AD, AP, both forms are always cancerous to play against and are never EVER fun to have to fight.
She abuses bruisers without fail.
She still blows up squishies with 1 spear.
"But we nerfed her spear!"
By 200 damage.
"But Nid has clear strengths and weaknesses!"
Yes, negating anybody without 100 free gap closers/escapes like she has and the fact that she has no CC is her "weakness"
ZylotheWolfbane58 votesThere are two key problems with Nidalee. They're pretty simple actually.
She has a heal. Which means she now has Escapes, Gap Closers, Long range poke, close range executions and burst, AND sustain... seriously. Just remove her heal.
Her cougar abilities don't cost any mana, meaning she can spam them off cooldown constantly with no care for any resource management. She's a mage where, if you make her waste all her mana on poke and sustain, it won't matter because she's STILL a powerful fighter that can murder you.
Fix one of the above problems, and Nidalee would probably be perfectly balanced.
Knight SoIaire 8 voteswell she is a multi form champion so she should get loads of tools owerall but less awailable at any given time
i think that its a problem shared by all of our stace switching champions, who switch stances as their ultimate
they lack gating on the form they pick i mean what is the problem with nidaele ... its not just the fact that she heals and throws spears, its the fact that she is both a poke/utility mage and an assasin/fighter at the same time, both those roles present diferent playstyles and rely on diferent tools yet nidaele jayce elise etc dont realy need to pick their stance, they can switch their stance to get the tool they need in the second that passes, this causes their counterplay to get significantly reduced and they are realy annoying to play againtst
so instead of having 2 kits but each of them smaller, they get one kit with 6 or even more skills not counting their passives
and the basic philosophy behind them being multi form is for the player to be able to adjust himself to the situation, not having the constant acces to owersized toolset
if we would decrease their capability to change forms so often or give them some condition to it then we make them healthier
The5lacker8 votesYeah but Jayce doesn't get a heal, a cooldownless dash that can hop walls, or the ability to counter-assassinate anyone that jumps on him. And Elise, even with her mana-less spider form, lacks any burst or real harassment.
Ancestor0072 votesUmmmm.... you just described Lee
Trd Burglar29 votesI believe she still has the Attack Speed buff on her heal as well, I find that to be a bit of an unnecessary addition to her kit.. I mean, cmon.
4nth0l0gy5 votesCompletely agree with both you and zylo.
A Miss Fortune21 votesHer spear needs to be changed too. People say "You can dodge it!" and also "It's her only damage!" well when Nidalee one shots your mid laner, support, or ADC because you didn't notice Nidalee throwing it out of the fog-of-war, it kinda can be game changing and is really pathetic.
Her gameplay is toxic, it's either dodge a spear and live (if they're even visible.) or get hit and usually immediately die afterwards.
Of course tanks could survive more, and she doesn't do a huge amount early game. But it's very noticeable that her spears gain so much power for every point of AP she obtains.
I don't want to face Nidalee but there's no way to avoid it besides banning her every game. Nidalee can play mid, support, jungle, top, and even APC or ADC, all of which I've seen. Nidalee still was able to kill anyone squishy in 2 of her spears.
Nidalee needs major changes which is inarguable especially when she's banned in over 60% of games.
Junkο7 votesbecause you didn't notice Nidalee throwing it out of the fog-of-war
You can only notice it the 1/10 times it isn't invisible when it's thrown from the fog of war
A Miss Fortune4 votesInvisible or visible, you're bound to die against this freelo courgar champ.
EllaRyu6917 votesnot to mention the invisible spear bug
KING OF MASKS16 votesThe only good thing about Nidalee is that when you do catch her and murder the bitch, it feels amazing.
They should really give her cougar form some mana costs though.
Ariel the Cruel5 votesmmmmm... Nope. never felt it.
The utter frustration of catching her in the first place (and the 2/3 spears you probably ate in the process) completely overpowers the experience.
