Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Darius Build Guide by Lord Dunk

AD Offtank JOIN THE NBA TODAY [EXTRA! EXTRA!]

AD Offtank JOIN THE NBA TODAY [EXTRA! EXTRA!]

Updated on November 11, 2016
9.5
260
Votes
18
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author Lord Dunk Build Guide By Lord Dunk 260 18 8,249,791 Views 292 Comments
260 18 8,249,791 Views 292 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Lord Dunk Darius Build Guide By Lord Dunk Updated on November 11, 2016
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Darius
    Michael Jordan 3.3
  • LoL Champion: Darius
    Kobe AKA Option 2
  • LoL Champion: Darius
    Lord Dunk's Dunkin' 1.2

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

PLEASE READERONI, THERE'S PEPPERONI

Did I mention I like you people?



2016 has hit us up. I've missed my chance on christmas, so atleast I'm going to take it up right now - I want to thank you.

Well, that doesn't sound right yet.



I want to thank every single one of you.

The ones who have voted, the ones who have commented, the ones who have PM'd me, the ones who sent me their match results, and every single person that has viewed, is and will be viewing this guide in the future.

This guide meeting with success is something absolutely incredible for me. The feeling you get from an accomplishment even as little as this is quite nice, especially when coupled with the knowledge that I'm helping the readers improve their gameplay.

Since the guides first release on the 24th of october 2014 many-a-things have changed, and that has been reflected in the guide with a multitude of different tweaks and updates I've injected into this pile of text and information, be it undocumented in the last section or not. All of that has happened only because of constructive criticism I've received from the mobafire community.

AS A THANK YOU TO THE COMMUNITY, I WILL TRY TO STREAM FROM TIME TO TIME, SO FOLLOW MY TWITCH TO STAY UP TO DATE ON MY TRIFORCE SPICY DARIUS


MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL


MY TWITCH CHANNEL

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Kthanks, read on.[/center]
Back to Top

What is this? Who are you?

the quintessence of who I am is in this video

I'm Lord Dunk and I main Darius since his release. I play on EUNE and my summoner name is: Lord Dunk (add me if you want, bongos). Ye.



What, you want more? Fine.

So, I'm Jacob, more often referred to as "the guy who plays Darius all the time". Ever since his release, I've probably accumulated around a thousand games with him, both normal and ranked matches. I like to think of myself as a rather competent Darius, and the people I play with seem to agree with that.

Why should I care about this guide?

It was probably always your goal to slamdunk every single top lane opponent you faced. You probably tried multiple champions and never found your favourite. Because of this, let me tell you right now:

If you're the type of top laner that enjoys making manly plays, is not afraid of going in and would rather die 1v5 than retreat, then:

PLAY DARIUS

Now that the weaklings, 8 year old girls and Demacians left, we may begin.

Back to Top

Let's Watch Videos.

THE SEASON-END CLASSIC


Directed by: some guy off the street I paid 2 dollars



LORD DUNK CLAPS INFERIOR PLAYERS


Directed by: Tetris



COCAINE SPRINKLED DARIUS


Directed by: Lenin



LORD DUNK CURES ERECTILE DISFUNCTION


Directed by: Papa John



NOXUS TILT OVERDRIVE


Directed by: The Pope



NEW SPICY DARIUS BUILD?


Directed by: Hagrid



TRIFORCE DARIUS (GONE SEXUAL)


Directed by: Stan Lee



TILTED DARIUS MASSACRE


Directed by: Me, you dum-dum, who else?



Summoners Rift Pimpin'


Directed by: Snoop Dogg



I love it, dude


Directed by: Adolf Hitler



F*ck.


Directed by: Satan

Back to Top

Darius' Strenghts and Weaknesses

Now, let me elaborate on these.

UPSIDES

Manly as hell: there is something magical about seeing Darius on the battlefield. No matter how much you hate the champion/player, it's still kind of cool to see him rumble through the enemy team and get a triple kill while spamming his laugh with CTRL 4. When he doesn't fight, he's not afraid to taunt the enemy by waving his axe infront of the opposition while threathing their lives and insulting their capabilities.

Besides, he's the best basketball player in the whole damned league, SHOW SOME RESPECT!


Obnoxius damage: it isn't a secret that the damage Darius can output is... spectacular. It's nothing uncommon when a 0/3 Dunkmaster suddenly starts pulling doublekills left and right. Even without any offensive items, you can not ignore his presence, because he WILL turn you to shreds. Damage on his passive combined with free AD, physical damage on Q, W and autoattacks, and true damage on his R - that's a lethal combination, in the right hands that is.

