Kid got exposed.

updated.






Trademarks’s guide on Nocturne.




Quick Intro:
First of all, Nocturne is an assassin. This means you don’t want to engage battles and you don’t want
to be targeted in team fights. It also means that he has a great damage output but you can’t take every
champion one versus one (champions like Olaf or Xin Zhao). His middle game/late game abilities to kill
and survive are REALLY depending on your early game play. You need to get kills early to be effective
late game but if you do well, you should end game quickly with Nocturne. For the purpose of this guide,
I’ll explain the way I play Nocturne as a jungler to achieve kills easier early on.


Pros and Cons:
Pros
Fast jungler
Amazing gank abilities
Great damage output
Destabilize other team

Cons
Squishy
Nulled by armor
Weakness to disables


Nocturne’s skills:
Umbra Blades
(Passive) Every 10 seconds, Nocturne's next attack strikes surrounding enemies for 120% of his physical
damage and heals himself for 15 / 20 / 25 per target hit. Nocturne's basic attacks reduce this cooldown by 1 second.

This spell makes jungle and minion farming really easy. It also make your first hit on champions like a truck.


Duskbringer
Nocturne throws a shadow blade which deals damage, leaves a Dusk Trail, and causes champions who are hit
to also leave a Dusk Trail for 5 seconds. While on the trail, Nocturne ignores unit collision and has
increased Movement Speed and Attack Damage.

This will be your only source of damage spell with my build. Make sure not to miss this spell when ganking
because it will take a chunk of enemy’s HP and will ensure you to win any chase.


Shroud of Darkness
(Passive): Nocturne empowers his blades, passively gaining attack speed.
(Active): Nocturne creates a magical barrier for 2 seconds which blocks the next enemy spell.
If an ability is blocked by the shield, his passive attack speed is doubled for 5 seconds.

Very useful shield when jungling AND ganking a lane. Most of the time it will block a CC and/or will provide
you a huge attack speed boost.


Unspeakable Horror
Nocturne plants a nightmare into his target's mind, dealing magic damage over 2 seconds
and fearing the target if they do not get out of 600 range of him for the full duration.


Your only CC but it's the spell that makes you a good ganker. You will have a speed bonus over your enemy with duskbringer
and you will fear your target to ensure a greater damage output. This spell matched with your team mate CC or damage will ensure
a kill 75% of the time when ganking a side lane.


Paranoia
Nocturne reduces the sight radius of all enemy champions and removes their ally vision for 4 seconds, this includes
champions, minions, wards and towers. He can then launch himself at a enemy champion with a large range.
Deals physical damage on arrival

At level 6, your ganks will get even greater with your ultimate. Early game, I don't use it to travel great distance because it's
makes your ganks predictable and easily dodgable. I prefer to use it from the bush to the target because it will mind fuck your ennemy,
put on some decent damage and instantly teleport you on him to ensure a few auto attacks. Later on, when I have my core item
I use it whenever I spot a single target in the map (make sure the target is alone though)


Skill order:
Q > W > Q > E > Q > R > Q > E > Q > E > R > E > W > E > W > R > W > W

I priorize my Q and my E over W because it's your main source of damage and your main source of CC. Your W is useful at level 1
until you really need massive attack speed later on.



Jungling Route:

I start at Wolves and quickly run to Wraiths after. Smiting the Blue one, I finish the 3 others quickly. The life leech
you get from vampiric scepter will ensure you to stay alive and be able to run to dual golems and finish them. At this point
I back to town and come back to kill blue buff and wolves. (At this point you will be level 4, probably before your middle lane
and you can gank since you are full HP and you have your fear). You should get a kill and/or an assist at this point. I
continue my jungling with red buffs and respawned wraiths/golems and constantly check my map for possibilities to gank (over extended ennemies
or low HP). If I can't get a gank at this point, I'll back to town and get my boots. At this point, jungling should be free,
kill everything that respawns. You can do Dragon at level 8 with a potion and your wriggles. Just remember that ganking lane
should be a priority because you NEED kills to be a beast later on OR to end the game very quickly.



After number 5, I seek a gank or I continue to Red buff


Items:

I start off with a vampiric scepterfor easier jungling and for wriggle's lantern. When I come back to town after golems,
I get a cloth armorand a potionto finish blue buff with full HP (making gank easier). After this I got for my boots of speed and
complete my wriggles as soon as possible.

