Nocturne Build Guide by PsiGuard

Introduction

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the awesome banner!

Nocturne

Lux

Kennen

Nocturne

Duskbringer

Umbra Blades

Paranoia

Paranoia

LoL Terminology

Synergies

Nocturne

Unspeakable Horror

Ahri's mobility from her ultimate and strong single-target CC make her an excellent partner for picking off vulnerable targets, especially in early and mid game. Use Paranoia along with her Spirit Rush to close huge gaps and reach far away targets. If she's able to land Charm, use the opportunity to cast Unspeakable Horror so the fear goes off when the charm ends. In team fights, you can use Paranoia to jump on to any squishy that Ahri catches with Charm.

Kha'Zix can be played in mid or top lane and is an exceptional AD assassin with strong poke and a lot of single-target burst. You can gank for him early game and roam with him later to pick off lone targets with ease. Unseen Threat can help slow down a target long enough for you to proc your Unspeakable Horror, and Kha'Zix can proc it at range if he evolved Void Spike. Once he's evolved Leap, he'll be able to follow you when you use Paranoia on a squishy. In team fights you should both poke and peel until an enemy carry is vulnerable, then both dive and kill the carry together.

Lulu isn't very complicated to work with since she'll be mostly helping you and your team do their jobs better in fights rather than making any specific plays. One trick you can use when ganking is to get Lulu to cast Help, Pix! on you before you use Paranoia, then she can use you to fire Glitterlance far outside her normal range, slowing the target so your Unspeakable Horror can take effect. In team fights she enhances your initation abilities and keeps you alive with Wild Growth. Just make sure you don't dive too deep too quickly or she won't be in range to ult you.

Malphite's gank reception before level 6 is pretty awful, but once he has Unstoppable Force, he becomes a very easy lane to gank for. If you both use your ultimates together, you should be able to land a pretty easy Unspeakable Horror. In team fights, he can either follow up your initiate if the enemy team wants to collapse onto you or he can initiate for you (probably more common), leaving you to follow up with Paranoia or save it to dive or clean up depending on how the fight goes.

Olaf is very easy to gank for and can follow up any plays you make as long as he has his Ghost off cooldown. Undertow is a spammable and very strong slow that gives you some great sticking power for landing Unspeakable Horror. After level 6, you can use Paranoia as Olaf uses Ragnarok and Ghost for incredibly strong ganks that are almost impossible to escape. He can help you peel in team fights and makes a great addition to your team's front line, plus he can dive carries with you since his ultimate makes him immune to peeling and he generally builds quite tanky.

Shen doesn't have the same mobility as most of these picks since he usually doesn't run Ghost and Shadow Dash is relatively short range, but his ultimate, Stand United makes him an incredible asset for your team. You can very easily 4- or 5-man bot lane without warning by using your ultimates together to bypass wards. Shen improves your initiation capabilities by ulting onto you when you're dashing with your own ultimate, then following up with a Shadow Dash to lock down the enemy team.

Singed is a good ally for many of the same reasons that Olaf is a strong pick with Nocturne. In ganks, he can use Ghost, Insanity Potion and Mega Adhesive to gap-close, then Fling to keep your target in range of Unspeakable Horror. In team fights, Mega Adhesive provides great disruption of enemy positioning, allowing you to reach and fear an enemy carry quite easily. He can also follow you through the enemy team, resisting peel with Insanity Potion and Flinging a target back for your team to focus.

Twisted Fate is one of the strongest roaming mids, past level 6, using Destiny to bypass ward coverage and reach even farther than you can with Paranoia. He can also land a gold Pick A Card as you use Paranoia, allowing you to land Unspeakable Horror fairly easily. Destiny also reveals the enemy team, which can get you a kill if you're in Paranoia range of a low enemy, but don't have the sight to jump to him. The reveal can also light up a good portion of the map when enemies are spread out, potentially showing nearby enemies that could be picked off. In team fights he has good poke and can follow up your initiation with a stun, but generally won't dive with you unless it's safe enough that he won't get blown up instantly. If he has Zhonya's Hourglass, you might be able to take some more risks to kill the enemy carries together.