Madman35712 votes"Just dodge the spears" is the typical response to things pertaining to Nidalee. People don't seem to realize that she only needs to land ONE and she gets to out harass anyone else in the game. At the very least, she gets to Q>R>W>Q>E>W>R>E and not only has she just done a MASSIVE amount of damage to her target (if they even survive) but any damage that was returned to her gets at least marginally mitigated by her heal. Top all of this off with the fact that her Cougar form abilities require 0 mana, and the fact that all of her abilities have really low cooldowns and you've got one seriously overbearing lane opponent.
Besides not having any CC of her own, she has 0 weaknesses.
At the very least Rito should remove her heal and give her cougar abilities mana costs.
2pudge1cup9 votesIt's her kit cohesion that's the problem.
One singular ability isn't that bad. Yes, that includes the heal and the spear. The problem is that the combination of them has always been frustrating as hell.
What gets me is that in her rework, riot decided in all of their infinite wisdom that they would give her cougar at level 1 while still not touching these core cohesion issues.
If I were to point to one thing it would be the spear cooldown. The spear itself isn't that bad of an ability. It's slow so you can see it coming (unless it's bugged). However, it has a 6s cd which is 3.6s at max cdr, which every nid player can pick up pretty easily. From there everything else can work off her. The window when spear is down isn't enough time to punish her especially because she can just heal/cougar run whenever she wants. And she's tough to flank because those traps are always keeping tabs on you.
The traps aren't as bad as they once were. The spears aren't as bad as they once were. The dash escape isn't as bad as it once was. However, it's that combo that will always make her annoying as hell because of how they all play off each other.
Retillin8 votesWait wait wait. Are you saying over loaded kits seem hard for Riot to balance and tend to be over powered....? It's almost as if you would think Riot would finally learn their mistake on this...
CookiesArmy2 votesdon't tease us with a well balanced game....
2pudge1cup2 votesRiot Learning from mistakes
Pick one
Trylobyte7 votesMy main issue with Nid is that for 2-3 seasons she's had no clear weakness. She just has so, many, different, skills that she's essentially self-contained; she doesn't need anyone else except for hard CC. Getting caught is supposed to be her weakness but she has a free spammable short-range dash that ensures almost nobody can catch up to her, and if you catch her but don't kill her she'll simply chuck a spear at you and heal herself with two button presses then turn cougar again and Pounce away some more, unless the spear hits in which case she's going to Cougar, then Pounce and Takedown for a ridiculous sum of damage then smack you around with her increased attack speed from her heal.
Dodge the spears? Sure, you can do that. The problem is when you can't, either because you can't see the spear or that minion decides to block you or you're taking an objective or you have teammates around or something else that restricts mobility and means someone's probably going to take a spear to the face.
Nid is one of the champions that is most consistently complained about even when she's balanced as opposed to just when people think she's OP. There are reasons for this. Let's look at why and fix it.
Ultîma7 votesI don't know why this is such a divisive argument...
Nidalee has been complained about long before that in solo queue pre and post-rework. Now she is dominating in tournaments, and surpassing picks like Lee Sin.
What kind of additional proof is there to give? Are people really that deluded?
DUDE BRO7 votesMy problem is her Execute. Even if I manage to dodge all her spears, I can't stop her from jumping into courgar form, instakilling me from half health, then jumping out and healing herself (at lvl 3)
DotEleven6 votesIt's not just nidalee, I find all poke champions like her to be no fun to play against. They just sit back spamming spells, never running out of mana, with low cooldowns, and never being out of position because they're still given escapes.
Like, what's up with that? If you're a poke champion with range, and you get caught, you should be caught, no ifs ands or buts. No "I've got a bunch of tools in my kit to help me escape." They should be high damage, decent cooldown, low cc if any without an escape.
Arveanor2 votesYou said all poke champs, but then you said it's because they have escape abilities.... I'm not sure who all you are considering poke champions, but xerath sure doesn't have escapes, neither does kog'maw even if people don't spam his ult so much now a days. Varus is never really seen but is essentially a poke champion with no escapes.