TL;DR

Vampiric scepter Cloth Armor + Potion Boots of speed Wriggles Situational boots (Merc/berserker)

^ These are you main items for jungling, afterwards you start up building your player versus player core item.
Banshee, Youmuu, Bloodthirster, Black cleaver are your choice item. At this point, I never follow a strict
item route even though most of the time I rush my black cleaver.

If the other team is CC/magic heavy, you want to get your banshee ASAP. If they mostly are AD/AS, Randuins and thornmail are better choices.
When the other team is well balanced damage wise, I usually go with a guardian angel, nice armor/magic resist bonus combined with a cool passive.
When you feel like you are totally dominating and the game is about to end, I don't build defensive items. Glass cannon build will shred everybody if you are
fed enough; black cleaver, blood thirster and infinity edge are your choices here.



Masteries and summoners spell:

I go with a 21/0/9 masteries setup. This setup ensure some efficient damage output (crit, Attack speed, attack damage)
from Offense tree and improves your jungling (more experience, longer buffs) from the Utility tree.



For summoners spells, I used smite (obvious for jungling) and ghost. Ghost is used to get in ganks faster or chase/escape
even better. Ghost + your dusk trail will catch up any target (even a teemo)
You could always swap ghost with flash or cleanse if they are CC eavy.

Runes:

I play with a attack speed setup but it can be easily adapted to an attackspeed/armor penetration setup.

9x Attack speed Red (can be changed to 9x armor penetration)
9x Armor yellow
9X attack speed blues
3x Health quintessences

This build focus on jungling but it improves your abilities to fight to with solid attack speed boost and armor bonus.


Strategies:

-While doing blue buff (few seconds before reaching level 4), make sure to spot overextended ennemies or ask your team
to slowly let them push. This will ensure you to have the best ganks possible in the lane you pick.

-While doing the gank, I wait for my mate to engage. You don't want to engage to soon or to late. I wait for my mate
to throw a little damage (most of the time, the ennemy will strike back and that is where you want to go in).
If the ennemy doesn't strike back, wait for your team mate to throw a CC.
Once these steps are done and you are in the fight, you want to throw your Q ASAP so you can have the chance to throw it again if you want to chase.
After your Q is thrown, put on your shield if you feel like they will CC you and use your fear on the target you feel you will get,

-In teamfights, you want to pop in and out like a ghost. You stay slightly behind and roam in when you see a badly positioned carry. Once your damage is dealt or
your cooldowns are used, you want to watch for damages you receive. If they don't seem to target you, finish your job and get the kills. If you feel like
you are tanking some damage, get back off a little bit which will either save you or kite an enemy who will become in a bad position. When an enemy
is badly hurt and about to flee, use your ult to catch him and ensure a kill.

-In a 1v1 battle, you WANT to use your ultimate before the other team gets an eye on you. The damage dealt with your ult's dash and your duskbringer
should take a big chunk of your target's HP and you can fear to make sure they don't
run or to prevent them having a big damage output on you. By the time your ult is off, you will have plenty of time to finish off and/or run away.

-Quick tips:
Your Q can make you run out of jarvan's utimate.
Don't use your Q near trundle since it cause a glitch where trundle will get all is HP back in few seconds.
While dashing with your ultimate, you can already throw your spells and use your shield. If you feel like the enemy will quickly run away,
you can cast your fear instantly or use your shield.




This post was edited by Trademarks on Mar 21 2011 08:01pm

It rubs the lotion on its skin. . .

??

Me likes this guide ;3

You choose ghost as a summoner spell, but you don't pick improved ghost, you choose 3% reduced dead time? Strange...

Other than that, good guide. I build very similarly, but I think I might start trying your jungling route

Just noticed that, thanks for highlight. I screenshoted my mastery tree really quick without double checking.

its moderate. i mean most junglers follow a pretty strict regiment.
gluck if your entering it ni the contest tho.

forgot to ask how does w help jungle?

This post was edited by callo on Mar 22 2011 10:05am

Your W's passive increases your base attack speed by 20/25/30/35/40 %.



I follow a strict route and everything is timed too. This was meant to be a general guide on how to nocturne and I didn't want to focus on hardcore jungle.