Hi, I'm H4xDefender, a competitive player of some renown in this game and some others. I unofficially hit platinum last season and currently sit around 1700-1800 ELO this season. I don't claim to be the best player around, but I certainly know the ins and outs of this game, and I know what i'm doing.

I'm not known for pretty guides. I'm known for rather short but effective guides that advertise information that is tried and true through rigorous testing at my elo, higher elo through teammates and friends, as well as tournament play. If you don't like "ugly" guides, go find another one now.

I've actually gotten a lot of messages about this regarding my Jax and Gangplank guides so I find it necessary to add a bit of credibility here.


I held over a 60% winrate with Darius in S3 through about 80~ games before the changes to ranked took place and wiped it out.

CUZ DUNKS.

He is a champion, that played correctly can STOMP 95% of all lanes he goes against hands down. His actual counters are very limited, and no matter who they pick against you, one mistake by them can win you a lane if you capitalize on it correctly.

Yes he isn't the BEST teamfighter, but he ISN'T a terrible one compared to a good number of bruisers, and can offer utility with his MS and AS slow on Crippling Strike and displacement/catch out ability with Apprehend, not to mention his absurd damage output with Noxian Guillotine, Decimate, and Hemorrhage, that FORCES him to be focused.

Marks: Standard flat AD. Armor Pen is also acceptable if you can last hit without the bonus AD, but that is a BIG if. AD > ARP early game, and not just because it is easier to last hit with. Don't take anything else.

Seals: Armor. Nothing else.

Glyphs: Few different choices here. IF you are vs an easy lane you can take AD, hard lane you can take armor. Normally this will be flat MR, scaling is fine if you are vs an AD top with little no AP damage, i.e. Riven.

Quintessences: Biggest range of choices here, AD, Armor Pen, Health Regen, Movement Speed, Armor, Magic Resist, all are fine here depending on the lane. It is standard to take AD which is what I prefer. If you want to mix AD and Armor Pen runes, usually you should take armor pen marks and AD quints. Health regen is super situational, movement speed is a preference thing, armor and MR are also super situational.

I'll go over why I don't go for more of a standard setup of 21-9-0 or 14-16-0, or even 9-12-9 briefly, as well as why I DO take 9-21-0. Not using utility tree is a no brainer, Darius wants to kill people and he wants/needs to be tanky to do it.

21-9-0.
This is almost completely inferior to 14-16-0 because the tankiness you lose is substantial, and the damage boost is almost completely negligible. Darius doesn't really buy much crit so those masteries are pretty wasted on him, and while the armor pen is nice, it isn't worth giving up the bonus hp from Juggernaut and damage reduction from Block .

14-16-0.
I used to run this every game, but I started noticing the loss of tankiness so I switched back. I'd say use this in easier lanes, and 9-21-0 in harder lanes.

9-12-9.
The utility isn't as good on Darius as it is on other bruisers, and the loss of tankiness is a bit disturbingly noticeable.

9-21-0.
Better then 21-9-0, 9-12-9, and 14-16-0 a little bit. You get a little bit tankier at the cost of some AD and raw damage from Havoc compared to 14-16-0. The main reason I take this setup now is because Honor Guard really helps a bit and the CC reduction from Tenacious works with tenacity and is a godsend on Darius.

There should almost be no deviation from the standard maxing of Q (Decimate) because it simply does the most raw damage when you hit with the tip of it. Taking your ultimate whenever available should be a no brainer, as it also does a ton of raw damage. Crippling Strike is usually more useful maxed second then Apprehend, read the rest of this section for more indepth explanation on this.

Maxing Decimate should be a no brainer, it does the most damage and is easier to land then Crippling Strike for harass.

Your level 2 skill is entirely lane dependent. In a lane you can bully or if your jungler is planning to gank, take Apprehend to get some easy damage, and or assist your jungler. If neither of these conditions are met, take Crippling Strike to completely dominate level 2 trades.

