Nidalee/Strategy

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Skill usage

• Nidalee is a great scout. Putting Bushwhack in as many places as possible can warn your team and you about gank attempts or lonely targets in the jungle. Bushwhack is ignored by enemy turrets, but cannot be teleported to.
• With some mana regen masteries/runes/item, Nidalee can set some Bushwacks before creeps spawn. Ask junglers where they are starting and trap the surrounding area; With only utility masteries & Doran's Ring at Level 1, you can regenerate the mana for Bushwhack by the time it comes off cooldown. Nidalee can also set up Bushwhacks in the enemies' jungle if they have a jungler. The best places to set up Bushwhacks in the enemy jungle is in the intersection where they must pass to kill the neutral creeps.
• Aspect of the Cougar abilities cost no mana, so it is effective to use to push or jungle. Pounce can also be used to jump over the jungle walls and escape. Since Pounce costs no mana, it can be endlessly cast which makes it a good chasing and escaping ability.
• Switching to Aspect of the Cougar and farming creeps can be much more effective in earning gold rather than using normal form to last hit.
• With good harassing abilities, good farming abilities, good escape abilities, and the staying power of self-heals with Primal Surge, Nidalee is an excellent solo laner and is a good choice to hold the 1v2 top lane if your team has a jungler. (although she does depend on her ult to maximize her farming and escaping capacities, and has more problems with such factors before level 6)
• Javelin Toss is useful for champion harassing, and the Aspect of the Cougar can help you chase fleeing enemies.
• If laning top or bottom, Nidalee can use Javelin Toss or Bushwhack to check the bushes for enemy champions.
• Nidalee can setup devastating combos on bruisers and other high resistance champions using Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Bushwhack to land a perfect Javelin Toss setup resulting in the target losing 40% of their resistance and becoming very vulnerable to all Nidalee's damaging abilities. Having Blessing of the Lizard Elder increases the effectiveness and ease of landing Javelin toss and keeping your target in place for landing Bushwhack.
• Nidalee is very good at escaping from enemies in the jungle due to her passive Prowl combined with Pounce and Flash.
• Additionally, Nidalee can be a great juker when being chased: entering a bush, then Pouncing back the way you came. Most of the time, the chaser will go through the bush while you escape and gain more time.
• Nidalee's Javelin Toss damage is calculated based on her distance from the spear when it hits a target, rather than strictly the distance the spear has travelled. By moving away (e.g. Flash or Pounce) the damage can be increased.
• Primal Surge can help bring towers down with the attack speed buff, always use on allied champions with the highest attack damage.
• Nidalee is a great harasser with Javelin Toss and Bushwhack. Take this to your advantage to dominate your lane from the start allowing easy farming and enemies to be underfarmed.

Build usage

• Guinsoo's Rageblade works quite well with Nidalee, since switching to and from Aspect of the Cougar not only costs no mana, its cooldown is also shorter than the duration of the Guinsoo's Rageblade's stacks, so she can continually switch to and from Aspect of the Cougar to maintain its maximum 8 stacks. Alternatively, you can repeatedly use Pounce when moving outside of combat as it also cools down faster than Guinsoo's Rageblade.
• Sheen and its derivative items Lich Bane and Trinity Force are exceptionally powerful combined with the fast cooling abilities of Nidalee's Aspect of the Cougar, especially Takedown.
• Consider buying a Mejai's Soulstealer because Nidalee has great escape abilities and can maintain her stacks easily, compared to other champions.
• Since Aspect of the Cougar abilities cost no mana, it is very effective to spam her skills to gain mana from Tear of the Goddess.
• Nidalee can boost her heals on herself by buying a Spirit Visage also giving her some needed cooldown reduction.
• If against a champion that focuses on attack speed such as Fiora, Jax or Xin Zhao, consider purchasing an early Frozen Heart. Nidalee can benefit greatly from the 20% cooldown reduction and has high base damage abilities while in Cougar form to make up for missing damage.

Recommended builds

Countering

• Nidalee relies on being able to heal constantly so that she can return to fights or escape. Using Ignite on her is an effective way to keep her from returning to a fight or killing her if she tries to run.
• Nidalee is very susceptible to hard CC and does not have any of her own. Crowd controling her as soon as she comes into range of your team can get her killed very quickly. Due to her synergy with Guinsoo's Rageblade, hard CCs can also greatly lower her effectiveness.
• If you are chasing Nidalee and you are both at low health, it is highly advised not to follow her into brush. This may give her a perfect opportunity to use Takedown, as it does more damage to lower health targets.
• If you are having trouble dodging Nidalee's Javelin Toss or need to take a hit for a teammate always remember that it does more damage based on the distance between the target hit and her. If you close that distance, it will do less damage.
  • Because of this, melee champions with gap closers such as Fizz, Wukong, Pantheon, Akali, Diana, and Talon are effective champions on dealing with her.
• Javelin Toss can be easily dodged by side stepping or standing behind minions.
• Nidalee has great mobility and is good at baiting team fights in her team's favor by pulling bold enemies into bad positions. If you see a Nidalee leading you or your team through the jungle or any other tightly spaced areas, don't follow her unless you have good knowledge of the area via wards or some other form of map awareness. It also leaves yourself open to a powerful Javelin Toss that could kill you.
• If against a Nidalee top lane, consider starting Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions as it will help minimize the early harass damage from her auto attacks.
• Nidalee is one of the few champions in League of Legends that can be effective with both ability power and attack damage. Make sure you notice which she is prioritizing so you can counter accordingly.

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