Why the Nidalee Rework Was a Failure

Link to the same post on General Discussion: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/GD/lwPELmvT-why-the-nidalee-rework-was-a-failure

Forewarning: There is no TL;DR folks. Sorry but this is a more serious post. If your attention span is short, this isn't a thread for you.

So, when Nidalee's rework came out, I think most of us were happy to varying degrees. No one can deny that massive spears that would chunk you for at least half your life wasn't fun. Except for the one's doing it. I want to start right here and now by stating that I am trying to approach this from an unbiased view, and that I'm trying to look at this objectively. With that out of the way, let's look into the issues both of them had.

Old Nidalee was way too safe. I can't help but laugh a little when I see people talk about her safety now-- not because I like her and want to think she's perfect (when I do say she's the epitome of balance I'm strictly joking), but because it's a lot less than it used to be. Her heals used to be monstrously better, her spears were her major tool so she could stay as far away from everyone as possible without caring to commit almost ever, and with those two you get a Champion that even makes Lux weep for how safe of a poke mage she was. People often reference her spears, jumps, and heals now but they're a fraction of what they used to be. Old Nidalee was a bad design for the long run. There were a lot of silly designs in the past like Jax being able to dodge turret shots and AP Sion being a monster, literally (at one point, before I even joined the game, he was pick or ban believe it or not). Those had to be changed due to being able to open up design space for things that weren't flat out broken-- I think this is what distinguishes this game from DOTA. While I'm not a die-hard DOTA player, far from it, one thing that's notable is that DOTA is a place where everything is broken typically where League strives to be the opposite. For that goal to be met, several Champions had to be altered. Some were pretty flawless in design like Anivia and Karthus (even if number changes needed to happen), and that's why even after years of Karthus being played, when he finally got a massive overhaul it was strictly a VU and VO (visual update and voice over). Nidalee was not one of them.

Nidalee needed to tone down her rewards greatly, and up her risks greatly at the same time. To do this, her Ultimate was given to her at level 1 much like Elise (more on that in just a little bit). This created space to say "okay, we need to emphasize that you need to be getting risky for you to deal damage; you gotta get in there." In return for her getting kitty leaps early, her heals were greatly toned down along with her spears in both size and damage. Since, essentially, gutting her that hard would be too much, they gave her one big thing to compensate that would be massive to make sure she wasn't entirely out of the roster-- they wanted to make sure they "separated the good Nidalees from the great Nidalees" so to speak, and if you correctly landed your skill shots or used your traps wisely, you would be rewarded by having massive Pounce range to be able to effectively get off another massive portion of your damage. Nidalee's execute with Takedown is incredible, and it used to be even more disgusting. Shortly after rework, I can even remember doing silly things like tower diving Aatroxes (Aatroxi?) at level 2-3. And killing them. And living. Okay so mayybee that had to be toned down a little bit. Okay, it did.

The idea was fine in theory but a few problems arose. Mid lane Nidalee suffered greatly in any matchup where she wasn't favored which ended up being a lot and grew even worse over time; in the past she could farm safely once she got a mana/mana regen item, and with that going out of the way she wasn't suited much for it anymore. She found her way top lane much like old AD Nidalee for the most part. Her traps gave too much hidden power-- power that seems to not be there, but is far greater than realized. In the past they essentially gave a free Last Whisper and Void Staff in shredding resists. That later changed to % HP damage (either at the rework or shortly after; my memory is a little faulty here). Then that was changed to flat damage which exists to this day. Then, that was further changed due to the pro scene where it gave/gives less scouting radius on its immediate cast. The ability was essentially made worthless for the most part and laughable at best; it's as if Riot had no idea what to do with it. Top lane seemed a little bipolar; you have to be careful with ranged tops like Kennen, Vladimir, and Ryze. It's incredibly easy to tip them just a little too favorably and then they start to dominate immensely, often in both Solo Q and the pro scene. She had pretty much what every top laner wanted; consider her the "Lee Sin of top lane." Ranged auto attacks, sustain that while is entirely laughable in the mid lane, actually meant a lot, lot more in the top lane (especially where the attack speed steroid not only meant something, but meant a lot), and the ability to either disengage or have a powerful all-in. Not only that, but her "laughable traps" had some more hidden power there-- in the top lane, bush control matters a lot, lot more and her traps gave her that. In addition, her leap synergized a little too much with it; in the mid lane if you leap because someone hits a trap, you do a small bit of damage, attempt to disengage, and more often than not get your ass kicked as you really really hope that your small heal is enough to make it worth it. Due to the mana costs, typically it wasn't. In the top lane, those kinds of trades are a lot stronger.

