Is it Time for Nox to Come to Light?
Nox is viewed as one of the worst current mages in Smite
Who is Nox in Smite?
Nox is the Roman Goddess of Night and she will usually be run in either the mid lane or in the solo lane. The Goddess is viewed, as of late, to be one of, if not the worst characters in the game and is rarely played in competitive, generally failing when she is played. Is it time for the Goddess to slip away into the darkness of the game or is it time players considered her in a different light?
Using Nox’s Abilities
Passive - Flame of the Night
Nox’s passive is called “Flame of the Night” and for every ability that Nox is able to cast one of her candles will be lit, for every one of these candles lit she gains 4% damage mitigation (stacking up to 4 times) and when Nox takes damage from an enemy one of her candles will be extinguished.
To use this effectively within the game you should aim to keep up the four stacks for as long as possible as, of course, you will be able to mitigate more damage and this is easily achieved as her 3rd ability is used at a frequent rate. In terms of using this passive it can allow Nox to tank damage from the camps in the game at the early stages of the game as she will take less damage than most other allies. This is also useful to negate damage from the enemy but only so if you don’t waste the stacks - an example would be by taking a basic attack from a mage - as the stacks could mean life or death throughout the game and it is also important to note the stacks are not effective against abilities that deal damage over time as the stacks are very quickly stripped. A good use of the passive would be against straight up burst damage such as a hunter’s basic attack or an ability such as Poseidon’s “Release the Kraken!”
1st ability - Shadow Barrier
Shadow Barrier allows Nox to mitigate the damage from the next enemy ability to hit her, basic attacks also being mitigated for the duration of the shield and Nox is also immune to knockups, roots and slows while the ability is active.
Again, to make a good use of this aspect of Nox would be not to waste it as it only lasts 2 seconds before dissipating and could determine her death. To use this ability well you are going to have to think on your feet, look at nearby enemies and determine who you don’t want to take damage from or the potential crowd control from and then carefully predict enemy actions. I would personally suggest using the shield slightly preemptively as it would be better to trigger it early than not at all as you have been too late.
What has been apparent is that the shield negates ability damage but this will suffer to damage over time as it will only prevent a single tick of the ability so I wouldn’t recommend using it on an ability as such unless you will die from the tick. The other important use of the shield is to prevent certain crowd control (knockups, roots and slows) as though these won’t cause you to die in burst the control can directly lead to your death such as a root from Sylvanus leading into his pull crowd control. So if you feel threatened by the controlm use the shield, even if you die to ability damage it is more worth your time baiting your opponents for as long as possible.
Good examples of use would be to negate Poseidon’s Kraken, Slyvanus’ root, Neith’s root or Vulcan’s “Earthbreaker” .
2nd ability - Nightfall Raven
Nox will send a raven out in a long path in front of her, dealing damage and silencing those hit whilst also applying “Shroud of Darkness” which lasts for 5 seconds.
This ability is best used around two purposes, one being the silence and the other being the damage that Nox can put out using it. Surrounding the first purpose of silencing Nox is able to save herself and teammates from unnecessary damage or death and this would again require you to be able to think on your feet. You have to place it carefully as it could lose a whole team fight. The silence can also be used as a way to stop enemies escaping as it prevents characters with leaps or dashes from using them. As mentioned earlier the ability will apply a “Shroud of Darkness” on to enemies which leads on to the second purpose of damage as this shroud will increase the amount of damage that she deals to a target when she uses her 3rd ability, therefore creating great poke potential as targets aren’t able to do much to stop it (also due to the silence).
A good example of using this ability would be to prevent an Ares or Hun Batz from using their ultimates and to stop other character such as Serqet and Nemesis from being mobile. Other examples would be to create great poke damage on to a low defense character like Scylla.
3rd ability - Siphon Darkness
Nox’s third ability is called “Siphon Darkness” and this ability will simply damage enemies in a circular area of effect but enemies who are under the Shroud effect will take an additional 50% of the damage she would normally deal as bonus damage.
