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Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Ability Order
Hemorrhage (PASSIVE)
Darius Passive Ability
Introduction
I know that there are plenty of other Darius guides out on Mobafire, but they never seem to do quite the right thing. I've seen those that focus entirely on jungling, while others focus on tanking and not building any extra attack (relying entirely on his team and his ult). My issues with these guides is that they just don't quite fit how Darius was designed: Take tons of damage, deal it out.
This guide is here to serve that purpose, to show players an easy build to use that will give them the best of both worlds.
First off, you want to go with nine
Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage. Because all of Darius' abilities, save
Apprehend, scale with attack damage we should make him good at all points in the game. I chose the scaling Marks instead of flat because it is really hard to crush Darius hard enough early game to stop him from snowballing late.
For you seals, I decided to go with nine
Greater Seal of Armor. This is going to help Darius get to that late game I referred to in the Mark category. While Darius is able to beat most AD tops, he can take tremendous damage while doing so. Armor is important for Darius to make sure that he comes out ahead in these trades, and can make the difference between giving First Blood or just barely limping back to the turret.
The glyph of choice should be nine of the
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. This is going to help Darius get to that late game I referred to in the Mark category. There are several AP tops that Darius can handle fine and those that he can't, but having this extra starting MR is going to make sure that he doesn't get destroyed easily by either set.
Finally, picking up three
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage gives our Darius build more damage as he levels up. At the beginning of the game, you will notice that you are doing slightly less damage then most AD tops (due to flad AD runes) but as the game progresses he gets mightier and mightier. From all this scaling AD between runes and Masteries, Darius' ult (at max stacks and level 18) does 750 damage.


For you seals, I decided to go with nine

The glyph of choice should be nine of the

Finally, picking up three

Darius is pretty simple in terms of what masteries to take. We will be utilizing a 21/9/0 offense-oriented build, but it also allows Darius to act as a damage sponge. I will only bring up unusual picks for this area instead of walking you through the entire thing.
The first unusual pick we have is in the Offense tree, with the
Demolitionist
choice. I picked it because Darius is usually not that bad at dealing with towers but this gives him an extra boost. This proc will apply on both the regular auto-attack as well as
Crippling Strike so Darius can hit the tower hard pretty fast.
The only other unusual pick is actually a LACK of a pick here, in this case
Lethality
. We aren't building crit on Darius (save for a little bit from the
Atma's Impaler) so doing extra damage when we do get a crit will barely be noticeable, especially given how ability oriented Darius tends to be.
The first unusual pick we have is in the Offense tree, with the


The only other unusual pick is actually a LACK of a pick here, in this case


Now we reach the true heart of the guide: how to itemize Darius to be such a threat while sitting in the middle of the fight. While I have posted an approximate build order above, there are several factors to consider before you follow it strictly.
If you are going top against an AD champion, start with the standard jungle (
Cloth Armor, 5x HP pots) build to minimize the damage that other champion will do to you. If its an AP champion top, then proceed straight into your
Hexdrinker with a
Null-Magic Mantle and spend the rest on two health potions.
I recommend
Ninja Tabi as your boots so that your armor value is roughly equal to your Magic Resist, in addition to the extra damage reduction for auto-attacks (important for the enemy AD-Carry(s)). Because it is standard for more tanky, AD-oriented champions to go top this is one of the first items I get. HOWEVER, if the enemy team has 5+ CC skills I would recommend that you get
Mercury's Treads to get out of that faster.
The next listed item is a
Phage but this can be switched with the
Hexdrinker if you are taking too much magic damage (same thing goes for their fully-upgraded versions, the Frozen Mallet] and [[Maw of Malmortius). These items give Darius the ability to stay in combat longer while still doing extra damage.
Once the aforementioned Frozen Mallet] and [[Maw of Malmortius are completed, we have three options which can be done in any order depending on what your needs in the game are:
Warmog's Armor,
Force of Nature, and
Atma's Impaler. While I suggest geting the
Warmog's Armor first and then the
Atma's Impaler, a very fed AP carry would make it more important to have the Magic Resist and health regeneration from
Force of Nature.
If you are going top against an AD champion, start with the standard jungle (



I recommend


The next listed item is a


Once the aforementioned Frozen Mallet] and [[Maw of Malmortius are completed, we have three options which can be done in any order depending on what your needs in the game are:






This is likely to be the most controversial part of this page, and I can understand why. When I play Darius I don't level everything the same way, so I cannot tell you there is only one way to do this and every other way is wrong.

With


Same thing goes for




And now for


Suggested Spells




Workable Spells






Avoid These Spells







Please let me know how you think this guide can be improved no matter what it is. Feedback allows me to get a different perspective on how the guide is seen and how effective it is.
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