Nocturne

Detailed Tips

1. 01

   Respect Nocturne Level 1 - Nocturne’s Level 1 with Conqueror or Lethal Tempo can be hard to deal with, due to the fact he can obtain a mass amount of AD with Q, on top of the ability to potential use attack speed to help out duel his opponents. With that said, level 1 we should play to let Nocturne push if he’s using Q aggressively onto you and the wave. In terms of abilities to skill, we can take W if he tries to engage on us, or we can use Q to either push back against a more passive Nocturne, or use it to last hit minions until we reach our level 3 powerspike.

2. 02

   Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once you chunk out Nocturne you're most likely able to kill him with your W, Dash or Flash up. Look to shove the wave around your kill timer, so you're able to make Nocturne lose a lot more.

3. 03

   Play For Manaburn - Nocturne’s abilities expend so much mana within the laning phase, due to the fact he needs to use each ability to correctly counter what Renekton is doing within the moment. Nocturne must use his Q, for when Renekton tries to fight him or if he’s trying to out push Renekton, Nocturne needs W to block incoming damage or Renekton’s stun, and Nocturne needs E to help him fear away Renekton when he engages onto him. Overall, Renekton’s playstyle allows him to effectively put Nocturne in an uncomfortable situation through his overall mana expenditure, allowing Renekton to have more advantages.

4. 04

   Hold Abilities Vs Spellshield - As previously mentioned, Nocturne will try to use his E to help block Renekton’s abilities, with your W most preferably being his target to block. Once Nocturne blocks an ability, he’s able to gain 60% to 100% additional attack speed, allowing him to have way more DPS and dueling power in the process. When fighting Nocturne, we can simply E1 and bait his E, allowing us to hold our abilities until his shield goes onto CD, providing the ability to unload and all in him right after. Sometimes we may have to use E2 to help us break his spell shield, as waiting too long in his fear timer can fear us away. While instead, using our E2 allows us to get ahead of him and prevent him from escaping.

5. 05

   Avoid And Outplay Nocturne E - Nocturne when used right can be a powerful ability, as it can provide offensive and defensive capabilities to make trades feel awkward. When fighting Nocturne early, we should aim towards short trades. We should avoid fights with Nocturne in his E, as he can easily DPS us down as we’re unable to stat check him at those early periods in the game. Overall we can start basic trades with our Q and W, then hold our E to dash out of his fear tether range, preventing Nocturne any leeway into the fights. While Nocturne already struggles against Renekton, we can play to purchase Mercury Treads to counter him even harder. Having Mercs allows you to cut Nocturne’s ability to fear you, allowing you the ability to easily obtain kills and snowball harder against him.

6. 06

   Quick Trades - E > Q > AA > W > AA > E Out / E > Q > W > E / E Q E - These combos allow for Renekton to get quick damage off in being able to keep health up and whittling his opponent down, use these to get your laner low and look for a low HP kill with flash.

7. 07

   Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.

8. 08

   Ping And Respect Noc R - Nocturne R is a very dangerous ability the later the game gets, as he’s able to have instant access against isolated targets, providing him a consistent play pattern and role within the game. Most fights will start because of Nocturne’s R, which is completely OP for preventing TP plays or the ability to find out where the fight is happening right away. Against Nocturne, it’s very important to always play for vision to spot out his potential paths that he’s hovering. Getting your carries to play together is also very important, otherwise Nocturne will be able to pick off targets for free. Overall his ability is hard to deal with in solo queue, but as long as you can hard snowball against him early, while playing with the intent of spam pining your team away from being alone.

9. 09

   Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.

10. 10

    Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - As previously mentioned, within the mid to late game role, Nocturne’s overall ability for success comes from looking for isolated targets and advantageous skirmishes with his R. To avoid Nocturne’s overall pick and catch advantage, we need to make sure to avoid over-extending when he and his team are missing in action, on top of pinging your teammates to be careful in these moments. Playing around your team is also very important, as Nocturne’s engages fall flat if he simply can’t jump onto isolated targets. When playing around your team, Nocturne is easily killable with his front engage, so make sure to peel your win condition carries and use his R as a free kill opportunity. Within teamfights, Nocturne will always focus on your main damage carry, so make sure to stand directly onto them to protect them at all costs. Outside of Nocturne R, he can’t really do much within teamfights or 1v1’s, so make sure to hard abuse it with your overall team fighting and damage power.