Innately tanky: there's no arguing with this one. He's not exactly Jax, you know, but he won't roll over and die when the wind blows too hard like your average midlaner. His base values are above average, and if you add defensive items into the build, you'll truly be one tough nut to crack.

Flexible build: you could argue the case that it's exactly the opposite of that, but hear me out. The way I build Darius gives you a lot of options to switch things around. You could start Doran's, cloth, or even longsword.All common defensive items are viable on Darius, so you've room here too. Heck, even all of the boot choices are acceptable on him! That's quite some space to manouver around, isn't it?

Insane cleanup: why should it matter that you're late to the fight, when you've got the power of Noxus on your side?. Why should it matter that you're two against four, when you're the incarnate of Michael Jordan? MAN UP, SONNY, YOU'RE GOING IN! Another one bites the dust, and another one down, and another one down... And another one bites the dust! Your Q deals glorious damage, your W is a stacked Nasus Q, your E makes you want to scream "GET OVER HERE!" like scorpion and your R is a vacuum cleaner specialised in eradicating scrubs. Now that's cleanup!

Few challenging lanes: this one is simple. Out of all the champions in League of Legends, there are very few that can actually pose a threat your manliness. Suuure, it depends on the player, on weather conditions, on your mood, yadda yadda yadda... Actually, who cares, YOU'RE THE MOST BADASS CHAMPION IN THE LEAGUE AND NOBODY CAN MATCH YOUR BATTLE PROWESS, ARE WE CLEAR?!

DOWNSIDES


Too manly for you: half-serious, half-kidding with this one, but it's easy to get overwhelmed by the feeling of being a demigod in a game, and you may or may not forget that you're NOT immortal after all. Just think straight and make smart plays.

Not a hard carry: this isn't exactly a downside, you know? It isn't exactly the top laners job to carry the game harder than Atlas carries the Earth, although some people may want to go ahead and insult you because even though you're 10/3/5 and they're 3/5/4 you didn't manage to carry the game. Well, DUH! Most of you aren't Korean. None of you are Jesus. You won't be able to make miracles happen. Nobody can. If your whole team is bad and you're the only one managing to not, well, suck - then it's just the order of life that you're going to lose. Remember, you're a demigod, not a god.

Kind of low mobility: pay attention to the wording used here. KIND OF low mobility. The way I build Darius - getting an early phage, and, eventually, a black cleaver combined with dead man's plate, places you in the "Mobility Abound!" land. True, he does not have blinks, dashes or some weird whooshy-washy teleportongles, but it's okay. I mean, imagine if Darius had a blink - you'd be looking at the most broken champion in the game. You can't have everything - with manliness, damage, tankiness AND basketball prowess must come some sort of a downside.

Misunderstood: "You're kidding, right? This isn't a real downside, you idiot!". You see, it is. More often than I care to count my team would insult me saying that I'm supposed to do X and Y, but I don't. Sometimes, somebody bright will go ahead and call me a kill stealer because I decided to ult "his kill". If you're any good at Darius, you won't be kill stealing nor starving your team of gold. Some people laugh at me for saying this, but there is a very notable diffrence between a KS and a KS - kill stealing as opposed to kill securing. As I'm talking about ranked environment, EVERY kill your team gets is great news, no matter who gets it. Do not poke fun at Darius players, you'd be doing the same things if you were in our shoes.

Easy to play, hard to master: get your umbrellas, boys, a storm is about to unleash! Let me put it straight: ANYBODY can pick up Darius and do alright, but not EVERYBODY can utilize his kit to its fullest. That's the beauty of playing Darius. You can make your grandmother play him and she'll probably manage, but if you really want to become the main actor of "Space Jam" - there's practice ahead of you, and I mean it.

Is insulted often: this is something you just have to get used to, especially when you're mainly playing normal games. People WILL call you a moron, a bronzer, a killstealer, an idiot, they will advise you to kill yourself and they will say something about your mother from time to time. All of that will be done over the sound of their bones getting crushed under your noxian feet.


"Hold on, Honcho! The downsides of Darius you listed aren't, well... Downsides! Surely there must be a limit to his manliness and combat prowess that you're not telling us about?"

The answer is simple: he doesn't have too many real downsides.


