Note: If you want everything spelt out for you, this is not the guide for you. Go somewhere else for that. This isn't really noob friendly, it's more for people who just bought Nocturne and want a rough idea of how to play him effectively.


So, I started playing Nocturne recently and, as with any new champion, I checked out some guides for him on Mobafire. It didn't work out too well. I was almost going to stop playing him until I got over the hangover I had been playing through and realised how odd the builds I was using were.

The top builds on Mobafire recommend either AD/health items or AD/ASPD items. While these items are very useful, they don't include the item that, as far as I'm concerned, makes Nocturne viable. Trinity Force. This item changes Nocturne from the bruiser or carry into an assassin, the way he was meant to be. I will explain why later in the guide.

This guide is also going to be pretty bare bones. I can't be bothered to go through every aspect of the build. I'm sure you're not stupid, you can figure out why I picked the masteries and runes I did. I will go over items and summoner skills, but that is all really. It also may be badly written depending on if I can be bothered to read over it or not.

Nocturne is a jungler, sure he can lane, but why would you waste his amazing ganking potential by keeping him in view all the time? With that in mind, this entire guide is based upon him jungling. You might be able to use it in a laning build but I'll never know because I don't feel like wasting my time finding out. If you want to know how to jungle, look at another guide.

I'll cover a few things here for the people new to the game.

Bear in mind, pretty much everything in this build is subject to change during games. You should base EVERYTHING you do in a game on the enemy teams composition. Lots of CC? Get more ranks in Shroud of Darkness. Extrapolate this to everything from the amount you blink to the summoner spells you pick. Never blindly follow a build, however amazing, if it isn't playing to the enemies weaknesses.

Also, remember to ward (plenty of guides on how/where/when etc on Mobafire).

Finally, DO NOT DIE. This may seem obvious, but realise that most of the time it is better to not attempt to kill your opponents in the laning phase than it is to risk it and die. I like to apply the golden ratio of life to this part of the game the 80/20 rule. Only go for the kill if you're 80% sure you can do it and survive, and that 20% of all kill opportunities are traps. If you keep this in mind you will be a much safer player and your team mates will thank you for it. Nobody ever blamed the player on 0/0/10, they blame the one on 2/8/4.

I will add that I'm no pro with 2000 ELO, I still don't do all this stuff all the time. The more you play, the more you pick up the small things that win games and the better you get.

I pick Smite for obvious reasons. You're other options are Ghost, Flash and Exhaust. No point in Cleanse you have a spell shield, no point in Teleport, you can run to lanes with your Q. If you're planning on using the other ones, don't.

I find Ghost useful for chasing or escaping. Really Flash is just as useful but I'm used to Ghost so I tend to use that more. Ghost + Q = scary black thing arriving at you at a ridiculous speed. It's quite fun. You can also use Exhaust for the debuff and slow. Pretty much the same use just opposite. Useful for shutting down an AD carry in a teamfight or 2v1, but I find Ghost or Flash more useful.

I start with cloth armour and health pots into Madred's Razors and work from there. None of this is set in stone, but the way I usually buy after that is Mercury's Treads, Sheen, Madred's Bloodrazor, The Brutalizer, Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Getting up to the The Brutalizer costs less than 11,000 gold so it's a pretty cheap build with some pretty hefty damage.

You can buy in whatever order you feel suits the game best. If you finish this build (or even once you get to the The Brutalizer) it will probably be a good idea to get a survivability item. If they're AP heavy (or sometimes even if they aren't) Banshee's Veil is very useful. The health and mana boost solves Nocturne's two main problem areas. Other options depend on the enemy team comp, use your head.

If you don't need any survivability Phantom Dancer is a great shout at this point.

The two main items in this build are Trinity Force and Madred's Bloodrazor. I chose them because they both have great synergy with Nocturne's play style. Trinity force gives AD, AP, ASPD, movespeed, crit, health, mana, a slow AND to top it all off a nuke. How could you ask for more? Every stat apart from the AP helps Nocturne. I'm amazed that the top builds at the moment have managed to leave it out. Dodge a spell with W? Hit like a brick. Ganking with Q? Hit like a brick. CC'ing that **** up? Hit. Like. A. Brick. I think you get the picture. If you can, space out your skills so that you can get as many procs as possible, but it's not usually possible or necessary so don't worry too much about it. It's the kind of thing you worry about when you're 1v1 on 300HP each and both your spells are on cooldown.

Madred's Bloodrazor on the other hand takes advantage of Nocturne's great passive and just lets you proc faster. Plus, 4% of max health on every hit? Who could possibly complain at that. It's the most logical thing to do with your madred's razor. You could turn it into a Wriggle's Lantern instead and buy a Zeke's Harbinger. I haven't tested this but it would probably be just as good, if not better due to the lifesteal and free ward you gain. Everyone loves free wards!

In summary, I can't really be bothered writing a summary. This has been a very lazy guide. I'm leaving you to figure out most of it by yourself. Really, this isn't hard to do so just..you know, go play some games. 5 games in you'll have his playstyle figured out. 5/10 more and you'll probably be able to call yourself good with him. If you don't, be clevererer. I hope it was helpful anyway though.

It should be noted this is quite a cheap build, you should definitely expand on it, but as I said earlier, there's no point me telling you what to get, you'll be making yourself a better player by figuring it out yourself. A little brain power goes a long way.

Enjoy :)