This is my first guide, be nice. I've been seeing a lot of bad nocturnes lately. It is pretty sad that you cannot figure out how to use him when he is so simple. In this guide, I will explain how to effectively, and correctly, use nocturne.

I start with a Doran's Shield for the armor and HP. Nocturne is very squishy early game and is susceptible to being focused. I then move on to Berserker's' Greaves. These help to trigger Nocturnes passive, and help him deal damage. After that I get my IE. It helps with early-mid game damage and helps nocturne deal insane crits on his duskbringer trail. Then it is complete choice. All of the items in my build are needed, but not in that order. You could also replace BloodThirster for Stark's Fervor for life steal. You may want Youmuu's before anything else because of the move speed, or you could be short on gold and want a frozen mallet quickly. You could be getting focused a lot, and need to buy a GA early. It is all game dependent. My guide is not here to tell you what to do, but how to do it.

The runes I use are:

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation x9
Greater Glyph of the Furor x9
Greater Seal of Resilience x9
Greater Quintessence of Alacrity x3

These are obviously not required, but they are what I use. I use ArPen reds because all of Nocturnes damage output is physical, so the armor pen just makes him hit even harder. I also use Armor Seals. This is to help deal with nocturnes very heavy amount of squishiness early game. The seals however, can be changed out. I use crit damage glyphs due to after getting IE, standing on duskbringer will give you approximately 1.3k crits. The Quintessences help out with his passive, although you can use flat HP, ArPen, or AD quints.

Okay, for this section I will explain what you SHOULD be doing if you decide to go solo mid. Start off buying a doran's shield and go straight to mid. Put one point in to duskbringer first off. From here on, you will not be harassing. Focus on last hitting, and not getting hit. At level 2, put a point in: W if they have a ranged base skill harass, or E if you believe you can avoid their shots a good amount. At level 3, you should put a point in to the one that you did not get at level 2. Now is time to strike. Let them push beyond mid, hit Q and rush at them, right when they are in range, hit them with E. If they attack back, hit you W and enjoy the free attack speed. If this does not kill them, continue to repeat. Using your Q to harass will ensure you more trips back due to being out of mana. When playing nocturne, NEVER harass with Q until late game.

After level 6, you can start to gank, but your opponents will be wary. Try the roundabout method. Make them see you leave going bot, then head through your jungle to go to top, or visa versa. Initiate with your ult and hit E as soon as you can target them. Do not rush your Q as it will mostly result in a miss if you do. Wait until you are stable, then hit them with duskbringer and proceed to kill them. From here on, you should continue ganking, or supporting other lanes as well as mid.

If you pick a side lane, grab a doran's shield and proceed to your lane. You will ALWAYS grab duskbringer first. If you get harassed to lower health than wanted, put a point in your W at level 2 instead of your E. After level 3, you can get FB. Que your teammate on which one to focus, and hit them with duskbringer. Rush at them and use your W if they try and retaliate. Hit E as soon as you are in range. Enjoy your FB. From level 6 you can go gank mid, or support top, or do whatever you feel like. Always have good map awareness and ult in to situations where your tower is in trouble.

Okay, now for the true test of you as a Nocturne. Always stay a bit back from your team. NEVER initiate. I repeat that, NEVER initiate. You will die almost instantly. Get one of your teammates to bait the team in to fighting the 4 of you. If you guys are doing amazing, choose your target and ult in. If you are doing okay, choose the most damaging one of their team, ult them and demolish them. This will cause their team to be disorganized and run. If they start running, hit E if they are in range, if not hit them with duskbringer, then chase to use your E. Once feared, they WILL die by this time.

Your main skill combo will be: R>Q>W/E>W/E. Where it is W/E, you will use whichever one you are available to use. If you are getting attacked by skills a lot, hit W, if you need to chase, hit your E. Your W will save your life a lot if used properly, use it to block anything and everything you can.

Nocturne is a very squishy DPS. He may not be something to fear in early game, but he is a force to reckon with late game. If you follow this build, by the time you get your IE you will be almost unstoppable. Avoid being focused at all times. If you take a lot of damage, run behind your team. Chances are they will follow and you will get an ace because they ignore your whole team. If they don't chase, run out of their focus then immediately go back and attack them. If you do this in every fight, you will do great. I hope that I will start to see less terrible disgracing nocturnes out there and a bit more ones that are a difficult to put up with. Once again, this is my first guide. Please leave comments and tell me how I did/how I could improve.