Soooooo, you want to play Nocturne huh? Not a bad choice, certainly my best hero, but he's not easy to play well. A lot of people play him as a jungler, and that's perfectly all right, I have myself on the off occasion, but where Nocturne excels is mid: His farming abilities are awesome to behold, easily scoring last hits and gaining health while he's at it. There have been games where I have gone a whole minute without missing a last hit, a gold boost which is devastating to the other team. If you wanted to go straight up farming you should just play Sivir, however, his abilities don't focus it. Nocturne's abilities focus on ganking, he is the proverbial assassin in the night, and the very worst nightmare of his enemies.

Start with a Doran's Blade, not only does this give you health and damage, but life steal. It's not as good since it got nerfed (life steal down from 4% to 3%), but the damage went up so, whatever. Head to middle, if you already have a middle, or someone is being a **** about it, than go jungle (see Early Game: Jungling). In the middle you want to begin harassing your opponent ASAP, the lower their health is when you move in for the kill, the better. If you have an aggressive opponent, fight, you will almost certainly get the kill, as Nocturne is very powerful even without items. If your opponent hangs back, like they should against someone as aggressive as Nocturne, use duskbringer to widdle them down once or twice. Some people choose shroud of darkness first, for the attack speed, but I prefer the duskbringer because of the great potential for harassment and hunting. After getting to level three, its time to go in for the kill. If your opponent is cautious, fake going to gank another lane (if your opponents are bad enough you can actually gank, but check with your allies first) and then juke around hit them from either behind or river, or both if they extend (e.g. the river is behind them). Pop SoD and then open with DB, followed quickly by unspeakable horror, pound them until they either no longer exist or are forced to turret hug like crazy. If they start turret hugging, drop DB and turret dive, only if you are going to survive or are guaranteed the kill however, turret diving takes practice to get good at so be damn careful. Rinse and repeat as often as you see necessary, always remembering to feed upon the minions. If you take boat load of damage, just hang back and get those minion kills, or recall if you think the minions will kill you. Nocturne's survivability is great thanks to his passive, so make sure you play it up.

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Nocturne's mid game can start as early as level 6 and as late as level 10, all depending on how fast you can get the Angel's Tear. This is your mana fixer, without it, you'll quickly run out of mana and that's when you start to have real problems. To gank, get within range of your ulti and, when your allies engage, double activate and use your QEW combo to ensure a kill. If your allies have any CCs, your almost guaranteed the kill or at least the assist. When your ulti is off cooldown, just initiate with DB, this time popping SoD as you enter the fray. If you have some down time, your allies aren't ready for the gank or everyone is dead, just grab buffs (so long as you don't have a jungler who needs them) or go back to mid and farm minions and/or push.

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If YOU get ganked, use your shield and activate your DB in the direction you want to flee: while your on it lets you pass through things like Anivia and Jarvan IV's walls, and the shield will stop all stuns and nukes (once), including Viegar's.

The SoD is a shield, using it defensively is as easy as popping it and running.
DB gives you a free ghost, if it doesn't give you enough distance, pop a real ghost.
Activate UH on a chaser, if you have the time, and they will be feared while you escape, or at least peal off to break the tether.
Your ulti can be a last ditch escape attempt, if you see a Champion at the edge of your range, activate, and bolt over to them, then book it out.

By the time your level 18 (the definition of late game, duh) you will be able to pick up most Champions 1v1, especially when you have the element of surprise on your side. Just run all over the map, hitting anything that isn't in a group of three or more, for those just coordinate the gank with a teammate or three and destroy them with your crazy dps.

Marks:
Armor Pen - Great for Nocturne, especially with this build, will drop all nonarmor intensive champions, which are the ones you will be fighting early game when the runes will make the difference.
Crit Chance/Damage - Not as good as armor pen, but an alternative if you have something against being awesome.
Attack speed - If you are a deranged monkey who feels the obsesive compulsive need to have a 2.5 attack speed, these are a must have.

Seals:
Health/level - Better than flat health past level six, increased survivability ftws.
Health regen/5 secs/level - good during the laning phase, gives you more time to recoup after you kill a champ, or just the ability to stick around if your low on health.
Dodge - If you feel like getting the ninja tabi, these will give you the ability to dodge anything like a MOFO, very helpful if you are lucky and like to turret dive.

Glyphs:
Cooldown Reduc/level - pretty much the only good glyph for Nocturne (open to suggestions).

Quints:
Flat Health - greath survivability increase at the beginning of the game, nuff said.
Armor Pen - See above
Dodge - See less above

Standard DPS set up 21-0-9, nothing too fancy.

Coming soon

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Feel free to comment, and try this build out before you do.


Oh yeah and,

ARE YOU GETTING TIRED YET!!!!