Nocturne is one of the most popular junglers as of now. He is a very efficient ganker who can jump for flippin' no where and fear somebody. He jungles pretty fast because of Duskbringer, giving him extra AD. His fear can let your teammates catch up and kill someone, and even by himself can do heavy damage and live for a long, long time. So prepare yourself summoners, and get ready for this guide to Nocturne, the Eternal Nightmare.

This mastery page is very similar to what a Nunu jungle would look like. I go deep into utility, because it has what a lot of junglers want. I get 8 in defense for the armor and MR it gives. I think hp/5 is also very good. I get 1 in smite mastery because we'll be using it a lot.

Basic Jungling Runes for ADs.
Reds and Quints-Armor Pen. They give a huge amount of extra damage, as early game you can basically do true damage to squishies.
Yellows-I get armor so jungling will be faster, and I can be more tanky.
Blues-Basically the same as yellows, except with MR.

There are quite a bit of spells you COULD take but I like these 2.


Exhaust: The beauty of this spell is that you can shut down almost anyone 1v1 or during a gank. You jumped onto that Caitlyn? Boom, exhaust her for a sure kill.

Smite: You'll need this for jungling, baron, dragon, and other stuff.

Why don't I take Flash? To tell you honestly, I think Nocturne's role is to jump onto the squishy, burst them down, then stay there with the Lifesteal from Wriggle's. When you flash out, you're team is losing the DPS of Nocturne(which is quite large) for a portion of the fight. Trust me, it makes a big difference.

Another thing is, Exhaust allows the other carry to jump onto the enemy while Flash can only secure to kill for yourself. Exhaust also partially blinds, so it stops most retaliation from anyone.

As TheOddOne says, "It's Nocturne's Swiss Army Knife." And rightfully so, it is. It gives him a mini-ghost, gives him a relatively big AD boost.



I use this right after I go in, so I don't get major CCed. Pretty useful AS buff as well.



Ranged Fear. Really good CC. Good follow-up to Duskbringer.



First time I saw this I was like WTF my screen is glitching, AHHHHH!. Then my friend said it was Nocturne's ult. I stopped playing Rammus aftterword, lol. Very good ult, can do 1k burst damage when comboed with Duskbringer lategame.

Starting Items

OR

The reasoning behind option 1 is that you can gank easily, but with #2 you will be accepting that you will not be ganking much.

After First Back

You should pick up the one that you did not originally start with. However, if you pulled off a kill, you can buy boots too! Make sure you have enough for 2 health pots.

Stuff by Mid Game

You want to have the following buy mid game:


You might already have Youmuu's Ghostblade or Mercury's Treads.

Main Core

You can get other boots too, depending on the team composition.

Offensive Items

Infinity Edge
Bloodthirster
Last Whisper
Frozen Mallet
Phantom Dancer
These items will increase your damage and sustainability by large amounts. Last Whisperer will make tanks go WHAT? WHY YOU STILL DO DMG TO ME? I HAVE 100 ARMOR! Ok, maybe I exaggerate but still, it is a GREAT item.

Defensive Options

Banshee's Veil
Randuin's Omen
Thornmail
Force of Nature

All of these items depend on team comp. I cannot stress it enough; no champion has a set item build. There is a basic 80% of the time build, but not 100% of the time. But I do find Banshee's seems to be my most popular one.

Final Ideal Build

Lifesteal, MR, AS(Youmuu's), Damage+Crits, and Slow. It makes Nocturne such a GREAT bruiser and someone to be feared mid-lategame.

I think stonewall008 has some of the BEST jungling videos out there. Play Video Here is one showing aggressive Nocturne starting with that Vampiric Scepter. This is the path I use with Vampiric Scepter. You can also check out TheOddOne's tutorial to Nocturne too!

I love ganking, and so do many people. However most people hate getting ganked, and that's why I like playing junglers. As Nocturne, I sometimes do a lvl 2 gank top, with my fear, so I can ensure lane dominance for my top-laner.

You generally want to gank with Red Buff(around level 4), so you can get slows off along with your Fear. You generally want to let the carries get the kills, but if you have too, take a kill. A fed Nocturne is scary too!

Pretty much in the current meta-game, junglers initiate most of the time. As Nocturne, tell you team you're going in, and try to ulti onto the squishy at the very back. If you happen to do this, Q and AA. This will deal heavy amounts of burst to the squishy.

Your priorities in the fight are(in the order of #1 to #5):
1)Getting the AD carry. That's the person who will be dealing the highest DPS most of the time. Try to kill them quickly, to minimize the damage output on yourself.
2)Getting the AP caster. They will be 1-hit KOing someone and believe me, some people have never heard of MR. They will generally be squishy enough for you to deal some burst to.
3)Getting onto that support. That support will be healing their whole team all the time. Try to eliminate them as quickly as possible, so they will not be able to heal their team during the teamfight
4)Defending your carries. If Irelia and her godmode sustain are jumping onto your Ashe, you need to prioritize them pronto. A dead Ashe doesn't deal damage. (Can't we all just be Karthus?)
5)The tank. You will almost never do this, unless they have no armor and you and your team are legendary.

These go to the people who inspired me to jungle Nocturne:
DanDinh(I know you are still jungling Lee Sin, but keep on jungling Nocturne!)
TheOddOne(His tutorial showed me the basics)
Yes, they are very good Nocturne's (no hate saintvicious!) and I love their aggressive playstyle(especially DanDinh. Dang, he and Regi share something o_O)

I really hoped this guide helped you win some games, and I hope you enjoyed it too. Please leave you feedback and criticism below. I really think this build needs some work, and I think you guys can help me.

See you next time,
DatCarry