Darius Advice

Placentas·Aug 16, 2016·1 votes·1,018 views

So I received a Dunkmaster Darius shard a week or so ago and finally decided to use it! It's such a badass skin, but alas, I do not play Darius very often.

Was wondering what's the current best way to build and play Darius?

12 Comments

l Helios lAug 16, 20162 votes

M7 with Darius.

In terms of build, it's almost always cleaver rush first. There's very seldom an occasion where you wouldn't want cleaver first. The health is great, the CDR helps a lot, and the passive shred works wonders for your Q and W and bleed.

After that, it would be situational boots depending on what you feel is most needed. I tend to lean towards merc treads, unless there's a lot of auto aftackers, Jax, Kalista, Kindred all on the same team.

Beyond that, for MR you always want spirit visage due to the increase in Q heal and good health regeneration stats. You can double up with banshee's if you need to.

Armor can be tricky just because if you take visage, you can't build frozen heart. That leaves you with randuins', thornmail, dead man's, or sunfire. Randuins for crit like Trynd, Yasuo, scary ADCs, thornmail only as another armor item, dead man's is good all around for health and the speed up, sunfire is good for long brawls where the active will be most efficient, only problem is Darius tends to win long brawls anyway.

I only tend to build one damage item because it tends to mean more if you can build tank and survive longer than try and flat murder people, especially since Darius is easy to kite without E. Plus, Darius damage falls off later in the game and it tends to be difficult to get ult resets unless your team focuses on getting it for you, since most ADCs shred low hp targets late game.

In terms of playing, you want to be aggressive early, but still cautious. There aren't many laners who flat out damage you, and the ones who do are bursty fighters who don't brawl long, ex Renekton. Of course as Darius, you can pull a Renekton back in when he E's out and use your damage to chunk him back.

Thing about Darius is you always win long fights because of passive, especially early. There are very few champions who can fist fight a Darius early game,

I'll go through each matchup based on my opinion.

Aatrox It can come down to a sustain match up in lane. If you land Q's, you can outsustain him, but you'll have to be consistent with damage or he will heal off creeps. In the flat 1v1, you'll win as long as you don't get knocked up by his Q or get poked down by E. Late game you're more useful than him, but he probably won't group except for objectives. Consider him the worse version of tryndamere.

Chogath Similar story to Aatrox with sustain: land Q's, you'll sustain more. His ult will deal more than yours at most points of the game, especially if he build even a mediocre amount of AP. Silence doesn't mean much versus Darius, since your autos stack bleed too. Overall, youll typically win trades and can bully him easily as long as you don't get poked out by Q and W.

Darius Whoever stacks bleed better wins. Simple as that.

DrMundo This is a hard matchup for one reason: Mundo has a long range CS'ing tool in his Q and his passive sustain will beat yours since he won't be in range for your Q if he's smart. Mundo won't beat you in the 1v1, but he doesn't have to in order to be strong. It's pretty much a cock-block lane because you want to kill your laner, but Mundo can just farm and be happy hyper scaling off HP. If you don't keep consistent damage, just focus on CS, since he'll just outsustain you.

Ekko Not too often anymore, but I played against one the other day. Tankko is pretty much done, but even AP Ekko can't match your damage output. You'll win any trade he can't E away from. As long as you keep his E down, you'll win. Make sure to dodge Q's as well. Post 6, just avoid his ult explosion and you'll win. You can even bait his ult with your passive proc or bleed and then kill him after he ults.

Fiora A skill based matchup, but more you sided than most. Your damage is much higher than her's early, but she has the tools to win as long as she W's your ult or E and Q's your Q. However, you'll always outdamage her until late game. After that, it'll get much trickier and will come down to the same conditions as earlier, but worse since she'll outdamage you. Building health is not advisable since she has % true damage, so armor cuts down on her regular damage. Her % hp will deal the same damage regardless of your build or who she fights. Just a fun fact.

Fizz I haven't played this one a massive amount, but it is conceptually very you sided until 6. If you keep Fizz E on CD, you win. In addition, he will run out of mana faster than you if you do so. Post 6, Fizz gets a crazy spike from his ult in addition to the passive mark on it. Overall, just bully him early and dodge/predict the shark and you'll win.

