Nidalee is a well-scaling AP champion with tremendous poke. Her additional utility and versatility in form of traps, heals and her cougar form make her a valuable contribution to any team. But what makes her a suitable support ? Her heal is unusually strong with a huge AP ratio, and - after Nunu changes - it is the best AS buff a AD carry can get. Her map awareness from traps gives her team a big advantage for scouting and an enormous resist debuff that comes along with it. Finally lane control from bushes and zoneing is fairly easy with her spears. But in all honesty, she is not an ordinary support and she shouldn't be played as one. Unlike other supports, she is meant to stack AP, her long range allows for that and her good scalings almost make it mandatory. She can snowball and carry games as a second AP carry, as everything she needs for that is a big chunk of AP. Where are her issues when playing support ? Her complete lack of CC needs to be taken into account, either with CC heavy teammates, who compensate for it, or with allout poke teams who synergize with it. Anyone skilled and experienced can play around these weaknesses. Read further if you are curious about Support Nidalee.


This is only a small guide that covers the basics, and it assumes you alredy know a lot about playing support and Nidalee. Have a look at the following guids if you need more in-depth informations:

Let's get some things straight and avoid irritations:

• Why no Sightstone ? Unlike other supports, Nidalee gains nothing from early HP but rather needs Mana and AP. Making money for 30 minutes and then buying whatever AP she can get is not an option, she needs the AP right away. Supports can manage warding without the stone. Its not ideal, but I think Nidalee is an exception to the rule.
• Why a Mejai's Soulstealer ? Its easy to get stacks, its easy to keep them - meaning it is golde efficient AP. But it is more than that. Majais allows you to grow strong on kills and assists rather than farm. The stacks resulting from teamfight double and tripple your gold income - and that holds true regardless if your team was ahead or behind. Essentially it is the Soulstealer that can get your team out of tough situations if you are skilled enough.

Summoner Spells - and . Replacements like or possible.

Masteries - 9/0/21 AP supportish setup.

Runes - Standard caster page (MPen-Armor-AP/lvl-AP) works well. Replace your Seals for AP/lvl if you can manage the squishyness. No gold runes because they breakeven with AP only after 18 min (Quints) and 26 min (Seals) of uselessness. Get AP and kill stuff.

HH Prowl (Passive): This makes all your warding activities and roaming around the map a lot faster and easier. You can also dodge enemy skillshots when around the bottom lane bushes with ease. Your passive makes you really hard to catch.

HH Javelin Toss (Q) AP, MPen, CDR: Hitting these is what makes you strong. It can give you complete lane dominance with minimal risk to yourself. Unlike other supports, you can stay outside the reach of any enemy and still hurt them. That is precicely why there is no need for defense on Nidalee. If you fail to hit your spears, at least use them to deny or force enemy positioning. But face the hard truth: Don't play Nidalee if you don't hit at least 33% of your javelins.

HH Bushwhack (W) CDR, AP, MPen: Please realize that the reduction debuff is enormous. Its equivalent to a + on your entire team! The damage is solid, and a dot for careless enemies can get you those nice surprise kills. But the best thing is the map awareness a reveal can give you. Basically you can deny the most important bushes and access paths around the whole map. For example 3 traps prevent any bot lane ganks. Please don't ever think that we don't buy wards because of this, nothing can replace wards.

HH Primal Surge (E) AP, CDR: Use it at level one and prepare for a huge dissapointment. A meagre 50 heal. You will quickly realize that this is not meant to be used in early game. But mid to late game it starts to shine like all your other skills. With several nerfs to , your is now the strongest attack speed buff an AD carry can get. It also has the best AP ratio of all the leftover heals from season 1, 0.7 used to be bad, but today the only thing that comes even close are some 0.45 on Soraka's and 0.6 on Taric's . Really this is a phenomenal late game heal - not to mention the CD is really low.



HH Aspect Of The Cougar (R) CDR: A new set of abilities. Beware that changing into cougar form will apply another 4 seconds CD to all your human abilities, so remember when they come off CD to use them effectively.

• HH Takedown (Q) AD, APen, CDR: A powerfull finisher and auto attack reset. You can use - - - to execute enemies from quite a distance. However, don't get tempted, you will find yourself in a bad spot.
  
• HH Pounce (W) AP, MPen, CDR: Cover distance faster, escape, chase, juke. - is your bread and butter escape reflex. Learn witch walls you can jump and from what angle.
• HH Swipe (E) CDR, AP, MPen: Farming tool, DPS and part of your execution combo. Just remember not to die.

Early game Nidalee needs Mana desperately to be a threat. If you are too low to Q them you will loose your lane. Thats why Mana utility masteries, an early Faerie charm and Pots - and possibly even runes - are mandatory. Obviously every support needs to supply wards, you are no exception.


As you continue to put points into your skills, Mana becomes an even greater concern. That is why Nidalee's core build revolves around no less than 3 Mana items. First, a Philosopher's Stone, the standard way to handle sustain and income in lane. But that is not enough. With exploding Mana costs, she not only needs the regeneration, but a solid mana pool as well. A is her perfect mana item, cheap, easy to stack (just - ) and very rewarding to upgrade. Last but not least: . For those that enjoy money making; start with Kage's Lucky Pick, for those that want raw damage: . Buy one every time you back, as nothing can be more frustrating than finding yourself out of mana! Don't get Boots on Nidalee too early, she usually shouldn't need them.


With Mana beeing less of an issue, you can focus on your true power and start stacking AP. Two very cheap AP items will make you strong. Firstly, is your perfect early game item, as you get much needed CDR and AP and just build from your already existing item pieces. Secondly, once your Tear is stacked and you have money, upgrade it for a . It will give you loads of AP and make you a lot more resilient with the shield. Also, I always buy a as early as I can, its a phantastic AP item for you. You pay almost nothing, you will always get +10 stacks and you gain the ability to snowball even stronger. Now you may also get boots. Remember that without a ward item, you need to make sure you have enough Wards and you have the room for them. If there is only one slot open, don't hesitate to buy only vision wards.


With these items, your core build is finished. Anything on top is a bonus. Strive for high level AP items and evolve to a second AP carry. Upgrade your boots with and get an whenever you can, as your spears are unlikely to hit if your enemies can see them comming. Also buy an to get some CDR and cheap AP if you expect a decisive fight.

Here are some usefull tips:

• Shard of True Ice and Twin Shadows are wonderful AP support items. Alltough I rarely get them, they can help you aleviate your lack of CC a little.
• Her hidden passive grants 5 Exp per 5 sec to nearby lower level allies.

I hope this guide teaches you something new about Nidalee. Credits to JhoiJhoi, she thought me how to code. I especially want to thank Zekent for his amazing Nidalee support plays; I got most of my ideas from him. Feel free to post your feedback.

Thank you for reading!