Welcome to my guide! My name is Matthew, my ign is Oxen145 I'm a player from Poland, I've jojned league about a year ago, and im Bronze III as of writing this guide (Bronze II season 9), I know my Rank is low, but its in a big part because for majority of season 9 I've been playing normals instead of ranked. When I started playing League i was maining Jungle, now with season 10 I've started to chanigng towards mid and top lane. I tried to play a bit of Darius, when I was helping my brother get into League and i really liked his kit, with the nice room for outplays, some level of 1v5 potential and the fact, that Darius is pretty easy to pick up to learn top lane. I have Mastery 7 on Darius with 55k+ mastery points, and peak win-rates (In Bronze-Iron, but still x.x) of 85% in 20 games. I hope you wont get scared of my Rank and still check out my guide.

Pros:
-Easy to pick up, and good for starting playing toplane.
-Very strong early game
-Potential to 1v5.
-Lot of damage, while still being tanky.
-Very fun and satisfying kit.
-Pretty Strong in the meta right now.
-Decent in Team fights.
-Lot of Itemisation paths

Cons:
-Snowbally champion.
-Gets kited easly.
-Falls of late game.
-Gets banned a lot
-Has a lot of counters
-Not the best against high range enemy teams

Hemorrhage, Passive Darius aims his attacks strategically, causing his target to bleed for 12 (+1 per champion level) (+0.3 per bonus attack damage) physical damage over 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to five times.

Whenever Darius attacks enemy unit with auto attack or ability (except E, Apprehend) he applies 1 stack of Hemorrhage, that makes them lose amount of health scaling with Darius's AD and his level. it stacks up to 5 stacks, after getting 5 stacks on enemy champion Darius Gets Noxian Might effect, that makes all his abilities and auto attacks instantly apply 5 stacks of Hemorrhage. Applying 5 stacks to a champion makes your Ultimate Noxian Guillotine do heavily increased amount of true damage. This passive makes Darius into the thread that he is in lane and defines his play style in team fights.

Decimate After a 0.75 second delay, Darius swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+1.0 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 per attack damage) physical damage and receive a stack of Hemorrhage. Enemies struck by the shaft take 35% damage and do not receive a stack of Hemorrhage.

One of the most Iconic parts of Darius' kit, Decimate is your main source of poke, AoE damage and the ability that allows you to outplay your enemies. This ability makes Darius Spin his axe, it does damage, applies Hemorrhage stacks and heals Darius for anyone struck by the highlighted part of the attack. You use it for good waveclear, poking enemies and in team fights applying 5 stacks of Hemorrhage to more than one player at once. This ability requires quite a bit of experience with Darius but is very strong once used well.

Crippling Strike, W Darius's next attack severs a crucial artery, dealing 150 / 155 / 160 / 165 / 170% of his total attack damage as physical damage and slowing his target by 90% for 1 second.

This ability is an auto attack reset, that as any ability aplies Hemorrhage stack and also slows enemy hit with it. Its cooldown is also reduced by half of the remaining time and refunds spent mana if unit struck with it dies. You want to use your Crippling Strike as a way to apply 5 stacks faster and also to last hit minions easier. This ability is also very strong after you get your Sheen, because as any auto attack reset it procks that item's passive.

Apprehend, E Passive: Darius hones his axe, granting him 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% armor penetration. Active: Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe's hook, pulling them to him while briefly granting vision in the area around the pull. Enemies pulled by Apprehend are slowed by 40% for 1 second.

Apprehend is a very useful utility ability that pulls any enemy in it's range towards Darius. It can be used offensively, as a way to pull in enemy running from you, similarly to Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab although Darius's hook doesn't get them as close as Blitz' hook and doesn't stun them. Or defensively, to knock up enemy for example while running from a jungler gank. It's also worth to know that enemy cough by it gets knocked up, witch would allow for example your team's Yasuo to use Last Breath on them and also would aply Second Skin stacks for your team's Kai'Sa. For other usefull informations, Apprehend pulls enemies right into the range of your Q's, Decimate and it can also pull enemies through walls, witch makes for a good surprise attack.

Noxian Guillotine, R Darius leaps to an enemy Champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) true damage. This damage increases by 20% for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target up to a maximum of 200 / 400 / 600 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) true damage.