MAX SECOND VS MAX SECOND

If you are against a champion that is heavily dependent on attack speed such as Jax or Irelia and they are forcing trades on you, you can sink a few extra points into Crippling Strike before maxing Decimate to make trades more favorable to you, but make sure yo still max Decimate first, as the damage loss will be noticeable when trying to land max damage Decimates for free damage.

If you are against someone investing heavily into armor to shut you down such as a Singed or Shen, you can choose to sink points into Apprehend AFTER maxing Decimate, although you should keep in mind, a few points is generally enough when you have finished Black Cleaver. NEVER EVER max Apprehend first, you will do absolutely no damage.

At level 8 if the enemy top laner is building armor and isn't reliant on attackspeed, sink an extra point into Apprehend for an extra bit of armor penetration if you haven't finished Black Cleaver yet. (99% of the time you won't have it finished yet.

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB/tl;dr: Crippling Strike > Apprehend maxed second.

There are only a few viable/possible spells so I'll run through them quickly.

Flash: I fleyish. You fleyish. Everybody fleyish. If you don't know how good Flash is, then I just don't know what to tell you. Flash Apprehend combos are super powerful for catching people off guard for initiates.

Ghost: Take Ghost against champions that generally kite you hard, or take Ghost themselves like Jayce, Elise, and Olaf. When you hit level 6, you can generally pop Ghost, run up to someone like a Jayce or Elise, force their Flash to be burned, and then keep chasing them with the movement speed from Ghost for a kill. The reason you don't take Flash in these lanes is because if you Flash aggressively or defensively, they will just respond with their own Flash. Ghost has a much lower cooldown then Flash, and covers much more distance overall.

Ignite: When combined with Hemorrhage, the kill potential Darius has with Ignite is just off the charts. You can literally dunk someone with max stacks from half hp and Ignite them, and 9 times out of 10 they will die from the sheer power of DoTs.

Teleport: Since Darius has the power to crush his lane super hard even without a kill summoner like Ignite, you can take Teleport to try to make taking Dragons easier for your team, or simply teleporting in for a gank bottom lane if they are struggling to try to turn the game around. Taking TP over Ignite is largely based on preference.

Barrier: Nope. You win all-ins vs everybody and Ignite gives you better kill potential.

Heal: Nope. Same reasons as above.

Exhaust: This isn't bad vs bursty champions like Kennen, or for dropping it on champions with executes like Riven or Garen to make sure you survive, but you need to time it correctly which is the problem. Judgment call on this, although I never take it myself.

VS AS MOBILITY SPELL
Very simple. If you don't see the champion in the matchup section below, take Flash. If you DO see them, check the summoner spell I advise you to take.

STANDARD BUILD VS AD:

The Brutalizer: A nice chunk of CDR, as well as a huge damage boost with the armor pen and AD it provides, all for a pretty low price. An incredibly cost efficient item that provides a big spike to Darius's damage in lane.

Black Cleaver: Percent armor pen when combined with the percent armor pen from Apprehend is just super strong, not to mention it gives a whopping 50 AD, as well as some extra CDR and tankiness. A strong item on Darius overall, and the armor pen you provide will benefit the rest of your team a lot as well, especially on AD carries who need to do the most damage lategame and typically do not build cleaver and would normally miss out on the extra shred.

Warmog's Armor: I shouldn't need to explain how good Warmog's Armor is, not just on Darius, but on almost every bruiser in the game. A ton of tankiness and sustain, all for a relatively low price, even after the added cost of an extra Rejuvenation Bead.

Guardian Angel: This item is amazing, especially on someone like Darius who has massive damage output. When Darius dives into a teamfight, he cannot be ignored, but all the tankiness from Warmog's Armor as well as the resists from GA make him so tanky, that teams will want to ignore him. Even if you somehow manage to die, having GA will ensure you will fight on. Just make sure you don't get caught, and the impact of this item will be extremely noticeable.

Blade of the Ruined King: With everybody stacking HP, this item gives you a lot of extra damage, and all for a pretty low price of under 3k gold, not to mention it gives you lifesteal to sustain in fights, and it has a good active for sticking to a target like the AD carry and bursting them even faster if you ever get to jump on them. ALSO, remember that lategame you are simply a bruiser, and BOTRK softens up targets very quickly for AD carries. Darius has decent attack speed at level 18 with the Alacrity bonus from masteries, and don't forget he has an auto attack reset in Crippling Strike that applies on-hit effects as well.

