Cdr Glyphs so you can use your ultimate more often. Just be wary that if you tend to build more than 30% cdr in your games, then just replace 3 glyphs with scaling mr. Attack speed is so you can proc your passive more often, and it lets you stay pretty healthy through your first clear. This build also lacks consistent AS, so AS runes helps with that. Armor is to negate jungle damage.

I made this guide mostly because of the lack of Nocturne guides out there. He's not that popular of a champion, but for someone trying to pick him up it would be nice for a multitude of (updated) guides to be available. This build is a little unorthodox but I've played many many games with this build and have found that it is very effective. Feel free to try it out and let me know what you think! Cinderhulk gives you more early game survivability when fighting and ganking, as well as gives you good Aoe damage for clearing the jungle. It also gives you good late game strenghth as you are very hard to kill with all your tanky items, yet with just one or two damage items you can still destroy their squishies and then win teamfights for your team.

Skirmisher's is a lot better than Stalker's in my opinion, but both are viable.

Make sure to get boots early, as it gives you better timing for ganks and lets you move around.

Youmoo's and Titanic Hydra is usually all you need for damage. You can easliy ult a carry and kill them with ease, while still being able to tank a ton of their damage.

Make sure you itemize correctly against their team for you tank items. Most of the time they will have a couple AD threats, so Dead Man's Plate is a very good item. Gives movespeed, a little extra damage, and makes you very tanky. I recommend this after you get youmoos.

Most of the time, if the game is going okay, i get cinderhulk, then youmoo's then a defensive item like Dead Man's, then a damage item like Titanic hydra, then finishi it off with another defensive item. put in boots whenever you can, as early as you can.

If its going bad and youre behind, get cinderhulk and a defensive like dead mans, while getting a little bit of youmoos and finish youmoo's third.

Pros
Gets very tanky
Good clears with passive and Aoe burn from Cinderhulk
Can dive onto carries with very good survivability
Still carries a lot of damage with just youmoo's and Titanic Hydra
Can 1v1 almost anyone on the enemy team if farmed well due to your tankiness
Farsight Alteration give you the ability to snipe out a carry out of nowhere with your ult
Good pick potential
Good follow up for initiation
Ult makes it hard for enemy team to protect carries due to lack of vision
Spell shield can help you win close fights

Cons
This build lacks early game burst damage, but nets more damage overall
no real escape
Long ult cooldown
Not that much AS in this build
Not that much lifesteal
Could potentially get bullied early game in jungle

If you start red side, you can start crugs, smite them, get w second, then get red buff, get scuttle, get chickens, then move onto wolves, blue, gromp, and scuttle again if its there.

Starting blue side you can get gromp, level e second, get scuttle and use e on it for an easier kill, wolves, chickens red and crugs then scuttle if its there.

*be sure to always hit all the minions with your passive when its up, and make sure to hit as many of the minions as possible with your q as well.
*tip for Chickens, make sure when you q them, you don't q towards the enemy side of the mid lane, but towards your own side, otherwise the enemy midlaner can see your q and this gives away your position! Also when counterjungling the enemy chickens, be careful of showing yourself with your q, as most likely they can see you there. Stand as far back from the chickens as possible and q there so it doesn't go over the wall.

*tip for the game: make sure you farm as much as you can while still helping out the game. Nocturne is really good at this due to his ult, you can farm and if your team gets caught or a fight breaks out, you always have the ability to jump in and not be late to the fight. Because of this you can stack up a ton of gold and usually you're able to 1v1 anyonne if you pick them out.

For teamfights, make sure you time your ult well, a bad ult can lead to you just getting peeled away and dying, leading to a lost fight. Since you're tanky, you DO have the potential to initiate a fight, however be careful because if your team is too far behind you you could be by yourself for a while. The best option is to make sure the enemy carry is a little far away from their team, you pick them off with vision or your Farsight alteration, ult, kill them cause they're squishy, then fight a 4v5.
Farsight alteration also works well to scope out if there is any backup coming when you see a possible pick. The worst is when you ult thinking they're alone but then you get peeled off by backup and then you wasted your ult or died.
Follow up is also a very good option for fighting, if your team has strong initiation. Let your other tanks go in first, have them initiate, then you help follow up by turning off the lights and diving onto the carries. Also try and fight in the jungle, as the lack of vision for the enemy team there can be absolutely devastating.

