-About Me-

Hi, my name is Simon Justis or also know as SIMIX sound and I would love to show the world how to play the eternal nightmare, Nocturne and how to master him to play him to his full potential. I may be bad at decision making but mechanically I love to play Nocturne and want to teach everybody how to play Nocturne.

Even before I played league I looked at list of champions to try and find my main. I noticed that Nocturne had good chase like a horror movie, a play making spell shield and a stealthy assassin like ultimate that demolishes foes with a single blow in the right hands (and because he had red sword things). Every since then I knew I would main Nocturne till I stopped playing.

-About Nocturne-

Nocturne has to be the strongest non-meta champion out there. He can compete with top tier junglers if the person using him knows the champion and its limits. He is non-meta in a sense that not many people pick him and believe him to be fairly mediocre however he has insane power that can only be unlocked within one self.

Nocturne is an assassin earlier in the game that has to transition towards a secondary engage juggernaut towards the later stages of the game. Nocturne has very good skirmishing potential even early on due to his kit which I will explain soon. Overall what you can expect from this champion is a very fun experience which also includes actually reaching the victory screen and most importantly learning about macro play as Nocturne excels at counter ganking and making plays happen when and where you want.

-I Need Friends-

I love to play league but let me tell you, I hate playing it alone. I will not play league of Legends unless i play with someone, anyone. No matter what rank or skill you are add me on League of Legends and unless I get super popular (which if I do I'm editing this) I need friends so add me. Here is my name [ SIMIX sound ]. Don't be afraid to invite me to a normal game, I don't mind playing with you, no matter what rank.

Pro's Include:
+ Huge amount of burst damage
+ High mobility and great chase/pick potential
+ Strong spikes early in the game
+ Fast jungle clear
+ Ability to counter gank
+ Amazing carry potential
+ Develops sense of macro game as you have to think ahead of time

Con's Include:
- Squishy early in game which makes tower dives risky
- Hard to team fight without assassinating key targets
- Minimal escapes but can be managed with skill

-Umbra Blades (Passive)-

Nocturne’s passive Umbra Blades helps him sustain in the jungle as well as does some extra damage when he ganks and is extremely useful when clearing creep waves. His passive is basically swiping his blades horizontally and doing 120% physical damage while healing himself. The heal on the passive now scales with AP since patch 6.10 however we do not build any AP items as they are not efficient for Nocturne.

On the other hand it is important to notice that Nocturne’s basic attack reduce the cool down of his passive by 1 second therefore having the extra attack speed will ensure that you proc the passive more often and therefore clear faster while having extra little bit of sustain.

We max this spell first after Paranoia.

-Duskbringer (Q)-

This skill is extremely important in Nocturne’s kit as it is part of the high damage burst combo that I will explain.
Another reason this skill is so important is because it has high base damage which allows it to help you clear the jungle faster. Most importantly, through hitting the Duskbringer allows Nocturne to move faster and gain extra attack damage which is the reason he has such high damage even fairly early in the game.

There is 2 cool things to know about Duskbringer:
- First of all using it before your passive procs allows you to get extra healing as this does give extra physical damage.
- Another point regarding this skill is that it is impossible to miss if you use it perfectly because it goes off at the same time as Paranoia hits the enemy champion therefore mastering the timing of this skill will lead to easy ganks. Even if enemies Flash, the Duskbringer will still allow you to catch up easily.

We max this spell first after Paranoia.

-Shroud of Darkness (W)-

Shroud of Darkness is what determines if you are a great, good or a.. just beginner with Nocturne. Practicing this spell and mastering when and how to use it will make or break a Nocturne player. It is essential to predict or react to enemy spells, especially CC's, in order to block it with shroud of darkness. A good Nocturne player will wait on his shroud until the enemy casts a crowd control spell and then you should block it which will give you an extra passive attack speed bonus as well as possibly allowing you to keep chasing the enemy instead of getting stunned and killed.

This spell should be used to block abilities such as Thresh's Death Sentence or Malzahar's Nether Grasp. Perfecting the timing of your shroud will be the deciding factor in you being able to execute enemy back lines instead of getting stunned in the middle of 5 people.

One thing I love to do is act like I can't kill somebody until they use a spell, then I use Shroud of Darkness and surprise them with the attack speed bonus you get from using this spell. This strategy works best in lane.

We max this spell last. that is because the fear duration from Unspeakable Horror is stronger than getting more attack speed from the Shroud of Darkness.

