Hello and welcome to my new Nocturne guide! In this guide I will explain you how I like to build Nocturne and I will add some hints & tricks. This guide will contain different directions in the ways how you play him and how you build him item-wise. For this, you require some own knowledge of the game in order to determine which build and playstyle will fit you the most.

NOTICE: I do infact own this guide, but when making it I accidentally posted is as a guest somehow, so ignore the uncomplete similiar guest build you may find!

Try the build first before voting! Thanks and enjoy!

AD = Attack Damage
AS = Attack Speed
ArP = Armor Penetration
CC = Crowd Controll
CD = Cooldown
CDR = Cooldownreduction
AoE = Area of Effect
LS = LifeSteal
OOM = Out of Mana
UB = Umbra Blades
DB = Duskbringer
SoD / shield = Shroud of Darkness
UH / Fear (ability) = Unspeakable Horror
PN / Ulti = Paranoia

Pros
-Great chaser
-Great escape mechanism
-High endgame DPS
-Has CC
-Has a spell block
-An Ultimate which rocks in every way
-He's a ghoast *Stealth ****bricks reference*


Cons
-Squishy
-Mana starved pretty quick
-Requires a certain degree of skill (in ways of timing, estimating stuff ect.)
-Uses a quite expensive build in some people's eyes (atleast that counts for this build)

I went with some ArP Marks and Quintessences because they're simply the biggest increase to your damage (rune-wise). For the Glyphs and Seals I picked AS because of the fact that Nocturne preferes AS due to his passive.

I went with a standard 21/0/9. No need to explain this I guess, it's just the most viable spec ingame for an AD based champ. However I want to add one little tip to this: please make use of your Utility Master masterypoint, it increases the buff duration. I can't stress enough to how many people get into the Utility tree for this Mastery and then don't use it in terms of collecting buffs. If you've got time leave your lane for a few seconds, then by all means grab a buff!

Makes chasing (specially early game) even easier, plus it can be used defensively aswell against other AD champs.

] Another escape ability that many people seem to prefere on Nocturne, very helpful.

This combined with your Ulti will make you never say "lucker" in /all anymore. It also come sin handy when your against a champ who can heal. I actually won much fights due to Ignite, let's take Mundo, if you use Ignite on him right after he used his Ulti it will severly cripple him and will maybe even get you a kill cuz of it. And because you are pretty squishy, you want to have the fight as short as possible because you can't maintain a constant stream of damage.

A ghost with ghost mhhh, well it could come in handly, it's your own preference, on Nocturne I just prefere Exhaust and Ignite over Ghost.

For the other Spells: I could list them, but you will get the same brabble as in other guides, you've read it a thousand times already, do you realy want me to explain why you shouldn't take Revive again?

Umbra Blades
Every 10 seconds, Nocturne's next attack strikes surrounding enemies for 120% of his physical damage and heals himself for each target hit. Nocturne's physical attacks reduce this cooldown by 1 second.

This is why AS serves Nocturne so well, with a decent amount of AS this will proc very often. It deals 120% physical damage meaning that it will hit more than a standard AA. The best part is that you will deal AoE dmg to everyone around you. This is realy helpfull when you're still in early game and you're laning. If the minions stand relatively close to eachother walk to the ranged minions, so that you stand between the ranged minions and the melee minions. This way you will hit al the mionions and you will get healed like crazy. This works the same on teamfights but watch out! you're still squishy!



Duskbringer
Nocturne throws a shadow blade which deals damage, leaves a Dusk Trail, and causes champions to leave a Dusk Trail. While on the trail, Nocturne ignores unit collision and has increased Movement Speed and Attack Damage.

Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
Physical Damage: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage)
Movement Speed Bonus: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%
Attack Damage Bonus: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60
Cooldown: 10 seconds

This ability makes you an ultimate chaser AND escaper (combo'd with his fear. The best way to use this is when you engage someone, this will increase the chance of hitting; you can take a better aim from let's say the bush. Try to stay in the black trail to increase your movementspeed (obviously).


Shroud of Darkness
Nocturne empowers his blades, passively gaining attack speed. Activating Shroud of Darkness allows Nocturne to fade into the shadows, creating a magical barrier which blocks a single enemy spell and doubles his passive attack speed if successful.

