MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

Nocturne Build Guide by

Nocturne jungle guide S6

472,089 Views

1 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author nicemustang

Nocturne Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (1) More Nocturne Guides

Choose Champion Build:

Standard Nocturne: Bruiser
If you really must be the tank
This is crazy, lol troll

Spells:

Flash

Smite

Items

Starting items

Rush

Preferred core

ALWAYS get some of these

Situational Damage

Situational Tank

Situational other

Example Build Damage

Example Build Tanky

Ability Order

Nocturne Passive Ability

Introduction

About the guide

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST:

The items, runes, and masteries etc, at the very top of the page are fully updated with the S6 changes! (last update patch 6.3). All the summaries of every chapter are updated for patch 6.3! :D

The detailed guide itself below is still partly for S4. It is updated for patch 5.9 changes up to the *early gameplay* chapter. This does not mean the rest is useless, you just have to replace a lot of names(Read , think for example ;). ) and keep a few changes in mind. Then it will still help you improve your Nocturne games :)

Please leave a comment instead of a vote right now! I know this guide is not complete yet! It just takes a very long time to finish a build that is this detailed. With the new season changes I have to update pretty much every chapter again, so I need a lot of time for that. Leave constructive criticism and I'll try to get to it ASAP.

WARNING: this guide is VERY long and detailed. If you don't want to read it all, just read the SUMMARY at the bottom of each chapter! Those will also be the first things I update if I don't find the time to update it all :)

Thank you for reading and understanding! :D

About the author

English is NOT my native language. Dutch is. When you find some grammatical errors please either inform me about it or just ignore it.
This is my first build on mobafire and it is still in progress. Please don't judge on that aspect too harsh.
I am in Gold 2 right now (August 2015). I main jungle and if I can't get that I prefer to play ADC or support.
I'm not a pro player, but I'll try to help you as much as I can!
I joined the League of Legends in September 2012. I have played around 700 games jungling (mostly normal games) so I do know what I am talking about, I just wouldn't know how to play it at the highest level.
I vary my junglers a lot so I have not played enough to know all the match-ups inside out.

About Nocturne

has risen in popularity so much since the arrival of (oh, good ol' feral flare!). That's when I decided to make this guide. However, with the new S5 jungle items ( with Devourer) he can still do fine although his clear is a lot harder with the new and tougher jungle monsters. Nocturne might not be the best jungler, but he still a very solid pick. He doesn't get banned or picked very often so you don't really have to worry about that. Noct has good ganks(very good after level 6) and some unique mechanics which make him a lot of fun to play. His itemization is very optional and flexible so you can try a lot of different things and get away with it just fine :) (ADC build on Nocturne lol) he is however best built as a tanky AD bruiser. is best in the mid game in my opinion but is still good early and late. You are not naturally very tanky so you have to build him tanky in order to survive teamfights. A weakness is that Nocturne is melee so he has to dive in to deal damage and can be kited quite easily. As Nocturne it is also important that your team follows you whenever you dive in the enemy team because 1v5 you are useless. can be a carry jungler so if you do well and keep playing smart you can carry games with him.

Explanation of technical terms and abbreviations

AOE ->
AD ->
AS ->
AP ->
MR ->
CDR ->
DPS ->
DMG ->
CC ->
AA ->
blue ->
red ->
OOM ->
carry ->
ADC ->
Peel ->

Area of effect

Attack speed
Ability power
Magic resist
Cooldown reduction
Damage per second
Damage
(slows, snares, stuns etc.)
Auto attack

Out of mana
The act of "carrying" your team to victory
Attack Damage Carry, . Ranged person that deals tons of damage with AAs.
The act of protecting your teammates by providing CC and protection.

Pros / Cons

Why would you play Nocturne and why not?

Pros:
+ Fun to play due to unique skillset
+ Decent cleartime and survivability
+ Decent ganks pre-6
+ Easy ganks & counterganks with
+ Scales good with AD and AS or
+ Excellent at catching people out of position
+ When built and played correctly can be a carry

Cons:
- No real escape without flash
- Very long cooldown and low range on early rank
- Item dependent
- Unreliable fear
- Needs his team to back him up
- Can be kited

Abilities

Nocturne's abilities: stats and tips

Umbra blades (Passive)

Every 10 seconds, Nocturne's next attack strikes surrounding enemies near his target all for 120% physical damage and heals himself for 10/18/26 per enemy hit(at level 1/7/13) Nocturne's basic attacks reduce this cooldown by 1 second

Umbra Blades is a very useful passive for sustain in the jungle.
Use this passive effective when you waveclear: use your q on the entire wave and then make sure you hit as much minions as possible with this AOE from your first attack. This will allow for faster pushing and more healing.
Keep the auto attacks going in teamfights to proc this passive as much as possible.
Cooldown reduction does not reduce the cooldown of your passive.
Attack speed will reduce the cooldown indirectly and attack damage will increase the damage. So find a balance between these two stats.

Duskbringer (q)

Nocturne throws a shadow blade that deals 60/105/150/195/240 (+0.75 AD) physical damage and leaves a Dusk Trail for 5 seconds. Enemy champions that are hit also leave a Dusk Trail behind them. While on the Trail, Nocturne can move through units and gains 15/20/25/30/35% increased movement speed and 15/25/35/45/55 attack damage.

Costs 60/65/70/75/80 mana.
Range is fixed: 1200.
Cooldown is 10 seconds.

Duskbringer is very useful for clearing the jungle faster and getting in/out of teamfights faster.
Use this a lot in the jungle because it will deal AOE damage, and it gives extra AD while on the trail so you will clear a lot faster when you use this.
You could max this first for faster clear times and more speed and damage on ganks
Try to actually hit an enemy champion with this ability when you are chasing him. The enemy will leave more trail behind him so you can stay on their tail.
Use this ability when you want to get in or out of a fight quickly, for it gives extra movement speed and allows you to move through units (you won't get blocked by minions or champions).
When fighting stay on this trail because it gives you more damage!
It scales with attack damage so getting a little AD in your build is useful.
Use this carefully when you are at your Raptors or when you are counter jungling! The trail has a fixed distance and is visible for enemies too, so if you throw it through a wall, if the enemies have sight on the other side of the wall, even though they can't actually see yóu, they know where you are. So please, please be careful where you throw this.