Is being melee a downside? Is having to buy items a downside? Is forcing you to think about your plays a downside? THEY'RE NOT. While I will appreciate discussions with people who disagree with my thesis of Darius not having that many downsides, the tl;dr version is up there and I shall repeat it: he doesn't have that many downsides.
Back to Top

Let's talk Runes.

I do not feel like the topic of runes is a particularly interesting one, especially since the rune options you get on Darius are limited and they're very straight forward.
.
.
.
There's some very complex mathemathics behind my theory and I've spent countless hours coming up with this rune page, so take out your notepad and pencil, and start taking notes.
.
.
.
You're ready?
.
.
.
.
.
.

BOOM

LOOK AT THAT EXTREME MANLINESS AND DUNKING POWER


THIS IS THE BEST AND ONLY CORRECT DARIUS RUNEPAGE


THAT ONLY TRUE BASKETBALL PLAYERS ARE ALLOWED TO PICK


.
.
.

Oh, you're not quite THAT manly?


Fine.


Use this most-basic thing ever instead:

So, this is simple and plain, while remaining an affordable and acceptably efficient Darius runepage.
8,55 AD from 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
9 flat armour from 9x Greater Seal of Armor
27 magic resistance at level 18 from 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
And 6,75 extra AD from 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
Overall well rounded, giving you all of the stats you need - early AD to boost your damage and make your Decimate hurt like all hell, a tiny boost to your armor to help with early skirmishes, fairly classic scaling MR to give you some protection against the likes of Rumble or your typical enemy midlaner.
Nothing else to be said here - it's so standard.
.

TL;DR:


.
.
.

BUT


There is a runepage you SHOULD use if you're good enough at Darius:


Take a look, Bobby:

So, what's diffrent here?


Since Darius got reworked, early AD doesn't matter as much since our laning phase gets most of it's power either from favourable trades or extremely damaging all ins thanks to Noxian Might. The flat AD stays simply because there's not much else to put in this slot. I've experimented with armor penetration, although that doesn't seem to be as good of an idea I've originally thought. Extensive testing proved it to me.
We lost MS from our passive, so a single MS quint is the special blend of spice I'm using in order to catch up with certain more mobile junglers and toplaners.
It has been brought to my attention that multiple pro players use triple AS quintessences on Darius. I, however, believe that the choice is ultimately up to you. I myself tend to go in and out with either all 3 of AS quints or 2 AS + 1 MS quints depending on what I feel like.
I would highly advise this runepage towards players that already possess considerable game and champion knowledge.

TL;DR:


.
.
.

"Umm, this isn't a whole lot of information about runes, you know?


.
.
.

That's the point.


You're not going to be writing a masters degree about your runepage. Nobody is, nobody will. Runes are only something that gives you a slight boost to your capabilities.
It's not like I can give you a 30 pages long essay just on the topic of rune choices, going over why Gold per 5 would not make such a good choice for Darius, but I will spare you the read.
You can scroll down now and get to the other thingythongs about Darius, you know?
Go ahead Billy.
I ain't gonna stop you.
Back to Top

Let's talk Items.


"Last time I checked you were the prime minister of Longsword nation, so why change to dorans blade now?"

.
.
.
Because reasons.
.
Quite considerable time has passed since my last honest review of whatever the bong is going on down here with the items. Honestly, if you're expecting an elaborate and elongated answer to as of why I no longer think Long Sword should be your first item of choice, can't really give you that, as the reasoning is quite simple:
.
Things change, yo!
So, Long Sword builds into one of the new items introduced with season 5: Caulfield's Warhammer, which in conjunction with Phage get us Black Cleaver. There's also the Hexdrinker if you want it, but who gives a damn anymore.
Thing is, the meta has picked up in speed considerably; this accounts towards the following:
having a strong laning phase is primeval.
The dueling item of choice has been Doran's Blade since... Forever?
.
Long Sword and it's tier-1 upgrades are quite cheap compared to some other things available at similiar stages of the game. While starting with longsword itself will speed up the Phage purchase, Dorans Blade will almost certainly generate noticably more revenue for you to spend on further items than longsword solely due to how much more it allows you to do.

TL;DR: IS GONE WITH THE WIND

.
.
.

