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Can someone please explain Nidalee to me?

Najnag·1/30/2019, 10:41:10 PM·3 votes·1,970 views

I mean, I know why I play Nidalee - because it's fun to shapeshift into a cougar and leap at people. I also enjoy the skill of landing spear shots and having some minor healing/buffing for teamates. I picked the champion based on my personal tastes for what would seem fun. But after playing her I don't understand why anyone would pick her in terms of being useful. It seems like when facing any other champion (that hasn't fallen way behind, or isn't a bot, or that doesn't have all of their abilities at the peak of cooldown), I can hit them with every single thing I've got and I still die.

For example (and this is just one example of many), Kayne walks up to me, he is 3 levels below me (I'm lvl 11, he's lvl 8 - and he has 0 kills). I hit him with my spear, buff myself, turn into cougar, leap and hit him and land my other two cougar special attacks. He proceeds to kill me with about 40% health left for good measure. So I guess I don't understand why other characters have to be so much more powerful than Nidalee.

I've read old threads about this and people tend to say, "you just need to learn how to play her" but I don't understand what that means if I'm not missing shots, I'm hitting them with everything I've got, even catching them by surprise, and then they just look at me and I die. It's difficult to even hit people with the spear and I understand the high-risk high-reward thing but it really feels like there's very little reward when everything goes right and I still don't even come close to killing other champions.

Now there have been cases in very late game when I've gotten a ton of Ability Power items and I can do good damage with my spear and then kill fast enough to not be obliterated before I can finish them. However, these were always situations where my whole team was so far ahead and the enemy was distracted by my teammates that while yes it was fun to pounce on them it wasn't really that helpful. So why wouldn't I for example just be Lux where I can hit more often with my AoE blast and do great damage and just finish people off at a distance without risking my neck every encounter? Anyways, sorry if this got ranty but I really am open to someone to explaining why to pick Nidalee over other champions.

9 Comments

WindLord70701/31/2019, 8:17:59 PM2 votes

You aren't going to kill tanks with one combo you need to learn to kite back after jumping in and doing your combo. there is alot more to her than that but that's one of the biggest things I see people fuck up with nidalee. They expect her to be like other assassins who insta kill everything the look at. Also the reason she is so weak is because riot rushed to nerf her instead of actually thinking about how to balance her when they forced her into being a jungler.

Done251/30/2019, 10:55:30 PM1 votes

Don't play her outside of the jungle. Like, ever. She's trash tier in lane. Additionally, she needs raw MPen over CDR for her Q R WEQ combo.

fire2631/30/2019, 11:15:31 PM1 votes

Honestly, I can't really tell you considering I don't play nidalee and she doesn't seem that good anymore. I would assume it's because she snowballs very well and can do very high and respectable amounts of damage when she's fed. Only problem is getting to that point is generally quite difficult and her long range spears are near impossible to get hit by due to how much time you have to react and how thin the hitbox is. Even in high elo she is not being played as often, probably due to just generally being a bad pick right now. I've seen some people play her bruiserish, going runic echoes and then going items such as icebourne gauntlet. She snowballs a bit better than some other picks, but considering how bad she is that's not going to happen much. She also requires much more time to master than generic mages, and I personally consider her one of the hardest champions to play. To answer your question of why you would pick her over others? No reason really other than if you do somehow get ahead she does great, but even then she falls off quite a bit. If you want to play nidalee I would advise against it for now since she's not really a good pick, and probably won't get any major buffs anytime soon due to how popular she is in high elo.

Side note: The champion I have the highest winrate in season 8 is against Nidalee according to my year in review, 91.4%

Néékö1/30/2019, 10:47:54 PM1 votes

I love nidalee but your mostly right the high dmg meta makes her not high twir pick unless you crazy good with her. I remember when nidalee was basically zoe... throw spear and 1 hit tanks from the fog of war.

AfterTheFall1/31/2019, 5:43:46 AM1 votes

Are you buying Lich bane? Cuz that’s a core item on Nidalee. Her cougar form Q automatically procs it on hit. Its a mass amount of damage you’re missing if not. Her Q also does more damage the more health the enemy is missing. You should be finishing the engagement with it

GripaAviara1/31/2019, 9:51:56 PM1 votes

Pro play

Paravozikchoocho1/30/2019, 11:40:02 PM1 votes

Ok I decided to answer this "Can someone please explain Nidalee to me?" In terms of drafting Nidalee is a good pick to snowball and destroy enemy jungle early to make him non-factor. The next step to win your lanes. It is actually one of the most popular champion for elo boosters. I don't play Nidalee, neither I jungle, it is just the way she is being used.