Darius Build Guide by Kildar2112

Introduction

Greetings summoners! I decided to write this guide for one main reason: I haven't seen many players build him the way I do (heavy hp fighter). As far as using this guide for ranked matches... That is entirely up to you. I have yet to play a ranked match at all, so I have no clue as to how well this guide would transfer over.

Now, you might ask: "Why would you build him as a HP (Hit Point/Health Point) based fighter?"... Well, the vast majority of Darius' damage (especially early game) comes from the base damage of Decimate. Attack damage will increase the damage done, no question. But you don't receive an optimal amount of your AD (Attack Damage) in your abilities. If you build heavy AD, your survivability will suffer greatly. Thus, we build heavy HP and some AD. I have found that this build provides for a JUGGERNAUT of a champion!

I haven't included a masteries section with my explanations yet. I've spent a lot of time on the guide and it is probably the least important (as far as explaining my thought process goes) section. I do plan on adding one in in the future, just not today.

It has come to my attention that I completely forgot to add in a chapter about how to actually play Darius. I want to apologize for not having it posted with the guide. I will work on getting that done as soon as I can (Working for a living makes it a real PITA). Again sorry, right now this guide is really only a item build.


I also wanted to make not that the stats in the summary don't include any of the bonuses from the passives on items.


Lastly... I am leaving for Marine Corps boot camp on June 17th. I will be gone until mid-September. During that time I will not be able to edit or update the guide. I will do my best to make corrections when I get back. Thanks!

Potent Pros / Costly Cons

Like nearly every other champion, Darius has strengths in some aspects, and weaknesses in others. If your team is light on tanks, Darius helps bring it! If your team is light on CC, Darius can help support that role too! And most importantly, if your team is light on being able to SECURE KILLS, Darius will consume that role entirely. Now, Darius' sustain, or Damage Per Second (DPS), isn't the best in the world, and neither is his ability to escape. But he makes due.

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Pros + Tanky + Easy to harass with + Devastating Ult + Easy to farm with + Very offensive playing style

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Cons - Expensive to equip - Mana hungry early/mid - Easy to over-extend with - No means of escape This is where Ghost comes in.

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Runes

For runes go with:


My reasoning for each is shown below:

Greater Mark of Attack Damage
The attack damage is very nice early game, and gives you a nice boost to Decimate. I suggest going with all 9 slots as AD. The reason I pick straight AD over Armor Penetration (ArP) is that Darius already receives 5/10/15/20/25% ArP from Apprehend. ArP can be useful early game, but you can make better use of the AD.

Greater Seal of Armor
Armor is a pretty good staple item for nearly every fighter/tank. It provides for better survivability early game, which is always important. Doesn't really need much explanation.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Same as the Armor, its a very common item for almost every champ/build. Again, doesn't need much explanation.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed
This 4.5% movement speed makes a really big impact on your ability to secure kills (and avoid deaths). These will allow you to get close enough to an enemy champ to use Ignite and Apprehend, securing the kill.

Items

Build AD Darius and you will be squishy melee without burst or escape. This means you might do a little bit more damage than a heavy hp fighter, but you will die. A lot.

Darius only gets bonuses to the following abilities from Attack Damage(AD):

• Passive: Hemorrhage
• Q: Decimate
• Ult: Noxian Guillotine

As you can see, the bonuses received on these from AD is very minor. So building heavy AD is very inefficient and will leave you with less stats overall. Sooo, we build him as a heavy HP...



x3 We want to start with boots and 3 health pots for solo top. The boots will help you harass and the health pots will keep you from having to b (recall). With this starting combo, I've found that I can typically stay up top long enough to be able to afford Ruby Crystal, and typically secure a kill or two. This also makes it easier to build Mercury's Treads later on, since we're sort of rushing Phage.



This is your first recall, isn't it? Well, regardless, as soon as you have the money for it. Get Ruby Crystal. It gives you a pretty healthy health boost early game, and is one of the key items for Phage. Seriously, get this ASAP.



Now that you've obtained your Ruby Crystal, (and hopefully secured a kill or two!) we want to go for your first tank-like piece: Mercury's Treads. This piece gives you 35 Tenacity (reduces CC (Crowd Control) effects on you by 35%). This means that you'll be able to be free more often when fighting a champion with CC. It also gives you more movement speed than the regular boots, which will help you secure those kills!