Pre six
If you find the enemy laners overextending a lot, you still have the ability to gank pre 6 fairly well, although not as well as like a Lee Sin or Elise.
Just walk up, fear them, and then when they start running you can go throw your q, this way its harder for them to dodge and you landing your q is a big factor in getting a kill or not.
Flash is always helpful, flash e sets up a gank pretty well.
Your best bet is to let your laner cc them first then walk in and start your combo pre 6

After 6
Most things still apply as before
*make sure to keep tabs on enemy flash cooldowns, as a flash and a gapcloser after your ult usually leads to a failed gank. If they have flash up, make sure your teammates have good cc or make sure you have flash up to stick to them.
A good way to gank is let your laner start the fight, then come in through lane or wherever you are and follow up with your ult. That way the enemy overcommits and blows cooldowns before you get there, and they have nothing left when you show up and kill them.
With this build, you are more tanky than the average Nocturne, so you have better odds when towerdiving, just be smart about it.
If you e a target and they flash out of range, if you're fast enough, you can flash right away to keep the tether on them. The tether doesn't break right away, but you still have to have good reactions.

Make sure you land your q, it give you a huge advantage in fighting an opponent

Your q has pretty long range, most people aren't looking out for a Nocturne Q, but it still does a good amount of damage with this build. You can poke with it and possibly just secure kllls with it on low health squisies.

Nocturne's W is very nice, and you have to make sure you block something in a fight or you don't get your AS buff.
There are a lot of things to learn about blocking all the spells in the game, not all spells are created equally.
For example, a Zyra ult, although just one ability, is treated as two separate spells in the case of spell shields. You can either block the initial damage portion, or the knock up two seconds later, but not both.

Here are some tips for certain spells off the top of my head:
Karthus ult- w right when the damage is about to come down and you can block the damage portion of his ult (which is all you really need to block lol)

Zed ult- w while he is in his 0.75 of invulnerability, and you can prevent him from putting his mark on you. He still gets an ult shadow and everything, there's just no extra damage after 3 seconds.

Vi ult- This one's pretty simple, just w after she ults you as she is dashing towards you. she'll just go up by herself and you can walk away.

Naut ult- same as Vi's, as its coming towards you you can just w right when its about to hit and nothing happens.

Most spells with cast times: you basically have to get used to all the cast times and press w when the time is right. Some have very long cast times relative to others, like Leona ult, Xerath Q, Most of Vel'Koz's abilities, etc. Foe some I just go off of sound, so make sure you have your volume up to a decent amount lol. Like Ahri charm has a very distinct sound to it, its almost like an alarm saying "you should w this".

Other spells: Some spells you just have to time right, they have very little to no cast animation so its all about anticipaiton. Practice makes perfect. IF you plan on playing Nocturne a lot or just want to get good at him, play a lot of games and learn a lot about blocking certain spells, it really helps in the long run.

While fighting some champs, some spells are of high priority to block, like blocking a Lee Sin q vs his e, but remeber if all else fails just try and block a spell, it helps you negate damage as well as give you an attack speed buff which usually helps you win the fight.

Last tip- If you build Banshee's if you w while the Banshee's shield is active, it'll pop both shields. I know, that kinda sucks right. But you just have to deal with it by making sure the Banshee's pops first then w another spell if you want to block 2 spells (which you should want to block 2 spells, cause thats half a champions kit you just denied lol)

Thanks for reading my guide! I hope it helped shed a new light to a tankier Nocturne, and feel free to try it out and let me know what you think. I'm open to any comments, as long as they are respectful. I just felt like this gives Nocturne more options earlier on in the game, as he is still able to do damage but at the same time survive longer in fights.