Masteries

9/21/0

This is my preferred setup for jungling Nocturne in the Season 3 meta. The 9 points in offense are essential for basic jungle speed and DPS against enemy champions. 21 points in defense compliment a defensive build, which is pretty much the only way to play Nocturne viably at a competitive level. You may have some variation such as taking Relentless against a lot of slows or Tenacious versus snares and stuns, but generally this is what your mastery setup should look like.

Runes

x2 x7

x9

x9

x3

Summoner Spells

This spell is absolutely necessary on every single jungler. If you think jungling without Smite is just as viable, you are mistaken. While performing a jungle route without Smite is certainly possible, Smite is invaluable for practicing and preventing counter-jungling. If you jungle without Smite, not only will your jungle be more difficult, but you can be easily counter-jungled by any competent enemy with Smite. You'll also lose all objective (baron and dragon) control for your team because the enemy jungler will have a 1000 true damage nuke that can be cast at range and you won't. Once the enemy jungler starts last-hitting every single buff you try to take and stealing every dragon and baron, then you'll understand what I mean.

Flash works wonders on every champion (yes, even you LeBlanc) and Nocturne is no exception. Its multitude of uses in a variety of situations make it indispensable as a utility spell. You can use this spell for chasing, fleeing, initiating, ganking, juking, stealing buffs or dragon, and following another champion who uses Flash. Since Nocturne is a strong anti-carry with a great initiate, it helps to have an escape mechanism on hand in order to escape after you pick off a carry in a team fight. You might even net a few kills with it when following fleeing enemies who try to Flash to safety.

A very powerful spell to have on a team, Exhaust works great for ganks and shutting down dangerous carries. Nocturne is an excellent ganker on his own, but Exhaust will give you much stronger pre-6 ganks is still very useful for late game team fights. You'll be lacking an escape mechanism, so make sure you're confident enough with your judgment calls that you can play safely without Flash.

Abilities

• When Umbra Blades is ready, try to position Nocturne in the middle of a group of enemies for heavy damage and lifesteal.
• Umbra Blades and Wriggle's Lantern make it easy to heal up after a tough fight without having to recall to base.
• Using Umbra Blades and Duskbringer effectively can allow you to push a lane very quickly, or do heavy damage to the enemy team.

Duskbringer

• Duskbringer isn't just useful for chasing. Fire it at a group of champions to wear down their health safely. This is especially strong if you have blue buff.
• Using Duskbringer when retreating can save your life, just make sure you keep moving after you use the spell.
• The attack damage increase from the trail on Duskbringer helps when killing champions, clearing creep camps, and even pushing down towers.
• Duskbringer acts like Ghost, allowing you to pass through minions, which makes it a useful tool for chasing or escaping through a minion wave.
• The Duskbringer trail left by an enemy can be used to follow them, even if they've broken line-of-sight.

Sivir

Spell Shield

Nidalee

Javelin Toss / Takedown

Ace in the Hole

Requiem

• Blocking a spell with Shroud of Darkness doubles the passive attack speed bonus, allowing you to take down enemy champions or towers even more quickly.
• Shroud of Darkness has a long cooldown. Sometimes it is better to get hit by a weak spell so you can block a more dangerous one later.
• Shroud of Darkness is easiest to use on abilities with slow particles, such as Morgana's Dark Binding or Taric's Dazzle.
• Shroud of Darkness is a simple way to dispatch traps like Bushwhack / Pounce and Yordle Snap Trap without being revealed. You can also absorb Teemo's Noxious Traps without taking damage or being slowed.

• You can use Unspeakable Horror to fear Jarvan IV when he uses Cataclysm on your ally. This may allow your ally to escape.
• Fearing blue golem and red lizard with Unspeakable Horror will cause you to receive less damage. Baron and Dragon however, are not disabled by this spell.
• If you use Unspeakable Horror on Vladimir, his Sanguine Pool will not break the chain, allowing you to fear him if you stay in range.

Destiny

• Sometimes it is better to approach a fight normally and save Paranoia for a chase.
• If you are chasing multiple weakened champions, use Paranoia, dash to the farthest champion, then fight your way backwards. This technique can land you double or triple kills.
• You can use Paranoia to dash past towers towards retreating champions.
• The global sight reduction from Paranoia can be used defensively to juke enemies or prevent them from coordinating. Using the brush can also allow you to isolate and pick off enemy champions without being seen.

