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Bringing Nocturne up to date [LARGE REWORK THREAD]

Onkel Malte·8/24/2017, 7:32:25 PM·76 votes·4,795 views

#NOCTURNE – THE DARKNESS INCARNATE

http://imgur.com/a/wXSsN Stranger Things Fanart by Kyllian Guillart

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/70/99/3a/70993abfbe401b5d20ed9213a5e412d1.jpg Concept Art of the Walrider from Outlast

This is a small project in which I want to give a lookout of what Nocturne could be in a potential future update, aligning him with his lore-appearance in the story “For Demacia”, along with giving him a touch up to make him a more modern representation of demons and nightmares.

This is a creative and hopefully progressive post so please if you have any additions or ideas about changes I’m happy to read your comments and adapt to it.

Noweeee let’s get down to business:

##Lore In his not yet updated lore Nocturne is a nightmare that manifested from magical energy after a terrified man died because he probably was being haunted by him. Nocturne then slaughtered everyone around him after getting a physical form, but was eventually imprisoned by several mages. When one of his guarding magicians fell asleep he managed to escape the prison, by unknown means.

In his new story ““For Demacia” Nocturne is described as a demon that has recently awakened after being defeated by Fossian Crownguard, the grandfather of Lux and Garen. He possesses a young boy with latent magical abilities and and feeds on the minds, fears and dreams of the whole village, driving them eventually insane and spreads nightmares all over the place until Lux confronts him. Although Nocturne can’t be seen physically, he probably has a shadowy and intangible form like the nightmares he conjures, and like he also has in his splash arts. What I’m also going to rely upon is the fact that he is not described wielding blades or armor, so I will go for a Nocturne that uses his claws as his primary weapon.

##Personality: Nocturne is a sadistic and cruel being, often described as a demon, that terrorizes people and feads on their nightmares and fears. He is sarcastic, manipulative, calculating, intelligent, observant but also has a tendency for brutality. He is very happy to be freed from the tomb he was regenerating in and laughs a lot, making him seem even arrogant because of the sudden return of his power. Even though he is an evil being, he kind of helps the boy Luca by attacking the people he doesn’t like. So, it can be assumed that possessing a host will make Nocturne a little more human for a brief time. ##Origins: Nocturne alias is the Eternal Nightmare. The word nightmare origins from the word Mara or Alp (German ALPtraum = nightMARE) or from the Incubus/Succubus demons. An Alb/Alp/Mara is a vampire like creature, often feeding on good dreams, turning them into nightmares and paralyzing their victim through their increasing size, they are often depicted doing this by feeding of the breasts of their victims in their sleep. These creatures get their power from their hat the “Tarnkappe” and become unseen wearing it (think of the Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak). An Incubus, best described as the male counterpart to Evelynn or Ahri, is a seductive male demon that feeds from human energy while having intercourse with them, eventually draining the life-force of his victim.

##Abilities:

  • Possession: Nocturne can inhabit a host (probably just weakened/young lifeforms). In the process he gains access to their abilities, memories. The host becomes black eyed and emits black smoke from his body.

  • Fear awakening and consumption: Even Nocturne’s mere presence, as well as his touch make others experience their deepest fears. Nocturne feeds upon fear and regains energy from the process. He also feeds on thermal energy or emits and aura of dread, because of Lux description of the world seeming twisted and cold.

  • Magic and Darkness Control: Nocturne can suppress magical energy as Lux is unable to use her powers at first. He is also able to feed on the energy as shown with his host Luca. absorb magical Nocturne also can manipulate, emit and (probably) become darkness itself.

  • Summoning Nightmare creatures: Nocturne can summon nightmarish creatures probably depending on the fears of persons near him. While the creatures possess offensive power, they disappear easily when attacking them.

  • Intangibility: Nocturne as well as his Nightmares can ignore enemy armor and takes reduced or no physical damage. He seems to be somewhat sensible to magic energy, but this could be just a coincidence since Lux uses Light Magic.