Shroud of Darkness (w)

When leveling this ability Nocturne passively gains 20/25/30/35/40% bonus attack speed.
When activated Nocturne creates a magical barrier for 1.5 seconds, which blocks the next enemy ability. If an ability is blocked by this spell shield, Nocturne's passive AS bonus is doubled for 5 seconds.

Costs 50 mana.
Cooldown is 20/18/16/14/12 seconds.

Shroud of Darkness' passive attack speed at rank 1 is very useful. The increase per level is not as significant so get one point in this early, but max it last.
In a duel it is very important to predict the enemy key abilities so you can block it. It will also give you more attack speed when timed correctly and thus giving you even more chance to win the duel.
When you jump into a fight always try and wait for key abilities such as Leona's Shield of Daybreak or Orianna's Command: Shockwave to block with this shield.
When you have the cooldown up, you can protect your allies against critical skillshots like Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab or Morgana's Dark Binding. Just stand between your ally and the enemy and block the skillshot with your spell shield. This way you can save your allies' lives or at least make sure they don't have to Flash away.
You can also use this ability to clear traps like Teemo's Noxious Trap.

Unspeakable Horror (e)

Nocturne plants a nightmare into his target's mind, dealing 80/120/160/200/260 (+1 AP) magic damage over 2 seconds. If Nocturne stays within 465 range of the target for the full duration, the target will flee away from Nocturne's current position for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds.

Passive: Nocturne gains massively increased movement speed (335) when moving toward fleeing targets.

Costs 60/65/70/75/80 mana.
Cast Range is 425
Range on tether is 465
Cooldown is 15/14/13/12/11 seconds.

Unspeakable Horror is very good for ganks, because when enemies are feared, they run away with a 33% slow from your current position and can't do anything else during that time unless they have Cleanse. Leaving them vulnerable and easy to kill. This will also often result in them flashing away as soon as you start your channel.
You get a massive (335?) increase in movementspeed when you move toward fleeing targets (also works with allied abilities such as Fiddlesticks' Terrify).
This ability is very good throughout the entire game, but it can be hard to proc the fear. If the enemy gets out of range before the 2 second period, the fear won't trigger and your ability was pretty much wasted.
Use this ability in unison with your Duskbringer and Shroud of Darkness: First land your Duskbringer on the enemy so while you chase him you walk faster than him and he won't escape. If the enemy has some form of cc to slow your movement, spell shield that with Shroud of Darkness, so they can't break free.
I sometimes level this ability first because it will increase the fear duration, the damage and decrease the cooldown. Only do that if you want to gank a lot and when you can rely on your teammates to finish the enemy off while feared. Otherwise, level q first.
If the enemy dashes or Flashes out of your tether range (while you channel you're fear) there is a VERY small timeframe (I think it is 0.25 seconds) where you can flash after them without breaking the tether.
In teamfights, save this ability for an important enemy. If they dive your carry, fear the enemy that is on top of your carry(peel for your carry). When yóu dive in, fear an important enemy, this could be their carry, or perhaps one of their peelers.
Remember, later in the game it's not about the damage from this ability, it's the fear that counts.
For some reason this ability scales with AP? Kinda strange, but a little AP from something like Trinity Force is actually useful I guess. :)

Paranoia (ultimate)

For 4 seconds, Nocturne reduces the sight radius of ALL enemy champions and removes their ally vision. During this time, Nocturne can launch himself at a nearby enemy champion, dealing 150/250/350 (+1.2 AD) physical damage.

Costs 100 mana.
Cooldown is 150/125/100 seconds.
Dash range is 2500/3250/4000

Paranoia's blind is not a complete blind! It allows enemies to see only what is right besides them. This wíll take away all the vision they would normally get from allied minions, champions, towers, Clairvoyance, wards and even vision granted by Twisted Fate's Destiny.
All the vision (mentioned above) granted before Paranoia is cast will be removed and all the vision granted after Paranoia is cast will be negated. But Clairvoyance and Destiny will continue to grant vision for their remaining duration after Paranoia ends.
When you activate this ability again, you can dash to a nearby enemy champion, granted you have vision on him and he is in range.
Nocturne is immune to all crowd control while performing the dash.
When you dash to an enemy and he moves or Flashes away before you hit him, you will follow him to his final position. This does not work if the distance is too great such as a Teleport. People often waste their flash because they flash away too soon, use that to your advantage!
I believe that spell shields, Banshee's Veil, can block the darnkness or the damage from the dash. (one of two per shield ;). )
Paranoia's cooldown is especially on rank 1 very long! So try to use it only if you know you will get at least a kill out of it, otherwise it just wasn't worth the cooldown. On rank 3 the cooldown is relatively short so you can use it almost every teamfight.
The range on rank 1 is quite short, so keep that in mind!
Because it removes all ally vision from the enemies, it is very good to use it just for Dragon or Baron steals. When you start Paranoia most enemies (in solo Q at least) will freak out because they don't know if it is just you or if it's the whole team. Because they always panic a little you can often dash in and steal the Dragon/Baron with smite.
Paranoia does not grant you any vision. And you can't dash to an enemy if you don't have vision on him. Don't use this ability to dash to someone that is about to walk into an unwarded brush because you just can't as soon as he enters that brush! Because of this, it could be a good idea to purchase the Farsight Orb so you can get vision of the champion you want to dash to.

Summary

is good for sustain and clearing minions/monsters. Scales with AS and AD.
is good for pushing towers, clearing minions/monsters and allows you to chase or run away. Scales decent with AD. It can however give away your position so be careful with that.
gives a spell shield and very useful passive AS, which is doubled if you manage to block an ability with the shield.
is a channeled fear(flee), make sure you stay in range for 2 seconds in order for the flee to proc. Scales with AP for some reason.
denies all global vision from all enemies and on 2nd activation allows you to perform a dash to a nearby enemy. Early rank it has a high cooldown and short dash range. Scales good with AD.
I suggest leveling -> -> ->

All and all, these abilities make a champion that has ok ganks and is great at catching people out of position, who hits a big powerspike at level 6. He is best built tanky with AD and AS.

