A little bit about myself :)

Hello guys!

My name is Paso "PASZOO" B. I main nidalee in diamond 1. The reason i made this guide is because a lot of people asked me to and they always wanted lessons on nidalee etc... Don't get me wrong i loved giving out lessons but it just got to much for me since i can't be giving 2 hour lessons every day. So i decided to finally make a nidalee guide. I have played against high elo and known players with nidalee and won most of my games. However this is my first guide i ever made !

Why do you love playing nidalee?

I love playing nidalee because i mastered every aspect of her and i know her maximum efficiency, she is by far my strongest mid laner. Her poke is so high and she can carry a lot of games. I love screwing around with people by letting them chase me and surprise them with 2k damage in 2 seconds :D.

IMPORTANT: This is not your main nidalee style.
Before you continue reading through the guide i want to let you know this nidalee style mostly is about spears. 90% spears and 10% maybe cougar form and it will depend on you trying to catch up to someone or kill someone with flash+cougar form. So once again this nidalee style is mainly spears and running around but never attacking with cougar form.

So basically I'm going to explain some of my item+ability leveling.

The reason i start with spear is simple, if you don't start with it you are gonna get poked to death at level 1. The other main reason is because i start with a doran's ring my ability power will be 30 at level one. If someone decides to poke me i simply do 1 auto attack + 1 spear. This will be equal to 5/6 auto attacks, which means i won the poke. What i always do i tell my jungler to camp other lanes until i hit 6, the reason i do this is because nidalee is useless until 6. Don't get me wrong you aren't completely useless but for you to not be useless with a jungle gank is, you need a strong jungler like lee, jarvan and udyr. The reason i name these junglers is really simple, they deal tons of damage with a red buff and they slow/stun or knock up their opponent which gives you at least 1 free spear hit. This will mainly revolve in the mid laner flashing or dying, which is always beneficial for you.


What items to buy when i back the first time?

This is always tricky... If you get a kill with a successful gank from your jungler it usually results in you going back with 1800~1900 gold. More often than not you might even be able to solo the mid laner.

If you manage to get 1900 gold you simply go base and buy a needlessly large rod + 2x wards and 2x pots.

If you just farm it out and push out your last wave before you go back at level 6, it should leave you with 1200~1300 gold. You just go base and buy a tear + boots + 2x wards and 2x pots

What people usually make a mistake with, is if they have 1200~1300 gold and try to stay to get 1600 for the needlessly large rod after their opponent has backed. What this will do is it will cause you to stay 2 extra waves against a stronger opponent with items. Not only will you risk dying but you will also risk them getting a free drake since you will probably be out of mana and at 50% hit points and not to mention you don't have the items to contest it. So make sure you always go back and buy what you can.


- Some people might think why i include potions into the early builds. The main reason i do it is because you won't be healing yourself for a majority of the laning phase. This nidalee style is pure of hitting 1 or 2 spears and then going cougar form onto your opponent.

How to throw spears?

What i mostly do is i throw a spear right after an minion dies, once i see the spear will hit or at least be close to hitting my opponent, i simply use my W skill in cougar form to jump back. Some of you might ask "why"? There is a simple reason to this. Nidalee spears hit harder the more distance they travelled, so by throwing a spear and jumping back will maximize your damage (This will take practice don't expect to get it right on the first try). Once you get this under control and you have the 1900 gold build from the early game, you are expected to either 2 spear + cougar/flash jump into their mid laner ( if you want to risk ), this will guarantee you a kill.

What to do once you get ahead?

A picture that fits the 3 points under here.



What to do once you're ahead? This is a line that is important in soloQ since a lot of people make mistakes with it. Nidalee's midgame is really op. The fact that once you have rabadon + archangel your dmg will spike so high. Here are some things to do in midgame with nidalee.


1. This position is standard once you have blue. All you have to do is keep pushing and sieging turrets. Nidalee is the strongest pusher in this game (5on5). All you have to do it hit 1 or 2 crucial spears and you will have an instant free turret. On the map above i marked the positions where you should be throwing spears from. Make sure to throw the spears from the exact position as the line starts for maximum damage output with your spear + cougar form jumping back. Make sure the spot is always warded that i marked on the map.

2.
Now we come to the dragon fight :) one of the heaviest fights for nidalee. I usually never help on drake, what i do is make sure nobody gets to it! What you should do if your team is doing drake, make sure the spots are warded that i marked on the map around the dragon area. Once it's warded the fun begins. Your team starts the drake and as soon as you see one squishy target preferable mid+support+adc, hit them with a long range spear with of course as i mentioned the spear+jumpback cougar form. Once again you will gain a free drake or you will only have to deal with the jungler which is easily killed.