-Unspeakable Horror (E)-

Nocturne’s Unspeakable Horror has several interesting parts that we need to pay attention to. First of all the cool down of this spell decreases as we level it up therefore making it more appealing to level. The main part however is the range that it stretches. Even though we can cast it at a range of 425 units it stretches to around 550 or 575 units therefore making enemies that Flash away still in range while you catch up to them to actually get your fear off.

Another interesting part of this spell is that it actually gives you insane movement speed boost while the enemy is terrified. There is no actual number as I have seen on the movement speed that you gain but I would estimate it to be 60% bonus movement speed while travelling towards terrified enemies and this allows you to catch up to enemies that are running away or Flash as fear is going off. Note that Fiddlesticks' fear is not a terrified effect therefore will not give you movement speed!

We max this spell second after Duskbringer, that is because the fear duration is stronger than getting more attack speed from the Shroud of Darkness.

-Paranoia (R)-

This spell is why Nocturne has such a great power spike at level 6 and can have different uses. Leveling up the spell decreases the cool down as well as increasing the range which is the reason to why levels are so important on Nocturne. The range at level 6 is fairly small therefore hitting level 11 will greatly increase your chances to be out of ward range as well as increase the actual damage that Paranoia does.

It is important to notice this spell is the reason we build cool down reduction because it goes down to just under 60 seconds of cool down with 45% cool down reduction which is easily achieved with my Nocturne build.


We max this spell when and wherever we can.

RUNES:

3 Quints of attack speed: Standard on most junglers.

9 Marks of attack damage: Nocturne is a attack damage champion so these are an obvious choice, i used to take attack speed instead but this is better.

9 Seals of armor: This is good early game to help against most enemy junglers.

6 Glyphs of cooldown reduction: Gives you 5% cooldown reduction which is nice for farming and getting kills.
3 Glyphs of scaling magic resistance: Nice for late game against carry mages.

MASTERIES:

Tier 1 Ferocity: I choose Double Edged Sword over Feast because Nocturne has great jungle sustain with his passive which is like a built in Feast. I chose Double Edged Sword over Expose Weakness because I like to get kills solo rather than with a team; I pick off the split pushers and the carry(s) in the back.

Tier 2 Ferocity: This one is based on you, I choose Bounty Hunter because i'm confident I will carry and I do not need power early game because I farm until level 6. But however if you are new to Nocturne or like to have a stronger level 3, Oppressor might be better for you.

Tier 1 Cunning: I like Assassin over Runic Affinity because most of the time I give blue buff to our mid laner, and I don't depend on red buff for damage; this way i'm better off picking off targets that are alone and get solo kills. I would pick either over Secret Stash because it's just not very good for junglers.

Tier 2 Cunning: Bandit is for supports and greedy top laners. Since that is out of the way now let me tell you about Dangerous Game. I absolutely love Dangerous game, it is my favorite mastery because you can do some of the spiciest plays with it; Just take it.

Resolve Tree: I'm not a fan of the Resolve tree when it comes to Nocturne, I am more about damage than health, that is also the reason I take my tier 1 Ferocity mastery.

Tier 3 Mastery: I would pick Thunderlord's Decree over Fervor of Battle because I think Nocturne is better at burst damage than sustain damage. However some of you might think Stormraider's Surge is better for assassins like Nocturne, the problem with that is what if you do horrible and decide to go tank; in this situation you will be glad you brought Thunderlord's Degree over Stormraider's Surge.

Here are some basic routes I take when i play Nocturne in the jungle.

BLUE SIDE:

Powerfarm - HP Pot Cost = 0
Krugs > Raptors > Wolfs > Gromp > Recall > Krugs > Red Buff > Raptors > Wolfs > Blue Buff > Gromp

Early Gank Top - HP Pot Cost = 3
Krugs > Red Buff > Blue Buff > Top Gank

Against Aggressive Junglers - HP Pot Cost = 1
Red Buff > Wolfs > Blue Buff > Recall > Krugs > Raptors > Wolfs > Gromp

ADC/Supp Took Leash Farm - HP Pot Cost = 2
Krugs(Taken) > Raptors > Wolfs > Blue Buff > Gromp > Recall

Ultimate Nocturne Clear (HARD TO DO) - HP Pot Cost = 3
Krugs > Red Buff > Raptors > Wolfs > Blue Buff > Krugs > Recall

RED SIDE:

Powerfarm - HP Pot Cost = 0
Gromp > Wolfs > Raptors > Krugs > Recall > Gromp > Blue Buff > Wolfs > Raptors > Red Buff > Krugs