Gangplank This can be fairly tricky, but still favors you. Assuming the GP has any sense, he will never be in melee range of you, which can be problematic. However, you get a grab, he can't get away unless he has a barrel ready to slow you. Bush control is key in this. His Q is higher range than your E, but he will be frozen for a sec when he uses it, so keep that in mind. Try to W after he W's so your slow will stick. Post 6 if you can start a fight, you should win hands down.

Garen You'll win this early. His Q's silence doesn't mean much since you still stack with auto's, and your damage is strictly higher than his early. Late game he can deal more it your the villain, but outside of that you should win lane pretty handily as long as you don't let him sustain. Save W for after he Q's so the slow sticks. This will also let you kite his E.

Gnar Frustrating to say the least. Mini-Gnar will always win this unless you can E him during his jump or pull him in while it's on CD. Mini-Gnar can kite you to death, which is arguably the biggest weakness of Darius. Mega-Gnar deals a lot of burst damage, but that's your chance to get in good damage without him being able to really match it, assuming you can at least dodge the Q. Since Mega-Gnar is melee, you can bully him while Mini-Gnar can bully you. If he builds mallet, just try to avoid the poke as best as possible and trade with Mega-Gnar. Post 6 can be hard unless you avoid walls. Gnar will also probably be more useful than you since he can engage with Mega-E into ult whereas it's hard for you to get into a fight unless someone else engages first.

Hecarim Hecarim has a lot of damage early, but his damage tends to be heavy on mana. If you can bait him into going OOM with a lot of Q usage and his W sustain, you should be good. Post 6 can be tricky just because the fear will mean you aren't dealing damage for a second. You can win 1v1 trades though as Hecarim likes long trades due to his Q CD reduction and the AA reset. Try not to get hit by his E at max speed as it will hurt a lot. If you can stand on top of minions you can possibly force a misclick, which will secure the trade almost certainly. Hecarim is a beast in 5v5 due to long range engage and being fairly difficult to kite.

Illaoi Pretty straightforward: dodge the Q and E and you win. Same rule as anyone vs. Illaoi. Try to clear tentacles when you can and don't be intimidated by her damage, you deal more as long as you can get in melee range. As long as she lacks tentacles, she will lose the trade. Post 6, run when she ults and you'll be fine. You serve the same purpose late game, so focus on trying to peel her off your carries or zoning their carries.

Irelia She can outplay you with Q, but you'll always out damage her until late game. Best thing is to bait her stun and trade when it's on CD. She will probably max it against you, so it'll be a long time to be stunned if you get stunned. Once she hits Tri-Force, will come down to her stun and sheen procs, but you can still win since you can outpoke her with your Q. Late game, peeling her from your carries will be important since she will probably be diving them.

JarvanIV Not too common, but he will be probably try to E+Q+Auto and run. After he does that, pull him back and just chunk him. Post 6, if he ever ults you, odds are high he's trapped himself unless E+Q is off CD. J4 has solid damage but if you ever dodge the knock up, you'll dominate trades. Even if you get knocked up, you can force him to stay and fight since he won't have damage after that minus autos.

Jax Don't be fooled, Jax has all the tools needed to win lane vs you. Jax has an E, which negates W and autos, half of your bleed stacking, and a Q to get away from your E. Key is to bait his Q, then pull him back. Do your best to avoid W'ing his E, as you lose a lot of damage and a free stack off of it. If you avoid the stun, the fight should be yours, especially post 6. Jax needs long fights to do solid damage with fervor and ult passive, but your excel in long fights, in addition to your ult ignoring his R's active. You'll lose the split push game, so be careful about letting him push as he will take towers really fast and can get away pretty easily.

Kennen Ranged damage is your Achilles' heel. You have no real way of getting Kennen in melee range outside of E, which is the same range as a Kennen auto. Best bet is to try and bait him to trying to auto you and pulling him in. Try to avoid his enhanced W and the detonate as that damage will add up over time. Post 6 can be hard because he can negate any fight by ulting and running if it turns sour. Overall, avoid his poke, stand behind minions to avoid Q, force all-ins, and you should out damage him, especially pre 6.

Kled Pretty favorable for the most part. If you ever manage to get him dismounted, he can't outdamage you. All you need to do is pull him in when his W is on CD and it's a free kill. His low MS will mean his Q knock back isn't enough to get away from you. When he's mounted, he can outdamage you by E'ing inside your Q. He's very burst oriented with OK sustained damage once W gets ranks, but you'll win any trade if his E is on CD or if he's dismounted. Late game is harder because his engage potential is insane with his R. Best hope is to pick his carries when they try to engage.

l Helios lAug 17, 20161 votes

Cont.

