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@Riot Staff: AD Nidalee Top

SkyblazeHydraX3··11 votes·1,381 views

Okay, I may be the unpopular opinion right now but AD Nidalee top needs to be seriously, SERIOUSLY looked at. The idea behind Nidalee's rework was to turn her into an AP midlane assassin with high-risk/high-reward, as standard of assassins, right? Well here's the problem: you NEVER see Nidalee unless she's going AD bruiser in the toplane! Not only does it completely negate the concept behind her rework (more on that later), it totally overshadows the AP midlaner she was DESIGNED to be.

AD Nidalee can abuse her range by focusing on her auto-attacks, abusing her heal + AS steroid, then using her bushwack and spear to leap on her opponents and nuke them with Takedown. If she screws up, she leaps right back out. And with her Hunt bonus effects she can build annoyingly tanky and STILL really hurt. It's gotten to such a ridiculous point that her RECOMMENDED ITEMS are based off of this, for pete's sake!

Riot staff has previously made a point saying that the reason they nerfed Mage Lulu because it was pushing out other options and overshadowing Support Lulu. The toplane is restricted enough as-is, and I would say that at this point AD Nid is overshadowing AP Nid even more than that.

Now, I'm not saying that AD Nidalee needs to be nuked and removed entirely- hell, I absolutely love playing Kha'Zix mid or top instead of just jungle- but either it's so overpowering that people don't see the point to AP Nidalee or AP Nidalee is so underwhelming that AD Nidalee is the only viable means of playing her. Either way, this needs to be changed.

11 Comments

Tnki3 votes

I'd like to know why she gets FREE mobility? Her human form costs mana, but as soon as she changes to cougar, everything is free. The only thing stopping her from spamming her pounce is a low cooldown. If you do manage to outsustain her enough to where she's out of mana, you can try to engage, but unless you also have multiple dashes or a stun/snare, she's just going to transform and hop away regardless. I have the same problem with her that I do with Lee Sin: there's just too much reliable mobility. The difference being, at least Lee's costs him energy. I'm not even getting into how ridiculous it is that she basically get's a Rengar bush jump if she manages to hit a spear or trap. That is WAY too much distance for a FREE jump. I can dodge spears and traps all day, but god forbid ONE hits me.

While not as bad, she has the mobility of Kassadin basically. Except he's been nerfed to punish the spamming of his ult. Nidalee's pounce can cover the same distance in a shorter timeframe. And there's absolutely nothing stopping her from spamming it, really.

LittleBlast2 votes

Well, for one thing, AP nid is still perfectly viable. I mean look at me, ive gotten multiple pentakills on ap nid, and im an ap nid main. I found success in every role with ap nid, except jungle, which I still need to try. I mainly do ap nid top though. The reason people play ad nid so much more now, is because it is easier, and people forget her human q still hurts. And for that matter, so do all her cougar abilities. For a build, item 3028 intoitem 3100 intoitem 3174 into item 3158 into item 3089 into item 3157 and finally item 3135 . This has great split pushing power, great heals, great poke, great teamfighting, and is all around ridiculous. The main argument ive heard about ap vs ad nid, is that ad cougar q hurts for more. While this is probabally true, so does ap nid cougar q once you get lichbane. Also, ad is worthless if behind, while ap is a poke healbot that can burst their carries with only a few items.

Edit - Start double item 1004

AIM4THEHEADx1 votes

Well, for one thing, AP nid is still perfectly viable. I mean look at me, ive gotten multiple pentakills on ap nid, and im an ap nid main. I found success in every role with ap nid, except jungle, which I still need to try. I mainly do ap nid top though. The reason people play ad nid so much more now, is because it is easier, and people forget her human q still hurts. And for that matter, so do all her cougar abilities. For a build, item 3028 intoitem 3100 intoitem 3174 into item 3158 into item 3089 into item 3157 and finally item 3135 . This has great split pushing power, great heals, great poke, great teamfighting, and is all around ridiculous. The main argument ive heard about ap vs ad nid, is that ad cougar q hurts for more. While this is probabally true, so does ap nid cougar q once you get lichbane. Also, ad is worthless if behind, while ap is a poke healbot that can burst their carries with only a few items.

