Hello all , this is my second build , inspired by my first build for Irelia !
First this is a build not an in-depth-guide , i just give a way to build Nidalee that fit my personal playstyle ie a lot of kitty play with survivability , if you want to play an AP nidalee this is not for you ! :p

Im not native english speaker so my apologies for the far-from-perfect language .

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Glyph of replenishment
I use armor pen runes because you will be a lot in kitty form .
You can maybe swap yellow for mana reg and blue for magic resist if you dont like dodge or just dont own this expensive runes .

I use hybrid masteries , picking all you need for nidalee :

- Magic penetration for your spear / swipe (dont forget this is an hybrid build and not AD)
- Nimbleness , with dodge from mastery + cougar form + runes it's a great tool for you !
- Improved buff duration , more info in the jungle section .

We have many options for summoners spells , you can pick whatever you prefer between :

- Ghost : well not much to say , amazing tool for both escape and chasing .
- Flash : same as ghost , allow you to cover nice distance with Pounce + Flash combo .
- Exhaust : good to shutdown a carry (even an AP one now , useful if you can exhaust a kat/malzahar/etc during his ulti) and to give a slow , but you will have one with Hextech Gunblade later on .
- Cleanse : really nice if you get shutdown by exhaust/blind or just focus down with stuns .

I try to max Primal Surge / Swipe as much as i can for both healing (for lane presence and team utility later) and damage output in kitty form , dont forget that Swipe is aoe damage so it give both burst damage for killing champions and great farming .

For first skill you can choose bushwhack or Primal surge , i dont recommand to take Javelin toss , mana expensive and low damage at lvl 1 .

What ? jungle nidalee? you mad ?

Ok just to be clear , YOU WONT JUNGLE FROM LVL 1 WITH NIDALEE , but when lvl 6 come , nidalee is a really nice jungler thanks to Aspect Of The Cougar , you can solo all the jungle including dragon (a bit later) whitout any issues .
I recommand to always clean blue aura when you hit lvl 6 , help your minions to push and clean it .

How to do it ?

Obviously if you have a jungler talk with him about it , most of junglers need only blue aura for their first trip in jungle then you can take it , junglers like shen can give you it the first time .
If not , just follow this skill sequence :

Bushwhack -> Javelin Toss -> Primal Surge (even if full life , for AS) -> Aspect Of The Cougar -> spam skills -> repeat when low life/armor debuff fade .

Why you do it ?

Blue aura give you :

- Amazing CDR for more utility with human form spells and when fight come , more dps in Cougar form due to ability spam .

- Almost infinite mana , for spamming of human form spells allowing more healing , more map control and more harass

- More lane dominance , allow you to use your heal on cooldown to keep yourself full on life while having enought mana to harass and then maybe make him recall / kill him

Red aura give you :

- Some addiotional damage

- Great slow , useful to stay in range of your target in Aspect Of The Cougar

<!> Important note <!> take red aura ONLY if nobody else need it , a melee champ whitout slow or a ranged ad will make a much better use of it than yourself .

Ok for this part a general tip : NEVER , NEVER follow an item build for all your games mindlessly , you NEED to think about the items you will get , what do you need the most at this moment and pick the right item , its just an example and more a list of options (thats why there is many items) .


Starting items :

Start with Doran's Ring , it provide you mp5 and AP allowing you to stay in lane via Primal surge


Usual items :

- Sheen : great item for nidalee , giving you some mana pool (always useful) , a good amount of ap for your spells and a passive ability you will proc everytime it come off cooldown due to the low cd based Aspect Of The Cougar spells system .
Consider upgrade it to Trinity Force or Lich Bane later on .

- Ionian Boots of Lucidity : CDR is really nice for nidalee allowing you to spam your spells in Cougar Form even more .
If you feel that a particular (or more than 1) CC affected by Mercury's Treads ruin your life , just buy it instead .

- Heart of Gold : a good starting item , it only cost 975 gold , with the gold / 5 sec you will be able to sell it at ~20-25 min if you dont want to get randuin and almost get your money back while make a great use of the stats early game .

- Spirit Visage : this items is amazing because it give you all you need for cheap : health magic resist increased healing and as bonus , cdr .
I will not recommand to skip Spirit Visage againts physical team because the health/cdr/increased healing remain really good in this situation , a nice item overall for any champ with some kind of health regeneration .

- Guinsoo's Rageblade : is a really nice item , it provide AS+AP+AD for a few amount of gold and got useful components .
Due to the mana-free spells in Aspect Of The Cougar , you can keep this item fully staked all the time by travelling with Pounce , really great items for nidalee :)


Situational items :


- Randuin's Omen : if you face many physical champions you can upgrade your hearth of gold into a randuin later in game that give really nice overall stats , the best part of this item is the activation that slow down attack speed to increase you and your mates life time , slow movement speed to escape/chase enemys for you and your mates .

- Quicksilver Sash : a really nice MR item , i personaly prefer it over banshee since you have enought life/mana in this build with others items and it have a much better mr/cost ratio than banshee .
but the really nice aspect of this item is the active , it cleanse ALL debuffs from you , it remove ignite roots stuns etc etc etc but the main purpose of this active is to counter malzahar/warwick because its the ONLY way to get out their ultimate , it will save your *** and make them totaly waste their ultimate !
You can sell Hearth of Gold later on if you need space in inventory due to this extra item .

Late game items :


- Hextech Gunblade : More AD and more AP .
The life steal and spell vamp is not that needed for nidalee since she can heal but the slow is really helpful for her :)

- Rabadon's Deathcap : Sell hearth of gold and buy this if you want more AP later on , if you choosed to upgrade your Sheen to Lich Bane Aswell you will have a decent AP late game , you can buy it after the Gunblade

- Guardian Angel If you need more survivability end game , you can choose to sell hearth of gold and buy a Guardian Angel instead of a Randuin's Omen if you feel that a ressurection will help you more than a slow :)