User blog comment:Typhron/Not what you think: Nocturne/@comment-209.161.180.251-20121103205148/@comment-60764-20121104040359

If you build Nocturne as a Squashy, he will be Squished. If you build him as a beefy Ad he does less damage than other Beefy AD's. He's item dependant in that regard, due to his balanced nature.

It's an odd thing about him, really. Tune him to be less item dependant and he becomes a stupdily strong melee carry. Tune him back to be like a bruiser and he stands out less against the large array of such that we already have. It's a really hard thing to do when a champion is like this. Think of how Nasus was not changed (and remains unchanged) since his release, and how most tweaks would break the formula in one way or another.

It's odd. Really.