Summoner spells

1st summoner spell

A few reasons why is a MUST:

This spell will help you clear your jungle A LOT faster.
Smite gives you temporary bonuses when you use it on large monster camps such as oracles.
Without it you can't even buy a jungle item like Stalker's Blade. (seriously, you can't buy it)
Jungling without smite leaves you very vulnerable for counter jungling.
Without it you can not counter jungle very good yourself.
You need Smite to secure dragon s and baron s for your team.

is a true damage ranged nuke on monsters(and Champions, depending on the jungle item you have) and you can easily secure or steal dragons and barons with this. Without it you have no reliable way to nuke the last bit of health. Only if you have a with or a with you could consider going without but considering all the other benefits from running smite, I'd have to conclude that you must ALWAYS pick smite when you are jungling.

2nd summoner spell.

A few reasons why is the best option for your 2nd summoner spell:

This is the perfect summoner to get you of of a sticky situation.
When the enemy flashes away you can flash after them.
You can quickly re-position yourself with this.

is the only way to get away through walls except your ult maybe. You don't really need any other summoner so flash is just the best option to run in every game.

Other viable summoners to run if you don't have Flash:

is a good option if you can't pick flash yet. With exhaust you can shut an enemy down that is wrecking your team, for example a fed or . Exhaust also makes you very strong in a 1v1 fight. Even a 1v2. I recommend running exhaust if you are not level 8 yet or if you REALLY, REALLY want this over flash.

is viable too. With ignite you can finish off that enemy that almost got away. Also very good when you are against a , or to decrease their healing. A somewhat viable option to run if you don't want flash for some weird reason.

This spell is not as useful in teamfights as or , but if you know your way around that, know how to use this for splitpushing, this is one more summoner spell you can consider.

is the last viable option to run as 2nd summoner spell. With ghost you can stick to your enemy when your is on cooldown or if you missed it. Also useful to run away when you find yourself over extended. Not as useful as but it can be good if you use it correctly.

Summary:

Run because you basically can't jungle without it.
Then pick because it is the best option for your 2nd summoner. You could swap your flash for something else if you want to or must, but flash is simply the best.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Dark Harvest

Phase Rush

Quick explanation for my choice of Runes:

I picked because they are cheap and everyone needs armor (reduced dmg from minions, monsters, champion AAs, turrets, etc.), especially in the new jungle! Even after the nerf these are still the best seals to get when jungling.

I picked mixed with because this will give you some useful cooldown reduction and a little bit of MR for those early ganks.

I picked because these are very useful for those early jungle clears. Also gives you more damage with your ganks.

I picked because these scale incredibly well with with and . So much on hit damage and thus you want a lot of AS.
You could consider AD, Lifesteal or movement quints.

AS over AD?

You could argue taking AD marks or quints is better then AS, because both attack damage and attack speed will help you clear the jungle faster and deal more damage in ganks/fights. Here's the thing: AD scales well with your and . AS will help you proc your more often and scales very well with +:damage on hit, more attack speed -> more hits -> more dmg. :D
I recommend a mix of AD and AS because they are both very good in the early game, but AS quints are just much better than AD Quints in my opinion. the 14% AS scales much harder into the late game than the 6.75 AD would.

Anything else good?

You could pick to sustain you better in the jungle. These Quints are not as good as they once were and AS Quints also help you sustain more if you have a lifesteal item like . With attack speed you proc your more often and again, that too gives you more sustain. Because of this I think is early game just as good as but late game the AS Quints just simply outscale any other Quints.
Maybe you want to pick . These are quite good because with these you can get around the jungle faster. Gank more often. Respond faster. Rotate faster. You lose out on the offence stats with this however so in fights you are weaker. You could go with these but I personally prefer the AS.

You could also go 9 or 9 . This will simply give you more tanky stats.

You could also consider , health per level or a mix. I prefer 9 flat Armor.

Summary:

I think that right now or and are just the best runes to get. Gives you insane mid to late game power and a decent early game. Flat are just the best seals for in the jungle and so are .

Masteries

Masteries... I change these very often, some are strong, some not, I personally don't really find masteries too important and I find they depend a lot on personal preference. Though, you must not underestimate them for they can help you out quite a bit. Masteries do give you a slight boost so use it effectively. The right masteries can really help you sustain the new jungle if you want that. (I do :p) If you want to gank early a lot, and gank hard, don't focus on defensive masteries. And if you are going for the tank build, dó focus on defensive masteries. You get the point, use masteries to boost whatever play-style you prefer.
Just don't think my choice of masteries is the best there is. No. I'm just suggesting what I think works well. If you don't like certain things I choose, feel free to change them! :)

Take (0-17-13) for ultimate jungle sustain:

OR (0-21-9):

Full Agressive (21-9-0):

Or this(21-0-9):

Summary:

Take masteries to boost your own specific playstye and/or your earlygame.
There is a lot of freedom in masteries, right now the best keystone masteries to pick are: , , or . Just go for whichever you think you like best they are all great if you play like it.

Items

If you want the short version, check out the notes I put on the items at the top of the page.

Almost every game a good build

I take quite often because they help you get around the jungle a lot faster. With this you can stick to your enemies with ease. The higher movement speed is also good for running away. But most games you are better off taking defensive boots like or instead.

is an excellent pick because it gives you some sustain and bonus gold in the jungle, allows you to get the monster buffs, and makes your ganks a lot stronger. The devourer gives very useful attack speed and good on hit damage.

is the best offensive item to get on along your . A lot of AS and on hit damage. Allows you to kill squishies quickly as well as burn down tanks (also and ) due to it's awesome passive which deals 5% of their current health as magic damage on hit (max 60 dmg vs monsters). The active is very good too: temporary movement speed steal and an instant 15% max health steal. Very good item for 1v1's. It is not necessary to finish this item right away, an early will suffice too for an extra slow in ganks/fights and some lifesteal in the jungle!

is a very good defensive item. It gives amazing stats as well as a very good passive. The active is not why I buy it but it is still very good to have an AOE slow which makes a pretty big advantage in teamfights and it makes it harder to kite you. This is just the best defensive item to get for armor. The extra HP and armor allows you to survive fights longer and it slows attack speed so you'll take less damage from AA reliant champions. With this you can quite easily tank turrets for a little while as well.