As such, Riot sort of scratched their heads. This was a lot, lot healthier than before, but it still had minor balancing issues. What I mean by this is that it's not a blatantly stupid as fuck kit like AP Yi, but it's still a serious issue nonetheless. Finally, Riot made a decision no one had seen coming in the slightest-- they were going to transform her into a Jungler.

Since then, we've been getting into a lot closer to where we are now, and, now. We saw how her new kit wouldn't be the best mid lane without it being overbearing top lane. We saw where it was a little more balanceable top lane, but still too easy for meta shifts or slight number shifts to break her there. And now, we forced her to Jungle instead. After all, cats belong in the Jungle right?

Several problems arose from this and still exist to this day. The first is the skill involved. A lot of lower rated players will complain because they don't like the kit of hers, which, to be fair, is a valid complaint. However, and as I write this I feel it's rather difficult to say this without coming off as arrogant so I will apologize in advance, most high elo players complain about a different issue. Nidalee is pick or ban in Master, Challenger, and if memory serves right Diamond 1 as well. Outside of there, she's not. This first problem is this: Nidalee's kit as a Jungler is one of the hardest to utilize in game. Clearing the Jungle efficiently with her requires kiting skills far beyond most of the roster where we see a lot of Melee Champions often standing in place or just weaving in their autos and running on rare occasions when they're trying to squeeze in a final mob. More experienced Jungle Nidalees will tell you that they start with her traps and place them in certain locations before they clear to abuse her Pounce mechanic just to make it possible in the first place. Invading with her is incredibly risky because if she fails she tends to fall behind quite a lot, however, if she succeeds she quickly becomes overbearing. Ganking with her is far more difficult than most Champions since if she misses a skillshot she wastes her time, something most don't realize how important that is due to another fact I'll list shortly after. A lot of Champions have a fall back pattern; if Vi misses her Q she can Ult and still sometimes get a successful gank off. If Lee misses his Q he can ward hop and Ult the enemy Champion sometimes resulting in a kill. Jarvan has his Ultimate, Jax and Yi don't have skillshots, and I'll stop listing them here. Nidalee has no fallback pattern, which hurts her for a massive reason: she was originally designed as a laner. Because of this, she is forced to be balanced now around being a Jungler without making her laning oppressive at the same time. This makes her into a massive, massive feast or famine Jungler. If she's fed, she can dominate a game and close it out quickly to the point the enemy team cries in horror. However, if she falls behind, she sort of becomes somewhat of a joke of a Champion more often than not, struggling to find any opening whatsoever to come back into the game.

Nidalee Jungle isn't for the faint of heart; she's incredibly overbearing in the right hands, but those right hands tend to not just be the top 1% of the player base, but closer to the top .1% or even lower. Outside of there, she tends to be a lackluster Champion, which brings a massive issue:

Any buff to her will break her entirely for pro play and high elo. Any nerf to her while make her impossible to play in low elo.

She's one of the most delicate to balance Champions from that, and in my opinion, even moreso than ever compared to when she was a top laner.

So if we compare current post-rework Nidalee to past pre-rework Nidalee, we see two different Champions. The first would nearly one-shot you, if not actually one-shot you, from massive range from a spear that was incredibly huge. She had oppressive sustain and her kit had to go. The second is so reliant on her all-in that she's incredibly difficult to balance as a mid-laner. She has too many hidden levels of power (her attack speed steroid in her heal, her bush control in her W, her all-in actually meaning a lot, lot more) in the top lane. And, in the Jungle, she's impossible to make fair as a Champion for both high elo and low elo.

So, what needs to happen?

Honestly? I'm not 100% sure but I can give some insight. Her core thematic is impossible to remove. People make not like being on the receiving end of it, but let's be honest. No one likes being insta-killed by Talon, or nuked down by Lux, or dealing with Soraka's sustain, or dealing with Zilean's Ultimate, or going against Renekton as a scaling top laner, or quite frankly a lot of things in this game. It's that one thing that makes you uncomfortable to face, but without it, she wouldn't be there. I'd like to quote Trump here from one of his Hearthstone videos (this is the Hearthstone player, not the rich guy)-- or at least paraphrase him. People won't play things that aren't a little broken. If something is 100% balanced, it won't see play at all. To put that into League terms-- everyone has to have one little thing that makes them annoying to go against. Nidalee's core identity is her spear in that regard. Along with that we have her mobility, her heals, her attack speed steroid, her bush control, and her all-in potential. Lee Sin quickly starts to become a little envious. But the other issue is that her core identity has her cat form abilities, and has her heal. So what do we do?

