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Darius Build Guide by GnomeChild

AD Offtank Darius Ultimate Guide: In-Depth Guide (Season 6)

AD Offtank Darius Ultimate Guide: In-Depth Guide (Season 6)

Updated on June 29, 2016
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League of Legends Build Guide Author GnomeChild Build Guide By GnomeChild 230,818 Views 6 Comments
230,818 Views 6 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author GnomeChild Darius Build Guide By GnomeChild Updated on June 29, 2016
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Darius
    Standard Darius (Recommended)
  • LoL Champion: Darius
    Old School Darius




Table of Contents









Darius - the Hand of Noxus
Bruiser and Tank

Cost: 4800 IP or 880 RP
Roles: Top
Speciality: Pentas
About the Rework: Darius is so different, he needs to be with his team to win instead of killing everything. Darius lost early game damage to scales more in team fights and late-game, but he needs to be with his team. He can't split alone as he lost his dueling potential compared to the old Darius. Darius is also more immobile due to not gaining speed per champion bleeding. But his passive is more strong. His attack speed slow being removed, this really sucks. The Q is more strong even with delay, you get used to it. This is why i made the Old School Darius Build, is the not the same thing, but is fun to play.










Pros

+ Best ult in-game.
+ Tons of Damage.
+ Easy Lane.
Cons
- Poor Late-Game.
- No Mobility.
- Selfish Champion.

The problem with Darius has always been his low mobility. But, he does have some great upsides too. His damage is amazing, no doubt, and in most cases Darius will be a constant problem for the enemy team. It´s very common to see a team suddenly running from a fight after Darius gets just one kill with his ult. Why does this happen? Because they are scared of Darius, and rightly so. If he gets a kill at the beginning of a fight, man… the enemy team is soooo dead. Even if he isn’t building AD, true damage is still true damage. He have a amazing snowball potential, Darius is made to deal damage and kill enemies.

Darius has a few difficult lanes, of course, everything depends on the player, but still, he is able to face almost every single b**ch in this game. And also, he isn’t a carry, or better, he is not a HARD carry. By this I mean that most of the time he is not going to be able to single handedly carry a sh*t team. ALWAYS stop before jumping into a fight and ask yourself, “Can I get away with a kill, and still survive”?

He is easily punished, dont miss your ult or any skill or you be useless in Team Fight. Also, he has a very hard time against mobile champions, champions like Lee Sin, Zed or LeBlanc can juke all your abilities.






Greater Mark
of Attack Damage 9X
Greater Seal
of Armor 9X
Greater Glyph of
Scaling Magic Resist 9X
Greater Quintessence
of Attack Damage 3X


Below I explain about what runes you should take as Darius, the rune options you get on Darius are limited in my option, so this is why i do not mention alternatives.



Mark of Attack Damage
The physical damage marks are the way to go. More damage in the early make you trade better, make your "Decimate Harras" do crazy damage with all that extra AD especially with how Darius's Q scales with total attack damage, and dont lie, last hitting is pretty hard


Seal of Armor
Flat armor are great and essential for Darius because they minimise damage taken from minions, jungle mobs, ADCs, Auto Attack poke, fighting bruisers and most importantly, they minimise damage taken from your opponent. What can be better?


Glyph of Scaling MR
Magic Resist is totally required against AP champs, and how Darius weakness in lane is poke, this champs for you to lane against will be ones like Ryze and Lissandra who will do a unreal damage for a spammable ability and be annoying in lane phase.


Quintessence of Attack Damage
In Early Game, your trade potential will be more stronger so this is why i take flat AD, this Quintessence helps your last-hitting and Darius scales really well with AD, you will hit like a unstoppable train. What can be better? XD


Some people think it’s better to grab Cooldown Reduction runes, but in my opinion, these here are great because they give you all of the stats you need. Like I said in the Runes notes, you can switch the Attack Damage Quints for Movement Speed, do what makes you more comfortable. You can do what you want, but i highly recommend this rune page.




We’ve talked about Runes, now it is time to get into Masteries.



