User blog comment:Seventy-twelve/My thoughts on Nidalee/@comment-13944607-20131202175051/@comment-24242333-20131202211825

The problem is that this is precisely what people complains about : glass cannon massive poke and healing. Nidalee can effectively hide behind her team all the time, poking and healing her teammates.

Yes, it's fine to use your cougar form as a glass cannon, but you only do it when you can safely pick up a kill, just like you said.

And while your pre-6 isn't going to last long, it's still one of the worst of the game. You are very likely to be ganked, as you have no way to escape, and your jungler is less likely to gank for you, as you have close to no possibilities to help him in most situation. Also, you have no farming tool (you can throw a spear here and there to pickup the large minion, but relying on that to farm is bad).