League of Legends’ Nocturne nerfs seem to be taking effect as he is no longer popular in the solo lanes

The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational started a new trend in League of Legends’ professional play and standard matchmaking, where players started locking in Nocturne and Lee Sin in the solo lanes.

The two jugglers started dominating the mid and top lane meta and had some of the highest pick and ban rates across all the regions.

However, with League of Legends patch 11.14, Riot Games sought to nerf much of what Nocturne can do in the solo lanes, and tone his pushing power down a bit.

📒 Patch 11.14 Highlights!Full patch notes here 👇https://t.co/CY53FdVvNl pic.twitter.com/PTPU4LyBue

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) July 7, 2021

One of the biggest pros that Nocturne had in the solo lanes was how he was able to push the minion lane into the tower and get off low-risk resets while keeping the pressure up in the lane. With a teleport and a global ultimate, he could be anywhere on the map. Hence, constantly shoving in the lane worked to his benefit as it would allow him to roam the map and quickly join skirmishes.

With patch 11.14, The League of Legends devs decided to nerfs his passive, Umbra Blades’ damage and healing by 50%, which seems to have done the trick, as his popularity in the solo lanes seems to have plummeted.

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Nocturne solo lane popularity plummets after League of Legends patch 11.14

Look how they murdered my boy. My poor boy. He is unplayable now. pic.twitter.com/1FHi4yXM8I

— Abhishek Mallick (@EloHellMorty) July 7, 2021

According to OP.GG, Nocturne was 13th on the popularity charts and was picked quite often in both pro-play and standard matchmaking.

However, ever since the nerfs went live in League of Legends patch 11.14, Nocturne has fallen down a lot of notches and is 54th on the popularity charts.

His solo lane win rate seems to have taken a significant hit as well, but his potential in the jungle remains intact.

image via OP.GG

Another tweak that hit solo lane Nocturne hard was the changes Stridebreaker received in League of Legends patch 11.13. By removing the dash on the item active, Riot sought to tone down some of the meta bruisers from being excessively overpowered in the game.

Nocturne was one of the many who was affected by the change. However, he still enjoyed a high pick till path 11.14 went live and did away with much of his shoving potential in lane.