Challenger Nocturne GuideChallenger Nocturne Guide
Hey guys, I'm an ex EUW challenger player, who plays noc almost exclusively. I'm here to give you a quick guide about how to play my noc. To start off with, I'm highly influenced by the NA player Ninjaken who's a great nocturne player. I started maining Noc half way through s3 and quickly climbed to Diamond 1. Season 4 started really well, and after about 80 games with Noc I finally reached Challenger.
I'm not gonna go too deep in details on how to play, as most is about experience. But I will provide you with a quick summary of what I do, what items I get, masteries and runes.
Runes
Marks: 9x armor pen.: While flat AD might do more damage early, armorpen outscales AD. Nocturne is not about early game. Armor pen applies with sheen, AD doesn't, which gives Nocturne some nice extra damage to his burst. Get through the early levels, get your trinity and armor pen will be way more benefitial than flat AD.
Seals: 9x flat armor: Self-explanatory
Glyphs: 9x flat or scaling MR: I usually go with scaling MR, but if they have an AP mid and jungler you might want to take flat MR, just to be safe.
Quints: 3x movement speed: This is actually kinda interesting. I go with movement speed in runes and masteries, and together with trinity you'll basically be Udyr without his E. With your Q, you'll catch up with anyone.
Masteries
21/6/3
(see attachments)
Skill Order
Level 1-6: QWEQQR then R>Q>E>W
Items
Starting Items: Machete, 5 health pots + Warding totem: This is pretty self-explanatory. Some people like Sweeping Lens, but this is better on early-game junglers. You're not gonna gank a lot, so a Warding Totem is a lot more useful. Use it for your lanes or place it in their jungler so you know where he is. You can sell this later and buy a Sweeping Lens.
First Recall: Spirit Stone + Doran's Blade (+ lvl 1 boots if you can): Basically just start your jungle item, and Doran's adds some good stats for you. This is about where you'll hit 6 and you should get a kill with your ultimate. A Doran's will increase the chances of this happening!
Work towards: Spirit of the Ancient Golem: You want to work towards your ancient golem, get this as soon as possible! Also, if you didnt get lvl 1 boots earlier, get this before or after your ancient golem. Do not upgrade yet.
Next item: Trinity Force: Some people tells me to go back to s2, but this item is great on Nocturne. It gives a lot of good stats, the MS, phage proc, sheen proc... Once you get this item, you'll have a lot of burst, you can 1v1 almost anyone unless you're really far behind. Start with Phage, then I prefer Sheen for the extra burst, but Zeal is also okay. Just finish your Triforce ASAP.
Next: Ninja Tabi + Randuin's Omen: Now you want to finish your lvl 2 boots. Get Ninja Tabi. There are no other good options, zerkers are mehh, swiftness is good 1/100 times, cdr are shit vs ninja tabi. NEVER get mercs. Tenacity doesn't stack. After that, get Randuin's. No one will ever escape from you with randuin's. Your goal is 95% of the time to stick on the enemy carries, preferably the AD. With randuin's active, your MS and tankiness they got nothing on you.
Build tank: (usually build order
Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel: Just to round out your build, get some MR. The shield on Veil is really good, force the enemies to use some CC on you. And last, GA. You're already tanky, killing you twice takes up a lot of time
Situational: Sunfire Cape, Last Whisper, Thornmail: If they have full AD, you can change veil and GA for sunfire and thornmail to get extra armor. Last Whisper is a good last item if you're unkillable, but want some extra AD.
Playstyle
I'm not gonna go too deep in details here, it's hard for me to tell you what to do and what not to do. You'll learn by playing, I can't tell a silver player how to play like a diamond through a text guide.
First off, Nocturne is not about early game. He's not bad, but he really need his items, and his pre 6 ganks are mehh. The new fear is shit, so you don't want to risk wasting time sitting in a brush waiting a minute for something not to happen. Don't waste time, always do something.
It really depends wether to start blue or red, but it doesn't matter really. If your botlane is strong, you might want to start the opposite buff so they can get early lvl 2. Also, if they have a strong counter-jungler, try to start where they won't expect you to, just to be safe.
I like to gank once, maybe twice before lvl 6 to burn summoners, but only if I see a 100% chance to do something. Keep track of their summoners. Flash has a 5 min cd. If anyone blows flash, gank them at lvl 6, get a free kill. After that, keep farming jungle, tax lanes, get lots of farm, and gank/counter-gank as efficient as possible, only when you see your chance. Try to have a goal to have 100 cs after 15-20 mins. If you do that, you'll be really strong and have a huge impact on the mid-game. And if you see their mid roam top or bot, you might want to go mid and push, try to get a tower. Objectives > kills.
