Garen and Darius mains, I have two questions...

Pandemic Punch·8/19/2017, 5:35:13 PM·6 votes·4,000 views

How does Garen vs Darius in the top lane play out?

Is Darius worth a ban when playing as Garen?

I don't mind the ranged hard counter match ups like Teemo and Kayle. I can build full tank early and hug the turret. I fear the idea of being against a Darius though because if my team falls apart and are unable to gank top, I feel like Darius will just dominate the lane and I won't have an answer to deal with it.

P.S. I don't care what your elo is. Insight from anyone is welcomed.

34 Comments

Critmaster Garen8/19/2017, 6:04:51 PM4 votes

its a skill matchup with an advantage to darius side.

early game darius is proabably going to shit on you. dont ever take extended trades against him. however there are a couple of power spikes like garens lvl 7 where garen can fight darius if he isnt behind in gold and xp.

it really all depends on how you micromanage darius q, your slow cleanse, and your w.

the trade youre looking for as a garen is to spin into him when he engages on you with a q or pull, immediately cleanse his w slow when he applies it before he can position to hit you with his q, then cancel the spin, silence the darius and run the fuck away out of his range with your movement speed buff.

stormraiders helps with these early trades, but becomes less useful later as darius gets more tanky and the keystone harder to proc.

if you can time all this perfectly, youll win trades around lvl 5 to lvl 7.

if you cant avoid getting hit by his q, you have to parry it. in which case he gets a heal but doesnt deal damage to you.

Critmaster Garen8/19/2017, 6:05:25 PM3 votes

chances are the darius is pretty good at his champion, freezes lane on his side and youre going to get dicked on though. its easier for him to win a trade/the early game than you.

DunkinNoobs8/19/2017, 11:28:50 PM3 votes

Darius wins straight up with almost nothing Garen can do.

Ahristocats8/19/2017, 5:41:30 PM3 votes

never played against Garen since the buffs as Darius since i stopped playing Darius

However, in early game Garen is better since he has more damage in a shorter time

SuperCommander8/19/2017, 6:09:54 PM2 votes

In my opinion if the Darius is good (I.e. he hits his Qs) you will have a BAD time as Garen.
Ban him. I pretty much always ban Darius (main Nasus and Garen) because even if you somehow win, he'll probably pentakill your team lategame anyways.

LegenDariusGaren8/20/2017, 4:46:36 AM2 votes

That match up is a joke for Darius. Darius beats Garen at every point in the game. You can even beat Garen without using your ultimate at level 6. Slap on a Death's Dance, and your HP will never drop below 90%.

You can ban Darius if you want. I always pick Darius into Garen and win. When the enemy picks Darius into me, I pretty much lose. I have like 60% win rate with Garen, and most of the losses are against a Darius.

One Ashe On8/19/2017, 9:01:20 PM2 votes

Personally , Darius win long trade against Garen and will end by outscaling him. Darius is worth a ban against Garen because his passive deny your and he deal way more damage than you. You have to invest into damage to deal good damage while Darius only need black cleaver and rest tank and he is set. I suggest you ban Darius.

Noxian Pride8/20/2017, 7:37:59 AM1 votes

Darius main. If the Darius is any kind of competent, the Garen is probably in for a bad time, but a few pointers for you.

