OK Nidalee Haters, Let Me Try One Last Time

For reference, here is the nerf 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.

I made some posts previously suggesting this nerf might be misguided, and got a pretty negative reaction. I think this was because a lot of people don't like Nidalee and will welcome almost anything to push her out of the limelight. I then asked why people hate Nidalee so much, and based on the responses I do think her play pattern is a bit unhealthy.

The problem with Nidalee is this: Her spears (especially max-range spears) are really hard to land because they're quite slow-moving. However, they hit super-hard at max-range; the damage scales from 50-150 + 40% AP to 150-450 + 120% AP. The latter values are better damage than a lot of ultimates, and they're on a 6-second cooldown. Because Nidalee is somewhat squishy but has a lot of damage front-loaded onto Javelin Toss, plus quick assassination/escape potential with Cougar form, a play pattern is set up where Nidalee is constantly throwing spears, dashing in only for quick assassinations, and continually kiting/poking/being generally irritating. From the opponent's perspective, the spears usually aren't that hard to dodge (so long as you know not to dodge backwards), but when they do hit, they frequently mean that you die, or that you have to instantly base and give up subsequent teamfights. If Nidalee's teammates are good at setting up CC to help her hit spears, this becomes especially difficult and frustrating. (Plus, it's just annoying to have to constantly play around the spears or be punished so heavily.)

I think that Nidalee should be adjusted so that her playstyle offers less potential for giant damage off Javelin Toss poke, and greater rewards for using her Cougar form abilities as engage instead of disengage. Personally, I would prefer to see the range-based damage on Javelin Toss nerfed removed (or at least nerfed to 2x); the other option is to simply nerf the damage/ratios on the ability. Now, Nidalee is not that overpowered statistically (winrate is 52% in Diamond but actually sub-50% in lower Leagues, although her popularity surge is probably decreasing her winrate), so she may need buffs to compensate for the decreased Javelin Toss damage. I think a good place to start would be her durability (base and growth HP/armor/MR values; so, basically the opposite of the PBE nerf). This would incentivize Nidalee to engage using Cougar form by making her more able to survive the process. Increasing her durability would also help her jungle sustain, and I personally like the variety that she brings as one of a handful of viable mage junglers.

The problem with the PBE nerfs is that although they may "solve the problem" by making Nidalee worse (and therefore less oppressive), they actually promote the very playstyle that makes Nidalee frustrating to play against. With less health (30-285 depending on level), Nidalee players must become even more wary of engaging with Cougar form, and even more focused on the poke/execute/escape-oriented play that I think frustrates people. So although this change may address people's complaints with Nidalee, I think it actually puts her in a worse place if Riot ever wants her to actually be balanced.

Please, Riot. Let's do this the right way.

Update: PBE Nidalee has been changed; the E cooldown nerf was removed, and the HP growth was increased to 80. Needless to say, I think this is an improvement on the previous version, though it doesn't really address Nidalee's fundamental problem (which is more one of her being unfun for a lot of people, rather than overpowered).

Addendum: Turns out Nidalee's base health/armor values are actually on the high side for a non-tank (which I didn't realize when I made the original post), so maybe those shouldn't be the target of any compensation buffs. On other note is that a poster below made a decent argument that Nidalee's heal actually is a source of unhealthy gameplay (search "Rubber Jesus"). I'd seen a lot of complaining about the heal before but didn't appreciate why it was unfun. (I personally am not sensitive to almost any of this; I've just been trying to understand the perspective of the people who hate Nidalee.) At any rate, I don't think Nidalee's balance deserve a serious nerf, so making such large changes as these would amount to another rework (collective gasp).