These are specialized bonuses that let you customize your champion's stats. Masteries are organized into three trees, and adding points to a tree unlocks increasingly powerful masteries.
Resolve
Recovery

Health Regen is more useful in lane then Resistence since you wont be getting Armor or Magic Resistence on the begin of the match, trust me.Runic Armor

Runic armour is so ****ing good on Darius as your Q heals more. We do not need Veteran's Scars because Darius has a great base HP compared to other squishies top laners and he is very tank.Insight

You should take Insight because is really good have lower cooldowns on yours summoners spells, specially with Flash as that is the best spells in the game, the list of things you can do it is big. Teleport is also pretty good, because global presence is necessary for the win.Grasp of the Undying

Fantastic on Darius because this ability STEALS life in base of your maximum health. It deals Magic damage and the ability grants stacks for each time you take or deal damage in combat, each stack lasts 5 seconds and once you get 4 stacks your next attack with provide the health steal effect.

Ferocity
Double Edged Sword

Double Edge Sword is the best choice. In the most of cases you aren't worried about sustain, you are worried about trades and kill the opponnent soon as possible. Now, if you are against a bully lane like Gnar you can swap for Feast as it gives sustain.
Vampirism

Vampirism is absolutely better than Natural Talent , Natural Talent gives an extra 15 ap at level 18, which is utterly useless and 10 ad at level 18. Natural Tallent gives a extra long sword at level 18. Really? While we can gain 2% life steal that will help to trade better and stay in lane for more time?



ALWAYS take flash, is necessary for engaging, disengaging, escaping, catching up to mobile champs, kiting, the list goes on and on. Top is essentially an island, so having a global presence is really scary for the enemy team to have to deal with. Teleport is also an amazing ganking tool. Most of the time, I don’t take ignite, but if you feel you need lane presence, or if ignite is gonna counter play your opponent, just take it.



Obs: Only read if you are new to Darius, they are really obvious for those who already know what Darius does.

Hemorrhage
Innate: Darius's basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 10 - 27 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) physical damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times for a maximum of 500% damage over the duration.

Upon applying full Hemorrhage stacks to an enemy champion or killing them with Noxian Guillotine, Darius gains Noxian Might for 5 seconds.

Noxian Might: Darius gains 40 - 200 (based on level) bonus attack damage and instantly applies full Hemorrhage stacks through his usual means.





Decimate
Active: Darius hefts his axe for 0.75 seconds, then swings it around himself, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies, doubled against enemies hit by the blade.

Darius heals for 12% missing health for each enemy champion hit by Decimate's blade, up to a maximum of 36% missing health. The hilt of Darius' axe will not apply Hemorrhage.



Tips: Don't walk away from your opponents all the time unless you know you will stay in range. If you use your Q to much you push the lane, because you dont have controll over the damage you do to the minions and what it hits you use it.



Crippling Strike
Active: Darius's next basic attack within 4 seconds gains bonus range, deals 40% AD bonus physical damage and slows the target by 90% for 1 second. If Crippling Strike kills its target it refunds 30 mana and half of its cooldown.

Crippling Strike resets Darius's autoattack timer.



Tips: When you want to use your W remeber to Auto Attack and then use it. You can use it to last hit, since the mana cost is completely refund if you kill. First Blood strategy: Take W fisrt, stand in brush, pop out at enemy laner, chop away until first blood, only its doesn't work with Trundle and Olaf, they level 1 its too strong for this.



Apprehend
Passive: Darius ignores a portion of his targets' armor.

Active: After a brief delay, Darius Airborne icon pulls in all enemies in front of him, slowing them by 40% for 1 second, and briefly grants Sight icon sight of the area around the pull.



Tips: Apprehend grabs whatever is in front of Darius, including minions and monsters. The only things he can not grab are obviously Dragon, Baron, or structures. However, even if a little pixel of the enemies arm or leg is in grab range, then they will be pulled towards Darius.



Noxian Guillotine

Active: Darius dashes to the target enemy champion and attempts to execute them, dealing true damage.

For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine's damage increases by 20%, up to 100% bonus damage.

「 Bonus Damage Per Stack: 20 / 40 / 60 (+ 15% bonus AD) 」

If Noxian Guillotine kills its target, Darius causes all nearby minions and monsters to flee in terror for 3 seconds and it can be recast within the next 20 seconds at no additional cost. At rank 3, Noxian Guillotine's cooldown resets completely. This can occur multiple times in succession.



Tips: If you start your ult animation, and then the enemie flash away, your ult will work, no matter how far away they are. Your ult doesn't have to be the final damage that gives the reset, there is about a 1 second window right after you ult that if you kill them in that time your ult will reset, the famous "Dubstep Ignite"

Remember. Ult will get you in auto attack range:
PS: Actually that video is not mine, the channel its calls "arti gvlns"





Good Comps for Darius
  • Your team is squishy
  • Enemy team has multiple immobile champions.
  • Extended team fights.


