Hey everyone. I decided this is the first guide I write about a League of Legend champion. I have been playing to League of Legends since last year, and I consider myself as a good player. I played most of the champ in the game (except Poppy and some of the newer champ like Nami and Vi), so I know most of the game mechanics. I play every role well, but I don't excel at anything. I decided to write a guide about Nidalee because she is, in my mind, one of the most difficult champ to build and to master, as there is a lot of ways of playing her. Plus, she is really fun to play when you dominate your lane.

Pros

• High escape ability coming from Prowl and Aspect Of The Cougar.
• Can scout easily the other jungler with Bushwhack / Pounce early in the game.
• Ranged champion. Most top champions are melee.
• High base damage from the abilities in Aspect Of The Cougar. You can build surviviability and still deal tons of damage.
• You can counter easily a lot of champions because of the versatility of the build of a Nidalee. Most items in this game are good for Nidalee.
• Naturally tanky after lvl 6. Aspect Of The Cougar gives 30 bonus armor and magic resist.
• Because she is ranged, of her good clearing abilities and of her sustain, Nidalee can solobot effectively.

Cons

• Mana hungry early game.
• Won't be able to straightly 1 vs 1 most of the top laner early game. It gets better with Aspect Of The Cougar.
• AP and AD ratios. You have to build hybrid items to take full advantage of Nidalee's abilities.
• Abilities can be difficult to land in Aspect Of The Cougar. Your abilities will go in the direction your champion is facing, not in the direction of your scroll. It takes some time to get used to this system.

Set of runes 1

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These are basic runes that fit well with most AD champ. They will help you win your lane. The flat attack damage will help to harass your opponent with your basic attack and it will be easier to last hit early on. Take this if you are don't ''master'' Nidalee or if you know the opposing top laner don't have a good sustain in lane or if you know he won't be able to easily trade damages with a ranged champion.


Set of runes 2

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These runes are interesting to take on Nidalee. Take them if there is a lot of tanky champion on the other side, for example if you are against an Urgot AD carry, a Ryze mid and a Cho'Gath top. It will make your early laning phase much more difficult though.


Set of runes 3

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These runes will make your roaming much more effective during midgame. They are good for Dominion, split pucsh and to counter specific champ like Garen or some high movement speed jungler like Shyvana or Warwick. It is also good to take against a Janna to counter Tailwind. Take this if you are good with Nidalee, as it will make last hit a little bit difficultier.

Nidalee benefits especially well from the bonuses available in the three tree. In each of the tree, There are the ''must be taken'' masteries. These are the goal masteries to take whenever they are available.


Mastery page 1 - Offense

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Mastery page 2 - Defense

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Mastery page 3 - Utility

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It is important to take Bushwhack / Pounce at lvl 1 to protect your jungle and to scout the opposing jungle. Then, take your Primal Surge / Swipe at lvl 2, to be able to heal yourself. This may allow you to avoid dying early. At lvl 3, take Javelin Toss / Takedown, more for the utility than anything. I don't recommend you to try to poke your opponent with it if you are not AP. Before lvl 6, you can use it to farm some minions that are far from you and to verify a brush where you suspect the opposing jungler to be. After getting those three skills, it is up to you to chose what you want to up first between the three main abilities. Each of the ways have their own advantages.

Upping the ''Q'' first give a little more base damage to the ability in Aspect Of The Cougar. It is often the first ability to be max on an AP Nidalee, but it is the rare to see a top Nidalee maxing this skill first, as you don't use this ability very often in human form. I'm not sure if the damages dealt based on the opponent's life in Aspect Of The Cougar increase with the ranks. It is your main source of damage, but don't max it first.

Upping the ''W'' first is not usual. In human form, higher ranks give a nice bonus in base damage and shreds significantly more the armor and magic resist of your opponent. However, they are not a reliable source of damage in lane as they are easy to avoid. In Aspect Of The Cougar, it does slighlty lower damage than Primal Surge / Swipe and it is difficultier to land. Therefore, it is better to max Primal Surge / Swipe first.

Upping the ''E'' first is the most usual way to play Nidalee. Higher ranks of this ability give a slight better heal and a huge boost to the attack speed buff. In Aspect Of The Cougar, Primal Surge / Swipe does way higher base damage at higher ranks. It will help to push faster and to get more farm faster. This ability will deal damage to every ennemies in front of you, and NOT in the direction of your cursor.

