Darius is my absolute favorite champions. His sustain, toughness, and damage makes him one of the best top laners of all time. I started this guide a while ago and sort of forgot about it. You might remember it as AD Darius with Infinity Edge and Bloodthirster. The thing is I wasn't impressed with how it turned out. So I went back and made a Darius guide with parts of AD Darius but better. Please leave your thoughts and comments about it. I might make a full AD Darius guide again later on if this turns out well and I have time. Thank you.

The simple answer is he's an almost perfect bruiser. Sustain, Easy to play, Hard to kill, and Dunks. I know you probably expected to see a bunch of dunks and Micheal Jordan memes. While I think those are cool and Darius is definitely the Dunkmaster, there is a lot you need to learn to be at the top of your game. Darius can easily carry a game, no matter how much everyone hates Darius, sometimes you need a Darius player that is determined to win his Promos.
Darius is what some people call a brain dead champion like Garen and Pantheon. The truth is Darius is really easy to learn but he does have room to show skill and experience with Darius, aside from flashing your Mastery. He offers so much to your team that even if everyone on your team is AD, Darius is still an ok choice. He has a true damage execute, the resets on kills. Imagine a Garen running around screaming JUSTICE! to everyone, or Cho'Gath eating everyone. Darius does this and Riot thinks it's ok.
Some people think using just any skin on Darius is ok. Those people are right, but not really.

Pros + Sustain + Good Crowd Control with Apprehend + High AD + Easy to Learn + Execute Resets + Team fight Capabilities + Strong in Melee Combat + Wins most trades + Strong Early to Mid Game Darius is strong in melee combat and in long drawn out trades. Is granted a high amount of AD if you get Noxian Might. No skill shots makes Darius easy to learn and pretty easy to master. High damage executes that resets allowing you to execute multiple targets in a fight.

Cons - Weak Against Ranged Champions - Slow - Easy to Focus - Low Attack Speed - Falls off late game - Long cooldowns Early Games Super easy to kite. Really slow without items. If focused and crowd controled enough, you are killed pretty easily. Late game most other champions out damage you unless you are really fed. Early game your pull has a 20 second cooldown, making an opening for the enemy.

Teleport: Helps you get around the map for ganks, dragon secures, and just getting to lane faster. Grap this if the enemy pushes the lane fast or pushes turrets easily like Yorick, Yasuo, or Jax.

Ignite: Just that lil' bit of damage to finish them off. Really good for an early game kill to get yourself snowballing. Grab this if the enemy has a lot of heals like Aatrox, Dr. Mundo, or Trundle.

Ghost: Great for getting around. This is my favorite of a few reasons, you get it if they have a heavy kiting team, they have slows or they are just straight up faster than you. It has also has a low cooldown.

• Aatrox Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Bramble Vest is one of the best items against Aatrox to cut down his healing and gives you armor/ All of his abilities do physical damage. Make sure to buy armor and dodge his Q early. Go in for trades after he uses his Q, that's when he is most vunerable and you have your highest chance of killing him or just winning the trade. Take Bone Plating of obvious reasons.
  
  
• Akali Hard
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Akali is, personally, a hard lane, you can't land abilities on someone you can't see who also has 3-4 dashes. Seriously though, magic resist helps a ton, and taking Aftershock can help. Make sure to just walk away from her shroud unless your are 100 percent sure you can win, otherwise she'll kill you. Get her away from her shroud so she can't hide.
  
  
• Camille Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Camille has some pretty long animations, use this to your advantage. Her W Tactical Sweep has a delay, similar to your Q Decimate, try to either move out of the way or closer to her because the inner portion does let damage and doesn't slow you. Save your Apprehend for Camille's E, Hookshot to pull her off the wall and canceling the stun or just leave the range if at all possible. Her Q Precision Protocol does true damage on the second hit, avoid this, however you can just tank it because the animation for the auto is really long giving you an opening to hit her back. In regards to The Hextech Ultimatum there is nothing you can do to avoid this. Try to be opposing, make it so she's trapped with you, not you trapped with her. Her staying in the ult radius makes landing your skills way easier and getting 5 stacks without her knowing because she most likely won't notice and just tank everything in hopes of killing you.
  