Darius's ultimate is also a very iconic part of his kit, casting Noxian Guillotine on an enemy makes Darius Jump a close distance towards them (be carefull as because of it getting grounded by champions like Cassiopeia or Singed makes you unable to cast it) and deal amount of true damage scaling with Darius's AD, Noxian Guillotine's level and amount of Hemorrhage stacks on a target If Noxian Guillotine kills the enemy you are able to re-cast it for 20 seconds (or if you spent 3 levels into the ability it resets its cooldown). Killing enemy champion with Noxian Guillotine gives you Noxian Might, witch makes you good in team fights, because if you manage to pick one of the enemy's team off with your ult you can go in, aply Hemorrhage with your Q, Decimate and Noxian Might on them to take over entire team fights.

Flash is a very strong summoner spell and you should allways be taking it on Darius, it allows you to escape bad fights, chase running enemy, or preform Q, Flash, witch can be either a way to engage onto enemy team or a way to finish off enemy that is backing under tower, you press Q and then after half of second you Flash to re-position your Q to hit and kill enemy.

Ghost is a very good summoner spell on Darius as it allows you to easly run down your enemies if they make a mistake and/or overextend. Having additional movement speed makes you way harder to kite and makes your Q, Decimate easier to position.

You could take Teleport as Darius if you are not worried about getting lead in lane without Ghost or Ignite and would like to help your team with teleport roams, but in most cases you would rather take Ghost

Ignite isn't the best option for Darius Because of the fact that without Ghost he is easy to kite, but in some match-ups, where enemy will want to all in you often (,like Mordekaiser, Illaoi you might want to take it. But for other lanes Ghost would make it easier for you.

For your keystone you want to take Conqueror as this rune synergies very well with your play style of taking longer trades with your passive Hemorrhage doing a lot of damage while your Decimate and Conqueror heals you for 15% of the damage dealt.

For rest of Precision's runes you will want:

Only rune worth taking from Triumph/ Presence of Mind/ Overheal is Triumph, it's a very common rune, because helps you win any 1v2 with enemy jungler and is overall good for team fighting. Also the 20 bonus gold for any takedown is also a very nice bonus.

For Legend rune you will most likely go for Legend: Tenacity as it's also very helpfull in teamfighting, although if you want to focus on 1v1 ing and split pushing you might want to take Legend: Alacrity instead, tho in most games you should rather go Legend: Tenacity.

Last rune is a choice between Last Stand and Coup de Grace, i normally go for Last Stand because it synergies well with your Q, Decimate that heals you for % of missing health so its good for last second outplays. You can also go for Coup de Grace if u prefer doing more damage to low hp champions instead.

For the secondary tree you most likely want to take Resolve, it's runes kind of depends on enemy team comp. From viable runes you have:

Demolish is a good rune against champions that want to roam a lot (like Shen, Quinn), so you can punish them for doing so. Demolish, E, Apprehend passive, auto attack reset on W, Crippling Strike and Sheen proc from Trinity Force if you have it makes you melt through towers and get a lot of gold from tower plates.

You want to use Second Wind if enemy has a lot of poke. (You will most likely take it for ranged poke like Jayce, Teemo, Quinn etc.)

Bone Plating, This one is very good into mele match-ups for better trading. (My main rune for most games)

Revitalize, This rune would probably work with the amount of self healing Darius has, but if you don't have like healing support that's gonna be healing you all game other runes are probably better.

Unflinching, This is a strong rune due to amount of cc there is in game, it with Legend: Tenacity, Mercury's Treads if you are building them and Sterak's Gage it makes your Tenacity insane and we all know how frustrating getting cc'ed in the middle of a fight is... (My other mainly taken secondary rune for Darius)

Also, for last 3 stat runes i like to go attack speed (for procking 5 stacks of passive faster) and 2 Armor runes, because from my experience it helps you stay alive longer while your passive, Hemorrhage is doing enough damage without the adaptive damage from the rune. For Magic damage match-ups I Take Attack Speed/Magic Resistance and Still one Defense due to minions, towers and champion's auto attacks still doing physical damage.

Trinity Force is a very good item for Darius as every of the 3 items combined into it ( Sheen, Phage and Stinger). - Phage Gives you speed boost whenever you use your auto attack (that includes plants in the jungle or minions) and even tho it doesn't say it whenever you Q any enemy, and as I said with Ghost movement speed is very crucial stat for Darius. - Sheen Gives you a bit of mana, witch Darius uses and needs early in the game, as well as provides you with Sheen passive, that works very well with Darius's combo. - Stinger Gives you attack speed, that makes your 1v1s stronger, because you can auto attack enemy more times when your abilities are on cooldowns as well as shortens those cooldowns. (I recommend getting those items in the order i've described them in).