Randuin's Omen: An amazing item to fight AD carries lategame. Both the passive and active are crippling to AD carries, and if you ever get in range to land Crippling Strike as well, you will completely nullify their damage which is huge. Not to mention it provides a nice chunk of health as well, which makes you an absolute monster when you have Black Cleaver, Guardian Angel, and Warmog's Armor as well.

STANDARD BUILD VS AP:

Hexdrinker: Gives you complete dominance vs an AP champion in lane. The shield makes you practically unburstable, and it gives you a ton of MR and AD for the cost as well. Fantastic item vs APs.

Maw of Malmortius: Unfortunately, nowhere near as good as Hexdrinker, it is kind of just there to be an available upgrade to Hexdrinker. The passive AD bonus is nice when in conjunction with Warmog's Armor and Guardian Angel though, and the shield is always nice.

Runic Bulwark: EVEN if somebody on your team has this, having double bulwark vs a double ap team with some hp and a GA makes you virtually unkillable. If nobody else on your team is building this it is still very cost effective.

Mercurial Scimitar (SWAP WITH MAW OF MALMORTIUS LATEGAME IF THE ENEMY HAS TONS OF CC): The stats it provides aren't great, but the active is amazing on a melee champion like Darius. The only downside being that it is simply too expensive to build on an everygame basis, the ability to remove CC from a champion like Darius is just unrivaled though.

(Unrelated note, I typed ALL this up, but my browser crashed and I lost all of it, what you see here is the SECOND time I am typing all this up FML)

I will explain every item I build relatively in-depth here with a short explanation. I will not repeat items, CTRL-F it if you cannot find it.

ARMOR ITEMS:

Sunfire Aegis: Good if you need armor as well as hp and Warmog's Armor isnt cutting it (because it provides no actual armor). Good in trades and all-ins, and helps push as well.

Ninja Tabi: Great item in lane if you need armor but you don't want to invest gold to buy a major armor item. Make sure to sell lategame if you need tenacity and you didn't build Zephyr.

Doran's Shield: Very strong laning item, get if you are struggling in a lane where you are facing lots of auto attacks, i.e. Irelia, Jax, Jayce.

Thornmail: If the enemy has auto attackers in every single lane AND jungle and they start snowballing, buy this. i.e. Tryndamere, AD Kayle, Vayne, Xin Zhao.

Frozen Heart: Same deal as above, but buy this BEFORE they start snowballing to ensure they DO NOT snowball.

Locket of the Iron Solari: Extremely cost efficient, if nobody else on your team is buying this and you need armor you should grab it. It is very cheap too, at only 2k gold in price.

Atma's Impaler: If as a last item you need more armor after Randuin's Omen and Guardian Angel but you need damage as well, generally outclassed.

Wriggle's Lantern: If you need sustain armor and damage all at once in a lane, and if you need to stomp lane in order to win, sometimes used in jungling, but generally outclassed. If you ever buy it make sure you trade it in for a more slot-efficient item lategame.

MAGIC RESIST ITEMS:

Banshee's Veil: When you are facing strong initiate magic damage CC such as Gragas's Explosive Cask, Orianna's Command: Shockwave, or Galio's Idol of Durand.

Mercury's Treads: Good bit of MR to help you survive vs AP until you finish Warmog's Armor/ Guardian Angel, and the tenacity helps a ton.

Spirit Visage: If you need a quick burst of MR and a bit of tankiness to do your job in fights this is the item to build because it is cheap and cost effective. Provides a bit of CDR as well so you get a tiny bit more damage, but unfortunately the passive is a bit wasted, so this shouldn't be built all that much.

Mikael's Blessing: If you are getting STOMPED by an AP and someone on your team is carrying but faces the threat of CC, build this for them to help them carry, Quicksilver Sash/ Mercurial Scimitar is only for yourself. This will not be built 999/1000 games.