The new and better cloth armor start


Back in season 4 my opinion on starting with Cloth Armor and 5 potions was rather clear = in most cases - no. This has changed, however, as the Season 5 content patch has hit the live servers and this is no longer the case.
The weak point of old Cloth Armor was that basically the one and only thing you could build it into that would benefit Darius would be Ninja Tabi. They certainly DID serve their purpose (that being - anti AD), but limiting yourself to only being able to build into ONE iteam instead of the FOUR of Long Sword, I always percieved Long Sword superior.
As it stands, Cloth Armor is noticably better than it used to be and should be considered a starting item more often.
A Cloth Armor will build into either a Chain Vest or Ninja Tabi which is REALLY nice, as it makes Cloth Armor something that doesn't give you a sad face every time you have to start out with it.
In general, starting with Doran's Blade is the more valid pick in most of the situations you'll be putting yourself in, as it is a very noticable boost to your early offensive capabilities and speeds up your aggresive part of the build, although, depending on your playstyle, going Cloth Armor/pots is certainly a much more viable alternative, which should be considered against opponents with dangerous amounts of physical damage, or when you feel like going something like Phage into a Sunfire Aegis.

TL;DR: THE NEW IS A BETTAH

.
.
.

"What kind of ridiculous explainations will you come up with to justify your offensive items?"

.

The New Item Item!

Alright, time to reevaluate the hydra.
I was extremely hyped for this item, since it's baseline stats and passives were just too damn good to pass on pretty much any AD-scaling champion in the game. Yasuo's, Zed's would build it.
Since then much time has passed however. Things have settled down, and we're no longer being faced with a mishmash of wild ideas being put together into moderately successful solo-q streaks. The only champions we see building Titanic are champions that simply want on hit effects, eg.: Shyvana, Fiora, Irelia. Not Darius. Not Yasuo.
And, keeping in mind that it will receive a nerf in the near future (may have already received one at the time you're reading this) having it's base AD reduced, I'm not sure we'll see any more of either hydra being played on Darius.

TL;DR: IS THE NOT-GOOD-ENOUGH HYDRA

.
.
.

Ravenous Hydra

After the Darius rework, Ravenous Hydra isn't exactly championship material...
With the addition of Titanic Hydra, it's Ravenous brother is simply the worse of the bunch, especially since the new Darius enforces players to build tank on him, while still being somewhat rewarded with bloodrage. And Titanic Hydra is a tanky item for tanky people.
IF you DID NOT know, Ravenous Hydra isn't a tanky item for tanky people.
Just don't really consider this item no more.

TL;DR: HAS BEEN DETHROOONED

.
.
.

The new and better Lucian Cleaver


I've been monitoring this change for a while now.
Generally speaking, Black Cleaver is much more appealing to us nowadays, and makes our build even more flexible than it already is.
I've picked Black Cleaver enough times by now to know that it's straight up better than Trinity Force nowadays. Mostly.

It's 700 gold cheaper, Billy!



The fact that it now provides you with a better Phage effect and gives a VERY nice 20% cooldown reduction makes this item just so much more appealing.

It substitutes everything that we miss ever since we've ditched Triforce, and if that's not great, then I don't know what is.

But have we ditched Trinity Force for good, though?

Why did we need it substituted anyways? Well, let me tell you! Trinity Force isn't an item that suits the new Darius in the slightest, atleast not when it comes to the values we typically desire ATM. We're not as dynamic, we're not oompa-loompa'ish, basically - you're not you when you're hungry. And Black Cleaver has lotsa calories and nutritious values.

Keep in mind, though. Tri-Force, if used in an appropriate way, is still extremely potent on Darius. Refer to the 'My Way' build.

TL;DR: A DARIUS USING A IS A HAPPY DARIUS

.
.
.

Triforce components and Triforce in general

Triforce has been my go-to item for so dang long it feels odd to have to reevalute it negatively. And I mean, it's not that the item itself is bad, as it is quite the opposite: had we lived in a different world this item would still reign supreme and sit atop my build.
However, Darius has changed, the meta has changed, some items have changed, and generally just about everything has changed.
It pains me to say so but Trinity Force is an item that no longer really belongs on Darius.
In the current way both Darius and the expectations of juggernaut type champions are, building trinity force sets back the defensive side of the build significantly. So significantly in fact that you may not even get to building it.
Additionally, reworked Darius is not even half as dynamic as old Darius was. What this means is that the bit of attack speed and movement speed from Zeal, the Sheen passive and regular Phage passive are either not as useful or found elsewhere. For example, as substitution for Phage and Zeal, Black Cleaver steps in, allowing us to patch ourselves back up to our old passive standards of getting extra % MS based on how many targets we've had bleeding.
SO, DON'T GET SLEEPIN' ON ME YET, I'M ALMOST DONE WITH MY RANT!
If you're one of the old-school triforce lovers, there is maybe a single scenario I would ever consider getting triforce on Darius AS IT STANDS (may or may not change).
Against a Riven that matches you in skill; so basically against like 10% of Riven players.
And in these 10% of Riven-containing-games you'll ever be playing where the Riven does not infact have herpes or something, you'll only ever probably want Trinity Force 10% of the time.
Sooo... Basically, you'll be building it around 0.01% as often as you used to. And you used to build it every game.

