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This is the preferred build direction for Nox, focusing on an early
Chronos' Pendant to give her some mana sustain and high use of abilities.
Divine Ruin is expected as the main early pen item due to the abundance of healing, but if this is not needed, you can consider
Spear of the Magus or
Spear of Desolation.
The 6th item is situational / preference; shown here is Pythagorem's Piece for the team aura.
T2 Chronos provides good early power and significant MP5 to help your early mana sustain. Depending on how the match is going, you may decide to complete Chronos' Pendant first, or get your full Shoes before completing Chronos.
Grab a couple of potions as well.
Divine Ruin (Anti-Heal): Consider anytime you face an enemy healer.
Spear of Desolation (Universal Offense): Provides power, CDR, and some pen, all of which are helpful for any mage. I do feel there are better options in most cases.
Pythagorem's Piece (Group Power / Lifesteal): Provides an aura of power and lifesteal to nearby teammates, which is great for teamfights and objective pushes. This is my preferred lifesteal item for Nox.
Soul Gem (Lifesteal Alternative): Different utility compared to Pythag's, this item can give some group healing and the potential for burst damage at full stacks.
Soul Reaver (Anti-Tank Burst): Provides bonus damage on ability hit, with higher damage potential against high health targets.
Rod of Tahuti (High Power): Useful for stronger offense in any build, this is an item you'll pick up late-game only for a significant increase in damage potential.
Staff of Myrrdin (Ult -> Ability Spam): Can be considered late-game, to get more CDR if needed, with added utility when you ult. Her ult is best used in the middle of a teamfight, and immediately after use, she can use her Lock or Silence twice in a row, providing great CC.
Charon's Coin (Penetration / Utility): Solid % penetration (preferred currently over
Obsidian Shard) that provides an interesting passive mechanic, giving some health sustain and movement speed.
Obsidian Shard (Penetration Option #2): Provides a higher "burst" amount of penetration that can be helpful against tankier compositions. This is an alternate option to Charon's Coin with higher damage potential but less utility.
Choose these situationally when needed:
Mantle of Discord (High Protections): Helpful defensive item if you find the enemy is constantly diving you. The CDR is nice, but the passive stun can save your life.
Magi's Cloak (Anti-CC): If the enemy team has high CC and you're having major problems, this item should be considered to give you a free form of
Purification Beads.
Celestial Legion Helm (Anti-Physical Burst): If you're facing a physical enemy mid, or are having problems with a physical jungler, this is an option you can consider for survivability. Not a great choice when facing enemies with ticking/DoT damage, as it will quickly deplete protection stacks.
Tyrannical Plate Helm (Anti-Physical / Lane Pushing): Physical protection and some offense to counter early physical pressure, along with a strengthening of nearby minions to help with lane pushing.
Purification Beads (Anti-CC): A pretty core relic for most mages, used specifically to counter CC.
Aegis Amulet (Anti-Burst): Another core relic for most mages, helpful to prevent anticipated burst damage.
Phantom Veil (Anti-Obstacle): Although Nox has an escape, it's a dash, not a leap, and she can find herself trapped, especially with
Odin's
Ring of Spears. Only consider in these types of situations.
Blink Rune (Initiation): Spicy pick to surprise enemies that think they're at a safe distance.
This is a (funky) build example designed specifically to help with 2 aspects, both supplied by an early Tyrannical Plate Helm: push your lane, and counter an aggressive physical jungler.
This will absolutely stunt your own early offense as this item precedes Chronos' Pendant, but it's better than dying, and if you can get some support from your own jungler and push the enemy back, you can potentially win the lane early and start immediately roaming to support other lanes or gank with the Jungler.
As it's going to be somewhat less functional late-game, you can consider replacing Tyrannical (along with Shoes) with another item.
This build example is one that doesn't use the services of Chronos' Pendant, and thus provides some different functions, including early flat pen, some lifesteal for sustain, good % penetration, and burst potential. Your biggest concern in the early game is mana use...consider getting a couple of
Mana Potions every time you back.
Recent Updates:
2021/1/5Guide is current as of Patch 7.12, "The Legendary Tanuki." Updated code for mobile, updated builds.