  
• Cho'Gath Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  When you the animation for Rupture turn towards him, he most likely won't expect the sudden aggression. You have to bully him and dodge his Rupture, punish him harshly when he misses it. When he silences you just auto attack him, one stack is better than no stacks of Hemorrhage one him. Getting 6 before him is crucial. Force him to use his ult on minions instead of you or allies. Mid to late game you need your AD Carry to build Lord Dominik's Regards or Blade of the Ruined King, if these tank killer items aren't bought you are gonna have a rough time killing him.
  
  
• Dr. Mundo Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Dr. Mundo is countered by buying a Spectre's Cowl or an Executioner's Calling or Bramble Vest if he is auto attacking you enough for it to work. You can also get Ignite if you don't want Teleport or Ghost. After you can adequately negate his damage you can all him and either blow his ult or kill him. He has health costs, you can abuse this by dodging his Infected Bonesaw and make him poke himself, however he can just heal up with Goes Where He Pleases, so you need to hit him, let Hemorrhage do it's job.
  
  
• Ekko Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Killing Ekko all depends on what he builds. If he goes tank Ekko you build tank to counter his armor with a Black Cleaver, If he goes damage you can, if you want, be mean and purchase Trinity Force and melt through this kid like butter. Some early magic resist can save you from him chunking you out with his Q Timewinder, E Phase Dive combo. Once his W Parallel Convergence is on it's cooldown he lost his only crowd control and is a bit easier to kill. Chasing down Ekko can be hard because of his dash and Q's ranged slow. If he makes a mistake or gets too close punish him. After he uses his Chronobreak call your jungler over for a dive because the Parallel Convergence has a long delay.
  
  
• Fiora Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Fiora will try to parry your Noxian Guillotine or Apprehend, try to space out your combo with auto attacks to fake it out and put it on cooldown. If he Lunges for a vital, Apprehend her and hit her back. She will have some extra sustain with a Tiamat. Her ult is one of the easiest to counter, just stand next to the wall so she can't hit the vital and heal. Lunge is her main mobility ability, the other is a movement speed buff and can be canceled by a slow. Avoid being hit in vitals at all costs, she will out damage you if you keep getting poked down because of it.
  
  
• Galio Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Stepping in closer is the best thing to do against his Winds of War, after he uses it he'll have to CS melee, use this as a opening. Since he builds mainly AP and health, he will be easier to kill as an AD champion. Always warn your team if Galio EVER leaves lane after 6, the warning could save your teams lives. Hero's Entrance is a huge engage for Galio into team fights and can change the course of the game dramatically. You might need to buy a Hexdrinker or something with MR if he keeps poking you. You don't need to dodge Shield of Durand unless you want to, it will make you walk towards him and/or auto attack him, which just applies another stack of Hemorrhage.
  
  
• Gangplank Easy
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  Early you can buy a Cloth Armor so his autos and Parrrley don't do much damage, other than that you can't block Parrrley because it is just a ranged auto. Try to either fake out Powder Kegs or hit them, walking in range and immediately leaving can accomplish this. He will, most likely, Remove Scurvy your Crippling Strike's slow, wait until he does this to Apprehend him, if he never does you can Apprehend him anyways. If you don't like laning against Gangplank you can always get a early kill on him by getting into the closet bush to his turret and starting either Decimate or Crippling Strike. Since he'll start with is Parrrley, he can't remove the slow from Crippling Strike with his Remove Scurvy, auto him until he starts moving away, then use which ever ability you started. If he's low enough, and your confident enough, you can flash and secure the kill. Bulling Gangplank out of CS is hard because of his Powder Kegs and Parrrley, other than just straight up pushing him out of the lane and letting the jungler gank you can't do much.

  
  
  
• Garen Hard
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Garen's passive, Perseverance, counter all the damage you did with your passive. After that counter, his Q Decisive Strike, removes the slow from your Crippling Strike and silences you. His E Judgment, will keep him in the handle part of your Decimate. His W Courage can reduce the damage from anything by 60%. However there are some things you can do. Always ward bushes as that's his common strategy. Keep poking out his passive and avoid staying in lane with low health. You can still just bully him out of CS and he can't do much other than hit you a few times.
  
  
• Gnar Medium
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  Don't chase Gnar, he's got a lot of kiting potential. Wait until his rage bar is low to engage on him. Try to make him lose his Boomerang Throw on the way back so it's on a long cooldown. After he turns mega he has a long CC chain, but after the stuns they go on cooldown and he can be killed without much resistance.