Inspirations

Most of the style I imagine for Nocturne is inspired by popular media. For example: Slenderman Demogorgon (Stranger Things) The Walrider (Outlast) Darkness (Hellblade: Sennua's Sacrifice) Dark Shadow (My Hero Academia) Asz Nödt (Bleach)

##Kit

I want to not here that nothing in it should feel OP so feel free to imagine the numbers as placeholders. If you have any ideas or any critique feel free to comment please.

** Passive – Consuming Darkness** Nocturne’s touch infects units with darkness, with his first basic attack which spreads over time. Enemies are permanently marked as affected after 15 seconds (0s for monsters). Nocturne’s claws hit enemies harder dealing 5 + 1% per minute additional damage. (12% max) and their wards have their duration reduced by 10%. After 180 seconds, the target will be marked as consumed by darkness. Killing a consumed target removes the debuff, and fears all enemies in a big radius around Nocturne for 1.5 seconds.

** Q – Duskbringer (10 seconds)** ACTIVE: Nocturne dashes forward dealing 20-100 (+100%AD) physical damage and empowering his next attack to deal 120% physical damage to all enemies around him. If Nocturne passes a wall or dashes on a shadow trail, he can recast the dash within 3 seconds.

**W – Evanescence (18 seconds) ** PASSIVE – DELICIOUS FEAR: Nocturne has a 35% resistance against fears. For every target within 400 range that is afffected by fear Nocturne heals for 8(+2 per level) health. (doubled for Champions and large monsters) ACTIVE: Nocturne becomes darkness itself and therefore untargetable and unable to attack for 1.5 seconds. After the duration, he rematerializes and fears all units around him for 1 second.

** E – Shroud of Darkness (14 seconds) ** **PASSIVE – EHTEREAL FORM: ** Nocturne can move through units and takes % less physical damage ACTIVE: Nocturne engulfs himself in total darkness becoming camouflaged for 6 seconds. Upon leaving camouflage his next attack within 3 seconds impales his victim, dealing bonus 30-190(+40% bonus AD) magic damage and his target will leave a shadow trail behind for 5 seconds. While on the trail Nocturne gains 10% movement speed and 15% (+3% per level) attack speed.

Nocturne's detection range is drastically reduced while Paranoia is a active.

R – Paranoia (160- 120 seconds) **ACTIVE: **Applies Nearsight to all enemy Champions for 5 seconds and reveals all invisible/camouflaged enemies for the duration. Affected enemies will perceive all other Champions as enemy units (red health bar).
**REACTIVATE: **While Paranoia is active Nocturne can reactivate it to teleport behind a target. Nocturne will ignore 40/60/80% of the target’s base resistances while Paranoia is active.

EDIT: Holy Guacamole, i never expected to reach the front page. Thanks for your upvotes and answers you funny internet people!

EDIT 2: Changed some things, some context to that can be found in the comments.

EDIT 3: Full overhaul of the concept is coming up soon (tm).

54 Comments

PixelPicksTW8/24/2017, 8:08:42 PM17 votes

I love the concept. It adds flavor to the kit of nocturne, without causing too much of a difference in role or effectiveness. The kit seems to push him towards being an aggressive-ganking mid-game assassin jungler. +1 from me, and I hope Riot looks into this, I think it deserves consideration.

KuroCaliber8/25/2017, 3:44:35 AM7 votes

The pure invisibility needs to be removed. Camoflage is enough. It takes shaco five ranks in a spell to even come close to what you have in mind.

However, everything else is amazing. I will actually main nocturne if this is what his kit would be like.

Blade Runner8/24/2017, 9:21:32 PM6 votes

This is an assassinish (?) concept and I love it. One of my biggest fears when Riot finally decides to rework him is to focus him to Bruiser / Tank kit while he looks like your worst nightmare, a true assassin.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs] Maybe is just me, but Nocturne feels like an outdated assassin, not a tank.