BIG TICKET DAMAGE ITEMS SON:

Trinity Force: If you need a little bit of everything really. Gives you mana, a slow, more damage, movement speed, a bit of tankiness, crit, and attack speed. If you are stomping and dont need armor pen and you want to chase people down build this. It provides deceptively large amounts of damage.

Bloodthirster: Good if you don't need to be tanky at the moment, the other team isn't building too much armor, and you want to do a lot of damage. Provides a lot of fight sustain with Warmog's Armor as well.

Infinity Edge: If you are disgustingly fed and the other team doesn't have the CC or damage to kill you and isn't building armor either, go for it. Its more of a trololol item then a serious item.

Zephyr: Extremely underrated item, provides a nice bit of AD, some attack speed that is partially wasted, a TON of useful movement speed, and tenacity as well that lets you go items like Ninja Tabi, and Boots of Swiftness/ Mobility Boots without having to worry about being overly hampered by CC. Really good for splitpushing as well.

Last Whisper: If the other team is building absurd levels of armor and you simply need to do more damage. Don't be afraid to buy this with cleaver.

Ravenous Hydra: If you aren't getting CC'd too much and you don't need to be tanky/dont need armor pen, this is the best choice to do maximum damage as it has a strong AoE active that is strongest near the middle, amazing in conjunction with Decimate which is strongest near the edge. Because of the price of this as a purely offensive item, you won't be building this much though.

Youmuu's Ghostblade: If you need some armor pen, but you need a gap closer as well, this is the item to buy. Quite underrated.

OTHER ITEMS:

Shurelya's Battlesong: If you fall behind in the jungle, you really like farming, or you are in a complete farm lane at top for some reason and end up building Philosopher's Stone, this item isn't bad for forcing initiates on people, but it is pretty heavily nerfed from S2 and is generally better on supports.

Zhonya's Hourglass: MID AIR DUNK FLASH PHOTO FREEZE SON. (if you are skilled and understand the advantages over zhonya's over every other defensive item in a certain game this is actually OK to build). i.e. You are getting ****ed up by Karthus, Nautilus, AND OR Amumu ult every fight, to the point where you can't do your job at all, buy this as a 6th item ONLY if you need armor as well. YES I HAVE ACTUALLY BUILT THIS ON DARIUS IN RANKED GAMES AT ~PLATINUM ELO.

Zeke's Herald: Decent stats, but not enough to buy unless you have double or triple ADCs for some reason and they all need lifesteal or something and you want to be a bit tankier. Provides a good bit of CDR.

JUST DON'T EVER BUILD PLS:

Wit's End: Inferior to Hexdrinker and Mercurial Scimitar in every way on Darius.

Malady: Even worse then Wit's End since it provides no tanky stats at all. Only good for making your passive hurt more trololololol

Iceborn Gauntlet: Darius doesn't have problems sticking onto people, only getting to them. Iceborn is all about sticking power and has some undesirable stats.

Statikk Shiv/ Phantom Dancer: These items are similar and both provide undesirable stats. Darius doesn't need attackspeed or crit without any other tanky stats.

Hextech Gunblade: AP is wasted, if you want a slow build Blade of the Ruined King instead of this.

Guinsoo's Rageblade: Same problem as gunblade, inferior to Blade of the Ruined King in every situation pretty much.

Nashor's Tooth: No lol, CDR isn't THAT useful on Darius, the AP is completely wasted and the attackspeed isn't that useful either.

Sword of the Divine: Too much gold on attackspeed only, if you buy this early the crits won't even do much damage. Leave it to Rengar and ADCs.

Spirit of the Elder Lizard: Strictly a jungling item, and not even an item you would buy everygame on jungle Darius if you were jungling him.

Sword of the Occult: Simply not reliable enough, if you are stomping refer to the big ticket damage item section and pick one out.

Muramana: You don't have significant enough mana problems to need this or a Tear of the Goddess, and the damage the passive provides isn't as much as you think. Skip it.


