Darius - Trinity Force vs The Black Cleaver?

TakaDama··2 votes·12,288 views

The Black Cleaver (3100) +300 Health +50 Attack Damage +20% Cooldown Reduction

UNIQUE Passive: Dealing physical damage to an enemy champion Cleaves them, reducing their Armor by 5% for 6 seconds (stacks up to 6 times, up to 30%). UNIQUE Passive - Rage: Dealing physical damage grants 20 movement speed for 2 seconds. Assists on Cleaved enemy champions or kills on any unit grant 60 movement speed for 2 seconds instead. This Movement Speed is halved for ranged champions.

Trinity Force (3733) +250 Health +250 Mana +25 Attack Damage +40% Attack Speed +20% Cooldown Reduction +5% Movement Speed

UNIQUE Passive - Rage: Basic attacks grant 20 Movement Speed for 2 seconds. Kills grant 60 Movement Speed instead. This Movement Speed bonus is halved for ranged champions. UNIQUE Passive - Spellblade: After using an ability, the next basic attack deals bonus physical damage equal to 200% of base Attack Damage on hit (1.5 second cooldown).

Ok, now that the relevant item info has been presented, I'd like to say I feel like I've had much more success with Darius using Trinity Force than The Black Cleaver (among other unorthodox and possibly completely wrong setups like runes and masteries). Whether it's the ability to not be kited as hard with that extra 5% MS and Deadman's Plate, the ability to apply pressure in other lanes with Spellblade+[W] Crippling Strike, or the ability to unlock Noxian Might thanks to +40% attack speed+[W] Crippling Strike's auto reset, I find I'm loving the classic Trinity Force more than The "Recommended" Black Cleaver.

However, two things I'm not sure about: First, if The Black Cleaver's armor shred passive works with Hemorrhage DoT, that's a full 47.5% cumulative drop in armor against Darius's attacks with [E] Apprehend maxed out and no other armor penetration just for letting the stacks (which also benefit themselves if I'm not mistaken) tick on. Second, I'd like to note that the wording on UNIQUE Passive: Rage for The Black Cleaver specifies dealing physical damage and kills on any unit. This is important to note because Darius can still move during the startup for [Q] Decimate. So instead of stopping to AA a minion with Trinity Force, you start [Q] as you near a minion wave, hit one or maybe kill one, and not lose any momentum from Deadman's etc.

TL;DR: Which would you use and in what circumstances?

4 Comments

Fondling Gems2 votes

Black cleaver applies through the dot and provides the movespeed boost for the entire duration.

Not a Darius player but I would always go Cleaver. It gets you tankier and gives better sustained dmg. Trinity only gives a small amount of burst.

Lost R1 votes

The Cleaver. Darius doesn't benefit as much from the attack speed on Triforce as he used to, ever since the change to his Q made him hit much slower, but harder.

If you're looking for the spellblade effect, just get Iceborne. It gives him armor and cooldown reduction (having both items maxes out his CDR) and his spellblade effect now slows the enemy, making it easier to stack up on them. There's also no Unique Passive overlap or useless stat like what happens with the Triforce.

HongChongDong1 votes

Darius just doesn't need something like Triforce.

Triforce is too costly and doesn't have the same sort of overall effect over the course of the game that BC does. With darius you want 1 item period for damage and straight tank, BC will provide much much MUCH more damage with the increased AD and armor shred compared to triforce that tanks longer to build due to gold costs and doesn't have as an efficient build path.

One of your points was the Atsp allows you to stack your passive quicker but if you're comboing properly then you should be insta stacking it no problem even without atsp.

The normal combo is Q>AA>W>AA>AA then based on what their HP is work out what comes next.

SquashCannon1 votes

Black cleaver synergizes with Darius's passive better than anything else in this entire game.

Trinity force is worthless except for the HP, MS, and CDR. Cleaver gives more HP, slightly less MS, and the same CDR. Cleaver also gives more AD which is better than spellblade because all of Darius's abilities except for apprehend have insane ratios based on his total AD (Guillotine scales off of bonus AD).

Apprehend armor shred passive + cleaver stacks = Darius is one of the few juggernauts who can effectively shred tanks in extended fights just as much as he can bring pain to squishies.

More from Gameplay

More by TakaDama