So let's check out what's really going on for our hairy chimpanzee

PROS

+mid game monster
+pretty tanky thanks to q heals
+lane dominance thanks to his kit,few counters
+easy to pick up
+good itemization
+insane dmg output for an off-tank
+True dmg from ult
+passive can secure kills 90% of times
+truly a badass
+Built in armpen on E

CONS

-people will flat out trashtalk you for playing Darius lul
-easily prone to getting kited
-late game is not the best
-kit lacks mobility
-vulnerable to poke

Darius thrives throughout the early to mid levels, his damage output is absurd when you stack the passive which we'll get into detail in the next chapter,and what I literally mean is you only have a black cleaver on you but you're dealing damage equal to that of an adc,kek.Other things that are so great is the fact that if you snowball hard enough you could literally be considered a demigod,but yea always know your limitations cuz you can easily get carried away by thinking you're a god,other things worth noting is the pretty good itemization we have.Laning with Darius is pretty straightforward,vs melee comps you'll definitely have no troubles trading the right way,vs ranged it is important that get some of those early def items we'll be discussing later,the most important thing is to value your E as it can serve to secure kills or be used a cc tool, either for proccing colossus or reposition your opponent for you to land q.Either way we'll be diving into his abilities deeper in the next chapter.

Alright lets start off with the most basic trash in the entire flippin' world,runes.
Okay,so since Darius pretty much scales off of only ad, these ad marks are pretty much the only marks in the entire rooster that he'll be needing,nothing else. Since we're going for a balanced build,and since Darius is meant to be a tanky mofoso,flat armor seals are gonna fill the spot just fine,helps massively in the early game against ad based champs. Normally most people would go for a scaling type glyphs,but if we're being real here,runes are here to help you through the early game,so for as far as I'm concerned,flat MR glyphs would help us out in the early just fine. Interestingly enough, you'd be wondering why not ad quints aswell?Oh my sweet summer child, we need these AS quints to help us aa faster while at the same time apply that glorious passive that Darius has,thus AS quints are a must.

Lets check out MASTERIES

The COLOSSAL douchebag

Okay, so basically in season 7 we've been introduced to this new juicy mastery called Courage of the Colossus and I'm gonna tell you right now even after the nerfs it's APE**** BUSTED.No seriously, let's clarify a few things before we actually analyse the keystone itself.

We took sorcery primarily for the reason because we already took 3x AS quints, therefore that way we already have enough AS for throughout the game, and taking more attack speed wont neccesarily be as useful as that extra 2% dmg on all of our abilities that sorcery offers.

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Now here it is actually pretty debatable on what to take,you can try being very offensive and go for Fresh blood or in poke heavy lanes you can usually go for Feast for that extra sustain in lane,your choice.Expose weakness is one of those masteries you'd take on full tank champs that are very team cooperation oriented.

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You get that slight extra dmg boost on natural talent although my personal preference is vampirism due to extra innate sustain in lane, especially when coupled with doran's blade ,it is,again, your choice.

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Battle trance would be the to-go in pretty much any scenario,and for a good reason. You're meant to be a flippin' tank that thrives in prolonged fights, not an assassin who's just gonna show up randomly out of a bush and instadeleting caityln with your E-peniz,so double edged sword is out of the question unless you're willing to suck up those 2.5% extra bietchslapz while in the match.Next up bounty hunter is a preference if you're convinced you'll be killing all five members of the enemy team in a small time period effectively denying yourself the dmg boost you would have in every stage of the game from .The reason I roll with this mastery is simply due to the fact that I have already clarified that we're a tank that thrives in prolonged battles meaning as we fight we will naturally get that extra 5% dmg boost in every stage of the game we otherwise wouldn't get with the bounty hunter right off the bat.


If you're anything like me,then you probably wanna be able to take as much punches as possible in every stage of the game while still being able to gasp for air,most case scenarios I'd go for unyielding because its a better addition for late game than recovery,bcuz lets be honest,we're playing the manliest chimp on the league rooster,we need to be able to sustain ourselves via that kevlar armor that we're wearing, instead of being a recovery ***** for early levels.We are after all, an frontliner for our team, the morale booster,the nba basketball team leader.Real talk though,its preference.

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Explorer is a jungling item from what we're seeing here so let's just get that outta the way right now,real talk I've been conflicted myself about what to take,trading-wise tough skin will help get around the occassional minion poke you'd suck during the laning phase,whilst siegemaster is awesome in diving scrubs like there is no tommorow,it's preference between the two.

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Among the more prestigious Darius mains this 2 masteries are arguably the most debatable thing in this tree,I mean seriously, veteran's scars are straight up awesome to have in the early game for that juicy tankiness,on the other hand you have those extra 8% heals on your q coupled with visage + other heals throughout the game,really a matter of preference although I find myself rolling with both equally.

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The most common mastery you'd see tanks rolling with nowadays would probably be fearless,though I'd say you should go fearless if you're planning on literally getting as tanky af,otherwise for a more spammable summoner spells insight would be real good.Yet again,preference.