Any more item questions, leave a comment or PM and i'll get back to you, although I pretty much cover every item even remotely viable, and even some that aren't on Darius here. (HE HAS 0 AP SCALINGS).

Mobility Boots: Only buy this if you are jungling, if you want to roam heavily, Boots of Swiftness with an Enchantment: Alacrity is better.

VS

Mobility boots provide more speed to get back to lane from base, but if that is an issue you can always buy an Enchantment: Homeguard. Mobi boots provide better lane to lane roaming, but the slow reduction on Boots of Swiftness: are realllly nice on Darius, and a pair of swiftness boots with an Enchantment: Alacrity make you almost as fast as Mobility Boots do, and you don't lose the MS bonus with Boots of Swiftness.

WINNER: Boots of Swiftness in top lane, Mobility Boots in jungle.

VS

This is a really simple one. If you are in a tough lane against a champion that is mainly physical damage oriented, buy Ninja Tabi for the passive and armor bonus. Buy Mercury's Treads if you are getting camped by a heavy CC jungler, you are in an easy lane, or your lane opponent has primarily magic damage. Sell Ninja Tabi for Mercury's Treads lategame unless the enemy team is entirely AD and don't have that much CC. (Rarely happens)

VS

Alacrity is for catching people, Furor is for sticking to them, and it isn't even that good on melees for sticking, something Darius is amazing at anyway. Under no circumstances should you ever take Enchantment: Furor over Enchantment: Alacrity.

WINNER: Enchantment: Alacrity.


Homeguards are a weird item/enchantment. They help you significantly in lane, but usually get sold for other enchantments later, as they add no real fighting/catching/sticking potential. Buy them in heavy farmfest lanes, or if you are against somebody with Teleport. Buying this against a lane opponent who can push quickly to deny you CS at tower is a good option as well.

The other enchantments: Enchantment: Captain, and Enchantment: Distortion just aren't really worth it on Darius. If you keep getting caught you can get distortion, but you shouldn't be getting caught, and Enchantment: Alacrity can help you stop getting caught as well. Enchantment: Captain should be saved for the support or jungler to buy.

It's because Frozen Mallet is COMPLETELY UNNEEDED ON Darius.

There is NO reason to EVER build it over Randuin's Omen, Guardian Angel, or Warmog's Armor. None. In comparison to Randuin's Omen, the 200 health, slow, and bit of attack damage is nowhere NEAR worth it compared to the amazing AoE slow active Randuin's gives, as well as the massive armor bonus, and the crippling passive it provides when you are hit by auto attacks.

In comparison to Warmog's Armor, you DO NOT NEED THAT SLOW OR THE ATTACK DAMAGE BONUS. IT IS NOT WORTH GIVING UP THE REGEN AND THE BONUS 300 HP THAT IT GIVES YOU, SINCE Darius HAS MASSIVE DAMAGE OUTPUT, THAT 30 AD WILL NOT CHANGE. If your argument is "but i need slow man" buy Randuin's Omen. If you need tankiness buy Warmog's Armor.

/endrant.

Darius has pretty standard gameplay overall. Poke people down with Decimate, go for all ins with Apprehend, and add Crippling Strike as well as Ignite to the combo somewhere, while trying to get five Hemorrhage stacks to finish them off with a dunk from Noxian Guillotine.

Because Darius has immense damage output and is melee, obviously playing against other melee
champions is easier. He has a lot of favorable lanes so I will only explain in-depth the difficult ones. Believe me, I tried writing up an in-depth matchup section as it is something I like to do, (Check my Jax and Gangplank guides if you dont believe me) but when I tried doing the same for Darius I ended up repeating myself a ton of times, which I simply found redundant.

Read the chapter above before reading this one if you are looking for a detailed matchup. If you still want to hear about it PM me and I will (begrudgingly) add it in.


Champion: Jayce
Starting Item: Rejuvenation Bead, Cloth Armor, or 9 Pots 2 Wards.
Summoner Spells:: Ghost, Ignite.
Pick Against? Player discretion.