  
  
  
• Illaoi Medium
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  Dodging her Tentacle Smash is key to surviving her. She will try to get you with Test of Spirit, if she does this you can either leave lane and deal with losing CS, or you can fight her and win the spirit. If she ults you need to just leave, unless you can kill her. If you kill her tentacle and push her towards her tower, she will never do enough damage to kill you with tentacles. Also she can't really help her jungler because she doesn't have a real gap closer and no hard CC.
  
  
• Jarvan IV Medium
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  Jarvan IV has a really good engage. Try side stepping the Demacian Standard, you can Apprehend Jarvan IV out of his Dash to his standard. He'll build tank items like Giant's Belt and Tiamat, not much you can do to deal with it until you build Black Cleaver. Try to keep him inside his own Cataclysm, he'll have to wait for his Demacian Standard and Dragon Strike combo to come off cooldown.
  
  
• jax Easy
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  Don't fight him while Counter Strike is active, the stun allows him 2 autos minimum. You'll have to win pre 6, as that's when Jax gets most of his power. Reducing his attack speed can help. Jax can sometimes over estimate his passive with yours, he'll think he wins extended trades but he won't unless he plays it really well. Be aware of his fast damage combo, he will hit creep twice then jump on you and strike you with passive from ultimate + empowered , that delivers huge amount of dmg and with Counter Strike he will trade without loose on hp. Try to predict this either walk away or fight him.
  
  
• Jayce Hard
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  Jayce is a pain for anyone to deal with. You'll have to stand behind minions until he uses Shock Blast it'll be on cooldown for 8 seconds. Force him to switch to melee form, he won't be able to poke and can't bully you. Buy a Chain Vest or some for of armor. Jayce doesn't have a real ultimate so you'll hit power spikes at 6 but he can only get spikes of power from items. Use that you your advantage and engage at 6. He has no sustain and not very tanky, your team will chunk him out if he makes a mistake or gets caught out.

  
  
  
• Kayle Medium
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  Kayle has to naturally push the lane using her Righteous Fury, so a good jungle camp will shut down a Kayle in lane easily. Purchasing a Doran's Shield is essential, later you might want to pick up a Spectre's Cowl or Hexdrinker. She is really good at kiting, don't even try.
  
  
• Kayn Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  If your dealing with a Kayn top, he'll go Darkin Form unless he roams around everywhere or waits an extra 4 minutes. Don't Decimate before he Reaping Slashs, he'll just use it to escape. Early game he has longer cooldowns on his abilities and high mana costs, make him use his mana pool and engage. Don't Flash when he Umbral Trespasses into you, unless you can get him under tower and kill him. He'll have way more sustain than you, you'll have to buy Bramble Vest or Executioner's Calling, or run Ignite. Kayn doesn't really have a passive before 9 minutes-ish, abuse his lack of one.

  
  
  
• Kennen Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  [Nothing really amazing here, just do what you would normally do against ranged champions and build accordingly to his, if he goes on-hit or AP. Against ranged you'll start [[Doran's Shield]] unless you want to do something else and you'll build tank. If he pushes to tower try and bait him into Apprehend range and pull him under tower. Get Phage for the movement speed to get in range and that's really it.
  
  
• Kled Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Engage on Kled when you see him use the last hit of his Violent Tendencies, that's where most of his dueling damage comes from. He'll try to poke you with Beartrap on a Rope, the only real damage comes from the pull at the end of the duration. He's really good at chasing and turning fights. If he ever dismounts you need to go in for the kill, if the courage is almost full you should start to walk away, he'll get his abilities back and health. Don't use Noxian Guillotine while he's on Skaarl the Cowardly Lizard he won't die.
  
  
• Malphite Easy
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  Malphite doesn't do very much damage and with the passive armor pen. from Apprehend will allow you to trade better than most other AD top laners vs. Malphite.
  
  
• Maokai Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  His CC can mess you up, so grab tenacity from runes like Legend: Tenacity and Unflinching, or even Mercury's Treads. You have to win early game and take his tower before he takes yours. Gain a lead and use it in other lanes.
  
  
• Master Yi Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Try to save your Decimate until after he Alpha Strikes because he use it to dodge it first. Grab armor early like Bramble Vest or Warden's Mail. Try not to let him roam or farm or kill you, he'll take a kill and turn it into 10, you've all seen a fed Master Yi.
  
  
• Mordekaiser Easy
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  Morde will save his Teleport for when his team goes for dragon. try to follow him or cancel it with your Apprehend. He builds a weird mix of AP and tankiness. don't let him poke and all in when he doesn't have his abilities or Flash as he has not form of CC, engage, disengage.
  
