Nocturne Build Guide by Dspur

Introduction

Nocturne is an extremely strong jungle and carry. With his semi global pressure, huge damage, and early/mid game threat of instant killing he is by far (in my opinion) the best jungler for carrying low elo games.

Pros / Cons

+ Fast Clear Time
+ Great Ganker
+ Semi-Global Pressure (Can Split push 1 lane over late game)
+ Extremely hard to peel with Unspeakable Horror, Frozen Mallet, speed from Duskbringer and Shroud of Darkness.
+ Terrifying when fed
+ Snowballs extremely hard

- Can be squishy if you don't snowball hard enough (Not a problem below low diamond/high plat though)
- Not innately tanky like other popular jungles.
- Unreliable CC (Must stay tethered for Unspeakable Horror to go off)
- Can counter snowball (Useless later on if you don't stay relevant early game)

Runes

The only required runes are Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage. Any combination of Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist can work for glyphs (The combination I listed is my personal favorite though), and Any combination of Greater Mark of Attack Speed, Greater Mark of Attack Damage, and Greater Mark of Armor Penetration will work (However the ones I have listed I have found to be optimal). The reason all AD runes are the most optimal is because they scale the best into damage with your Paranoia and Duskbringer and provide the biggest benefit overall.

Masteries

The offense tree is pretty self explanitory; you take all the damage bonuses and all the proc effects since they all activate off of your Duskbringer and Unspeakable Horror. As for taking the 9 in defense over 9 in utility, I feel Nocturne doesn't gain next to anything outside of the increased buff duration ( Runic Affinity ) and reduced summoner spell cooldown ( Summoner's Insight ), since I feel the 1.5% movement speed from Fleet of Foot doesn't help all that much for Nocturne since he has Duskbringer,from utility. Where as in defense he gains reduced minion damage ( Tough Skin ), reduced champion damage ( Block and Unyielding ), and health ( Veteran's Scars and Juggernaut ) which are all huge pluses (Especially the health since you build so much damage).

Summoner Spells

These are the summoner spells I have found to be the best. Smite is required for securing objectives such as Ancient Golem , Lizard Elder , Dragon , and Baron . Flash is more interchangeable with maybe Exhaust or Ghost, however I definitely still recommend Flash over the others as your secondary summoner spell because it allows for wiggle room and mistakes if you happen to mess up, which can happen especially if you're new to this Nocturne guide.

Abilities Explained

Umbra Blades is what makes Nocturne built for the jungle, and also what helps you clear waves extremely fast. Between the sustain and the aoe damage in team fights this is one of Nocturnes most important factors.

Duskbringer is Nocturne's bread and butter for ganking, chasing and clearing. The insane damage it provides while your on it as well as the movement speed and burst is why you max this first. Duskbringer helps in every aspect of jungling on Nocturne.

Outside of the small cooldown decrease and the 5% per rank (outside of the first) for Shroud of Darkness you do not gain much for maxing it early or mid game. With the first point you gain a whopping 20% attack speed. This is why you max it last to scale you into late game.

The main reason you max Unspeakable Horror second is because the fear increases with each rank by a fairly significant amount each rank. This is your only form of CC (Crowd Control) so it is important to get this up in rank to make your ganks even scarier.

Paranoia is what makes Nocturne who he is. He is a terrifying Jungler that has semi global pressure, utility, and CC (Crowd Control). You max this every time you can because the range increases extremely significantly with each rank as well as lowering the cooldown on it.

Overall Nocturnes kit meshes extremely well together and makes him terrifying in solo queue. I hope this help explained my reasoning as to why I favor his Duskbringer and Paranoia for maxing and decide to make Shroud of Darkness last to scale into late game..

Skill Sequence

This is my exact skill order, the only exception is that if you are not planning on fighting until level 4 (No lanes are gankable) then I would get Duskbringer at level 3 and Unspeakable Horror at level 4.

