Delving into successful Darius builds at Worlds

Riot·Oct 7, 2015·2 votes·27,279 views

One of the most contentious and discussed topics at the 2015 World Championship has been the role of four reworked champions, now organized under the banner of "juggernauts" including Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, and Skarner. Along with Gangplank -- another recently retooled champion -- and the omnipresent Lulu, Darius and Mordekaiser have been incredibly high priority picks in Champion Select through the Group Stage thus far.

Due to the focus on banning out Mordekaiser, Gangplank, and Lulu, Darius has slipped through many ban phases but is almost always picked. Of all 24 Group Stage games in Week 1, he's only fallen completely through the the draft three times, with an 87.5% pick/ban rate. Interestingly enough, Darius has only a slightly higher than average win percentage at 57%. He is by no means a guaranteed win, necessitating care and a game plan before loading onto the Rift.

Group A: Flash Wolves' Steak Against the KOO Tigers

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With the largest amount of parity across regional lines at this year's World Championship, perhaps it's not so surprising that Taiwan's Flash Wolves managed to upset Korea's KOO Tigers. What is unexpected is how Flash Wolves managed the victory thanks to their top laner, Lu-Hsi "Steak" Chou. The much-maligned captain of Flash Wolves was considered a weak point on the team, especially in a meta so focused on carry champions in the top lane.

Their Day 2 draft against KOO gifted Flash Wolves not only Darius for Steak, but also Gangplank for mid laner Yi-Tang "Maple" Huang, and the comfort pocket pick of Varus for AD carry Wen-An "NL" Hsiung. This was supplemented by poke from Hau-Hsuan "Karsa" Hung's jungle Nidalee.

The new juggernaut Darius hits hard largely in thanks to his passive, Hemorrhage. Hitting his enemies causes them to bleed, and once Darius applies five bleed stacks, or delivers a killing blow with Noxian Guillotine (R), he gains a secondary passive: Noxian Might. Under the effects of Noxian Might, Darius has bonus attack damage and he applies full Hemorrhage stacks with his attacks as well. Ouch. Apprehend (E) allows him to pull and slow opponents, keeping them within melee range. The most important thing to remember is that Darius needs to be within a fairly short range to deal his maximum amount of damage, and teams have still struggled with this limitation.

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Flash Wolves, and Steak, overcame this by placing NL on a comfortable champion with strong waveclear, complementing the zoning potential from Gangplank in mid lane. This allowed Steak to go in without fear as his team poked away, forcing KOO to come to them.

Steak grabbed Phage first -- a key component of Black Cleaver -- not only for increased attack damage, but also for bonus on-hit movespeed. His first completed item is the Cleaver, which also grants armor shred in addition to the aforementioned movespeed. Steak followed up Black Cleaver with Dead Man's Plate, a new but essential item on juggernauts that gives 600 health -- synchronizing nicely with Darius' percentage health heal on Decimate (Q) -- and yet another movespeed bonus. His build was topped off by a Randuin's Omen, making him even beefier and giving him the possibility of slowing opponents with its active.

The end result is that Steak's Darius not only did massive amounts of damage, but even when caught by opponents, he could take a few hits while the rest of his team poked away from a safe range.

Group B: Cloud9's Balls Against Fnatic

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Rather than running a poke composition like Flash Wolves, Cloud9 opted for their bread and butter siege composition of Tristana for AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi and Azir for mid laner Nicolaj "Incarnati0n" Jensen. This allowed them to whittle down the heath bars of turrets rather than opponents while still providing zone control and coverage for An "Balls" Le's Darius so he could barrel into the center of team fights to deliver a killing blow.

Once again, the Black Cleaver is Darius' quintessential first item. Unlike Steak -- who is not relied upon to do a large share of his team's damage -- Balls built Randuin's next to combat attack damage from Fnatic top laner Seung-hoon "Huni" Heo's Yasuo. He picked up a Spectre's Cowl -- en route to Spirit Visage -- for a bit more magic resistance as well as health regeneration to deal with Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten's Orianna.

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This is followed up by a Thornmail -- signifying again that if Balls goes into a fight, he's planning on staying there -- which deflects 15% of opponents' physical damage back onto themselves as magic damage. Balls then completed his Spirit Visage from Spectre's Cowl, giving him even more health and regeneration. While Incarnati0n controlled zones and counter-engages with Azir, Balls was able to immediately jump into frays following Incarnati0n's Emperor's Divide, staying alive while massacring the entire Fnatic squad with Darius' new kit.

While Darius is certainly strong, it's important to have a game plan for both the entire team composition and build path in order to make the most of his new juggernaut status. He's not an automatic victory once locked in, as many teams at the 2015 World Championship have shown thus far, but he's a blunt instrument capable of incredible strength once in the right hands.

Let us know about your favorite Darius builds and compositions from Worlds 2015, and watch teams play Darius (and 58 other champions so far) over on the spoiler-free VODs page.