Vel'Koz probably fits the bill pretty well, too. Even lux.
so yeah, i thin the real problem is more specific to nidalee, not poke..
3tyson4 votesNidalees jump is verry smal
and learn how to dodge the slowest in game skilshot
also 
and about evrry champ that could call himself a bruiser... or a tank
Focus Teemo18 votesNidalees jump is verry smal
and learn how to dodge the slowest in game skilshot also
When someone is hunted her pounces range is increased to 700 units which is not small.
What course of action do you recommend taking when the spear animation is broken and completely invisible? Should i channel the force in order to dodge? Should i pink ward the spear? Tell me oh wise one!
Abyssphere3 votes[{quoted}](name=Focus Teemo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=61si45dl,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2015-03-16T04:03:46.374+0000)
When someone is hunted her pounces range is increased to 700 units which is not small. So...
What course of action do you recommend taking when the spear animation is broken and completely invisible? Should i channel the force in order to dodge? Should i pink ward the spear? Tell me oh wise one!
Having a 750 range targeted dash doesn't invalidate melee unless you have a good target to jump away to. And the invisible spear bug has nothing to do with her balance.
Focus Teemo5 votesHaving a 750 range targeted dash doesn't invalidate melee unless you have a good target to jump away to. And the invisible spear bug has nothing to do with her balance.
Where in my post did i say she invalidated melee? Furthermore my post was a joke about the usual learn to dodge line, and how you can't do dodge what you can't see. Then there was the first part where he said Nid's jump was small, and i stated the distance in which Pounce actually covers when you're hunted is in fact NOT small. In conclusion what are you even going on about?
IS18c9f3c33ea6786 votesWhat I like most about this is that her range keeps increasing for every post in the sequence.
3tyson1 votesThan dodge lols slowest skilshot...
Her pounce is waay les of an ascape tool than le blancs tps or shaco q or zeds shaddow its more of a getting in tool..
Antemos Xaos10 votesThe slowest skillshot would be anivia's Q, followed probably by morganna's Q.
Yuki Akuma34 votesNidalees jump is verry smal
and learn how to dodge the slowest in game skilshot also
Slowest skillshot in the game? I wasn't aware that Nidalee was actually Anivia! Also, Nidalee outclasses pretty much everyone on that list in one way or another, and her jump is NOT small. It is actually one of the longest range jumps in the game against a hunted target, and even before that it's still around 500 range and it hops over walls so you can't pin her down AND it's on a very, very short cooldown. If you get nailed by a single spear you are zoned or you get run-down and destroyed. She has very little to no counterplay, she is the very embodiment of toxicity in champion kits.
PS - If you are going to blindly defend one of the most broken characters ever fathomed in the game, you could at least use an account that doesn't have her all over your match history with victories.
Trd Burglar5 votesHAHA! I seriously laughed hard at the end. Caught red-handed man!
DomainSpecific3 voteslol at 
outclassing or
She may have more sustain, but at least she can't build tank while dealing massive damage. Honestly, as long as you dodge the spear, you will be fine. Her heal is really obnoxious as is her pounce, but it's balanced by her 0 CC. She is in a good place right now: extremely annoying, but not OP.
And I have 0 ranked games played as Nidalee while having played since S2.
Yuki Akuma9 voteslol at
She may have more sustain, but at least she can't build tank while dealing massive damage. Honestly, as long as you dodge the spear, you will be fine. Her heal is really obnoxious as is her pounce, but it's balanced by her 0 CC. She is in a good place right now: extremely annoying, but not OP.
And I have 0 ranked games played as Nidalee while having played since S2.
AD Bruiser Nidalee is actually still VERY viable, and still outclasses people like Irelia in terms of straight up damage to tankiness ratio. Dodging her 5 second cooldown spear isn't her issue. She has no mana costs on her mobility and overall burst damage. The only thing Nidalee lacks is hard CC, but she doesn't NEED hard CC due to the fact she has every single other type of ability in the game. (Nukes, cone attack, on-hit gaining execution, wall hops, heals, boons, personal semi-wards)
You also don't need to play a character actively in ranked to know how the character functions. I don't play her because I feel like scum for doing so, just like playing Fizz. I played Fizz once a few days ago and got a Pentakill without even really trying for it. That's how Nidalee works, you don't have to know how to play the game well to be very effective with her due to all the tools she has at her disposal and how little risk she has for her reward.