I love because it gives CDR, more sustain (increased self-healing) and it gives quite a lot of HP and MR. Good item to get early if the enemy has a lot of AP champions on their team. is very similar to this item but gives 50 HP extra and a spell shield passive instead of 10% CDR and increased self healing passive from . Choose one of these two for your main defensive MR item.

is very optional. This is a good defensive item to get MOST of the time because you will often dive into the enemy team and get focused by them. With this item your team can hopefully distract them for a while and as soon as you revive you can help again with most of your cooldowns back up. If the enemy has mostly magic dmg on their team, you might want to get an extra MR item like or . If they have more phsysical damage on their team I suggest taking something like or + instead. If this item's passive is on cooldown and you have A LOT of extra gold, you could sell this for a or some other defensive item untill the Guardian's passive comes back. Then buy that item again. This item could also be swapped for an offensive item like .

Boots + enchantments

Boots

++

are the best boots to get on . But not always! I usually pick the Swiftness boots when I want to get as much AAs off as possible in a teamfight. Since you are melee you have to get close to the enemies and stay close if you want to hit them. With these boots your movement speed is a little higher then that of your enemies and thus can you stay on their tail.

++

are of course good boots to get if the enemy is heavy AP and you want to survive longer or if they have a lot of annoying CC like , or . Don't get these if you already have (I have no idea why you would have this item but nvm) or a because then you waste the UNIQUE passive.

++

are of course good boots to get if the enemy is heavy AD and you want to survive longer. If they have a lot of AA heavy champions that are wrecking you like or these boots are a good choice.

Enchantments

++

is what I usually upgrade my boots with. For the same reason I buy : I want to keep hitting the enemies with my AAs. This helps you do this without problem. If you are on someone's tail you will stay there unless they pull some crazy escape or I decide to back off.

++

I usually choose when my team is doing very good but I am not doing very good myself. Or if I feel like the captain of the team of course :). With captain boots you will give movement speed to your allies whenever they walk towards you, meaning when I jump in, my allies will be in the fight to back me up faster. Also if you just have a low-mobility team you can pick this up to help with that a little. I like this enchantment but I buy furor more often.

+

is a good enchantment to pick up if you have to defend your base. I only take this enchantment if the enemy team is constantly split pushing and I have to go back to stop him. In all other cases I take another enchantment.

Why I don't like:

-

kinda suck imo. I think the high movement speed out of combat is nice, but the low movement speed ín combat just sucks. If you want to gank everywhere you might like these boots but I just think these are not as good as the other options.

-

. AS boots, very offensive. You could pick these but you just simply do not need the extra 25% AS. You have enough AS from your and . Adding these would be overkill.

Jungle items

Best choice:

++

is probably the best jungle item to get on . It allows you to clear your jungle rather fast and deal a lot of damage to champions(squishies) late game. It stacks on every large monster kill and on every champion kill/assist, so as long as you don't sit still, you can keep on stacking. The active cast is very useful for sticking/escaping due to the movement steal. The true dmg it deals on champion cast is quite low however.

Almost just as good imo:

++

gives a lot more duelling power. The 20% dmg reduction on you helps you out a lot in duels or in 1v2's/ 2v2's. The bonus true damge over time after every AA also helps you kill those squishies. As long as you can stick to them, so that is important to keep in mind when you get this item: "do I need that 20% dmg reduction against someone? Or Can I really use the true DOT to it's full potential?" If so, take this item because it it amazing! :D

++

The Warrior enchantment is quite good if you need to win early, because it just gives you a lot more damage in early fights than the devourer does. The flat armor pen is also quite useful for killing those squishies. If you need early power, go for the warrior, either on stalker's or skirmisher's. If you need late game DPS, take devourer.

+

Same story as for the warrior upgrade for Stalker's, so read the bit above ;).

+

The cinderhulk upgrade gives decent early tanky stats, and amazing late-game tank stats if you combine it with high HP items. It can be very good if you itemize well with this, but your damage power spike will come a lot later and it does't allow you to build a lot of damage. It synergies okay with nocturne's bruiser build, but I personally prefer the warrior or devourer upgrade. Although this is a tank item, the passive Immolate helps you clear the jungle a lot faster too, and it gives you easy assists in teamfights :)

+

Same story as for the cinderhulk upgrade for Stalker's, so read the bit above ;).

Offensive items

Best choice

++

is definitely the best offensive item to get on . If you took the or the combined with BoRK, they can work wonders together because they give so much AS and on-hit damage. Gives a lot of single target DPS. Scales very well into the late game. The extra sustain will keep you alive in teamfights a little longer and keep you alive in the jungle. The active will let you chase or flee. And the passive allows you to kill tanks that stack HP.

Other possible offensive items

+

is definitely a very strong item to get. But 2nd best I think. Take this item along with and you will get a whole lot of early game damage. I personally pick this item up áfter my / and , and after my first big defensive item, and if I can get away with a 3rd offensive item. Which is happens almost never ;).

+

is good against heavy AP bursters. Possibly a good 2nd or 3rd offensive item if the enemy has like 3 AP-carries. This will give a lot of damage and good defensive stats against AP enemies. This item might just save your life many times.

+-

very good, but very occasional. If the enemy has a lot of armor the shred will help you reduce that. Or if you have a near-Full AD team this is amazing because they too will benefit from the armor shred. It gives good base stats, but not good enough for every game. The 20% CDR is very nice tho. Keep in mind that the Rage passive is the same as 's. Combines good with due to it's AOE physical damage. I usually pick this up as a 3rd offensive item if I am doing well and the enemies have 2 or 3 tanks, or if we have 3 or more AD champions. With BotRK and Black Cleaver you can destroy any tank. If you are against a very tanky team and you and your AD teammates are doing well, you should probably buy this item.

+-

is an item I personally don't like. It can be a good substitute for your in some situations: The enemy has no real tanks; You want more AOE damage in teamfights; You want more burst. In those cases you could pick up the Hydra. It doesn't allow you to destroy tanks like the BotRK does, nor does it scale so well with but it gives you pretty much the same sustain. It gives a lot of AOE damage in teamfights and it gives way more flat AD then BotRK so your and will deal a lot more damage. Also the active is good for added burst. If there is no tank you have to kill and you want to have more burst and AOE, consider this item.