Edit - Start double item 1004

yeah shes still strong AP but she used to be way better

Marthian1 votes

Well her Spear damage got dropped, which is great. But it still hurts, and Takedown does a lot more damage now. Now if she lands a spear, she can just jump explode a squishy target.

Old Man Teeto2 votes

Nidalee in general is just a champion designed around removing options for counterplay.

AP Nidalee required global engage ultimates to reliably deal with (TF/Nocturne) AD Bruiser Nidalee requires being camped by the jungler to put their duelist top laner (Irelia, Jax) ahead enough to be able to kill her.

They reduced AP Nidalee's impact if you didn't outright catch and kill her, but with the cougar form strengths buffed, Bruiser Nidalee rose again as she doesn't use the ratio's from her human form but the utility of them combined with buffed cougar form.

Demonsolder212 votes

TOP LANE NID IS IN FACT BROKEN IV SEEN IT AND IT HURTS RIOT LOOK INTO THIS ALSO BUMP

Cloud Potato2 votes

Man, I hate Nidalee. Ranged form is all about being safe from your opponent and forcing a stalemate. That's no fun for anyone. She really needs Hunt to be able to do anything else though, which is a plus from the nuclear spears. You should be able to punish Nidalee if she misses a spear but it's on such a low cooldown that by the time you catch up to her (IF you can catch her) she can chuck it and hit you thanks to you being in her face and she can then Cougar you. A longer cooldown on spears would be greatly appreciated. Cougar being suboptimal without Hunt means you can actually fight her if you dodge it, and Nidalee has to either land a spear and gain some temporary power, or miss it and either be zoned from CS or have to lose a trade.

She has another problem though, and that's her split push. Her teamfight presence is limited to trying to catch people out thanks to Hunt providing vision on hits, but she can't Assassinate as well as other Assassins can. This is a fair tradeoff for her range form's safety. However her split push is unbearably annoying to deal with. Traps everywhere giving her advance notice of a gank and good mobility over time is a really annoying combination. That AS steroid on her heal is also just free turret pushing power regardless of AP or AD. Change her heal to give something else. Make it an on-hit effect, or something else that won't work on turrets. At least make it take an eternity to get a turret down unless she builds for it, which is a tradeoff that means something to AP champions.

AIM4THEHEADx1 votes

Nidalee was played as a bruiser even before the rework , i forget which pro ALWAYS playd her like that even when her AP ratios were insane on her Q . I deffinitely think her kit is overloaded ,she has an Execute , an Escape , a Heal , a Trap , Speed buff through bushes , she just had a ton compared to alot of other champions who feel like they have nothing in comparison.

That being said i find bruiser AD nidalee alot more healthy to play against than old school, chuck spears for half health from the backline nidalle. She was way more annoying Early season 4 , late season 3 IMO

KSHarrison1 votes

AD Nid was underwhelming before her rework, that's why everyone went AP. She's still viable as AP--Najin White Shield did it recently to great success--it's just that AD Nid is now pretty overwhelming, like permaban worthy.

Azlagor1 votes

I have more succes as ap-nid than i have as ad-nid, both mid and top, and i rarly have any troubles vs ad-nid top unless she's lastpick and counters me(but many champs are ugly if used as counterpick...)

However, i wouldn't mind some changes to nidalee, as her powercurve isn'T realy healthy imo, her ealry is insane, and her 1v1 is massive throughout the enitire game while her teamfighting still sucks hard. If she gets a good start in the lane, she usually can dominate and often enough carry the midgame by either splitpushing as toplaner or abusing the mobillity+burst for roaming as midlaner

I think the basedamage on takedown needs a hit, and evt the basedamage on e aswell. Her as-buff should be reduced or her base as/ad to reduce her AA-poke and towershreding potential This should reduce her lanedominance and early snowball potential

To balance out the nerfs she should get a better ratio on cat-E(evt ad aswell) for better aoe-damage in the late and a defense steroid in catform based on the number of nearby enemy champions to not get instantly bursted in a teamfight if not building fulltank

Jinxed Amulet1 votes

For the sake of not repeating info, I agree Nidalee is overloaded and not only can she split-push safely (cougar form escape/traps/sustain) she can also build tanky too. We've seen her dominate top lane in the LCS - not saying Riot should balance accordingly to what the Pros use but it's very evident that she offers little counter-play after level 2.

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