HAH, I LIED, I'M NOT DONE!



If you were to build the way like I do in the "My Way" build, I consider Trinity Force a core item. "Why?" you may ask, and I shall answer: no item allows us to be quite as dynamic, quite as responsive as Trinity Force.

If you're one of these people that prefer to build more offense-heavy, consider dropping Black Cleaver in favour of Trinity Force, OR build both.

Yes, both.

Simply because the two passives kinda cancel eachother out is no reason to completely abandon the other one if you've already got one. Got Black Cleaver? Trinity is still going to provide you with some speed, beef and damage. Got Trinity Force? The Cleaver is going to give you health, some AD and an awesome armor shred. You can't go wrong buying both, unless you're playing against a team full of squish.

TL;DR: DOES NOT LIKE BEEFY JUGGERNAUTS, BUT Darius IS A LOVING FATHER

.
.
.

Hexdrinker and "The Maw"

I shall henceforth refer to Maw of Malmortius as "The Maw". It's shorter and sweeter.
So, these two items are extremely situational.
Since Long Sword start is something that I no longer consider as perfectly awesome and fine as it was, Hexdrinker and Maw of Malmortius are automatically enlisted in the same category of "Things that aren't particularly interesting".
For those of you with a memoryspan of a year of so, two things:
Firstly, dang, that's some good memory you've got, and secondly: there's even less of a reason to build The Maw.
If you were to follow my newly forged buildpath, you would notice that generally speaking mages shouldn't bother you that much for 2 main reasons.

a)If they focus you in an attempt to bring down the raidboss, it is rather likely that in the time they would manage to take you down to 30% health you would have already cut their head off
b)I mean think about it, man. THINK ABOUT IT! If you had to pick between pecking at a 3.5k health Darius and obliterating a 1.5k health Lucian what would you pick? I mean, think about it!

The way I see it, against teams with high amounts of magic damage, a combination of Mercury's Treads and Spirit Visage should be enough of a bad luck deterrent for one Darius player.

"But Jacob!" you may ask "What about them nasty, crispy full AP enemy teams that I will be facing in my solo queue endeavours???////???//1"

Two things:
- These kind of things never happen
- If the impossible happens, you'll win following the standard build and swapping one armor item for a Banshee's Veil.
Don't worry your precious, little head with Hexdrinker and Maw of Malmortius no more, Billy. There's better things around for the new Darius.

TL;DR: ARE LIKE THAT ONE UNCLE THAT LIKES CRACKING BAD JOKES EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS, DISAPPEARS FOR A YEAR AND THEN REPEATS THE PROCEDURE COMING NEXT CHRISTMAS!!!
Damn you, uncle.

.
.
.

WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BUILD THIS THING:



STAY AWAY FROM THIS ITEM AT ALL COST, NO MATTER WHAT.
IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH THE GOLD YOUR PUTTING INTO IT, SMELLS LIKE POOP AND DOES NOTHING TO IMPROVE YOUR MANLINESS.
For 3300 gold you're getting 30 AD, which is okay, but nothing to write home about. You know what you could be getting for 3300 gold that gives MORE damage? Titanic Hydra.
You're also getting 700 health. Mkay, it's something. Keep in mind, however, that health can be found elsewhere, cheaper and combined with more useful special text and stats. I'm looking at you, Dead Man's Plate.
Frozen Mallet's passive is just... underwhelming. There's a reason you never see anybody building it. It looks good on paper, but in practice - it does nothing for you, ESPECIALLY when the champion you're playing is Darius.
You have Apprehend. You have Crippling Strike. Hell, even Randuin's Omen active! Why, God, why would you ever need to purchase Frozen Mallet then? It's like dumping your cash in the trash! Darius already has great chase potential, he sticks to people thanks to his W and passive, and before you'll even get a good use out of the Mallet, your enemy should be dead! If you fail to murder your opponent without this item, then consider yourself a bad Darius player. I mean it.

TL;DR: SMELLS LIKE POOP, LOOKS LIKE POOP, IS POOP

.
.
.