This ability has a very short cooldown of 4 seconds meaning you are able to build up the stacks for her passive very easily and are effective in clearing early waves with the use of the bonus damage. I’d recommend trying to use this ability to be as annoying as possible while, in certain situations, providing utility. Using this ability well would be to constantly poke at enemies - as much as possible- and to debuff the enemy with the use of items which could mean a reduction in healing (Divine Ruin) or a reduction in movement speed (Gem of Isolation). It can also prevent the use of Blink as it will keep enemies in combat constantly.
Ultimate ability - Night Terror
The ultimate ability of Nox is called “Night Terror” and when used Nox will launch her shadow forward, after a short delay within which she is immune to crowd control, linking up to a maximum of 3 enemies which will deal damage and shroud them in her darkness. Every time that one of the linked targets uses an ability they will take damage and Nox’s cooldowns are lowered by 5 seconds. After the link ends the enemies will take 75% of the initial damage and become stunned for one second.
When using this you can either choose to use it defensively or offensively.
If you are using this ability defensively it means that you should be in a situation where a strong form of crowd control that can’t be countered by her shield or a number of enemies able to kill you with a couple abilities are facing you. I would only suggest using this defensively in the most dire of circumstances as it has much more aggressive potential but if you must use it like this then you are able to not only help yourself escape situations but teammates also as enemies that you are linked to will likely not be confident enough to use abilities due to the fear of Nox’s burst killing them before they can secure anything.
A good example of a defensive use of this ability would be in a team fight where an enemy Ares has used his ultimate on either you or allies as the build up on your ultimate will cancel the pull of his ability and the Ares will likely have allies supporting him so it will disable those from using abilities also, therefore leading to the safety of you and your team.
Using this ultimate aggressively can have great impact on any fight and has the potential to change the tide of an entire game if used around an objective. As Nox you must prioritise targets by choosing enemies that rely on and use their abilities frequently as this is a direct counter to them, potentially dealing mass damage and can prevent later escape due to the stun and finisher damage. The ultimate will allow your team to collapse on enemies, generally, without fear of any counter play as they will kill themselves in doing so and can therefore lead to a deicide with no losses on your side in many situations.
General points of Nox:
Don’t push too far forward without your team. Nox has low mobility and can’t rely on her shield to protect her if she is far away from her side of the map. For this reason warding is also very important on Nox as you can see when a threat approaches.
Don’t expect to go straight into a fight and kill all enemies at once. Nox isn’t anything like Kali and functions much better from backline situations, constantly lowering the health of foes to the point at which they can’t engage any more.
Have good communication with allies. This will make Nox much more vulnerable as choosing the correct targets when playing her is vital.
Be an annoyance. Nox is great at reducing health while not involving herself and it is great to lower enemies so you are more able to kill them at later points whilst being able to disable the Blink active and reduce such things as movement speed and healing.
Building Nox
When building Nox I don’t believe it to be wise to make too many variants as it is likely most will not work effectively, feel free to try an item in a game if you feel it could be viable but don’t expect it to do amazingly. In terms of personal builds I have created 3 variants which can be used depending on different situations based upon my personal experience with the Goddess.
Powerhouse
This build is purely focused on burst and outputting so much damage that enemies do not stand a chance at getting near you for you to be threatened by Nox’s lack of mobility.
When deciding what to build for this playstyle I would suggest using the typical power mage build with a few changes. Start with Vampiric Shroud and Lost Artifact as this is a must in the early game, it allows Nox to stay in lane and make a better use of herself with the sustain the items provide. Next you should opt into Shoes of the Magi and Warlock’s Sash as these items will increase Nox’s damage and survivability, Boots providing movement speed whilst Warlock’s provides additional health.
