There are plenty of Nidalee builds out there: AP Nuke, AP tanky, AD tanky, Jungle (both AP and AD(neither are very good)), AD Carry, and Support. In fact, Nidalee is one of the few champions in the game that can fulfill every single role in the game to some degree. A long time ago, I started mixing a little bit of AD into my AP builds, to make the cougar form Takedown deal more damage. At some point I tried the jungle build and discovered that the life steal triggered from it, and if the minion was fairly low, I could get back nearly 90HP with that single attack. Thus began a little inkling of an idea. Nida has two damaging spells in cougar form, and 1 powerful nuke in human form, so she benefits from spell vamp. Her Q in cougar allows her to regen large amounts of health from life steal. So why not build a Hextech on her?

I tried it one game and was surprised to find that it worked amazingly well. I could duck out of fights and regen almost half my health with a full cougar combo, and my spears provided me with a massive chunk of health at max range. The active portion of it wasn't too shabby either, allowing the already fast cougar form with pounce to catch up with to anyone foolish enough to be in the jungle with ease. "Ok, so what next?" I asked myself. I found myself rather low in health, so I mused over building a Rylai's . That's when it hit me. Why not build a Nida that was specifically geared for chasing? The hextech and Rylai's were fine, but what else could I build? Well Randuin for one. Not only would it make her more beefy, its active and passive would make it difficult to chase or run from her. So I added it on. I looked at it and was content. Thus was born infinite chase Nidalee, aka. Stand and Deliver: your money and your life.

Greater Mark of Desolation
The runes are built for early game trading strength, and late game survivability. The armor Greater Seals of Resilience means that the vast majority top lanes you are dealing with deal significantly less damage to you. Especially since most of them will be running Red armor pen runes Greater Mark of Desolation which would reduce your effective armor to leas than 10 without them.


For this same reason you use Greater Mark of Desolation Armor pen reds. Your cougar Q will love you for this.


Mid game, after 1 of the two top turrets has died, will be one of the first times you will be dealing with a real AP threat (unless you were laning against a or a ). By this time, your runes will have caught up to the equivalent of a and will only go up from there. Also, Nida was blessed with a scaling magic resist, so it significantly helps.




Now I am yet do decide which of these is better. I tend to run two of the swiftness to ensure that if I decide to go armor and pots to start instead of boots, I still out speed any one with boots in a bush. The strength simply means easier last hitting early on, and more damage during trades/pokes.

I was tempted to go all out Akali on this and dump all 30 of the points in the offensive tree, and immediately after wards was tempted to go 0-21-9 for and , but I finally decided to give them both a miss, deciding upon more normal 21-9-0. Except it isn't normal.

I put in to both the AD and AP trees, down to the and . I also put three into for some early game sustain. Finally I put my last point into so that the final blow Q is that much more painful.

When in cougar form, Nida's abilities cost no mana, and are entirely different from her normal skills, focused more on close range burst damage, and less on ranged poke and support. This also gives her 6 abilities, as opposed to the normal 4, giving her amazingly long burst, the cool down of which would have mostly refreshed by the time she finishes it. (Javalin toss, Bushwack, Cougar form, pounce, swipe, Take down, cougar form, Javalin toss, rinse repeat)


Javelin Toss
In human form, this is merely a poke, not dealing much damage until you either get a Hextech revolver or your Rylai's. Make sure to lead a bit, since it is a relatively slow skill shot.

Takedown
This is an amazing skill, that scales up to 300% with the bonus of 100 (scaling to 300). While in lane, and having picked up a , you can quickly regen most of your hp by last hitting creeps with it.


Bushwhack
I often start with this skill, spending all of my mana pool creating a wall of traps across the river and into the tri bush near top lane. This ensures no lvl 2-5 ganking, after which I can for the most part escape with ease.

Pounce
In cougar form, pounce is your spam skill. It makes escapes and chases easier, allows for easy repositioning and manual dodging, and a little extra damage in battle.


Primal Surge
Primal surge is what makes you survive until you get life steal. Not only does it help you trade better, it is a long attack speed steroid that will leave your enemy wincing as your spears rain down on their head.

Swipe
In cougar form, swipe is your major ap damage skill. It has a longer CD than the other skills, but has a nice aoe in front of you. Use pounce to position yourself for it.

Your Hextech Gunblade is the core of your build. If you are doing well, skip everything else and build it straight away. You can even skip the wriggles entirely, since it fulfills the same function.


Rylai's is the next most important item. It can be alternated for a Frozen mallet, but I find that this, (though you can't get the full 35% slow in cougar form) is more useful.


Randuin's is what makes you a force to be reckoned with. What it does in conjunction with Rylai's is make you become a of lesser priority, since you can take so much more damage. Now you can make your way through their team, triggering the active as you go, and then destroy the AD or AP carry.

Now there is a bit of an issue. Depending on how well the mid is doing, you should either start working on your Hexdrinker -> Malmortius or get a Negatron Cloak to start on your Generally you only need one or the other, but if its an AP heavy team, get both. If it isn't Malmortius' passive is more than worth it, while Force of Nature's not so much.

As I continue to experiment with this build, I will be updating this page.

Try it before you rate it.

Good luck and kill some AD carrys for me.