Hello, and welcome to my guide for Nocturne - The Eternal Nightmare. This is my first guide. As such, it is just my general way of playing this champion. Nothing is set in stone. Some things may work better for you. This is just to let people know what I've had success with, and I hope that it helps someone out there. Please vote and leave a comment letting me know what you think about it.

Now, with this champion being new, and the Champion Spotlight showcasing the jungle potential of this champion, I originally played this character as a jungle. Unfortunately I don't feel that Nocturne is a strong jungle champion. Sure, he is a great ganker, and you should definitely use this to your advantage. I suggest taking bottom lane with a partner to fully utilize this champion.

Pro's

Extremely mobile
Great ganker
Early game your passive can keep you in your lane a while if used correctly
Late game you will be a powerhouse in MOST 1v1 situations (common sense dictates which fights to stay in)
Great farmer mid-late game.

Con's

Extremely squishy throughout the match
Your ult can make you greedy, so some self control needs to be used here
Farm dependent.

Umbra Blades

This might not be the best passive in the game, but combined with the passive from Shroud of Darkness and the attack speed of Phantom Dancer or madred's bloodrazer, this passive can hit quiet often. This passive is good if you are being harassed in the laning phase as it allows you to hang back and come in and use it to hit the 3 melee minions at the front of the pack. While this isn't a ton of extra health, when you are being forced back every little bit helps. Just don't risk dying to get the health. That would be silly.

Duskbringer
This is an amazing ability. Aside from his ult, this ability is what makes Nocturne such a great assassin. Early game, if you go with Long Sword and use the runes I suggest (see the next chapter: Runes) you'll see some substantial burst after just two points in this skill. The damage on the ability late game is still nice, and the ability to chase down enemies or escape from a gank without unit collision can lead to you getting in or out of situations you probably shouldn't be in anyways. We all get greedy from time to time though, and this ability will occasionally keep us from getting punished for it. I max this skill first.

Shroud of Darkness
This is what gives us some of our much needed attack speed, making our passive that much more deadly. And guess what? You get to block an enemy spell. Thats not it. Upon a successful block, the passive is doubled. Using this spell immediately following your ult can keep you alive long enough to get that kill or two you went after. I max this skill second

Unspeakable Horror

Unspeakable Horror is an ability that is great for ensuring those people that think they are going to get away aren't successful. It places a DOT on the target, places a link between you and the target. If the link isn't broken (done by out ranging Nocturne) the target is feared at the ending of the DOT. Great for those 1v1's you wouldn't win otherwise.

Paranoia
This is what makes people hate Nocturne. Not only does it remove shared vision with allies and reduce the sight radius of all enemy champions, but it also enables you to move quickly, ignoring all terrain, to an enemy champion with range. The range of this ability is about the same range of Ashe's rank 1 or 2 Hawkshot. This is what makes you a great ganker, because you don't have to be remotely near your target to participate in a gank.

My recommendations

I am currently testing out other possibilities and will update this sections as soon as I come to a solid conclusion

I use ghost because being squishy, you'll need to get out of situations extremely fast. Also useful while chasing down a target. Great in conjunction with Duskbringer


I used flash for the same reason I use ghost. I love being able to get in and out of situations fast. Not really anything else to say about this ability. You guys know its usefulness.

Other options coming soon!

Out of all the games I've played with Nocturne, I've found a set of runes I find work best. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

Marks
Greater Mark of Desolation - For obvious reason, we are an AD champion, and this will make our skills hit harder. I wouldn't use anything else here.

Seals
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - At the time of this writing, I've tried several different seals, and I find that early game I am able to get first blood a lot more often when I'm able to spam my Duskbringer a lot more often. This allows me to keep a good harass and possible first blood.

Glyphs
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - I love cooldown runes. I've dabbled a bit with Greater Glyph of Attack Speed but didn't like it as much. It allows me to spam my skills more often, and who doesn't want to reduce the cooldown on Paranoia?

**Optional**
As I receive suggestions and try out different rune sets I will add in some optional runes for those that don't have certain runes or just prefer a different set.

Won't go into too much detail here, as you can see what I prefer my masteries to be set to. I haven't tried using a utility build because Nocturne excels at doing physical damage, so why not help him succeed by building him for more dmg?

I like to start out with a Doran's Blade. This will make your Duskbringer do a good bit of damage at rank 2. Combined with the lifesteal (albeit low) and smart use of your passive, you can stay in a lane for a while. (Alternatively, you can start with a if the enemy team has a lot of harass. This will give you survivability early game.)
+
On my first trip back, I try to get Boots and a The Brutalizer. This will give you some nice speed and some serious damage this early in the game.
+ catalyst the protector
Finish your boots and start working on a catalyst. You'll eventually turn this into a Banshee's Veil.

Upgrade your The Brutalizer for increased damage. This item is great on Nocturne, and the active ability is just amazing.

Now you'll have two shields. Enemies won't know how the hell you just destroyed them. This gives us the defense we really need to stay in fights.

Now, if enemies weren't taking you serious before, you are going to prove them wrong. We have the survivability, now we have the damage to back that up.
the bloodthrister
Upgrade your B. F. Sword so that you have good damage + lifesteal. By this point, you should be able to solo almost any champ.

More AD with some more crit. By this point, if the game is still going, you will be hitting like a truck.

As for the 6th item? Check back for a full list of items that would go well in this slot.

I will include a full guide on how I play Nocturne, from early to late game, over the next couple of days.

This guide is nowhere near done. I wanted to get a quick guide up so that I might help someone that is having trouble with this champion. This champion is extremely fun to play, and I hope you guys enjoyed the guide. +1 if you like, -1 if you don't, but please leave a comment so that I know what I did right and what I need to change.

Thanks