  
• Nasus Easy
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  You've all seen a Nasus that farmed for free and can one-shot anyone, your job is to not let him do that, freeze the wave near your tower and harass him whenever he goes in for a minion. Avoid standing in Spirit Fire because it shreds armor and don't fight him when his ult is active unless you know for a fact you can kill him. His Wither won't let you chase him. He'll sustain with his passive Soul Eater so get Grievous Wounds. I put him in the easy lane group but you need to stay in lane with him even when turrets are down, it's your job to stop him from farming and one-shotting your ADC.
  
  
• Nautilus Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  He is tied with the most CC in the game Ornn being the other with 4 CC's in his kit. Try not to push very hard because when his jungler ganks he'll make you stand still for 4-5 seconds straight.
  
  
• Nocturne Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  A very easy match up. He has mixed scalings and doesn't have a real in combat ult. He'll poke you out if you let him, start with some defenses and just build standard after that.
  
  
• Nunu Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  Call of the Frelijord

  Pretty easy lane, you can cancel his ultimate with your Apprehend. He does no real damage, even if he goes AP, after his abilities are on cooldown, you can kill him pretty easily. Although you do have a choice to make, save your Apprehend for his ult or Biggest Snowball Ever! when he tries to run from you.
  
  
• Olaf Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Be careful, you need to dodge his Undertow, he'll keep picking up the axe and push you out. Generally he'll engage with Undertow as it's his only form of slow. Tough It Out greatly enhance his combat stats, he can potentially out sustain your Noxian Guillotine, pick up Bramble Vest or Warden's Mail.
  
  
• Ornn Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Full of hard CC, Ornn can make or break a team fight, your job is to stop him before he gets to that point. With your natural armor pen. and a healthy amount of DPS killing him isn't so much the hard part in lane. He'll most likely out sustain you in lane because of Living Forge. Ornn runs on pretty high mana costs that you can expose, call for your jungler or mid laner, or force a fight with Apprehend. Do everything in your power to not get stun locked, take Legend: Tenacity and/or Unflinching, Tenacity is your friend.
  
  
• Pantheon Hard
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Probably one of Darius's biggest counters. Not only can he fight you in extended trades but he can also burst you. Starting Cloth Armor is a worthy investment. You have to adapt your combos a bit vs. Pantheon, first you shouldn't AA-W you need to break his shield so AA-AA-W. Then add another auto when he uses Aegis of Zeonia. He'll power spike dramatically at 1-2 items, Darius generally can last longer before falling off later. Pantheon is mostly single target damage, peel him off your carry and you'll be fine. An extra tid bit, is that when Pantheon uses Grand Skyfall into an unwarded bush you can't see the warning area, make sure to plop down wards where you expect him to appear.
  
  
• Poppy Easy
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  Not a huge threat (to you at least). Her harass is minimal, she is close range but has a plethora ways to CC you. Hammer Shock has a tiny area, but can whittle you down if you take some to the face. Her Steadfast Presence might be able to cancel your ult, not sure I've never seen it happen. Tell me if this happens to you, I'm curious. Poppy's Heroic Charge is best used against terrain so be wary when close to walls. Keeper's Verdict does little to no damage but knocks you up letting her team get into position, run away and force her to charge it up so it knocks you away so you can be safe.
  
  
• Quinn Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Quinn is one of the harder match ups for Darius to play against. Always try to dodge her Blinding Assault she'll poke you out of lane when combo'd with Harrier. Starting Doran's Shield will greatly reduce her threat to you. She's super easy to kill and gets shut down when CC'd. After she gets level 6 tell your team, and ping whenever she leaves lane. Behind Enemy Lines makes her one of the strongest roaming champions in the game.
  
  
• Renekton Hard
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  One of the strongest lane bullies in the game along with Pantheon, Quinn, and Darius, Renekton is similar to Darius but with some changes like he has different forms of sustain, he's faster and has a better stun, but he's not as tanky and has some trouble with Keystone choices. Either you win lane or he does, very rare is it that you go even with Renekton, he is scary and should be approached with caution, like a real gator. Red means stop and that same philosophy can be applied with Renekton, his Passive Reign of Anger amplifies his abilities. It's best to wait until it lowers or he uses it on minions. As for runes it's up to you, chose what you feel suits you best when fighting Renekton.
  
