Talk:Nidalee/@comment-5211662-20140731164655

The reason why Nidalee is toxic now unlike below users said is not because her Q inflicts lots of damage. Actually her Q is weak now, I haven't seen an AP Nidalee for ages, and she is easier to deal than ever.

The reason why she is toxic is because at top lane she just auto-attacks you to death, she can inflict massive damage with her Q, if you deal any damage to her she just heals herself back, and she cannot be ganked because of her escapes. Now that her cougar form is avaliable from level 1, she just harasses and zones you all day, and she also outsustains you, and can easily escape ganks. Damn. Champs like Ryze and Kennen at least have downsides to compensate for their lane dominance. For example, Ryze can harass you and outsustain, but he lack any escape mechanisms. If your jungler ganks, Ryze will easily die. Kennen can escape ganks and harass, but he lacks sustain. Kennen may not be able to harass you forever, especially if you harass him back. You may even pick a kill on him if he is low enough, assuming he doesn't escape. Yorick is another champion that is famous for having a lot of sustain and being extremely annoying to deal with in laning phase. However, Yorick has a weakness: he lacks escapes. Just like Ryze, he will die easily if caught. Lulu is a Kennen-like example: she can harass and escape, but lacks sustain. She too will not be able to keep up with her harass forever.

Renekton is able to harass and sustain AND escape. However, unlike Nidalee, he is melee. He can't harass you if you are under tower and play safe. Surviving a laning phase against Renekton is way easier when compared to Nidalee.

Nidalee has none of such weakness: she can harass you and escape, and sustain. And you can do nothing, at least not if you are melee. If you are melee, good luck surviving the laning phase without losing a lot of farm. If you are a champion like Dr. Mundo or Yorick, you can at least sustain yourself and not die to Nidalee during laning phase. However, you still can't kill her and she can still escape and sustain when she wants to.

At least Nidalee falls off late-game as a bruiser. However, you still must have good peel, because a tanky AD Nidalee can still kill your squishies late-game.

Still, with Nidalee being able to run an AD build that can make your laning phase an hell (even more so than Yorick), I can't safely pick a melee champion, unless he has sustain.