Later in the game, decide wether you want to help your backline or dive their backline. Nocturnes ultimate is great for picking off targets, so abuse that.
I don't know what more to say, I'll answer questions if anyone got any. Thanks for reading!
I'm not gonna go too deep in details on how to play, as most is about experience. But I will provide you with a quick summary of what I do, what items I get, masteries and runes.
Runes
Marks: 9x armor pen.: While flat AD might do more damage early, armorpen outscales AD. Nocturne is not about early game. Armor pen applies with sheen, AD doesn't, which gives Nocturne some nice extra damage to his burst. Get through the early levels, get your trinity and armor pen will be way more benefitial than flat AD.
Seals: 9x flat armor: Self-explanatory
Glyphs: 9x flat or scaling MR: I usually go with scaling MR, but if they have an AP mid and jungler you might want to take flat MR, just to be safe.
Quints: 3x movement speed: This is actually kinda interesting. I go with movement speed in runes and masteries, and together with trinity you'll basically be Udyr without his E. With your Q, you'll catch up with anyone.
Masteries
21/6/3
(see attachments)
Skill Order
Level 1-6: QWEQQR then R>Q>E>W
Items
Starting Items: Machete, 5 health pots + Warding totem: This is pretty self-explanatory. Some people like Sweeping Lens, but this is better on early-game junglers. You're not gonna gank a lot, so a Warding Totem is a lot more useful. Use it for your lanes or place it in their jungler so you know where he is. You can sell this later and buy a Sweeping Lens.
First Recall: Spirit Stone + Doran's Blade (+ lvl 1 boots if you can): Basically just start your jungle item, and Doran's adds some good stats for you. This is about where you'll hit 6 and you should get a kill with your ultimate. A Doran's will increase the chances of this happening!
Work towards: Spirit of the Ancient Golem: You want to work towards your ancient golem, get this as soon as possible! Also, if you didnt get lvl 1 boots earlier, get this before or after your ancient golem. Do not upgrade yet.
Next item: Trinity Force: Some people tells me to go back to s2, but this item is great on Nocturne. It gives a lot of good stats, the MS, phage proc, sheen proc... Once you get this item, you'll have a lot of burst, you can 1v1 almost anyone unless you're really far behind. Start with Phage, then I prefer Sheen for the extra burst, but Zeal is also okay. Just finish your Triforce ASAP.
Next: Ninja Tabi + Randuin's Omen: Now you want to finish your lvl 2 boots. Get Ninja Tabi. There are no other good options, zerkers are mehh, swiftness is good 1/100 times, cdr are shit vs ninja tabi. NEVER get mercs. Tenacity doesn't stack. After that, get Randuin's. No one will ever escape from you with randuin's. Your goal is 95% of the time to stick on the enemy carries, preferably the AD. With randuin's active, your MS and tankiness they got nothing on you.
Build tank: (usually build order
Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel: Just to round out your build, get some MR. The shield on Veil is really good, force the enemies to use some CC on you. And last, GA. You're already tanky, killing you twice takes up a lot of time Situational: Sunfire Cape, Last Whisper, Thornmail: If they have full AD, you can change veil and GA for sunfire and thornmail to get extra armor. Last Whisper is a good last item if you're unkillable, but want some extra AD.
Playstyle
I'm not gonna go too deep in details here, it's hard for me to tell you what to do and what not to do. You'll learn by playing, I can't tell a silver player how to play like a diamond through a text guide.
First off, Nocturne is not about early game. He's not bad, but he really need his items, and his pre 6 ganks are mehh. The new fear is shit, so you don't want to risk wasting time sitting in a brush waiting a minute for something not to happen. Don't waste time, always do something.
It really depends wether to start blue or red, but it doesn't matter really. If your botlane is strong, you might want to start the opposite buff so they can get early lvl 2. Also, if they have a strong counter-jungler, try to start where they won't expect you to, just to be safe.
I like to gank once, maybe twice before lvl 6 to burn summoners, but only if I see a 100% chance to do something. Keep track of their summoners. Flash has a 5 min cd. If anyone blows flash, gank them at lvl 6, get a free kill. After that, keep farming jungle, tax lanes, get lots of farm, and gank/counter-gank as efficient as possible, only when you see your chance. Try to have a goal to have 100 cs after 15-20 mins. If you do that, you'll be really strong and have a huge impact on the mid-game. And if you see their mid roam top or bot, you might want to go mid and push, try to get a tower. Objectives > kills.
Later in the game, decide wether you want to help your backline or dive their backline. Nocturnes ultimate is great for picking off targets, so abuse that.
I don't know what more to say, I'll answer questions if anyone got any. Thanks for reading!
Originally Posted by Cataclypse
