Definitely not clickbait, but is nocturne healthy?
ORIGINAL POST CRED GOES TO ORID
sadly, it's two years old. So feel free to be critical of its current relevance, but the analysis still seems fair and very true to this day. And it didn't get the push it would get today. Idk if it's bad to share such a bulky post
"Nocturne has been the whipping boy of league for a long time, and has only very recently been given some attention. Nocturne has been given a random poorly thought-out nerf every year since release. Despite this, Nocturne has usually been somewhat viable, except after the most severe nerfs in seasons 2-4. This makes Nocturne a poster boy for having a "strategic niche." If a champion can have such low numbers and have a playstyle that has been out of the meta for four years, yet still be occasionally picked in competitive play, something right has been done with the champion design. Nocturne has almost anachronistic focus on having a strongly thematic kit with a clear niche. However, Nocturne has been relatively ignored and this has resulted in Nocturne not aging as gracefully as he could have.
Recently, in season 4, Nocturne was given a severe nerf in the form of removing fear from the game with no compensation. To provide context, this change was accidentally pushed into a live patch prematurely on fiddlesticks, and this resulted in a 4% winrate decrease. This change was overall an increase to game consistency, but the fact that this change was indirectly pushed onto Nocturne with zero compensation was the tipping point that made it clear that Riot went too far and that Nocturne would become old evelynn soon at his current rate of nerfs. Nocturne has had some of his ganking power restored by giving his ultimate a strategic buff and by compensating the impact of the fear changes. Nocturne is not in a bad spot right now, but still suffers from some problems, both directly affecting Nocturne, and indirectly affecting game health. The way Nocturne is currently tuned discourages his intended gameplay and empowers poor gameplay
Let's start with the direct probems. Nocturne has a confused gameplay and itemization fantasy. His recommended items and skills all indicate that Nocturne has the following properties.
Nocturne is a farm focused jungler, indicated by the recommendation of building devourer. Nocturne has elements of a melee carry based on his presence of attack-based steroids and extremely low damage ratios. Nocturne is an assassin that depends on effective use of his vision-denying ult more so than the high mobility that modern assassins have. These points are what I presume Nocturne is both intended and often perceived to define him. However, we should address how well Nocturne delivers on these expectations.
Nocturne has moderate farming capability due to outdated sustain and damage patterns. Nocturne's ability to farm is hampered by nerfs received during the time of the season 2 jungle, and the jungle has been significantly changed since then. As a result, his farming and sustain in the early game are closer to champions like Nautilus and kha'zix rather than Udyr or Shyvana. This means that Nocturne cannot rely on his intended primary gameplay pattern. The overwhelming consensus based on builds and winrates is that building attack speed on Nocturne is less effective than stacking armor pen. Nocturne is relatively poorly equipped to rely on devourer and instead is almost always built as a kamikaze, intended to smash into the squishiest target on the enemy team and do as much damage with Ultimate, Q, and a single auto attack before being peeled or bursted. Warrior enchantment Nocturne is clearly superior. Because Nocturne is very poorly tuned as a burst assassin, this indicates that his gameplay pattern is to inherently minimize counterplay and gameplay for both the enemy and Nocturne himself. Since Nocturne is ineffective with "light carry" builds, his ultimate vision denial is by extension ineffective. This means that Paranoia is currently used for the sole purpose of Nocturne being an unavoidable missile that makes for a poor gameplay experience. Nocturne has to suffer from dying in almost every fight with no tools to outplay after diving, and enemy ADCs are left with almost no options for avoiding his damage. As a light-carry, Nocturne would have to stick to a target and rely on sustained damage to succeed. Retuning him into such a champion would enable Nocturne's intended gameplay while giving players more agency in if they die to Nocturne or not. Now let us move on to the indirect problems with Nocturne.
Nocturne current numbers demonstrate the same problems that Rengar does. Rengar is currently a severe game health issue with his high damage ratios and unavoidable engage. This means that leaving Nocturne alone and allowing him to benefit from any indirect buffs could result in a repeat of Rengar's problems. This prevents Riot from addressing that Nocturne is very undertuned for his intended role, rather than his "Diet Rengar" playstyle. Nocturne's current kit severely punishes some targets more than others. While It's expected that champs have different strengths and weaknesses, Nocturne's current state is oppressive to ADCs that don't have mobility or self-peel. There is basically no such thing as good positioning against a Nocturne when playing Ashe because your survival depends purely on how fast your team can kill the Nocturne, and even a poorly tuned Rengar can still build enough armor pen to kill one squishy target before five enemies can burst him down. Just why is "Diet Rengar" so much more effective than "light carry" Nocturne? We can easily see why just by looking at his kit. Q: The damage from this skill is unavoidable when combined with Paranoia, yet the attack damage steroid is ineffective unless Nocturne can move with a fight and continue to attack. W: The spell shield gives a moderate attack speed bonus. However, it is more effective when used to prevent peel. E: The fear on this skill is extremely binary. The tether is so short that most champions can easily avoid it giving Nocturne poor options of contributing to a fight. However, the fear is so punishing that it results in certain death to some champions. This is basically the "skarner problem" where some champions will never die to Nocturne, and some champions will never survive against Nocturne. R: The theme, appearance, and effect of this skill are all brilliant. However, it is the only skill on Nocturne's kit with decent scaling, and this means that Nocturne does not benefit from his investments in attack damage unless he uses his ultimate on the most helpless target rather than using the vision denial. If Nocturne uses this skill for utility, then he does not contribute to the fight. If he uses this skill for damage, then Nocturne becomes a completely unavoidable ball of stats.
To summarize, Nocturne has a thematic kit that has the potential for fun gameplay and a unique strategic niche. However, he is undertuned for his intended pattern in order to compensate for an alternative pattern that is more effective. This results in a confused fantasy and creates anti-fun situations for both Nocturne and his targets. In addition, this makes Nocturne a ticking time bomb that can affect gameplay balance in the future. Nocturne should be retuned in order to make his kit more enjoyable to play with or against."
