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For those who struggle against Darius as Top

RufusLaDufus··5 votes·1,670 views

Just play Nocturne Top with ignite.

Seriously, it is such an easy matchup. Your Q and E speedboost allows you to stay close to him so you don't have to worry about getting hit by the outer ring of his Q and you can block it with your W spellsheild if you feel you can't dodge it.

Post 6 just hold W for his ult and you will win every fight. As your Ult as Nocturne is semi global you can slide without tp so ignite gives you even more kill pressure.

You even have pretty solid sustain since your passive gives you a 60 heal or 2 every wave and solid cc with you 1.25 second fear at level 1 E.

His only major weakness is that it is hard to not auto push lane with his AoE auto passive but this can mitigated by careful positioning when you auto with passive up. If you can't manage that just Q the wave passive auto to hard push and roam mid. Your ult ganks are very strong.

I had some very solid success with it last season with Fervor. The new Fervor isnt as good as the old one but so far I haven't lost as Nocturne top yet.

Note on matchups: Your spellsheild allows you to beat most ability based champs. Illaoi, Garen, Maokia, Irelia and the like.

Riven is a skill matchup since she has so many different things that need blocked at different points in the game. Knowing what to block when takes a lot of practice. I also suggest taking exhasut over ignite for this one.

Ranged matchups are almost impossible. Most of my losses as Nocturne top are at the hands of Quinn, Jayce, and Kennen. These are the only matches I suggest taking TP as your only objective is to survive and farm for these kind of matchups.

Two notable exceptions to the ranged rule are Vladimir and Teemo. Vlad's abilities, aside from ult, are very teligraphed and easy to block. Also, your fear tether goes through his pool making it a very easy matchup.

The Teemo match is completely dependent on your ability to block his blinding dart. If you can consistently block it, easy matchup. If you can't you are going to lose horribly. If you even find yourself in this matchup pray he is using the Omega skin. It has a much more easily identified Q animation.

Now go spread some Darkness.

22 Comments

Ahristocats2 votes

that's interesting, Nocturne has a really high attack speed unlike darius, i think you did a good catch there

Kaioko1 votes

Or you could just play Kayle/Fiora lol. Easier match up and hard sclaes late game. Kayle also provides your team with magic damage in case for some reason your team decides to have an AD mid and jungle.

RufusLaDufus1 votes

Kayle I agree with. She is overly strong right now.

I have to disagree with Fiora. She lacks the versatility, gank pressure, and pick potential Nocturne brings to the team. She is also a fairly easy matchup for Nocturne as you can spellsheild her parry. She is definitly a harder matchup then Darius but not as bad as Riven can be.

Kaioko1 votes

{quoted}

Kayle I agree with. She is overly strong right now.

I have to disagree with Fiora. She lacks the versatility, gank pressure, and pick potential Nocturne brings to the team. She is also a fairly easy matchup for Nocturne as you can spellsheild her parry. She is definitly a harder matchup then Darius but not as bad as Riven can be.

I wasn't arguing for the Nocturne counter but rather the darius one. You can outsustain, out damage, out tank and counter his ult with parry thanks to the huge wind up. Hitting vitals also counters the passive damage. You also get to keep teleport instead of having to run ignite or exhaust which allows you to match Darius' global presence and beat him if he decides to stay 1 vs 1.

That being said a proper played Fiora is an absolute monster. When you can proc all 4 vitals + the initial one in 2 seconds and do 12% per vital in true damage on top of your regular damage and get the giant heal it's absolutely insane.

RufusLaDufus1 votes

Absolutely. A good Fiora can solo carry games. She is another matchup I suggest bringing exhasut for.

Kaioko1 votes

{quoted}

Absolutely. A good Fiora can solo carry games. She is another matchup I suggest bringing exhasut for.

I'm not a fan of the whole exhaust top. I get that with Nocturne's ultimate you have some additional mobility but having global presence is something that I find extremely valuable.

RufusLaDufus1 votes

I just have never found TP that useful in a Solo Q. You may get it off 5 times in a game with its 5 minute cd and most times it seems to be used just to get back to lane. The occasional Tp gank you can pull off doesnt seem as useful as winning top hard, especially with the new FB tower gold.

I can't tell you how many times I have First blooded top at level 2/3 for them to tp in to fight for me to kill them again. It's very satisfying.

To be fair, Minimap awerness is my weakest aspect at this game. So that could skew my perspective.

Lovelle1 votes

{quoted}

Kayle I agree with. She is overly strong right now.

