Hey there guys, and welcome to my "The First Nail" Nocturne Build Guide! This build I came up with in late October, and has worked to a good degree of success in both ranked and unranked setups. It utilises the great initiation ability that Nocturne possesses as a result of his ultimate, Paranoia.

Pros

• Nocturne is a very strong jungler and counter-jungler. Playing aggressively as him will often pay dividends post-level 6.
  
• Your ganking presence is nothing short of fantastic. You can engage from a long way away with Paranoia, but still gank strongly before level 6 or when it is on cooldown by combining your other abilities.
  
• This build provides a very strong balance between damage and sustain, allowing you to initiate fights using Paranoia and deal heavy damage across the period of a teamfight, as opposed to leaping in and dying in two flat seconds.

Cons

• It is a balanced build. Do not expect to A) Deal ridiculous amounts of damage, or B) Be able to tank the damage of a whole team. This build is a 'best compromise' between the two, at the cost of some parts of both.
  
• As a Nocturne, you tend to suffer in your early jungling if you cannot get blue buff.
  
• You can be counter-jungled with relative ease in the early stages of the game.

• Offence: 12 points.
  Be sure to take Brute Force , Butcher , Alacrity , and Weapon Expertise allow for good damage and jungle clearing.
• Defence: 9 points.
  This allows you to take Hardiness , Tough Skin , and Bladed Armor , which will further contribute to your jungle clearing and afford you a bit of tank in the early stages of the game.
• Utility: 9 points.
  Here, you want to be looking at Swiftness and Runic Affinity specifically. The former will help you get around, and the latter will allow you to make the most of your buffs.

• Marks:
  I take Greater Mark of Attack Speed for this build, as they work very well in conjunction with Nocturne's passive. Since Umbra Blades' cooldown is reduced with every basic attack, the higher his attack speed is, the more often your passive will be active. You could potentially take Greater Mark of Attack Damage or greater mark of desolation could also be great, but I find that you want most of the above is the attack speed, for the reasons already stated.
• Seals:
  Taking Greater Seal of Armor will help you with some early resistance, meaning that you will take less damage when jungling, and when ganking.
• Glyphs:
  You could possibly take Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist with Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, but I prefer the latter, as the early-game benefit is much greater.
• Quints:
  Since I took attack speed on red, I take Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage to compensate for some of the attack damage I forwent earlier.

Core Build:

• You can start your build in multiple ways, most of which end you with Wriggle's Lantern and Boots.

• From here, building Berserker's Greaves will give your attack speed a nice boost, which is further increased when you build Wit's End, and also provides a good amount of magic resistance. Getting a Phage sets you up for a very strong mid-game.

Mid/Late-Game Build:

• From this solid platform, I find that a major damage item is next on the agenda. I personally like to take Black Cleaver for the extra attack speed and armour shred.
• I then buy Hexdrinker and a Chain Vest, before completing Frozen Mallet.
• Next, I finish building Guardian Angel, and then finish up by building Maw of Malmortius.

Maxing Duskbringer provides a massive increase to the effectiveness of your ganks, as the movement speed bonus while on the trail allows you to close for Unspeakable Horror easily. It also grants bonus AD while you are on it.

Maxing out Unspeakable Horror next will further increase the potency of your ganks, as its damage and the duration of its fear component is increased. You max Shroud of Darkness last, as it's primary use is for the shield component. Yes, the attack speed is handy, but it is only really useful for its utility.

A must-have for this build, as you are a jungler. In the early game, Nocturne does take a lot of damage while trying to get the buffs, and without it, would lose a considerable amount more health doing so. Also, if you upgrade it using Summoner's Resolve , then you get 10 gold every time you use it.


There are arguments for Flash or Ghost on this build, but I prefer to take Flash, as it will allow you to catch a fleeing opponent far safer than Ghost. It is better when chasing because it will allow you to avoid most CC's your target throws your way. Ghost, when combined with, say, Youmuu's Ghostblade, will allow you to run really fast, catching up very quickly, but you are susceptible to CC effects while you do this.

In my opinion, the only champion on which this is viable is Dr. Mundo. The fact is you should not, if you are playing Nocturne right, be dying anyway.


Not required because you should be picking up your team's blue buff at the start of the game and whenever your team's mid laner does not need/want it.


In all simplicity, you are a jungler. The only time you will come into contact with siege minions is when you are ganking a lane, and all it will do is steal gold from your laning allies, and push their lane, which will leave them wide open to ganks from the opposing jungler.


It should be your support's responsibility to take this if they do not take Exhaust, and a sight ward or two, well placed in the opposing jungle will not cause any major dent in your gold, and keep you wised up on the general position of the other team's jungler.

Key:
Arrows: Gank Routes
Numbers: Jungle Route (the Elthizar way)

• Start at the wolf camp, getting some assistance from your mid-laner.
• Get your mid to pull the blue buff, then kill with extreme prejudice.
  {Elthizar's Crazy Moment #3}
• Take the wraith camp, then re-do the wolf camp when it respawns.
• Take the red buff (your Smite should be available again by now).
• Assess the situation, then gank or continue jungling.

This is Elthizar, signing off after my 3rd proper build! If you've been looking for a build of this ilk, I hope the The First Nail will be as effective for you as it has been for me!

Please leave a comment and rate this build. Not to be whiny, but can negative feedback be limited to constructive criticism only please; if you down-vote the build, please explain your reasoning, so I can edit the build accordingly (if I feel your point is sufficiently qualified).