He has range with Q, but it costs a lot early and deals low damage. He has no sustain and you'll ourdamage him for the most part. Thing about him is he is huge in team fights with his ult. Malphite is one of those champions, like Mundo, who isn't played for the lane, so you'll have to keep that in mind. He can shove you if you let him, which can leave him open to ganks. Post 6 you still out damage him as long as you've poked him with Q.

Maokai Similar to Malphite, but with sustain and respectable early damage. W is % health which is big and can be used to dodge your Q. His E and Q offer decent range poke and CS plus wave clear. His ult makes him hard to solo as it makes him much tankier and he will typically be more useful late game with picks. His sustain is not bad, but yours is better as long as you land it. He can go OOM easily, so that can be an opening for you.

Nasus A dominant lane for you early, not so much late. You can deny him farm and stacks, which is great. However, the longer the game goes, the stronger Nasus gets. You usually want to end as early as possible to avoid both falling off and Nasus scaling super hard as time goes. Once he gets early armor, it can be hard to solo him, so focus on that 1 - 6 or so range to punish him hard before he gets frozen heart. His sustain can beat yours since he will likely be shoved under tower half the game, so watch for ganks and make sure you land Q's. Also try to bait his ult before you ult, as his can save him during your animation. Your ult does give you 1 bleed stack though, so keep that in mind.

Olaf Fun lane to say the least. Olaf likes long fights, so do you. He has good ranged poke with his Q, but it costs a lot. His W offers decent sustain, which can be a problem if you miss Q's. His true damage E is a big problem, so building more health early is advised. Overall, if you get him low you want to finish him quickly as his damage only goes up as his HP goes down. Trade after he's used Q and avoid letting him pick it up for free. Post 6, he can run away from you easily and run down your carries. Your best bet is to just put stacks on him and use him for a reset if he dives your carries as he probably won't be focused on you.

Beware the level 2 cheese. His early poke can do work if you don't respond, and his passive can block your W if you're not careful. Because he can block auto's, building stacks can be annoying and will take longer than a usual. Pantheon will out poke you, but if he ever E's, you get free damage on him as his E is mana hungry early and deals negligible damage if he doesn't crit with it. Post 6 your damage spikes, his doesn't. He probably falls off harder than you and function as a stun bot along with OK clean up.

Poppy A Poppy with Ignite couldn't outdamage you if you had cleanse clarity. As long as you avoid the stun into walls, you win handily. Even then, you can probably still outdamage her. Her enhanced auto passive can be annoying if she picks it up, but you can zone her off it pretty easily. You'll occupy similar roles late game, only she can disengage better than you with R.

Renekton Similar to J4 in how he likes to burst you then leave. You can just pull him back in and chunk him. His damage is much more reliable than J4 though, since his W is an auto and his Q can't miss if he's on you. If you keep him in fights long, you'll win as he is gated heavily by CDs. Avoid ulting his ult, similar to Nasus in how he can save himself during your ult animation. Try to force fights before he's max rage so he can't get 2 enhanced spells, namely the stun and buffed heal. He falls off late too, and you'll do most of the same stuff late game.

Rengar Brush control is key. As long as he has bush control he can get free autos and gapclose fast. You'll out damage him at low ferocity, but he will try to burst and run. He can also sustain with enhanced W, but you can poke better. Post 6, keep a pink in one of the side bushes so you see him coming and try to hang around minions to cause a misclick. You can still outdamage him early, and if you force long fights, he will lose. Fights with 0 - 2 ferocity are you favored.

Riven Riven has 4 tools to avoid your Q and solid damage. This is fairly skill based, buy you favored pre-6. Riven has to animation-cancel to get autos in, but if she doesn't you'll win handily. Post 6, do your best to avoid the R slash, be it by flash, prediction, whatever. It is a must to dodge it. If you E while her E is down, she will have to W or Q defensively, meaning you have a window for damage.

Shen Shen can be frustrating because he deals actually decent damage and can block your W and autos. He also gets a shield for abilities and can run if he needs to. He's in the same boat with Malphite and Mundo, they don't play for lane. Post 6 your damage spikes, his presence spikes. He probably won't 1v1 you, but he doesn't need to. All he needs to do keep his carries alive and find good engages. You can bully him as long as you don't W his W. You also outsustain as long as you land Q's.