Defensive items

& or > & &

Best choice

Summary:

Preferably get the , is just the best in SoloQ, but the Devourer, Warrior and the Cinderhulk are all great upgrades.
Boots are very game dependent.
For offensive item I'd recommend is , if you need more the is great combined with the . Defensive items are all good really, just make sure you itemize properly: MR and Health VS Mages and Armor and Health VS AD champions. Health vs true damage. 1 offensive item is needed to remain a threat. 2 is ideal and 3 gives you more than enough damage. Build the other items tanky.

Early game gameplay

Now finally, how do you play !

Early game jungling:

Some information to start with as a jungler

Here follows a precise explanation of the very early stages of jungling. If you are already experienced enough you don't have to read it, but you might want to because you could still learn something useful by reading it or perhaps spot a mistake I made, then please let me know so I can fix it :)

As a jungler you must know the timers on the monsters by heart:

Raptors, Wolves, Krugs and Gromp
1:40 to respawn.

Rift Scuttler
3:00 to respawn

Red Brambleback and Blue Sentinel
5:00 to respawn

Dragon
6:00 to respawn

Baron
7:00 to respawn

Above a lay-out of the jungle with names of the monsters(Excluding the Scuttle Crab, they walk around in the river, one at dragon, one at baron).

When you kill dragon for example, always calculate the next time it respawns and type it in chat: You can see exactly when it died in the chat(timestamps must be on), add 6 minutes and voila. Keep that timer in mind, if you realise it takes only 1 minute for dragon to respawn try to stay near the bottom half of the jungle and try to set up some wards, so that you can kill it again or at least contest it when it respawns.

Level 1-3/4

You most likely want to start on the bottom side of the jungle, because usually the botlane can give the strongest leash (help you with the first camp) so:

When you start blue side:

So first off, go to the bottom side of the jungle, in this case either the tribrush below dragon, the banana brush behind red or just stand in the river. Stand there and watch for invades. Unless you go for invades yourself, but I won't go in on the level 1 invade stats.
Now walk to the bottom small camp: Krugs, ask beforehand if your botlane will help you kill it. this camp to get the minibuff. Then go take your red, then go to your blue.
First make sure you pull the Blue Sentinel into the brush and fight him there, because sometimes the enemy jungler likes to wait nearby to smite steal it and then kill you(This also applies for when you kill the Red Brambleback! If you want to, you can throw a protective ward down. When you are standing in the brush, try to smite it just right, because it is never a bad thing to get used to and just to make sure it doesn't get stolen by something random like a or something.
Now you are level 3 and you have double buffs so watch for opportunities to gank. But it is usually best to recall and upgrade your first.

When you start red:

If you start red, again, walk to red, watch for invades from the brush behind the red buff, ask for some help to kill it and smite it.
Then go to Wraiths, also FIRST walk to the back of the wall, Then throw your duskbringer in the direction of the red buff. Or throw it from far away. Then kill the wraihts. Use health potions if you need it.
Walk to your blue. Again, drag the into the brush and kill him there and again try to smite it just right, just to make sure.
Now you are level 3 with double buffs and ready to gank.

After your first 2 buffs

Once you've gotten your 2 buffs you should clear your jungle. You want to farm as much of your jungle as you possibly can but also help your team whenever and wherever you can. At lower leagues laners usually don't ward very often so you can gank pretty much every lane if it is pushed to your tower.

In a normal situation your focus should be at all times: (copyright unswlolsoc)

Know where the enemy jungler is -> Counter gank/counter jungle
Which lanes are pushing, can I gank now or soon
Can I successfully gank that lane(forcing a summoner or getting a kill or even a tower/dragon)
Are there any buffs spawning (blue, red, dragon, baron)

If none of these apply, then you can go and farm a few camps. While you farm, always keep an eye on the minimap to see if you can help. After you cleared the camps, go over this list again.

Farm

All right, you have to farm your jungle, or the enemies' jungle. But that would classify as counter jungling. I made an entire chapter for counter jungling because there is quite a lot to it.
With the new you want to farm a lot more then before early game. You want to get your to upgrade to the as soon as possible. You need to kill 30 large monsters to achieve this. The counters starts as soon as you purchase your , so it starts counting right from the start :). Large monsters are pretty much the biggest monster in a camp. Dragon and Baron also count as a large monster kill, but I think you need to get the killing blow on dragon/baron to get the stack. After it has transformed you will also get stacks from assists and kills so you can focus on that more.
NB:When you kill Raptors: FIRST walk to the back of the jungle camp (behind the big Raptor) THEN throw your out towards the location of the red buff. Or you can throw your out from so far away that it júst reaches the wraiths. This is VERY important because if you don't do it correctly you will throw your q through the wall and the enemy midlaner can see it. This is such a big deal because as a jungler your role is to help your lanes by ganking but also just having the enemies guess where you are creates a lot of pressure(forces them to buy wards, they should be afraid of ganks if they go too deep etc), so NEVER show yourself if you don't have to!
When you choose to farm, try to use very often because the cooldown is so short you should pretty much always use it. Only make sure you don't use your smite after the 6:20 minute mark, because your first buff will spawn around 7:05 again, the enemy jungler knows this and you want to make sure he doesn't come in and smite steal that. Also if you or your team wants to go dragon, or looks like they are about to do it, do not use your smite! You need that smite to secure dragon for your team (and for an extra stack)

Gank

River gank:

Look for the lanes that are pushing, if your laner is pushing, ganking is very difficult, if the enemy is pushing, you have a lot of ground to chase him on, so ganking will be easier. When you see a lane pushing towards your tower, you should ask the laner if it is warded and where. Once you know your entry is not warded you can come to the lane, wait in the river brush a for the enemy to use an ability, or wait for any laner to engage, then go in hot. Try to wait with your q until you know for sure you will hit it. then channel your fear on the enemy. If you need, use your spellshield ofcourse. This will give you more attack speed! Ganking with red buff is very good because you will slow the enmy down with auto attacks and thus giving you and your ally more time to get the kill.

Lane gank:

Botlane or Toplane you can also lane gank if your laner is pushing very far. Walk from behind to your outer turret, then go into the lane brush (ask if it is warded, if it is, don't even bother doing this), but be sure the lane is pushed so far that the enemy minions won't see you enter the brush. Now you have to wait for the lane to push back out again, if you time it right it shouldn't take long. If you time it wrong, it can take a while. When the minions are in the middle again you should wait for the enemy to walk slightly past the halfway point of the lane. Depending on the situation, you could go in sooner. Then pile on him(/her) and try to kill him.