  
• Rengar Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Top lane Rengar was buffed with the revert to his Q Savagery. He's a strong early game champ but his ult isn't the best when laning, as it has a few seconds to activate and the invisibility isn't the strongest while laning. Stay away from bushes because he'll jump out and start with one extra stack of Ferocity which is similar to Renekton's passive where at 4 stacks his next ability is buffed. He has good roam potential to mid lane so take care not to let him leave lane for too long. His W Battle Roar heals him for 50% of the damage dealt in the last 1.5 seconds, you might have to bait it out before you ult him. Most of his scalings are AD so stacking some armor will definitely help fighting Rengar.
  
  
• Rumble Medium
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  Quickly get out of Rumble's ultimate AOE zone as it deals massive damage per second. Watch Rumble's heat bar - he will be silenced if it becomes full. Take advantage of this as he'll only be able to auto attack during this time. Building Magic Resist will fair well against a Rumble because he only deals AP damage.
  
  
  
• Shen Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Shen is tanky but can some surprising damage, when he activates Spirit's Refuge use your Decimate or Apprehend. If you see him ult you can break it with Apprehend or if you can't just get as many stacks as you can so it'll be easier for your team to kill him. Ping your team when he gets Stand United. After he ults away just shove the wave, usually you can't follow Shen where ever he ults.
  
  
• Singed Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Do not chase Singed, as his poison will continuously reset against you. Don't waste your time with trying to kill a Singed unless you're certain you're able to take him down. Always try to stay away from Singed to avoid his use of Fling. If he becomes a real problem you can buy Adaptive Helm and he won't be doing much damage to you.
  
  
• Sion Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Be careful, he shouldn't out damage you but he can be troublesome. Don't over commit to the kill just to die to Glory in Death. Apprehend stops his Decimating Smash. You can heal off of his passive with your Q
  
  
• Swain Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Avoid getting hit with by Nevermove and Vision of Empire, though if you get hit by Vision of Empire you deserve to lose lane. Not much you can do about his Death's Hand, I just take Nullifying Orb.
  
  
• Teemo Hard
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  His Move Quick is on a long cooldown and should be exploited, when he blinds you use your Q then E so he can't hit you for a second, after the blind is over you should either kill him or back off the trade. Get red trinket and control wards.
  
  
• Trundle Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Try your best move him out of his Frozen Domain during a fight, as it gives him a massive bonus to his movespeed, attackspeed, and healing. Get away from Trundle's pillar immediately as it will continuously slow you as long as you stand near it. Get Grieveous wounds from any source and it will hurt him a lot. Try stacking health instead of armor because he can just steal it with his ult.
  
  
• Tryndamere Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Armor items such as Thornmail and Randuin's Omen do extremely well against Tryndamere because he is completely auto-attack based. Igniting him at the end of his ultimate duration will usually end up in a kill, as his healing from his Q will be halved. Try to zone him out of any possible fury. His 35% crit passive can turn almost any fight around. Tryndamere has a relatively weak early, so don't be afraid to get in his face. You can either save your ult for the kill or use it to burst him when he's at 5 stacks and suprise him with the damage, he'll die or use his ult.
  
  
• Urgot Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Avoid getting hit by his Q, he'll lock on to you and use his W. While his W is active you can clearly see his cooldowns for each leg. Bramble Vest can help because while his W is active he has 3.0 attack speed.
  
  
• Vladimir Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Deny Vladimir's farm at all costs. If possible, try to delay his purchase of a Hextech Revolver. Do all this because Vladimir's late game is amazing. Early magic resist will save your life as well as Ignite. He'll still bleed while in his blood pool.
  
  
• Yasuo Easy
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  Dodge his Steel Tempest, poke out his shield with an auto.
  Decimate when out of range of minions, kill him inbetween minion waves. When he tries you run Apprehend, slowing him limits his escapes. Darius does amazing against Yasuo.
  
  
• Yorick Medium
  Spoiler: Click to view

  

  You can't kill Yorick's ghouls with just decimate you need to auto them. Bait out his Dark procession and never let him near your tower. Fight him after he uses Mourning mist because that is what makes his ghouls attack you.
  
  

I'll explain every item I put in the build above.

Blade is what I use to always start. With the life steal I could stay in lane longer and trade even better with it too. When they changed shield however I only buy this item if I am 100% certain I can win and afford taking more damage. Also life stealing up with only Doran's Blade is hard and takes a long time, especially if you are melee, and don't have much attack speed like Darius.