Ah, Jayce. The standard counterpick for 90% of league players to Darius for the longest time. I've played this matchup around ~100 times with about half of those being challenger tier/diamond players and I used to nearly always get my face stomped in to the point where I gave up playing this lane. One day though, I was counterpicked (as always) with a Jayce. I decided to try ghost cuz yolo and I ended up crushing him. I quickly experimented running lanes with some high elo top lane maining friends of mine and I actually won a good amount. It doesn't make this lane easy to the point where you should pick Darius into Jayce every game, but it isn't a bad matchup with Ghost instead of [[Flash].

The thing about Ghost is that once you hit 6 you can simply run up to him with Ghost if he pushes past the middle of the lane and dunk him even if he flashes, since Ghost covers way more distance over the duration of the spell. All you have to do is sustain through his auto attacks and poke with his shock blast and gate combo until level 6. When you hit 6 or are close to it, go back and buy your items and then come back and immediately force an all in, hopefully killing him, resulting in a snowballed lane. There is NO way Jayce can match a Darius's raw damage matchup in a 100% hp to 100% hp fight, always try to force all ins. If he jumps on you and doesn't immediately knock you away, you are probably getting ganked.


Champion: Elise
Starting Item: 9 Pots 2 Wards and some lube.
Summoner Spells:: Ghost, Ignite.
Pick Against? No.

Elise is a huge *****, and extremely frustrating to play against. She has stupid amounts of poke with her Q, and there is almost no counterplay to it. It has lowish mana costs, is extremely spammable and hurts like fk. She also doesn't need to build big AP items, she has percent of max health and percent of missing health damage, making sure she just needs magic penetration to make that percent damage really count. Unlike other difficult champions for Darius to lane against, she actually can stand a chance in some all ins.

To make matters worse, she is ranged and can generally stay away from your pull. Try to hit her with free Decimate casts if she gets overconfident and go in with an all in with Ghost. If she switches to spider form her Q changes to percent of missing health damage, effectively making it an execute, and basically telling you she is going to try to kill you. She has no hard CC in spider form thankfully, her stun is limited to human form. In spider form she can also heal up and go untargetable, landing right back where she jumped or to a targetable ENEMY unit. Most Elise players will use it to escape and juke over walls and such. She DOES take damage from DoTs such as Hemorrhage and Ignite will in the air though.


Champion: Teemo
Starting Item: 9 Pots 2 Wards or Rejuvenation Bead.
Summoner Spells:: Ghost, Ignite.
Pick Against? Generally no.

Me as well as 99% of the league community hate teemo for a specific reason. He is annoying as fk. Teemo has 2 main builds, an AD and an AP one. The AD one is generally quite tanky and usually builds Frozen Mallet to kite. The AP one relies on Noxious Trap and auto attacks as well as Blinding Dart to harass with. The AD build is usually the easier to deal with, although it can be very irritating to fight as well. Make sure you play accordingly to how he builds. If he his AD make every Apprehend combo count. If he is AP, try to force all ins constantly, and avoid Noxious Trap.

There is 0 chance that Teemo, AD or AP can win a 100% to 100% HP all-in fight with you, so use that to your advantage. Your Apprehend is actually the exact same range as his auto attack (550) so try to use that to your advantage as much as possible. Just know if you are fighting Teemo whether it be AP or AD, if you miss an Apprehend he will absolutely destroy you with harass until it comes back up, so try your very hardest not to miss any. Your best chance is to destroy him when he has no kiting abilities, which is usually levels 1 and 2. If you don't first blood him early, be ready for an obnoxious yordle constantly shooting you with darts.


Champion: Kayle
Starting Item: 9 Pots 2 Wards, and pray for good measure.
Summoner Spells:: Ghost, Ignite.
Pick Against? No.

Another ranged champion that will harass and kite you to death. Seeing a trend? :P Kayle is extra gay because she has a massive slow in Reckoning not to mention a speedup that doubles as a heal. To top it all off, Intervention serves as a massive counter to your ult, not only in lane if you go for a kill, but in teamfights when you try to dunk low hp targets as well. Contrary to popular belief, you can win a level 1 fight if you hit a good Decimate, and you can win level 2 as well easily with Crippling Strike. You can win with Apprehend as well, but make sure you don't fight with creep disadvantage. At level 6 if you go for a dunk try to dunk early so she doesn't completely nullify it with Intervention and turn around and destroy you. Be wary she can go AP or AD as well.


