Nocturne Build Guide by TheMcDanee

Introduction, The nightmare begins.

Hello and welcome to my Nocturne guide. In this guide I will be so much in depth as I can, I will also cover Topturne, which is quite rare. The reason I'm making this guide is that not many now how to play nocturne effectively and mostly end up feeding the other team, I will change that so that they feed their own team and themselves instead of the other team.

When I started to play League of Legends I saw a friend playing Nocturne and at first when he was at free week I didn't even dare to play him, as I thought he would be mad. (He didn't get mad). After sometime I saw that Nocturne was free again, and I decided to play him as much as possible, and this was the time when I was summoner level 15 or something. After that free week he didn't get free for quite sometime and I bought him for RP. Nocturne was the first champion that I bought for RP.

I always played Lane Nocturne, not knowing his full potential in the jungle. I also only built him Glasscannon going for Phantom Dancer, Infinity Edge and The Bloodthirster. As I thought that was the only way of playing him, after a while someone told me I had to go tanky. I instantly started Frozen Heart and after that I got Banshee's Veil, later on I found out that the build I'm using know is optimal for Nocturne.



Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Powerful Pros and Haunting Cons.

Even the Eternal Nightmare has some strengths and weaknesses.
Here are what I can come up with at the moment.

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Pros + Amazing Jungler + Epic Ganks + Great assassin + Quite tanky + Hard to kill + Is a Nightmare for the other team

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Cons - High Mana cost - Hard to master - Have to gank early - Ult has short range - Kinda squishy early

Masteries of The Dead.

There are a few masteires that work with Nocturne, the ones I've chosen to describe here are those who will make you the most tanky and still giving you some extra damage.

Horrifying Runes.

The runes I've chosen to use for Nocturne are the best in my opinion, they give you both Armor, Magic resist, AD and Movement speed.

Explanations here below.

M A R K S

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Greater Mark of Desolation these will work well with Nocturne's spells, as they do physical damage, except for Unspeakable Horror, I'd recommend Greater Mark of Strenght over these Greater Mark of Attack Damage these are my standard runes for any jungler most of the time, Nocturne benefits from these, because he has good AD scalings, if you want you can take Greater Mark of Desolation over these, but I recommend these over those.

M A R K S

S E A L S

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Greater Seal of Armor these are extremely good on Nocturne when you are jungling, and these should be your main seals for any jungler as they give you the armor that you need to stay at reasonable high health.

S E A L S

G L Y P H S

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Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist these I recommend because that Ap casters scale into late game, and so does their damage, if you would take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist you would take more damage late game than if you took Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, as they scale into late game as Ap carrys do.

G L Y P H S

Q U I N T E S S E N C E S

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Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed with these you will get 4.5% more movement speed, which doesn't seem like a lot, but these plus Boots of Speed will give you roughly the same movement speed as Beserker's Greaves, I recommend these for better early ganks and faster clearing speed in the jungle. Greater Quintessence of Desolation if you take these you will get another extra 10 armor penetration, they will help you clear the jungle a little faster, and also hit harder with the less AD you have penetrating more armor, but I still recommend Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed over these.

Q U I N T E S S E N C E S

Dreadful skills

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Umbra Blades *Passive*: This is nocturnes passive skill, every 10 seconds your next auto attack will deal 120% AoE damage to the closest enemies, it will also heal you 10/18/26 per target you hit, so if you stand in the middle of a huge minion wave and you hit all, you will receive a lot of Hp and gold for it. Use Duskbringer to amplify the damage it does.

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Duskbringer: This is a skillshot nuke, it has fairly low cooldown for being such a good spell, it will boost your movement speed and attack damage, the trail it leaves will stick to all the targets it hit, meaning you can easily stick to a target and keep doing tons of damage to them.

You're going to want to max out Duskbringer before Shroud of Darkness and Unspeakable Horror.

• Use Duskbringer to chase and damage targets, it will give you enough movement speed to catch up to almost anyone.
• You can use it defensively as well, just cast it in front of you to get away faster.
• Use it to clear the jungle camps faster.

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Shroud of Darkness: This spell will help you get away and save your life, it will also passively increase your attack speed, that's why you are going to max it quite early

You're going to want to max out Shroud of Darkness after Duskbringer and before Unspeakable Horror.

• If you see Karthus channeling Requiem wait 1 second and then activate Shroud of Darkness, it will block all the damage and you will receive the attack speed boost.
• Use it when you engage, but wait to activate it until you can see a spell going towards you, like Dark Binding or Finales Funkeln
• It will also block the knock up effect from Baron Nashor , meaning you will get the attack speed buff and you can take it faster

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Unspeakable Horror: This is your fear and your only cc, you tag a champion and if you are in range for long enough they will get feared and slowed, but remember that they can flash out of it, and they will probably do anything to get away before the fear, use Shroud of Darkness to prevent them from stunning or snaring you, and Duskbringer to stick to them.