Bad Comps for Darius
  • Against poke champs.
  • Champs with lots of mobility.
  • Enemy team has a strong disengage.



What Darius needs on his team?

I really like on how Dyrus plays Darius, in which he rushes Black Cleaver and then goes Full Tank, maybe one Sterak's Gage or Titanic Hydra can be added, but he goes for Tank.

Darius will be a Front Line Tank in this Set Up, and will look for chances to get his Pull on a Carry to Delete. When not finding a Pull he'll simply use his Tank to keep standing, his Q to feed him Life Steal, while his Armor Pen will slowly eat Tanks. So keeping what you are trying to do... Stand as a Front Line and look for a Dive to Peel or a Carry to Catch... you know what you need around you.

Pretty simply, you need some CC to lock down Targets for you to get there. After all, you don't want to walk past the Front Line to Pull an ADC that Flashes away, and leaves you on the wrong side of the Ugly Stick.
Also AoE is your Friend, since you'll be landing some AoE with your Q, and with your Hydra if you go that route (or Sunfire Aegis, but less popular).

Also you WILL be focused, no matter how Tanky you are people see Darius and decide to try to delete him (with good reason, Burst Darius can delete anyone and Tank Darius can do insane Sustain Damage and Execute). So Shielding/Healing is very helpful.

So think of a blend of CC, AoE and Heal/Shield. You can achieve this in a variety of ways. Ziggs Mid gives more than enough AoE, while Sona can give Heals and Nautalis or Sejuani in the Jungle can provide plenty of CC (and AoE). Just being one example.
Another Champion he works well with is Sivir in a Run Down Comp. So just remember, CC, AoE, Heals/Shields are all good for you. A Shen to Ult on you as you Engage (though Defensive Darius really Counter Engages, and Dyrus does this amazingly well, even better than being Offensive). A Leona to start a CC Chain that you just wreck into. All kinds of things. The good thing about Darius is he can fit in a lot of different Comps.
-Chapter by KillerKell

GOOD NEWS: This meta is starting to bring champions without escapes, like Ashe, Twitch or Swain, which means he is extremely effective right now.







So, the Skill Sequence should be:



This is the standard skill path, max your ult whenever possible (really?) for most damage on the dunks.
Every pro Darius player knows to max E instead of W because Apprehend jacks up your armor penetration (3 second cd reduction per point, 5% armor pen per point), while maxing Crippling Strike will only gives 1 second cooldown reduction, especially if you are against a strong tank like Malphite.
Max W after anything else, does not exist alterantive skill order, which is great in my opinion.





Harass


Deny all that farm, dont let them to have any farm, but please, don't spam your abilities or you tend to push, in early game we dont want this because his jungler can make your match a hell.
Obviously Darius is not a ranged champ, but he still has Harass. Anytime an enemy is close enough, poke him with Decimate. Hopefully if you do this successfully multiple times you will either be able to kill him or force him to go back to base. It's very strong against no mobilty champion and gets them bleeding.



Death Combo


*Fury = auto attack

Sadly against ranged champion like Quinn you need to start the combo with E, this will be your all can do it as they will stand away from your Q harrass.
In most cases, if you use this combo correctly, your enemy will either die or be left with very little health. Just press R when you see the screen turn red, and poof they’re gone. This is really good against a champion without an escape. Use your W to autoattack reset, after AA and W, use your Q because is more diffucult to dogde due to the 90% slow.



Team Fight


Ult and kill steal in team fights since it will put you in blood rage. This is only for the first kill though. Once you have blood rage try to Q in a team fight to hit everyone with the blade and apply 5 stacks of bleed to everyone. Yeah, this means you'll end up taking all the kills, but it's also the optimal way to use Darius. This can be a little detrimental to the team overall, but it can't be helped.

All you need to do is get to the backline and kill the carries, however it can be really hard if the opposing team is at least competent enough to protect their carries. You should build according the enemy team.

Use your grab to keep people from fleeing - don't use it to simply because you want drag someone in range unless your team can follow it up, since they can easily flash away or use escapes otherwise. But, don't be afraid to flash, then hook carries.




