Nidalee’s passive is “Stalk” and causes Nidalee’s movement speed to be increased by 10% for 2 seconds when moving through tall grass. This bonus increases to 30% when she moves towards visible enemy champions that are nearby. Nidalee also starts a chase when an enemy is hit by her human Q or W, giving her 4 seconds of total vision on the target, plus the aforementioned bonuses and boosting her first feline Q and W against the target. This passive is therefore perfect for chasing opponents. Once Nidalee gains the upper hand in an early skirmish, she is usually able to finish off the fleeing opponents.

At level 1, you skill Nidalee’s Q, whose human form is the “javelin”. She throws a spiked spear at her target, which does more damage the further it flies. With this ability, Nidalee can effectively snipe enemies with low health points and deal a lot of poke later in the game. Her feline Q is “Attack”, where she deals additional damage to her opponent with her next attack, which increases further if the target has little life left. In addition, her feline Q deals 40% extra damage if the opponent was previously marked with her passive. Nidalee’s Puma Q is therefore ideal for executing opponents at the end of a burst combo. Since the Q is Nidalee’s main source of damage, maximize it first.

At level 2, you put the first point into the W, whose human form is “ambush”. Nidalee lays a trap for inattentive opponents, which reveals an opponent who steps in and deals damage. Nidalee can use this ability to gain vision in bushes, which gives her a little extra control around neutral objectives. Her feline W, meanwhile, is the “jump”, which she uses to leap in the chosen direction and deal area damage at the point of arrival. If Nidalee takes out an opponent in Puma form, the cooldown of her Puma W is greatly reduced. If an opponent is marked with her passive, the Puma-W also gains additional range and the cooldown is also greatly reduced after using the ability against a marked target. All in all, Nidalee can kite and, above all, chase opponents quite well thanks to her W. She can benefit greatly from this, especially when a fight has been won and the aim is to clean up one opponent after another. Since the cooldown of Puma-W can be reduced to 2 ways anyway, the ability is maximized last.

The last basic skill you take at level 3 is Nidalee’s E, whose human form is “Primal Energy”. Nidalee calls upon the spirit of the puma and heals herself or an ally. In addition, the target’s attack speed is increased for 7 seconds. In addition to sustain, the Human-E also gives her a DPS boost, which can be crucial in close duels. Later in the game, you can also use it to increase your ADC’s damage output and keep it alive with your heals. As a cougar, on the other hand, Nidalee’s E is the “strike”, where she sends her claws flying in the chosen direction and deals area damage to enemies she hits. This is why you usually combine the E with your W and Q in an all-in combo to inflict maximum burst as quickly as possible. Since the additional damage of the E is not to be sneezed at, you maximize it second.

Nidalee’s ultimate, which you level up to level 6, 11 and 16, is the “Feline Aspect”. This ult is quite unspectacular in itself and simply lets you switch back and forth between Nidalee’s human and feline form. You should be aware of the 3-second cooldown that you have to spend in the other form before you can switch back.

For your standard burst combo, hit your human Q, then switch to the feline form, jump at your opponent with the increased range of the Puma-W and press your Puma-E, an autoattack and finally your Puma-Q, which is an autoattack reset: Q->R->W->E->AA->Q.

Q->W: you can target an opponent with the Puma-Q and jump at them with the Puma-W, which buffers the Q and triggers it immediately after the jump.