Hello, I am CizzCool on EUW server and have been playing League Of Legends since the start of season 6. I am currently Plat V in solo/duo queue,however I have had a lot of success with Darius. I have around 220k mastery points mastery 7 Darius and have been playing him for a few months. This guide will explain match ups,combos,runes and how to play Darius successfully and without losing.

Pros with Darius

High damage through out the whole game
High outplay potential
Strong in 1v1 AND teamfights
Can 1v2 early on
Built in armor penetration
Ultimate deals true damage
Ultimate can be used many times if you land a kill

Cons with Darius

Falls behind if not fed
Gets focused in team fights if fed
You will be called a noob
Gets boring after winning game after game

These are the runes for Darius and why I use them
Darius Hemorrhage His passive is the reason why he is a strong champion.
This passive can get up to 5 stacks,each dealing more damage per second for each stack.
To have more stacks,he needs to either auto attack,hit a champ with the outer circle of q,w or with r(not recommended with r).
He can easily wins 1v2 (explained in combos section) and get first blood.
If you get 5 stacks,you get Noxian Might which increases your attack damage for a short time and applies 5 stacks instantly with auto attacks,outer q,w and r (not recommended with r).You can also achieve Noxian Might if you kill a champion with your R, not dependant on your current stacks.

Darius Decimate Darius' Q has 2 circles,one is inner which deals half damage and does not apply any stacks of Hemorrhage Hemorrhage.
His Q is his main damage output and can also heal him for 12% of his missing health per champ up to 3 champs if you hit with the outer part of his Q. This ability can also be used to apply Hemorrhage to the whole team,if he has Noxian Might which then he can easily ult all of them.

Darius Crippling Strike His W increases his damage from auto attacks and also increases his attack range by 25 from 150 to 175 and also slows enemies by 90% for 1 second. It is also a auto attack reset which you can use this to your advantage to apply more stacks of Hemorrhage.

Darius Apprehend His E has 3 functions with this build. It can pull champions closer to Darius which helps with chasing down enemy champions which also makes them unable to cast spells,move,or use abilities during this one second.. It also passively increases your % armor penetration from 5% at rank one up to 25% at max rank,increases 5% for every skill point in this skill. Finally, it can also grant a shield for Darius if you have the Courage of the Colossus Courage Of The Colossus keystone.

Darius Noxian Guillotine Finally, his last ability which is his R. This ability deals 100 up to 300 (+0.75 damage per AD) true damage,increasing by 100 damage per skill point. The damage increases by 20% per stack of HemorrhageHemorrhage,which can deal up to 200/400/600 (+1.5 damage per AD) at max stacks (5). This can help with killing tanks with a lot of armor, because of the fact that it deals true damage. Every time you get a kill with your R, it gives you 5 stacks of Hemorrhage for a few seconds and resets the cool down of R for 20 seconds, or resetting the cool down of your Noxian Guillotine entirely at rank 3.

In this section, I talk about the items I get on Darius and why it helps.

Firstly, we have Doran's BladeDoran's Blade. This in my opinion is a lot better for Darius instead of Doran's ShieldDoran's Shield,because of the extra damage, health and 3% more life steal. It gives you AD and health at the same time, which therefore makes in my opinion the best starting item for Darius. With this you can easily get first blood at level one.

Secoundly, I have put a few items which really do not cost that much but help a lot for their price. These items are Refillable PotionRefillable potion and Control WardControl Ward. Refillable Potion only costs 150 gold and has 2 charges of it which heal you for 125 HP for 12 seconds. The reason why this is very useful is the fact that you only have to buy this item once and then the potion refills automatically each to you visit the fountain, which is more cost effective than buying potions each time you visit the shop. Next we have the Control Ward which costs 75 gold. This ward has many functions,mainly for warding up bushes in case a jungler comes. It also has infinite time, so if the enemy laner does not find it,it will stay there until the match ends. It also lets you know if there are any invisible objects,for example Teemos Shrooms or other wards. This ward however has one draw back, which is that it is not invisible and can be destroyed.

Next we have Black CleaverBlack Cleaver. This ability gives you a ton of free stats, for example 20% more cool down, more health,more damage, some movement speed and also more armor penetration which goes up every tick of Hemorrhage,up to 5 stacks and reducing their armor by 30% at 5 stacks. This is a core item in my build. because it gives everything Darius needs for the early game.