Velzard of Koz8/25/2017, 12:27:46 PM4 votes

**W – Evanescence (18 seconds) ** PASSIVE - DELICIOUS FEAR: Nocturne is immune to fears and heals for 20(+2 per level) health for every unit he fears. (25% effectiveness on minions and small monsters) ACTIVE: Nocturne becomes untargetable and unable to attack for 1.5 seconds. After the duration, he rematerializes and fears all units around him for 1 seconds

**W – Evanescence (18 seconds) **

Evanescence

How can you see into my soul... like open dooooooooooooooooooooooooooor

Zëd Lęppelin8/24/2017, 7:41:29 PM3 votes

R – Paranoia (160- 120 seconds) ACTIVE: Applies Nearsight to all enemy Champions for 5 seconds and reveals all invisible/camouflaged enemies. Affected enemies will perceive all other Champions as Nocturne for the duration. (red health bar, model change etc) REACTIVATE: While Paranoia is active Nocturne can reactivate it to teleport behind a target. Nocturne will ignore 30-50% of the target’s resistances while Paranoia is active.

Idea: the ability makes them nearsighted and terrified (that fear like cc that makes champs move randomly about the place) and gives them a speed boost for a short time. Then once everyone is jumbled around does the 'everyone looks like nocturne thing start. But anyway I REALLY like this concept and I hope riot takes notice.

Avios18/24/2017, 9:58:34 PM3 votes

Honestly, I can't find much of a problem with this kit. I think, as well with others in the comments, that Riot should take a serious consideration of this. I love it!

+1

Arakadia8/25/2017, 1:40:05 AM3 votes

His passive seems a little odd. It takes so long to add up.

leaferreafer8/25/2017, 1:55:37 AM3 votes

nope, that would make him op. he's fine how he is

Yordle Xayah8/25/2017, 6:36:53 PM3 votes

Sure but... omg just don't give him legs

SUPERX4PANDA8/25/2017, 6:18:03 PM2 votes

I've always felt Nocturne falls disgustingly short of his potential currently, and I think this is a very good depiction of what he should be. I'm very happy you drew inspiration from the Walrider, as I think it's a very cool monster. Hopefully Riot will get around to Nocturne someday and follow a similar path.

ChaosThief8/24/2017, 10:12:21 PM2 votes

Now this is a nice thread to see. A few personal thoughts on the possible things:

Possession: Nocturne can inhabit a host (probably just weakened/young lifeforms). In the process he gains access to their abilities, memories. The >host becomes black eyed and emits black smoke from his body.

This... really won't work. As cool as it would be to see in league, I don't think it should be allowed in any form.

Fear awakening and consumption: Even Nocturne’s mere presence, as well as his touch make others experience their deepest fears. Nocturne >feeds upon fear and regains energy from the process. He also feeds on thermal energy or emits and aura of dread, because of Lux description of the >world seeming twisted and cold.

Now this is a solid direction that riot could go with. Not only does it support him being a diver (needs to be around plenty of enemies) but also gives him something new.

Magic and Darkness Control: Nocturne can suppress magical energy as Lux is unable to use her powers at first. He is also able to feed on the >energy as shown with his host Luca. absorb magical Nocturne also can manipulate, emit and (probably) become darkness itself.

I don't think nocturne can so much suppress magical energy, but I do think he should be able to absorb it. That would be a double bonus for nocturne; not only does he get rewarded for protecting himself, he also gives people playing against him the fear of turning their spells against them, through whatever method.

Summoning Nightmare creatures: Nocturne can summon nightmarish creatures probably depending on the fears of persons near him. While the >creatures possess offensive power, they disappear easily when attacking them.

I think summoning shades to strike people should be something he could do; but not as actual summons. More like just the visuals for a skillshot.

Intangibility: Nocturne as well as his Nightmares can ignore enemy armor and takes reduced or no physical damage. He seems to be somewhat >sensible to magic energy, but this could be just a coincidence since Lux uses Light Magic.

Ignoring armor and taking less damage are 100% a nice touch. Nothing is more terrifying than something you can't fight back against, and something that you can't stop.