"Well, makes enough sense, I suppose... So, what about them defensive items, yo?"

.

These two badboys

Both are good, both help you survive longer, and you can build both in the same match. But what the case seems to be most often in my games, I only choose one of them.
Sunfire Aegis is the cheaper of the two. Makes sense, as the stats are weaker compared to Randuin's Omen. The main diffrence is, however, that the Cape is better for shorter games, where you feel like you'll still need some extra beefines, but you'll ALSO want to spend extra pennies on offense. Sunfire Aegis is somewhat offensive on it's own, you know? The magic damage it deals can stack up to hundreds if you're fighting for long enough. If you're only doing mad all-ins like I am, however, then Sunfire Aegis will still prove useful to push lanes faster.
Randuin's Omen is more expensive, which is reflected in it's stats and somewhat more meaningful special text. It proves itself to be more useful in longer games, as opposed to the cape, thanks to it's active. If you've a random cloth armor in you inventory, you can either turn it into a Chain Vest and go for Sunfire Aegis or go for Randuin's Omen straight up. It slows the attack speed of your attackers, which paired with Crippling Strike, will drop their combat capabilities dramatically. The active will help you get to the ones that ran off once you murdered their buddies, as your Apprehend will not always be available.
It's essentially up to you which one will you choose to build, or even both if you want to. Both options are good, but keep in mind that Dead Man's Plate coupled with Sterak's Gage is going to usually come out on top.

TL;DR: BOTH ARE GOOD IN SOME WAY
MORE OFFENSIVE AND FOR SHORTER GAMES
MORE DEFENSIVE AND FOR LONGER GAMES
GENERALLY, GET STERAK'S + ONE OF THESE OR DEAD MAN'S


.
.
.

Nike's, Puma's and Yeezy's.

Boots are situational. It's the easiest way of putting it, and, really, the only meaningful thing that can be said.
Coming back to the topic of "Mercury's vs Tabi's": choose yourself. It depends on the enemy team composition, so there's no strict rule that works every time.
Keep in mind that getting Ninja Tabi emphasises getting a Spirit Visage a little tiny bit earlier than normal, alright Bobby?
Cool.


"Ayo mr Dunk! How about them swifty shoes of speedy-go!"

They're really good aswell, mostly because they will be available to you earlier due to their lower cost. % Slow reduction is... Okay I guess? It's not terribly awesome, tenacity is most certainly better. If you were to use the "My Way" approach to things, though:

BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS AND STORMRAIDERS SURGE STACKS! YES THEY DO!

Basically, if you were to play against a Nasus or Gangplank, they're going to be very, very, VERY sad to notice you buying these boots. Especiall if you're running stormraiders.

TL;DR: LOVE 'EM ALL, DON'T DO DRUGS

.
.
.

The speedy-tank-push-thing

Long story short: Zz'rot portal gives us two things:
-Nice tankiness
-Additional speed
AND THAT MAKES ME SOLD ON IT ALREADYYYYY
55 armor and 55 magic resist is usually going to be enough to make the enemy team rethink picking you as their main target.

The portal allows you to do an extra thing that you didn't have the luxury of before:
Generally, once you steamrolled your lane, you'd leave and then just get your lane pushed back.

SIKE, ZZ'ROT PORTAL!

Just lookin' at it, Zz'rot Portal isn't an item that should work out, but it somehow does. Every time I build it it ends up helping me more than I ever manage to notice. Still, though, I can't help myself but think that I'm building this item only because I'm me and I'm bored, so you may want to build something else.

Or be like me, and build it, and be a happy camper.
TL;DR: IT'LL MAKE YOU GO LIKE ZOOM-ZOOM, WHEN THEY HIT YOU, YOU'LL BE LIKE "HA HA, I'M IMMORTAL" AND YOUR LANE WILL BE LIKE "oh god please stop pushing"
.
.
.

The better and the good.

I'm sorry, Visage and Veil, but you were not created equal, atleast when it comes to judging it on Darius.
So, what do I mean by that? In most games purchasing both of them is pointless. Picking one of them, however, is a different thing entirely. And if you do plan on getting some of that magic impregnation going on, make it be Spirit Visage.

