Nocturne's Kit Needs Improvement

has always been one of my favorite champions and was one of the first champions I ever mained. However, after all of the updates that have changed the jungle and other champions who jungle, he has fallen out of any sort of meta.

I see Nocturne as being able to go in one of two directions. Either Nocturne gains some sort of difficult to land but effective CC that utilizes the "fear" CC type (e.g. a shroud aoe that fears, artwork ideally being similar to the Q) OR he gains more single target burst assassanation abilities that rival other assassains such as or . Having CONSISTENT AoE CC is vital for his kit as of right now because of the massive CD on his ult (180 seconds at level 6! That means you get to use it to gank only 3 times in a ten minute period!). After Nocturne has ulted, his ganks are largely meaningless because his teathered fear is fairly dodgeable and is not even close to being instant like many other Jungler's CC ( 's fear, flag-drag, 's falcon punch, knock up and taunt, knock up, and those are just a few). I think that the best comparisons to Nocturne as a Jungler in the current meta are and . Pantheon is a burst assassain with a semi-global ult (obviously this is different than Top Pantheon). Nidalee is a mobile burst assassain with lots of mobility. What allows Nidalee's kit to be so interesting is her ability to chase with her Pounce. While she has no CC, she can deal enough damage AND chase well enough to catch a champion. Comparitively, the new changes to Ahri's kit also improve her mobility. Likewise, Nocturne needs more continuity and synergy within his kit.

**Problems: **

**1. Minimal Direct CC: ** Nocturne's only true CC comes from his E, a delayed single target fear. The major problems here are the 2 second delay before the fear, and the nature of the new fear chich causes the champion to counter-intuitively run away from him. CC should benefit the champion's chase, not cause the opponent continue to flee. The delay, combined with the insignificance and insignificance of the CC combine to necessitate a reevaluation of Nocturne's E. I love the new passive on the E, however the fear needs to be some sort of instant skill shot so that opponents are not able to run for 2 seconds before the fear is proc'd. I love the idea of having a speed boost towards feared champions but I do not feel as though it is enough. I would love to see Nocturne have some sort of interaction with fear champions.

**2. Long Ultimate CD: ** I think that Nocturne's ult damage and its effect are great. Honestly, as an effect, it is one of the most interesting and visually awesome ultimates in the game. However, the length of his ultimate's CD only provides more weakness into his kit that already has weak CC. Essentially the problem here is that without any early ganking power, he needds to have a considerable make up for that weakness before lane phase ends. With his current CD, he only has a few opportunites to gank with his ult during lane phase and without much CC to ensure a kill, it is difficult for him to take advantage of the uniqueness of his ultimate.

3. W Spell Shield is Weak: For a champion that needs to be up in your face to do damage and is designed to dive the opponents back line, having a single spell shield seems to be very ineffective to me. When you compare 's spell shield to other similar abilities on assassains, he shows clear defficiencies. Look at 's Troll Poll for example. There are way more flexible dodges that can be made by Fizz's invulnerability than a single spell block. While obviously Nocturne's Ult is the most reliable dash to a backline in the game, if the opponens are peeling at all, it becomes difficult to avoid cointer that peel within his current kit (He is not bursty enough to eliminate the target quickly [without being relatively fed] nor is he tanky enough to withstand the damage he will take in the dive NOR does he have the CC or speed to prevent kiting). The difference between 's spell shield and 's spell shield is that Nocturne is a a threatening melee assassain that needs to be up in the front of an oppoonents face whereas Sivir has a kit created specificially for kiting and maintaining a distance from her opponent. Nocturne's chase potential is not strong enough to warrant the simplicity of his W.

**Potential Remedies: **

1. Improve his ability to skillfully disregard opponent's CC. W Change his W to a short invulnerabiliy rather than a spell shield OR make Nocturne shortly stealthed. There are essentially three times when I use Nocturne's W. First is at range when someone with a poke ability is targetting me and I cannot dodge it. The second is when I use it after ulting to block a disengage which typically is at short range. The third is when I am running away from an opponent and blocking an engage tool like a Thresh hook or a Nami bubble. In these three options, there is only one scenario where the attack speed bonus gained from blocking a skill shot is of value. I think that if his spell shield is changed to either a short invulnerability or a short invisibility, that it will give him the ability to dodge skills on a more practical level, rather than dodging just a single spell (these abilities are comparable to , , , , , , and others who have invulberaility or short stealths).

**2. Give more ingrained kit burstiness. ** Nocturne's damage honestly leaves something to be desired. Although he statistically scales fairly well, it is difficult to build him purely AD (which he needs fore his ult to be effective in assassainating) because he must be tankier due to his inablitiy to dodge more than one CC skill with his current W. Some ideas for making Nocturne more bursty include making him do passively more damage based on afflictions that the opponent has. This would look as follows: Nocturne deals more damage if his target has been hit by his Q, then even more damage if attacking a target that has been hit by his Q and is feared, and then that damage is stacked and improved if that opponent's vision is currently being reduced by Nocturne's ultimate. The stacking idea makes for Nocturne players to need to act quickly to put as much of these afflictions on their target as possible so that they may deal damage during the window of all three affecting their target. Simple damage stackign multipliers can improve the kit without changing the kit entirely.

3. Either lower his Ult's CD or improve his early game ganking power by improving the CC in his E. Without the ability to gank pre-6 (e.g. meta junglers like , , or ) or the ability to gank more frequently post-6 (e.g. lower cooldown ultimates like or ) , Nocturne has little relevance outside of counter-jungling and counter-ganking. Providing an improvement into either his CC in ganks to improve his early ganks or reducing his ult cd will allow for him to bridge the gap of the meta.

4. Give an interaction with feared champions that makes him viable alongside other champions with a fear (like and knock ups) I think that Nocturne should have a duel passive where Umbra Blades are maintained but the second passive should be either one of the following or a combination: Nocturne gains movement speed comparable to 's movement speed passive when approaching feared targets or Nocturne gains a considerably increased magic damage on feared targets. I think that this flows well with the concepts of his kit as well as provides more team chemistry for him alongside other champions such as and and others with fears. Furthermore, it provides more opportunities to insert fear into the game as a CC type and diversifies some of the CC concepts that are currently overused such as knock ups (yes rito, you have plenty of options for now, not every champion needs a knock up).

Thematically, is a champion that should initiate fear into the hearts of his oppponents. To do so, I think he needs more assassain-type qualities within his kit to be able to kill a specific target quickly. In his current form, however, is incapable of being able to either survive during a dive to be a significant nuissance to the opposing team or burst an opposing champion down in a gank/pick. Without changes to kit as a whole, I do not think that Nocturne can be a viable option on Summoner's Rift. And that's a ing shame! :(

TL;DR Nocturne's kit is not powerful enough in the current meta and he does not thematically fit into either the bruiser, fighter, or assassain role. He needs kit changes to redefine himself as a champion and to improve himself as a viable jungler. Some ideas include reworks to his W and E and reduction of on his ultimate's CD.