User blog comment:Seventy-twelve/My thoughts on Nidalee/@comment-13944607-20131202175051/@comment-13944607-20131203161006

Her pre-6 is far from the worst. (I'm looking at you, Akali) She has all the tools she needs to be a successful laner pre-6 other than kill potential, and thats okay. She has poke, she has sustain, and a reasonably effective wave clear in her trap. On top of that, she gets SO much more out of 6 than your average champion. She doesn't get 1 ability, she gets 4. So a little below average pre-6 is justified.