The #1 reason Darius is as oppressive as he is is his Q. If he lands the blade it hits you for full damage (I.E. pretty fucking high), applies a bleed stack, and it heals him for %missing, letting him outsustain you. What this all means is you want to play a dangerous game with him: If you can bait Darius' Q and dodge it, that's your opportunity to go in and fuck him up.
Expect him to play aggressive. Any Darius with a brain will try to bully you out. This ties into what I said before: If you can bait his Q, that's a window to move in and CS or harass him back. If that fails, just keep in mind Garen has great innate sustain and don't be afraid to sit back and heal. Remember: It's better to miss CS and get the xp, than it is to die and lose CS anyway alongside xp.
Save your Q. A smart Darius will be looking for what he sees as your only escape tool and try his damnedest to make you blow it so he can all-in you. The moment you go to cast it you're either gonna eat a pull or a W. If possible, try to save it for after he does these things.
Anticipate his combo and have an answer ready for it. Assuming you aren't already in his face, the 'standard' Darius combo is E > AA > W > Q. This puts him at 3 stacks assuming he does the Q immediately (some will auto more between the W and Q). If you eat this combo, it's probably not a good idea to engage, but keep in mind this combo also puts a strain on his mana and puts his E on cooldown (and that's a long cooldown. Rank one with no CDR 24 seconds). As Garen, the correct answer to this is probably to save your Q until after his W, letting you negate the slow and either all-in him or run away properly. A really good Darius will use his W animation to eat some of his Q windup and make his combo a lot faster, so I can't guarentee his Q is dodgable even with your Q negating the slow. If it's possible it's a tight timing, but I don't know if it is.
Do everything in your power not to eat the blade of his Q. I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point but I cannot stress enough how much this ability is core to Darius' lane potential. Dodge the Q, win the lane.

Lord Gareth IV8/19/2017, 6:21:31 PM1 votes

Reminder: This is coming from a Darius main's perspective.

As Garen, just run Ignite + Flash and Darius will be forced to play careful the first couple of levels as long as the Garen doesn't do anything stupid nor fuck up anything. Why I personally hate Garen with Ignite is that he forces you to not go on the full offensive and abuse your insane early game Hemorrhage damage. Garen with Ignite pretty much stalls till atleast level 5 and here's the thing, Garen with Ignite + Ult shits on Darius if he doesn't manage to get a kill or missplays post-6 as he can't build much resistances at all that early in the game. All in all, just go Ignite/Flash - TLD Garen and Darius will not be able to beat you unless you really fuck up. The combo is too bursty for him in a nutshell.

Remember to always ward though! Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius Darius

Lordk0z8/20/2017, 4:53:20 AM1 votes

Advantage really goes to whoever makes the second move here. As Darius, protracted trades, and waiting for a slip-up (such as using Q before you used W) are your thing. Use Q as a parting shot. As Garen, avoid auto-fights, and wait for him to make a move, then counter it. In either case, I would recommend against going heavy on armor in this matchup and race for the black cleaver. Both Darius and Garen have very good anti-armor on their kits, raw health is much more useful here.

rG Thundrag8/20/2017, 6:05:53 AM1 votes

As a Garen main the Darius match up is a thing of patience generally you avoid fighting Darius and instead only retaliate when hes on you.

The latest changes to item 1054 making Darius bleed a lot less harmful and Garen's w change makes shrugging off harass a lot easier as you can easily negate Darius's telegraphed q or w. MS quints can go a long way for Garen in skirmishing around Darius especially along with stormraiders letting you flee away from Darius after you retaliate against him. The real main issue is that Garen cannot be the aggressor against Darius unless he is significantly ahead.

When Darius is attacking you I recommend not autoing him and instead spinning this means he is taking minion aggro and you're not then use q at the end to silence him and zip away before he can do anymore. If he doesn't respect minions too much he can easily die to an ignite all in later or a lvl 6 spike.

By level 11 Garen can effectively do hit and run tactics against Darius if for some reason the laning phase isn't over with his ranked up passive.

Garen is actually fairly good against Darius in a team fight scenario since you can reduce his armor by 43% with E & item 3071 silencing him can hamper his ability to do anything quite a bit.

A last note is that this match up is generally up to Darius outplaying himself.

The Deckowner8/20/2017, 6:08:53 AM1 votes

Darius shits on Garen at every stage of the game.

RankOneUganda8/20/2017, 7:04:03 AM1 votes

the only way garen wins is with ignite or if darius is the villian.

I Ban Freelo 8/20/2017, 1:58:32 AM

You don't pick Garen. Waits until he's reworked.