Kit wise, I do think it's quite nice. Personally I would like to see him manipulate shadows to attack you or something, but that we can probably live without.

I really do hope this gets a red's attention.

abdul5698/24/2017, 10:04:43 PM2 votes

I don't know how I should feel about giving someone both an untargetable and a camoflauge. I reckon you should create a condition to be able to use both such as change the W active to 'blocks a spell' like his current W does. And then 'he uses that spell to become untargetable for 1.5 seconds, fearing everyone after it ends' like you suggested.

It rewards the mains for well timed spell shields (current one doubles attackspeed if a spell shield is successful) while not being a hurr durr i press button now you can't touch me cough fizz, vlad cough providing outplay potential and counterplay.

Otherwise, good idea over all

GorillaBearz8/24/2017, 11:32:12 PM2 votes

I love the entire concept and kit, except for the part where he can summon scary little creatures, don't want him to be another Yorick. Nocturne is my 4th main, just under 100k mastery pts, and I think he would benefit so much from a solid VGU like the one you have proposed. Btw gj on modernizing his kit and visuals (Warwick rework) instead of completely transforming the champion (Gallo rework)

+1

Tortunga8/25/2017, 10:15:52 AM1 votes

I got some concerns with this proposal;

Passive – Consuming Darkness Nocturne’s touch infects units with darkness, with his first basic attack which spreads over time. Enemies are permanently marked as affected after 15 seconds (0s for monsters). Nocturne’s claws hit enemies harder dealing 5 + 1% per minute additional damage. (12% max) and their wards have their duration reduced by 10%. After 180 seconds, the target will be marked as consumed by darkness. Killing a consumed target removes the debuff, and fears all enemies in a big radius around Nocturne for 1.5 seconds.

I'm not sure how this exactly works as it's a bit cramped with text, but to me it feels it's just a lot of stuff for a passive that is just way to complex to be consistent. You will have or one (or several) consumed by darkness marks active and have a pretty large advantage in a team fight in the form of a massive aoe fear (if you can kill one of the marks quickly), or you don't have any consume darkness marks active, and have at best some extra damage on a couple targets.

It's an intresting concept, but it's just way to complex in your suggestions. It could just be 'If you kill an enemy champion every enemy around you is feared for 1.5 seconds, X second cooldown', and it would be much more consistent and much easier to understand.

** W – Evanescence (18 seconds) ** PASSIVE – DELICIOUS FEAR: Nocturne is immune to fears and heals for 20(+2 per level) health for every unit he fears. (25% effectiveness on minions and small monsters) ACTIVE: Nocturne becomes untargetable and unable to attack for 1.5 seconds. After the duration, he rematerializes and fears all units around him for 1 seconds

Evanescence will also turn Nocturne invisible while he is camouflaged, while Paranoia is active, or when he’s on a Shadow Trail.

**E – Shroud of Darkness (14 seconds) ** PASSIVE – EHTEREAL FORM: Nocturne can move through units and takes 10% less physical damage ACTIVE: Nocturne engulfs himself in total darkness becoming camouflaged for 6 seconds. Upon leaving camouflage his next attack within 3 seconds impales his victim, dealing bonus 30-120(+40% bonus AD) magic damage and his target will leave a shadow trail behind for 5 seconds. While on the trail Nocturne gains 10% movement speed and 15-40% attack speed.

This is just Shaco's Q + W, but then better. Become stealthed, get close to a target, and fear him when you appear. Shaco's stealth is simpler to use, but he relies on his box for the fear, while Noct doesn't.

And the immunity to fear is just a large 'fuck you' to any champ that rely on fears for engage/control, like Fiddle, Shaco, WW and Hecarim. Complete immunity to some form of CC shouldn't be in the game.

