Hi all this cornbread88 this is my first published guide, I will attempt to make it short and to the point hope it helps. I know some questions will arise to why I choose certain things in the guide which I will cover later on. But for now this is what I have put together.

Why I choose the runes posted, first I never know what I am going up against, so I chose to balance out magic defense, armor, and armor pen, the extra health is never a bad thing in most fights I am in so I see this as a decent start to most games.

Not much to be said here i just focus on attack and armor pen with a little extra armor and magic resist

Another crucial part of any champion is how you build them. There are numerous ways to build this champion, I have seen several very effective ways to build him, as for me I like to start out with lifesteal it works well with my play style, then of course boots to get me places faster. after that I usually focus on attack,attack speed, and lifesteal. Again I try to keep it balanced with this champion because he is great at farming quick. But of course if your faced with heavy ap or heavy tank build accordingly.

This area is probably going to be the most questioned because instead of maxing out one skill first I keep it pretty spread out throughout the levels. My reason behind that is this, I use to focus on one skill at a time but noticed over time that waiting on said skill to cool down took me out of some the team fights. Now I can run in with a more balanced character and any one the four skills hits as effective as the other for the most part so I am not sitting there waiting for my one maxed out skill to pop off cool down.

for the summoner spells I choose the ignite and flash. Ignite is my main summoner spell just because early game it can help in close situations where the enemy is retreating or has a heal from what I have seen most people try to keep a distance when they get ignited which gives you a few secs to go after them or fall back to a strong hold. Flash on the other hand is new to me, most people swear by it as a get away, I usually just use it to close distance between me and ranged characters other then that I would normally have clarity for early mana replenishment or exhaust to slow down an enemy. For this area I would say pick what your comfortable with.

pros to this build are you have a great early game farmer and a balanced character throughout the game.
the cons are you give up some the early game attack damage so you have to play with more strategy then brute force.

This build works well if you are in a lane with someone or have to go solo top at the start. With this character build I suggest lane with someone who can stun because stacking his passive makes him hit more effective. If your solo farm safe till you can forcefully move up.

Hopefully this outlook on Darius has helped and explained my choices a little on him, I know it is alot of repetitive info most experienced players don't want to read.