I have to disagree with Fiora. She lacks the versatility, gank pressure, and pick potential Nocturne brings to the team. She is also a fairly easy matchup for Nocturne as you can spellsheild her parry. She is definitly a harder matchup then Darius but not as bad as Riven can be.

Personally, I think Kayle's early game is overrated.

Cresmont2 votes

as a fiora player, you dont know how much joy i get baiting out their hook, getting in a fight and slapping the shit out of them with a skinny ass sword

SpookyNeedle1 votes

{quoted}

as a fiora player, you dont know how much joy i get baiting out their hook, getting in a fight and slapping the shit out of them with a skinny ass sword

I love facing Darius, parrying is W is satisfying, or parrying the ult.

Cresmont1 votes

orrrrrr #parryingdariushook feelsgoodman

SpookyNeedle1 votes

{quoted}

orrrrrr #parryingdariushook feelsgoodman

I usually try and bait the grab and just dodge it, same with his Q. Parrying damage > CC is usually best

Cresmont1 votes

I know it is but its just so damn satisfying

FioraWillCarry1 votes

{quoted}

Or you could just play Kayle/Fiora lol. Easier match up and hard sclaes late game. Kayle also provides your team with magic damage in case for some reason your team decides to have an AD mid and jungle.

Kayle....errr I kinda disagree. I main her and while yes she can do well vs Darius, it's far from being a counter to Darius. She outscales him quickly but the trick is surviving until you do. He can do whatever he wants until you get Greaves and Nashors to actually be able to kill him. You get hooked once by him before that Nashor's spike and not even your ult can save you if the Darius is smart. I always fear the day I meet a Darius that would freeze the lane and zone me out. That's gg if that happens but so far, I haven't met any that smart.

I could recommend her as a counter but there are other champions that are far better at countering Darius than her.

3BallWarsaw1 votes

Untill he AA you 3 times and his passive does 50% of your hp alone

RufusLaDufus1 votes

While you, as Nocturne, are autoing him 5 times, thanks the the attack speed buff from blocking an ability with W, with your Q empowered AA's and then get another 3 in while he is feared from your E. Ill take a trade of 50% hp, which it isnt really that much, to his 0%.

TakaDama1 votes

Hmm ... as a primarily Darius main, this is interesting.

On one hand, I can survive against auto-attack champions with Randuin's/warden's mail and can outspeed certain champions with boots+cleaver passive. And while the Q is good for sustain and damage, Darius procs his passive using AA-E-AA-W-AA-Q or some variation of that combo. Basically if you are dueling Darius to prevent his sustain, you are making Noxian Might easier to proc.

Having said that ... that spell shield steroid makes things tricky as it boosts Noc's survival capability as well as DPS.

RufusLaDufus1 votes

I probably should have put more emphasis on the E fear as it the 1.25 at level 3 to 2.25 second cc at level 9 is what really solidifies this matchup. Darius has no way to avoid it.

Also, it wasnt really to prevent the heal just makes it that much easier to outduel his as it both prevents damage and the heal.

A Darius that understands to build Randuis first is definitly harder than one that keeps trying to build Cleaver after I have killed him a few times. My general build path against him is Black Cleaver into Blade of the Ruined King into Dead Mans if I am winning hard or Black Cleaver Into Dead Mans if I am losing.

Dead Mans is fantasic on Noc as the speed boost allows you even more leeway with not taking TP, and the onhit slow/damage synergies with ult very well.

Only Play Darius1 votes

Shhhh

LegenDariusGaren1 votes

This matchup is a joke for Darius. Kayle is a bit harder, but I beat her with Darius as well. Fiora is a skill matchup, but I beat the last one I laned against (was a fiora main I think.)

Off Meta Evan1 votes
  1. The issue i have with darius is not the fact that i need someone to counter him, i main Kennen for gods sake. the issue with him is that when darius counters you, due to the extremely simple/linear design of his kit, there really isn't anything i can do against him outside of praying that someone will have enough damage to kill him before he kills me in a gank. You aren't always going to get a chance to counterpick him so honestly this doesn't really help. like if i'm Malphite for instance, and he lands his hook on me, he can then auto, W thanks to the reset, Q and possibly keep chasing me depending on where i am on the map. i can try to trade back but due to the Q heal and his base damages/passive theres no way i'm gonna be able to out trade him, and if i just try to cs he'll just keep bullying me, so i'm gonna get zoned and lose farm all through out laning phase. he's not overpowered since champions like Kennen Jayce Vayne can kit him into the next century but he is extremely poorly designed and lacks organic gameplay.
Milodic Mellodi1 votes

I know a REALLY good way to not struggle against Darius. DON'T PLAY AKALI.

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