The real big ticket item here is Frozen Mallet, but I listed Phage and Giant's Belt to show you its components and the fact that they are milestones to getting Frozen Mallet. Phage is your big rush item, as it supplies your big 2 stats and your big effect: HP, AD, and enemy slow. Now Phage itself isn't the most powerful item in the world, so we upgrade it to Frozen Mallet. The big item separating them is Giant's Belt (Our favorite item, as it is used in all our big health-based items). We get Giant's Belt as soon as its available, and then Frozen Mallet and Voila! You're starting to look like an off-tank! (One that packs a serious punch!)




Warmog's Armor is what gives you the majority of your health bonus. It is comprised of: Giant's Belt, Ruby Crystal, and Regrowth Pendant. My suggestion is to buy Giant's Belt and Ruby Crystal when they become available, and then go straight for Warmog's Armor. The HP5 (Health per 5 seconds) granted from Regrowth Pendant isn't very impressive, so try and get enough gold on one outing to buy the final piece if you can. Warmog's Armor also has a passive which will grant you an additional maximum bonus of 350 HP, and 10 HP5. You gain stacks, which add up to these totals on minion and champion kills. It will build on its own and the bonuses won't be lost upon death.




Time to bring on some AD! Atma's Impaler is a high HP champ's best friend. It gives you bonus AD based on your maximum health (1.5% of it to be exact!). It consists of: Chain Vest and Cloak of Agility. I would suggest going with Chain Vest first, as it gives you an armor bonus and crit (critical chance) isn't all that important. All around, a very key item.




This is where we start stacking the majority of our AD. This is also where our crit is raised to an appreciable level. I suggest going with B. F. Sword first, and then picking up Pickaxe. Close the deal by buying Infinity Edge. It supplies you with 80 AD, 25% Crit, and +50% Crit Damage (increases the amount of damage your crits do to 250%). Pretty self-explanatory.




The final item should be chosen based on what is needed at this point in your game. I've listed out why I chose what items, and why I most often chose: Zeke's Herald.


: Most of the time, my group is light on support, so most summoners buy items that don't have AoE effects. I've found that my survivability with the above build is typically pretty sufficient, so extra HP/armory/MR isn't really needed. Thus, I buy Zeke's Herald. It provides a little bit of everything: 250 HP, 15% Cooldown Reduction, (and in an aura provides:) +20% attack speed, and +12% LS (life steal). So not only does this benefit me, but it also helps out any AD/Carry memebers members of my party as well. All it takes to build is: Vampiric Scepter, Kindlegem, and Dagger. Again, my most popular pick.

Buy Phantom Dancer if your party is light a AD carry, if you're doing more damage with auto-attacks, or if you need a slight boost in movement speed. Not the greatest pick for Darius, but does have its place.

Hey there familiar fellow! Yes, buying another Warmog's is a viable option. If you find that your opponents do heavy damage and lack in tanks, or your side has plenty of tanks but you're still getting burned through, Warmog's Armor can provide you with that extra health and some more AD. The passive bonuses do stack, so buying another can put you up around an extra 1270 health! Not a bad pick when the circumstances are right!

Skill Sequence / Skill Descriptions

Hemorrhage is Darius' passive. It provides a stacking DOT (Damage over Time). Every time Darius lands an attack, he applies Hemorrhage up to 5 stacks per target. These stacks increase the damage of Noxian Guillotine by 20% per stack. In addition to these two effects, for every enemy champion that Hemorrhage effects, Darius gains 5% movement speed. This helps when you need to chase down to finish the kill or to escape death! Oh, and it gains a small bonus off of your AD.

All around... not a bad passive.


Almost all of your damage as Darius comes from Decimate (Q). So you'll want to max that by level 9, putting a point in whenever possible (Excluding level 3, as getting Apprehend early can secure many early game kills, and prevent a couple friendly deaths.) Decimate should be triggered when your enemies are towards the edge of its range, as it does more damage. Maxing it out by level 9 also lowers the cooldown, and it being your main source of damage, means you will be pumping out the numbers faster.


Crippling Strike is fairly straight foward... It is a damage/slow combo. When applied it decreases its target's movement speed by: 20%/25%/30%/35%/40% for 2 seconds. For each stack of Hemorrhage on its target when it is applied, its cooldown is reduced by 1 second (up to a maximum of 5 seconds), ultimately allowing for a cooldown of 3 seconds, before CR (Cooldown Reduction).