After the changes making it a mini Spectre's Cowl I buy this in most matchups, instead of lifesteal you just take less damage and heal more. The CSing aid it gives you works wonders if you mess up and miss a bunch.

Corrupting Potion is a weird start. However it enhances the bleed and gives you mana, the draw back is you can only use it 3 times before you have to back and refill it, while the enemies starting item (assuming they started Doran's) doesn't have to be refilled and can sustain way better with it. My advise is to buy Corrupting Potion later if you have extra gold, or after buying it buy one of the other 2 starting items.

Your Passive applies armor shred. The Rage passive allows you to orb walk easier and catch up to enemies by hitting minions. Health is a really good stat for Darius and he thrives off of it. This is just such an amazing item, giving speed, health, damage, armor shred, and 20% cool down reduction is ridicules. This is a match made in heaven for Darius and Black Cleaver, they go way too well together not to get it.

Magic resist isn't the only reason you buy this item, the heals it gives you really help you with your Decimate. Health again is a good stat. I always buy this for the heals, maybe not directly after Black Cleaver but I will get it. Later in the game your healing from your Decimate won't be enough to stop the enemy from doing 12% of your health in another 5 seconds. So the healing allows you to stay on top of the fight and healthier than ever.

Reduced crit damage is amazing against ADC's, Yasuo, Master Yi, and Tryndamere. Armor allows you to double up on your sustain. Remember the long the team fight lasts the stronger and stronger you get. In this world were ADC's crit items are cheap and can start to snowball easily and only a select few ADC's can build anything other than crit,, buying this saves your life and you teams life if you play it correctly.

Death's Dance is situational, only get it if you can go without the health, armor, or MR. The reduced damage as a bleed and the heals from abilities can make up for the loss. While you can turn into a sort of raid boss with this, don't expect to be healing everything and tanking to much with this as opposed to a Titanic Hydra or Sterak's Gage. It's not something you buy your first time playing Darius. Get some time in and understand his kit, before you start buying it.

Maw of Malmortius is if you are against a heavy AP team comp or you are going against an AP top laner, in that cases it may be best if you get the Hexdrinker and build it into Maw of Malmortius later on. The benefit of building only the Hexdrinker is it allows you to finish your first or second full item and not be in total fear of the enemy. Building the full item is something you really should do if you had to get Hexdrinker in the first place, it gives you damage and cool down reduction, and a pseudo tank stat with the Life-line proc.

Same deal as Death's Dance. No health or Armor. The Life steal and damage are an OK trade. While having over double the damage from Titanic Hydra, the 450 health deficit is greater than 12% life steal. Buying Ravenous Hydra means you are way ahead and missing out on health for life steal doesn't matter.

Sterak's Gage is an amazing item. A bit of health and a bit of damage. The huge shield if you get bursted down. Don't stack it with Maw of Malmortius, because the Passive shields don't stack. Buying this with Death's Dance ensures you won't get bursted down by any assassin. Before you finish the item, sit on Jaurim's Fist for a while and stack up the health, it'll help.

This item is in my opinion better than Ravenous Hydra, the active is an Auto reset and stacks your passive even faster. The Health, health regeneration, and damage are greater than the life steal. While yes Ravenous Hydra also has health regeneration, regenerating health doesn't matter if you don't have any health to regenerate. I'm not bashing Ravenous Hydra while it looks like I am. I have built both and have loved both, Titanic Hydra is better from a mechanical stand point Ravenous Hydra is just more robust and satisfying, bottom line, Titanic Hydra while your new and need the stats, Ravenous Hydra when you understand Darius and are ahead in the game.

Essential to most all Darius players. Chasing is hard on a slow moving champion like our friend here, but if you combine the move speed buff and your Apprehend, all you need to do it get in range of the pull and kill them. Speed is a problem Darius has and is his biggest weakness, Dead Man's Plate helps this issue. It doesn't always have a speed boost but it does when it matters like walking in range to start a team fight or just pushing their base, speed is everything.

Frozen Mallet if you have an issue sticking on to your enemy, allowing you to finish them off, the passive is like your Crippling Strike every auto attack. Granting 700 health and only 30 damage, you get more than you think. Combine this and Dead Man's Plate and no one is escaping you. The huge amount of raw health it gives you buys you time while your getting in range to slow them with every auto attack you do.

