Nidalee Nerfs on PBE: Overkill?
The following is currently being tested on the PBE:
Nidalee Base HP reduced to 511 from 541 HP Growth reduced to 75 from 90 Primal Surge (Human E) cooldown increased to 16 seconds from 12 seconds.
Note that the reduction to base HP and HP growth means the reduction scales from 30 HP at level 1 to 300 at level 16. (I.e., it's pretty big. At level 18, the gold value of the health nerf is 800g.)
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Nidalee is at best slightly overpowered at doesn't merit this large of a nerf. Her solo queue win rates are roughly 49%/51%/52% in gold/platinum/diamond. (The final number is probably the most indicative of her true strength since a lot of people at lower levels are probably just playing her because she's perceived to be OP, but not mastering her.) In pro play, she's strong but just one pick among many, albeit the only mage jungler seeing a lot of play. She may seem oppressive because she's so popular, but I don't think such a large nerf is warranted. Moreover, I think that the lack of other top-tier mage junglers may be driving her popularity. It's possible I'm overreacting, but I think that having mage junglers in the meta is a good thing, and I think the solution should be to provide help to the mage junglers who are struggling, rather than breaking out the nerf bat on the only one who's succeeding.
One thing to bear in mind is that this is just a PBE change, so there's no guarantee it will get converted to live. Still, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this one because although it seems like too much to me, I've certainly misjudged balance changes in the past.
For the poll, the first and last options are for those of you who love/hate Nidalee and would rather see her OP/trashed than balanced. I haven't given an option that she should be buffed since I think it's pretty clear that's not the case; just pick the first option if you think this way.




junglers in LCS? Get Nid out of the picture, pls