38 Comments

Camba4everOct 7, 20157 votes

I think all of you posting negative comments about the article or Darius in general or how Balls got lucky etc... need to re-read the title of the article "... successful Darius builds ..." The article is highlighting the times he HAS been successful and the builds that were used, period. So... read more carefully before you continue the trolling and toxicity, k thx.

p0psiclesOct 7, 20154 votes

The title of this article should have read “delving into the one time Darius did well because Huni picked Yasuo” because that was the only time in worlds he has done well.

GodarenOct 7, 20153 votes

57% win rate with a 88% pick rate isnt doing well?

p0psiclesOct 8, 20155 votes

57% win rate isn't all that great (considering the small sample size if only one game went the other way it would be exactly a 50% win rate). Also if you look at the matches themselves the only games where he really stood out as an integral reason to his teams success are the C9-FNC and TSM-LGD games (granted I would say Bjergsen's monster game carried TSM). The rest of the games he was just kind "there" and didn't do much other than ride the coattails of an ADC/Mid that was controlling the game. Darius isn't the only champ that can do that...

TechNutrelizerOct 9, 20153 votes

Hate how people give Balls so much hate XD, I admit he got a bit lucky, but dat pentadunk though Darius item 3071

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 7, 20152 votes

not sure if you trolling but there was no successfull darius in worlds yet

101100111000Oct 7, 20155 votes

Only if we ignore the Pentadunk.

eAt3nOct 7, 20153 votes

Balls owned bcoz Huni didn't counter picked him!!

Camba4everOct 7, 20154 votes

doesnt matter... nor does it change the fact that he did shut Huni down... so what exactly is your point besides unknowable "what-if" scenarios

eAt3nOct 12, 20151 votes

This happened when Huni Counter picks : http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001370873?gameHash=7e8976b214b65890 ... OWNED!!

banshee beatOct 8, 20151 votes

Kinda, but it's also because FNC's entire team comp was so predictable b/c it relied on a big combo of Ali or Ori knockup into Yasuo ult, which was a big mistake because all C9 had to do was stay spread out, which they did do, so when the wombo combo only caught Balls and Sneaky and Sneaky flashed out, Incarnation was able to just wreck their entire team before he died and Balls just cleaned up. Sneaky didn't even do a single thing in that fight and they still won b/c Incarnation got everyone low enough for Balls to execute.

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 9, 20151 votes

the mistake from yellowstar was not just that he engaged prematurely without his team being able to follow up properly (gragas no bodyslam for example) but also that he prioritized sneaky as his target. the only killable and viable target here would be azir.

all this aside, with how the fight began, fnc could have possibly won it if febiven wouldve flash-ulted azir at second 1.5 of this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XABwjL50KD4

eAt3nOct 12, 20151 votes

excellent explanation!!

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 7, 20153 votes

yes, we ignore pentadunk because except pentakill looking cool, every other champion wouldve ended the game aswell and thus, darius didnt contribute anything to the game that was "darius specific". literally soraka wouldve ended the game there, probably even better because azir wouldnt have died.

thizzzuOct 7, 20151 votes

I disagree, if balls hadn't got that penta the game would still be going and fnatic probably would of one... who would of cleaned up the fight? Azir was dead and just a support morg? And don't even try to say sneaky Tristana, did u see his damage?

Earl EulrichOct 7, 20153 votes

nah, with another champ sneaky could have cleaned up the fight...wouldn´t have looked that fancy, but the result would have been the same.

Colorful DreamOct 7, 20153 votes

"would of one" ...do you mean "would've won"?

banshee beatOct 8, 20153 votes

Ah, but you are wrong about Darius here. Yes, it is true that without Darius, Sneaky could have jumped in and cleaned up (with maybe only Rekkles surviving), b/c it was actually Incarnati0n's Azir who did all the work that fight and got FNC's entire team low health before he died, but the fact is Balls cleaned up that fight before Sneaky could do a single thing. c9 CRUSHED that fight 4v5 b/c Sneaky didn't do anything as he had to flash out. And THAT is what highlights Darius's strength, he played the role of tank AND ADC at the same time in that fight, he soaked damage and cleaned up everyone with massive damage with his ult, no Sneaky required. No other tanky champ could have done that so quickly, Sneaky would have had to jump in and start cleaning up, so the fact they did not need an ADC's damage in that fight and instead won it 4v5 is a testament to how strong Darius can be, and IS a Darius-specific feat.

thizzzuOct 9, 20151 votes

umm so yeah thank you for agreeing.

And the reason i say sneaky would not of cleaned up is because look at his damage , less that lemons and there were 2 huge tanks for fnatic that sneaky never would of killed alone.

banshee beatOct 9, 20151 votes

Sneaky having the least damage dealt in that game is irrelevant, he still had his big-ticket items, which would easily have allowed him to clean up with his resets. But maybe not. If Darius wasn't there doing all that damage, most of FNC might have been able to escape before Sneaky could jump in and clean up. I'm not really sure.