You HAVE to use this summoner spell. It is really fun to Bushwhack / Pounce to an ennemy and then flash to finish him with a Javelin Toss / Takedown or and Ignite at max range. Plus, you will most likely be ungankanble when it is off cooldown. It will allow you to jump over two different walls in the matter of a second. Can be replace by Ghost for more chasing potential, but I don't recommend this. I will explain why lower.

It helps to take kill in lane. Moreover, it will negate the lifesteal of an AD carry late game, which will help you to assassinate the opposing AD carry in team fights.

To use only if you are a good [Nidalee] or if you will have an easy lane but will most likely not take any kills in lane (against Shen for example). It is also more beneficial to use Teleport with a well coordinated team (if you are on skype or TS with the other players of your team). To make this spell worth taking it you have to use it to give or take kills all around the map during the laning phase. You also have, with this spell, to take an early dragon with your team. In late game, use it to split push.


Cleanse was once a spell that was taken by some Nidalee. It let you go wherever you want. You are basically unkillable with Flash and Cleanse. However, it is not in everygame that you will face a hard Crowd Control ability that can make you lose a teamfight, and in those games, you can chose to buy a Mercurial Scimitar before the mid game teamfights to counter this Crowd Control. The passive of Mercurial Scimitar is indeed better than Cleanse and it has a lower cooldown. Ignite and Teleport has however no item that gives a similar effect and that would fit in a Nidalee build.

If your team has not enough champions with good Crowd Control abilities, you can take Exhaust. One of the weakness of Nidalee is her lack of CC, so this summoner spell can help you to 1 vs 1 an AD carry late game, when they do enormous damages. However, I find Ignite better to shutdown AD carries as their Lifesteal is simply misleading. But at this stage of the game, make sure to have a Randuin's Omen or a Frozen Heart to reduce their damage if you didn't take Exhaust.

I find that Nidalee have enough movement speed to chase down or to escape any other champs of the game (maybe except Rammus and Zilean), so Ghost won't help you at all. Flash, on the other hand, is better because it will help you cover a long distance instantly or to go over walls thats are too thick to Bushwhack / Pounce over them. Finally, I prefer to run Flash and Teleport instead of Flash and Ghost. But it is not a bad summoner spell. It is just not a spell which you will remove a great advantage from.

I never actually tried this spell on Nidalee. It maybe be good against a champion that has a high burst early in the game, like Garen, Cho'Gath, Darius and Elise. The failure is that it will fall off late game and will be a lot less useful than an Ignite or a Teleport. Take it if you think you will die a lot in your lane. If you take it, try to bait your opponent under your turret. Block then burst and use Javelin Toss / Takedown to kill them.


It does the same thing then Barrier, but it is way less useful for a solotop as you are alone in your lane, it can get reduced by half by an Ignite and it has a higher cooldown then Barrier. Moreover, you already have a heal ( Primal Surge / Swipe).

You are not suppose to die with Nidalee. After all, you are not Karthus. I find that [[Revive has a way too high cooldown, and it is not often decisive in Summoner's Rift (unlike in Dominion).

You are not a jungler. It won't help you in lane.

Sight ward and Bushwhack / Pounce are enough to scout the fog of war. It is more of a support skill than anything.

Yes, Nidalee is very mana hungry early game. However, once she starts to roam, her damage rely more on her abilities in Aspect Of The Cougar, which cost no mana. If you are really mana dependant, there are many items that are good to take on Nidalee that gives mana or mana regen. Take one of them instead of Clarity.

Starter

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This is a really good start with a ranged champion because it will give you the sustain you need to stay in lane as long as you need to. If everything goes well, I suggest you to go back after you reached lvl 6 and if you have at least 1,350 gold. Ideally, try to go back when you have 2,000 gold.

First back

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I highly suggest you to go back after you have enough to buy Giant's Belt and your Ninja Tabi. Buying the second tier boots will help you returning faster in lane. If you have to go back earlier and cannot buy Boots and Giant's Belt, buy Boots and Chain Vest instead. Some like to buy an early The Brutalizer. It is not bad, but you should only take it if your opponent have really high base armor, like Singed, or if you took a early kill. I like taking Enchantment: Furor during my laning phase because it will greatly help you harass your opponent.

Mid game build

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This is the build you should have by the time the teamfights really begin. I do not recommend to delay taking Zephyr except if you bought Mercury's Treads to counter your lane opponent. I like taking Frozen Mallet instead of Trinity Force as it gives more tankyness and the proc on the passive of Frozen Mallet is more relliable than the proc on the passive of Phage. You can buy Sheen a little bit later and upgrade it in Iceborn Gauntlet later.