Counter gank:

This is pretty self explanatory, if your the enemy jungler ganks and you are nearby you can counter the gank with your own gank. This is usually very good because they don't expect to get a sudden in their face and if you play it good you can often make them use their summoners or even kill them. Try to anticipate where the enemy jungler is so you can react and help your teammate out. If your toplaner is pushed all the way to the enemy turret without his flash up, there is a very good chance the enemy jungler is going to gank there. You could ward his top side jungle and when he comes to gank you can come too and hopefully kill him or the enemy toplaner.

Fast Feral Flare

You could opt for farming until your upgrades into . This is not recommended because you can't help out any of your lanes and if they lose you can't help them. Go this route only if you are confident your lanes will not die quickly and you won't get invaded or counter jungled. This route is best for a late game team like ADC, where you just have to farm until late game.

Allright, the route is:
blue(smite), , , red(smite), double .
Then back to base to get your .
Now go wight(smite), , , double(smite).
After this you just have to keep farming every camp untill you can buy your . Then: keep farming until you get 30 stacks and have your if you do this very fast and don't get distracted or delayed in any way you can have your Feral Flare around 15 minutes. Enjoy.

Dragon

is a good objective to sneak or contest in the early game. But it is quite dangerous. It deals a lot of damage! Without it doesn't go down very fast, keep that in mind. You should always have vision around the dragon pit if you do dragon, so you can anticipate and prevent steal attempts and see fights coming in advance.

Dragon is an objective so it helps you get ahead, stay ahead or get back in the game through global gold. If you can get a dragon early game it is always a good idea to do so. Dragon is worth around 3 kills for your team so keep that in mind when doing it.
You should do dragon if you have a solid advantage like:
Enemy jungler just showed toplane: if your team reacts quickly you should get dragon ASAP. you have a +- 600 true damage nuke and they don't plus you have a man extra if you get a fight.
Enemy botlane just died: if the enemy botlane dies you can almost always get a dragon. The problem early game is that you might also be able to get the bottom outer turret. If you can get one these two, go for the turret I'd say. If you can get both go both :D, and if they can defend their turret just push out the bottom wave and then go dragon.

If you are doing dragon, and the enemy jungler shows up to steal it it is best to turn around and kill the enemy jungler. If he gets the dragon and then dies, it is definitely worth it for his team. So leave the dragon be and kill the enemy as soon as possible. If he is dead thén you can go back and do dragon again.

Sneak

Sneaking dragon on is not very easy. You are not a very good champion at killing dragon early like a . You also have to be absolutely sure the enemy has no vision on dragon when you do it because you are very vulnerable while soloing dragon. You could get an early to clear the dragon area for wards or you could get a to make sure the enemies have no vision on you. You also need your or else it will be very difficult to kill dragon on your own. You could still ask your ADC or even your support or midlaner to help you kill it. This way the enemies might suspect you are doing dragon because a laner is missing, but it helps you kill dragon a lot faster and you have help in case an enemy comes to kill/contest/check.

7 minute buffs

Your second buffs spawn around the 07:00 minute mark. These are very important. This if often a time that you or the enemy jungler will go to get the other one's buffs. Make sure you are around to secure your buffs when they respawn ASAP. Of course this also applies for the 12 minute buffs. Don't gank top at 07:10 when you are purple side and you started blue, or else the enemy jungler can get your blue buff for free. Never a good idea to give a free buff to the enemies.
So, make sure you take the enemies' buffs if you can, and make sure he can't take yours.
Usually you want to give the second blue buff to your midlaner. This is almost always better than taking it yourself. Only if your midlaner keeps dying it is a bad idea to give it to him, or if he doesn't have mana, like a or mid you should take it for yourself.

8 minute action

I recommend ganking botlane when you hit level 6 (around 7 minutes), make sure your botlane does not push the lane. Give your midlaner the blue buff and then go bottom(if you are on purple side and started blue leave red: I usually start red on purple side and take that first. If you are on blue side, take your red first). Let your botlane know you are coming and ask them where it is warded. Make sure you don't reveal yourself and go in with your ultimate. This often results in a kill, maybe two. If you get a kill and you are not too low HP, destroy the bottom turret or push the lane to the turret and go to dragon quickly. Your smite should be back up.
NB:If you've gotten 2 kills, this should be easy, however, always look at the enemy team comp. If they have a jungle and a toplane with teleport. Going dragon after these 2 kills is very dangerous, because they can just kill your entire team with their ultimates.
NB: The cooldown on your rank 1 ultimate is VERY long. So use it wisely. Rank 2 is a lot better and when you get a 3rd point in it the cooldown shouldn't hold you back anymore.

This is usually a good move to get a lead on lower elos but you must still be careful.

Summary:

You usually want to start Gromp -> blue -> red. or Krugs -> red -> blue. After this you usually want to recall and buy the and a pink ward. Only gank if you can get an advantage (i.e. tower/dragon/kill/sommoner). Ask and pay attention where it is warded before you gank so you can choose your path around it or wait a little.

Always be ready for getting counter jungled or invaded, try to avoid this by pink warding your jungle and smiting the wolves! Try to counter jungle and counter-gank yourself whenever you see a good opportunity. However you are an average duelist, so don't be too cocky or you'll end up feeding.

Make sure your 2nd buffs, they spawn around 07:00 if you got them right away, don't get stolen just because you weren't there to secure them. When you see the other jungler is not able to protect/secure his own buffs that spawn at 07:00 take it yourself (or give it to your teammate)!

Check this list constantly:

Throughout the game always go over these 4 steps (copyright unswlolsoc):

Know where the enemy jungler is -> Counter gank/counter jungle
Which lanes are pushing, can I gank now or soon
Can I successfully gank that lane(forcing a summoner or getting a kill or even a tower/dragon)
Are there any buffs spawning (blue, red, dragon, baron)

When none of these apply then go farm your jungle.

Goals:

Make your lanes snowball and snowball yourself: Get farm and kills. Try to find a good balance between farming enough and ganking enough. Get towers and dragons. Make sure the other jungler can't achieve these goals himself.

Mid game gameplay

The mid game is when players(other than the jungler) start roaming and teamfights and skirmishes happen a lot. The mid game starts usually when 1 or 2 towers are destroyed so people can leave the lanes to help on other places on the map.

