User blog comment:Seventy-twelve/My thoughts on Nidalee/@comment-13944607-20131202175051/@comment-13944607-20131202201611

You misunderstand, its fine to build glass cannon AP nidalee and still use your cougar form, you just have to be very effective with your human form to make it possible. No, you can't go cougar in the middle of a team fight and try and DPS someone down, but thats not your job. Poke, heal, pick off stragglers with your cougar, pounce back out, and begin again. You can build beefier if you wish, and try and stay in cougar a little longer, but that's up to you. While it's true that Nidalee pre-6 is frustrating to play, because you can't access a massive portion of your kit, there are plenty of champions who have the same pre-6 issues, and you don't see anyone arguing about their kit cohesion. And, let's be honest here, while important, your pre-6 is not going to last long at ALL, and the tools she needs for basic laning are already in her human form.