Cost: 50 mana
Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 seconds
Passive Attack Speed Bonus: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

The passive AS just rocks, the first rank will add 20% allready, that's huge early game! Beside the awesome passive AS this ability gives, it also gives you some defence. You can either use it to save your own *** (blocking Karthus' Ulti? yes please!), but you can also use it to initiate. When you take Sion or Annie for example, they will both open with a stun on you. When you pop this right before you engage them it will just block the stun! I can't count how many times I turned the tide against those two by simply popping this and screw up their rotation. All this is nice and well, but it requires some timing because the shield won't last that long!


Unspeakable Horror
Nocturne plants a nightmare into his target's mind, dealing damage each second and fearing the target if they do not get out of range by the end of the duration.

Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 seconds
Total Magic Damage: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (+1.0 per ability power)

While the DoT itself doesn't do that much damage you want this because of the fear. Depending on how you entered the fight, you want to use it asap. Examples: You enter the fight with your ulti: Put the DoT on him right after it (I don't reccomend using DB here first as your arrow might start spinning cuz you are still moving and you can then accidentally shoot it to the wrong direction). When you enter with DB, DoT him right away.
Beside the chasing part, you can also use it to escape combo'd with DB and SoD. I will explain this trick in the Tips & Tricks section of this guide.


Paranoia
Nocturne reduces the sight radius of all enemy champions and removes their ally vision in the process. He can then launch himself at a nearby enemy champion.

Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 160 / 130 / 100 seconds
Physical Damage: 150 / 300 / 450 (+1.2 per bonus attack damage)
Range: 2500 / 3250 / 4000

Ok, this ability makes Nocturne a perfect assassin and a mega-cool champ! Someone managed to get a headstart of you? ULTI! Your team engaged in a teamfight and you're not there yet? ULTI! You are getting ganked by 3 enemys but there is some other enemy standing solo in the direction you are fleeing (he's attacking your turret for example)? ULTI!
Seriously this has many uses and combined with some AD will make it hit pretty hard for an opener or a finisher due to the nice AD scaling.
NOTE: I tend to make the mistake to use it when I'm not in range yet. This mainly comes due the fact that rank 3 of your Ulti has a larger range than rank 1 and 2. MIND THAT! This is what I meant that you need to estimate if you will make it or not with your current rank.

I take all 3 of my abilities at the start as atleast 1 rank in all skills will make you pretty strong from the start. After that I just max DB for greater dmg and better chasing / escaping possibilities. When my DB is maxed I start maxing SoD. The passive just rocks and realy adds up while UH only increases in damage, and we don't use it for damage, we use it for the fear only in this build so 1 point in it early on will do.

You start the game with a and a . The potion combined with your passive will give you enough power to stay in lane for a while. Idealy you want to recall for the first time when you can buy and at once. If your lane is doing perfectly wait till you can get a also. If you need to recall earlier as intended and you can't buy the whole boots at once get first. Same goes for ; if you can't buy it at once, buy a first.
When you've got those 3 items you will probably in midgame and you will start ganking. Because you're mainly ganking there aren't any set points for recalling. Just gank in another lane and stay when you have enough health left and go back when you're low on health. It's best to eliminate the whole enemy lane you're ganking and then quickly push the turret with the original laners of your team. Get first so that you can stay longer in a lane you just ganked to regain health to either make another kill or to be able to push the turret. It's also nice for when you're going toe-to-toe with an enemy, this item can be a deciding factor.
Now we will finish our starting with again if you can't complete the whole item at once. A ****load of AS and crit aswell as movementspeed, yes please!
Next we'll finish it has everything we want: AD, Crit chance, ArP, CDR and an active which grants AS and movementspeed, can it get any better?
We'll build the into a as it gives a ****load of AD and LS making you deal way more dmg when you stack it and be a bit tougher to kill since you heal yourself.
is up next. Again a nice amount of AD but it's about the Crit and increased Crit damages it gives. At this point you should have alot of critchance from , and itself already so the increased Crit damage will come in very handly.
The last item is very depending on you enemies. Go with a when you're against beefy champs such as Jax, Sion, Udyr ect. who have average defence stats but a high amount of hp. Go with if you're against normal-to-squishy champs (specially hp wise) and when you're against a tank who is stacking armor. Get a Banshee''s Veil if you feel focussed or dyig quickly as it adds health for survival, mana which Nocturne is mostly starved on and the best apart: A SHIELD! A SECOND SHIELD! ofcourse you shouldn't always go these items last, if you feel the need of a early by all means get it! Don't get it as your last item when you need it as your 3rd of 4th item already.