The most important thing to do in the mid game is to get objectives.

Ward!

Warding heavily in the mid game can make a huge difference! Make sure you ward the river(and take scuttle). If you can ward the enemy jungle, and if you need to ward your own jungle.
Because people often roam in the mid game they usually walk through certain areas. If you have those areas warded you can easily pick people off: If you see a single enemy walk through your jungle to gank the people botlane, you can run with 2 man to him, surround him and kill him. Making it a 4v5 for the duration of his deathtimer. This should give you enough pressure to get a dragon or tower, because the enemy shoudn't win a 4v5 fight.
You can read more detailed information about warding in the "Warding" chapter.

Teamfights/skirmishes

Teamfights can break out quite often in the mid game. Also 3v3s and 4v4s 4v3s etc. are very common. If you have a strong duelist toplaner with teleport it is often wise to let him push toplane and then try to get force dragon or towers. He can teleport in when you need him.
Teamfighting in the mid game is all about positioning, vision and focus. You have to realise who deals most damage and who is tankiest. For instance: a 3-1-6 is very strong in the mid game and you have to be very careful of him. ADCs are strong in the mid game of course, but they are usually not as strong yet. This also differs per ADC very much, A is usually weaker than a in the mid game. Midlaners are often very strong in the mid game.
Make sure you have good focus: don't focus a but focus their or instead. Also make sure your carries: ADC and mid (perhaps top/jungler) can deal all their damage and they don't die.

Towers

I think towers are the most important objective to get in the mid game. Towers give global gold so it helps out every team-member. But it also gives you a lot of freedom on the map. Try to push out all the lanes so if you win a skirmish/teamfight you don't have to wait a long time for the minions to arrive.
If you have good waveclear or fast tower-killing champions like or you should definitely try to get towers. Just gather a group of minions and quickly destroy the turret. Be careful the enemies don't engage upon you while you are attacking the turret, because you will almost always lose a fight under their turret in the mid game. You, as a melee champion, should not get under their turret to attack it unless you know it is safe: i.e. You have 5 members bottom and their toplaner just went top to clear the minions; i.e. You just killed a member so it's a 5v4. i.e. You know for sure the enemies won't be able to kill you.
Make sure you destroy the turret before the enemies have time to react and if they do engage you have to make a quick decision: Run, fight, or focus turret.

Fight:

You might be in a 5v4 or are just very far ahead. If you have a good tank already you might want to fight them under turret. Make sure the tanky member takes turret aggro, and you focus the priority targets. Also have EVERY member commit to the fight or you will probably lose.

Focus turret:

This will often result in many deaths because you need full commitment from your team. If your team starts to fight the enemies and you are trying to kill the turret it usually ends very bad, you won't kill the turret in time and the turret will destroy your team. If you can you should always try to kill the turret before fighting because it will at the very least give you the objective and after that you have a somewhat fair fight. Just only do so if you know for a fact you can kill it VERY quickly, and you have the full commitment from your WHOLE team.

Run:

If you can't kill the turret fast enough, and you can't win a fair teamfight, let alone a teamfight under the turret, you should run. But first of all, wonder why you are trying to get this turret. If you can't win a teamfight you have to make sure you kill the turret before the enemy can react or you should first make sure they can't win a fight: make sure it is a 5v4, then go get the turret.

Dragon

Contesting usually happens in the mid game. Contesting is when both teams are positioning themselves to get dragon.
If this happens you should, if your team comp allow this through champions like or poke the enemies down until they are low enough to engage upon or just bully them away. If you don't have poke you should make sure you are not poked down yourself.
If the enemies have a lot of poke, engage before they can land it!
If your team is definitely stronger in a teamfight (if you have good vision around dragon and a teleport top and they don't you should win dragon fights because it is a 5v4). Then just go for the fight, kill them and get the dragon. If you can also try to get an outer turret.
Sometimes the enemy is just stronger then you and you should back off. In this case you might want to push mid lane very hard. If they don't kill dragon fast your team can destroy the outer middle turret and that will be a trade in your favor as long as no-one dies.

If you just killed the enemy jungler you usually are free to take dragon. They have no on their team anymore and they are a man down.

Summary:

If you have a strong mid game team (this depends heavily on the champions and how well your team did in lane) you should really exploit that and make sure you get very far ahead.
Try to force fights only if you can win them and ALWAYS look to pick people off. Get towers to get global gold and more map control. Dragons are less important but if you can kill one for free it is great. Ward heavily. You usually want to have at least 2 es or pink wards in the mid game to clear certain areas like dragon. Nocturne is great at picking people off and baiting enemies in: they think it's a 1v1, then you ult in and make it a 1v2 and kill them.

Goals:

Get as many objectives as you can: Towers (perhaps an inhib) are the most important. Dragons, Rift Herald and Baron are also good to get but Baron is very risky and can throw games so easy.
Also try to get kills trough teamfights/skirmishes/picks. Warding heavily is very useful in the mid game. Nocturne excels at picks here.

Lategame gameplay

about the lategame:
Build more tanky, set up teamfights(preferably you are the 2nd person to go in, not the 1st, let a full like malphite engage and thén follow up is ideal). Or perhaps you should peel. Teamfight. Fight for objectives. Get kills, Don't get killed. Ward. catch people out of position. Make plays. Win. :D

Warding

This'll probably be the last chapter I finish.
But warding often and in the right locations is very important guys! Always carry a so you can make sure they have no vision on / when you try to secure that. Also try and keep things warded or cleared using your trinkets.

Counter Jungling

Counter jungling. Like I said: It is farming the enemies jungle camps and making the life of the enemy jungler tough. If you are against a weak duelist jungler or a jungler with slow clear times, this is a very good tactic.
There are a lot of ways to counter jungle. Here are the most common forms of it.

Invade 2nd Buff

If you are sure the enemy starts blue, then you can go to their red(or vice versa) after you finish your blue and annoy him.