I originally thought of suggesting turning her less into a high-damage Champion and more of a fighter/bruiser, but an issue came up. Remember when I mentioned Elise? There would be a huge problem there in that they essentially fill the same role. Both would be AP bruisers with a bit of poke, strong early game, and have transform abilities based off whether they want to poke or all-in. So we can't really turn her into an AP bruiser without making Elise and Nidalee struggle to be the same Champion.

Out of every iteration, I believe, personally, that top lane was the closest to being balanced but just a little had to be changed. Some of which has already happened. Her traps went from resistance shredding, to % HP shredding, to flat damage that's negligible. This ends up mattering very little in the mid lane, a little for scouting in the Jungle, but a lot more in the top lane. However, remember the "hidden power" I mentioned? Most top laners tend to build either some bulk in HP, or in resistances. The nerfs to her traps remove their power there, but she still gets to have her bush control, so that part has already been dealt with. Because the lane is shorter, her spears are a lot less oppressive and give a lot more room to counterplay them. From the Jungle, getting struck from the fog of war isn't fun in the slightest. From the mid lane, being poked like that isn't exactly fun either. In the top lane, you can attempt to close the gap as someone like Riven or Renekton or Irelia, or attempt to poke back with someone like Vladimir or Ryze. Her spears also deal less damage there due to bulky laners and the fact that they tend to not fly as far, so being hit by one isn't the end-all be-all, but she will be rewarded for it. Her cat form has a massive amount of more strength there than other lanes, and for the top lane, that's a good thing.

In my opinion, the current iteration of Nidalee is actually balanceable, however it needs a few adjustments. I tilted this essay as "Why the Nidalee Rework Was a Failure", but here and now, we've come to a point: the Nidalee rework was a failure because it was poorly managed.

In my opinion, three things need to happen. First, we need to take Nidalee out of the Jungle. She is immensely bipolar there and will be impossible to keep balanced from patch to patch to patch for all elos involved, which isn't fair to the playerbase. The change to hunting monsters with her needs to be reverted entirely. Second, we need to greatly reduce the attack speed steroid on Nidalee's heal, Primal Surge, at earlier ranks and quite possibly all ranks due to her often maxing that first in the top lane. If that's still oppressive it might even have to go, however I question if that'll make her harder to balance than ever due to the shift in power possibly needed. One way or another, the attack speed steroid has to change, because it affects her top lane harder than others. Nidalee currently has one of the lowest base ADs in the game for a reason. And third, the numbers in her cat form need to be looked into, and toyed around with. I can't give exact numbers. I can't say that adjusting her Takedown by x amount will make sure she stays as intended, or that adjusting her Swipe by y amount will keep her in check while letting her split pushing still be okay. Rather, I will suggest that this needs to be looked at as sort of a "check up"; if she starts to misperform then that can be looked into.

With her attack speed steroid lowered, with her cat form looked into, and with her ability to Jungle outright removed, we can balance her around one lane which is far, far easier. Furthermore, it'll take out the "I must do this to 99-100% efficiency or I should not touch her" aspect, because that's not fair to the playerbase.

Futhermore, this will give her a better feel; all of her abilities will feel cohesive routinely which means a lot. And, it'll even make one of the greatest things happen:

She won't be entirely useless if she falls behind.

If she correctly gets herself ahead, then she'll be able to skirmish, and, possibly, teamfight. She'll definitely be able to duel. However, if not, she'll be able to split push as a top laner, something top laners are dedicated to doing. Yes, dedicated split pushers can be annoying sometimes. Tryndamere comes to mind here. However if we look at Champions like Nasus we can see that they can in fact be balanced. The major factor here is that with an attack speed steroid lowered, she'll be much more manageable as one; sure she'll have plenty of escape patterns to flee from a bad situation in, but in return she'll still be overall more healthy than her current iteration.

Another thing to note is that if she does end up being built closer to an AP bruiser, she still won't infringe in Elise's territory, as the two will be correctly balanced by different roles-- one Jungle, one top.

I think for now that's all that needs to be said, so with that, I thank you greatly for the read.

Sincerely,

Challenger Nid, formerly Best Furry NA.