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 9, 20151 votes

an ADCs role is not to jump in and clean up, its to siege towers and deal consistent high damage to frontliners which are hard to bring down otherwise. darius is pretty good at cleaning up, but cleaning up is nothing you actually need in a game. its not a role or a part of a strategy or anything because that implies that you allready basically won the game, which in that fight through azirs damage and fncs failed everything, they certainly did.

this game was actually very winable for both parties and if fnc would have had more patience and wait for a better engage or if all fnc members were in a more ready state of mind in that fight, (because it seemed that yellowstar was too fast on his team there) they could have absolutely won the game and darius weakness is, that he is absolutely not a good champion in a scenario where he actually has to do something on his own.

he cant really peel very good and he cant really go in and threaten to kill someone.

i mean in this specific fight darius did something that only he can do but that something did not affect the outcome of the game nor can he ever do that to affect said outcome.

due to how his kit works, he is actually unable to contribute to the game.

banshee beatOct 9, 20151 votes

"an ADCs role is not to jump in and clean up, its to siege towers and deal consistent high damage to frontliners which are hard to bring down otherwise." Obviously, but I'm talking in context of that fight... Azir got them all low, so Sneaky could have cleaned up with his resets, but he didn't have that chance because Darius DID do the work of the ADC in that fight b/c he DID do huge damage to the frontliners AND the carries and melted through them like butter with the help of Azir, while Tristana was zoned out. Had he not done that, had Balls been on another champ, most of FNC might have escaped that fight after Azir died, and so they would have been able to defend their base, which means c9 would not have been able to end the game there. So Darius's pentadunk did affect the outcome of the game in a big way, imo. He alone prevented FNC's three carries from escaping that fight with their lives, b/c Azir got them low but died before killing them.

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 9, 20151 votes

imagine that darius was vladimir, garen, irelia, MALPHITE or ANYONE really.

to me it looks like you are imagining a 4on5 fight without darius but not actually putting in another champion to substitute. its like, if he was any champion with burst or mobility, chances are azir wouldve not died at all.

i mean its like whatever to talk about this but even if it was darius power to clean up, its still a 4on5 until his team carries the fight to a point where he can clean up and if they can do that, game is won anyways and if they cant, darius contributes nothing.

banshee beatOct 19, 20151 votes

You say that, yet Darius is still getting first-picked in almost every game @ the World Championships.

AyRe CoNteMpTOct 20, 20151 votes

yet, never useful.

Camba4everOct 7, 20153 votes

if thats what you really believe then you need to re-watch or watch the FNC vs C9 game my friend, cuz it sounds like you're the one trolling

Earl EulrichOct 7, 20152 votes

if you want to delve into anything, then dive into which team compositions completly anhilated Darius...or how winrate and the strength of a Champion don´t always correlate.

FekapetaOct 7, 20152 votes

Well the champ does have a high win rate but i seriously question how much of it is due to the champ itself, cause the only time i saw the pick reallyh do something was 1 game with Balls on C9 and one time that he capitalized on a mistake by KKramer on the first game of Flash Wolves at worlds. Other than that it's a safe pick in lane phase (unless u play renekton against it). Counters most of the top laners right now but honestly not so great overall since his weakenesses are more than obvious..

Camba4everOct 7, 20152 votes

sigh please re-read the title of the article... (and also see my comment below, as I dont feel like repeating myself)

AnhDopTraiOct 9, 20152 votes

༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ C9 take my energy༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ

Refuze12Oct 7, 20151 votes

Darius = op and needs a nerf on the passive

andrewd00Oct 8, 20151 votes

It's to late worlds will only be played on patch 5.18

thekingofnidoOct 7, 20151 votes

The truth is, Darius should not be first pick worthy. he is very easy to counter, but in the correct team comp he can destroy the enemy team. Balls showed this during the Fnatic game, he did a ton of work in that fight, and had a good team comp to back him up!

andrewd00Oct 8, 20151 votes

Look at Hai's Face looooool

IrontruthOct 8, 20151 votes

Darius doesn't need to carry hard to be effective in a game. Rather, he needs to be a potent threat that removes options from enemy teams. Normally top lane is used for engage champs who can control the pace of the fight, but Darius can only walk up to people. With a siege comp, you force the enemy team to engage onto you.

Take the last Flash Wolves vs KOO Tigers. At the 23 minute mark of the last game Darius and Azir were used to zone out the enemy team. KOO couldn't take advantage of it, but the threat of those two champs was real. If they had pushed a little harder, they could have forced the fight when they had the stronger position. Their failure to capitalize on this was due to playcalling, not champ select (or builds).

Black Cleaver is obviously required for Darius, it has everything he wants. After that, I'd like to see more players to prioritize Randuins to disrupt enemy engages, letting the ADC and midlane pump out their damage.