Singed Annoying, plus it doesn't really matter if he goes 0 - 10 in lane, Singed always does what Singed does. His early damage can be decent if you get poisoned too much. If he proxies you, your best off just ignoring him and farming your wave. You can wave clear pretty well as well and he may find it hard to sustain in lane against you if he doesn't proxy. In a 1v1, you'll win as long as you don't let him kite you with poison.

Sion Same boat as Shen, Mundo, and Malphite: hard to kill, not playing for lane power. Difference here is Sion has decent damage with his Q and W and can sort of poke with E. Your E can cancel his Q, but it will give him the CD back. You can kill him, but it's usually not worth the effort as he scales regardless of how he does in lane, in addition to getting a good shield and health scaling from CS. Denying CS is good if you can, but it can be hard if he lands an E+Q combo as that will hurt. He can't get away from you if you win trades unless he ults. Late game engages can be strong from him, so try to peel him if you can or try and zone their carries.

TahmKench More of a toss-up than you may think. Tahm has solid damage in his W and Q, plus a stun on the Q if he's smart. This will get him 2 free autos or so if he uses it before W. He is fairly burst focused in how he lacks damage after he W's and he can't sustain very well compared to you. Forcing him to E will win you any trade as long as he can't force you to fight while his shield is up. Also similar to Sion and Shen, his utility is what makes him shine. If you kill him once, the lane is yours.

Teemo Satan himself. While ranged poke hurts you a lot, you'll destroy him if you can get your hands on him. Teemo lacks any form of escape once you've grabbed him, but you need to avoid W'ing while blinded. Using Q during the blind is a good idea since it's time you can't build stacks with autos. Post 6, he will instantly die if grabbed and will serve no purpose on his team rather than shrooming the map. You'll need to be careful pre 3 to avoid his poke then go for pulls if he gets too close.

Trundle The Troll King can be a difficult match up, not because of his damage, but because of how he can steal yours. Not only does he increase his damage, but he reduces yours. You can win pre 6 as long as you keep damaging him in lane to prevent his passive from healing him. Post 6, it's always best to never fight him while his ult is on you. He reduces your armor and MR, saps your HP, and can steal your AD with Q. This is true moreso if he's on his W. If his ult isn't up, you can win pretty easily as long as you can pull him off his W. The W will make it closer since he can get more AS while it's on.

Tryndamere This can frustrating because his ult instantly saves him every time. In addition, his damage can be unpredictable due to passive crits. If you can force his to use Q before you trade or engage when he's low on fury, you can beat him. Always be careful of the random crits that can win him the trade. He will out-splitpush and out damage you late so avoid the 1v1 late game unless you know you can beat him. Try to ensure he doesn't E inside your Q, as that will reduce your damage a lot and prevent a stack of bleed.

Volibear Voli is very auto based, but that favors you. Biggest thing is to try and force his passive early, then go in for the kill. Trying to our damage his passive heal tends to be fruitless as he's dealing damage to you at the same time. He will often hold W for kills, so you may be able to force him to use it early, which reduces its damage. He is very good at helping with ganks, so be wary of that. Post 6 you should still win as long as you force out his heal. Peeling him late is important.

MonkeyKing Same boat as J4: drop combo and run. If you avoid dumpstering the clone, you win any trade. If you instantly pull when he clones he won't be able to run as he doesn't actually move except via stealth. Post 6 his ult deals really good damage, so avoid it if you can. Otherwise, you'll win at this point too. Late game peel is important as his engages are game-changing.

Yasuo Darius is phenomenal against Yasuo because Yasuo can't outdamage him unless he outplays him really hard. By that I mean, dodges the E with his E and dodges the Q with his E again. Best thing to do is fight him away from your minions so he can't dash around. Windwall is meaningless against you. Post 6 it can be a toss up depending on when he ults and how many stacks you have prior to that. Late game you need to be careful as Yasuo will always be useful once he hits high crit and lands a decent 3rd Q. He'll die easy enough, but he can still get off solid damage before that.

Other general tips:

You'll almost always end up shoving if you're not careful. Always try to avoid Q'ing minions during trades so you don't shove too hard and keep river warded.

l Helios lAug 17, 20161 votes

Cont. again

Focus on stacking bleed as much as possible. That's your big damage source in addition to the Noxian Might passive. That'll win you almost any fight.

