Nidalee Jungle Wild Rift Guide

Overview

Nidalee is a poke assassin who clears at a frightening pace and pokes the whole map from long range. In human form she throws Javelin Toss, a spear that gains range and damage the longer it flies, so a throw from fog or over a wall can chunk an enemy before they ever see her. Her traps mark targets, and cougar form leaps onto anything marked with bonus damage that decides early skirmishes. Cougar form is a fast brawler with a pounce gap-closer and a low-health execute on Takedown. It is also the engine of her clear, letting her finish her route faster than almost any other jungler. The payoff is tempo: she hits her timings early, snowballs off the leads she creates, and shows up in three lanes while a slower jungler is still clearing. The catch is that the spear has to land. A cat that whiffs is fragile and out of cooldowns.

Build Snapshot

Rune Setup

Summoner Spells

Nidalee Jungle Counters

Who counters Nidalee Jungle in Wild Rift (WR)? These champions beat Nidalee in the jungle matchup, with how each one wins. Learn to play around them or ban them in ranked.

• Rengar: Rengar erases the spacing your whole game depends on, leaping from a brush to burst your fragile cat before a single spear matters. Poke is worthless against an assassin you never see coming.
• Vi: Vi punches straight through your spears and sticks to you with her slow, and your fragile frame has no way to peel a point-and-click gap-closer once she commits.
• Diana: Diana's shield shrugs off your poke, and once she reaches you Moonfall drags the cougar back in before you can leap away, so one gap-close flips the whole fight.

Champions Nidalee Is Strong Against

Nidalee's best matchups in Wild Rift. Nidalee holds an edge against these picks in the jungle role, so look to press the advantage and contest objectives.

• Amumu: Slow to start, immobile, and squishy before items, Amumu is everything your spear punishes, and the bandage toss is his only way to ever reach you.
• Shyvana: Shyvana is a pure power-farmer with a predictable, immobile early game, so you win on tempo: she cannot answer spears at scuttle or defend the camps she clears on rails.
• Graves: Graves only hurts you up close where his shells hit hardest, and his short range has no answer to max-range spears, so he arrives at every fight already chunked.

Early Game

Your first clear is the engine of everything, so swap to cougar, pounce between camps, and use Takedown on each monster to speed up the route. Your full clear is fast, so you finish it ahead of most junglers and reach scuttle first, which puts you on level five. Hold the crab with a charged spear and take the fight, because few junglers want to walk into one. From there you gank while the camps respawn. The pattern stays the same: drop a trap in the brush or on a flank, throw a spear to mark and chunk on the way in, then pounce onto the marked target. Clear again the moment the camps are back. Early skirmishes around scuttle are where you make your living, and a lead there funds the invades that wreck a slow enemy clear.

Mid Game

Six minutes brings dragon and Herald, and you bully both by fighting from outside the pit. Contest with spears from across it and force the enemy jungler to fight on your terms or give the objective up, which is worth doing whenever your team is ahead on early fights. In an even game take Herald and trade dragon away, since your pressure converts a tower quickly, unless your team is the sort that wants soul. Between objectives, farm only as much as you need and visit every lane with a gankable angle: a heal keeps your laner topped up while a marked pounce ends an overextended enemy. Counter-jungling works well too, because your clear speed lets you steal a camp and leave before anyone arrives.

Late Game

The longer the game goes, the harder you have to work, because the spear that once deleted a carry now only chunks a full-build team. Stop forcing fights and play the picker: hunt sidelaners and stragglers with traps and spears from fog, and snipe anyone who walks through river without vision. Around Baron you are the threat that makes the enemy afraid to start it, throwing spears over the wall and pouncing on anyone who strays from the group. Keep your heal for yourself and your most fragile teammate, and never commit your pounce into a five-man group with no way out, because a cat caught in the open with cooldowns down does not walk back out.

Teamfights

You are not a frontliner or a brawler in the middle of the fight; you are a finisher who works the edges. Open from range with charged spears to mark and soften the enemy carry, then wait for the fight to break their formation. When a target drops low or strays from their peel, pounce in, use Takedown for the execute, and pounce back out before the return fire lands. Your traps zone the chokes and warn you when a flanker is coming, and a well-timed heal can swing a teammate's trade. Discipline decides everything: a Nidalee who patiently picks off the backline wins the fight, and one who dives the tank line just dies for nothing.