Early Gank Top - HP Pot Cost = 3
Gromp > Blue Buff > Red Buff > Gank Top

Against Aggressive Junglers - HP Pot Cost = 1
Blue Buff > Raptors > Red Buff > Recall > Gromp > Wolfs > Raptors > Krugs

ADC/Supp Took Leash Farm - HP Pot Cost 2
Gromp(Taken) > Wolfs > Raptors > Red Buff > Krugs > Recall

Ultimate Nocturne Clear (HARD TO DO) - HP Pot Cost = 3
Gromp > Blue Buff > Wolfs > Raptors > Red Buff > Krugs > Recall

Your job as Nocturne is to make picks and catch enemies out of position. If someone is trying to farm a lane or is pushing it is your job to punish them and take objectives afterwards.

On the other hand you can have several jobs in actual team fights which means you have to read the situation and understand when to Paranoia into the fight which will allow you to do your job. You can have several ways to play the team fights as Nocturne.

In general there are two main ways Nocturne can be played in team fights:

1. Kill the back line of the enemy team then clean up the fight

2. Engage the fight then back off (stall) while team damages

I also believe that combos on Nocturne are important to know; here are a few.

Key:
A = Auto Attack or Basic Attack
P = Umbra Blades
Q = Duskbringer
W = Shroud of Darkness
E = Unspeakable Horror
RR = Paranoia twice

Burst Combo:
Q > E > P > A > W
RR > Q > E > P > A

Surprise All-In Combo:
W > Q > P > E > A
W > Q > P > RR > A > E

Poke Combo:
Q > P > W

Chase Combo:
E > W > P > Q > A
E > W > P > Q > RR > A
RR > W > E > P > Q > A

There are several tips and tricks that not everyone know but should in order to become a god like Nocturne:

1) Your Paranoia cancels vision of everyone on the enemy team therefore champions like Shen and Twisted Fate cannot use their ult to help their team!
2) You do not always have to use ult. Sometimes it is worth to gank and simply blow the enemy Flash and then Paranoia to finish them or come for a repeat gank soon!
3) Make picks with your Paranoia as soon as it is up. Try to pick off enemies in side lanes that are alone as these are easy targets
4) Try to use Duskbringer before you Umbra Blades as it will increase the damage and health that you get back.
5) Try to use Duskbringer at the same time as Paranoia hits the enemy as this will allow you to hit enemies with Duskbringer 100% and be able to chase them after
6) Use your ult to counter-gank by looking at what lane is pushing towards the enemy. If you spot the enemy jungler walking there, you might want to counter the gank instead of letting your laner back up.
7) Sometimes enemies will try to chase you and you can use Unspeakable Horror while they are chasing you and then turn around and kill them or simply run away. The tip is that it does not slow you down or make you stop to cast it therefore keep moving.
8) Onto the tip above, when chasing enemies such as Darius, use Unspeakable Horror and stay on the edge of it until the fear procs. After you will gap close very fast due to the huge movement speed buff that you get.
9) You deal a lot of damage with my build however you are fairly squishy early on so pick your fights very carefully. If you are going to tower dive let someone tanky tank the turret shots as you dish out damage.
10) Use your Shroud of Darkness to block the most important spells in fights. It can block spells like Grand Challenge which makes a big difference. Try to notice patterns to predict these spells.
11) Often it is important to Paranoia early during the fights to make the enemy team back off or lose within the fight. Wait a few seconds before activating Paranoia if you need to, in order to ensure that your team gets a good engage in the fight.
12) Paranoia will disable all vision around the map even wards. You can use this to save team mates even if you are not close. Just use Paranoia when your team is in trouble and the enemy might back off as they'll think you are going to kill them.
13) Nocturne’s Paranoia disables red trinkets just like all the other wards therefore it is good to use it if you have a Wukong or Twitch on your team entering the fight and want to give them room to get into the fight without being detected.
14) Unspeakable Horror will go off through Zhonya's Hourglass, Leblanc's Mirror Image, Vladmir's Sanguine Pool and more which allows you to cast it before and proc it after to finish the enemies.
15) Use blue trinket to gain vision of enemy in bushes and use ultimate so there is no escape from your let and you alway have vision of your target.
16) Most important tip is to not have fear to ask questions. I am free to respond to any questions, in game and in the discussion below.

Thanks for reading ^-^ in the comments send me some ranked stats of you doing amazing as Nocturne and i will include a new chapter including you guys and your success with my guide.