*Make sure you auto then use W so you get 2 stacks for one move. Stack efficiency is key.

Know what you're playing for. Darius is about lane dominance, but will fall off later in the game unless he can trigger his passive. Keep solid pressure early, but avoid dying for it with wards, communication, lane momentum and minions, etc.
Have fun man. Darius is a great champion and every matchup is skill based. It's a lot of fun to get resets and there are pentas waiting to be made. Hope all this helps. Good luck man.

P.S. Sorry it was so long. I love Darius and I hope this helped.

Tychusfindlay919Aug 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Cont. again

Focus on stacking bleed as much as possible. That's your big damage source in addition to the Noxian Might passive. That'll win you almost any fight.

*Make sure you auto then use W so you get 2 stacks for one move. Stack efficiency is key.

Know what you're playing for. Darius is about lane dominance, but will fall off later in the game unless he can trigger his passive. Keep solid pressure early, but avoid dying for it with wards, communication, lane momentum and minions, etc.

Have fun man. Darius is a great champion and every matchup is skill based. It's a lot of fun to get resets and there are pentas waiting to be made. Hope all this helps. Good luck man.

P.S. Sorry it was so long. I love Darius and I hope this helped.

Couple problems with previous posts that I'll correct

His passive doesn't block stacking, it only blocks the auto attack damage. You can stack just as fast against this guy as you can any other melee that dares facetank you. Also, as yo both level, your base stats begin to outshine his, allowing you to pull him in and ignore his blocks because what really matters is stacking up to your noxian might. His disengage is incredibly limited and if you land Qs during the fights your Q heal will outsustain better than his blocks. Noxian guillotine is effective against most pantheons since pantheon is forced to build damage before tank, since his poke and bully would fall off incredibly hard otherwise.

Sion Early game is not hard to kill at all. And getting his Q cancelled doesnt reset the cd entirely, only partially, so it's still good to cancel it and stack him hard. His Q is his only disengage. His base stas, especially HP, are HORRENDOUS. zoning sion from farm can significantly impair his ability to scale in tankiness.

Shen This is a much easier matchup than you made it sound. Like with teemo, when he activates his block, just use your Q to burn off some time while still stacking and healing. Depending on his position within the block, you can sometimes even just pull him out of it and win trades since shen can't hope to duel darius.

Random crits shmandom crits, you stat check this poor asshat so hard he should never be able to out-trade you early or mid game (unless you feed). Also, his ult may be annoying, but if you can keep your stacks refreshed during ult, there's a 80% chance that the bleed can kill him when the ult dies down. Just like how ignite is recommended as a last tack onto tryndamere when his ult is about to end, so can hemorrhage be a useful tool if you can reapply the 5 stacks before his ult goes off.

Outdamaging his passive post level 6 isn't fruitless. Noxian guillotine is very effective at shutting volibear down before he can heal too much.

Riven Hardest skill matchup of your life if she has 3/4 of a brain. You downplayed this. Darius does not counter her pre 6 nor does he post 6. She has all the tools to consistently trade without building up bleed stacks, even without animation cancelling she's a bitch to deal with for the NEW darius (mainly because of Q delay).

Malphite Not hard to kill early on. Don't be so pessimistic. This guy also likes to stack armor more than health most of the time, so noxian guillotine is very effective and usually remains effective against him throughout the game.

Maokai Don't let up fighting this guy even when his ult is active. Your damage is pristine especially with noxian might and noxian guillotine is effective since it ignores his damage reduction from his ult.

Nasus It takes a lot longer for the nasus to outscale the new darius since noxian might can be powerful even in the late game (Nasus cannot shrug off +200 bonus AD).

DrMundo You're funny, this actually an easy matchup and you can zone mundo very hard early on, denying him scale time. Your kill pressure early game is also very real against this guy. Since his ult costs current percent HP, he's given the incentive to get as low as possible before using it, but since your ult is an execute, he's forced to use his ult early, bait out his ults and he can't hope to outsustain you without his ult.

ALWAYS PLAY FOR LANE POWER WHEN YOU CAN. A late game scaling tank can be denied a lot of time to scale if you bully him hard. And darius is good against most tanks anyways thanks to his synergy with black cleaver andthe even bigger amounts of armor pen he gets from his E. Also, many tanks have kits that make it easy for Darius to prolong fights, so once again, refrain from negativity. Play for lane pressure against sion, shen, mundo, malphite, and maokai. Force them back, and when they're under their turret, use apprehend and decimate to continue to bully them until they're forced to screw off the lane entirely and miss cs. If they don't respect your status as juggernaut and fight you or try to ignore you to cs, kill them.

