Hello this is shanked reporting in for my first guide on what I believe is one of the most misinterpreted characters in the game. As a note I would like to say that playing nocturne in a lane is perfectly acceptable (I would actually perfer a solo lane to the jungle any day, but thats not the main issue I am tackling here so I can elaborate on alternatives later)

Although I did not make this guide look glamorous and full of useless motifs and pictures, I was very thorough in all my explanations. Hopefully this will gain you guys a better understand of the character rather than a picture of somebodies Match history.


Read my items section to understand the justification to each item and how it will turn you into an unstoppable killer.

Pros:
Great farmer
Very powerful assassin
Great CC
Loads of damage
When built properly he is quite beefy

Cons:
Tends to be focused often
Overconfidence + Ult = Feeding

My rune build is very standard at any level of play. You have your 9x ARpen runes which not only help your ganking early game, but give you a decent boost while killing monsters. For yellows I prefer to take flat armors. This greatly improves your survivability in the jungle as well as when going for kills. The 9x scaling MRes seals are perfect for early game and scale well into late game. As a general rule you should always look towards survivability rather than a slight amount of damage.

Our masteries are also rather standard. We see the basic crit strike and smite in tier one. We couple this with alacrity and jungling masteries. We work our way down the tree to havoc with a 21 offense. In our utility tree we grab improved ghost, death time, experience, and my favorite, the neutral buff booster.

The item breakdown is very straightforward, what you want to really aim for with any build is to get as much damage as possible without sacrificing survivability. Sure other play styles may offer you greater damage output, but if you only get 1 kill and then die you are ultimately feeding. Your job is to get in there, wipe out their carries, and get out all in one piece.

The wriggles lantern start is very typical of any jungler. You should always be placing your ward when it is available.

After we complete the lantern boots is naturally the next choice. The only two viable options for this build is mercury tread or berserker greaves if they are not CC heavy.

The next item I like to recieve is a phage. This is in my opinion what makes nocturne so great early game. With the phage not only do you gain survivability and a slight damage boost, but you gain a rediculous effect which allows you to slow them down when you attack.(Ever notice early game you can ult in and attack, but have them run away? this prevents that) It is the holy grail of ganking, and allows you to secure kills at all points in the game. Keep in mind you should be getting this item early enough to where it does not actually harm your damage output to get.

After phage I move straight into the infinity edge. This item needs no introduction. It is one of the greatest items for any AD carry. Loads of damage, critical, and a great passive to give that huge damage boost you will need to put in serious damage.

At this point in the game you should do plenty of damage and be picking up quite a few kills. I like to take this time out to finish your mallet. You gain a huge HP boost and that great slow passive now turns into a guaranteed on hit thing. (When you disrupt their formation in team fights with your ult, the frozen mallet picks off runners very easily)

Next we move onto the bloodthirster or banshees. Both are great items, the only difference is the order you get them. if you find yourself taking lots of damage go banshees first for surviability, if you are dominating do bloodthirster first for damage!

This skill sequence is quite standard for a jungling nocturne. We always max our duskbringer first. This skill not only gives us a damage buff, but actually does a respectable amount of damage to neutrals as well as players early in the game.

Secondly we max our CC. This fear is very nifty when comboed in with our ult and duskbringer. It secures our kills and gives a slight boost in damage.

Third we max our shield. This is great for blocking one shot wonder skills such as ashes ult, a hard stun, karthus's ult, Leblancs many nukes, etc. Not only that, but you are rewarded with AS for blocking a spell!

We always take our ult when available and this skill needs no introduction. This skill gives nocturne map control and makes him notoriously cheesy. With a slightly large range you can jump into any fight from a central position on that map.

Grab the standard cloth armor and health pots and start at the little golems. Have your team mates watch for ganks by standing in the grass by river. Your farming rotation for the first 2 trips to town will consist of:

1. Little golems
2. Wraiths
3. Wolves

After the first completion of this rotation you go to town and buy your longsword(you may have to wait a few seconds after tping back to have the gold)

After the second trip you will finish your razor. At this point you will be killing everything in the jungle. When you reach level 6 you should always be watching for lanes who have overpushed characters or weak characters to ult in on.

A great trick that people tend to underestimate on any jungler is that once you get your lantern you should never be going back to town unless you have huge sums of gold. The lantern is perhaps one of the greatest items in the game. It allows you to stay full health and keep killing monsters to no end. You should farm several thousand gold before you even consider going back.

Always keep in mind that you should be mindful of your solo lane and support him if he is being pressured too hard. Always gank when your ult is up and do not hesitate to cover a lane for somebody if they need to back (You can net many creep kills this way) The name of the game is farming, do it well and you will be unstoppable before they realize how fullish they were for not shutting you down)

As a jungler you will naturally be roaming all game. To be completely successful you must gank also (You cannot purely jungle all game) Always look for those overpushed lanes earlygame. Later in the game during team fights you will want to ult in and disable their carry. Your goal is to demolish everybody who does the most damage to your team.

There are obviously many what ifs when entering a fight, but I will give a general guideline on how you want to shut people down. In a gank you must first activate your ult and approach your target. Immediately when you get to him you should use your E skill to begin fearing him (Typically people run immediately when you get there) You will then cast your Q to chase them and buff yourself (Always be ready to use W if they have some type of snare or stun) Between your E skill and your phage/frozen mallet it is unlikely anybody will escape. This holds true especially if they are low.