What about Trinity and GA?

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I once thought this was the core build of any top Nidalee. The problem with these two items is that Trinity Force is way too expensive for what it gives and Guardian Angel is not always useful to take in soloqueue. Why? Because if your team does not have a slight advantage in teamfights, what will most likely happen is that : you will jump in the other team, you will get burst down and your team will fall back, leaving you all alone. You will then get stun at your respawn and will be killed.

When to take Guardian Angel than? Well you can take it if you are a bit more fed than your team and if the ennemy team is focusing you hard in teamfights. You can also take it in late game, if the other carries are taking it. Take it in mid game if your team has the farm and dragon advantage, but if there was no teamfight yet.

And when to take Trinity Force? Take it if you have a level advantage over your opponent. The level advantage will make you enough tanky to survive the scurmish, and the tons of damage dealt by this item will help you snowball. However, don't forget that Nidalee doesn't need much damage items to kill people. Her base ratios her enough.

I must try it

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This can be an interesting build if your against an opponent with a lot of HP. If you are in that case, take the Set of runes 2 and the Mastery page 1 - Offense. Why is it good? Well, your speels in cougar form will proc the unique passive of Iceborn Gauntlet and Liandry's Torment, and those abilities will have quite short cooldown with the stats give by Iceborn Gauntlet. Plus, the damages of Liandry's Torment passive are doubled if the target movement is impaired. I think ''movement is impaired'' means if the target is slowed or snared. The Iceborn Gauntlet will ensure that every proc of Liandry's Torment passive do double the damages.

Wriggle : Should I take it?

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Take Wriggle's Lantern if you are winning your lane already and want to pressure the ennemy jungler. In this case, make sure to place your sight ward in the bursh of the opposing buff nearest to your lane (blue buff if you are on the purple team, red buff if you are on the blue team). Use the passive of the Wriggle's Lantern to help your team getting the dragons and the Baron Nashor. What is important to understand is that this item is not useful at all in teamfights, so don't take it if your lane opponent farms more than you and if you are pushed to your tower. So basically, take it only if you beat your opponent and want to push that advantage before midgame. Make sure to take it early of it won't be worth the gold. In doubt, don't take it.


What to take between these?

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These three items are nice to have on Nidalee as they increase chasing potential, damages and tankyness. However, you must chose one of them only, as the slow passive doesn't stack. Try each of them and chose which one you prefer then. Frozen Mallet is the choice if you want to increase your max health and go more tanky. Iceborn Gauntlet is nice to take against a team with a lot of AD, and is a good all around item. It gives nice damage, a nice slow on your skills, armor, cooldown reduction and mana. All you need. The advantage of Trinity Force over it is that Trinity Force gives some movement speed. Plus, the passive give 150% instead of 125%. I usually prefer Iceborn Gauntlet.

Easy lane. Cho'Gath is an easy match up, especially after the lvl 6. You can juke easily his Rupture with Bushwhack / Pounce. Moreover, he has no escape abilities. Juke his two skill shot and you should be able to kill him easily with the help of your jungler. However, he has great sustain with Carnivore. I don't think it is worth to harass him early in the game with your basic attacks because of that passive, but you can try. Stack health to counter the true damage coming from Feast. Liandry's Torment might be a good item to buy to counter the huge chunk of health he will build throught Feast. The passive of this item procs with your abilities in Aspect Of The Cougar.




Medium lane. Buy your giant belt as soon as possible. Stacking health is the most efficient way to counter his high damages, as he has 25% passive armor penetration with his Apprehend, and true damage with Noxian Guillotine. You can buy sufire cape, but it is not the best item to take against Darius as you want to stay as far as possible from him, so the passive of this item won't be often used. You mostly won't win a straight 1 vs 1 against Darius. A good way to win your lane though is to take Frozen Mallet early in the game and the Enchantment: Furor to keep him far from you. Don't underestimate the burst he can do to you after lvl 6 with the 5 stack of Hemorrhage and an Ignite. If he ever flash in your direction, flash out instantly, because he will most likely grab you to burst you. Farm well and don't give him kills, and you will have won your lane. Finally, harass him whenever you can.