If enemy laner is a tank (like Malphite, Ornn) you might want to pick up Black Cleaver Instead of Trinity Force as first item, If you still want to do a lot of damage you can go for Trinity Force First item and then build Black Cleaver as second item before Sterak's Gage

Its an item providing you with health and attack damage, and a very good passive, that makes it way harder to burst you down. It also grants you even more Tenacity and makes fighting 1v2/1v3 when you are ahead way easier.

Dead Man's PlateIts a good armor item, that gives you more movement speed and increases your slows, for catching enemies easier.

Guardian Angel This item is of course very good if you are ahead and need to protect your shut-down bounty. But its also very good on Darius due to the stats it gives witch are Damage and Armor, that are very valuable on Darius (if enemy has phisical damage).

Executioner's Calling, This item is very good for early game (After phage and boots, before sheen) against champions that are healing reliable (like Dr. Mundo, Aatrox, Illaoi) it's a very cheap way to block their healing. Later into the game you can sell it and buy Thornmail instead.

Thornmail is a very useful item to pick up against teams with auto attack based damage, or enemies relying on healing/life steal.

Randuin's Omen, This item is good against teams with more than one enemy champion using critical strike, like crit adc plus mid Yasuo/ top Vayne. Its active is also useful to chase enemies up easier.

Gargoyle Stoneplate, You can get this item if your team has none to tank/engage, as it gives you a lot of defensive stats in team fights.

Adaptive Helm,This item is good if enemy has any AP carry, who deals consistent damage, like Cassiopeia or Anivia.

Spirit Visage is a good item into any team with more magical damage. It gives you more health, so you are more tanky, Magic Resistance so enemy magic damage doesn't hurt you so much and also its passive, that increases your healing witch synergises very well with your Q, Decimate's healing as well as Conqueror's healing.

Death's Dance could be an item you buy if you don't need any other situational items, It gives you 80 AD, that makes you do a lot more damage as well as give you good healing for longer fights and also its passive, that makes you harder to burst down, due to 30% of enemy damage being dealt to you as bleed instead of burst damage.

Darius's playstyle is quite a unique one, you need to play around your passive Hemorrhage and your ultimate, Noxian Guillotine. In laning phase you want to poke your enemy with Q whenever he comes closer to farm and once you want to all in him you can use your combo, witch is:
Q, Decimate, E, Apprehend, Auto attack, Reset auto attack animation with W, Crippling Strike, another auto attack and then one more auto attack will get him to 5 stacks of Hemorrhage. Your ult will now do the full damage on him. You can fight him untill he is low enough to ult him. If you are doing good with your hp during all in and you know enemy wont be able to escape anyways you can keep your ult and kill him with auto attacks or Q, to keep ultimate for eventual late enemy jungle gank.
If you see enemy jungler on a ward comming to your lane try to get into a position from witch you can back off under your tower easly, but keep in mind that you can 1v2 them if you have enough hp (especially if enemy jungler is an assassin, that isn't fed) after he comes you can focus the enemy that will die sooner (for expsample Garen Top and Kha'Zix Jungle, you focus Kha'Zix first, ult him and then fight Garen after with your passive fully stacked.) that is the general way of fighting more than one player with Darius you want to find weakest enemy, tho keep in mind that focusing someone with more damage like adc would sometimes be more effective than someone doing less damage but somehow having less health. Then get 5 stacks on them and Q everyone else to spread passive to them. Then Noxian Guillotine them one by one. If you are far enough ahead you could win even solo 1v3 fights like that if you manage to burst first enemy fast enough and hit Q to every other oponent.

Cheesing enemy laner level 1:

With Darius's very strong level 1 you can try to cheese enemy laner after he comes to lane, its easiest to do from blue site, by hiding in the tri brush from their red buff to top lane, but also possible in red site by hiding in lane bush closest to enemy tower. If you want to cheese enemy you will want to wait in the bush for them to come (don't spent your ability point just yet, in case if they don't show up for cheese) and if you see them comming level up your W, Crippling Strike then wait for them to enter your mele range auto them and then reset auto with your W, then just keep fighting them and if enemy is someone with bad level 1 (like Vladimir, Dr. Mundo, Cho'Gath you can win that fight, and burn their flash or in some cases even kill them.