Nidalee Changes/QOL Changes
Nidalee is not a bad champion, but she is outdated and has some underwhelming abilities even though she's one of the Poster Children for Jungling.
In my opinion before even starting this, she needs a Model Update similar to Morgana. I can think of several other champions(Lux, Ahri or Janna) who could use one too and probably more than her but if there was ever an update to Nidalee, this would need to be done first.
Now why do i think it would be nice to change her? A few reasons.
- Kit Fluidity/Clarity
Her kit doesn't feel very good and doesn't instinctively tell the player the How or What to do with the champion. When making a champion the Champions Kit needs to guide the player, if you look at her abilities you know you need to land your Q then W but afterwards your kind of stuck, the combo is Q+R+W+E+R+E+W+Q that combo is EXTREMELY long, and sure it should take time to learn a champion as complicated as Nidalee but this is too much and it's extremely punishing to not know Nidalee's Combo's. For clarities sake a lot of her abilities scale by 1% of Missing Health, there is 0 away you will know the exact damage that ability does, that's not right to the player and requires even more work for the player.
- She's absolutely terrible after 20 minutes(when in an even/losing state).
Then there's the fact that when she falls off, SHE FALLS OFF HARD! So not only did you not do well early because you can't combo but now your so far behind because of that, that you realize you can't even really play at all. That's not fun gameplay honestly and i'm pretty sure that no other champion in the game falls off quite as hard as Nidalee does. Your pretty much reduced to throwing your Q's and hoping you deal Poke Damage that will help your team, that's really not fun.
- She can't teamfight very well but also can't get picks very easily late game(Self explanatory)
---Ability Changes--- Functionally Nidalee would play the same but lose an ability, here's how.
Passive: Prowl
Innate- Prowl: Being in brush grants Nidalee 10% bonus movement speed, increased to 30% when facing Visible Enemy Champions.
Hunted/Pounce: Nidalee will mark enemy Champions with Hunted that she hits with her Javelin Toss or Bushwack, when facing enemy champions who are Hunted she will gain the full benefits of Prowl immediately, this additionally creates a Circle around the enemy champion. Right Clicking on a Hunted Champion while within the circle will cause Nidalee to Transform and Pounce on them Dealing Magical Damage to them and consuming the mark.
Enemies that are CC'ed by Nidalee's Allies also gain Hunted(This way nidalee doesn't have to land a spear to be useful in her gank, the ally can set up the gank for her too.)
Pounce: Overall deals less damage but is easier to proc and doesn't have a cooldown, higher range as well though not by much(750-800)
--Q--
Javelin Toss: Increased Missile Speed(25% faster), Slightly Lower Range Scaling(From 200% max range to 175%)
To many champions can dodge her Q too easily, and the fact that Javelin Toss is nearly 50% of nidalee's damage means if she misses it she probably losses that fight unless she's very fed, i don't think it's balance to have a champion rely entirely on 1 ability to deal any damage at all(This is why when she isn't fed she falls very VERY far behind).
Takedown: Instead of dealing increased damage based on Missing Health, it deals Double Damage to enemies bellow a certain Threshold. This is for clarities sake because let's be real this abilities damage is very hard to understand. To make up for reducing the Percentage health damage, it scales harder and has a higher Base Damage than it did before.
It also maintains it's Empowered Effect from Hunted.
--W--
Primal Surge
Nidalee now keeps Primal Surge while in Human and Cougar Form, it no longer heals more based on Missing Health but scales Harder and has an Increased Base Heal.
(I had some idea's on how to make this more interesting instead of just a Flat Heal buuuut it's still a good ability it's just not a satisfying one to use so eh.)
--E-- Bushwack: No longer deals damage(There was 0 reason it should deal damage.) grants True Sight for 6 seconds(up from 4) now Root's enemies for .5/.75/1 Seconds. I feel like this is a lot more useful to her, having a tiny bit of CC along with more Vision control should make up for the 20+20%AP damage it did over 4 seconds.
Swipe: Same as before higher Base Damage, Higher Scaling.
--R--
Same as Before.
--------Note's--------
Passive: It makes it harder for her to Kite enemies, since if she right clicks them she'll Immediately Pounce on them if they are Hunted. I thought that this was a worthy trade off though for the increased Number's and Easier Proc's of It.
Q: Increased missile speed seemed like the best buff to give her Q honestly along with increased Clarity on her Takedown.
W: Losing her W it only made sense for the best of her other abilities be put in it's place and be kept in both forms.
E: I'm sure i could do more with her Swipe but i chose not to because i didn't want to change her too much.
R: It's perfect how it is, wouldn't want to overload it for no reason.
I should note that the fact her W-Bushwack was moved to her E might trip some people up, i'm sure that it's not something that makes her horrible to play by any means and wouldn't ruin any of her combo's since they work exactly the same you just don't have to press her W to do them anymore. Finally i should add that without her W Nidalee losses a lot of Map Mobility, but to be fair to her it could be possible to add a Movement Speed Bonus everytime she transform's into her Cougar form, she won't be as fast, and she won't be able to jump over small walls to escape as often but i think that this is a fine trade off for being better Mid-Late Game.
Overall i think this will make her easier to Learn but overall she'll play the same, have a better if not more tolerable game when she's not ahead(The part about playing her that sucks is when she falls off at 15 minutes lol) and overall it helps to flesh out the Feel of playing her as well and streamline her kit to be more fluid.
