I have been called troll for playing it until the first gank).
Edit: Not considered troll anymore :) but I am going to keep this part in.
Well, that's all I've got to say other than I hope you have a new champion to play in the jungle!
-Dan
Ps: If there are any mistakes or errors shoot me a message about it.

Shoutout to my man Steven the GoofyGooberYeah for helpin me make this guide and being an epic jungler!

1. New Runes

2. New Masteries

3. New Runes again

4. Added the chapter; Counter Ganking

5. Deleted 3 or so chapter which the names of them I can't remember

6. Double smite means no level 2 camp steals

7. Different jungle path

8. Trailblazer and Stalkers

9. Nidalee can hunt/root jungle monsters

10. Start Q rather than E

11. New jungle path picture

12. New picture for level 1 spear start

13. Updated builds: no more dfg = no killthemall build :(

14. TONS OF CODING

15. Watching too many streams, new masteries page.

16. The nerf is here

17. Runglaive gg