BeerOfRoot48434 votesI'm pretty confident that if you play Nidalee you're either Hitler, or Oddjob in Goldeneye,
Orders3 votesRiot said they wanted Nid's human and cougar form to be more interactive. The initial rework did this job well even if top Nidalee was a pain in the ass. Numbers aside, AD brusier Nidalee only worried about proc'ing the Hunt passive.
Now, with AD bruiser Nid gone, she is back to her old self. She is chucking spears from far away just like pre-rework Nidalee. I propose that we remove the bonus damage from her spears because I fail to see how this fits into her theme. Riot wants Nidalee to be more interactive and yet they keep the one skill that forces Nid players to play her like a siege champ for maximum damage.
Her theme should be about the Hunt passive and utilizing cougar form. It seems counter-intuitive that the spears still has the increased damage/distance. That's not all of Nid's problems but this one irks me the most.
SaltyKracka6 votesNidalee is only interactive if she can't burst you 100-0 off of one spear.
Riot has consistently failed to achieve interactivity on Nidalee.
Squarefighter3 votesI find her fun to play against, personally.
bad manner kid8 votesI find her fun to play against, personally.
Have you ever ran her out of mana, and had her execute you from 75% hp because you stepped on a trap as a bruiser? Even more fun when I thought I would get an assist from my jungler and she hops multiple walls to safety.
Tons of fun to play against her in lane. So much counterplay and weakness.
mtman3183 votes"They will fear the wild." --Nidalee
Khristophoros2 votesShe was more reasonable before season 3 happened. She's been completely retarded ever since and the remake honestly made it worse.
bad arcade kitty4 votesShe was more reasonable before season 3 happened. She's been completely retarded ever since and the remake honestly made it worse.
iirc her spears were nerfed nerfed nerfed and nerfed, her heals were nerfed too and her tankiness
EnvyDragon5 votesBy "nerfed and nerfed and nerfed" I guess you mean they had their damage slightly reduced in exchange for making them also buff cougar attacks to an incredibly powerful level.
Her heals were nerfed but not removed, which is kinda what needs to happen. She has so many non-interactive, no-risk ways to win fights.
Dengeden2 votesIn a 1v1 scenario, if Nidalee throws 100 spears do you know how many should hit you? 0 It's a noob trap, if you complain about it, you should know what that says about you. Anything with CC or yes, some form of dash, can hold their own against Nid. That's around 100% of the champion pool, not much of an issue.
BigDaddySenpaiii19 votesIn a 1v1 scenario, if Nidalee throws 100 spears do you know how many should hit you? 0 It's a noob trap, if you complain about it, you should know what that says about you. Anything with CC or yes, some form of dash, can hold their own against Nid. That's around 100% of the champion pool, not much of an issue.
You're right. All League players should be godlike in reflexes and dodging, more so than professional players who also get hit by spears. Also, we should be able to see invisible spears. Players so blind! Why did you get hit! That invisible spear was RIGHT THERE
Daen17 votesNidalee and Blitzcrank share a very similar problem. You can dodge them all game long, but spear/pull number three hundred and forty six might happen to hit and you are potentially instantly dead. This can sometimes even result in just instantly winning the game, particularly in siege situations.
Yes, dodging is counterplay. The problem here is not that they are tough to dodge, it's the fact that the reward Nidalee gets for hitting you is far greater than the reward you get from dodging it.
2pudge1cup4 votesIn the crank's defense, his q has a fairly high cooldown and a punishing manacost early. He can't solely itemize for cdr and mana to the point where he can spam it like nid can without severely gimping other parts of his game.
He can be severely punished for missing his pull. Nid cannot really be punished for missing a spear. There's a clear difference between the two.
