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Garen Beats Darius Hands Down

Hari Michaelson··1 votes·715 views

While Darius is a well known lane bully with a nice heal on hit effect, I would argue that Garen should win this lane 9 times out of 10. Granting that Garen doesn't make any huge mistakes of course. All you need to do is follow a very simple play-style and item build for this matchup.

Item wise, rush a Deadmans first (you won't be close enough to Darius most of the time for Sunfire to be useful), then Ninja Tabi boots, and finally Black Cleaver. At this point you'll be able to consistently outtrade Darius and can itemize more for their team composition.

The actual play style consists of one very simple dance. Wait for Darius to use Decimate, rush in and Q, E, W, and rush out again. You'll use W right before silence ends and start running away halfway through your E so he can't pull you back in.

This sounds pretty obvious but I see this matchup go the other way all the time and it's because people don't follow the dance. I'm only writing a post about this because I just finished my 5th ranked game against Darius in the last week and I've made him feed in every single one of those games.

Try it out and have fun making Darius cry. : )

7 Comments

Verxint3 votes

And what if Darius never uses Q like that because you're a Garen and he has no reason to?

I know you're proud of winning your most recent Silver IV game, but the idea of going in on someone who wastes a CD isn't any new trick and it's not exclusive to that matchup

Honestly, Darius usually wins that lane if he knows what he's doing.

Hari Michaelson1 votes

I get what you're saying and I've had that exact same thought before. I've never had a problem with that though even after i've started to win the lane. On the rare occasions when I face a really good Darius it just takes a little more time to turn the lane to my favor as I need to start the trade and tank his Q. That also means that he has no chance of healing from it either though so it works out.

And yes I'm Silver IV but i'd say the majority of people who play league or between bronze and gold so this advice can be useful.

Verxint1 votes

The thing that a lot of Darius do wrong is Q too early. If you start the trade and he Q's right away, he's already messed up. He wants to prime his W as you come in to silence (getting the aa reset if you can) then auto during your spin. He Q's as soon as he can if he can land it, if not, he pulls you back in now that spin and silence is down and 5 stacks you.

The big mistake a LOT of Darius make, especially at low ELO, is using Q at the wrong time. The most common one is, like I said earlier, using Q as soon as the enemy steps in range. You become predictable and push your wave hard when you do that, as well as burn mana. You're supposed to use your other abilities to set up your Q.

That said, at low ELO anything can happen because people there really don't know how to play the game. Many of them don't adapt to the situation or think critically, they're kind of just bashing their head on a wall until they find a weak spot.

Now that I think about it, Garen might be a counter to Darius at lower ELO because Darius is more possible to mess up. But if both players are good and equal, Darius should win without jungle intervention.

redniwediS3 votes

I don't know if it's just my personal play style but, as a Garen main, I always find this matchup to be a skill matchup. Maybe if I used flat runes to keep up with him early it would be easier, but I'll stick to my scaling runes and beat him in the mid game, while only surviving early.

Hari Michaelson1 votes

You're right. I should have mentioned that you can't do much damage too him until you have some hp and armor item 1031 item 1011 . That's when this fight turns to your favor. Thanks for pointing that out.

Darius Bøt1 votes

If you can dodge Darius' Qs and capitalize on the miss it's generally a fairly easy lane. I'd think Garen's general tankyness/Warmog's passive helps a great deal, but imo it's mainly a skill match up. I don't think I've ever lost lane to a Garen, gone even yes, but never lost. On that note my favorite Garen's are crit Garens, they make it too easy :p

GotShivGG1 votes

Darius only loses that matchup if he's bad, and 10k gold of items has nothing to do with the laning phase

He'll simply hold Decimate until you try to engage or he slows you, starting the cast during your silence animation and then chasing you for a pull when it ends

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