Ability Sequence

>>>

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Duskbringer

Shroud of Darkness

Unspeakable Horror

Duskbringer

Paranoia

Duskbringer

Unspeakable Horror

Shroud of Darkness

Itemization

Early Core

x5

These are really the only starting items taken by junglers in season 3, with few exceptions. For 300 gold, Hunter's Machete gives you a significant boost to your clear time and leaves room for some Health Potions to sustain you through your first clear. You can upgrade it to Madred's Razors on your first recall to allow you to farm the jungle and clear objectives more quickly. There's really no reason not to get it.

Madred's Razors gives a 25% chance to proc the bonus damage and builds straight out of Hunter's Machete. It's a great item to rush for faster clear times, especially for the more single-target focused camps (blue, red and golems). The armor from this item will make you more durable against monster damage as well as enemy champions you're ganking, but you might still need a couple Health Potions to sustain you if you end up farming your jungle a lot before you go back to base.

Boots of Speed aren't good starting items on junglers anymore, but you'll still want to pick up at least a basic pair pretty early in the game. You'll need the boost to your mobility if you want to roam and gank effectively. Upgrading your boots after your first core item is usually a good idea, though you might need to upgrade earlier or later depending on the game.

When to get Wriggle's Lantern

Wriggle's Lantern isn't a mandatory pickup anymore and is often skipped in competitive play, usually in favor of a faster Kindlegem or Giant's Belt. If you find yourself needing to bulk up quickly and finish a strong survivability item, don't finish Wriggle's Lantern. If your build isn't as urgent and you can make use of the ward, jungle speed and sustain, finishing Wriggle's can be worth your gold. I tend to finish Wriggle's if I'm ahead or if it's a slow-going game with a lot of careful warding and farming. I would skip the upgrade if I needed to rush survivability items to survive early skirmishes.

Boots

Berserker's Greaves are strong boots on Nocturne, especially in low-CC environments. If you're looking for some cheap DPS for faster clearing and/or more deadly ganks, this is a good place to get it. I tend to build these whenever I can get away with it.

Mercury's Treads are pretty standard on a lot of melee champions since they're more vulnerable to being kited and generally have to tank skillshot CC for their team. If you're against a team with a lot of CC, you'll probably want some tenacity. This is a great place to get it early.

Ninja Tabi are pretty straightforward boots. You should consider them against teams with several dangerous AD champions, especially if 2-3 of them are reliant on autoattacks. The armor and autoattack damage reduction from these boots will make you more resilient to AD carries and allow you to fight enemy bruisers without taking as much damage.

Enchantment: Furor is probably the most obvious choice for Nocturne. It's a strong tool for chasing down enemies and general mobility in fights. You'll be proccing the effect a lot in combat since you'll be autoattacking constantly, so it's great when assassinating and pretty useful if you're peeling too.

Enchantment: Homeguard is a useful enchantment on any champion. If a lot of action is taking place near your inhibitors or inside your base (whether you're losing or it's just a back-and-forth game), you'll definitely want to buy this. You can still get it just to get out of your base faster even if you aren't pushed to your inhibitors since it ends up saving you a lot of travel time.

Defensive Items

Runic Bulwark is a great item to build for your team, especially if your support isn't getting one. You'll get a good amount of durability for yourself as well as the aura, which works wonders for you and your team in large team fights where a lot of AoE spells will be thrown around. The MR and health will also make you more resistant to burst damage if the enemy AP carry decides you're a significant enough threat to focus. This item is essential to surviving magic-heavy compositions as it provides 180 magic resistance spread across you and your teammates.

Randuin's Omen is my go-to armor item on Nocturne. The active and passive will both allow you to reach carries more easily without being kited, since you can slow their AS and MS. Overall it's a great survivability item for late game, especially against dangerous AD carries, and is useful both for disruption when initiating and peeling bruisers off of your carries.