Some aspect might be mention already but I'll summarise them here:

Early Game

You should be laning pretty defensively till you've atleast build up 3 abilities. Don't spam your abilities to much as you will be OOM pretty quick. Olny use (spam) your abilities when you are going to either kill him or push him way back (or force a recall). Let your other laning partner do the poking. The golembuff changes this ofcourse as it will let you spam your abilities more while not getting OOM that quick.

Mid Game

This is where you start ganking. Try to gank someone in another lane and then push the turret with 3 man as you will be a big help with taking down the turrets. Get your asap as you want to have max stacks of it fast. If you can get it quickly enough head into the jungle and grab some buffs and kill some creeps (also in-lane minions to defend lanes aswell) as it will stack your pretty quick.

Late Game

At this point you want to be heading towards (or maybe even have it already if you're having a good game) . You'll be dishing out insane damage already and you've still got 1 more item to go. You should determine (looking to the others team and your current state) which one to take. from now on, it's just a regular late game as most champions have only you will be scaring the **** out of people.

-Effective minionfarming
Using your passive effectively will noticeable increase your minion kill count. When you see that your next AA will proc your passive, wlak between the enemies ranged and melee minions and then hit the ranged minions. Normally the minions are pretty close together so you will hit the whole wave at once! It will heal you like mad so it's specially usefull early game. When you've got some decent items mid game - late game you will be able to liek oneshot a whole (stacked up) minionwave.

-Escaping
Every ability of Nocturne can be used offensive as defensive. You can toss your DB infront of you and then walk over the trail in order to gain movementspeed and outrun the person who's chasing you.
Another nice trick is to use your fear. Use your DoT on the person who's chasing you. If he stays in rnage long enough he will get feared, and as he is chasing you he allways will be in range of it. When he runs out of range of your fear then you've succesfully ditched him so it's a win-win-situation.
Use your shield well! Much champiosn tend to stun / snare / slow you when chasing, if you see a stun coming, shield and block it! I can't count how many times I've blocked a stun like Sion's stun and succesfully came away due to it.
Your Ulti can be used defensively aswell. When you're getitng ganked by like 3 champs you can use your Ulti on another enemy who's standing solo (and away from the gnskers) in order to avoid them. And as the map is disabled for a few secs they won't see where you went to. DO watch out with this tough! You might get stunned / slowed / raped or whatever by the champion your charging to, so use it wisely.

-Buffs
gather them as much as possible. Don't be afraid to take the golembuff just because you're not a mage! You're OOM pretty quick and you could use the CD reduction in order to keep harrasing. A mage needs it for the same reason, so why wouldn't you have the smae rights as him / her?

-Engaging with your Ulti
Specially in teamfights don't charge in first! you're still squishy, even with . Wait for your tank to initia and then go in.
Also don't be afraid to go into the jungle for a sec to regen some hp (via LS) when you know a teamfight is coming, you can easly hop in the fight with your Ulti.

-Youmuu's Ghostblade's active
Don't forget about this, it has a relatively short CD for it's power. Use it to either escape with the movementspeed it grants or to chase and harras with the AS aswell. This can realy turn the tides for you. You cna use it by pressing the "1" key on your keyboard (as it will be standing on the first place in your inventory) so it's activated easly.

-Using the walls
When someone get away with very low health by just outrunning you and hide behind a wall of fby using flash or any other wallhack, determine which way he will go and then toss your DB after him as it deals a nice amount of damage.

Thanks for reading my guide, be sure to leave a comment and to vote this build (up ofcourse! :P) Advice is always welcome! I will try to keep this updated.

< 19-03-11 > : Posted the guide for public viewing
< 19-03-11 > : Fixed some minor typos
< 21-03-11 > : Changed Ignite to flash since many people don't read the guide at all and downvote it becasue they don't see a summoner spell like flash at the top of the page
< 18-04-11 > : Changed the introduction a little bit