Boots


Choose Mercury’s Treads against strong AP or CC. Ninja Tabi against strong AD team/champs like Fiora or Yasuo. And Boots of Swiftness if you are against a highly mobile enemy team.


OffTank Itens


Build it every single game, this item has everything a Darius needs, Damage, Health, Cooldown Reduction, Mobility, and most importantly A TOTAL OF 55% ARMOR PENETRATION. Hmm, I think Steraks works pretty well in Darius, the passive will save your life, but don’t buy this one too early, because of the AD increase of the passive. Its not the best item for Darius, but is acceptable. If you are gonna build this, be sure to couple it with a big health item.


Armor


Fantastic item, in most games you will be buying this. Every item that gives move speed is welcome for Darius. When in doubt, if you need armor in general this item here should be your first pick.
Unless you are facing a Tryndamere or Yasuo, don’t buy this as your second item. At this point in the game, people don’t have enough crit chance, even the ADC. Great item though in general for a mid-late game purchase.
This item is funny. It’s always nice to shred an enemy’s health without having to do a single thing. ADC´s are much stronger in Season 6, so this item can be more utilized now. Darius is also an easily kited champ, so this item is a big help.


Magic Resist


This item increases effectiveness of all sources of healing by 20%, including health regeneration, life steal and spell vamp. You know what that means? That´s right! More healing on our “Q”, Perfect! Look, this item is really nice, but you will probably only buy this if the enemy team has a SH*T TON of AP. Spirit Visage should be your go-to MR item.


Other Items


Works really well on Darius, but buy this only if you are ahead, it’s stats just don’t match up with it’s cost. As I stated previously, almost every item with movement speed is welcome on Darius, you can combo this with Dead Man's Plate Zz’Rot Portal is like having an ally split-pushing for you, and speeds up lane pushing/destroying turrets. Don’t put the portal too far back, because the voidspawns have a distance limit. Tricky decision, tricky decision… I think you should only buy Trinity Force if you are a very experienced Darius player. If you feel you are good enough, test it in Normal Games and see the results. However it has the exact same rage passive as Black Cleaver, so building both is generally not the best choice.

Hmmm... Sunfire Cape is more offensive than the others Armor Itens, since it deals magic damage, you can deal around 150 damage if you fight for a long time. It's more recommended for short games, if the game start getting more difficult swap to Randuin's Omen. I recommend if the opposing team have strong poke. Dont buy this if you are facing a lot of percent health damage. Now, if you're facing non-percent true damage like Olaf or Vel'Koz Warmog's will be more strong. Also, now gives 10% Cooldown Reduction. Very good for final item because you need at least 3000 HP for the passive works. If you are snowballing and against a heavy burst AP comp, its a very nice item. Is more offensive than Banshee's Veil for example. The spell vamp heal is good but is not even close to Spirit Visage. I reccomend buy Magic Resist items too since the shield from Maw scales with your total Magic Resist.





EASY

HAHA... easy. Illaoi is like Darius, but we do her job better. All she does is just doing damage, but she doesnt have any form of mobility or disengage, so kill her is not so difficult. This lane is simple, who kill first win.

MEDIUM

Skill Matchup. Dont miss a single Q on Early Game, or she can can destroy you. Buy Armor quickly as possible and then Phage, in this matchup you have to be careful on everything you do, punish her for every mistake.

HARD

The 1v1 God, he can destroy you once he hits 6 and 11, and can really outpower you in a direct 1v1 situation. Its hard to win, but still winnable, ask help for your jungle as soon as possible.




EASY

You outdamage her, she have almost no escapes,her W is useless for us and easily killed when catched out on early game. Stay away of the walls, ward brush and river, and you will be fine.

MEDIUM

Strong Early Game, safe harass, CC, avoid trade with him before level 6. Feel free to harass him too, but be careful, he can jump on you when you try to Q avoiding avoiding half of you damage.

HARD

Be careful when you Q is down, or she can kill with all that true damage that she have. Really hard matchup, position is everything in this matchups, to smart trades, and when she tried to escape pull her back.




EASY

Harass, harass, harass. If he gets close immediately pull him close to you for a trade, he spend so much, so dont worry so much about. Its harder to kill the guy, but still a easy lane.

MEDIUM
He can kite you if plays well, a good Gnar can be a really problem, however you outdamage Mega Gnar, his range ist long, so isnt hard to pull him, if he doesnt have the jump when you Apprend him, certainly he is dead. Isnt actually hard as you might think.