Locket of the Iron Solari is an incredibly cost-efficient survivability item with great utility in team fights, however I don't consider it core because it doesn't synergize with Nocturne's kit quite as well as it does other champions like Xin Zhao. It's still a terrific item, especially if you're behind and can't afford Giant's Belt for Warmog's Armor. An early Kindlegem will help you get off more Paranoia ganks, should you need your ultimate to gank slippery or well-warded lanes.

Sunfire Cape is a good item to build if you're ahead and durable enough to survive focus in team fights, or if your team has a lot of really tanky champions and you need to add some more damage to your team comp. Keep in mind that this item doesn't give as much cost-efficient survivability as Warmog's Armor, Randuin's Omen or Locket of the Iron Solari, so don't build it when you're behind and need defensive stats.

Frozen Mallet is a bit of a niche defensive item, but it can be very powerful if you make good use of the passive. It provides a big boost to your health pool and a very strong on-hit slow. This extra CC can serve to pin down important targets in team fights or to peel enemy champions away from your carries. Since Nocturne just has Unspeakable Horror for CC, buying mallet for the on-hit slow improves his capabilities of both peeling bruisers and sticking to carries.

Warmog's Armor is an expensive investment, but a very effective defensive item for general survivability against physical, magical and especially true damage. It's a strong defense against teams with heavy true damage nukes (such as Feast and Noxian Guillotine). Watch out for health-shredding items and abilities before sinking a lot of your gold into this item though, especially Blade of the Ruined King on AD carries and bruisers.

Spirit Visage doesn't have a huge amount of synergy with Nocturne in terms of the healing + regeneration amplification, but it's a great MR option for him should you need to build a Negatron Cloak against magic-heavy comps. This item was buffed to give 20% CDR which takes a huge chunk out of your cooldown time, especially Paranoia's lengthy CD. You'll generally want to pair it with Warmog's Armor and/or some lifesteal to make use of the increased healing and regeneration.

Guardian Angel is a poor survivability item in terms of raw stats, but the passive can make it occasionally worth buying. If you're initiating and dropping in team fights, but your team is able to clean up after your death, you can buy this to punish the enemy team for wasting focus on you. Using Guardian Angel effectively requires good positioning, so if you're just getting picked off and dying twice, fix your positioning or build a different defensive item.

Offensive Items

Blade of the Ruined King is quite expensive, but very effective on Nocturne. I would go so far as to say it synergizes with his kit better than almost any other bruiser (though it's also good on ADCs sometimes). Though Nocturne's AD scalings aren't spectacular, he has strong steroids to his autoattack DPS, which this item does as well. The active is also very useful for sticking to a target during the initial Unspeakable Horror chain. Build this item if you're snowballing or you can afford to build some damage within your team comp (fighting low-damage comps, and/or you have some strong bruisers or tanks on your team).

The Black Cleaver is a really expensive item considering it's pure offense, but you can consider it as a late game option in order to shred armored targets for your AD carry to focus down. If you have a strong early game you can get The Brutalizer for damage and CDR and gank a lot to create an advantage for your team. Finish The Black Cleaver later on in the game if you have enough survivability to live through team fights.

Maw of Malmortius is a little bit situational, but works quite nicely against double AP comps, especially with a lot of single-target burst or DoT spells. You'll generally want to just build the Hexdrinker early on and hold onto it until later in the game. You can upgrade to Maw if the game goes long enough, but generally Hex is enough to get the job done.

Warding

It is the responsibility of everyone on the team to ward the map, but it is especially important for junglers to do so, since the jungler needs to provide buffs and map control as well as ganks.

Buy wards whenever possible, and watch for when allied wards by dragon or baron are going to expire. Make sure that dragon is warded once it has spawned, and ward baron constantly late game. Warding allied buffs is a good way to prevent counter-jungling. Remember, your Wriggle's Lantern provides free wards on a cooldown. Be sure to make use of these wards throughout the game to save money. You can use Vision Wards to counter-ward at dragon or baron, or you can buy an Oracle's Elixir for some more extensive ward sweeping. If you notice the enemy team is getting a lot of wards, this will help your own team regain some map control.

Note: This is assuming you're purple. Simply mirror the positions if you're on blue side.

These show the best, non-situational (i.e no lane brush wards) positions to place wards, assuming you are winning as the purple side.