-Also an M7 darius, 411K+ darius mastery points season 6 alone, platinum 3

l Helios lAug 17, 20161 votes

Those are my takes on the match ups, and I'm not trying to sound arrogant when I describe them. I'm just stating what all possibilities are. I'm aware of how to beat and pressure a Mundo early, I was just explaining what the Mundo can do if he's smart. He wouldn't get in close range because he doesn't need to. Most people, regardless of what they're playing, respect all in potential that Darius has and tend to avoid fights unless they have a clear advantage.

The Pantheon thing I'm cool with; I wasn't sure what the technicalities were, just because I hadn't played against one in a while. I would just assume because the auto deals no damage, no other effect follows.

Downplayed Riven because I was getting tired as I was typing and probably thought I wrote it in buy didn't, thinking faster than I type.

Voli thing was mostly a general tip. It tends to be something that gets people killed when he just heals through a massive amount of damage and people wonder why they're dead. No it doesn't mean much post 6, but it can be annoying if you're off a few HP and fail the reset.

I didn't feel like I played Malphite as hard. Your E passive is great against him as well. Malphites just tend to E during trades a lot and will shove you back, which can help lane momentum since Darius shoves anyway.

I've seen plenty of Darius get solo'd by a Maokai. It comes down to how fast he gets bleed stacks and who poked who more. Mao being able to dodge the Q is huge imo. It's best if you can kill him before the ult detonate, but the reduction matters on everything else and the detonate is decent damage as well.

I don't deny that the passive AD late game is strong, but getting the AD can be hard since most people won't get that close unless you force them to or you get a reset. The former because someone like a Nasus will Q you twice and either run while your withered or Q you a few more times and your probably dead. Late game Nasus damage is still strong vs you if you can't get the proc. Haven't played against a Nasus in a while so I'm going on old knowledge. Not someone I see often.

You laugh at the crits from Trynd but it's happened to me on both sides of the table xD I've had a Trynd crit me just before I'd kill him and I've done the same to Darius before. Also under the assumption the Trynd uses Q before his ult runs out, bleed may not be enough. It's just a possibility though, no guarantee either way. It depends mostly on how much AD Darius has at the moment and how much armor/AP Trynd has.

As with Shen, I've just tried to list what can happen, not necessarily what will. I'd rather assume the other player knows more than me about a match up rather than think that the other guy would just make it easy for me. Most of that comes from a convo I had with Melledoneous a while back. Both or us agreed it wasnt Shen favored, but Shen had potential to survive. As for Shen's I've faced, I haven't faced one who was a huge problem.

Thought I noted the Q cancellation on Sion refunded the CD some. Either way, yeah Sion is easy enough to bully and his W shield is poo poo early, so it's hard to make use of the damage unless you ignore him. It's bad to ignore capabilities though. Does it favor you? Certainly, but Sion can still prove annoying if he's smart.

Again, all the descriptions are my opinion and how I'd think through them. I pretty much just sat down and thought through everything the other guy could do that could prove difficult and how Darius can deal with it. And there were certainly things I forgot to write in that I thought I did, kappa.

It's OK that we think differently is certain scenarios, as long as OP gets the advice he needs I'm OK. Always good talking to other players as well.

TTK DreadnoughtAug 16, 20161 votes

Jumping in cause im curious too.

Own him, but dont play him since i mostly play Illaoi

MerxamersAug 16, 20161 votes

Darius is a pretty strong top laner right now. Right now, i'd say that the core items for him are

item 3071 (great first item) item 3053 item 3742 item 3065 item 3143 item 3009 (boots can vary, situational).

Darius has really good base damage, so you only need 1 or 2 damage items, and you can build the rest tank. If you get really fed, you probably want to build more damage items like item 3812 item 3022 item 3748 , but that will leave you more vulnerable.

For keystones, i still take Grasp of the Undying even after the nerfs, tho i'm sure some people take Thunderlords. i wouldn't recommend taking the Deathfire Touch Keystone.

For playing him, the biggest skill is using his Q. Ever since his rework, it has a delay, and in order to do full damage, get the heal, and get a stack of Bleed you have to hit them with the blade. It will take some practice, so you may want to do a bot game first.

