Hello, if you want to learn how to play Darius you came to the right place!
I'm Burrito or BurritoTopKing, i've been Challenger since season 8 playing toplane and more recently i hit Challenger on NA on 160 ping, also i played pro play for about 5-6 years.
I main Darius and felt like doing a guide for it since i've mained Darius for about 5 years.
I hope you learn something with this guide and feel free to ask any questions!
I also stream on Twitch daily! (BurritoTopKing).

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Passive
Hemorrhage

Darius' attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for physical damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Darius enrages and gains massive Attack Damage when his target reaches max stacks, he can keep the 5 stack buff as long as he keeps hitting abilities or auto attacks.

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Q
Decimate

Darius winds up and swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take more damage than those struck by the handle. Darius heals based on enemy champions and large monsters hit by the blade.

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W
Crippling Strike

Darius's next attack strikes an enemy and slows it, it can be used as an auto attack reset.

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E
Apprehend

Darius hones his axe, passively causing his physical damage to ignore a percentage of his target's Armor. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe's hook and pulls them to him.

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R
Noxian Guillotine

Darius leaps to an enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing true damage. This damage is increased for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target. If Noxian Guillotine is a killing blow, its cooldown is refreshed for a brief duration, at level 3 the cooldown is completely refreshed.

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First, why Darius?
Darius is a strong bruiser champion, tanks decently and does a lot of damage if used properly, the main con is his low mobility, which is why we use ghost to compensate, also movement speed items gain value on him for that same reason, if you play champions like Garen, Mordekaiser, Sett or Riven you might like Darius, give it a try!

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I'd say my playstyle is slightly different from normal
Darius players, i don't necessarily play for lane domination if it's not an easy matchup, you can abuse the priority that Darius can generate and use it for roams!

You can either get vision in enemy jungle, invade, or run mid and maybe get a kill there, there's no need to flip the game on a random lvl 1 trade, you can also just play for your level 6 or even play for objective fights, play smart and you'll see more wins!

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For teamfights you always want to look for resets, it's easier if you fight front to back with your team and try to execute the enemy front line, fights become a lot easier once you get your five stacks, also remember to build according to your function in the game, if you need to teamfight don't build hullbreaker, you might need to rush things like randuin or thornmail, be smart about your items!

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Also if you happen to not be very strong during the game, you can just play as a tank and play for a reset, no need for a lot of damage, remember to adapt to the game state.

Also, i'd reccomend banning whatever champ annoys you the most as darius, everyone struggles against different champs, personally i ban either tryndamere or jax, not because they are counter but mostly to maintain my sanity.

Darius doesn't have that many particular combos but here are some tips that can help you be more consistent on stacking your passive!

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A useful "combo" is using your ult as a gap closer, this is especially useful when chasing someone and your ult is about to expire, but it can be used on other situations, so basically you ult the person and press W, the ult will leave you at melee range and your W will always land!
Remember this is a combo for chasing, do not do this if it's not an ensured lethal!

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You can Q flash for more range or to catch your enemy by surprise!

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You can W+Q to cancel the W animation

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You can flash + E (can't e flash don't try it) to grab enemies by surprise!

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You can W flash to do the damage and dodge stuff

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You can do a similar thing with ult, it can be useful to dodge lethal skills or just for style points (?

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Also you can use your Q on monsters to heal! and can even drag double camps to heal even more as shown below.

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There's not that much variety in runes, here are the most common things i change!

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Conqueror is probably the most common keystone i take, it's very consistent and will give you good results

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Lethal tempo is good in games where you can land a ton of auto attacks, or in matchups where the trades are going to be intense like Renekton or Riven.

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Tenacity can be good over attack speed in matchups like Renekton, Kennen, Riven, etc.
Or in games where enemy team has VERY heavy CC

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Second wind is good for lanes where you are going to get consistently poked, Bone plating is good in lanes where it's more of a burst damage (Like renekton).

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These two come more as a combo, in games where you feel like you don't need the Resolve tree, you can go nimbus + celerity, works really well against heavy range comps so you can actually catch them! But be careful this will make you a lot squishier.

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These secondary runes are good either when you have a free matchup or you want to have your ghost faster, this can give you more kill pressure if needed, it also lowers your item cd and the cookies give a nice sustain, but you will be squishier/slower than with other runesets, remember to be smart about your runes!

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Mythics

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Stridebreaker is the most common Mythic on Darius, gives nice damage, an active slow and passive movement speed!
Trinity Force is less common but it can be used in games where you are going to split push or you can hit a LOT of auto attacks.

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Ad items(Non Mythic)

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Sterak is the most common AD item on Darius (Apart from mythic), gives a lot of AD, a shield and Tenacity when it activates.

Hullbreaker is less common, but it can be good if you can't teamfight and feel like you need to splitpush to win, gives nice movement speed, AD and defensive stats!
The only drawback is that you need to be isolated.

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Armor items

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Randuin got a huge buff in 13.19, it costs the same as Frozen Heart now, this makes this item very valuable vs Crit champions!
Dead man's is good if you need movement speed, it doesn't have much purpose other than that.

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Magic resist Items

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Force of Nature is good if you need the movement speed, but it can be expensive sometimes.

Abyssal Mask is a really cheap and strong item, gives same MR as FoN but 100 less hp, it only costs 2400 gold, really good if your team has strong ap damage and you are going to teamfight constantly.

Spirit Visage can be a good option if your team has strong healing sources, like Soraka for example, it's also not bad as a second MR item if enemy team has a lof magic damage!

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Boots

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Plated Steelcaps are good against auto attackers

Mercury Treads are good against heavy CC

Swifties can be good if enemy team has heavy slows and you feel like you don't need any of the other boots!

Ionian boots can be good combined with cosmic insight for maximum cooldown reduction for ghost and flash, if you are in a free matchup or considerably fed this can be a good option!



The rest of the build is mostly situational, you can swap these items around to fit whatever you feel like you need in the game, but remember, be smart!

I kinda ran out of stuff to add here, i'm probably missing something but i'm making this guide on no sleep so yeah, if you have any questions or maybe a topic that i missed leave it in the comments! i'll try to update this as time goes, hope you like it!
Also here's a pic of my Split 1 Challenger in case anyone was wondering.update: hit split 2 chall recently too!


Thanks for reading, I hope you have a good experience playing Darius!