If you’re looking for a new spicy pick to climb the ranked ladder, you might want to try a new tank top lane Nocturne build that is finding success in Korea. OTP has consistently been 950-1200LP Challenger for a year now
Image Credit: Riot Games
The player behind Nocturne Top
According to a Reddit post, there is a player on the Korean solo queue ladder who has been playing Nocturne top for a year now, constantly averaging more than 1000 LP.
Said player, 그브충이 (geubeuchungi), is currently sitting at 1,125 LP with a total of 235 wins and 194 losses, averaging a 55% win rate. Earlier this year, the player finished the first split at 967 LP.
Unlike the jungle build, Nocturne’s build in the top lane consists of Stridebreaker, Frozen Heart, Kaenic Rakoorn, and Zeke’s Herald, with the last item being situational depending on the game state and enemy team composition.
While the build may look weird at first, the goal is to take advantage of the Jack of all Trades rune from the Inspiration tree to stack all types of stats, granting extra ability haste and attack damage later in the game. But that’s not the whole story: let’s see the advantages of this pick.
What makes it so strong?
There are several reasons why Nocturne Top works. The first reason is that he’s actually quite a good blind pick in the current meta and he apparently doesn’t have terrible matchups. Thanks to his Q and spellshield, he is able to win most trades during the laning phase. But what makes the champion strong is his wave clearing and sustain. As soon as he completes the Tiamat component for Stridebreaker, Nocturne can clear the entire wave with his passive and the active from the item, allowing him to get edges during trades and lane priority at basically all times.
Lane priority can be crucial to gain control of objective controls (such as Void Grubs and Rift Herald) but also potentially roams. And with Nocturne’s Paranoia, ganking other lanes or helping your jungler to invade is a piece of cake. On top of that, considering the low popularity, Nocturne can force the opponent team into thinking he’s going in the jungle, allowing your team to potentially counter the enemy’s jungler. If you have just started playing the game, we have created a guide on how to jungle.
Overall, the champion seems to be working but it requires a strong understanding of how to utilize his strengths to the fullest, especially in the mid-game. The champion will work best if you have a proactive jungle-mid duo since you will be able to make more plays on the map.