Talk:Nocturne/@comment-34037140-20180109094805/@comment-14081808-20180109175338

First of all, E has an AP ratio because it makes sense for the ability, magically filling your head with nightmares.

Second, Nocturne is an Early/Midgame Assassin, but he is a late game Bruiser. If you are going past 30-35 minutes in a game, you should not be building him as an assassin anymore. His early game is strong because his base damage scalings are strong, which means he can assassinate targets with very few items.

But a key feature of assassins is that they have some sort of escape tool (think Zed's Shadows or Katarina's Shunpo). Nocturne does not have that, and when he is in the fight, he is IN THE FIGHT. This is supposed to be represented by his passive dealing damage to all targets near him. This is even further reinforced by his W because attacking enemy champions is a very slow way to die without crit, which Nocturne doesn't build.

So unlike a normal assassin, Nocturne builds 2 maybe 3 offensive items, and then builds tanky for the late game. His abilities just are not geared toward being a successful assassin during teamfights.