Hard lane. Try to avoid at all cost a lane against Elise. Consider going solobot or mid instead of top against that spider. If you have no other choice, go with the Start 1 ( Crystalline Flask and a lot of Health Potion). Build early Magic Resist and Lifesteal. Try to keep up in farm and not feed her. Play safe. However, try to not let her push you under your turret, except if you know your jungler may want to camp your lane. Elisecan harass you really easily under your turret with her Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite and her Volatile Spiderling / Skittering Frenzy. Instead, use the brush to boost your movement speed in order to farm well and avoid getting close to her. Buy Mercury's Treads. Don't forget that her Spiderling and her Cocoon / Rappel can be use to dodge your Javelin Toss / Takedown. Also, Spider Form / Human Form is a little bit better, in my opinion, then Aspect Of The Cougar and is available at lvl 1, which gave her an advantage over you. You have two advantages over Elise : you have a better mobility and you have better wave clearing abilities after your lvl 6. Use these to roam and take kills in the top side of the jungle and in the mid lane.




Easy lane. In lane, make sure to harass him with Bushwhack / Pounce, basic attacks and even Javelin Toss / Takedown in order to keep his passive Perseverance from kicking in. It will keep him out of lane if he can't regen his life as easily. Phage is not a must have as he can break free from slow with his Decisive Strike. Use brushes to keep him from getting close to you in lane. Use Bushwhack / Pounce to lower his naturally high armor that comes from the passive given by Courage. You will be able to kill him in lane around lvl 6 to 10, but it will be hard so don't expect too much that it happens. Don't try a straight 1 vs 1. Harass him down.




Hard lane. Don't go with Sunfire Aegis first item. Against a Jayce, you can either go with an AP build to try to harass him more than he does, or with more of an AD build with a fast Guardian Angel and some lifesteal. If you approach him in Aspect Of The Cougar, he will most likely Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate which will knock you back and deals tons of damages. Take some armor and magic resist if he doesn't take armor penetration items.




Medium lane. This lane depends on multiple factors. It depends on the skill of the Lee Sin (if he his able to land his skill shot at the right moment), it depends on the skill of the Nidalee (if she is able to juke these skill shot), it depends on the stuff and it depends on the junglers. However, you must know that Lee Sin has the right set of abilities to shut you down. He will be able to kill you, but you will difficulty be able to kill him if he Safeguard / Iron Will on a Sight ward near his turret. His Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike does damages based on how much health is missing to the target, like your Javelin Toss / Takedown, but he can additionnaly jump on you from a good distance with it. Tempest / Cripple slow your movement speed and your attack speed, countering your high mobility and the attack speed bonus that comes from Primal Surge / Swipe. How to counter him? Good question. Maybe a Guardian Angel soon in the game can help you to do so. Frozen Mallet can also be really useful to keep him off your carries. Safeguard / Iron Will gives him lifesteal, so don't let him basic attack the minions or he will negate the damage you dealt to him. Stay in Aspect Of The Cougar when he is in range. Use Bushwhack / Pounce to reduce the number of basic attack he can lands on you.




Medium lane. You basically have to outsustain him to win in lane. Take Crystalline Flask and Health Potion. Take some early magic resist, because his skills deal magic damage and Malphite often take Sunfire Aegis first item. Consider taking a fast catalyst the protector and upgrading it in Banshee's Veil. Iceborn Gauntlet and Mercurial Scimitar are nice to take after Banshee's Veil to counter his Seismic Shard.




Medium lane. Don't go with the usual build. Take some armor and magic resist soon, as Nasus usually build tanky and doesn't any armor penetration. It is not as efficient to stack health against a Nasus as Fury of the Sands deal damage equal to a percentage of your max health. Remember that Wither reduce your attack speed by large amount, so use your abilities in Aspect Of The Cougar to attack during this debuff. Avoid spirit of fire while fighting against a Nasus as it reduces your armor. In lane, it will be hard to harass him efficiently as his passive Soul Eater and Crystalline Flask will grant him a lot of sustain. Take an advantage early game, is it is his main weakness.




Medium lane. Dodge Undertow and you will be fine. Stack health and you should be able to 1 vs 1 him. Use the brush at your advantage to harass him early game.




Medium lane. You can be sure he will take that Crystalline Flask at the beginning and will spam his Spear Shot. Care for early ganks. If he has a jungler like Amumu or Maokai, they will be able to kill you under your turret before lvl 6. After lvl 6, when you have bought some armors and health, I advise you to push him under his turret and harass him a lot. Make sure to sight ward the river and to place lots of Bushwhack / Pounce if you push.




