So you probably read the title and went "Wow, it's a trolololol". At first, I kinda meant it as that. I pick Nocturne and start to set up my jungle stuff, then everyone picks squishy carries and lock in. Not wanting to change, I decide to say "F" it. I slap on my tanking rune page and change up my masteries. I end up tanking the other team cause they try and focus me down and we win! Next game I duo queue with a friend and he plays jungle Trundle. I go to play lane Nocturne and the same thing happens again. I use a slightly different mastery build and go with it.

20 games later in the normal queue I am 20-0 with this build. It's been almost identical item build (plus variations on end game items depending on team comp). 1 of the games we won 4v5 after a leaver. Sometimes we even had a feeder on our team.

What make this successful is the combination of your initiation abilities and crowd control through your Unspeakable Horror spell. You can initiate on their best carry, and lock them down long enough to allow you team to steamroll in. Unlike characters like Malaphite, Xin Xhao, Jarvan, or Shen is that you can initiate the carries in the BACK of their team allowing more options to start a team fight. The fear also allows you to protect your carries from enemy DPS and your extra damage from your Duskbringer can help bring them down fast.

I chose these runes because they give a really nice early game defense and allow you to take more healthy items. By around midgame I have almost 200 of each resist with a standard build and almost 3K health.

For Jugnling, These runes work nice as well. Though your jungle will not be as fast as a normal carry build, You still clear the jungle well and have no problems starting at blue buff.

I prefer the full tank tree because you are going to need it to take the damage that will be dished out on you. With the jungle spec it makes you slightly less tanking, but not by much. The lifesteal helps out a lot and lets you farm minions to get back into a fight.

I have stuck with these items and they seem to work very well.

Stone - Helps you lane very well and lets you roam. cheap and pays itself back fairly quickly.

Boot - You need to be able to kite or keep on their carries. These help you do this while alimenting the MR you are missing.

Aegis - Health, MR, Armor, Damage. Helps you, Helps your team. Over all a very good idea I get on most tanks.

Frozen Mallet - Snare their carries or get them off yours. Nice chunk of health and offers very good utility.

Banshees Veil - Health, Mana, MR, Spell Block. This helps you out a lot. Allows you to worry about Fearing/getting on your target first, letting banshees absorb a CC, then use your own and you've negated attacks and helped your team out.

Atma's Impaler - Armor + 60ish AD, Crit. This can be situational but this makes it so they can't ignore you as well (Never have had that happen yet). Bumps up your AD so you are still hitting decent and can solo over extenders late game.

Beyond? Depends. If you are doing well and your team is healthy in the first place, might want to get a Bloodthirster. If you are the only tank Force of Nature/Warmogs/Sunfire Cape are good survivability items depending on their team.

Duskbringer - Damage Skillshot that doesn't stop on first hit, and gives damage/movement speed while on the trail. Champions hit by it leave a trail behind them for a few seconds. For laning this is a nice harassment move, though before you get your Phil. Stone I would not spam it much. You also need to learn to land this well on champions. For Jungling, this needs to be used on every camp to help clear them faster.

It's one of the few ways you can do constant chasing. My suggestion is to land your Unspeakable Horror first, then during the fear us it on them. This is really important during your ult because you will often land behind them and can throw off which direction you throw it if you try and use it right away.


Shroud of Darkness - For 2 seconds it will block the next Champion ability used against you. If it blocks and ability it doubles the Passive Attack Speed bonus it gives you. For this build you want to pick it up early, but keep it level 1. The cooldown reduction from leveling it isn't as significant as your other abilities and the attack speed bonus isn't as important. It's still a very nice move that lets you block ults and skillshots against your team. Helps you survive better in team fights and help out your carries.


Unspeakable Horror - Does minor magic damage over 3 seconds, then fears the target as long as you stayed in range. This move is very very nice. The delay can sometimes be anouying, but it can help out in situations with people like Malzahar or Warwick where even though you are suppressed, they can get feared mid ult and stop it. It can also allow for some interesting counter ganks. People will chase you, you put UH on them. They don't disengage, then get feared, often out of position. This ability works very nicely after your Ultimate initiation and gets you a lot of free hits. Also if a melee/range has pushed in on your carries, this will stop them dead in their tracks and help your team out. Mastering to use of this move offensively and defensively will help your team out a lot.

Paranoia - Enemy Champions lose all Ally Vision (Including towers, minions, wards, etc.) and can only see their characters vision. Activating this again allows you to fly toward an enemy champion, doing damage. As a tank, this is probably the best tank initiation ability in the game. The range, even at lower levels, is very nice. You will always go on top of your target, even if they flash mid ult. Also, mid flight to your target, you can pre-target them with your Unspeakable Horror. So as you get in range you land UH, then you hit them with your ult, your fear goes off shortly after. You can then land Duskbringer and start chasing. As I mentioned in the summary, being able to initiate carries in the back of their team on a good push is key. No other tank can do that without positioning themselves behind the team before the engagement. You can do from anywhere near the Teamfight.

Please try this build out before you start bashing it. Constructive criticism is always welcome. This page is still under construction and I would like to hear peoples thoughts, Thanks! Please leave a comment!