It looks better than it is. The Health is alright but health doesn't do anything if you don't have Armor of Magic Resist. Health regeneration is good if you are going to be fighting in and out. By the time you get to Warmog's Armor you'll probably already have full 40% CDR, the immense amount of health and regeneration it grants is well worth it, not to mention the Warmog's Heart passive, letting you stay out of the fountain and in the fight as long as possible.

Armor and Magic resist, if you are the only tank on your team and act as the CC and engager grab this. Beware the Active reduces damage so be prepared to not do much than absorb all the damage. Don't activate it to late or you'll just end up dying a little bit slower than you would without using it. Make sure to have enough health so that when you buy this the defensive stats are worth something.

If you don't have the ability to push, this is perfect. Good for chasing through a lane with the Point Runner passive. The actives portal will help you end the game with a good push. It's a pretty simple item, I don't think I have to explain much about it.

New Thornmail is amazing. The Bramble Vest is all you have to buy unless you really need it. If you are against a Aatrox or Dr. Mundo, or just an laner with a ton of healing this saves you from having to buy Executioner's Calling. Which always sucked because Darius doesn't really buy anything that doesn't make him tankier in someway or another.

Not my favorite item but a good one nonetheless, helps with your CS and push. Nice tank stats too. It'll aid in prolonged fights and just give you that little bit of extra damage in the fight.

If the enemy happens to be high AD or have attack speed this is a nice grab. Along with maxing your CDR assuming you have Black Cleaver. High amounts of armor and the extra mana helps you to spam abilities and not have to worry as much about managing your mana pool.

Situational, like most of these items, this nice for many reasons, Health, Armor, CDR, and Mana. Allows you to spam abilities with the mana and CDR. Coming out of a bush with this active and running at the enemy at the speed of sound will give them a heart attack. An amazing item to get if your team lacks a good engage and you need initiate them.

Be careful when you buy Trinity Force. You have to be familiar with Darius and solid with your combo before you start buying this. Attack speed, CDR, damage, Rage passive, and the Spell Blade passive sound too good to be true. It is, in buying this you lose on defensive capabilities and are way easier to kill. Buying this and Black Cleaver is a bad choice because, You have full CD which makes all the other items you buy with CDR less useful, and Rage doesn't stack making the other item less cost efficient.

Grab this for Teemo, Singed, Dr. Mundo's Burning Agony, or Cassiopeia. Nice stats but only good in very specific situations. If they stack AP then consider picking this up, don't hesitate to buy one of the best MR items in the game because they don't have damage over time or spam some ability. Side note, if you don't know where Teemo is and step on a shroom, a little indicator will show you the direction he's in, this only works on damage over time that deals magic damage, so Darius or Twitch passive won't show their direction.

Skilling Order

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• Hemorrhage: Your passive is really strong, and your kit revolves around it. After you reach 5 stacks you gain the second part of his passive called Noxian Might. Noxian Might grants you 30-200 AD based on level, and you will instantly apply 5 stacks of Hemorrhage with anything that would otherwise apply 1. Your passive is what makes it easy to win trades and even get kills if they bleed out.
  
• Decimate (Q): Decimate is your huge harass tool. The axe handle does 35% reduced damage and doesn't apply your passive. If they are struck by the axe blade you are healed for 12% of your missing health per enemy champion hit, up to 36% or 3 enemies. Max this first always, it'll reduce CD and increase damage, this is one of if not the best harass in the game.
  
• Crippling Strike (W): Crippling Strike is an auto attack reset that's CD and mana are halved if it kills a unit. Slows enemies by 90% for 1 second dealing extra damage. Max this last as it is used for anything other than to apply another stack and a small slow.
  
• Apprehend (E): Apprehend is a cone pull/knockup helping you stick and chase down the enemy, this is the only ability Darius has that doesn't apply a stack of Hemorrhage. Slows the enemies by 40% for 1 second and has a passive armor penetration. 5/10/15/20/25%. Max this second for the armor pen and more frequent pulls and CC. Unlike Blitzcrank or Thresh this is a cone, this allows you to pull more than 1 person for a large CC. If you think you can constantly pull more than one Aftershock is on option for your rune.
  
• Noxian Guillotine (R): Noxian Guillotine is a true damage execute. Classified as a dash so you can't use it while grounded from Cassiopeia or Singed. For each stack of Hemorrhage it does 20% more damage, up to 100%. If Noxian Guillotine kills its target it's cool down resets for 20 seconds letting you kill more than one person with it. At rank 3 it "unlocks". After it's "unlocked" the cool down resets completely on kills.

