Hey! I'm Predated01(OP.GG). I'm a Nidalee OTP peaked D2 last season with 63% Winrate. I am active in the Nidalee Mains subreddit and chat in the Nidalee Mains discord daily, so I think I know enough about the champion to make a guide. I think Nidalee is a very strong champion once learned/mastered and I wanted to make that process easier for people with this guide.

Pros:
+ Very fast clear.
+ Very high mobility.
+ Unmatched early game.
+ Good snowballer.
+ Can build almost any item in the game.

Cons:
- Very Squishy.
- Hard to learn/master.
- No hard CC.
- Terrible from behind.
- Slightly reliant on teammate backup to snowball in higher elo.

Riot decided they wanted to ruin Dark Harvest and gut it so instead of a few champions taking it for certain reasons there's a different set of few champions taking it for certain reasons. Thank you for ruining my favorite rune riot games now electrocute is the only decent keystone :).

As for non-keystone runes, I believe Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, and Relentless Hunter are the best choices in the domination tree as of 8.13. I haven't tried out the new Ghost Poro and Zombie Ward runes, so I don't know how good they are yet. As for Sudden Impact, It's just the best rune to take out of the 3 if you can proc it. Relentless Hunter is better than the other Hunter options as a jungler because the movement speed is just so much more valuable than lifesteal and CDR(also Nidalee doesn't work with Ultimate Hunter).

Clearing effectively early with Nidalee is one of the hardest things to learn and perfect. When I started playing Nidalee I would execute in my first clear every game.

Here is a reddit post showing all the clears for Nidalee on the new Jungle along with videos and explanations why each is good. I recommend practicing each a few times in practice tool to learn them so you don't mess up in Ranked. I personally do Buff -> Raptors+Wolves(in the fastest order of course) -> Buff into gank/Invade/Scuttle/Farm. Remember: as a jungler your route should always be subject to change over the course of the game, so you should never be doing the same thing over and over every game. Good junglers adapt to the game state.

Nidalee can build almost any item in the game. That is probably her biggest strength. Here are all the items you can build and why/when to build them:

Enchantment: Runic Echoes: Always build this item if not you're trolling xd.

Dark Seal: I recommend you always aim for this item first back since it helps you so much with snowballing and has so much value.

Sorcerer's Shoes: I've never built this item but many people build it when you're hard snowballing. Otherwise go either Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on enemy teamcomp.

Lich Bane vs Iceborn Gauntlet: Lich Bane is the more standard choice but IBG is very good into heavy AD comps since you only lose a bit of damage in return for a slow and armor. If you're inting and only hope is for ADC or team to carry skip sheen items and go Athene's + Ardent since you'll be more useful as another support.

Zhonya's Hourglass: I think this is a really strong item on Nidalee. It's very good for jumping in for the assassination, baiting out enemy abilities, cooldowns, and summoner spells and coming out alive while buying your team time. Really solid purchase even if the enemy team doesn't have a lot of AD damage.

Rabadon's Deathcap: If you want fat damage go for it I guess? Downsides are it costs a lot, is awkward to build and doesn't offer any defense.

Athene's Unholy Grail: Really solid gold efficient item. Gives you healing + mana regen + MR.

Mejai's Soulstealer: Buy this if you're snowballing really hard and need more than 10 stacks.

Morellonomicon: Really good item since a lot of strong champs right now have lots of healing( Dr. Mundo, Swain, Vladimir etc.).

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Really good cheap item. Gives good damage and a good slow for kiting/chasing.

Abyssal Mask: Good item versus AP and also if you need some tank stats + damage.

Banshee's Veil: Basically a worse Abyssal Mask in almost every scenario.

Hextech Gunblade: Fringe item. Good surprise burst with active and surprising lifesteal.

Void Staff: Good if you're not doing enough damage due to enemies building MR.

Liandry's Torment: If you need Health + Damage but don't need healing reduction or a slow.

Dead Man's Plate: Good Item at 6 items to replace boots, or if you want to go extra tanky as a 4th item into full ad teams after Zhonya it's nice.

Ardent Censer: If you have literally no use in the game except for your heal in teamfights buy this after Athene's Unholy Grail.

Rod of Ages: Buy this only as a first item after Runic if you're going for a more siege-focused build along with Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Randuin's Omen, Thornmail, Spirit Visage: If you really want to go tanky you can buy items like these though it's not recommended.

Elixir of Sorcery: The Elixir you should be taking 95% of the time. Remember you can buy it before full build to give you a nice boost in an important teamfight/siege.

Elixir of Iron: Useful if you need the extra tankiness.

There are hundreds of posts and videos on Nidalee's combos so I'm not going to waste my time explaining but rather link you these 2 videos from Nidken and Nidhogg respectively:
Play Video Play Video
After watching these guides and trying them in practice tool just keep the key ones in mind while playing.

A lot of new Nidalee players make many mistakes when ganking. Some things to keep in mind when ganking as Nidalee:

- You do NOT need to hit your spear from maximum range. You should deal enough damage in cougar form with the passive that a spear gives you from close range.

- You can poke your opponent down with auto attacks if they are standing in a minion wave to force them out. Don't force an awkward spear throw.

- If the lane your're ganking has crowd control, wait for your laner to use it before throwing your spear to make the spear a guaranteed hit.

- You can use Bushwhack to make your opponents take a longer path back to their tower or face getting marked by your passive.

- Use your spear like a Lee sin Q. Throw it when it's a guaranteed hit to give yourself the highest chance at a kill.

The easiest way to learn Nidalee is to play her yourself! So stop reading this guide and get some practice in! I hope this guide gave you an easier time learning Nidalee, and if you have any specific questions you can suggest that I expand this guide or add me on Discord(best girl#7026), or just join the Nidalee Mains Discord. Good Luck!