See title above. Darius is currently sitting at a 90% ban rate, and seems to absolutely crush in game. Somethin' needs to be done about him. Maybe nerf his heal, or how much damage he gets from his Noxian Might passive, I don't know. He just seems to be really overly powerful right now, and I'm not sure I like it.
Only Play Darius3 votesSigh.........
He gets banned in** 90%** of games. As a result he is rarely played. Because he is rarely played, people have zero experience playing against him. Since they have no experience playing against him they end up having absolutely no idea how to deal with him if he is picked in the mere 10% of games he's even on the table. He stomps these games because people have no idea how to fight him and end up feeding him, as a result he is perceived as overpowered and his banrate rises even higher.
It's called a positive feedback loop.
Ralanr1 votesThank you!
Everytime I see him in blind I look up some tips to counter him. Everything seems outdated because no one fights him due to simply banning him!
Only Play Darius1 votesCompletely agree. I only play team builder so there is nothing to stop people from playing the supposedly OP Darius every game if they want to (although vayne is a problem in TB lol) and guess what, I rarely see him picked. Know why? Because he isn't overpowered, in fact he is pretty weak against people who know how to play against him, and TB players eventually learn his weaknesses and exploit them because they don't have bans to use as a crutch.
Ralanr1 votesSo what is his weakness? Cause I lose to him every time I play against him toplane, even with powerful lane Bullies like Pantheon.
Only Play Darius1 votes100k+ mastery points with 
, although mostly on pre-rework, so hopefully i'm qualified to give advice regarding him. Most important thing is that his counterplay is no longer "if you're melee stay away from him until midgame", his base AD, base armor, base attack speed and base damages have all been slashed, and his magic damage and attack speed slow have been removed, so he is no longer impossible to trade with. Treat him like any other top laner, don't overestimate him. He's only a lane bully if you allow him to intimidate you.
But for some quick tips:
Don't pick 
or 
into Darius. I don't care how good you are with them. Nasus is my main and Darius is my second favorite toplaner so I know exactly how he works, and yet I still avoid this matchup at all costs. Don't question it, don't try to beat it, just accept it and pick a different toplaner. Don't make the game harder than it needs to be.
Darius no longer builds lifesteal, and his only sustain is dependent on hitting an enemy champion with his axe blade, meaning you are entirely in control of how long he can stay in lane. If you dodge the blade by either staying out of range or standing directly next to him, you have set him back more than you know.
Bait him into using his Q by walking near him then walking backwards the moment you see him wind it up. This takes practice and it's a bit dangerous but you will get the hang of it. This drains his mana, prevents him from healing off you for the next few seconds, and most importantly shoves the wave hard, which makes him a prospective gank for your jungler. Darius is a little harder to gank after rework because he has a heal and rushes hp items, but it is nonetheless still one of his major weaknesses.
Starting cloth 5 will make it much harder for him to damage you early on, but he rushes cleaver and has free armor penetration passive on his apprehend so you will want to transition into a health item, preferably one that mixes armor and health like sunfire, RO, or DMP.
He is very vulnerable to ranged harass, if you have any at all don't be afraid to spam it on him, he has absolutely no way of responding to it especially if you walk backwards the moment you cast the spell. A good example that caught me off guard was Malphite. He would hit me with his seismic shard in lane every single time it was off cooldown, and rushed an Iceborn Gauntlet so he would have mana and CDR to spam it more often. It was absolutely infuriating, he could cast it from well out of range of my entire kit, and the lengthy movespeed drain boosted him and slowed me ensuring I had no way of catching up to him and getting a heal off. Because it has pretty good base damage, he was able to poke me down to nothing and eventually bring me low enough that he could ult me, stay in handle range of my Q so I couldn't heal, and kill me.
Even if you don't have any range, a surprising amount of melees can actually deal with him in lane. Any melee champions that have modest DPS early on such as Irelia, Tryndamere etc. can beat him in lane. The trick is to quickly get right next to him and most importantly stay in handle range of his Q, hit him with a slow if you suspect he will try to move backwards and get a blade hit or click on the ground at his feet (don't actually click on Darius) when you see his Q windup to make sure you stay in handle range. If you managed to dodge the axe blade, you just denied Darius a heal, a blood stack, and a big chunk of damage, under those circumstance Darius WILL lose prolonged trades against a champion with any sort of DPS steroid, especially before level 6.
In teamfights, I know it sounds counter-intuitive but just focus Darius. He's a melee carry and you are going to have to deal with him one way or another. If you are ranged, kite him and stay out of handle range. If you are melee, stay in handle range and DPS or CC him. If he has 3 or 4 blood stacks on you, rotate out and force him to switch targets and start all over again with his passive, you don't want him to get 5 stacks. 
is extremely effective against him, don't try to save it for a squishy backliner, just use it on him the moment he drops below 50% HP and save your team a heap of grief, Grievous Wounds severely hampers him in teamfights.
If you let him get ahead of you in lane and you can no longer deal with him on your own, play it safe and look for opportunities to roam. 99% of toplaners are much more effective roamers than Darius is, because he has no mobility and no ranged CC anyone can see him coming from a mile away and casually walk in the opposite direction. His roam attempts are often a waste of his time at best and sometimes will even result in him getting ambushed and killed 2v1 because he has no escapes. Because of this, most Darius players don't even consider trying to roam, so as long as Darius doesn't get ultra fed in lane he really has a hard time spreading his gold advantage across the map early on. Pantheon vs. Darius is a pretty rough matchup (quick tip: Save your shield bash for the moment you see his Q windup to instantly get in handle range and prevent his heal) and even if you won lane against him he would eventually outscale you. However, Pantheon is a very effective roamer. He can use his ult to midlane to pick up a kill/assist or at the very least save his midlaner from death, and as a toplaner you should have taken 
so you can teleport botlane and turn a fight around then grab dragon. It's similar advice I give when people say they struggle against Nasus, despite being weak early, Nasus will eventually get to a point where he can Q you for 30% of your HP if you try to zone him from farm, so roam to other lanes and win fights so that your team returns the favor and rotates top to help you kill him.
ham døg2 votesIm sure riot knows about this. He is really scary and in my games I only see the 4 juggernauts being banned, Fi and somebody random. These 5 champs in particular are enough to destroy the meta, Top lane is no longer an island, but a banished world.
Doctor Dyment1 votesI hope they do something about him soon. I don't want Darius to turn into another LeBlanc or Riven, where you try to play him and people hate you.
NoobieKnight1 votes[{quoted}](name=Doctor Dyment,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=XjgmcfY5,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-09-28T20:40:52.060+0000)
I hope they do something about him soon. I don't want Darius to turn into another LeBlanc or Riven, where you try to play him and people hate you.
Too late. I already look at Darius players as those jock douchebags from highschool.
5 Stacks GG2 voteshe's not ban worthy anymore, ppl are scared of him and his wwr is 51%