Now we usually want more mobility, which comes with Mercury's TreadsMercury's Treads. These are a must on Darius, because of the fact that they increase your movement speed, give you extra tenacity, and give magic resist.

We then get one of either items first, which are Dead Man's PlateDead Mans Plate or Spirit VisageSpirit Visage depending on the situation you are in. Starting off with Dead Man's Plate, it gives you extra armor and health, which makes you more tanky and therefore makes you take more hits. It also has a unique passive which increases your movement speed for each stack of Momentum, up to 60 extra movement speed at 100 stacks. It also will deal extra damage for each stack you have. Get this item if you are facing an AD laner or if they are a fast champion.

The other item you will need is Spirit Visage. This item is very useful for Darius because of its passive. This item overall gives Darius 500 extra health, 200% faster health regeneration, 50 magic resist and 10% extra cool down reduction. Its passive is what makes it very useful for Darius, which increases all healing to your champion by 25%. This means your outer Q will heal for 25% more health, which if I am not wrong is 16% instead of 12%.Get this item if your laner deals magic damage, or if you want to heal for more.But make sure to get both Dead Man's PlateDead Mans Plate and Spirit VisageSpirit Visage.

We then usually want to usually sell our Refillable PotionRefillable Potion, and make space for our Sterak's GageSterak's Gage. This item helps Darius a lot in fights because of the shield if you have taken a lot of damage and extra HP it gives to him. This item gives you 400 extra health, 25% more additional base damage and the Primal Rage passive for a few seconds. This passive increases your size of your champion, gives you extra 25% more base attack damage, and gives you a shield for 30% of your max health which rapidly decays.

Finally, we look at 4 items to build lastly on Darius.These are Frozen HeartFrozen Heart, Guardian Angel Guardian Angel, Zz'Rot Portal Zz'Rot Portal and lastly Banshee's VeilBanshee's Veil. Always go for Frozen Heart, this is very good late game. This is because of the passive of this item, which decreases 15% of all enemy champions within a medium sized range. This means AD carries and champions with high attack speed for example TryndamereTryndamere or Master YiMaster Yi get their attack speed reduces, which means they have more damage per second. It also gives you 400 extra mana so you can spam your abilities, 90 armor which is a lot for one item and lastly 20% cool down reduction so you can spam your abilities even faster and have more damage per second. Frozen heart is what I usually get late game.

If you feel that Frozen HeartFrozen Heart wont be effective against the enemy team comp, for example they have champions like JhinJhin which doesn't scale with a lot of attack speed or have no auto attacking champions, then you can get 3 other items. If you want to push lanes faster and have extra armor and magic resist, I suggest getting Zz'Rot PortalZz'Rot Portal, or if you want to stay alive longer in team fights because of more armor and magic resist and have a second life, I suggest buying Guardian AngelGuardian Angel. And lastly if you want more magic resist,health and a shield which will block one ability, then you should buy Banshee's VeilBanshee's Veil.

Next, I tell you which spells are best for Darius and why I use them.

We start off with my favorite spells, which are FlashFlash and TeleportTeleport. Flash can help you with many things, for example getting close enough to an enemy champions so you can then use your E on them, running away from champions so that they don't get a kill and you don't get a death, flashing over walls for example the Baron or Drake wall to either escape or fight/steal Drake/Baron and finally dodging skill shots for example hard CC like roots and stuns. Teleport is very useful late game and early game, for example to get to lane faster to def a turret, or teleport to ward to gank a lane, or even maybe to join into a team fight very quickly.

In my opinion there are 2 more viable options for Darius. One of them is IgniteIgnite and the other one being GhostGhost. Ignite helps with champions who have a lot of healing or to finish a champion off early/late game. Ghost can help chasing or escaping from champions which is more effective than flash, however there is one downside from this which is you cant flash over walls.

Early game is from level 1 up to 20 minutes. This is the part where you want to try the most, and to also get the most kills. Early game Darius is good at getting fed and snowballing hard, therefore the start is most important if you assume your game is not going to last very long.

