Hello~ there! Welcome to my Nidalee guide! Before you immediately downvote for whatever reason, look through the rest of my guide as I will explain the idea behind my choices in items, skill sequence, etc. I hope you enjoy this guide and I hope it helps you! =)

Nidalee has been my main champion for over 5 months. She is so much fun to play. She has a very wide variety of spells at her disposal and can deal great amounts of damage if used correctly.
However, Nidalee is also a hard champion to use because she's squishy. What makes it even worse is that the only way she can combo is if she is in her Aspect Of The Cougar form, thus she has to be directly in front of enemies to attack them with combos.Therefore, instead of building tanky items, forcing you to have less AP, therefore dealing less damage, we can instead focus on being ranged instead so we don't need to be tanky.

Nidalee Pros / Cons
Now... I rarely see Nidalees :( but I'm also kind of glad so I don't have to deal with spears flying at my face 24/7... Anyways... She's a really fun champion though, and she's very strong too if you land your Javelin Tosses. Here are some Pros and Cons for Nidalee!

Pros






+ Ranged Champion
+ Has a Great Heal that Gives Bonus Attack Speed
+ Extremely Powerful if the Enemy is Hit by Your Javelin Toss
+ Can Lay Down Traps that do Damage and Reveal Champions, While Lowering Resistance
+ Has Many Different Skills
+ Spammable 3 Seconds Cooldown~ Mini-Flash






Cons



- Squishy
- Needs a Good Team
- Hard to master
- Easy to counter
- No CC

The runes I use are standard Caster runes. Magic Penetration Marks, Mana Regeneration Seals, Cooldown Resuction Glyphs, and flat AP Quintessences. Magic Pen. Marks to help deal more damage, Mana Regen Seals so I can keep using my Javelin Toss without running out of mana so quickly. Cooldown Reduction Glyphs for a higher spam rate, and flat AP Quintessences for more damage output.

Whenever I use Nidalee, I always make sure to take my Javelin Toss first as it deals a quite large amount of damage. Many other people choose to start with their Bushwhack or Primal Surge but I choose spear as it helps me zone enemies and harass early game, before level 2 and helps to check bushes (I have found that Bushwhack sometimes doesn't reveal bushes so I feel that it's unreliable).
Max out your Primal Surge second as it can heal for great amounts of health later on, plus the attack speed bonus is great for taking down towers or inhibitors.
Max out your Bushwhack last. The reason why I max it last is because, since it's a visible trap, people won't step on it as often. While it has its purposes, I choose to leave it at level 1 until later on because it is an unreliable source of damage (Even more unreliable than your Javelin Toss.
Finally, get a point on your ultimate, Aspect Of The Cougar whenever possible as it increases your armor and magic resistance and also lets your cougar spells deal more damage.

NIDALEE'S POWER

Most people would say that my items are weird... well... they are. But late game, once I finish my build, I end up with a bit over 1000 ability power. Now, with 1000 ability power, your Javelin Toss should be dealing about 2.5[230 + (65% of 1000)]. If you don't feel like doing your math the total damage is 2.5 x (230 + 650), which is 2.5 x 880, which is 2200 (Magic resistance and magic penetration not included). 2200 damage... for 1 spell, that's pretty powerful. Not to mention that you can use your Javelin Toss every 5~ seconds. You can one hit k.o. Squishy s or atleast bring them so low on health that they are forced to return to their base pool.

RUNNING AWAY

Now, this build focuses all on power. There is no survivability, but then again, does a Nidalee really need survivability if she's spearing someone else from afar? The thing is, Nidalee's spears have huge range and the go through walls, so you will always be able to deal damage and face no consequence. In the event where you are being chased for whatever reason, use your Aspect Of The Cougar and Pounce like a madman.
Otherwise, your heals should be healing for a ton of health and even your traps will do lots of damage.

~~RUNNING AWAY GUIDE~~

Since you're squishy, running as fast as possible is what you want to do. With a 3~ seconds cooldown on your mini-flash, Pounce, you will rarely be killed. Plus you can always heal yourself too. Incase you're being chased by a ridiculous group of bloodthirsty-enemies, composed of Kassadin, Riven, Sejuani, Vayne and Master Yi, remember those summoner spells Flash and Ghost? Yeah, well put them to use if you really have to. Incase that isn't enough, run into the jungle to trigger your passive, giving you even MORE movement speed. You'll get away nearly 100% of the time.

~~DAMAGE GUIDE~~

Escaping methods aside, you would want to deal as much damage as possible just like any other champion. However Nidalee's approach is different. Instead of throwing yourself in the fight, you want to stand off to the side and spam all your human form spells, yes, even your Bushwhacks too. Once the teamfight is over and the enemy Caitlyn took a spear
to the face and died, along with the other 3 people on their team, now it's safe for you to use Aspect Of The Cougar and begin spamming your cougar spells on the opponent, assuming that they have low HP and you have a bit of backup. Though they are by themselves, you're still squishy so remember not to get cocky. Don't forget to spear if they're at their turret Recall ing.