Mirror the positions of the wards if you need defensive wards in your jungle as well. This is especially important if you plan on counter-jungling, to prevent the enemy jungler from stealing your jungle while you are absent.

For a more detailed guide on warding, click here.

Jungle Spawn Timers

Lesser Creeps Spawns At: 1:40 Respawn Time: 1:00 (0:50 for Wraith camp)

Buffs Spawns At: 1:55 Respawn Time: 5:00

Dragon Spawns At: 2:30 Respawn Time: 6:00

Baron Spawns At: 15:00 Respawn Time: 7:00 (3:00 after the buff expires)

Jungle Routes

If there is a ganking opportunity during your route, feel free to interrupt your jungling if your team needs your help, or if you can pick up a kill or assist. You can easily gank any time after red buff, but you may want to try an earlier gank if an opportunity presents itself.

A note on Smite-less leashes: Though "leashing" as it was formerly known is no longer a reality in season 3 due to the new monster targeting algorithms, you can still kill a major buff camp pretty quickly with the help of a few teammates. If you have 3 or more teammates helping you clear your first buff and they give you a lot of damage, you might not need to use Smite. If this is the case, you can save your Smite and go straight to your other buff for a fast level 3 or even counter jungle the nearby enemy buff if you feel safe doing so.

1. Start at wolves and hit them with Duskbringer. I usually stand beside one of the small wolves instead of in front of the big wolf in order to ensure that my Q hits all of them. You can get an ally to soften up the wolves after you hit them if you can trust them not to accidentally kill one.
2. Kill the Blue Golem, preferably with some help from your nearby laners. Fire Duskbringer through the golem and make sure you stay on the trail when attacking it. Use Smite to last-hit the golem so the enemy jungler can't steal it.
   Note: You may choose to gank the nearest sidelane at this point since you should hit level 2 while the laners are still level 1. Keep in mind that you won't have red buff, so your Q and E combined with your laners CC and damage will have to be enough.
   
3. Go to wraiths next. Stand behind the blue wraith and fire Duskbringer through the camp towards your red buff. This will prevent the enemy mid laner from spotting your Q trail. Revealing your location to the enemy team will allow the enemy jungler to counterjungle you more easily, while the lane that you are farthest from will be able to play aggressively without fearing ganks.
4. Go back and clear wolves again. This is faster and easier on your health bar than clearing double golems.
5. Head to the Red Lizard. You'll probably want to use a Health Potion now, so go ahead and pop one when you start the camp. Stand behind the Red Lizard and fire Duskbringer towards the curved brush. This will ensure that the enemy jungler can't see your trail over the wall and it also allows you to pull the lizard into the brush if you expect someone to try to steal it. Make sure you last-hit it with Smite.
6. Finish by clearing wraiths again, being sure to stand behind the blue wraith and firing Duskbringer towards your red buff. It's usually a good time to gank right after you clear this camp, so you don't want to alert the enemy mid laner to your presence.

1. Clear wraiths first. You can get an ally to soften up the wraiths after you hit them if you can trust them not to accidentally kill one. Stand behind the blue wraith and fire Duskbringer through the camp towards your red buff. This will prevent the enemy mid laner from spotting your Q trail. Revealing your location to the enemy team will allow the enemy jungler to counterjungle you more easily, while the lane that you are farthest from will be able to play aggressively without fearing ganks.
2. Head to the Red Lizard. You should be getting a leash for this buff. Stand behind the Red Lizard and fire Duskbringer towards the curved brush. This will allow you to stay on your Q trail and keep your AD bonus while the lizard runs after the ally who leashed it. Use Smite to last-hit the lizard so the enemy jungler can't steal it.

Counter Jungling and Recovery

Smite

Dazzle

Blitzcrank

Rocket Grab

Shyvana

Smite

Nunu

Shyvana

Ganking Tips

The earliest level that Nocturne can effectively gank is level two with Duskbringer and Unspeakable Horror. His ganks after level 6 are phenomenally powerful. Also remember that red buff will improve your ganks a lot, especially before 6.

