Darkness is creepy. That feeling of being all alone, surrounded by the unknown that you get when you're enveloped in complete darkness is incredibly unnerving--and now League of Legends players can feel it every match. Nocturne is every team captain's nightmare: his ultimate has meta-game powers, removing enemy players' ability to see their allies, and severely reducing their overall line of sight as he pounces on top of one of them.
Abilities: Nocturne appears to be a bruiser with minor initiating skills, who excels at hunting down his targets, thanks to a Ghost-like movement buff anytime he's chasing someone he's hit with Q. He looks like he could be a potential jungler with his passive and attack speed items, depending on how much it heals for.
- Duskbringer: Nocturne throws a shadow blade which deals damage, leaves a Dusk Trail, and causes champions to leave a Dusk Trail. While on the trail, Nocturne ignores unit collision and has increased Movement Speed.
- Shroud of Darkness: Nocturne empowers his blades, passively gaining attack speed. Activating Shroud of Darkness allows Nocturne fades into the shadows, creating a magical barrier which blocks a single enemy spell and doubles his passive attack speed if successful.
- Unspeakable Horror: Nocturne plants a nightmare into his target's mind, dealing damage each second and fearing the target if they do not get out of range by the end of the duration.
- Paranoia (Ultimate): Nocturne reduces the sight radius of all enemy champions and removes their ally vision in the process. He can then launch himself at a nearby enemy champion.
- Umbra Blades (Passive): Every 10 seconds, Nocturne's next attack strikes surrounding enemies for physical damage and heals himself for each target hit. Nocturne's physical attacks reduce this cooldown by 1 second.
Are you scared yet? You should be. If not, consider facing Nocturne and Twisted Fate on the same team--they can make you lose all allied vision, see where all of your teammates are and then both teleport on top of you at the same time. That's freakin' terrifying. Why don't you soothe your mind a bit by watching this six-minute video of Riot's artist drawing Nocturne's spash image?
Who Nocturne is and where he came from:
Before Nocturne, people believed that dreams were figments of their imaginations, meaningless images that flashed through the mind when one slept. This belief was put to the test when a rash of sleep-related incidents started afflicting summoners of the League. Some would wake up screaming, terrified and beyond consolation. Some could not fall asleep, slowly going mad as the nights ticked by. Some simply never woke up. Physicians were baffled until a Field Architect happened to pass out next to a nexus on The Twisted Treeline. Witnesses said he cried out once and then stopped breathing. Immediately after, magical energy arced out from the nexus, and Nocturne appeared.
Nocturne did not take his introduction to this world kindly. He slaughtered everything he could find before summoners were able to magically confine him. After a period of intense study, League experts divined that Nocturne hunted summoners in their sleep, attacking them in a place where their magic was useless. This seemed to be his only purpose. The families of the victims demanded justice, but League officials were concerned that death might only return Nocturne to the place from which he came. They bound him to a nexus fragment, trapping him in the physical world. As punishment for his crimes, they allowed summoners to call upon Nocturne in League matches, bending his will to the summoners he hates and creating his own personal nightmare. League scholars don't know whether he truly came from the plane of dreams, or whether there are any more like him. Some theorize that the summoning act affected summoners' the subconscious minds, luring Nocturne to them in their sleep. Perhaps the most disturbing theory is that Nocturne is a person's nightmare come to life. If this is true, they wonder, who is the dreamer?
“The darkness is closing in... it's pitch black now... but I can still see him...” -Kelvin Ma, patient #4236
So what do you think? Are you going to buy Nocturne on day one? Are you afraid to fight him on the field of battle? What ridiculous skins should Riot make for him?