At level 1, you want to start Q and go to lane. Try to last hit with only your auto attacks, and if the enemy champion is about half way or more down the wave, you can start auto attacking it and apply your stacks. The enemy if at lower elo's will most likely try to fight you,so that is good for as you will most likely win the 1v1. However at high elo's most players will run away instead of fighting Darius.If they decide to run away, try to move and attack attack them. If they are at 4 or 5 stacks,keep on chasing and use your q at the end to make them either have 5 stacks or deal extra damage. Most likely they will then bleed to death,use their flash, or get killed by your final Q. If they do not die and you are certain one more attack will finish them off, you can start your q and flash to finish them off with your q. Make sure to hit the enemy laner with your outer part of q, because it will increase the duration of your stacks and deal more damage.

If you are not successful at killing your laner at level 1,you can wait until 2 or 3 depending if they have backed off to their fountain or stayed. If they stayed, they will most likely try to stay behind minions to try to heal up. You then want to wait until level 2 and take E and MUST have flash up for this to work,or a low elo player. You want to use the combo Flash,E,AA and then q to usually kill them. If you still didn't kill the enemy laner and they have backed off, make sure to go back to base as well to buy what ever you need.

Level 3-6 you want to farm and keep maxing your q. At this stage the enemy might be able to kill you with their full combo,for example a RivenRiven with her Q,W and E so just farm until level 6. At level you, you can most likely engage and finish your laner off with your R.

Later on until about 20 minutes, you just want to continue doing what you have been doing since level 6 and farming up minions.

Mid game is from 20 minutes up to around 30/35 minutes. This will mostly be team fights and trying to get Baron. If you are a good Darius and is 5/0/0 or higher, you will mostly like not get to this part because the enemy will ff at 20, however if they feel confident and fight then you will most likely get their Nexus if you are fed. If everything fails,it will come down to team fights. Darius will most likely not be able to 1v5 the enemy team because of the CC they might have,however you want to focus on staying with your team and securing Drakes/Barons. Darius is a very greedy champ for kills,so when an enemy is low, you want to finish them off with your R. This is very useful in team fights,because most likely having one champion dead because of your R will make you kill the rest of the team with R.You also want to push lanes and MAKE SURE to ward bushes.

Late Game is usually from 40 minutes onwards,where everyone has full build and it just comes to tactics to win team fights. You as Darius have two jobs, which are to tank for your team, and get kills with your R to make it reset and grant you Noxian Might. Make sure your team has an engage champ like Malphite or Amumu,as Darius has only his E for engage. Try to focus down carries and then you will win your game. Make sure to also protect your carry as much as possible by getting champs away the carry with your E.

In this section, I will tell you all the combos that I know of, how to use them and when to use them.

1v1 Combo = Apprehend,AA, Crippling Strike, Decimate,AA,AA, Noxian Guillotine

1v2 Combo = Apprehend,AA, Crippling Strike, Decimate,AA,AA, Noxian Guillotine, Noxian Guillotine

Chasing A Champion = Decimate on minion for speed boost, Apprehend,AA, Crippling Strike

Auto Attack Reset/Taking down turrets = AA,then instantly Crippling Strike

Fast 3 Stacks = Apprehend,AA, Crippling Strike, Decimate

Healing Off A Lot Of Enemies = Apprehend, Decimate

(WORK IN PROGRESS)

In This Section I will explain what to do for each match up and what to watch out for against other champions from easy match ups to harder match ups.

Easy Matchups

Sion. Sion can not out damage you,so you are free to fight him until he gets sore tanky items. Make sure to dodge his Q and E, as well as watch out for his W shield. Your E cannot stop his R,so just keep that in mind when fighting him. Also his passive is the reason why you will not get an R reset off when killing him with R so try to just kill him with abilities. You can however get an R reset when you kill him using R in his passive form.Also his passive form only lasts for a few seconds,so you can try to run away from him as he will lose a lot of health each second and eventually die.

Mordekaiser. Mordekaiser as well as Sion will not out damage you. Try to build Magic Resist against him because he mostly deals Magic Damage. Make sure not to die by his R,which makes a clone of you for the enemy team which can only auto attack. Overall you don't have to worry about Mordekaiser.