You're going to want to max out Unspeakable Horror last, as it is more useful to level up Shroud of Darkness before this, as the increased attack speed will help you clear the jungle a lot faster

• If you see that Nunu is channeling his Absolute Zero tag him with this, it will fear him before he can get the full damage from it.
• If you can get up Shroud of Darkness just before Galio uses Idol of Durand you can tag him as well with it, and it will stop the taunt on everyone affected by it.
• You can also use it to escape tricky situations, as it will fear them for 2 seconds (if maxed).

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Paranoia: This is kind of the opposite of Twisted Fate's Destiny as you reduce the sight range of every hostile champion on the map, and it will also let you dash to a champion if activated again within 4 seconds, be warned tho, Paranoia's range on level 1 is extremely short. It gets longer and longer as you level it up.

You're going to want to level it up at levels 6/11/16.

• This is a godlike tool for ganking, letting you walk right by wards and then dash onto a champion, even tho its short range it's still one of the most feared ultimates in the game, as you know not where he will appear.
• If you have a Twisted Fate use Paranoia to prevent they detecting where he appears, you can also talk to him about ganking a lane, as those getting ganked will not expect it, do it only once or twice, then when he goes to ult bot you go to gank top, it will confuse their team a lot.
• This skill also works defensively, as it will let you juke them even harder during those 3 seconds, meaning you can run past their towers to get to safety.

Items of Mass Destruction

The items I've chosen for this guide are aimed to give you a mix or armor and magic resist, it will also give you more hp which is needed to be able to tank easier, you can also go full glasscannon, but you will be so fragile it's not worth it.

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• These will be your early to mid game boots, as they will only be useful for you there. I take these because you will get a much needed early attack speed boost.

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• The standard core item for a lot of junglers, Nocturne is no different, it will give you a free ward every three minutes, and it will also give you the only life steal you will get, this item should be sold if you get to late game to give space to better items.

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• This item will give you some armor penetration, and it is an item that is most useful early to mid game, but I still use it late game, as the little armor penetration it gives doesn't hurt, and it also provides some Cdr which is quite useful as well.

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• This is a great item for Nocturne as with his Duskbringer there will be almost no one that can escape you, it also gives you some extra HP much needed for you to tank more enemies.

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• This will give you some defense against their AP carrys, it will also boost your attack speed with 40%, when you get these you should also change your Berserker's Greaves to Mercury's Treads, as you will lose almost nothing in attack speed, but only gain magic resist.

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• One of the most Op items in the entire game, it will reduce the attack speed of all the surrounding enemies, and the movement speed. Its passive is almost equally as op, it will punish anyone who hits you with a 20% chance of slowing the attackers movement and attack speed with 35%, meaning they won't want to hit you even the slightest if they want a chance to win that teamfight.

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• These boots will reduce the magic damage you take, and it will also reduce incoming crowd control effects by 20%, this plus the mastery Juggernaut will make it almost useless throwing a stun at you. That's the reason I have to why you should swap from Berserker's Greaves to Mercury's Treads when you reach late game and teamfights get more and more frequent.

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• This item is a lifesaver, it will save you against ults like Requiem and Finales Funkeln, but if you have mana for it you should rather use Shroud of Darkness as I've saved my self countless of times using it. Its passive spell will give you more ad based on how low Hp you have.

Optional Items of Minor Destruction

There are items that you can swap out, here is a list of viable items that you can swap to, also which items you should swap them out for.

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• This is a great item, but it is mainly a support item. The only reason I would take this item on Nocturne would be if you had no real support, but you have someone which can tank better then you, or you need to go more damage.
  
• Item to swap with: Randuin's Omen, get it around Frozen Mallet instead of after Wit's End.

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• This item works like your Shroud of Darkness without the attack speed boost, a thing to notice is that your Shroud of Darkness and Banshee's Veil doesn't stack, so if you activate Shroud of Darkness and you deflect a spell, both will be disabled.
  
• Item to swap with: Maw of Malmortius, take it if you need more magic resist, health and mana, also if they have a high burst champion like LeBlanc or Veigar.

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• This is a great item if you need both health and armor, it also has a nice passive, dealing 40 magic damage per second to nearby enemies, meaning it works like Amumu's Despair.
  
• Item to swap: Maw of Malmortius, take it when you need health and armor, and the need for magic resist isn't that big.

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• This is a great item if you need health and health regeneration, it will give you a total of 1270 extra Hp when it's fully stacked, and the health regeneration when full stacked is at 40 per 5 sec, this works great with Force of Nature.
  
• Item to swap: Frozen Mallet, take it at the same time as you would take Frozen Mallet, if you take this item, you should take Force of Nature to max both of them.

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• This is a great item if you need both Magic resist and Health regeneration, it's mostly used on pure tanks, as it gives such high Health regeneration and Magic resist.
  
• Item to swap: Randuin's Omen, you should take this if you need the magic resist, or you are getting Warmog's Armor as the Health regeneration will be through the roof.