When your team mates are ready, initiate a gank (unless your ally has a strong initiate) by pinging the target, then hitting the enemy with Duskbringer. It is important that this ability lands so that the target will leave behind the trail to boost your MS and AD. When you are close enough, hit them with Unspeakable Horror and block incoming enemy spells (especially CC) with Shroud of Darkness. If the enemy does not die or uses Flash, use Paranoia and dash to pick up the kill if you can. Be careful when tower diving, as Nocturne doesn't have a lot of health early game. If your minions have drawn tower aggro, follow the target and wait until he/she exits the tower range (he will likely keep retreating out of range), then dash with Paranoia to avoid drawing tower aggro entirely. If the enemy turret hugs, judge for yourself if you can dive him or not. Just don't take any unnecessary risks and be wary for clutch heals, shields and CC if they're tower hugging.

After level 6, you can gank using Paranoia as your initation, which allows you to completely bypass ward coverage since you don't have to use the standard gank paths which are usually warded. Walking up from your own tower and ulting into the lane is usually the safest way to avoid wards. Make sure your laner is in position to follow up on your gank because when you cast Paranoia, your target will likely retreat to his tower.

Note: For some lane matchups, initiating the gank yourself will be doomed to failure. If the enemy champion has a lot of mobility or a strong CC, try to get your laner to engage them in combat before revealing yourself. It's a lot easier to gank a target that over-commits and blows cooldowns before they know you're there. This strategy works best when your ally has some strong CC with which to pin the target.

A gank does not have to net a kill to be successful. You may damage an enemy enough so that they have to play passively, or even recall to base. Forcing an enemy to use a summoner spell or ultimate can leave them without an escape mechanism, giving your team mate(s) the advantage in that lane. Once your gank is finished, return to the jungle, push the turret, take dragon or recall to base. Remember to pick up more buffs if you can before your next gank.

Team Fights

As an assassin, Nocturne performs best when executing ganks and flanking enemies. He is also a good split-pusher, and can quickly push down a tower if your allies can occupy the enemy team. Though Nocturne isn't quite as strong in group fights as he is in small skirmishes, he can still perform well, especially with a more durable build. Here's how to do it.

One or two champions on your team should be the designated initiator. Usually this initiation will take the form of a powerful CC spell, perhaps accompanied by a Flash. If your Malphite uses Unstoppable Force, or Ashe fires her Enchanted Crystal Arrow, you know the fight has begun. You can also act as your team's initiator by using Paranoia to enter the fray, but this is generally not as strong as other initiations, so if you have an initiator on your team you should usually let them do it.

Once your team has engaged the enemy, you have two options. The first is probably the most intuitive, that is to assassinate an enemy carry. Duskbringer and Paranoia are both good ways to reach your target quickly and you should use Unspeakable Horror and your Randuin's Omen to CC them while you focus them down. Keep in mind that this will usually put you in a very vulnerable position in the team fight, so you'll have to burst your target quickly or wait to jump in until the enemy team is split or CC'd by your allies if they have AoE CC like Curse of the Sad Mummy. Hitting your Shroud of Darkness at the right time is especially key here since being hit by a CC while you're in the middle of the enemy tank line will probably get you killed. The extra AS is also nice for killing your target more quickly.

The second approach is to peel for your carries, which generally puts you in a safer spot, but doesn't make use of as much of your kit. Assassinating isn't always an option, especially if the enemy has a lot of CC or you're behind at this point in the game. When this is the case, peeling for your carries will be your main duty. Typically you'll see enemy bruisers and assassins close in on your squishy AP and AD carries. Your job is to keep your carries safe (especially your AD carry) and tank for them if possible. Activate Randuin's Omen to slow approaching enemies and use Unspeakable Horror on the most dangerous target. As long as you slow your enemies' approach and output some damage onto them, your AD carry can usually DPS them down pretty quickly. If your carry is completely safe, you can look to use Paranoia to quickly switch into an assassin role. This is usually the case when your team starts to win the fight because the bruisers are dying and you can use your excellent chasing abilities to hunt down low targets. If you have an option of whom to kill at the end of the fight, go for the most likely kill, the AD or AP carry, or whoever is the most fed on the enemy team. Generally all three of these will be the enemy AD carry, but it doesn't hurt to adjust your targeting priorities if they have a fed Riven or something who's almost dead.