CSing with Darius can be tricky at the start with his passive messing up the damage the minions take. CSing under tower is hard as well, because caster minions you Auto/Turret shot/Auto. The passive can sometimes mess this up. Refrain from using your Decimate for CSing, instead us your Crippling Strike. The Crippling Strike's CD is halved after it kills and doesn't drain you as much for using it.

Wave management. Try to only last hit unless you kill them or the back. At lower ranks the enemy will just mindlessly shove the wave, let them. When they are in front of your tower, in between tower and brush. Once there they won't expect you to try and kill them and that"s exactly what you do. Reason you do this is to let push so that they have a longer time to get to safety under tower, letting you stack your passive, also the enemy jg is unlikely to gank if you are pushed in.

After you have gained a lead start pushing in towards their tower and remember to ward. Get tower and start to roam if your team needs it. If not just push in another tower, giving you more control over Baron and a gold lead.

As a Juggernaut your job is to be in the middle of the fight sustaining up and damaging. However a different and perfecly viable way to start a fight is to get 5 stacks on the tank and move on to the rest of the enemy and us your ult to kill them. Or you can just go full tank and act as the CC. Darius wrecks in team fights, and the longer they fight the better you are, because you have heals and are really hard to kill. Just try not to get kitted or you can be in big trouble. Your Decimate and Apprehend have a large area of effect use those to aid your team. After the fight don't try and pick off stragglers just push objectives.

Objectives are the only way to win the game. After the fight push, don't think to fight again, just take objectives. Some objectives are more important than others. Mid, Bot, Top towers are first in their respective order. Then Dragon if you can't take a tower or Rift Herald if you really want to kill a tower. If their base is open and you can win don't try for Baron just end. Baron is the best buff to win the game so use it to take Inhibitor Tower and/or Inhibitor.

Play Video
You'll use this most of the time, it catches them off guard so you'll usually win the trade.

With your passive you win most trades. If you are looking for a kill you have to walk front of the enemy, this is in between them and their tower, making it unsafe and allowing you to stack and Ult.

Darius's Q or Decimate. This unique you other abilities similar to it like Illaoi's Q, Tentacle Smash and Camille's W, Tactical Sweep , because it is a complete circle and heals for a lot more. You can make the healing even greater by buying Death's Dance and Spirit Visage. The healing is for 12% of missing health remember that, this has saved my life many times and will save yours too if you time it and actually hit with the blade.

Darius's W or Crippling Strike. The different from some other auto attack resets is the huge slow for a second and it's cool down is halved if it kills, letting you CS with it without draining all of your mana. Interupt your auto with it for maximum damage as fast as you can. Also use Crippling Strike to push towers down faster. Side note it increases your auto attack range by 25 units, not much but it helps.

Darius's E or Apprehend. I've said this before but it's a cone. pulling more than one enemy towards your team and killing them is always a smart thing to do. It's a knock up so Yasuo can ult on it. The pull bounces them back into Decimate range and easy reaching for your Crippling Strike.

Darius's R or Noxian Guillotine. This is what your kit builds up to. This huge amount of true damage, scaling with AD and resets. This is the dunkmaster ability that makes Darius, Darius. 75% AD scaling into True damage. Building up damage with your passive. What makes it different from other executes like Garens, Jhins, and Cho'Gaths is that the cool down resets for 20 seconds if it kills someone, Also if you kill someone with out 5 stacks on them you instantly gain Noxian Might, making it way easier to kill more and more enemies. Also it fears minions and monsters, this isn't used for anything its just cool.

I hope this was of at least some help to you. If you made it to the end good job, not many people can focus on one thing at a time. Making this took quite some time and your feedback is much appreciated. Darius is my favorite champion and I just wanted to share my take and style of play on Darius. I will try and keep this guide up to date with item changes, buffs and/or nerfs to Darius and the current meta. Right now it is the tank meta again and Darius can fit into this meta perfectly, being able to shred tanks and be a tank. Unlike most Darius guides I didn't use the word dunk much, I had to get it out early on with the Why to play Darius, chapter. I tried to be serious without losing your guys attention. I might not have accomplished that. Thank you for reading this and spending your time on my guide.

If you want some extra help you should follow these people:
I main Darius
SteelHorse
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