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Swiftness is the to-go mastery if you'd ask me,I mean cmon, I've seen people that literally go resolve tree just to get their hands on this juicy addition,we're excluding legendary guardian because let's not forget,we want to be able to sustain as much as possible while trying to carry that our phat team.

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There it is lads,the colossus, in all of its glory,serious talk though,colossus got slightly nerfed because it was a pretty busted keystone but honestly,it's still pretty neat for trading and late game,I mean just imagine pulling some1 while the entire enemy team is in pressence and you get a shield that scales off your hp?Grasp was the to-go mastery for a long time but now ladies and gents, theres a new sheriff in town.

Next up the a bit less popular STORMRAIDER douchebag

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Now heres the speedy Gonzales keystone I also like to take in certain scenarios, the speed boost is pretty neat for every type of situation,and it definitely helps being sticky in lategame,apart from,other reasons to take surge over colossus is the sheer amount of other utility this tree provides,inclucing that jiucy dangerous game,yes truly a life saver,apart from that generally you gain utility over survivability,so lets break the cunning tree down,as we already covered the other 2 trees,

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Up here I see myself taking savegery most of the times as it helps pushing waves faster,wanderer is something you would take if you're looking to roam alot throughout the map,problem is you lose the speed boost when in combat so at that point it gets useless.

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Next up here runic affinity is literally a jungler item so let's just get that outta the way really quickly,secret stash is pretty NEAT for extra sustain in lane however if you're looking for kill pressure in the early game when u're solo most of the time,assassin would be the to-go mastery in that case,so basically preference between the 2.

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Merciless is most of the times the mastery anyone would take,and for a good reason,if someone is low on hp and you're quite desperate for the kill merciless is your best frienderino,literally increasing every damage source to the target with below 40% hp,meditation is a support mastery but honestly if you're struggling with mana I don't see why you shouldn't take meditation either x)

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Alright,serious talk,there is no way in any time of parallel universe why we would take anything over dangerous game, this mastery is a LIFESAVERand for a pretty good reason,you're finding yourself in 1v2 or 1v3 and you manage to dunk 1 of them,imagine how usefull that extra 5%hp addition would help you in those scenarios,literally the to-go mastery,Nuff' said.

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Precision is something you wanna take on assassin type champions,although if you want some extra kill potential I don't see why not,though intelligence provides extra 5% CD reduction right off the start of the match,basically more spammable abilities which I find myself using 95% of the time,it's preference in this case although my cards are on the intelligence.

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Okay so thunderlords is another assassin-type keystone which I think we can all agree on is not something you'd wanna build on tank-based champs,now real reason why we're here,the SURGE,bask in it,in all of it's glory...This keystone can help us be sticky to anyone,or even help us escape,now we can even couple this with a for extra gonzales pressure but honestly I find myself rolling with surge solo.This is definitely a pretty neat keystone that can fit most situations really well.

K so,in this section i'll specifically cover all of the most important items that you should run on Darius,those that you should get when you're ahead,those that you should get when you're behind,stuff that's awesome for cheesing (being a douchebag,esentially) and some other important notes worth mentioning.

Starting items

Depending on whether you're facing off a poke heavy champion like quinn,gp,yasuo,ryze you should take a Doran's shield / cloth armor with 4x pots or if you're facing off a tank that you're gonna be bullying doran's blade is the way to go,is most type scenarios you should always look to finish the notorius black cleaver.


There it is,the pride of any ad based champion,the #1 item that any1 with even a slight little bit of brain cells should buy,although heres the problem,maybe you're just not doing so well,maybe you're getting poked down like a whimp and have no chances of facing off your opponent because hes way to bursty for you,then lads,then comes the part where I'm gonna explain to you how to cheese early so you'll literally always guranteed to win lane,are you ready?Key fact is, build tanky early and save black cleaver for later,yep,details are as follows: you're facing off a yasuo and you're kinda sucking his q's while trying to snitch that precious cs,the idea is that rushing a potential ninja tabi will drastically increase your sustain , decrease his damage, and add some extra utility (speed) to your kit,and thankfully darius has pretty awesome dmg even without BC in the early levels,at this point you can rush a randuin omen so you can increase the cheese even more while losing some dmg.I've done this on multiple occasions,specifically in matchups like quinn where u're pretty hopeless and very prone to poke,an early omen / tabi literally negated her so much that I was practically unkillable while still dealing dmg,same goes for ap opponents where you might even wanna rush an early visage against a rumble if u're having troubles.

Bottom line lets break these items through.

Darius does have some pretty nice good to know combos for starters,lets dive right in.


It is important to note that you have a small time period when you pull the enemy player to land an auto right before going w - q:

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This combo revolves around bigger trades,its always important to aa as much as you can while animation canceling with w

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this combo revolves around apprehend followed by an all in

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Important notes: at sticky situations dont hesitate to ult before finishing your passive,remember your ult also give one stack meaning if you ult while your target has 4 stacks you'll ding 5 stacks and watch your target bleed to death.

All in all, thank you for being here,this is my first bbcode guide so it's not all sunshine and rainbows,hope you learned new things about darius and how he works,and how to build him.