User blog comment:ClariS/Nidalee & Unhealthy State/@comment-6301771-20140419140828

You've forgotten to mention two very important things about Nid's kit (One toxic, one simply unhealthy), mate:

1. Nidalee's Bushwhack grants her free vision, does decent damage by itself, and also has 40% Armor and MR shred for 12 seconds. That is obscene. That is toxic. There's no way to counter this low visibility, low cooldown, absolutely crippling trap other than "don't step on it" and it turns Nid's entire human-form kit into a non-engagement nightmare, as you can't even have your jungler sneak up on her. This is incredibly toxic as the two main methods of countering poke champions like Nid (Surprise engagements and simply building MR) are both, themselves, countered by this single ability.

2. In cougar form, Nidalee is the second most mobile champion in the game, only below Kassadin. This is because cougar form has 355 base MS, also known as the highest base MS in the game (shared by Yi and Pantheon.) However, in addition to having the highest base MS in the game, Nid gains 15% MS when moving through bushes and for 2 seconds afterwards. So, whenever she's being chased unless she's just running down lane like an idiot. And on top of all of that, cougar form has a 375 range dash on a 3.5 second cooldown with no cost that can clear walls. Are you shitting me? Didn't Vayne lose her ability to tumble through walls for this exact same reason?

Every aspect of Nidalee's human-form kit is devoted towards non-engagement. Every single ability is an unfun, low-risk, high-reward mess. And her cougar-form kit isn't much better, given its insane damage potential against people who try to get within melee range of her, which I might remind you is the only way to deal with Nidalee. I mean, for christ's sake, 300% total AD scaling on low-health enemies? Really?