In the Jungle with Nocturne

Hello ladies and gents, in this guide I will be going over playing Nocturne in the jungle, what to do, and what not to do.

When starting Nocturne always go for boots and pots, this is the standard opening for every role except support, it means you can gank earlier with the extra movement speed. Pretty much the only time you would ever go Cloth Armour and 5 pots is if you suspect something is going to go wrong in the jungle, and the extra pots would help out. I have only used the Cloth Armour option when I was in the lower levels, as pulls and leashes weren't known back then, though now I generally just stick to boots.

So with Nocturne you're looking to build AD (Attack Damage) and Attack Speed, I find that these work well with the mechanics behind Nocturne and could get you some nice kills. However being in the jungle generally comes with the prerequisite of building a little armour and magic resist, this makes your ganks a whole lot stronger as the enemy team can't just turn around and melt you. It also helps in the jungle too. Items like Frozen Mallet, Wits End, and things along those lines.

When starting in jungle you should take wolves first, this is optional, but if you have a good middle laner (Mid) and AD carry on your team they should help you take them quicker without killing any of them. If you don't feel like that is a good idea, then go straight for blue, you could start red, but blue will give you the extra mana regen and CDR (Cooldown Reduction) to clear the jungle quicker.

Once you have taken your buffs, you can either go straight for a gank, either mid or top, you could not gank and take your golems, the choice is yours. Ganking allows your lanes to become pressured and force your opponent back but sets you behind if the enemy jungler doesn't gank, because they're still farming up and getting ahead. It's completely down to you.

With a jungler, it isn't 100% important to get a kill if you show up on lane and it is very important to remember this. I have seen some people kill themselves for nothing as they feel that they need to get the kill rather than just show face and apply pressure in a “yes, I'm still here and want to kill you” kind of manner. It helps a lot more than it gets credit for.

Now onto counter jungling. This is my favourite part of the jungle role, making your opponent fall behind while you get further ahead by taking his buffs and leaving one creep so it doesn't reset. To do this well you need to pay attention to where he is on the map, if you see him pressuring the bottom lane and he is on blue team, punish him and take his blue buff, and if you have enough time, his wolves as well.

However it is best to be in and out as fast as possible in case a well places ward gives you away, or the mid entering jungle to take wolves or wraith for extra exp and gold. This is only a factor if you can't one on one. Nocturne is good with punishing an enemy jungler because his Ultimate allows him to travel long distances, as long as you have vision, get the jump on the enemy jungler, and if he is low or behind enough, you can get the kill and take his camps. When being countered, I find that the best plan, if you have vision, is to make a dash straight for their buff, the enemy jungler obviously isn't there so it should be an easy steal.

Finally, the pièce de résistance. The Ultimate. Paranoia is the name of Nocturne's Ultimate, in my case known as the hug, this is definitely Nocturne's ace in the hole, no pun intended. In the jungle, it allows him to dive on enemy champions providing he has vision; and when you land you can use his Unspeakable Horror (E) to put a fear on the target, and then hit them with Duskbringer (Q), giving you a nice movement speed boost allowing you to keep up, and providing you have the damage output, you get yourself a nice kill.

Another good thing about Paranoia is that it can be used as a global escape as it removes sight from your enemy and as a result, the enemy can't see your team for a short time, this can be used for them to escape a sticky situation, all from the comfort of your jungle. This makes him one of the most annoying junglers within the League, basically allowing him to gank while avoiding ward coverage but also allows him to provide an escape for his team.

You generally only want to use this when you know you have the kill or your team mate can pick it up. Wasting the Ultimate leaves your ganks a lot weaker for about 90+ seconds meaning that the enemy team can push a little harder knowing you don't have this global presence any more.

So! What have we learnt about Nocturne, well we have learnt that he is an AD jungler that you should build damage and attack speed on, as well as a little bit of armour and magic resist to gain some sustain, we also know that Nocturne has some of the strongest ganks in the League thanks to his Ultimate, and we also know about his weakness without his Ultimate, that being his ganks are substantially weaker.

So I hope that this has been as insightful as I had hoped it to be. I hope you enjoyed the read, and wish you good luck in your jungle adventures!