Aatrox. Aatrox is a bit different from Mordekaiser,because he has a lot of sustain from his W passive and deal extra damage when having his W on. Same as Sion, he can revive himself with his passive, but instead of being alive for a few seconds like Sion, he can use all his abilities, so try to finish him off with abilities instead of R unless he has no passive. He most likely will out damage you with his R,however you can easily heal using your Q and and kill him. His E is very easy to dodge and predict so it is useless for him, however his Q is like a flash,that you can cancel using your E. Overall he is a bit harder than the champs above.

Singed. Singed is very easy to kill if you only follow one rule, which is to NEVER follow his poison. It is like intentionally walking into a skill shot,which you never want to do. Try to just poke him instead of chasing him to kill.

Poppy. Poppy has a kit which is perfect for killing tanks,with a lot of cc. Her main damage output is her Q,however that is easily denied by walking out of her second Q blast. Take care to not go near walls because of her E stun,her W is useless against you, and always try to step on her shield to not give it to her. Her R is very useful in team fights,as she can fling you back towards your fountain and it will be a 4v5 fight. Her R is hard to predict, but is still possible to do so.

Shen. Shen's kit is what Darius wants,which is taunting. He can never out damage you so he is an easy kill. The only thing he is good at,is shielding his team mates with R and teleporting to them. This teleport can however be cancelled by using your E.

Medium Matchups

Dr. Mundo. He has poke with his Q,which can really do some damage if it hits you. Try to stay behind minions to avoid his Q. He most likely wont out damage you early game, but when he has R, he can just heal all of the damage you will do to him, and then the fight will be in his favour. Try to heal as much against him to win.

Cho'Gath. Cho'gath has a similar R to your R,however he doesn't need any stacks to deal damage. Try to dodge his Q and watch out if he has stacks on his R.
His Silence can really reduce the damage you deal to him for a few seconds,and maybe even kill you so auto attack him during silence.

Ekko. Ekko has a lot of poke,a shield, and an ability to quickly dash a small distance,as well as an R which heals him and deals damage. In this matchup you want to take care and dodge his Q at all costs,as this will most likely be his main damage output. His passive if he gets a few stacks,makes you take magic damage and it gives him movement speed so help him escape your damage. Try to dodge his W because he will stun you if you are inside the zone. Make sure to kill him before he uses his R.

Garen. Reworked Garen has a similar kit to yours,where he gets extra armor penetration with his E. His Q is a silence which is similar to Cho'Gath,as then Garen can out damage you. Try to never be at around 15% HP when fighting him because he can R and kill you. Never use R on him while his W is up, as this will decrease your damage. Try to always fight Garen when his E is on cool down,as he has more DPS than you if his E is up.

Gnar. Gnar is a tough match up the enemy laner is skilled. Gnar has a lot of poke,which can really hurt you. Try to dodge his Q and never let him get 3 stacks of his passive on you. Chasing Gnar will be a lot harder,because he can easily get away by jumping away. His passive however,makes him force him to either use Q or jump on you,which then you will out damage him because he in a close range. A tip for this match up,is that when Gnar auto attacks you in his small form, you need to step a bit closer and use your E to pull him towards you. He will most likely use E to jump out, but you have probably used your W on him to slow him down,making him easy to catch up to.

Irelia. Irelia has a great kit to poke you and disengage. She also has a stun and a ranged R,which means she can poke you for days and run away. Always try to be close to her and use your E,auto attack and W on her to slow her so that when she stuns you,you can catch up to her and finish her off. Overall she cannot out damage but can trade effectively.

Jax. Jax is similar to Irelia,where has a stun,however he also grants immunity to your auto attack when his E is up. Try to never fight when he doesn't have his E up. His Q allows him to get out of your damage,so he has a great escape. If he has a smart Jax, he will just farm the lane out and destroy you late game.

Rumble. Rumble is very weak early game,so make this your advantage. Try to not fight him when he has 50% heat up,as all of his abilities except from his R will deal extra damage. Rush Mercury Treads against this match up,to catch up to him and make him deal less damage. Never stand in his ultimate as it deals crazy damage each second you stand in it.He however cannot out damage you in a close engagement,and has a weak escape which is his movement speed from his W and also a shield.

(WORK IN PROGRESS)