You want to take this 80% of the time since Nidalee has a high killing potential especially after level 6. Ignite allows you to do absurd amount of damage with Nidalee's combo. Healing reduction is always nice too.

I've fiddled around with both ghost and exhaust but I prefer exhaust. In my opinion, exhaust is more useful than ghost is since you're probably already going to escape/catch with your passive and pounce. With exhaust, you can do a lot of things such as baiting escaping ganks, mitigating nukes, bursting enemies with lower MR and armour. However, I still prefer ignite since Nidalee snowballs extremely well. I might get this in situations like when it's a 

 vs  matchup and our jungler is someone with weak presence.

Always get this in combination of whatever. It helps you set up for a combo or escaping sticky situations easily. Although both ignite and flash got nerfed, the utility that both summoner spells provides makes it worth it.

I like to use the expensive hybrid marks. Numberwise, the hybrid runes are the most cost-efficient runes. It's extremely effective on Nidalee since she deals fair amount of both magic and physical damage. If you don't have hybrid runes or you don't like the feel of the runes like I initially did, feel free to use flat attack damage marks.

Why am I recommending armour when I'm a mid laner? Well my dear reader, the thing is you take PLENTY of physical damage early on. In fact, you probably take more physical than magical damage if you play Nidalee the way you're supposed to.

Pretty standard choice of runes for any mid laner. Magic resist helps you from getting your pathetic-base-MR-kitty-ass from getting bopped.

Quints are actually very open in terms of choices. You can run runes like MS, Flat AD/AP, or Hybrid Penetration. But once again, feel free to use any other runes like Flat HP or Magic Penetration. I just prefer going Flat AP/AD since it helps you harass/cs or sustain better in lane.

 Invest the first point on either the trap or spear. If you expect a normal early game, take trap in level one and place them on your jungler's first big camp for additional damage. Place the rest of the traps on possible gank routes of enemy junglers. If you're planning to fight level one, take spear. Place three points in heal for maximum sustain and additional harass. From there, Max Q since that is still your main source of damage, heal, and then lastly your traps. 

Ah prowl, simple yet so broken. In my opinion, Nidalee has one of the strongest passives in the game, providing 15% bonus movement speed when in the bush. Using this passive, you can do the following things: Escape, chase, harass, and travel.

Javelin Toss: This skill is what makes and breaks Midalee. 

Turns out to be a huge money sink, don't recommend anymore.

Before the change, this item was beast on Nidalee. Actually given how the item worked, Nidalee was the only champion that actually made good use of it. The new passive for Guinsoo's is pretty much useless on Nidalee but the new price is what really makes me not like this item anymore. Although 365 gold increase may not seem much, the problem is that the recipe price for Guinsoo's is now quite pricy. Getting Guinsoo's on Nidalee is purely for snowballing purposes and if getting that snowballing item has been delayed, there's little purpose of going such item. It's still okay though.

This item is really only good on champions that can dish out damage constantly like Brand or Cassiopeia. Active is interesting but you already have traps so it's pretty useless on Nidalee. Stats that it gives you are pretty cool I guess.

Although health is always good, spell penetration is not necessary on Nidalee early on. You get haunting guise on champions that can make the best out of midgame stage like Rumble or Katarina.

Liandry's Torment is an interesting item and an okay upgrade from HG late game but on Nidalee that much additional health and spell penetration is meaningless. The unique passive that Liandry's provides seems pretty good in the first glance, but think about it. It does 5% of their CURRENT health as additional damage. When you hit people, you're already doing around 1000 damage by the point where you get Liandry's. If you do 1000 damage onto a champion with 2000 max health, you're not even doing that much additional damage. Also Liandry's is very good on champions where these skills can be constantly hit like Anivia's E or Rumble's E. Getting Liandry's on Nidalee when your main skill to apply the passive DoT is a slow travelling skillshot, there's something wrong.

You don't do enough stable amount of damage over time to make this item worth.

Feels like you need to be way too close for this item to do it's job.

Why get this when you can get Athene's or Archangel's?

You should never be in a position where activation Zhonya's is necessary. You're also losing precious time where you can be placing a ward, nuking someone, and healing someone. This is not worth your gold on Midalee.