Hello!

My name is Ryan, and if you are a long time MOBAfire user you might recognize me. I created a Lux Guide back in 2015 (that I sort of abandoned...) that somehow got over 100K views LOL!

Anyway, I enjoy playing a numerous amount of champions, and I have been playing League of Legends since Darius' release back in 2012. Although mechanics are an important part of the game, I am a firm believer that Macro is the name of the game, baby.
Now, you might be asking yourself:

Why the **** would I want to play Nocturne in Season 8? Are you crazy?

To answer your question: yes. I am a little bit crazy. But in order to win games, one-shot people, improve as a player, and most importantly, HAVE FUN, you need to be a little bit crazy, too.

Now, I really like playing Assassins. Whether it be top, mid, or ADC (last time I checked they don't have assassin supports), I have always gravitated to champions that dish out tons of damage while also having the thrill of being relatively squishy. Oh, and before I forget to say this later, if you are trying to improve at League of Legends and climb out of Bronze, Silver, or Gold, LEARN HOW TO PLAY SQUISHY CHAMPIONS. This will teach you the importance of positioning, map awareness, and knowing your limits. If you just play Sejuani or Darius every game you are not going to get any better at all.

That being said, Nocturne is a squishy, burst assassin and should NOT be played as a bruiser/engager. I don't care how many guides or replays you might have seen showing people buy items like Titanic Hydra on Nocturne. This is not how he is meant to be played. Players in high ELO can build such items because they are playing on a different caliber and macro than players like you. Nocturne has a big ****; don't wear pants that are too small for him.

PROS

-Insane damage output
-Global map presence / VISION DENIAL
-Amazing splitpusher
-Absurd clear speed
-Absurd scaling (with this build)
-Has sustain, an AD/MS/AS steriod, a spell shield, and a fear
-So much fun to play
-Teaches you about MACRO
-Ulting someone usually results in a free kill


CONS

-Very squishy (can be a pro depending on your outlook)
-Not sejuani
-Only has one form of CC
-Ultimate at level 1 has a long cooldown
-Requires a good sense of judgement and enemy abilities
-Mana hungry if you are not conservative with your spells.
-Everybody can get 15+ kills playing Nocturne, but not everybody can get 15+ kills playing Nocturne and win. You will be forced to PLAY THE MAP

Nocturne's PASSIVE: Umbra Blades

Primarily used to help you clear your jungle. Every 10 seconds, whenever Nocturne auto-attacks a target, it will deal %120 of his AD and heal him, depending on how many targets Umbra Blades hits. It will take some practice trying to juggle this passive with your camps in order to minimize clear time and maximize your sustain. Basic attacks reduce Umbra Blades cooldown by one second. Later on in the game, auto-attacking a champion with your Umbra Blades passive up when going for the kill will deal a significant amount of extra damage. You can think of it as a free Sheen!!

Nocturne's Q: Duskbringer

Your primary ability that has a lot more than meets the eye. Duskbringer is a skillshot that passes through enemy units, damaging them, and leaves behind a trail of darkness, sticking to each enemy champion it hits, creating even more trails behind them.
While on the trail, Nocturne gains bonus attack damage AND movespeed. This skill is incredible and you will ALWAYS be maxing it first. I will go over some lesser-known tips and tricks with this ability later on in this guide.

Nocturne's W: Shroud of Darkness

A spellshield that grants passive attack speed and, upon the shield being broken by enemy abilities and dragon auto-attacks, grants even MORE attack speed for a shirt period of time. I max Shroud of Darkness second as it grants a nice chunk of attack speed and helps Nocturne clear faster and do more damage. There is also a lot of outplay potential with this ability.

Nocturne's E: Unspeakable Horror

A single-targeted ability that does a small amount of damage and fears an enemy champion once Nocturne has been within range of said champion for a specific amount of time after using this ability. Although Nocturne's fear with this ability has great scaling per level, I am not a huge fan of this ability. You can choose to max this second, however the general rule of thumb is that if your first couple of items do not have attack speed, it is best to max your W, Shroud of Darkness, second (and look! Our first few items don't have attack speed!)

Nocturne's R: Paranoia

The reason people play Nocturne. Upon activation, Nocturne disables all enemy vision (literally making their computer screens darker), and can blink to an enemy champion, dealing damage upon arrival. The range increases per level. Level Paranoia whenever you can, because it is your main ticket to securing kills and being such a hazard to the enemy team.

I am now going to share my dirty little secret with you all.

Nocturne has the capability to abuse a very cheesy (albeit slightly risky) jungle clear that will allow you to hit level 6 before anybody else in the game.

This route is very specific and by-the-book. I will try my best to keep it short.

TL;DR verrion:
Raptors > Krugs > Wolves > Gromp > Scuttle (if it's up) then base (purchase two Long Sword's if you can).

Now, you do:
Red > Raptors > Krugs > Blue > Wolves > Gromp. You will now be level 6 and it should be around 6:00-6:10 minutes into the game. Time to gank!

When doing this route...

1) Juggle your Umbra Blades. You want to maximize its sustain as well as its AOE clear.

2) When starting raptors, be wary that your Duskbringer might go over the wall and reveal to the enemy midlaner where you are starting. Try to normal cast it if you can.

3) Your Duskbringerdissapears from where you cast it to where it lands, meaning that it will last slightly longer if you are standing at the tip of it. When clearing camps, cast your Duskbringer, and kite towards the opposite end of Duskbringer's trail.

4) DO NOT CAST Unspeakable Horror or Shroud of Darkness during your first clear. This path works so that you will have just barely enough mana to do it, and casting your Unspeakable Horror will consume mana that you need for your Q. If you cast your E or W, you will **** up the pathing.

When playing Nocturne, you will not only be playing your champion but you will also be playing the map. Nocturne is all about game knowledge (macro), map control, and objectives.

The single most important thing is farm. Nocturne pre-6 is pretty mediocre, so just farm until you reach level 6 unless there is some sort of fiesta happening in a lane where you can get free kills. If you follow the jungle route that I have explained above, clearing each camp as it spawns, you will have an incredible amount of farm every game.

Splitpush whenever you can. Everybody is standing around mid lane doing nothing? I am sure you have seen this a lot. Why waste time playing ARAM in the mid lane when you can be productive with your time and push out a lane? With this build, you can clear a whole wave with a single Duskbringer and a couple of auto-attacks. It is crazy. Not to mention, with all of the lethality, attack speed/damage that you will have, you will absolutely SHRED towers (and this is not an exaggeration). Late game you can destroy towers in eight or nine auto-attacks.

The key to using Nocturne's ult is not only to one-shot the enemy ADC that just left his whole team the clear the wave that you just pushed, but also to get around the map. Here is an example of what I mean:
Play Video
Notice that this is later on in the game, where every decision matter that much more. Knowing that one of these ARAM scenarios is about to occur, I decide to head top lane and push it into the base, forcing somebody on the enemy team to head top to defend it. This allows my teammates to play more aggressive midlane and secure a kill onto Nautilus, as well as destroy the tower. Knowing that the enemy Caitlyn will head bot lane in order to farm the wave that I had pushed earlier (because there is nothing for her to gain mid lane), I rush straight from top to mid, ignoring the skirmish happening there as I know that my team will be able to kill Nautilus as well as the tower. Once I am mid, I immediately ult bottom and one-shot Caitlyn. This leaves not only mid but bottom completely defenseless for the other team. Because of this decision to play the map rather than force a fight mid lane, my team is able to siege the enemy base and win the game.

This guide is nowhere near completed. I just wanted to get the bare-minimum out of the way and update it over time. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you have as much fun as I do with this champion!