Hi Guys, my name is Strider and I am a Master Yi main on the NA and EUW servers. I know what you're probably thinking 'wait, you're not Hashinshin, you're just some random pretending to be him'. I understand how the title of the guide can be confusing, I put Hashinshin's name in the title because I wanted to publish a guide on how NA's super top plays the Hand of Noxus. I do watch him a lot so I hope you'll allow me to share with you what I have seen. He does run a slightly different build and has a slightly different playstyle from other Darius players out there and I wanted to share that with you guys. I hope this guide will help you dominate the top lane like a super top!

PROS + Strong sustain + Strong lane bully and early-game champion + Insane outplay potential + Can snowball extremely well + Has a low learning curve

CONS - Immobile so cant get out of sticky situations very well - Easy to kite - Falls off late game - Unexpectedly squishy and missing abilities can be very punishing

#1. Decimate 1 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 9 #2. Apprehend 2 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13 #3. Noxian Guillotine 6/ 11 / 16 #4. Crippling Strike 3 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18

> > > For Darius we max Decimate first as it is his primary damage ability as well as the source oh his sustain. Apprehend is maxed second

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Flash is one of the most fundamental summoner spells in the entire game. There is a reason every player takes this spell no matter who they're playing as save for a few exceptions like Yuumi. The ultility provided by it and its capability to be used offensively and defensively make it an invaluable summoner spell. Hashinshin takes this in every game he plays so you should too. GHOST: Ghost allows Darius to stick to his target and provide him with more mobility. Take this spell if you want to exert pressure on your opponent as well as having a strong potential of snowballing your lane.

KEYSTONE We use Conqueror as our keystone in every game. Conqueror provides us with AD as we stack it, and at max stacks, heals us for 15% of our damage dealt. You will need the healing from Conqueror to keep you alive through these fights. HEROISM RUNE For the Heroism rune we always take Triumph. Triumph restores 12% of your missing health one second after getting a kill. Similar to the reasons I listed above for Conqueror, the sustain this rune provides you with is insane and will definitely help you cluth out some fights. The bonus 20 gold you get on kill is helpful too to get your items faster. LEGEND RUNE Legend: Tenacity is the strongest rune here at the moment. I recommend you always take the tenacity rune because the number one thing that will stop Darius from getting kills is hard cc; And since Legend: Tenacity reduces the duration of cc this will allow you to keep swinging your axe more and pick up more kills. Legend: Alacrity is also viable here if the enemy team has very little hard cc. I do not recommend Legend: Bloodline as you do not really get anything level 1 from this rune, as opposed to the other runes, and it takes a while to scale before you actually start feeling the effects of it.

COMBAT RUNE All three of the combat runes are viable on Darius, however Last Stand is the best performing rune across all elos. Last Stand is taken most often because top lane is volatile because its usually two melee champs so fights are bound to happen. These fights often come down to the wire so this rune will boost your damage as your hp lowers. You can take Cut Down when against at least two or three tanks or when facing champions with taunts like Rammus or Shen. ARTEFACT RUNE Movement speed is a really good stat on Darius as it allows him to keep up with his targets so he can keep hitting them and applying his passive Hemorrhage. With this rune every time you activate Flash or Ghost you will get a huge temporary boost in movement speed that can be used to close the gap or run away. EXCELLENCE RUNE Because we are building and taking so many movement speed enhancers with our runes, items and summoner spells we can get incredibly good value out of Celerity. Celerity increases the effectiveness of all movement speed bonuses by 7% meaning we will run faster than someone else using ghost for example without this rune.

For your Rune Shards the first two are always going to remain unchanged. You always want and as they allow you to clear the jungle easier on your first clear. The third rune shard is the one that will be require frequent adjustment. You want to take either or depending on who the enemy mid laner is. Since you are going to be mid a lot it is expected that the enemy mid laner will try to harass you while you are trying to farm, so take whatever resistance will counter them to give yourself an easier time.

Ninja Tabi

Trinity Force

Sterak's Gage

Tier 2 boots, Trinity Force and Sterak's Gage are the three major items we are going to be building every single game on Darius. Trinity Force gives Darius almost every stat in the game as well giving him the rage passive which allows him to stick to targets much better, so he can keep procing his own passive Hemorrhage. The spellblade passive is also really nice for extra damage. In games where you are behind or they have a lot of tanks you can switch Trinity Force out for Black Cleaver. Black Cleaver gives 400 hp, 40 ad and 20% cdr, it also has the rage passive allowing you to stick to targets and shreds the armor of people you attack. The next core item is Sterak's Gage, it gives you health and 50% of your base ad as bonus ad. You also get the lifeline passive from this item which will shield you from large bursts of damage so you can stay alive for longer and keep on fighting.

