I have been playing Nidalee jungle since the rework and am probably one of the players that played her the most before she was picked up by pros, telling everyone she is almost top tier but only getting laughed at. And even before that she has been my favourite champion since i started playing the game and I never liked the witchhunting for Nidalee: Yes her damage has been to way too high, but in general i am very fond of the mini game of poke and dodge in league of legends. I personally dislike point and click champs like Irelia and Jax with their insane scaling and lack of counterplay especially in soloque.

To make this discussion a bit healthier, let's break down her kit and talk about individual aspects:

Positive:

-okay laning phase -powerspike at level 3 -standard/flexible builds -heavy single target poke -zoning with traps and spears -sustain, and heals for team -okay melee damage -strong assassination potential -great roaming at level 2 -high mobility -very punishing for immobile "weak" champions -relativly low cooldowns -profits from chaos (soloque) -Insane Jungle clearing -high skill cap -snowballs with items

Negative

-highly skillshot reliant -hindered by minions -weak to blocks (braum, yasuo) -counteracted by heals/shields -weak to high mobility (including dragon buff) -mana reliant (but also high scaling with it) -squishy, vulnerable to cc -no cc, except zoning -no unfair ultimate ability -outscaled when behind -no ranged waveclear -requires time and map control -countered by hard engage -can be itemized against -can be counterpicked

Quite a few of the weaknesses are taken care of in the team composition when Nidalee in fact is the jungler of the team. If played correctly she basically is a weaker ap version of Lee Sin who instead of falling off becomes a spear/heal machine lategame.

I do agree that her jungle clearing buff might have been a too much. I played her to great success beforehand (however soft resets were nerfed too). She might be top a top tier jungler in soloque (like i have been preaching for a year now) but there still are enough CLEAR weaknesses. If Riot were to nerf her spear damage even further, she would require cc in her cougar form (e slow for example) in return to be viable, but in my opinion this would remove a very interesting and diverse aspect from the game.

In the end the question is: Do you really think her damage is too high, or do you dislike her poke as a game mechanic?