Paranoia> Duskbringer> Unspeakable Horror> Shroud of Darkness(1 point in all four by level 6 though)

Items

Core Build
You start off with Hunter's Machete, 5 Health Potions, and Sweeping Lens. The Hunter's Machete and 5 Health Potions provide clearing speed while maintaining good health. You take Sweeping Lens over the other trinkets so you can clear wards to gank. Sweeping Lens will automatically upgrade when you're level 9 and you can upgrade it again whenever you have a spare 475 gold or feel its necessary (I personally do not see it as necessary for this particular trinket), similar to Enchantment: Homeguard which I'll mention later. Early game the CDR you get from Spirit of the Elder Lizard and The Brutalizer puts you at 30% cdr every time you have blue and therefore can spam gank with your ult which helps snowball your team. With this core build if you catch someone off guard you can ultimate in and instantly kill them with Blade of the Ruined King, your Duskbringer, Trinity Force, and your Unspeakable Horror. The reason Trinity Force is a must on Nocturne is because it makes you near impossible to peel and guarantees you most kills within reason. As far as boots go you either want to get Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on the situation; You would want to get Ninja Tabi sometimes because AD carrys are what shut you down later in the game or if they have other strong AD champions, or get Mercury's Treads if they don't have a lot of AD or have a lot of crowd control (CC). Get Enchantment: Homeguard whenever you feel you have the extra 475g (Or obviously if you need it if you are losing), I feel Enchantment: Homeguard is the best boot enchant and can help bring back games or speed up lane pushing. Also if the game drags out to the point where you can buy another boot enchant other than Enchantment: Homeguard (like Enchantment: Furor), the game is probably pretty close and you need Enchantment: Homeguard regardless.

Armor Items
The only armor items I like on nocturne and think are good are Randuin's Omen and Guardian Angel. Randuin's Omen is good all around, where as Guardian Angel is much more situational. If you have a team that can peel while you're rezzing then Guardian Angel can be very good.

Magic Resist Items
If you need magic resist you have much more options, if you're team does not have a Runic Bulwark I would prioritize that. Outside of that I would go either Maw of Malmortius or Banshee's Veil as I feel Spirit Visage isn't as good since you go over CDR cap and thus end up wasting stats. If you are getting behind early though it is best to go straight into building tanky.

Armor Pen Items
It is up to you to determine when you want to upgrade your your The Brutalizer. If they start stacking armor pen early I would rush a Last Whisper and sell The Brutalizer once you run out of room for items. If they don't get more than 1 to 2 armor items then you are fine with upgrading to The Black Cleaver later in the game.

Creeping / Jungling

For starting jungle routes I like to start whichever side you're ADC and support are on so they can help Lizard Elder / Blue Buff and give a smiteless. Then rush the other buff, and do either wolves / wraiths to hit level 3 then gank top/middle/invade jungle. Since you have a lot of strong early pressure you can usually pretty easily get a kill somewhere.

Invades, Counterjungling, and Invading

When the enemy team is invading or counterjungling it is best to get your E Unspeakable Horror second to help with killing, kiting, etc. Most of the time it is best to let the enemy team get whatever buff they are invading on because in solo queue you can never trust your team with invades or invading. Which is also why I recommend to never invade, regardless of your team comp or level 1 strength. Nocturne is not too reliant on Ancient Golem or Lizard Elder for ganking and jungling so it is not worth the risk to contest the buff. The only time I would recommend counterjungling is if you have a clear advantage (Like your mid lane just killed their mid lane). Outside of that just farm up, gank, and counter gank lanes if your nearby.

Jungle Spawn Times

Remember the following jungle spawn times:
Wraiths : 2:05
Double Golems : 2:05
Wolves : 2:05
Wight Camp: 2:05
Ancient Golem : 1:55
Lizard Elder : 1:55
Dragon : 2:30
Baron Nashor : 15:00

Jungle Respawn Timers

Remember the following jungle respawn timers:
Wraiths : 50 Seconds
Double Golems : 50 Seconds
Wolves : 50 Seconds
Wight Camp: 50 Seconds
Ancient Golem : 5 Minutes
Lizard Elder : 5 Minutes
Dragon : 6 Minutes
Baron Nashor : 7 Minutes

Ganking

Below are all the opportune spots to rank 1 Paranoia gank with Nocturne. Past rank 1 your possibilities obviously are much greater. There are 4 prime spots in each lane (2 on each side).

Farming

Farm everywhere possible, if someone is backed push their lane to tower. You can easily clear waves by Duskbringer'ing it as it comes in then running in the middle and auto attack to proc your passive. Be constantly farming the jungle and lanes as this is the only way you will become the terror that wins games.

Team Work/Grouping

Try to never group (Do yo own thang), just try to pick people off then force uneven engages favoring your team. With this build Baron and Dragon are extremely easy so every time you pick someone off try to take one of these objectives or a tower as this helps snowball your entire team.

Conclusion

Overall Nocturne is an very strong jungle to carry with and not that hard to learn and pick up. I've climbed through silver, gold, plat, and diamond with him. He may not be the best in competitive, but is a solo queue nightmare (Ha get it?). He is good to consistently carry regardless of your teams skill level and to climb the ladder.