Hi everyone, and welcome to my first guide on MOBAfire, which shows you the power, speed, and pure fun factor of jungle Nocturne. I have played many games with nocturne (well over 100) and I have tried many different builds with him, but I am convinced that the one i have showed you is the path to victory with him. He is a strong jungler with amazing ganks if done correctly, and strong scaling into mid and late game. Through this guide, I hope to show you not only how to succeed in normal and ranked with Nocturne, but also to enjoy a character thta has given me so many good times since i started playing LoL.

If you happen to be unfamiliar with our shadowy friend, here is a detailed explanation of his skills and how I use them.

Umbra Blades

Nocturne's passive is one of great importance to his jungling because it massively increases his damage against creeps and his survivability. It allows Nocturne to swing his baldes in a circle every few seconds, dealing bonus damage in a small radius around him and healing for a set amount per target hit. For example, when you start the game an you are killing wolves you wuld gain 45 hp if you hit all 3 wolves with your passive strike. Also, the cooldown of this passive is decreased every time you attack an enemy unit, which allows it to proc even more often.

Duskbringer

This skill is the bread and butter of a jungle Nocturne, and allows him to do many things. Not only is Duskbringer a decently strong physical nuke, but it also gives him bonus attack damage and movement speed, which allows him to perform very strong ganks in the early game. It is also your escape mechanism and your gap closer, making it vital that you learn how to use this skill correctly. Because of this, I max this skill first in order to maximize my jungle speed and damage output early game.

Shroud of Darkness

The bane of many a Karthus player, this little shield massively increases Nocturne's survivability, as well as providing a hefty bonus to his atttack speed which helps his jungle speed. Well timed shields can ruin initiations, block hefty CCs, cancel out entire ultimates, and my personal favorite, troll Karthus by blocking his ult. this skill is important, but not quite as much as Duskbringer so I prefer to max this second in order to increase my attack speed heading into midgame, which allows me to not buy any attack speed items until later.

Unspeakable Horror

As the only CC available for Nocturne without items, this is an extremely important skill for his ganking as well as his control in teamfights later in the game. It is a medium range tether that if left on an enemy champion for 2 seconds, it will fear them for a short duration as well. While this spell does deal damage, it scales off of AP only so it will not be doing very much damage at all in this build. This skill is also part of the reason why i prefer a tankier approach to Nocturne, because i believe that being able to survive in a fight and fear multiple enemies is more important than dealing slightly more damage at the cost of survivability. Because the initial fear at lvl 1 is pretty strong and it the skill does not scale veyr well, i max this skill last in order to take advantage of the early power of my other two skills.

Paranoia

Paranoia is the siganture skill of Nocturne, and the ability that makes enemies run in fear every time they hear DARKNESSSSSSSSSSS. With Paranoia, Nocturne is able to travel to a target from an extremely long distance away, dealing hefty physical damage when he arrives. This tool is what allows him to become a ganking monstrosity once he hits lvl 6, since he can easily initiate a gank form outside the range of wards protecting your lane. An important thing to note is that you dash directly on top of your target, meaning that you are now in range for your fear and your Q. Unfortunately, you must have vision of your target to jump to them, meaning that this skill often requires at least some coordination with your teammates to utilize properly. I take this skill whenever it is available, since it increases not only the damage but also the range, allowing for easier ganks. This is also a very strong initiation tool in a teamfight, allowing you to instantly enter the fray at an often unexpected angle.

I apologize for the length of this section, but I wanted anyone unfamiliar to Nocturne to have a clear grasp on his capabilities and his skills that make him the great character he is.

[*]PROS
- Fast Jungler
- Great ganks (pre and post lvl 6)
- Good farming ability
- His Duskbringer looks really cool
- Good transition into mid-late game
- Very high damage
- Has a couple good skins

[*] CONS
- Somewhat squishy early game
- Little impact if underfarmed
- requires coordination to use effectively
- Getting max potential out of him requires high risk
- his duskbringer sometimes causes him to die while counter jungling (q trail goes through a wall, gives away your position. It has happened to me before.)

While many people i know prefer to go with jungle masteries geared more towarsds utility and defense, I like a very offensive setup on ym junglers, due to the more bulky item builds I frequently use. I use 21-9-0 masteries to maximize my damage throughout the game while taking some defensive msteries ot improve my durability while jungling. Since the jungle changes, I no longer feel the need to delve into the utility tree for the increased experience, although I do miss the extended buff duration. I also decide to place my defensive points into flat armor and MR becuase my build already contains a good amount of bonus HP, so i did not feel the need for the HP per level or 30 extra you get from investing in Durability and subsequently Veteran's Scars.

I start out with 9 Greater Mark of Attack Speed in order to synergize with my passive and W, which makes for an easy breezy early jungle. These also allow me to deal out pretty decent damage before i get any damage items, however short of a time that is. I combine these with greater quintessence of desolation so i can scale my damage into late game.