R – Paranoia (160- 120 seconds) ACTIVE: Applies Nearsight to all enemy Champions for 5 seconds and reveals all invisible/camouflaged enemies. Affected enemies will perceive all other Champions as Nocturne for the duration. (red health bar, model change etc) REACTIVATE: While Paranoia is active Nocturne can reactivate it to teleport behind a target. Nocturne will ignore 30-50% of the target’s resistances while Paranoia is active

The second part sounds broken behind fixing. 5 Seconds of not knowing who is who, sounds to me as 5 seconds of hoping I unloaded my whole kit on the right enemy and not their tank (or aimed it an ally doing absolutely nothing), or do almost nothing for 5 seconds. The Nearsight on his own is an enough effect for a team fight disrupter.

FantasySniper8/25/2017, 10:46:14 AM1 votes
The Walrider is from Outlast.

I very much like the in-depth analyzation on his new lore and the inspirations you've listed that clarify him as a character. I would like to add a wider selection with phobophages, such as the Harvesters from Ian Stone - which very closely resemble the form of Nocturne.

The proposed kit requires a lot of changes, though: (and for simplicity's sake I won't be mentioning numbers)

  • Consuming Darkness can be completely scrapped. It locks a lot of the power budget away for very niche usage, would be very frustrating to fight against, doesn't lend itself to an effective playstyle, and Dusktrail suits the concept of marking targets much better.
  • I recommend replacing it with the Ethereal Form as a mirror to Kassadin's passive Void Stone. Then the power budget could be redistributed elsewhere.
  • Duskbringer getting a CDR from Dusktrail/terrain is an interesting interaction, but any potential changes would depend on the distance it covers.
  • Evanescence's passive would be practically worthless - both the fear immunity and fear heal - so that should be scrapped.
  • Same goes for the situational invisibility. Untargetability already saves you, there's no need for it.
  • It would be better to implement a heal side-by-side with the fear application, but the untargetability itself is already powerful enough without that.
  • You might have to rearrange the fear to Duskbringer, too.
  • I'm just trying to say this is really an overloaded ability.
  • Shroud of Darkness needs [more] powerful scaling steroids on the Dusktrail.
  • If you want it to stay magic damage: Higher base damage, replace the AD scaling with an AP scaling.
  • Otherwise make it physical because there's not much base damage to go around, and he really needs that synergy with item penetration.
  • Paranoia is a very nice update to his current version. Really plays on the fear factor it's supposed to have.

The overall concept is very nice, but a lack of base damages would push him into more of a melee ADC role than an assassin one, and he would still be (if not more) absurdly reliant on his ult to get anything done in teamfights.

Faceroll Tactics8/25/2017, 12:22:29 PM1 votes

His ultimate looks to be one of the strongest tools in the game, however it's a noob trap

Hate Janna protecting adc in a team fight? Press R and have them separate by proxy.

This would only work on bad players though and I don't know that that would be good design

Maybe have the nearsight start out super short so you'd have to be touching to see each other then slowly move out so it's harder to tell who is who

Son of Ur8/25/2017, 1:38:10 AM1 votes

Nocturne always reminded me of Lovecraft's night gaunts and the subsequent stories he would write after them.

Corrupt Bliss8/25/2017, 2:28:09 PM1 votes

So Nocturne E is Kassadin passive + buff? :O

japhib8/25/2017, 4:48:24 PM1 votes

Wow, this is awesome!! Lots of research and thought put into it, that is clear! You've got some awesome ideas and I really hope Riot takes them into consideration.

IMO your best ideas are the ethereal-ness and the feeding off fear. Reduced physical damage is something that would be really useful in the jungle and the only other champs that come to mind having it are armor stackers rather than assassins, such as Malphite, Rammus, and Amumu. Although Fizz does have reduced physical damage, but that's just because he's slippery.

The fear thing would make for some really nice wombo-combo teams with other champs who have fears, such as Warwick, Fiddlesticks, Shaco (the only problem is that those are also jg champs). Fear is pretty under-utilized right now in League so this would be a nice niche addition.