IMPOSSIBLE

Not so much to do, stay in your tower and try to farm what you can, the best thing to do here is swap the lane. There is nothing worst than a Vayne Top vs Darius, ask for a three-man gank.



Before Minions
Before minions spawn, as the game is loading, think about how you're going to play in lane.
Look at their summoners and the junglers. Are you likely to get ganked early? Can you trade early?
Try to ward part of the river or the enemy jungle, and cover one of the entrances to your own jungle. It's impossible that the enemy can enter into your jungle without past an allied ward or champion. Look:





After Minions
You should usually ward the bushes around, pay attention when your team start spamming pings on you, probably the enemy jungler is close. I reccomend ward around 3:00 minutes of the game, as junglers will generally finish their first. However, if you are low HP maybe they gank you level 2, so be careful. REMEMBER:

BUY A WARD... SAVE A LIFE.
Wards are completely needed to Win Games. I know you already hear this a lot, but vision is key to victory. With wards, you can pickoff, prevent ambushes, and stop a back door.

Stop being so aggressive in lane, or you are pushed to the enemy tower, as Darius is a free kill, even if you have flash. If you are ganked and start losing your lane, start roaming or stay under tower and wait for the minions or gank. Suspected you are getting ganked? Run to tower or then call your jungle. But, if you're ahead you can kill both.
You need to read enemy movements, for example, if the enemy suddenly passes through minion wave, their jungler is there. This became more evident if the enemy pretends farm all game but then starts trading.

Trading
Darius has some of the strongest trading in the game, especially in long extended trades.
Use and abuse of Grasp of the Undying, you can maintain the "4 seconds in combat" requiremet as his bleed repeatedly keeps him in combat for 5 seconds after a single attack.
Few top laners can defeat a stacked Darius.

Use your Q for some quick harass and healing. Be careful against champions who can dodge your Q, it gives the enemy a 10-5 seconds window to fight you. If your Q hits, you can think in follow it up with your E.

Wave Control
Minions are really significant in trades, especially in early game. When you have more minions, engage him. If you use an autoattack on an enemy champion all nearby enemy creeps will going to start attack you, so, you need have more creeps for when you start All Win, the enemy take the aggro damage.
Ranged champions are a little bit different, if they attack you, in the most of times your minions will not reach the ranged champion. In some matchups like Nasus or Gangplank pushing it´s not the best choice as they can farm under tower and then out-sustain the harass, in that cases the best thing to do is freeze.

What is freezing a lane?
You keep the minions in the middle of your side of the lane and they stay there, this is pretty simple to do, just last hit minions when they only have almost nothing of HP left. This prevents your lane from being pushed and open to ganks. Also forces the enemy to overextend to farm, this is how you make Nasus´s life a living hell.



In mid game you should have at least Black Cleaver and Boots. This is, in my opinion, Darius´s Power Spike. In Mid Game you have three options.

Roam
Start been a global danger. Counterjungle the enemies is a really important thing to do, because they're going to lose farm if you push the lane. You should try to take all the enemy tower first line soon as possible. Be more aggresive.
Check the minimap every few seconds, as fights can start very quickly without you knowing and a late teleport can ruin a team fight.
Ward is even more important in this period of the match. Diving is very good, but you need to have sure it will be beneficial for your team.

Splitpushing
When you split you will keep putting on the pressure on the map. You should split push when you're ahead of your opponent, i pretty sure will attract people to top, this opens up objectives for your team like Towers, Dragon and Baron for example. Splitpushing should be done with teleport, as i say fights can start very quickly. Dont overextend.
What is Overextend?
Its when you moved your champion to a position when you lost your safety. For example, if they have people missing from the minimap and you desperately start pushing down one of their turrets, you are in a position when you are at extreme risk and it would be almost impossible to escape a gank.

TeamFighting and Late Game
In late game you need to spend less time on your own, and more and more with your teammates, as you are a Team Fight Monster. Darius actually does not fall off in Late Game. Communication is the key for a Late-Game Winning. Never go to Bot to push if Baron is alive, what you can do is when you take Bottom inhibitor go straight to Baron. In TeamFight after you get the first kill, you need try to get to the backline and Q them, this will put the passive in the squishies. For example:





GnomeChild
Thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide!

Special thanks to ButtahFingahs for helping me with the write.

And of course... Thank You.

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