After that it’s likely to be around the mid game and it’s time to return to your Lost Artifact which should be upgraded into a Doom Orb if you are confident on the character as playing her correctly should mean a low death rate due to the lack of fight involvement early game and Doom Orb will greatly increase her power as she gains stacks, giving her the power most players feel that she lacks. If you are not that confident I would suggest a pick of Chronos Pendant as you are able to use abilities more frequently, maybe to save yourself. Obsidian Shard is then a great choice on the Goddess as this item will tear through the defenses of enemies and open a wider variety of targets to her such as enemy tanks and towers while also further increasing her magical power.
By this time you should be nearing the late game stages and your next priority should be Rod of Tahuti. This item will greatly increase Nox’s damage even further and, in my opinion, is a must if you wish to keep up in damage numbers and not fall off to even the most defenseless characters in the game. After selling Vampiric Shroud your last item choice should depend on the enemy team, it might be they have a lot of crowd control so you choose to buy Magi’s blessing or that they have a high amount of physical damage so you build Breastplate of Valor.
Utility
This build is based around being the most use to your team rather than being the carry yourself with the use of items that debuff your opponents. I’d mainly recommend this in the solo lane or if you are facing a really strong composition.
The early game has a slightly different start than the power build as instead of Lost Artifact you will be picking up the first rank Shoes and an active depending on the composition of the enemy team, a personal choice rather than one that could be advised. This will make you a harder target to take out in the early stages, with Shoes then being upgraded to Shoes of Focus as these will allow you to use her abilities more frequently, the abilities that will be providing team utility. After this the item depends on the enemies, if there is a strong threat of sustain then you should build straight into Divine Ruin but if not I’d recommend Breastplate of Valor to allow you to further spam your abilities.
Around the mid stages of the game you should build into Gem of Isolation (though if the enemy team does have sustain and you didn’t build Divine Ruin earlier this would be another great time for it) as this will further hinder enemies by slowing them which will allow your team to catch up to them in team fights or to escape. After this I would then suggest a Spear of the Magus as this item will allow the tankier targets on the opposing side to take more damage from magical based allies.
Into the late stages of the game you should choose to build Rod of Tahuti as this, as mentioned before, will maximise the damage put out by Nox. Even if you are building for the sake of utility it’s still good to have damage supporting you also. After this I’d choose Ethereal Staff if you have a spare item slot due to not having to use an item earlier mentioned as this item will leave Nox with roughly 2800 health when combined with Gem of Isolation and this is good at making up for her lack of survivability based on her mobility and as her health is high Ethereal Staff will also increase her power levels.
General
As a general Nox build I think the best thing to do is to increase her survivability, damage and utility as much as possible without being focused entirely around one aspect. As the description would suggest, an all around build.
In the early game I would recommend the same start as the utility based build though upgrading into Shoes of the Magi rather than Focus as this will give Nox more damage while only losing a very minute amount of cooldown reduction that would barely be noticed compared to damage at this point. For the next item you should build Warlock’s Sash as this will increase her damage and survivability, showing diversity between playstyles.
In the mid game it would be a good idea to buy Obsidian Shard as this gives Nox, along with Rod of Tahuti, the best chance at keeping up in damage and especially to give her the potential to kill characters that have built a defensive item. After this you should go into Rod of Tahuti due to, as mentioned earlier, the item allowing her to keep up in damage rates compared to other characters in the game.
In the late stages of the game a good pick would be Ethereal staff as this is another great item to present diversity across builds and playstyles as the item not only increases your health but it also increases your power depending on your health. Your last item of choice, after selling Vampiric Shroud, should depend on the situation of the game and could include such items as Breastplate of Valor, Divine Ruin or something like Spirit Robe and Magi’s Blessing as these allow Nox and her team to combat the enemy teams a lot more effectively.
This is the end of the guide but remember the most important point is to not expect to be able to involve yourself in too much, it’s much better to be a backline annoyance.
Good luck and show your enemies that you are the one who Nox!
