Hey guys, I'm Meteos from Cloud 9 and this is my Nocturne guide.

Pros

+ Hard engage + Fast clear + Scales well + Crowd control + High damage

Cons

- Low pressure early game - Pre-6 ganks are not great - Does not have a gap closer besides his ultimate - Very long cooldown on ultimate

(Recommended) Nocturne has pretty good attack damage scaling on his Passive, Q, and ultimate. The attack damage will also help him clear faster in the early game. Marks of Attack Speed is also a good alternative as it will help you clear faster since every auto attack reduces the cooldown on your passive. Comparing Attack damage and Attack Speed marks they are relatively close.

(Recommended) Early armor helps you take less damage from your clear and helps him to win early duels against other junglers.

(VS Magic) Magic Resist is necessary if they have a lot of magic damage on the other team especially if they have a burst mage like Syndra or Fizz.

(VS Low Magic) In other scenarios you can use cooldown reduction glyphs if you don't need the magic resist. Cooldown reduction will greatly help reducing the long cooldown of your ultimate.

(Recommended) This is more efficient in value than attack damage quints and this will greatly help you clear faster.

Going 21/9 is a more damage focused set up and it helps Nocturne dueling as well as assassinate squishy targets. Taking Double-Edged Sword helps Nocturne to do 2% more damage while only taking 1% more. This is definitely worth it for an assassin like him. Taking Butcher and Feast makes him clear a bit faster and better sustain in the jungle. Both Fury and Sorcery are good on Nocturne. Fury directly gives him more damage as Sorcery will lower the cooldown on his spells and most importantly the cooldown of his ultimate so taking either one is fine. Rest of the masteries are pretty standard for an attack damage jungler.

(Passive) Umbra Blades Cooldown: 10 seconds

Umbra blades helps Nocturne AOE clear and sustain while going through the jungle. It heals for a flat amount based on how many units gets hit by umbra blades, so it's worth moving into the middle of a creep wave while pushing lanes to hit all the creeps and to get as much as possible out of this ability.

(Q) Duskbringer Cooldown: 10 seconds

Duskbringer is Nocturne's primary damage ability. It is a skillshot nuke that passes through enemies, dealing physical damage and leaving a trail behind them which gives Nocturne AD and move speed while he stands on it. While clearing the jungle, try to always shoot Duskbringer before using Umbra Blades so that Umbra Blades benefits from the bonus AD granted by Duskbringer.

(W) Shroud of Darkness Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

Shroud of Darkness is a passive attack speed buff that can be activated to block a spell and double the attack speed bonus. The passive on this ability helps Nocturne to clear his jungle quickly and the active helps him in fights by negating an ability and giving him bonus attack speed. Shroud of Darkness can also block baron's attacks.

(E) Unspeakable Horror Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Unspeakable Horror is Nocturne's crowd control ability that fears the enemy in a random direction after damaging them for 2 seconds. It's important to not let the tether break, so be careful about starting the tether from max range unless you move faster than the person you're trying to fear.

(R) Paranoia Cooldown: 180/140/100 seconds

Nocturne's signature ability. It reduces the other team's vision and lets you jump to an enemy champion from far away. During the laning phase this can be used to gank lanes really effectively because the other team can't really scout for it. In team fights, this spell really disorients the other team and makes diving their carries easy because the other team loses vision of each other.

Starting Items Hunter's Machete + Health Potionx2 This is the standard set up for almost all junglers. Nothing too special here. Stealth Ward is good for scouting early game and can help to scout out parts of the map. I recommend switching to Sweeping Lens at some point because I feel that it is more useful after level 9 due to its one minute cooldown.

Stalker's Blade The core jungle item for Nocturne is Stalker's Blade - Warrior. It gives you extra crowd control which helps Nocturne during his ganks and skirmishes.

Blade of the Ruined King Blade of the Ruined King does a few things for Nocturne. For one it gives him an extra crowd control for when he goes in also giving him a bit more burst damage. This item also allows him to split push more effectively. Since his ultimate has a 3500 range at max rank you can split push a side lane and then use his ultimate to get to the mid lane.

Situational Items All other items on Nocturne are pretty situational but in most cases you want to start building tank. If you need cheap and effective magic resist, Hexdrinker is a good buy but generally Banshee's Veil is better because it will block a spell as you ult into the enemy back line. Randuin's Omen is a good choice if you need armor and you will be able to slow your target after you ult in with its active. In the case where you are really fed you can always go for Youmuu's Ghostblade. It will help you burst down your target as well as a good item for split pushing.

(Early Game)
In the early game focus on farming and counter ganking. Nocturne's ganks aren't that bad early game, but he's weaker than most other junglers before level 6, doesn't have a real gap closer pre-6, and isn't very good if he falls behind so be careful about when choosing to gank. Farming is usually the safest option.

(Mid Game)
In the mid game, try to make plays every time that your ult is up. Any lane can be ganked by walking through the lane with Paranoia so any time you see someone out of position and you don't think it's a bait, go for it. I think that bot lane is the best lane to gank with Nocturne because of how strong supports can get and because you can usually take dragon or a turret after a successful gank.

(Late Game)
In the late game, Nocturne can be a very good split pusher because of how much range his ult has at max rank and because he's a great assassin/duelist. Try to get the rest of your team to group middle while you split push a side lane, then ult to them when the fight starts.

(Team Fights)
In team fights, it's generally best to dive onto the enemy carries and try to assassinate them. With Blade of the Ruined King, Nocturne can kill most carries by himself. Do as much damage as you can and then back off before you die and try to peel their divers off your carries if you can't kill the other team's carries.

For Unspeakable Horror there is a 0.25 grace period where the tether stays attached after the target moves out of range so if someone Flashes out of the tether range and you Flash after them really fast, you can keep the tether connected.

While it's not the best way to use your ultimate but it can serve as an escape since it blacks out the enemy's vision. When you use your ultimate you should wait to go in instead of rushing in right away. The extra time in the dark could be very favorable for your team to catch them off guard.

Nocturne can be used together with many other champions like Orianna, Shen, and Ahri. In Orianna and Shen's case Nocturne helps them close the gap for their ultimates. In Ahri's case the darkness part of the ultimate lets Ahri get close to a priority target and kill them before they have time to react.

In conclusion, Nocturne is a very well rounded jungler who farms quickly, has strong ganks with his ultimate, and is strong throughout the entire game. He's not very mechanically intensive so I would recommend him to new junglers looking to improve! I hope this guide helped and have fun :)