Counter Guide

How to Beat Nidalee

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Nidalee removes half a health bar from further away than anybody thought was allowed, and then she doesn't come near you.

She's two things joined by a decision. From a distance she's a poke champion with the longest reach in the jungle and a heal that undoes anything landed on her. Up close she's fast, fragile and running out of options. Almost every game against her is decided by which of those she gets to play, and that isn't really her call. A jungler who has to duel loses the duel; a jungler who is allowed to throw is a jungler you can't approach an objective against. Beating her means closing distance rather than trading it, and doing it in the early stretch where her fragility is still exposed.

Matchup Snapshot Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress

Where You Meet Her The jungle

Damage Type Magic, in one enormous piece

Why She Is Frustrating You lost the fight before it started

Mobility Very fast, and it gets faster in the jungle

Biggest Threat Javelin Toss [Q]

Hardest Counter Shyvana

What a Counter Needs

A way to close distance without being poked on the way
Enough durability to survive one spear
A reason for her to be in a fight she can't leave

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Nidalee on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Nidalee

Shyvana742 games59.7%
Amumu420 games58.1%
Nocturne1,220 games54.9%
Zac402 games54.7%
Hecarim768 games53.9%

Picks Nidalee Beats

Qiyana980 games46.2%
Graves2,486 games46.7%
Jayce467 games46.9%
Talon978 games48.4%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Nidalee. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 34,546 Nidalee games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Nidalee Overview

Strengths: What Makes Her Dangerous

The spear is the longest range in the jungle. Javelin Toss [Q] does more the further it travels, so the safest place for her to throw from is also the most damaging one.
She moves faster than anybody chasing her. Prowl [Passive] makes crossing the map cheap, so she shows up in places the enemy jungler can't cover and leaves before anybody arrives.
She undoes poke. The heal means a war of attrition against her is one she wins by default, and the damage you traded for is gone by the time it mattered.
She controls objectives without contesting them. A team that can't walk up to a pit is a team that doesn't take it, and she can produce that from outside everybody's range.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

A missed spear is a wasted rotation. It's a slow projectile at long range and it's the whole threat. A player who moves unpredictably takes most of her kit away for free.
She is very fragile up close. Reaching her ends the conversation. There's no defensive tool other than speed, and speed doesn't help once somebody is standing on her.
She loses the early duel. Granted, the clear is fast, but the fighting isn't. A jungler willing to take her camps in the first few minutes usually gets away with it.
She contributes very little to a real fight. Her damage is priced for the moment before a fight, and a fight that starts anyway is one she's barely part of.
She has to commit to finish. The damage from range softens people. Actually killing them means walking in, and that's the version of her that's easy to punish.

Countering Nidalee

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Nidalee comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Close the distance rather than trading at range. Every step you take toward her is damage removed from the spear (Javelin Toss [Q] does more the further it travels), and the end of the walk is a place she has no answer at all.
Bring a jungler who fights. She is beatable in a straight duel at almost every point in the game, and the only thing that stops it is never making her have one.
Don't stand still near an objective. The pit is where she's worth the most, because everybody stops moving in front of it. Moving is free.
Take her camps early. She clears quickly and she duels poorly, so the punishment for visiting her jungle in the first few minutes is smaller than it is against almost any other jungler.

If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Nidalee Matchup

Walk at her rather than around her. The instinct when something hurts at range is to back away, and backing away is the exact thing that keeps her in the version of the game she wanted.

Watch for the trap before the spear. The setup is usually a piece of ground she prepared, and the spear that lands is very often the one thrown at somebody who stepped on something first.

Play the objective early or not at all. A team that waits until she has items is a team that has to fight her from range on her schedule, and that isn't a fight anybody wins.

Best Nidalee Counters

Take the duel she can't refuse, survive the spear, or arrive before she has thrown anything.

Udyr Wins Every Duel

There is no version of a straight fight that goes her way, and he is fast enough in the early jungle to keep offering one.

He also doesn't care much about the poke. Sustained damage and sustain of his own is the wrong thing to be throwing a single large spear at.

Zac The Spear Does Not Solve Him

Half of a very large health bar is still a very large health bar, and he gets a meaningful part of it back on his own.

He also engages from further away than she can react to, so her greatest advantage becomes somebody else's.

Hecarim Closes It Instantly

He covers the distance she depends on faster than she can create it again, and the moment he arrives she is a fragile champion with a run button.

The fear is the other half. It's the one effect that takes away her ability to leave (the only defensive tool she actually has).

Itemizing Against Nidalee

One spear is most of the damage, so the buys are aimed at the spear and at the heal behind it:

Kaenic Rookern is the item that changes the matchup, because it takes the edge off the single largest piece of damage she has and it does it at exactly the moment she was hoping to land it. Executioner's Calling is aimed at the heal (the reason poking her back hasn't been working, and cheap to cut). Mercury's Treads is a modest buy here and it's on the list for the traps and the slow rather than for the spear itself. A Control Ward matters more against her than against most junglers, because everything she does well happens near an objective nobody could approach, and the ward is what turns that into an ordinary fight.