3.
The baron engage+fight. It's very simple as nidalee you just don't want to fight but you want to poke. The same story as the dragon engage. You will have to hit a squishy target. Once you hit a squishy target they will probably go back and the best they can do is engage 4v5 which mostly results in a loss for them. Once again it shows what should be warded on the map.

That's mostly my in-depth on the midgame and the spears.

Flash

I recommend you always take this summoner with you no matter what. It's really crucial on nidalee for either catching someone with your cougar jump+flash or simply escaping from a gank. I mean there is not much to add here except the 2 reasons i use it for.

Ignite

This is a really strong summoner on nidalee. It's just the extra spike that you usually need to kill someone off. Or simply stop an ad carry from healing up with lifesteal.

Barrier

This summoner spell is simply needed against high bursty champions, you simply need it to survive a frontal engage.

Champions i recommend you to use it against are . Me myself i don't really use it except against those 2. The reason i only use it vs those 2 champions since those 2 champions are somewhat the only counters vs nida. Don't get me wrong there are way more counters vs nida but... I have mastered nida at such a high skill that zed and syndra are the only 2 counters for me. So once again there are more champions but that is for you to find out since i don't know any of your playstyles.


Also there are no other summoner spells that should ever be used on nidalee ever! Any other summoner will make her really useless.

Core build
The core build of nidalee is really simple. Magic pen boots + Rabadon's deathcap + Seraph's embrace + morellonomicon and void staff. There is no need for me explaining on why these items are viable etc.. It's simple honestly and those are the best items for nidalee.

Now the important part is the last optional item.

So i listed a few items in the option last item, here i will provide information on why you should buy these items.

This is a nono item usually.. I never buy this item unless there are some personal exceptions. I don't really like this item and if i should ever buy it, it would only be for tower pushing. This once again is personal pick item, however this nidalee style is mostly hitting spears, don't try to rely on your lich bane or cougar form.

I usually buy this item for the extra magic pen and you can nearly 100-0 someone once you have it. This item is really strong but you should only consider buying this item if they only have 1 gap closer, if they have 2 then you should forget it.

This item is personal pick up and it is strong if they have a strong engage comp and 2 heavy ad's.

This item is really strong if you play vs high ap burst champ's like lux syndra lissandra zyra. This item is the strongest you can pick vs those champions next to zhonya's. The reason i usually buy this item is if you are 40% hp and you heal yourself once at late game you will be full hp. I strongly recommend this item once you master nidalee. It also helps vs their burst if you heal yourself at the correct time and dodge the ignite so your heal doesn't get reduced.

This item is just as strong as the spirit visage. I recommend this item if you don't master nidalee at your highest potential. This item usually saves your *** in risky situations. Even though the item saves you it should only be used if you have flash up. Once you get caught and use zhonya's the chances of you escaping without flash are highly unlikely. So what i recommend is if you get caught once you zhonya's is to flash away and cougar jump right after it. That should close the distance between you and your opponents.

The only counters of nida

Honestly there are at most 2 or 3 counters against nida but not really counters you will get pooped on inlane. However these 3 counters will give you a hard time. The 3 counters against nidalee mid are Twisted Fate, Syndra and Orianna. These 3 champs will send you to abusement park in the early level's. If you manage to stay close in farm and exp and you get past 6 then they shouldn't be countering you at all. Nidalee's worst counter factor is early game. Those 3 champions excel at early game damage against nidalee.

Pros of nidalee are

The perfect bot lane gank champion.

If you get caught while roaming she can jump over so many walls.

You can pretty much dodge every gank after 6.

Tons of sustain in lane.

Perfect burst overall.

Strong objective champion ( if you follow the midgame section you can understand why).

She can solo blue easy.

Nidalee can catch up to anyone.

She is easy to learn.

Cons of nidalee are

She lacks sustain vs burst champions that counter her that i mentioned above.

If you have no flash up and you get caught in the middle of your jump there is no escape.

She doesn't work well unless you have a tanky jungler or toplaner.

She is not so easy to master.

If you fall behind too much early game there is mostly likely no way for you to come back.

Before you watch read below!

Before you play this video please do not judge the csing i'm doing since it was like 5 in the morning when i shot the video. The video will not show in-depth on how to do what, however the video will show how to throw your spears and how to hit them most of the time. This game was ranked 5's. Just to clarify it doesn't really matter if it's low or high elo, the spears i throw will hit 80% of the time.

So with this video i want you to see how to throw the spears and how to control the spear + cougar form jump back for maximum damage output.