Ahhh, Apprehend... I think this ability is probably the reason everyone hates Darius when trying to escape. This ability does two things: provides passive ArP, and when activated, snatches everything in its AoE (Area of Effect) to Darius. Apprehend can be used two different ways: To either snatch an enemy champion trying to escape, or, to snatch and enemy champion in pursuit of an ally. I have saved countless friendlies and secured many kills with this ability. Keep in mind that it has a 24 second cooldown at rank 1. Even though it has a heavy cooldown, I don't really need to used it back to back, which is one of the reasons we max it last.

Darius' ultimate. This bad boy does one thing, and it does it with perfection. It kills. As stated in Hemorrhage's section, the damage done by Noxian Guillotine is increased by 20% per stack of hemo on its target (up to 100% or 5 stacks). It gains bonus damage based on your AD (scaling with hemo). Most importantly though, it deals true damage. I suggest noting its minimum damage every time you scale it up or your AD increases. It is import to realize that each green block on a champion's health bar represents 100 hp. Use this knowledge to judge when your ultimate will get a killing blow on its target. Why do you want the killing blow? Because whenever Noxian Guillotine makes the killing blow (or the target dies withing half a second of Noxian Guillotine being used on it), its cooldown is refreshed to 0. Yes, you can Penta kill using only your ultimate.

Summoner Spells

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I pick Ghost and Ignite, as they complement Darius better than any other summoner spells. Ghost is a MUST. It alllows you to close the gap on an enemy champion, or escape the grasps of enemy champions (This is especially important, as Darius has NO escape/evasion type abilities.). Ignite is a perfect complement to Darius. It and Hemorrhage have gotten me several kills after an enemy champion gets out of range for Noxian Guillotine. I go into details of each of the summoner spells below:

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Ghost: Ghost complements Darius' abilities beautifully. Ghost, along with Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed can be used to close the gap, allowing you to use Apprehend and Ignite. Or to escape the reach of enemy champions. In my opinion, a must.

Ignite: Great for helping to secure that kill! It can do that last little bit of damage you need (in addition to Hemorrhage). You can throw it on an enemy a little early to help get them low enough for Noxian Guillotine to get the killing blow. Again, in my opinion, a must.

Heal: This is viable if you do not have any heals or a support in your group and are heavy on the offensive side. I would take this in conjunction with your teammates summoner spells though. If it fits your playing style, go for it. But I think Ignite goes better in its place.

Flash: An acceptable substitute for Ghost. Will put a gap (or close one) between you and an enemy champion, but will not sustain it like Ghost can.

Exhaust: Can be used to substitute either spell. I feel that Darius already has enough to be able to pull/slow an enemy between Crippling Strike and Apprehend




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Garrison: Dominion only.

Revive: You should never die.

Smite: Darius really shouldn't jungle.

Surge: You're not AD carry, so auto-attacks aren't a focus. Not needed.

Teleport: Leave that one to the support/true tanks.

Cleanse: Really for the tanks.

Clarity: You may go mana dry early game, but you're no caster. Don't need it.

Promote: Weaksauce.

Clairvoyance: Usefull for someone like Karthus, Pantheon, Gangplank, or Twisted Fate. Not so much for Darius...

Hall of Fame!

Sumbit score screencaps from using my guide and I'll post them in them here! I'll be posting my own as well! (Wish I had thought about it before, that way I had a couple to put in when I made the guide.)

Summary

This is my first Mobafire/LoL guide, so there are probably errors. I will do my best to refine the guide over time. If you have any feedback, be it grammatical corrections, strategies, or build variations, please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me a PM! I have required the first 20 votes to leave a comment as well. I'm doing this so that I will know why you voted the way you did, and to encourage feedback. Sorry for any inconvienence if you just want to vote up. (:

I will be opening a Hall of Fame as well... Sumbit score screencaps from using my guide and I'll post them in the Hall of Fame! I'll be posting my own as well!

Also, a special thanks to JhoiJhoi, for her guide on how to make a Mobafire guide! If you ever make one in the future and have no clue where to start, I suggest you start with her guide: Building Guides by JhoiJhoi!

Changelog

+ 20120527 Made note of stats in intro
+ 20120527 Made note of lack of how to play Darius in intro
+ 20120612 Made note of leaving for boot camp