Darius Build Guide by Azerath53

Introduction

This guide is for Darius, the hand of Noxus. I am making this guide because I absolutely love Darius and have gotten to be Lethal with him, not to mention he is a complete bad a**. There are 3 builds here a basic solid build, a more risky but rewarding snowballing build and finally a Tanky DPS build. If you vote negatively please leave comments as to why so I can make changes.

Pros / Cons

PROS

* Insane Damage output
* Has great slow, AOE and DOT
* Has a good pull
* Amazing ultimate that resets cooldown if Champion is killed

CONS

* No Escape abilities
* Easily ganked
* Can be counter with certain Champions

Items

Basic Build

Starting Items

Core Items

End Game Items

Unlike some champions who you can be good with them really with any Item build Darius is more item dependent. You'll want to start out with a Boots of Speed & 3 Health Potion. If you are winning your lane you'll want to go straight for the Phage. If your losing or stalemating your lane go for 2 Doran's sword to help you push the lane and then get the Phage you'll also want a Heart of Gold which gives you health and increases the rate at which you get gold which is quite useful since Darius's items are a bit pricey, plus you'll use it later on to make Randuin's Omen. Once you have your Phage you can either rush The Bloodthirster or a Hexdrinker. From the Core Items, Phage is upgraded into Frozen Mallet... Hexdrinker is upgraded into Maw of Malmortius... Heart of Gold is upgraded into Randuin's Omen. Before upgrading any of those three items, I usually get The Bloodthirster then upgrade the Core Items. If I think that the enemy AD Carry can pose a significant threat, then I get Randuin's Omen before Frozen Mallet or Maw of Malmortius. If I think the enemy AP Carry will pose a greater threat than their AD Carry, then I will get Maw of Malmortius before Frozen Mallet or Randuin's Omen. If I just think getting more Tanky and Beefy will win us the game, then I just get Frozen Mallet first instead or if i need the slow from from Frozen Mallet. The last item I usually get is Guardian Angel if the game drags out for that long.

---

Snowballing Build

Starting Items

Core Items

End Game Items

With this build your items are not only going to help you snowball but so are your runes. once you reach your full potential you will be pretty dang lethal and hitting your opponents extremely hard. now you won't have as much magic resistance or armor but you'll be hitting like a truck. People will be scrambling when they see you merely because of the damage your putting out. The early game for this is tough but once you get on a roll your opponents will be running for the hills. In this build your going to start off similar but you will get a Doran's sword to help your early game and then rush The Bloodthirster once you have your The Bloodthirster this is where you start to snowball. The more kills you get the more powerful you become. Next you'll want to get your Berserker's Greaves which will give you some added speed to you and your attacks. The reason you got Cleanse and Ghost is because you are getting these boots. Normally Darius runs the Mercury's Treads because of his weakness to stuns and slows. You'll want to then get the Hexdrinker and then you can move into your final items. Here since i want to be doing more AD damage i usually will get Maw of Malmortius and Frozen Mallet first and save the Randuin's Omen for second to last. If the games goes really long I'll pull another The Bloodthirster to keep my damage high.

---

Tanky Build

Starting Items

Core Items

OR

End Game Items for AD Teams

End Game Items for AP Teams

End Game Items for Mixed Teams

With this build your focus is to become more tanky than high damage now keep in mind you will still be outputing quite a bit of damage but not as much as the snowballing build or the solid build. You'll want to get your boots first with this build if your facing a high AP team go for Mercury's Treads if the team is more AD go for Ninja Tabi. Once you have your boots get a Doran's sword to help your early game and a Heart of Gold to give you life and extra bit of gold then get your Phage. Now depending on what your facing you'll either then go for either the Sunfire Cape for AD or the Hexdrinker for AP. If the enemy team is more of a mix you'll get both of these. Now here if the team is AD you'll want to work on getting Randuin's Omen to help with your tankyness and slow ability Then go for your Frozen Mallet Next you'll move for The Bloodthirster and finally Guardian Angel. If the team is AP or mixed you'll want to upgrade to Maw of Malmortius and Frozen Mallet first and save the Randuin's Omen for second to last. If the games goes really long I'll pull The Bloodthirster to keep my damage high or a Guardian Angel for more tankyness.

Skill Sequence

Hemorrhage is an amazing passive ability not only is it DOT(Damage over Time) But it gives Darius a 5% speed boost for every champion with Hemorrhage on them. This is an amazing ability as it stacks up to 5 times and increases the power and deadliness of Darius' other abilities and attacks. Be sure to be constantly laying as many of these on your opponents as possible


Decimate is Darius' bread and butter. This is his main ability not only used for farming but does serious amounts of damage. You want to level this ability first.

Crippling Strike is also a very good ability that you want to take time to max next it is an enhancement to his basic attack where it gives his next attack an increased amount of damage and slows the target he hits as well. This ability combos well with his Apprehend to slow your opponent and it also resets your attack counter so you can do a normal attack and then attack quickly once again.

This ability can grab target from a distance and works well when trying to pick opponents off from their team or keeping the opposing champion in play so they can't run from ya. It also has a passive that gives armor penetration. If you need that extra armor penetration i would recommend leveling this along with crippling strike so you can get through opponents armor.

This is what separates Darius apart and argumentatively why people think that Darius should get nerfed. This ability does True damage so it's going to hit hard. In addition to the true damage the cool-down resets if you kill an enemy champion with it. This is amazing because you can use this to clean up after a team fight to get those people who didn't quite die.

Runes

Now as i mentioned in Item builds that the snowballing Darius not only snowballs from his items but also from his Runes as well. The basic build (as well as the tanky build) makes Darius more lethal in the beginning but at level 18 will not do as much damage as the snowballing Darius because of the rune-set chosen. With the Solid build Darius right off the bat from his 9 Mark of Attack Damage and 3 Quintessence of Attack Damage rune set he gets 15.3 extra AD but doesn't increase after that. With Snowballing Darius however, he only starts out with 1.965 extra AD initially from Mark of Scaling Attack Damage and Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage but by level 8 he is at 15.7 AD and by level 18 he is at a total of 35.37 extra AD which is more the double the AD of the Solid Darius. So it in the end you will be out Damaging the solid Darius easily.

Countering Darius

There are a few champions that counter Darius and can do quite a bit of pain to him.


Jayce counters Darius pretty hard merely because of his poke ability and his damage output. Jayce can bully Darius out of lane so he'll need a good jungler or support to help with Jayce


Now Kayle is also another champion that counters Darius. He pretty much has moves that shut down Darius. Kayle's ultimate completely blocks Darius' ultimate and puts it on cooldown so it renders his ultimate useless and also Kayle has a poke as well that he can spam against Darius that can push him out of lane.


This is probably one of the most furious debates whether Darius can take Garen or Garen can take Darius. It really depends on the player. Garen I have seen win more vs Darius than vice-versa but there are quite a few bad Darius out there. I think that it is just a tough match-up because Garen is Tankier initially than Darius and he has both a silence and a defense buff. I do however feel that Darius has the higher damage output and mid to late game can roll over Garen because he has the potential to get more kills with his ulti since it resets on killing of an enemy champion.

Summary/Conclusion

So in closing I'd just like to say that Darius is the ultimate in your face melee guy and he will punish you for getting too close to him. He is an amazing Champion with high damage and excellent potential. Again please let me know of any fixes or modifications you'd like me to add.