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Ninja Tabi > ARMOR I only pick up Ninja Tabi's when against at least three AD champions. The armor it provides is nice but I really only think its worth it if your going to be making use of its passive, which is the damage reduction from auto-attacks. Consider where the enemy teams damage comes from, is it abilities or auto attacks? If auto attacks then I suggest you pick these up. Mercury's Treads > MAGIC RESIST + TENACITY I go Mercury's Treads in at least 80% of games. The early mr it gives can be nice since most mid laners are magic damage based so these will give you an easier time when facing them however its mainly for its passive that I buy these for. CC is Master Yi's biggest counter, so it goes without saying you want to minimize the effect cc will have on him and tenacity allows him to do that. By mitigating the effects of cc you will have more freedom of movement to get off the damage you need to and get the resets you need to keep going.

Armor

Magic Resistance

Health

DEATH'S DANCE The reworked Death's Dance is one of the best items in the game in my opinion. It gives you a bit of everything: damage, armor, mr, cooldown reduction and healing. When going against of balanced physical and magic this is a good item to go. Since its rework I would almost say this item is core, I build it in most of my games but if you find the enemy team are kiting you well there are better options for you.

RANDUIN'S OMEN Randuin's Omen is pretty much the best armor item in the game. I always recommend buying this when the enemy team has at least two champions who build critical strike chance. Most teams will always have at least one in the form of their ADC, and if they have a Yasuo mid or Tryndamere top you need this item. I sometimes just get this if the enemy team just has Caitlyn or Jhin because their crits are huge late game.

THORNMAIL Thornmail is a great buy when you need the grievous wounds to reduce the healing on the enemy team. If they have champions like Vladimir, Aatrox, Soraka or Yuumi you cant go wrong with this buy. When super ahead I suppose you can go Mortal Reminder but in most games Thornmail will be your best bet as you want the survivability it provides.

FROZEN HEART I do not recommend buying Frozen Heart for the majority of your games, it is only useful in very specific ci***stances. The best stat Frozen Heart provides is its high armor and what does armor do? Armor directly counters lethality. I have only built this item once ever and that was when I was against a Zed mid and a Varus ADC building lethality.

GUARDIAN ANGEL Personally I do not build Guardian Angel that much but I do recognize the value the item provides. I think that Guardian Angel can be a good buy if you find you are getting focused a lot and you can trust your team to cover for you while you revive.

SPIRIT VISAGE Get Spirit Visage when against teams with at least 3 magic damage based champions. This combined with your Mercury's Treads and Wit's End will make you near unkillable on magic resistance alone, and then your gonna have the insane bonus healing that this item provides as well. The mage mains on the enemy team will definitely cry about how broken Master Yi is after you build this lol.

ADAPTIVE HELM Adaptive Helm is only good into teams with mages and in particular mages with short cooldowns or with spells that deal damage over time. I'm talking about champions like Cassiopeia, Anivia and Malzahar etc. I dont find myself building this item that often but like Frozen Heart it is there for those very niche scenarios.

MEDRCURIAL SCIMITAR Mercurial Scimitar is a must buy against champions with hard cc that they can just point and click on you. You always want to buy the Quicksilver Sash component of this item first so you can use its active. I always recommend buying this item when against Malzahar or Mordekaiser for example.

STERAK'S GAGE Similar to Death's Dance I would almost say Sterak's Gage is core on Darius as well. This means you will face a huge burst of incoming damage from them as they all unload their abilities on you. This means that you will most likely always proc the passive shield from Sterak's Gage and this will keep you alive for longer as well as giving you more tenacity so you can move better.

TITANIC HYDRA I only buy Titanic Hydra when I have a huge lead over everyone else in the game and I know there is no possibility of us losing. With this item you are going to be doing insane AoE damage in team fights, reducing the hp of players you arent even auto-attacking because of the cleave passive it gives you. Seeing their health bars drop before you even start attacking them is the best feeling in this game.

MIGHT OF THE RUINED KING Only get buy Blade of the Ruined King when you have an Ornn on your team; And thats only because we want to upgrade it to Might of the Ruined King. Blade of the Ruined King on its own isnt that useful on Master Yi as you can get the stats it gives from other items so thats why we only buy when Ornn is on our team. Make sure to tell Ornn in chat to upgrade your item first before anyone elses ;)