User blog comment:Dj0z/Dj0z's Assassin Nocturne Guide/@comment-207.255.209.161-20120704183534

Assassins are dead for a reason. Teamfights happen and playing an assassin basically says: "If my team can win 4v5 I'll finish off the rest." Nocturne, Akali, Talon, all these assassins have the same drawbacks that burst mages have: Squishy as hell and all their abilities are on relatively long cooldown. In addition, assassins have to get in melee range to be effective. These assassin champions try to make up for that with some of the best gapclosers in the game, but they tend to either have no escape whatsoever (see: nocturne). The ones that do have an escape (talon, akali) aren't reliable escapes - they arent like ezreals built in flash. They rely on invisibility and can be countered by wards/oracles or even well-placed skillshots. In addition, even when you build all out damage, sacrificing all defense, you're still relying on burst. If the enemy is tanky enough to outlast paranoia and your q, you're fucked. Your health bar is simply too small to be able to output enough damage. AD carries can only get away with this because they have range AND the entire team committed to defending them with CC, shields, heals, positioning, etc. You wont have that luxury as a melee assassin because chances are you will be in the thick of things.

Lastly, as many others have said, not taking smite is stupid and should never be done in even mid-elo games. Obviously it makes your jungle MUCH slower than you give credit for, but there are things you don't focus on. It's not an offensive stealing ability, its a defensive ability. If you dont have it, you're basically giving away every dragon/baron in the game. It's simply the highest single target instant damage spell.

But, using CV on nocturne isnt a terrible idea at all. Good thinking there! Keep working at your guides but be sure to think things through from all skill levels perspective. Even if you aren't 2k+ elo, you can watch games and see the mindset and reaction speed in those games. When nocturne ults on someone, literally the SECOND he reaches them he is CC'd. And watch how quickly even a tanky nocturne will dip to half health. Assassins are basically the only class that simply has no place in the current metagame at all, sadly, unless they rework their damage ratios based on items to be MUCH higher. (not base damage, cause that would make them powerful without items, able to go tanky, and be completely dominant).