Badger Analysis - Patch 25.04

No major changes for Nocturne this patch, but we do get slight indirect buffs from other meta champions being nerfed.

Nocturne has been in a relatively stable place for season 2025, and he is extremely strong during the early-mid game when everyone is fighting over control of objectives like Feats of Strength and Atakhan.

This patch nerfs a few meta champions and items that Nocturne really doesn’t use, so it’s a relative power boost for him.

Diana is one jungler that has been a bit OP recently - She’s not too difficult for Nocturne since your spellshield can negate a lot of her effectiveness by blocking her Q, ult, or ult damage. With that said, the nerfs to Diana jungle will make her even easier to deal with since the nerfs to her passive will reduce her clear speed, and the nerfs to Unending Despair make it easier to kill her when she builds bruiser.

Lulu’s nerfs are also an indirect relative power boost for Nocturne. Both her W (polymorph/buff) and E (shield) cooldowns are increasing, and her W’s attack speed steroid was also nerfed. Previously, diving into an enemy backline with Lulu support was challenging because you would just get polymorphed (it’s really difficult to spell shield) and their carry would have an extra shield to burn you down — Now, you have a larger window of opportunity to dive in while Lulu’s spells are on cooldown.

A few tank item nerfs also make it easier for Nocturne to cut through a beefy team - Fimbulwinter, Heartsteel, Plated Steelcaps, and Unending Despair all got nerfs this patch, so dealing with tanks will become slightly easier for Nocturne.

Mel also received some adjustments - She’s really popular right now, so you are likely to see her in games. When playing against Mel, you want to assassinate her early in the fight, before she has time to build up her stacks. Killing Mel can be a bit tricky because she has three ways to deal with you - First, she can root you (you need to spellshield this). Second, she can reflect your Q and negate your E. The way to deal with her spell shield is to save your Q until she’s feared. That way, she can’t reflect your Q back onto you. When diving her, you want to (1) R1 (2) W to block her snare (3) R2 to dive onto her (4) if she uses her reflect immediately, get ready - once it’s down, cast QE. (5) if she holds her reflect, you want to cast E on her. Wait for her to be feared, and then Q her. She should go down fairly quickly if you use this combo. Oh, right, back to the patch changes - These decrease her base power but increase her scaling. Honestly, the nerfs make her even weaker than she already is.

With that said, some of the buffs in this patch (particularly, the attack speed cap buff) have put some junglers in a better position (i.e. Master Yi) - Yi is not too difficult for Nocturne to deal with early game, but Master Yi’s lategame scaling is off the charts - If you play against Master Yi, try to abuse your midgame power spikes while he still lacks items - Close out the game before he gets to 3 items.

TL;DR - Nerfs to other champions and items make Nocturne relatively stronger this patch.