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• This is an anti-tank item, as it does percentage magic damage based on their max HP, some carrys like Tristana and Kog'Maw use this item with great success.
  
• Item to swap: Wit's End, even tho this is much more expensive it is a great item, especially if their tank is stacking health and no magic resist, this item will make them regret getting that much hp.

Jungle

When jungling with Nocturne you want to start with Wolves and then go for Ancient golem , after you have killed that and acquired blue buff, you should go and gank, if your blue buff is closer to bot lane gank that first, after that gank mid. When ganking early with Nocturne you want to get close enough so that you can land your Unspeakable Horror and with help from the lane lock them down.

If you are having trouble getting of that level 2 gank you can go from behind your tower and into the bush, as long as their minions can't see you they will not know you are there. Other wise you can go from the wraiths into tri-bush and then into their lane coming from behind. (remember: this is when you are the team that is on the upper side of the map).

When ganking mid it's a bit harder to gank, as the lane is a lot shorter than the other lanes, one thing you can do is come from the side of the bush and enter behind them, this will not work as well if they have Katarina or Talon mid.

Top is really easy to gank too, you can apply the same technique you did on bot lane on top.

Summoner Spells

The summoner spells I choose for Nocturne are Exhaust and Smite here are why and a few other choices.

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• Smite is a standard choice for all the junglers, most could make it without it, but it's not for their clear time you should take it, it's so that you can secure buffs like, blue and red also Dragon and Baron Nashor , always take Smite when you jungle.

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• The reason I take Exhaust over Flash, is that it helps your early ganks and late game team fighting, it will help you shut down their ad carrys, it will also help you counter jungle a little bit safer, as you will probably run into their jungler some time, and it will help you kill them or get away easier from them.

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• Flash is viable on Nocturne, it will help you escape over walls and it will also help you chase over walls, if you take Flash you should know that you have less killing power on their carrys and it will let them escape a little easier, that is why I take Exhaust instead of Flash

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• Ghost is also a viable spell on Nocturne as it will boost your ganking potential pre 6, but not as much as Exhaust, Ghost will help you chase targets easier, and it will also help you escape from them easier as well, I'd still take Exhaust over Ghost as it gives you much more killing power than Flash or Ghost.

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Teamfighting

In teamfights your job is quite simple, track down their carrys, kill them or you can try and peel of their assassins and bruizers from your carrys. Mostly when I play Nocturne I want either to be the first one in or the last one in, but in both cases I want to be the last one out.


When you initiate this is the spell combo you should use.

+ + + + Auto attacks

When initiating a fight you want to aim for someone that is not sitting in between their tanks , as that is a death sentence. The reason you should activate Shroud of Darkness before Duskbringer is that when they see you they will throw some cc on you, and that spell will be useless and it will benefit both you and your team.

When you are going in last

+ + + + Auto attacks

The combo is still the same, but this time you make sure that you enter last, as it means there will be no focus on you so that you can focus their Ad or Ap carry

When you are going in for their carry, you must first know if their bruizers is going for your carry, if they are, go and defend your carry. If they are busy trying to get past your tank, go for their carry, if you scare away theirs they will lose that fight. If their kill yours, you will lose.

A good combo for scaring away their carry is the same as the above, but you can throw in Exhaust in there somewhere to slow them down even more.


+ + + + Auto attacks

Here is a tip:

Make sure that you ward around the areas where teamfights appear, it might give you an opportunity to kill their Ad carry when the rest of their team is busy.

Optional combos.

+ + + + Auto Attacks - This is for when you don't have up, and you have to fight anyway. or if you are pre-6.

+ + + Auto Attacks - You can use this when you are ganking before level 6, and if you don't have [Exhaust]], but if you do have it you should activate Exhaust after Duskbringer.

Replays

A few have requested that I upload images of the jungle route I take and how I gank early, so I decided to download and install LoLRecorder to be able to upload games of me playing Nocturne in solo-que, this will give you a better insight of how I play Nocturne, it will also show you how I play to recover from a bad start.


The newest will always be on top!

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/2174887/

This game was quite difficult for me, I made some bad moves and I got counter jungled at level 1 by their team so Shaco stole my blue, I managed jungle and gank well enough to get me back into the game, before you say anything about Wukong in this clip, I know he carried us.

Summary

Now we have almost reached the end, I am supposed to wright a summary on this guide, but I think it's too hard to cut it down even further, as I will be forced to leave out information that is vital for playing Nocturne good, instead of writing a summary on this guide for you to read, I recommend that you take a look at the cheat sheet at the top of the page, as it will give you the basics on items and spells to level up, but it wont include jungle route, and other information that you can get by reading the entire guide, so my recommendation is to take your time and read this guide, this goes for all the guides, not just mine.

End

I will be adding more and more to this guide late on as I progress to become a better and better Leauge of Legends player.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Changelog

• 2012/10/11- Added Replays section, also a replay.