Is Essence Reaver a good buy on Nocturne?

Truthteller·Mar 3, 2015·1 votes·1,745 views

After hitting level 6, I am constantly finding myself to be running out of mana after 2-3 clears if I don't have the blue buff. Right now, the only good mana item on Nocturne is Frozen Heart but it is not very useful if I get a huge lead off the early-mid game. I am considering of buying Essence Reaver after I complete my jungle item and maybe bork if I'm going the offensive path so I can actually be useful in a prolonged skirmish or teamfight without going OOM. I know that nocturne needs AS items for his clear speed, but AD items are actually not bad on him at all because of the scaling on his passive and 2 other offensive abilities. So What do you guys think? Is it a good item or a noob trap?

23 Comments

Ironclad DragonMar 3, 20152 votes

No one likes it apparently.

For some reason.

The ChinMar 3, 20152 votes

Best way to find out is to try it yourself

Everyone has a knee jerk reaction to essence reaver that it's the worst item in the game so people will say it's a shit build no matter what, but give it a try and see how it goes... AD and CDR is great on nocturne so it has potential to be good!

BluePolarizerMar 3, 20151 votes

its not the worst item in the game. that honor goes to Ohmwrecker.

ks916Mar 3, 20151 votes

I always thought it was spell theifs edge when fully upgraded, it doesn't give much for what it costs to upgrade especially for a support, at least with ohm wrecker it can be sometimes useful.

WullfMar 3, 20152 votes

oh oh oh

Frost queen claim (fully upgraded edge) is one hell of a badass item for supports.

Its liek having little Janna in your pocket. It gives you additional CC so you can keep that riven off your ADC.

For example on Nami, if you hit few enemies with it you can then land easily your Q and Ulti which will add up to deadly long CC and wins you a teamfight.

lightdragoon88Mar 3, 20151 votes

Not to mention you can now take minions without it making Frost Queen go on cooldown anymore.

WullfMar 3, 20151 votes

yep

lightdragoon88Mar 3, 20151 votes

I agree.

The 80 AD, 10% CDR, and the lifesteal are great. Add the mana regen and it a good item.

The problem most have is that the mana passive is auto attack based so very few can really make use of it effectively as ADC usually only used their spells in teamfights (which after it they recall/respawn to take care of the oom) so Reaver is really only used for auto attack based champs that really like to spam their moves.

In my personal opinion that makes Jayce, Urgot, Xin Zhao, Udyr, and Nocture as the best users of Reaver (I also like it on Fiora cause I spam her burst of speed a lot)

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

I respect your opinion. I still want the mana gain for split-pushing though. Late game, it's more about who can waveclear the fastest by able to stay longer in lane. Imagine you're Nocturne against someone like Tryndamere who can abuse his resourceless kit while he never has to b and you're playing a champ gated by mana, painful isn't it?

lightdragoon88Mar 3, 20151 votes

Indeed. That is why I said auto attack champs that like to use their ability a lot are the best used of Reaver.

ZarxisMar 3, 20151 votes

It's a niche item that I wouldn't bother putting on Nocturne. Unless your mid really needs every blue buff and/or you don't want to take Ranger's Trailblazer, you probably don't need the extra mana sustain. You shouldn't be running out of mana in sustained fights unless you've been spamming your W and Q too much.

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

Hmm. Nocturne late game with 300 ad can easily regain up to 1/5 of his mana by Q'ing a minion wave and then walking up to the middle of the wave to proc his passive. Assuming that he can get up to 30 mana per minion hit when his mana is depleted, 8 times 30 equals 240 mana. That's more than enough mana for another skill rotation (excluding ult) in one auto. If he keeps auto-attacking, he will have an unlimited supply of resources. This is extremely beneficial for late game split-pushing and duels.That's pretty huge if you ask me.

TheKingDodoMar 3, 20151 votes

what spell are you spamming on nocturne? W? E? his Q has a 10 sec CD last I checked. I believe the trending jungle nocturne build is item 3726 / item 3710 and item 3153 item 3065 then all defences item 3142 is optional, and the CDR it gives isn't enough to make him run out of mana... He simply doesn't use enough mana in the jungle to make reaver worth it imo. maybe it's ok for lane nocturne?

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

I don't know about you but when I play him, I go oom almost everytime after a gank because I have to push out the enemy's lane to his tower in order to make him lose cs. I also kept on finding myself to be very low on mana after getting dragon at around level 6, after that, if a fight broke out near the dragon pit, I can only use one combo on the enemy ADC and that's it.

ks916Mar 3, 20151 votes

On nocturne do you go trailblazer? I find it to be very useful on noc especially after the nerfs to chilling smite. On noc I actually find it much better to build AS items like ghost blade or BORK over flat ad since you get bonus ad from your Q and you want to get as many autos of in that time. If you build bork after jg item you shouldn't need any abilities to clear the jungle, should save you on mana. In my experience your mana problems only hurt early on, by the time you have your second item you don't need abilities to clear the jungle. (more like 1 and a half, for me I get jg item and cutlass then I'm fine in terms of mana, I tend not to finish bork so early since I want a few tank stats)

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

I don't really like trail blazer because I need the slow from the Stalker's blade in order to have some success from ganking a mobility champ before and post 6. Other than that, his ult is on a 3 minute cooldown early game and without his primary ganking tool, he's lackluster as shit.

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

Thanks for the suggestion though. :)

ks916Mar 3, 20151 votes

No problem, BTW do you buy any mana pots early on? When I go chilling smite I always buy 1 or 2 mana pots for the early game and they actually help me get through. (mana pots are heavily underrated for junglers but they solve a lot of problems, should try it if you don't)

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

Mana pots should help him early game but I fail to see how that will affect his mid-late game when potions do not make much of a difference later on. Plus, the gold spent on mana pots could be better used on wards and equipments. Cashing out on mana pots might be ok if you're snowballing but if you're even or behind then it's probably just plain better to build Essence Reaver as your 4th or 5th item.

TruthtellerMar 3, 20151 votes

Maybe I'll just get a Trailblazers on him instead and then upgrade it to devourer so I can farm the damage for late game. I guess auto-attack works if you have alot of AS.

ks916Mar 3, 20151 votes

You should just try it sometimes certain play styles just work for some people who knows essence reaver might just fit into the way you play nocturne. For some of the champions I play I have my own builds just because they work for me. Give essence reaver a try in a few normals/team builder and see how it goes. Everyone plays there Champs differently, it's normally better to figure out your own preferences and what works for you.

Nin10do0014Mar 3, 20151 votes

You're better off buying Zhonya's Hourglass on Nocturne. But in all seriousness, Essence Reaver DOES offer stats that Nocturne benefits from, but the passive does not synergize well with his kit. Sure, the AD, Life Steal, and CDR are great. However, Nocturne does not make full use of the passive. He doesn't rely on Mana, and he scales better with Attack Speed.

I'm not saying this is bad, but there are better choices for items.