Champion: Yorick
Starting Item: Crystalline Flask or Rejuvenation Bead
Summoner Spells:: Ghost, Ignite.
Pick Against? Yes.

Yorick is the prime example of a few high elo people spreading the word that Yorick beats Darius and everybody else simply agreeing. I'm here to say that is COMPLETELY ****ING WRONG. As in many other "difficult" lanes for Darius, taking Ghost is a godsend. Yorick CANNOT 1v1 Darius unless you accidentally target all your autoattacks, Ignite, and Crippling Strike on his ghouls and or his *******ed clone. He doesn't have the mobility to kite a Darius with the movespeed from Ghost, just destroy him at level 6 while trying not to get utterly destroyed with his poke. If you don't kill him though, you will get outsustained and raped, but this goes with pretty much any lane Yorick is in.


Champion: Nidalee
Starting Item: 9 Pots 2 Wards, Rejuvenation Bead, or Cloth Armor.
Summoner Spells:: Flash, Ignite.
Pick Against? Generally no.

Nidalee is more irritating then dangerous. She doesn't really have the damage to challenge you unless you play really stupidly after her armor and mr nerfs, so just go for hooks whenever possible which isn't too hard because her range isn't so good. All you really have to be scared of is eating 10 spears in a row if she goes ap, or getting harassed down 1-5, her hitting 6 before you, and then you getting cheese executed by a quick flash combo from her. If you don't get ahead before she finishes tank items such as Sunfire Aegis, Warmog's Armor, and or Iceborn Gauntlet, you can't really kill her as you will just kited all day, not to mention she will be tanky, but she can't really kill you. Sustain through the spear storm early if shes AD and just farm up enough to be a threat in teamfights. If she goes AP just start wrecking her from level 1. Just beware of her kiting through bushes if shes AP and you getting chunked hard followed by being swiftly executed if you hit a spear and a trap. (not necessarily in that order)

Your ult does true damage, your passive does magic damage, and everything else does physical damage, with Apprehend giving you passive armor penetration. Thats why people say its impossible to itemize defensively against Darius :P.

Remember your ult applies one stack of your passive, but you still need to have five stacks on the target you are dunking to get max damage.

Hemorrhage does NOT apply a healing debuff, so it can be mitigated by a health potion rather easily.

Apprehend does NOT apply a stack of Hemorrhage, only damaging auto attacks and spells do. When you are blinded, you do not apply stacks of your passive on auto attacks.

Learn the range of Apprehend well. It is slightly deceiving. Remember you can hook over walls if people are close to them, but most of the time hooking people who flash over a wall will be unsuccessful. (FOR LIKE NO REASON EITHER TOO WTF)

Crippling Strike applies an attack speed debuff AS WELL AS a movement speed slow. ALWAYS try to land it on the enemy AD carry lategame.

Darius is very good at sticking with the AD carry lategame and killing targets that try to dive them. This can win you many more fights lategame as opposed to diving the enemy AD carry as Darius is seriously hampered by crowd control, even with tenacity.

Darius is a counter to pretty much all melee bruiser top laners, it is usually safe to pick him vs anyone with a melee auto attack, refer to the matchup section for more info.

REMEMBER, you do a TON of damage, but you are NOT the AD carry! You do NOT need to be the main source of damage output, and this is something you need to keep in mind when building, it is certainly something I kept in mind when I created the standard build.

Darius is a fun champion with a lot of potential, in my opinion he is definitely worth the 6300 to new players because of how dominant he is in top lane. He isn't a bad jungler per se, but being a jungle main myself, I can't say he is quite up to snuff with other top tier junglers at the moment. If this changes somehow, I'll be sure to add a jungle section, or even write a separate guide about him, have no fear. Until then, happy dunking!

TO BE ADDED:
Finished Matchup Section

-H4xDefender