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How to deal with Darius?

ProcrastinatorL·1/11/2015, 6:46:00 AM·5 votes·1,860 views

I'm a new player who almost exclusively plays top. My biggest issue, by far, is Darius. He's just... unbeatable, but everyone I ask says he's an easy win. How in the world is he an easy win? Let me explain my problems with him. 1: In the time where you don't have any items, if he uses Q on you, you lose 1/3-1/2 your health. And there's nothing you can do about it, unless you want zero CS. 2: After level 3, he can effortlessly kill you if you have at least 3/4 health. E, auto, W, more autos, Q, and you're dead. 3: After level 6, he can kill you whenever he wants. Period. Under tower? Doesn't matter. You're dead. Full health? Doesn't matter. Built a bunch of health? Still doesn't matter. Build a bunch of health, full health, and under your tower? Still doesn't matter. If he's willing, he will kill you. 4: Armor doesn't matter. His ult is true, his bleed is magic, and the rest has passive armor pen. And he just deals so much damage anyway that even if he didn't have the passive armor pen and you built armor he could still easily kill you. 5: He's never behind. Darius 2 levels behind? He's still on equal footing. Darius 0/3 because of early ganks and has 3 cs? Still can kill you with a combo and you can't do anything about it. 6: People yell at me when I lose to him :(.

24 Comments

Stephenizgod1/11/2015, 7:22:10 AM7 votes

Well there are a few ways to deal with him. First off, his Q deals 50% bonus damage if you get hit by the actual ax part rather then the handle, so try to stay out of range or close if you are trading. His ult does low true damage unless he has 5 stacks on you, just dont let him whack you so many times. If necessary flash away from him. He is weak to ranged and CC. His E has a long cooldown so when it is on CD, that is a good time to go in. If he is using his abilities to farm, then let him push and call for jungler. Believe it or not he cant kill you under turret below level 6 (unless he is incredibly fed...). Make him use his abilities and he will run out of mana quickly, then go in.

Now some champs that do pretty good against him from my knowledge:

Teemo Just sorta shits all over melee's without insta gap closers in general...
Kayle Kind of the same as Teemo, punks melee users easily, also her Ult > Darius' Ult.
Jayce Great ranged poke, great melee damage and utility, Jayce has got it all.
Garen From my experience Garen is superior, but most people would agree this could go either way. His ult is faster though so be careful of close fights, he will win.
Renekton The once king of Top lane, im not sure how well he does now but im sure he can hold his own against the likes of Darius.
Pantheon Rumble Jax All have the potential to outplay Darius and to be outplayed by Darius. Depends on who is better with the champion most of the time with these 3. Rumble probably has the best chance since he can just sit back and poke if need be.
Fiora Hmmm... Either gets destroyed by Darius or destroys him... mostly gets destroyed... but hey if she does win she wins hardcore.
Sejuani I have only seen this match up once and i was the Darius... most embarrassing loss ever. I could do nothing against her! She has everything needed to beat him -_-.

Mostly basic stuff really, dont let him get free hits on you, stay out of his range, let him push and farm under turret, call for jungler, etc. He is only a hard match-up if you dont know how to fight him, although i still will get curb-stomped by a good Darius every once in awhile... unless im Garen ;D.

ChexMex1/11/2015, 11:32:25 AM3 votes

Darius performs poorly against champions who outrange him or can evade his grab with ease/fully face tank everything Jayce Garen Gnar Nidalee Lissandra

Darius absolutely crushes champions that have poor range or sustained damage Teemo Riven Jax

To play against darius, you have to either

  1. Avoid the blade part and attack him face on, tanking his W and some Q damage
  2. Avoid the blade part and dash away , not being hit at all and engaging later on.

Darius is weak when he doesnt have apprehend or decimate (E and Q). When you try to fight him and have a little skirmish, he will pull you back towards him, back off, and Q for massive damage. Dodge his Q or E before fully trading.

Darius does incredible damage after stacking 5 times with passive, avoid being dunked after reaching 5 stacks.

Darius that builds AD is weaker to ganks, Darius that builds tank has a weaker 1v1 but is more resilient to ganks.

Darius is weak in a 1v2 without his ultimate.

Don't underestimate his bleed+ignite damage.

AFK Push1/11/2015, 4:35:07 PM2 votes

One of my favorite things to do against something like an early game high damage bruiser, is to play bruiser Rengar. His W allows for some "poke," while also giving you temporary bonuses, and the empowered version gives you plenty of sustain to stay in lane. His Ebola will make it hard for someone like darius to get close. Finally, your passive allows you to farm safely and to juke if necessary. My favorite thing about this though, is that with hybrid pen marks, item 3068, and item 3078, you do a lot of mixed damage so it is hard to build against bruiser rengar.

Valtreous1/11/2015, 7:17:11 AM1 votes

Pick a ranged champion and laugh at him as you poke the crap out of him. Take boots early so you can damage and then run out of the way of his damage, especially his E. Have your jungler gank early, he's super easy to gank

Jayce is great against him. Ig he grabs you simply switch to melee form and smack him away with E. Elise can stun in and run away or jump away in spider form.

Basically, just zone around his pull range and poke him down.

DPRKSpy1/11/2015, 5:42:07 PM1 votes

Hey there, a Darius main here!

I can say from experience that just about any champ with range or decent sustain will ruin darius' day. I find I have trouble with riven as she can burst harder than I can - the fact she can shield herself with a no cost ability is pretty shitty for me. Generally champs with a movement skill have the edge over him since darius has to walk/flash every where. If you go vayne/kalista/Quinn top, you will absolutely shit all over him, all three have someway of escaping his grasp, which makes me die inside a little everytime it happens T_T.

Although he may seem like a brute, darius is actually pretty easy to outplay, given you have either sustain, range, or a movement skill. Bonus points for all 3!

In regards to the Darius match-up. From my experience it could go either way. A smart garen will take his time to recover lost health after trades and not try to power through Darius every time Garens skills come off CD. The best thing for D to do against G is to eat the Judgment and stack bleed on.

Grimspeake1/11/2015, 7:04:14 AM1 votes

play teemo, if he pulls u just blindin dart him and w away. or if your a melee champ, outsustain his mana, he runs out after 2-3 pulls and then hes useless. item 2041 item 2003

Faith Breaker1/14/2015, 9:54:38 AM1 votes

I fee like I'm somehow part of this problem...

CLG Factor1/11/2015, 7:12:25 AM1 votes

Darius Renekton is the reason people started the most rage inducing top lane meta ever

im talking about Teemo Ryze

JJ H0G1/11/2015, 7:14:55 AM1 votes

What you want to do is stay out of his pull range. it's 550 (same as your average marksman), so you can use that to kinda judge the distance. Also, his Q deals a lot more damage when you're hit by the blade, so if he pulls you before he Q's, then stay beside him till he uses it if you can get away with it. Finally, play a champ that can blink/dash/jump away from him after he pulls.

His biggest counter in lane is Draven Draven Draven Draven , trust me.