Basicaleyuuuuh, our Decimate heals us now. Yeah, it's quite nice. And the item that amplifies healing recieved in this League of Legends game thing would be Spirit Visage.
Uhh, I guess it makes sense, doesn't it?
Now for those concrete fact lovers out there:
THE BATTLE BETWEEN Spirit Visage AND Banshee's Veil
.
.
Umm, there really isn't any battle. Spirit Visage pretty much beats out Banshee's Veil outright on Darius. CDR coupled with the health, the MR and the amplified healing is just the perfect blend of spices to make regulard Darius'n'Cheese into a gourmet meal in a manner of seconds.
Veil is useful, however, under ONE condition:
You're getting REALLY heavily jammed on by an extremely caster heavy team.

TL;DR: YOUR VISAGE DEMANDS SOME SPIRITIN', OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND, WHATEVER

.
.
.

Gangplank's Speedybuff

How good is: Dead Man's Plate?
Turns out it's preeeeetty good!


Even after it's recent minor health nerf, it's still a nice item to be absolutely honest. It fills that half empty spot that's been left after they've changed up Randuin's Omen and it gives me that tingly feeling down below.
.
It's just so nice, you get it?
It gives you HEAPS of extra movement speed to catch up, a conditional, but quite reliable slow and extra damage, health and armor.

TL;DR: GANGPLANK KNOWS HOW TO DRESS

.
.
.

Big Guy Big Thing


I, myself, have always been opposed to buying this item. Never found it's effect particularily appealing, but turns out I've just been looking at it the wrong way.

It's nice. If not more than nice, but I am not able to give you a 100% unbiased opinion on why it may or may not be, as I am myself still not entirely convinced. The times I did see it in action made me think that perhaps I have misjudged the item.

Some time ago I've went on a happy little journey of mathematics and theorycrafting about the item in the comments, from which I've drawn the conclusion that Sterak's Gage is a smelly pile of poop, although - as written above - perhaps I've been wrong this whole time?

Basically, YES, I have indeed been wrong.

Measuring this item via the usage of cold, hard mathemathics proved faulty to say the least, as the REAL value of Sterak's Gage comes out in real in-game scenarios. Be it either because of the base AD boost that is far more potent than I've ever given it credit for, or the pure fact that we, humans, are faulty.

In the heat of dunkstruction BARELY ANYBODY considers your Sterak's going off as a variable to be considered during damage/skirmish calculations. It is only once they've noticed what monster their actions made you become they see the error of their ways.

And they die.
A lot.

TL;DR: WHO IS STERAK AND WHAT DOES HE DO

.
.
.

The Last Resort

The reasons I call it the "Last Resort" are rather simple:

a)It's likely to be the last item in your build
b)It's likely to be built in an attempt to carry the game
c)It's likely to be, well, your final shot at winning the game

The way you build yourself a Guardian Angel has always been awkward. Two items that cost 700 gold each, don't do much on their own and have to sit in your inventory for a looong time. Face the music - you're not buying GA for it's lackluster stats, you're buying it for it's passive. And it's going to cost.
With the recipe cost being a pretty staggering 1310 gold, it really is a big pain to build it, especially since in most cases you'll only have the space in your inventory for ONE of the components: be it Chain Vest or Negatron Cloak. That's bad news, you'll need to accumulate 2000 gold in your swiss bank account to get yourself the Guardian Angel. Still though, it's not so bad considering that you'll be fully built by the time you're building a GA, so accumulating the gold won't be THAT hard. The problem is, once the passive effect is used, it's put on a FIVE MINUTE COOLDOWN. During that period, you're stuck with an underwhelming item in your inventory. One option would be to replace it with Warmog's Armor during it's cooldown time, but for that to happen, you'd really need to be DEEP into the late game.

TL;DR: 40 MINUTES IN TWO LIVES ARE BETTER THAN ONE, BILLY

.
.
.

OTHER STUFF YOU CAN GET WITH YOUR BLOOD MONEY


Lucians Ultblade

Cause he builds this item

I gave this item a chance, and it quickly started growing on me, and then it started to fade just as quickly.
Do you know how quickly you could get up to somebody's face with alacrity, Dead Man's Plate and activated Youmuu's?

Pretty dang quickly.


BUTTHATSNOTTHEPOIIIIINT



Youmuu's Ghostblade has been changed in the preseason, however, rendering it FAR less attractive for both cleaver and triforce users alike. My reccomendation is switching it out for Death's Dance in your buildpath, or other damage amplifying item.

TL;DR: REST IN PEACE, YOUMUU'S DARIUS

.
.
.