Darius thrives on extended trades due to his passive bleed stacks, and getting Noxian Might at 5 stacks. Just be careful not to commit too hard early in the middle of the enemy minions; underestimating that damage can get you killed. Your Q works as a pretty good zoning tool, so if you get a couple good trades and are able to freeze the lane, you can really starve the other laner (if they're melee, anyway).

The typical trade pattern i have is wait for any dash abilities to be used, then pull (E) -> Auto -> W (auto reset + slow) -> Auto and/or Q if they get in range for blade.

One trick i noticed recently (and honestly should have realized a long time ago) is that once you get Noxian Might triggered in a teamfight, you don't HAVE to keep attacking the original target. For example; you're fighting the enemy tank jungler and trigger NM, but he's still at 1/3 HP. So, you can immediately turn to the nearby support/carry, auto once to get the full stacks, then ult for a kill.

If you have any more questions i'll do my best to answer them.

MunchCrunchLunchAug 16, 20161 votes

its either item 3071 item 3047 item 3143 item 3065 item 3812 item 3156 (this might work better because later in the game your Q does damage at least.) i actually recommend this if your team has an another tank.

or item 3071 item 3111 item 3143 item 3742 item 3065 and item 3083 or item 3053 or item 3068 last item

also i take flash and ghost no teleport. i can blow my opponents flash with ghost or flash early game and kill them next time they are in lane pretty much every time.

for runes i go either as quints and ad reds or full ad runes and always scaling mr and armor.

masteries either TLD or grasp but mostly tld now since grasp got nerfed

a thing about darius is to play greedy. playing greedy helps your team. just stack as many passive bleeds on the frontline as possible and ult them when they low. and then just use the passive to tag everyone with a Q and auto and ult the ones that are low doesn't matter who really if you can jump on the adc and blow them up do that too.

also its good to make some initiations like flash pull the enemy carry usually if your team can follow up its always worth

at dragon and baron pits. try to pull people that are behind walls. its literally the easiest way to feed your team kills as darius. and it happens a lot people don't expect it i mean it happens to me sometimes. just dont pull in the enemy jungler at baron though.

one thing i have to say about darius. if you Q and move backwards and then forwards again. even if the enemy is inside the hitbox. they won't get hit. its a bug or some sort but it never happens unless they are really inside of it the whole time. always use your Q moving in one direction.

CalabokAug 17, 20161 votes

best way to play him is to spam the laugh button every second.

PhDs NutsAug 17, 20161 votes

Ultimo covered pretty much everything about matchups. One tip I have for itemization: You do always want to rush the Cleaver as your first completed item, but I've found that my favorite first buy is getting the Phage components and the respective defensive item, so item 1036 item 1028 item 1033 or item 1029 . This makes you nearly impossible to trade with if you can get it really early. Then just finish Cleaver as usual and work in your defensive items. Visage is a good buy if they have any AP at all since the heal boost, HP, and CDR is all great for Darius.

Tychusfindlay919Aug 17, 20161 votes

I like to use for my runes:

scaling mr on all the blues, scaling health and armor for yellows, a mix of scaling AD and flat AD on reds (some people like to go AS runes here for faster stacking, I prefer slower stacking but much more powerful abilities when you do get to 5 stack and go in for the kill, remember that all of darius abilities scale with AD, so AS won't help after 5 stacks or if your using dunk which scales on bonus AD). For quintessences I usually go defensive for them (hp or armor).

My typical darius build against AP favored teams: item 3111 item 3071 item 3512 item 3812 item 3065 item 3742

Against AD favored teams: item 3047 item 3071 item 3512 item 3812 item 3065 item 3742

Against squishy teams: item 3111 item 3071 item 3053 item 3812 item 3065 item 3742 (the goal with steraks is to provide even more AD without sacrificing too much tank so that your Q and ult can hurt even harder and shut down the carry heavy but squishy team faster).

For masteries I usually run full resolve tree with SOTA for my keystone since it provides the most scaling and since max HP synergizes well with your Q which heals on missing HP. For the remaining points I usually put them in the ferocity tree, ending at the mastery that gives you 1% more damage per unique kill which synergizes well with the fact that darius usually ends up dunking everyone at least once throughout the course of the game.

For starting items I usually go the bully route: item 1055 item 2003