Reading minds isn't really an option
What I'm referring to is Nidalee's Q, which you should know is very hard to land because of its slow missile speed and 40 width. I decided to search around for tips on her and what I found is actually pretty absurd. The general consensus is that you are going to miss the first Q nine times out of ten, and from that you need to both memorize which direction that particular player dodges, and assume they will both dodge the same direction every time and begin the dodge when you start to throw the spear.
Of course, in game this idea that people generally dodge the same direction simply isn't true. Because it can't be. It's always in relation to their and the enemies' position. A player dodging an attack coming from the right, for instance, can't dodge to the right as they might an ability coming from above.
So what I actually saw in the video guides was them waiting to throw spears until they were at most within 800 units of the intended target. Which makes sense, seeing as the increased range on Pounce is only 750. The enemy gets less time to see the ability in flight, so they have less time to react.
But a champion's own abilities shouldn't lack synergy like that. Her Q does a heap of damage, but only if thrown at nearly double the range of the W it empowers-- which is needed to as part of and to deal the rest of her damage in Cougar form. Which wouldn't be too much of an issue if the Q had a reasonable missile speed for an ability with only a 40 unit width, instead of the speed of one with a 100 width. Then it would become a choice between being in range to follow up with W or just landing the Q. But as it is, that choice doesn't exist. Either you are in range to Pounce when you throw the Q, or you miss the ability if the enemy is connected.
I think it would be a better change, though, to normalize the ranges of her Q and W-- slightly increase the W, decrease the Q range and maximum damage, but increase the minimum damage and missile speed. Something like: Q range 1000, dealing 87.5 / 106.25 / 125 / 143.75 / 162.5 (25% more than the current minimum, which is the current increase at 622 range), increased by a maximum of 125% based on distance traveled (which is the current bonus at 1000 range). This means the damage at each range would be increased because of the higher base, but would not reach a maximum of 200% as it does now. Cast time reduced back to its original, from 0.25 to 0.125, missile speed increased from 1300 to 1600 (the speed of an Ahri charm).
W range on Hunted targets increased to 900. (or unchanged, the Q change might be enough)
This way we avoid just flat out increasing the damage, which would just be pre-change Q spam Nidalee, while making it actually possible to land the ability without being point-blank. (Do note that I said at most 800 units. Generally the players I saw were closer to 400-500 before throwing the Q at all, to make sure they get passive)
The issue with her is that she doesn't have a skill_cap_, she has a skill_cliff_. Unlike champions such as Azir , who have really high performance rates if you have a lot of experience with them--which makes sense because of their difficulty, Nidalee's wonky Q increases her difficulty without actually increasing her skillcap, so she doesn't see a rise in performance with experience.
######Stats taken from op.gg and champion.gg
