Nocturne is one of the most dangerous junglers in solo queue and our Nocturne Jungle Guide will help you understand it better. His ultimate ability enables him to capitalize on the mistakes of the enemy team; which occurs a lot in solo queue. However, he is also one of the most useless champions if not played correctly. This Nocturne guide will explain the strengths and weaknesses of the champion and will help you climb with a very simple play style.
Nocturne: Jungle Guide Rush To 6 Junglers
Every champion in LoL belongs to a class of champions in terms of play style. We talked about the early-game junglers in a previous article. Nocturne is one of the “Rush to 6 Junglers” like Skarner, Shyvana, and Warwick. This class of junglers have strong ultimate abilities and a fast clear to rush to level 6. Their ganking ability pre-6 and post-6 are absolutely incomparable. It is important to understand this concept to effectively play these champions.
Why is Nocturne so good in Solo Queue?
Nocturne is one of the nice champions to play in the solo queue because his ultimate is one of the best ultimates in the game. In solo queue, people are out of position most of the time and it is so easy for Nocturne to catch enemies. He has lots of options to catch people off guard. He can capitalize on a side lane 1v1, he can assassinate squishy targets who walk forward to farm, he can shadow his teammates and counter gank, etc… These kinds of “pick” plays are really important in solo queue. Because these situations occur often and also open up the way for bigger leads like Nashor, Drake, or towers.
How do we play Nocturne?
- Rush to 6. Do not waste a lot of time trying to gank in early game. Although Nocturne is good in 1v1’s in early game, it is hard for him to catch enemies in ganks. Especially in higher elo, if you try to gank once and fail, you will fall behind the tempo of the game. Instead, try to do a full clear and get level 4, then base and start your full clear again to get level 6.
- Try to make your level 6 count. It is really important to make your level 6 count. Your first gank might determine the rest of the game. Nocturne is great at snowballing once he gets a lead. Try to use your ultimate first in a more guaranteed position, where you are guaranteed to take a score or assist.
- Pay attention to the timing. Since Nocturne is such an ultimate-based champion, you need to pay attention to the cooldown of your ultimate. The more ultimates we use, the better we roll. Try to time your camp clearing together with your ultimate. For example, let’s say you are on the blue side, you want to gank bot and your ultimate is on a 100-second cooldown. Start your clear from Gromp and be on the Krugs when your ultimate is just about to come off cooldown. This way you can use your ultimate off cooldown and be a lot more efficient.
- Always look for picks. As mentioned before, this is the most important part of playing Nocturne. You should be able to catch enemies off guard and create picks for your team. You can track a lane and the state of the minions in it to predict someone coming to farm. If you can predict this and expect someone to come to the lane, you can sit on the lane and wait for the assassination. You can “shadow” your split pusher(which means waiting behind him to gank the lane while the enemy thinks it’s a 1v1 on a side lane). It is also important to time your picks before major objectives like Drake and Nashor. If you can create a pick 20 seconds before the Drake spawns, you can easily capture the Drake in a 4v5 scenario.
Wrap up
Nocturne is one of the most decorated champions for solo queue. His fast clearing speed and ability to create picks make him dangerous for every rank you play at. Follow this guide to climb through the rankings playing Nocturne Jungle.
