Nocturne is a nightmare to deal with on Summoner’s Rift and every AD Carry and mage player knows how scary the word “darkness” can be when you’re just trying to farm some minions. Today, we’ll be taking a look at some Nocturne tips & tricks to help aspiring users to better understand what makes this champion such a deadly pick. The goal is to become a deadly presence in your games by maximizing his kit efficiently.
Nocturne Tips and Tricks
Nocturne is one of the deadliest assassins in League of Legends since he’s one of the few assassin champions that has a global threat regardless of whether or not there’s vision around the map. This champion is annoying to deal with especially if you’re playing a champion that doesn’t have enough bulk. Learn some Nocturne tips & tricks so that you don’t end up being a player who simply dives headlong into their death whenever they play this champion.
These Nocturne tips & tricks are designed to give players a better experience when using this champion. Contrary to popular belief, Nocturne isn’t an easy assassin to pick up because he’s the very few that doesn’t have a reliable escape tool once he chooses to engage. This is why he is expected to go down immediately after he takes a kill whenever he dives in during a teamfight. The only question is how the Nocturne player can do it efficiently.
Race to Level 6!
The most important thing about playing Nocturne is understanding that you’re a level 6 champion. We’re not discouraging you from making early ganks to help your laners, but it’s a good idea to do it in a way that doesn’t prevent you from reaching the level 6 mark as soon as possible. That means trying to clear camps quickly and trying to get extra sources of experience by stealing a bit of lane experience or by getting successful ganks.
The reason you want to reach the level 6 mark early is because Nocturne’s ultimate is his best asset. This champion is extremely reliant on being able to press his ultimate ability to get kills and once he gets rolling, it’s extremely difficult to deal with him throughout the game. His ultimate provides so much pressure that the enemy team doesn’t have any freedom to do anything alone. We’ll be revolving all our Nocturne tips and tricks around this ability.
Lay Out the Optimal Path
Nocturne’s Q – Duskbringer – is an ability that deals a decent amount of damage from a distance but the value of this skill is in the fact that it leaves a trail which gives this champion bonus movement speed when he travels the path. Additionally, the trail follows an enemy champion if Nocturne successfully tags them with this ability. It’s extremely important that the Nocturne player doesn’t miss when using this ability as they lose a lot of mobility by doing so.
Using this at melee range doesn’t require any tips but things get interesting at a distance. Remember that this ability allows you to phase through enemy units so if your enemy is a bit far away, try to lay out a path that leads to them to gain the bonus movement speed that will allow you to close the distance. It might not feel like an important tip but you’ll soon realize how desperate Nocturne is to maximize every bit of mobility that is available to him.
Predict the Next Big Spell
Nocturne’s W ability – Shroud of Darkness – is often seen as a defensive spell but it actually offers a lot of offensive utility that is important when it comes to Nocturne players maximizing their DPS. Once Nocturne blocks a hostile spell using this ability, his attack speed is doubled for 5 seconds. This is extremely relevant as it essentially makes his auto-attacks even more lethal, especially with the bonus damage from his passive that resets whenever he lands an auto-attack.
Most Nocturne players pre-cast their W so that they immediately negate the first spell that hits them. This isn’t necessarily a bad strategy but advanced players can simply wait it out and make you waste your double attack speed. Try predicting when an enemy will cast their most dangerous spell, be it a crowd control ability or heavy-damage skill, before using your spellshield to maximize this effect.
Direct Your Fear’s Direction
Nocturne’s E ability – Unspeakable Horror – is one of the most annoying crowd control abilities in League of Legends. This ability tethers Nocturne to the target while dealing damage before it fears them for a ridiculous amount of time. It’s a good idea to close the distance between you and the enemy before using this ability so that they don’t have the opportunity to break the tether, making you waste such a powerful skill.
When using this ability, it’s a good idea to direct where the enemy will go when fearing them. Remember that the Fear effect works by having the target run away in the opposite direction from your champion. This means you can essentially direct them to walk towards a direction where they will have a difficult time escaping by simply repositioning your character towards their potential escape route to increase your chances of getting the kill.
Don’t Be Afraid to Go For the Kill
Nocturne’s ultimate – Paranoia – is one of the most powerful ultimate abilities in the game. One of our Nocturne tips include trying to reach level 6 as soon as possible and this is exactly the reason why you should do it. This ability allows Nocturne to have a global presence and often taking out enemies that are isolated from their teams, creating opportunities for your teammates to make an impactful play.
Most of the time, you always want to catch isolated enemies but if you find that an easy yet important pick from the enemy team is an ensured take down, take the risk and kill them anyway. If you’re playing the Jungle role, this might be more complicated since the enemy team might make a play for an objective if you die. Try to coordinate with your team to take down enemies to minimize the risk of dying.