~~TEAM FIGHT GUIDE~~

Now, in teamfights, aim your spear at the squishiest opponents you see. Your job is to make the enemy run away from the teamfight with 100 HP, scared to run into another 2000 damage spear, leaving the fight as a 4v5. Nidalee might not do the most damage upfront, but in a crowd of people, having 2000 HP taken off by a spear that came from behind the wall is scary enough to make many people abandon their team to recall, giving your team a
huge advantage.

~~OTHER~~

Outside of teamfights, your job is to poke like a maniac. Even tanks. The more you poke, the more the enemy is forced to Recall to avoid spears, therefore creating a higher chance of having them miss a teamfight. Otherwise, just have fun killing.
Other than killing. When walking to your lane or jungle or wherever, use your Aspect Of The Cougar and spam Pounce to get there faster and to charge up your Archangel's Staff or Tear of the Goddess for more damage later on.

Yes, I play Nidalee as an AP carry, but I'm somewhat also going towards the support side. Why? Because I barely last hit. Usually, I end the game with a full build but only around 40 cs. How? Because I kill champions with my spears for money. While my AD carry laning partner is last hitting, I sit in the bushes spamming Javelin Tosses After a while, I end up with a few kills and basically funds me for the rest of the game. Not everyone works this way, infact most people don't, but it's just how I play. Doing this means that you must land a lot of spears to get lots of kills. In other words...


DO NOT USE THIS GUIDE IF YOU CANNOT LAND SKILL SHOTS!


If you want to be like me, you must follow the "golden rules"...
- Have less that 50 cs at he end
- Have over 6 kills and a bunch of assists
- Be able to blind snipe enemies
- Over extend and manage to live after being chased by 5 enemies
- Make the other team mad and hate your Javelin Tosss



=D

Here is a video of showing how great Nidalee is at escaping. Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/javelin-toss-544 Play Video

~~EARLY GAME~~

Starting at level 1, buy our Meki Pendant and 2 Health Potions. Proceed to bottom lane and get your Javelin Toss first. Once you're at the bottom bushes, use your Javelin Toss to check the bushes for enemies. If there's an enemy, keep using your spears to scare them away. You want to claim the bushes and make them your territory as it not only triggers your passive, but it's also easier to land spears in he bushes due to the angle, and since they can't see you as you're hidden in the bushes, they won't know where the spears will be coming from.
Now, stay in those bushes and harass with your spears constantly and let your AD carry have most of the farm (once again, you will have to be good with skill shots so you can keep killing enemy champions and leave all the cs to your AD carry).
After you kill a few champions and have about 1000 gold, Recall and buy your Tear of the Goddess along with Boots and a few Health Potions. Go back to lane and continue playing the 'Dodge-the-Spear or else you die' game with your enemies in lane. If you are having trouble killing them with spears, ask for ganks or assistance from your AD carry. If that doesn't work, go ganking lanes or kill some jungle minions. Once you're level 6, use your Aspect Of The Cougar to take some cs (but not too much so you don't deny your own AD carry).

~~MID GAME to LATE GAME~~

Resume doing this until about level 11~. once you're level 11, go wander around the jungle, ganking lanes or screwing up the enemy jungler's jungle monsters.
Keep on doing this and always be there for teamfights. Even at late game, keep doing this as it will give you kills and gold.

Nidalee is one of those gamble champions (or atleast the way I play her)...
It all depends on:
- If you can land the majority of your skill shots
- If the other team is bad at avoiding skill shots
- If the other team is squishy

So in other words... Don't expect to win every game just because you won the last 3 games you played with her... Whether you do well or not also depends on the enemy's skill level.

Well I hope you read all or atleast most of my guide. I recommend you to try it, even if it's a co-op game. You will find yourself laughing out loud (literally) when you fling a Javelin Toss into the fog of war and get a kill, having 1 Javelin Toss kill a Teemo with full HP, or run through the entire jungle kiting all 5 enemies and have them all go FFFFUUUUUUUU when they fail to catch you and waste their Flashs, and Ghosts.
Also, it's fun watching a low HP enemy get away from a teamfight, only to step on a Bushwhack trap and end up dieing from it while you're back in base healing up.

Remember, not everyone can play Nidalee this way. But if you manage to handle it, you will end up with a:
- Well farmed AD carry
- Constant 4v5s as you force atleast 1 enemy to flee in fear
- Great split pushing opportunities while you kite the entire enemy team through the jungle
And overall... A great and fun champion to play!

Thank you for reading this guide! I hope it helped you! =)