Medium lane. You probably won't be able to kill him in straight 1 vs 1. Try to outfarm him. At lvl 6, as you won't be able to stop his Stand United, try to push him under his turret so you can take it down if he ever use his ult to gank another lane. If you know you are against a Shen, you can even take Teleport to prevent him for crushing your bot lane. You can win trades against Shen if you play smart and benefit from the fact the he can't spam his skill like you as he will run out of energy after a combo. I recommend to pick another champ if you see there's a Shen top on the other team (pick a champ that can intterupt Stand United.




Hard lane. Against Teemo, mouvement speed runes and masteries are nice to have. Building some AP early can help to control him with your Bushwhack / Pounce. During a 1 vs 1 fight, use your skills ( Swipe, Pounce and Javelin Toss) against him while you are blind (after his Blinding Dart. Use your Primal Surge / Swipe on you after the blind, to benefit from the attack speed bonus. Buy Vision Ward to remove his Noxious Trap from the river to help your jungler ganking him. An early Phage can help you and your jungler to kill Teemo.




Medium lane. Nothing much you can do here without the help of your jungler early on. Vladimir has a lot of sustain, he is ranged and has a nice escape with his Sanguine Pool. Take some early magic resist, especially if there is an AP mid in addition on the other team, and a lot of health. Take something like a Banshee's Veil and you will be able to win harass fights. Buy the Enchantment: Furor and maybe a Phage to chase him down effectively when your jungler comes to gank him. A Vampiric Scepter might help you staying longer in lane against a Vladimir after lvl 6. He has no mana which gives him a good advantage over you. Finally, he often builds a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. It will reduce your chasing and escaping capacity. 9/21/0 masteries might be useful to counter him. In this case, make sure to take Relentless .




Hard lane. Well it is Yorick. Nothing to explain here. Don't go near him because his ghouls deal tons of damage. You can take an advantage early game as he will run out of mana pretty fast. Use your high mobility to go on other lane and take kills. His can reveal you in the brush and slo you with Omen of Pestilence, and that is pretty annoying.


For the other champions, I don't have laned against them as Nidalee yet. I will update this section later on.

This is the most important thing when playing Nidalee. You have to outfarm a bit your opponent in order to have more stuff then them. Why? First of all, your abilities don't have high ratio, like some of the abilities of Darius, nor abilities that can make your team win a teamfight even if you are way behind, like the Twisted Advance of Maokai or the Curse of the Sad Mummy of Amumu.

How to outfarm your opponent? First of all, the best way to farm well is to delay a bit the recall to buy some new stuff in the shop. You can do that by not dying from ganks (use Bushwhack / Pounce to scout the river, and use Prowl to move faster than your opponent).

The second trick to farm well is to not be pushed under your tower. You will most likely miss more last hit under your tower than if you are in the middle of the lane. In order to do that, you have to harass your opponent so they can't just plainly basic attack the minions. Each time you see there is more minions on his side than on yours, try to use more basic attack on the minions to keep the same amount of minions on the two sides. However, make sure to not push your lane under the tower of the opponent unless you are sure that you can survive ganks.

There are two ways to farm with Nidalee. You can farm with your basic attacks, or you can farm in Aspect Of The Cougar, with your abilities and basic attack. You will push more easily in Aspect Of The Cougar and you will likely miss less last hit like that, but you will be more safer with your basic attack in human form. It is up to your preference, but you should for sure use both, switching depending of the situation.

• If you are on the top side of the map (purple team), put a sight ward in the brush near the Ancient golem (blue buff) of the opposing team at around 6 minutes in the game. It should respawn at around 7 min 20 seconds, if it is the first buff that the jungler did. You can try to steal it to the mid with Javelin Toss / Takedown. However, make sure to do it safely (with Flash not on cooldown), and avoid at all price to die while trying to do so.
• Constantly use Bushwhack / Pounce whenever it is off cooldown to scout the river and the opposing jungle. Put them principaly at the entry of brushes so ennemies can't avoid them.
• Think to use Primal Surge / Swipe for the bonus attack speed while taking down turrets. Moreover, use it on your AD carry whenever he is close to you.
• In lane, stay near the brush (at the top of the map or near the brush of the river). Enter the brush whenever it is possible to have a constant movement speed bonus.
• When returning to your lane after recalling, make sure to pass through the brush that is after the Inner turret but before the Outer turret. Also, use Bushwhack / Pounce in Aspect Of The Cougar to move faster.