Ok, my turn to ask for help

Recently I bought Nidalee, I like her a lot, shes fun to play, and has some interesting skill sets... But no matter how hard I try at her, I fail fail fail fail and a little more fail.

I have read a number of guides on her, looked at different builds, watched you tube videos, but nothing I do seems to work...

I seem to hold my own in mid game, when the guides say I should be shining, I get absolutely rolled late game, which apparently is expected.. and I wont even go into early game..

So if anyone that is skilled at Nidalee, or at least can hold their own, please, send me an FR, run a few games with me, see what I am doing wrong, and for the love of kills, SAVE ME. Please

Hah, I'm not a pro Nidalee player by any means, I loved her when I was new to the game, but you have to be REALLY skilled with her to dominate against experienced players.

What makes her strong mid game is her Javelin Toss, which is her hardest ability to land. Max it first, start with a few Doran's Rings, possibly get Sorc Shoes and just get good at landing it. Mid game with just those items and the other person has no MR, and you can take 75% of their health with one hit. You need to get kills during this time to get the gear advantage you need later.

Once you feel like you start falling behind clear the jungle, Nidalee is an amazing jungler post level 6 and she benefits from both buffs.

Get good at running away as well, drop a heal, cat form and start leaping away, few champs can catch Nidalee. Figure out which bushes you can leap over for especially tricky situations.

Nidalee is a hard champ, she's hybrid and fills many rolls moderately well, it will take some time to master her.

Start the game with boots, two health pots, and a mana pot. Run flash and ghost to help you escape (or chase). As the previous poster said once you have cougar, you have a great escape mechanism with your leap. Go into a custom game and leap around looking for the walls you can jump over, and practicing juking through bushes.

Remember that despite having melee abilities, you are a squishy support champion first. Let the beefier characters go into the fight first, and don't get caught alone late game. Throw out heals and javelins before going cougar and leaping into the wall o pain.

Rage Blade(always), sorc/merc/Cd boots, Sheen, rylais for the core items
I didn't play her enough but W is left with 1 point and mainly used to stop ganks and scout in the laning phase.
Q/E are maxed first with user preference.
There is a video on youtube showing you all the walls you can jump over-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_3Lf8zzWRY
For team fights act as a support/nuke by spamming your human skills, then clean up with cougar

She's also one of the most bugged champs in the game, so if you see anything weird like your spear going backwards after you change from cougar to human or traps not setting, its natural until Riot fixes

1) If your a new players I HIGHLY advise you to play someone else, just cause she is one of the hardest champs to play.

2) She is one of the most buggiest champions to play.

Now if you still want to play her, here you go:

1) ALWAYS start with a dorans ring. Never buy health potions on a champion that has a self heal as someone had stated above, horrible idea.

2) Level up E first (your heal) then Q, E, Q, W, R (So you get your W at level 5)

3) The main stratagy to nidalee in a lane is constant harrassment and 'poke' with your autoattacks. Save your mana for your heal for when you need it.

I play Nidalee quite often, she's my main champion, and definitely my most favourite to play. You probably don't want need another in depth guide, so I'll try to be concise.

As mentioned Nidalee:
> is one of the more difficult champs to play.
> is slightly buggy. (most notably, the spear bug which causes you to throw yoru spear behind you after exiting cougar form.)
> can be played multiple ways. (AP, AD, hybrid. Personally, I love AP Nidalee, especially in cougar form.)

Tips:
> Everyone loves to talk about the spear all day long. And of course, it is definitely one of her most powerful assets. But don't forget that cougar form, especially against someone with low HP, is also very deadly.
> Trap, trap, trap. They're useful. Even when you aren't sure they'll be needed, it's always better safe than sorry. They show for a moment the area you trap and invisible units that walk through them. But, the enemy can see your trap on their map as a little red dot if you don't trap within a bush.
> Know where your bushes are. You may not think it, but that speed boost is pretty useful.
> Nidalee is great at getting in and out. That pounce is a wonderful thing.
> If you get the rageblade, don't forget to spam your skills in cougar form. The fact that none of those skills require mana makes the rageblade a very effective way to gain AP, provided that you keep your stacks up.
> Landing that spear can be tricky, so try not to make it obvious that you're about to throw one. Also keep that range in mind, since the father the spear travels, the more damage it does.


Core Build (for AP Nid):
> Doran's Ring
> Boots of Speed > Situational Boots
> Blasting Wand >Guinsoo's Rageblade
> Sheen > Lichbane
> Everything else depends on your match, whether you need more AP or survivability, etc.

Let me know if you have questions, or add me in game, I'd be happy to discuss Nidalee with you. Good luck!

There are quite a lot of good things here, I haven't read them all so sorry if I repeat some ideas, but this is usually how I play nidalee.
Most of the time I choose 2 v 1 on her or 1 v 1 either top or mid. I always get doran's ring because it is simply the best item for her, hands down. I then get my E(heal) ability and go to my lane. No matter where I am (2v1;1v1;2v2) I always go E whenever I can, Q(jav) when I can't do E, and W(trap) at level 5. That makes me have all my abilities at level 6 when I go into cougar form.
Always have atleast one trap in the bushes if there is a jungler. It saves on the 75gold for a ward as it can thwart any gank, and lasts 1 minute longer. I usually lane and last hit/harass for as long as I can. I don't usually go B until I have around 3k gold or I have downed the tower. In cougar form it is very easy to clear every minion from a wave. I choose AP nidalee also, as I love her 1500 damage from a nice spear, and 1khp heal. My boots I choose merc treads because I want some survivability and her passive helps with movement speed so BoS are kind of over kill. Also I go rageblade/sheen->lichbane/Deathcap. Those are the 4 items I ALWAYS get. by themselves they make nidalee into a very feirce champion. The last 2 items I get depending on what we need or are lacking. More DPS->AP or tanky items such as warmogs or banchee's.
I hope I helped in some way :] Lemmy know if you need any more assistance.

My only complaint about Nidalee is that her ap ratio on her heal is so **** high. I guess it makes up for the apparently buggy character though I have never noticed anything weird about her. Uhmm if your having problems with survivability try a more tanky build with her.