Talk:Nidalee/@comment-79.101.163.186-20121013113707/@comment-5010112-20121014193448

Nidalee is fine as she is. She is a high-skill champion (like Orianna or Cassiopoeia).

Why is she a high skill-cap champion?

Because, like Orianna, her kit is unique and requires a lot more knowledge to utilize than someone like Darius or Riven. She has seven abilities. Every single one of them you must fully understand in order to make full use of Nidalee.

You have to know which walls you can jump over and how you jump over them (some walls are very tricky). Her pounce isn't a skillshot like Graves, Corki, or Kassadin. It goes in whatever direction she is facing.

You have to know how to land skill shots when playing AP Nidalee. If you cannot land those spears, you should give up. I've gotten first blood many times because I hit someone with a spear from the fog of war. They didn't even see it coming.

You have to know where and when to place your traps.

You have to know how to conserve you mana early game. You can't go spamming your heal when you still have potions. You'll go oom before you know it.

You have to understand the range of your cougar abilities. Swipe has a longer range than many people realize. I rarely need Nidalee's ultilize this.

At Platinum and Gold ranks Nidalee has around a 51% win rate. This is a good reflection of her usefulness, as people at that high of ELO, typically, understand the champions they use inside and out. Nidalee has slightly below 50% win-rate in all ELOs of ranked. Why? Because low ELO people don't know how to full utilize her. She, sadly, is not a point and click champion.