If your team emerges victorious from the battle, push a lane, grab a buff, or kill Dragon or Baron. Attack minions and monsters to restore your health, or just recall to base if you need to do some shopping.

If you lost the fight and you're still alive, you'll probably need to retreat to your base and get your health back. Work with whomever else is still alive on your team to defend your towers. Unless the enemy team is really strong or it's late game, they'll probably use their minions to push rather than tanking a tower directly. Use Duskbringer and Umbra Blades to quickly clear their minion wave and force them to tank your tower or back off, though only proc Umbra Blades if it's safe enough to do so. If the enemy team is clearing an objective like dragon or baron instead, you'll generally have to just leave them. You can try to steal dragon if it's safe or baron if you're desperate (and confident you can get it), but most of the time you'll just have to bide your time until your teammates respawn.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my Nocturne guide, I hope that some parts of it prove useful to you. If you appreciated my guide or approve of my build, feel free to hit the Like button up top. Please leave any comments, questions or suggestions below and I will try to get back to you. I appreciate criticism, as long as it's constructive.

A special thank you to those who have supported my guide with votes, Scout points and advice that have been instrumental in bringing my guide to the level of quality it is today. I'd also like to specifically thank jhoijhoi for her insights into some coding techniques that I made use of in all my guides.

change log

08/04/11 - Guide published.
08/04/11 - Moved change log to end of guide to be less distracting.
08/05/11 - Added Trinity Force section to address a suggestion. Added a bit to the Tips and Tricks section and Warding section.
08/07/11 - Added a paragraph to the introduction to clarify the purpose of the guide. Reorganized Tips and Tricks section.
08/10/11 - Reorganized a few sections of the guide. Embedded masteries and ability sequence. Added some color to some of the longer sections. Merged Tips and Tricks into Abilities section. Added image of jungle route.
08/11/11 - Changed Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage to Greater Quintessence of Desolation.
08/15/11 - Added a note about Aggressive Route in Alternative Routes section.
08/17/11 - Added new section: Who is Nocturne?
09/06/11 - Major change! After some experimentation, I've concluded that The Brutalizer--> Youmuu's Ghostblade is a much stronger route on Nocturne than waiting for The Black Cleaver. Sorry to those who have suggested this before, but I had to test it first.
09/07/11 - Added the Jungle Monsters - A Quick Overview section.
09/08/11 - Added Ganking Tips section. Adjusted Who is Nocturne section. Added a bit to Starting Items section.
09/13/11 - Added alternative summoner spells. Reorganized alternative runes into their own section.
09/23/11 - Added Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer to viable items. Also reworked that section using columns to compact it, making better use of the space.
10/09/11 - Changed some formatting and added a bit to the Runes section.
10/18/11 - Added Hall of Fame.
10/24/11 - Updated runes section.
10/26/11 - Added color to almost all of the tooltips.
11/05/11 - Removed Greater Seal of Attack Speed and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction from the alternative runes section.
11/16/11 - Added 3 Greater Mark of Attack Speed to the core build. Changed Masteries section to reflect the brand new mastery trees. Keep an eye out for further updates!
11/22/11 - Fixed up a few obsolete parts of the guide. Added some more content to the Jungle Route: Superior section. Added a bit to the Masteries section.
11/26/11 - Updated the Masteries section with alternative trees.
12/18/11 - Made some small changes to all of the mastery trees. Updated the jungling section. Moved Boots of Speed to an earlier spot in the build.
1/31/12 - Removed Stark's Fervor from Situational Items.
3/6/12 - Removed Greater Seal of Replenishment. Revamped the Jungle Route section with additional routes.
3/7/12 - Added Heal to list of viable summoner spells.
3/9/12 - Changed masteries to 21/9/0. Added a second "Assassin" build with new itemization and skill sequencing. Added a bit to the Skill Sequence, Starting Items and Recommended Build sections.
3/10/12 - Added The Red Buff Route to the jungle section. Added Aegis of the Legion to the Situational Items section.
