Hi, This is my guide on how to play nidalee solo top, this is the set up i personally use, and 9 times out of ten win top lane without breaking a sweat, the idea is max your heal, while last hitting with the ad, and poking the enemy champ, using the given armour to resist poke given back. the dorans ring level 1 is to sustain your heal, giving it more health given, more hp at level 1+ and the mana regen so you can live off your heal in lane for as long as you like. the idea of rushing sheen is that you can hit level 6 and pounce on the enemy top laner, with your extra armour tanking their output you can take them down with a couple of pokes and a jump of your cougar form. If you follow my guide i'm sure that you will play top lane nidalee without any hassle.
thanks.

There are plenty of alternatives for these runes for solo top Nidalee, I personally chose these ones purely for the AD damage on last hitting minions and high poke on the enemy top laner, the armour to resist their poke and help your survival chances if ganked, the armour pen to shred through the enemies health with your poke.

I take these masteries personally because the extra bulk of the defence tree helps a lot with armour early game, and also the hp etc while in your cougar form, where you really feel the bulk of ad hybrid Nidalee. the offence tree is purely because you're more AD than anything else, and you really need that poke and sustain to last hit minions and do as much damage to the enemy as possible.

Personally I always start with a Dorans ring, as explained you take the ring for mana regen, early hp, and AP for your heal, which I usually live off of until around level 12, gaining enough gold to get a few nice items. When i back i rush sheen with tier 1 boots, quickly following with 2 boots ASAP. from there you will rush your Trinity-Force as quick as possible, and from then on farming and hunting down enemies is easy enough. But then you take hybrid items such as Rageblade ( as it charges each time you pounce, you can keep it maxed forever ) and hex tech revolver to maximise damage output from both nidalees strengths, both AD and AP, and of course you will gain the spell-vamp and life steal you so sorely need. Then you take something like a guardian angel which will really increase your durability in team fights or if being ranked on and need to tank some damage while you make off, or take on the fight. you should finish with a nice AD item like infinity edge, which when using the Q ability in Nidalees cat form, will really leave a mark on an enemies HP. But, do not always take Infinity, take an item that counters their team, Magic resist, Quicksilver sash etc.

I personally will always take flash ignite for nidalee solo top, as that ignite helps you secure those early kills in top lane, as Nida has no CC, you really have to work hard to gain those kills, I find that ignite helps quite a lot. I always take flash with nidalee for sticky situations, E.g. missing a pounce over terrain or a miss click etc. that way you will 100% get away every time. Other spells may be useful such as exhaust if you have an extremely quick top laner like teemo that you will never be able to catch.

Farming for this build is very easy, with the AD given you can easily last hit minions at top, and if you need to push, whack on your E (heal) and gain the attack speed buff to push your creeps, or use the AS to poke your enemy. Once you hit 6, use your pounce and swipe abilities to clear the three caster minions then last hit the melee minions. Farming is very straight forward and easy in this build.

This build will always be good against 99% of the games you will play, the only problem with this build, like any other build unless you're a tank, is that if you are ganked hard and can't use the pounce or flash to get out, to stand any chance of even getting away, you have to try and deal some damage, as if you cannot escape (constant slow, etc.) you will die quite quickly. Also, you must play carefully against AD carries as their long range damage can put you off jumping into a team fight, which is where you're needed most. My favourite thing about this build, is that in a team fight, you can pounce to the back, use the hex tech on the ad carry to secure their movement, and take them down in a matter of seconds.