Hello everyone, I am a very devoted Darius player and I hope to share my knowledge and understandings of him with you. He is a great champion to use and is just plain fun to play as. I hope you learn a lot about him through all of this and if you have questions of comments please ask away, I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Darius is a champion that manages to rack up massive amounts of kills due to his sheer amount of damage out-put. Darius deals physical, magic, and true damage throughout his kit making him versatile. Darius is weak compared to other naturally tanky champions but that doesn't stop him as he plows through his enemies with ease; however, Darius has no true escapes.

Darius can be taken Top Lane, Bot Lane, or even Jungle. Darius has a surprisingly and reasonably good jungle clear time and is great for invading the other team at the beginning to throw off their jungler. His Decimate, and Crippling Strike allow him to dish out damage quickly for a quick and easy kill. Darius can harass other champions with Decimate and Apprehend in top or bot lanes. Apprehend also allows for him to serve as support, though not recommended.

Pros

High Damage Out Put (especially early game)
Naturally Tanky
True Damage Ult
Low To Moderate Mana Costs
Great Counterjungling

Cons

Easily Focused
Easily Countered
No Real Gap Closers
Can Put Own Team Behind Due To Ult
Picked On By Ranged Champions

Hemorrhage
Darius aims his attacks strategically, causing his target to bleed for 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33 / 36 (+0.3 per bonus attack damage) magic damage over 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to five times.

Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.


Decimate
Darius swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the shaft take 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage) physical damage. Champions struck by the blade take 105 / 157.5 / 210 / 262.5 / 315 (+1.05 per bonus attack damage) physical damage.



Crippling Strike
Darius's next attack severs a crucial artery, dealing 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 % additional physical damage. As the target bleeds out, their movement and attack speeds are slowed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 % for 2 seconds. Crippling Strike's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.



Apprehend
Darius hones his axe, granting him 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 % passive armor penetration. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe's hook and pulls them to him.



Noxian Guillotine
Darius leaps to an enemy Champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 160 / 250 / 340 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) true damage. This damage increases by 20% for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target up to a maximum of 320 / 500 / 680 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) true damage. If Noxian Guillotine deals a killing blow, its cooldown is refreshed.

I prefer to take Flash/Ignite. Flash allows for an escape or a gap closer, since Darius naturally has neither. Ignite stacks with Hemorrhage allowing for additional kill security and is great early game for securing First Blood.

Other optional spells are Ghost, Exhaust, and Smite.
Ghost is good to help catch up with champions and to reach a battle quicker, also stacks with the bonus movement speed from Hemorrhage.
Exhaust is another spell that helps with kill security and allows more time to deal more damage and more stacks for maximum dunk damage, also allows for more aggressive ganking.
Only take smite when jungling.

Dunking everything in sight can be bad and hinder your team from advancing in gold count and can possibly result in you team losing the match. Refrain from dunking every kill and try to be generous and share some with the ADC (Attack Damage Carry). Take only what is rightfully yours to help along the team as a whole.
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Akali
Difficulty: Easy
Constantly harass Akali, she is squishy.
She likes to hide in her Twilight Shroud.
Call MIAs often to prevent her from snowballing.
If Akali jumps onto you, punish her by a quick Decimate then Crippling Strike


Dr. Mundo
Difficult: Easy
Decimate will hurt him hard early on.
Call for ganks early, nobody likes a fed Dr. Mundo.
Try to avoid Apprehending him early as that makes you vulnerable to his Burning Agony
Ignite his Sadism so you can kill him easier.


Fiora
Difficulty: Somewhat Easy
Try to bait her Riposte before using Crippling Strike.
An early Ninja Tabi helps to shut her down.
Don't use Decimate if she Lunges onto you, this deals less damage.
Use Noxian Guillotine early if you need to, Blade Waltz counters Noxian Guillotine completely.


Darius
Difficulty: Depends
Darius can do the exact same things as you can do, so be careful.
The person to win the lane is the person who gets the first kill in lane.
Try to land as much Decimates as possible.
If in a struggling trade, use Noxian Guillotine and Ignite afterwards.


Cho'Gath
Difficulty: Medium
Focus on farming.
Don't get harassed by his Feral Scream too much.
If he starts getting aggressive, start trading and ult before he does.
Ward often, Cho'Gath works well with allied gankers.


Gangplank (GP)
Difficulty: Medium
He will poke you often with Parrrley, try to stay back and farm for a bit.
If he maxes Remove Scurvy, ignore him and farm.
Don't stand in his ult in a 1v1 or you will have a lot higher chance of losing.


Garen
Difficulty: Medium
Garen has an early game almost equivalent to yours, except he doesn't use mana.
Attack him when he's done with his abilities, Garen has no damage outside of them.
Try to Decimate him if he runs towards you with Decisive Strike.
You might die to Demacian Justice if you don't use Noxian Guillotine quick enough.


Irelia
Difficulty: Medium
Abuse Irelias early game weakness.
Stay ahead in gold if you want to win lane against an Irelia.
Harass with Decimate when possible.
When she hits level 9, you are likely to lose 1v1s.


Jarvan IV
Difficulty: Medium
Don't get poked by Dragon Strike too often.
You can pull Jarvan IV out of his flag pull combo.
Jarvan IV runs OOM easily, force trades often.
Getting an early Phage will help against his mobility.


Jax
Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Stay away from Jax when he has Counter Strike on.
Avoid using Decimate if he Leap Strikes onto you, this deals less damage.
Buying Wriggle's Lantern can help if you are dying too often.
Decimate spam is an easy way out of this lane.


Jayce
Difficulty: Hard
You will get poked often when he's in ranged form.
Don't try to waste mana on trades, Jayce can just knock you away with Thundering Blow.
Call for ganks often, you can't win against a good Jayce.
Dodge his Shock Blast often.


Malphite
Difficulty: Hard
Don't fight if he Ground Slams you.
Focus on farming, Malphite is too tanky for you to deal with.
Don't stay around with low health, he can ult you to death.
Build some MR to negate his Seismic Shard poke.


Teemo
Difficulty: Hard
Take a look at his stats before deciding whether to buy armor or MR.
Try not to Apprehend him if he has his Blinding Dart up.
Decimate obliterates his health.
Get a Crippling Strike on him if you are fighting, Move Quick can be annoying.


Xin Zhao
Difficulty: Hard
Back off if he uses Audacious Charge on you.
Save Apprehend for when he starts retreating, Xin Zhao has no escapes.
Don't overextend as Xin Zhao works well with co-ordinated ganks.
An early Warden's Mail can help against Three Talon Strike.


Udyr
Difficulty: Hard
Tiger Udyr actually deals magic damage with his proc, build Mercury's Treads.
Get some early lifesteal to duel better.
Decimate when he isn't using Turtle Stance.
Make sure to kill him with Noxian Guillotine as Turtle Stance can save him from Hemorrhage.


Yorick
Difficulty: Hard
Build gold per 10 and play passive/defensive, Yorick is stronger than you early game.
Build a mix of MR and armor as Yorick deals both.
Don't Apprehend him as it gives him a chance to nuke you with Omen of War.
Call for an early gank.

Thank you for reading my guide! Good luck in your endeavor of learning and mastering Darius. Please feel free to contact me or ask any sort of questions on this guide. This has been updated and designed for Season 3.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
See you on the Fields of Justice

-Abodal


Last Update:
03/28/2013

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