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Nox's candles gather energy from all abilities she uses. For every ability Nox casts a candle is lit. For every candle lit Nox gains +3% magical power. When Nox takes damage from an enemy god, one of her candles is blown out. Stacks up to 4 times, for a total of 12% bonus magical power. Discussion: You won't really think about this passive. However, this is a good reason to spam abilities and avoid damage, and supports a high power build, especially late-game. Tips: At the beginning of a match, cast abilities in base (other than Assault) to build up your passive stacks. | |
Nox extends her shadow, damaging enemies. If this shadow hits an enemy god it stops, rooting and crippling them in place and dealing damage over time instead. Nox must channel and stay within range to maintain hold on the target, but may cancel this ability early. Nox will continue to channel this ability even if she is hit by Crowd Control effects. While channeling this ability Nox suffers no directional movement penalty. CD 10 seconds. Leveling Priority: Prioritize this 2nd. General Use: Damage / Peel / Control Discussion: This is your main form of control, and most often will be paired as the follow-up combo ability to ![]() Tips: Common practice sees this ability cast immediately after using ![]() | |
Nox creates a void of darkness that silences all enemies within. After a short duration it explodes, dealing damage. CD 13 seconds. Leveling Priority: Prioritize this 1st. General Use: Damage / Minion Clear / Zoning / Ability Interruption Discussion: This is ![]() Anyone in the AOE is silenced. This means you can prevent enemies from casting any abilities, or interrupt enemies that are channeling abilities. Use this to cause massive disruption. When using this for wave clear, you can deploy this ahead to get an edge on the enemy mid-laner. Tips: More important than using this for damage, your main focus should be to use this for control. Initiate a 1v1 engagement with this (followed by ![]() | |
Nox dashes forward, dealing damage to all enemies. If she hits an allied god, she leaps into their shadow, traveling with them. When Nox exits a shadow, she deals damage again in a radius around her. Nox may cancel this ability early to exit shadows. Nox can stay in an ally's shadow for up to 8 seconds. CD 15 seconds. Leveling Priority: Prioritize this last. General Use: Escape / Initiation / Damage / (Situational) Global Mobility Discussion: This is the most interesting and flexible ability in her kit. You'll generally hold onto this for use as an escape. However, when the situation is favorable / safe, you can:
Tips: The greatest (but most situational) utility is through your ability to leap into a teammate's shadow. Dash into them, and you will go where they go. For massive burst function, dash through an enemy into a nearby teammate, then immediately cancel and you'll hit them in the secondary AOE. Situationally, you can use this to transport large distances, especially with global ults. Examples of Gods where ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In addition, you can use this offensively for huge gank potential, particularly with gods that have teleports or stealth (.e.g. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Nox unleashes a vortex of dark energy that explodes on contact with an enemy god, dealing damage to all enemies in range 20 and applying damage over time. Enemies hit are also weakened, dealing 40% less damage for the duration. CD 90/85/80/75/70 seconds. Leveling Priority: Level this whenever it becomes available. General Use: Damage / Teamfights / 1v1 Kills / Kill Secure / CC Immunity Discussion: This ability has incredible range, allowing you to target retreating / damaged enemies. Kill secure is arguably its most popular (and satisfying) use. However, it provides arguably better utility (via the damage reduction) especially in teamfights, where the AOE burst can hit multiple enemies. Remember that the short charging animation provides you with CC immunity, so you can ult in an emergency to prevent things like an Ares / Cerberus / Da Ji ult pull. Tips: In teamfights, don't save this for kill secure. The 5 second damage reduction is incredibly useful, and can easily give your team the upper hand. When in the process of casting this, ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Core Combo |
This is your main combo. Initiate with ![]()
![]() ![]() Tips: In most cases, you will try for max damage, meaning you want to cast ![]() ![]() However, you may decide a bit of patience is preferable, possibly allowing the enemy to escape the AOE but allowing for a higher probability of connecting with the Lock. Remember, ![]() |
Initiation Combo |
This is your chase and 1v1 kill combo, without using your ult. Initiate and close distance with ![]() ![]() Follow it up with the standard combo of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Remember that you're blowing your escape, so use this combo with discretion and awareness. |
Teamfight Ability Use |
This is your teamfight "combo," used when multiple enemies and teammates are likely present. Both ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Considerations:
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Mid-Lane - Start & Early Game
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Mid-Lane - Mid-Game
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Mid-Lane - Late-Game
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Mid-Lane - Early-Game Warding
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Support - Start & Early Game
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Support - Mid-Game
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Support - Late-Game
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Support - Early-Game Warding
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In the case of a really mobile jungler, it could be significantly more helpful than Binding, but I guess you probably shouldn't be out that far if it's that dangerous anyway.
Blessing > Shoes > Divine > Breastplate > Charon's > etc.
The position of divine and breastplate are interchangeable.
Meh, I'll just get rid of the Tyrannical build. I do like having a off-meta build type, and IMO Nox can get away from meta more than some other mages because she's not just about burst due to her strong CC / lockdown potential when she has other teammates with her.
Lol
Okay so I've honestly never considered ethereal for Nox. She has a great escape, and cc up the wazoo, and so I don't really consider a somewhat bruiser item for her in that sense. Uhhh wait... Are you talking about the support build? Cuz if so... Lol Hmmm... What's your thought process here?
Sad that your friend left :/
Thanks for the feedback. Note that I do talk about placing a ward in the middle of the lane, though it's not marked on the map itself. That writeup says:
"Per Estidien: You can also placing a ward directly in front of the enemy tower, which can give you a lot of information if you keep an eye on the mini-map. If they are sitting on the ward in mid, you know where they are. If their icons push further into the lane, you can assume they are pushing. If they go towards the right or left jungles you can make early calls on "Be Carefuls" or "Enemy Incoming" or you can assume they are doing their buff camps. If their icons move backwards towards their tower you can generally assume that they are going to one of the back pathways into the jungle, likely to clear camps."
nothing to thank though, i'm here to help u
Paragraph below the comic.
You're welcome.
Fixed. It's the AOE ult's ability to reduce damage by 40%...that's huge in a teamfight.
Paragraph below the comic.
You're welcome.
Ability to do what, exactly?