3/11/12 - Added Stonewall's jungle video for the The Blue Buff Route. Swapped Youmuu's Ghostblade out for Aegis of the Legion and Berserker's Greaves for Mercury's Treads in the offtank build. Changed the runes in the offtank build to ArPen marks and AS quints. Removed the Golems route (tested it with the 21/9/0 masteries and it's inefficient) until I can do some more testing and revamp it. Added more rune and item descriptions and changed existing ones to correlate with the new changes. Rewrote a bit of the introduction to reflect the addition of the assassin build. Removed 9/0/21 as an option for an alternative mastery setup.
3/22/12 - Replaced Hexdrinker with Maw of Malmortius in the Situational Items section. Removed some obsolete content in the Starting Items section and added a note regarding lower level summoners.
3/26/12 - Made a number of small edits throughout the guide. Reworked the formatting for the Pros/Cons section. Rewrote parts of the runes section and removed Greater Quintessence of Health from the viable alternative runes. Overhauled the Situational Items section, adding Warmog's Armor, Boots of Mobility and Berserker's Greaves and removing Frozen Heart and Sunfire Cape as well as rewriting all item descriptions and changing the formatting. Added new jungle route images (thanks jhoijhoi). Added Hahano's Jungle Breakdown video for Nocturne.
5/14/12 - Added Spoiler tags to the Hall of Fame. :)
5/16/12 - Added Alternative Builds section.
5/29/12 - New core build. Adjusted Recommended Build, Alternative Builds, Starting Items and Situational Items sections. Updated Introduction, Runes and Masteries sections. Added new coding for the Pros/Cons section.
6/17/12 - Updated the masteries and Masteries section, swapping out Deadliness and Lethality for Sorcery and Butcher .
7/7/12 - Deleted Alternative Routes section as it isn't applicable anymore. Added notes at the start of Recovery and Counter-jungling sections. Added a note at the start of the Jungle Routes section. Removed Locket of the Iron Solari from situational utility items and moved Aegis of the Legion to the utility section.
7/17/12 - Adjusted early itemization to favor Heart of Gold over Wriggle's Lantern. Swapped arpen marks for AS and AS quints for arpen. Changed core mastery setup to 9/21/0. Adjusted early game skill order to get a point in Unspeakable Horror at level 2. Updated related sections and the Jungle Routes section. Added spoiler tags to the Who is Nocturne section. Updated Introduction and Conclusion.
9/4/12 - Updated Runes and Summoner Spells sections. Edited Abilities section. Removed the outdated counter jungling and recovery sections and created a new Counter Jungling and Recovery section. Updated Closing Statements section.
9/17/12 - Removed The Bloodthirster from the core build and added it to situational items. Moved Heart of Gold after Mercury's Treads.
10/2/12 - Deleted Alternative Builds, Why Not Trinity Force and Hall of Fame sections. Removed a number of less optimal Situational Items.
11/4/12 - Deleted Starting Items, Recommended Build and Situational Items sections and replaced them with a new Itemization section.
12/5/12 - Updated cheatsheet with season 3 relevant information. I'll complete my update as soon as I have time, please be patient.
12/12/12 - Deleted Who Is Nocturne section. Overhauled all obsolete sections of the guide and rewrote some stuff in the gameplay sections, especially Team Fights. Wrote a new Itemization section.
12/17/12 - Added Sword of the Divine to the Assassin build situational items.
12/18/12 - Combined the two cheatsheets and made some item changes. Removed Spirit Stone and its upgrades and added a new section explaining the change. Updated Itemization section and Jungle Routes section. Revised Masteries.
1/5/13 - Tweaked runes a bit.
1/7/13 - Split the bruiser build into a Peeler and Bruiser build, the former focusing on fighting bruisers and the latter focusing on durability. Rewrote some of the item section and adjusted the cheatsheet.
1/17/13 - Adjusted Offensive masteries to favor Havoc over Butcher .
2/10/13 - Wrote a new Introduction section. Added Synergies section. Revised itemization and masteries. Implemented new formatting in several sections of the guide. Moved glass cannon items into a second, "just for fun" build and removed mention of them from the guide.
3/18/13 - Updated Itemization. Removed Banshee's Veil and Youmuu's Ghostblade and added Blade of the Ruined King. Moved Warmog's Armor to situational defense. Reformatted Masteries and Jungle Spawn Timers sections.
3/20/13 - Added Spirit Visage. Added an explanation of when to buy Wriggle's Lantern.