My suggestions:

  1. I don't think having Nocturne heal when he himself is feared (or even allies are feared near him) is a good idea. That makes him a pretty hard counter to anyone on the enemy team with fears, and I think it goes pretty counter to most mechanics in League. If you were playing Warwick into Nocturne you would almost never want to use your E, so you basically have one less abiliity. Same w/ Fid Q and Shaco W. It's an interesting idea, I just don't think it will make it into the game.

  2. For the ult, rather than making your allies have a red health bar, why not have enemies see hallucinations of demon minions attacking them? This would be most effective/plausible if Nocturne has some ability to summon his own demons. I just think that giving allies red health bars will be very confusing to casual/low elo players, whereas pros/high elo will be able to pretty easily tell the difference between allies and enemies. Sort of like old stealth where low elo's had no idea how to deal with it and in high elo it basically didn't matter.

Anyways, these ideas are awesome!!! It was a pleasure to read. Keep up the great work. This post is very much deserving of Rioter attention.

Naqel8/25/2017, 5:28:44 PM1 votes

Passive – Consuming Darkness - it either promotes deliberately failing ganks to apply passive pressure with the debuff, or double#@&%s the person ganked depending on how the debuff interacts with premature deaths. Manipulating ward duration is also a big no-no, since there's other more intuitive and higher clarity means of dealing with those.

Q W E R - all of those are movement+ abilities. With this much free mobility on the kit, the character would have to be completely neutered in what he can do when he's actually close to the target. Even their relatively lengthy cooldowns do nothing to alleviate that, since there's always something he can use even after the enemy blows their escapes.

W PASSIVE – DELICIOUS FEAR too specific of an effect, with no means to trigger it on demand.

Seilleas8/30/2017, 12:10:19 PM1 votes

Wouldn´t ignoring base resistances make using ult on tanks be a complete waste of a cooldown?

KoKoboto8/24/2017, 11:19:30 PM1 votes

I like that idea for the passive, it's unique and interesting.

How does the passive on E work? He's just permanently has physical damage reduction? It makes sense though cause thematically he is a shadow and stuff but it kinda just feels like extra stats.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

PokladnicaZla8/25/2017, 8:24:47 AM1 votes

Few questions(to note I don't play Nocturne,so these are more objective):

  1. The passive seems like a mess in terms of clarity. Does Nocturne's 1st attack mark them straight away or after 15 seconds? Does the additional damage increase with game length or by how long you have been marked? What's the use of the mark being consumed?Isn't it permanent? Why reduce the ward duration? This part may seem like invisible power,but it's huge when used on supports.

  2. Q is fine. Seems interesting,tho the with how much mobility and catch potential he has,the recast seems a bit much.Depends really on what his base movement speed would be?

  3. W seems fine,but turning him invisible would cause major balance issues. If he can W + E turn him invisible and then CC in an AoE it would be OP. Evelynn had a stun in her early days when coming out of stealth(current invisibility ) and it was too OP. Not to mention it's just too overloaded with everything he has in his kit.

  4. 10% reduced physical damage on E? Is it just from minions and monster? Cause damage reduction on assassin,could result on tankier build paths which aren't what anyone wants too see ( Tank Ekko for example).

  5. I'm sorry,but the ultimate is a big NO from. I'm not and never was a fan of point and click AoE global ultimates(even tho Soraka is my fav champion). The idea behind is amazing. Perceiving other champs as Nocturne would be sweet. Do the ˝perceived champions˝ lose the cosmetic buff when they attack or take damage? The resistance ignore also should be considerate. Giving him 30-50% ignore,just screams him being able to kill tanks and bruisers. IMO keep the Nearsight , Nocturne horror team and the TP. What to reconsider; Making it a point and click global that affects everyone.The resistance shred.

Overall it's a great concept. Honestly,this is maybe one of the top 3 concepts I have read on the boards. Tho,there are things you should look at and think ˝Would I want to play against that?˝ and ˝What can even do if Nocturne uses this?˝.As you said,I didn't focus too much on numbers as they're just place holders. And please,don't make him into a pre-rework Rengar with more utility. XD