Nocturne Gameplay Update ideas
#Passive - https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/f8/Unspeakable_Horror.png/revision/latest?cb=20130929123130 Unspeakable Horror (new)
Innate: Being near or damaging an enemy champion or monster builds 1 stack of Horror on them each second. Basic attacks apply 1 stack and basic abilities apply 2 stacks. At 8 Horror, the afflicted unit flees for 1 second. (8 second per unit CD)
There would be some sort of visual effect to show how many stacks are active on a target
#Q - https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/0/09/Duskbringer.png/revision/latest?cb=20130929123126 Duskbringer (Unchanged)
Unchanged
#W - https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/c/c2/Shroud_of_Darkness.png/revision/latest?cb=20130929123128 Nightmare Fuel (new)
Active: Nocturne infects the mind of target champion or large monster and feeds off its insanity, instantly dealing 10% of their current health as magic damage gaining a 30/50/70/90/110 health shield for 6 seconds. For the next 4 seconds, Nocturne's attacks against the target increase the shield's health by 10% of the damage he deals to them, increased by 0.5% of damage dealt per 1% of the target's missing health.
Passive: Gains 335 movement speed when moving towards fleeing units.
CD: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds
The way this works is that Nocturne will gain a small amount of shield from attacking a near full health target with this ability. But if he uses it on a low health target or bursts a target down quickly the shield he gains from this ability is much much larger. This allows him to more safely dive back-line squishies and more reliably take down low health isolated targets with the omission of the spell shield he currently has.
This ability entices Nocturne to focus just the target of this ability since he'll gain a massive shield if he manages to take them down. His enemies will want to keep him away from it to allow them to take him down more easily without the shield he'd get from slaughtering it. This is intended to be the replacement for his spell shield. The new Sterak's Gage should make up for the loss of CC reduction and it synergizes well with this ability by giving him a shield to keep him alive longer to build Nightmare Fuel's shield.
#E - https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/6/60/Umbra_Blades.png/revision/latest?cb=20130929123129 Umbra Blades (new)
Active: Repeatedly slashes 2/3/4/5/6 times in an arc in target direction, dealing 120% total AD per strike, applying on-hit effects to the closest enemy hit and healing himself for 6/9/12/15/18 (+20% total AD) health per strike per enemy hit. The casting speed of this ability scales 1:1 with attack speed (this means it's very slow with no attack speed).
Basic attacks, to include the slashes from Umbra Blades, reduce the cooldown by 1 second (cooldown starts on cast).
CD: 16 seconds
Similar to Sejauni's W, he can move while casting this ability but the attack will always face the same direction.
This ability concept seems like a fun one on paper. It'd be tuned to be the skill he'd want to max first for maximum damage. It makes it so that opponents that try to flee from Nocturne take the full brunt of his assault. But if his target thinks avoiding the damage is in their best interest, they can walk through him to avoid it but will have to suffer his 1 second fear from his passive if they try this. Additionally, Duskbringer's Dusk Trail gives him the movement speed to re-position to potentially catch these attempts. Really adds onto to the terror of being chased by a Nocturne.
#R - https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/8/8d/Paranoia.png/revision/latest?cb=20130929123127 Paranoia (Relatively Unchanged)
Mostly unchanged except the following:
Range no longer scales with rank and is permanently 2500 (rank 1 range). Additionally, upon arrival he instantly triggers Unspeakable Horror (passive) on the target (1 second flee/fear). If Nightmare Fuel is off cooldown, it can be cast during Paranoia's dash to instantly select the target of Paranoia as its target (causing the damage dealt by Paranoia to convert into the shield's health as well).
His ult range has to take the hit for these changes because a Nocturne with an even stronger duelist kit means that a Nocturne that's ahead can pretty much pick off whoever he wants, completely shutting down splitpushing possibilities. While this may be an intended strength and counter to splitpushing, that strategy shouldn't be completely shut down by a single pick--thus why I think the ult range would need to be reduced.
Overall I feel like these prospective changes keep the loved parts of Nocturne intact such as his potency in slaughtering isolated targets and his dueling potential while adding more nuances to play around in his kit.
If anything, I just hope this gives more ideas for Riot to work with when they get around to updating Nocturne (I really wanna see this E suggestion end up on a champion/rework in the future though).
