The new assassin hero is out!! Nolan a quick poke and burst hero. Armed with short cooldown spells, you go in, deal damage, go out and scout out the next kill.
Currently, there are no set builds for him, because everybody is still limit testing him. Moonton has been pushing him to be a jungler, but I believe his kit is better suited for laning.
Why Laning Nolan?
In my opinion, Nolan has a pretty slow clear time, relative to the meta junglers this patch. Even with the jungler talent, Nolan’s clear is pretty below average. As an assassin jungler, he has high burst damage, but lacks the mobility other assassins like Ling, Gusion, Lancelot and Harley have. Some also believe he has a dependence on the purple buff, which he needs to chain his spells properly. This is more or less a skill issue, as I believe you can learn to be more efficient in his spell casting, thus maximizing your energy pool. My overall opinion on Nolan’s jungling capabilities is that he is subpar or half-baked due to the limitations of his toolkit in comparison to the current meta junglers.
Now, why should Nolan lane? Same reason why people assume he should jungle, his burst damage potential. But unlike jungler Nolan, you can use his skills to poke and bully your lane opponent, thus having more impact early. With the rise of assassin XP laners like Benedetta and Paquito, Nolan fits this role perfectly. His burst damage is pretty great for wave clearing, and his mobility is great for staying alive in lane. You can easily create space for your team by dominating lane and forcing responses from the enemy team.
Currently, I am still theory crafting which lanes Nolan can be played in, but I think he his capable of being played in mid if the match up is to his advantage. With his skills, he can close the range gap between him and a mage. He has a decent early game poke and great wave clear.
- Emblem and Battle Spell
Needless to say, but I run the assassin emblem on Nolan. The talents I run are primarily burst damage related. Being an assassin, Nolan’s impact is all about the damage output and ability to burst the softies down. There is no need for survivability stats, because you rely on your quick reflexes and mobility to survive as an assassin. You can opt to run Killing Spree instead of Lethal Ignition if you feel like you need to be a little more survivable.
My battle spell of choice is Petrify, because Nolan does not have hard crowd control. Yes, he has a slow and slight pull towards the rifts he makes but a hard immobilize is always a great thing to have. Adding to this, you can easily Petrify by combo-ing it with his skill, Gauge. Though another possible battle is execute if you really want to deal tons of damage.
- Item Build
Much like the emblems, there is nothing new with Nolan’s build. It is your stereotypical burst damage build. Nolan runs Blade of the Heptaseas, Hunter's Strike and Malefic Roar for the physical Penetration and Blade of Despair for the damage amplification. Though to be more survivable, you can choose to buy War Axe instead of Blade of the Heptaseas.
As for boots, I always go for defensive boots, because every defense stat counts (especially if you don't build any other defensive item). People like using Magic Shoes for cooldown reduction, but I think you cannot maximize its effectiveness on an energy based hero.
The Usual End Game Build looks like this:
- Gameplay
Your goal as a laner is to apply pressure to the lane. You can do this in two ways, bully your opponent out of lane by means of poking them or wave clear fast and take nearby objectives. By utilizing the Passive, Dimensional Rift, you can use your empowered basic attack to dash towards the enemy hero and follow up with Expansion skill to deal a surprising amount of damage. By doing so, you can zone them out of lane. As this happens, you can wave clear by using Expansion followed up with Gauge to burst down the creeps.
When it comes to ganks and team fights, you have one objective: burst down the softies, which tend to be the marksman or mage. This is quite easy with the right combo. Though if you catch yourself in a middle of a gank or the enemy team trying to kill you, don't panic. Use your ultimate, Fracture, to disengage. Not only does it make you take a dash back, it also has a built in cleanse. The worst thing you can do as an assassin hero is panic and fumble all your skills.
The Combo: Empowered Basic Attack >> Expansion >> Gauge >> Fracture
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That’s it on my thoughts on Nolan given my current analysis on the hero. Much like most builds, this can change viability depending on the current meta.
As this is a work in progress, I’d like to hear your thoughts and opinions on how you could see Nolan being played!
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