Nocturne Build Guide by AsarWeth

About Me
I`ve started playing on season 3 a long time ago, and didn`t even know how to play at that time, i`ve played some ranked games on season 4 and 5 and there is where the love with Nocturne in the Jungle started. At this time i climbed from Bronze to my actual elo and im still trying to get up on the ladder, i mainly play him because of how i really like him and still have a really positive win rate, so i think im doing something right here.

About the Guide
I will be Updating this guide only when i think it needs to be updated, and will try my best to explain how to play Nocturne and use him the right way to win your games! And by the way i play him in many different ways and playstyles and do many experiments on him to get the best part of him, using his kit, stats and everything, its a champion that have a really good build diversity and can be used in many ways. This guide is not Finished & will be maintained

Here we can talk about the pros and cons and also why would you pick nocturne.
First of all he is a really fun to play champion and need more attention from players, right now i know there is more players actually picking him but is just the start of something great. His kit can provide CC, shield, Hard Engage and a really good ammount of damage.

Pros
- Really good Early Game
- Good Ammount of Damage
- Strong gank/roam after lvl 6
- Good pre 6
- Good Sustain and Clear really fast
- Awesome ultimate Paranoia
- Has a Spellshield Shroud of Darkness
- Has Fear Unspeakable Horror
- Can 1v1 almost every jungler
- Carry Killer
- Really Fun to play

Cons
- Fall`s into the late game
- Pretty much a weight if can`t get any early advantage
- Can be deleted in the team fight
- Not the best ganker pre lvl 6
- Struggles against high mobility
- Struggles against some tank

So, you came here probably wondering about the spells i chose to run on nocturne so let me explain those here.

This one is the most important, because it will be helpful in literally every situation you get into, by serving you to escape messy situations, securing a kill and so on.

You just cant do jungle if you dont run this spell, used to secure objectives and can be used on other summoners if you upgrade him. (You can use it to steal minions, but dont tell the laners)

The reason why you can use exaust is to slow down hard engage champions early on the game and even in a late team fight, but you shouldn`t use this as a main spell, Flash is too good for not taking, Exhaust will be good in a situation like with Xin Zhao where you will probably lose if you try to escape him with flash, and with Exhaust you can maybe even kill him.

This spell i have a diffrent approach, most people will say that it will be used just for specific teamfights and splitpushing or even playing behind, but right now i will give a new use to it, this is a pretty intresting use, if you use your and then Teleport in you will be able to use your after ending the Teleport and getting a much higher range in your main engage skill, and even help your team in a situation you aren`t present at the right moment.

This is a good spell for nocturne in lane, you can secure kill, have more damage against the opposite laner and block her from healing, its really useful with all the burst you have.

This is spell is really cool to use, i wouldn`t say that`s not worth, if you feel like chasing down people, just do it! (Not the most optimal spell to run)(OFF-META)

Let`s Start talking about the optimal Jungle Routes.

Full Clear (Most Optimal Route)
1st - Red Brambleback
2nd - Krug
3rd - Crimson Raptor
4th - Murk Wolf
5th - Blue Sentinel
6th - Gromp

Buff to Buff (better to look for gank and faster route)
1st - Red Brambleback
2nd - Blue Sentinel
3rd - Gromp

Vertical Jungle
First of all let`s talk about this, if you see your enemy doing an early invade or anything like that, you will probably be in a bad spot, and you will need to go for this strategy to survive, unless you can kill him and get an early advantage.
This stategy is what happens when you go for an early invade and farm half of your enemies jungle in one side, and all of your jungle of the same side, and also give up your jungle in the other side. Pretty confusing right, so let me give you an example of that.
(In this example the enemy invaded your red side and you counter invade his other part of the map)
1st - Enemy Blue Sentinel
2nd - Enemy Gromp
3rd - Red Brambleback
4th - Krug
5th - Crimson Raptor

(Way to counter this strategy and invades)(Warning, this is a high risk paly, keep an eye on laners)
1st - Red Brambleback
2nd - Enemy Red Brambleback (You will find the enemy jungler here most of the times, so free kill & 2 Red Buff)

Keep in mind that the best way to counter this vertical jungle meta, is starting solo at the your top lane buff, but call for help in case of those early invades, Nocturne can easily do leashless jungle and still get ahed if played correctly.

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Keep in mind you can look for Gank/Counter Ganks during your clearing, you don`t need to stare at the jungle enemies. (Don`t go for saving allies, go for a better fight)

Rift Scuttler - One of the most important objective early and late in the game, and many times people underestimate his value, the Gold and Experience you get are high values, but one of the key reasons is the vision control and movment speed in the river, and the enemy can`t do anything about that unless warding the same spot. (This is a high treat to those jungles that try to make early Dragon)

What you need to go for the Crab?
-Lane Priority (Most Valuable to have a laner on your side)
-Trading Potential (Can you win the trade against the enemy jungler?)
-Smite need`s to be Up (Can you smite the crab and get out?)

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Pushing / Taxing Lanes
When will you Tax the lane?
Especially when you get a sucessfull gank, but you get the Assist, dont keep going to the lane and farming the minions.

When will you help Pushing the lane?
This is very occasional, you will do this when you get a sucessfull gank and you know the enemy laner does not have Teleport up, or the enemy laner is out and you cant keep up to him AND your laner is not returning to lane.

Can i Freeze the lane for my laner?
Yes, definetly you should do this, but be careful doing this, and most laners won`t understand what you are doing, but you should definetly help your laners to keep up their farms, but you will loose time Ganking/Farming by doing this, so measure your time.

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Warding and Avoiding
You are probably wondering what to do when your enemy early warded your Blue/Red Side? or any of your jungle camps.
It`s very simple what you need to do here, he will probably try going for it as soon as he can, and he will probably get your track by doing this. So the best thing to do in this situation is, if you want to get that buff/camp call help from your laner to cover you, but if you want to surprise the enemy jungler and try to get ahed with this extremely bad situation in hands, go for his buff/camp if you have any lane priority or trading potential and get her jungle side, this will probably end up in a vertical jungle scenario, we`ve talked about earlier, and in any of this situations if you aren`t really ahed, you will just need to avoid that jungle camp, and avoid getting tracked by the enemy jungler.

Nothing special here, just explaining the build orders and these things. It's pretty messy up there but i hope i can give you a direction.

There are Core Items for Nocturne, normally after finishing your jungle item of choice for your match (Normally the Atk DMG or Atk SPD item) you are going to rush one or two of those items, and after that you will go for the items that combine best to the matchup. There are many examples of what im trying to say up there.

The Crit build is just for fun, dont take everything and try to apply, everything is situational, the key is to learn how to build correctly.

Item order and items are a win conditions you need to learn and apply correctly.

Every item i've placed in the guide for defensive/ofensive/situational there is a reason, and has been tested, i like to change my build everytime and adapt to the game, is one of the key factors playing this game.