Fight

Walk to the brush besides the red. You can either wait for them in the brush to start their red.
If they start it without checking the brush wait a while, because the lizard deals significant damage, you can then smite steal it, just q->smite. Now you have double buffs, and full health (I suppose) and he is half health and he has only blue buff. That should be an easy kill, or at least force a from him. If you killed him/forced the flash and the enemy laners do not react(watch especially the midlaner closely, they might come to help their jungler!), then you can go and steal their wraits. You probably want to leave a small wraith behind because the respawn timer won't reset if there is at least 1 minion still alive. So if you leave one minion, you will deny the enemy more gold, because it will respawn later(after he cleared it).
If the enemy does check the brush, you should straight on fight him, throw all you've got on him and kill him or make him run/flash away (again, watch the other laners react, when the enemy laners are suddenly missing, just run away and take your own buffs instead)

Steal

Another option is to RUSH their red after your blue(or vice versa) and steal it. This is a good option if you are not stronger in a dual, but you have faster clear times. The enemy will probably go blue -> -> red. This should mean that if you get a good leash yourself you can run to their red and take it before the enemy jungler finishes his wraiths. And you have stolen his red. DO kill all the small lizards so you have the timer on his next respawn (the buffs take 5 minutes to respawn, so around at 7:30 minutes it will respawn) and you can try to take it again as soon as it respawns or kill the enemy if he is there in time.

When possible ask (preferably your midlaner) your allies to ward your own jungle when you counter jungle like this. For example, I go from my blue to their red. I'd ask my midlaner to ward my jungle entrance towards my own red. (For some reason junglers rarely take the route that leads them trough the tribrush towards the buff so i'ts usually not worth warding that.) If the enemy jungler walks past this ward, I know it is too late to do anything about it and it means I have more time in his jungle. I let him have my red buff, I take his, and then I go take 3 of his wraiths, and then his double golems (or just the big one) before I return to my own jungle.

Lvl 1 invade

This usually isn't really counter jungling but it really is. You as a jungler do not so much counter their jungler, but most of the time, when people say: "invade" they mean the team effort to invade the enemy jungle. This means running into the enemy jungle before the buffs spawn.

Early invade

If you have something like a or on your team that started with q, you can easily kill the first person you see, just make sure you stay grouped and all focus the same person.
If you couldn't kill anyone you can still take the buff you invaded on because they are usually too scared to come there. If they do come you should kill them. But be careful, a good counterplay against a level 1 invade is to invade the enemies buff. So say we invaded their blue buff area at 1:20, even if we killed one person, the enemies could go with 3 or 4 people to our blue buff and take it. It is up to you to make the call, stay and trade buffs, or go back as soon as you get that kill and take your own buffs instead. You already got first blood so you did get an advantage.

Late invade

In order to prevent this you could also choose to invade late, meaning around 1:50. Walk into their jungle at 1:50 so they don't have time to go to your buffs if they spot you. The problem with this however, is that, depending on which side you are on where you invade, either botlane, or toplane will miss out on minions/farm if they go with this invade. If this goes even slightly all right, always take the buff you invaded on, and perhaps an extra camp.

If you find no enemies that means they are either invading your jungle, or they are not watching that specific area for invades and the enemy jungler started at the other buff. If this is the case, just take the buff and an extra camp and then go back to your own jungle and take your buffs.

Sneaky lvl 1 steal

Not the official name :p but you get the point. I mean intentionally going to the buff where you expect to find no-one. Then you could go with 2 people, usually you and your toplaner, to their buff, and steal it without them knowing it. You could go with 3 or even 4 people but you don't need all 5 members. This way the laner that is furthest away from the invade can go to his/her own lane and that way he won't miss out on any XP/farm.
If you try to do this, ask the member that didn't go with the invade to ward your own buff to make sure you see it if they steal your buff while you are stealing their's.

7 minute buffs

The respawn of the buffs takes 5 minutes, and the first one spawns at 1:55 so that should respawn around 7:05. This is very important to remember. If you know where the enemy started then you can try to steal their buffs as soon as it respawns. If you invaded on his 2nd buff you should also have the timer on that one and you can go for a steal there as well.
For example: You are on blue side against an jungle and you start blue. He probably starts blue too so you can invade him on his red. This means you know both his timers after that. If it is 6:50 and you see the gank toplane you should run to his blue, you arrive at 7:00 and the buff will spawn around 7:05. There is no way that this can gank topane and be back at his blue in 15 seconds, so that means a free blue buff and a Wight for you!, make sure you get to your own blue on time so he doesn't steal that from you in return.

Summary:

is not a very strong duelist. But he's not bad. This makes it hard however to call whether you can or cannot 1v1 the enemy jungler. If you cán, you can try to meet him in his own jungle, try to steal away his camps while he is doing it and his abilities are on CD. Or you can just walk into his jungle, take a camp yourself and leave. ALWAYS keep an eye on the other lanes while you are doing it, if they see you counter-jungling, and the enemy midlaner comes and you don't have backup, you better run!
If you can nót kill the enemy 1v1 however, you have to plan your invades even more careful. For example only go take his camps is you see him in a lane or on a ward on the other side of the map. Still keep an eye out for lanes that suddenly went missing as soon as you entered their jungle, they might have vision on you and try to kill you. It is always better to leave without loot, then to get a camp and die for it.

Even if you don't have the direct timer on the enemy's blue/red, you can usually guess it because your jungle is mirrored. If you both started botside, then your blue and their red probably spawns at about the same time (5 minutes after you cleared it)

Counter-jungling works best if you have some wards in their jungle already. And if you just invaded their jungle, try to leave a ward. These wards can give a lot of information to your laners and to yourself about the location and ganks of the enemy jungler, good counterganks often result in double kills. If you can, try to coordinate this warding process with your support later in the game.

Getting counter jungled

Help! I'm getting counter jungled hard!
Well, that happens. It sucks because getting behind early hurts the jungler and the whole team a lot.
If possible: counter jungle him. But this is usually not possible so the best way to recover:
Step 1: Ward your own jungle! and always the !
Step 2: ask your laners to help you and kill the enemy jungler when you see him walk in your jungle.

Or you can try to avoid him completely, and give up a part of your jungle. But keep it warded, that is the most important.

So: ward heavily. Work with your team here! And farm to get back in the game. A few successful ganks can put you right back in the game too.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my Build!
I just have to thank jhoijhoi for her insights into some coding techniques that I used :D
Please help me out and tell me if you missed anything important or if I made a mistake. I'd love to make this guide as good and full as possible!
So please leave a comment with feedback and rate!
Now go play that jungle!