Dunk Optimizer

Kind of

You knew this has to be in here.
You knew you'd read about IE.
You knew.
Nothing to say here, really. Get it when you're won the game already and just feel like buying a troll item, get it when you're playing normals, get it when you're just about having fun.
Trinity Force + Infinity Edge + Crippling Strike = Atomic Bomb, tho.
Basically, this item doesn't belong on Darius whatsoever. Unless you're 20/0, that is!
Besides, who's going to forbid you getting this? It's your life, Billy!

TL;DR: THY BE WORTHY IF THY BE 20/0

Back to Top

Let's talk Skills.

(Fenomenal Darius fanart by Kse332 on Deviantart)

Personally, I think that Darius has the perfect kit for destroying scrubs. If you're lazy, that's all you need to know, but since some of you will actually be reading this, I'll go more indepth.

So, here's what we're dealing with:

Cool icons, huh? Now, for the reading:


Hemorrhage

This has been reworked. It's still one of the better passives out there, but it's not like the number one beauty contest winner. It's a number two, still.
Stacks up to five, got nerfed so it no longer deals magic damage (WHICH MAKES SENSE BY THE WAY, WHY WOULD YOUR OPEN, BLEEDING VEINS DEAL MAGIC DAMAGE TO YOU, SEEMS PRETTY PHYSICAL TO ME), and it deals less damage overall.

Oooh, there's Noxian Might though.

a) Deals good domog.
b) The domog stocks.
c) If yoo get foiv stocks, you go supor daris.

Let me get some things straight: before you get 5 stacks, you're nothing.
You're just a sad little noxian soldier, little pansy boy boy bob.
But there will come a time
When Darius shall get 5 stacks
And it's that time
That caused RIOT to name
Olaf's R "Ragnarok"


At 5 stacks you will be granted so much AD that Riven's will stare at you with disbelief. This godlike power granted to you by the MBA Dunk Gods bestows the gift of insta bleed-carnage, which makes every cut you deliver make the enemy kosher within 2 seconds.

Noxian Might is so satisfying, that the nerfed hemmorhage is absolutely worth it. Once you get 5 stacks, you hear an epicly satisfying sound cue, and see before your eyes a blood-tinted screen. It's when that happens you know you're ready to destroy people.

TL;DR: HIS PASSIVE IS COOOOOL



Decimate

It's Michael Jordans Q ability, and it is GLORIOUS. Even if you were to skim-read what it does, you should be thinking to yourself: "Gee, that's some damage right there!" - you'd be correct. The most important things about Decimate that you need to know:

a) It scales well with AD
b) It does increased damage to champions in the outer ring of the ability
c) It has a hefty range
d) It has a very short cooldown and mana cost
e) It has a 0.75 sec wind-up time
d) Oh, it also heals if you hit an enemy champion with the blade of your Q

What's that mean? It's your poke, your sustained damage, your farm tool... It's a swiss knife, when you think about it. A swiss knife that will make your enemies cry out in all chat, begging you to stop mutilating them.

TL;DR: HIS Q IS GODLY


Crippling Strike

Imagine if a Siphoning Strike would also slow movement speed like Wither... Oh wait, it does! The name is Crippling Strike, though... Weird huh?

a) The damage it deals is pretty good
b) It slows MS so much the enemy will think they're lagging
c) It can crit
d) It can be used to cancel autoattacks
e) Scoring kills with it reduces it's CD
f) IT PROCS SHEEN, BROTHER, IT PROCS SHEEN!

Yeah, brother! You're playing Nasus minus all the boring farming, Q stacking and all that jazz, brother! Get out there and start murdering people with this godlike skill!

TL;DR: GUESS WHAT, HIS W IS OUTSTANDING


Apprehend

Thank god for this skill. Is your enemy laner too scared of you to take a step forward? Is he running away with his stupid blink/dash ability of choice every time you try to fight him? Worry no more! Apprehend is here!.

a) Sucks in kills like a black hole
b) Each rank gives you increased % armor penetration
c) The range is slightly larger than it seems
d) It slows by 40%! Yay!

Pull in the cowards, catch out the unwise, initiate fights and peel off of your carry. It does it all and so much more, buff stealing included. Even though it's biggest advantage, which was a bug at the same time, got removed, it was compensated by a huge slow. It's worse, but I mean, HOW CAN YOU BE MAD?

TL;DR: YEAH BOY, HIS E IS FUN

But wait... There's one more... The one and only...

The "Space Jam" theme starts playing in the background

THE SLAM DUNK


Noxian Guillotine

Now we're talking, Bobby! This skill is the definition of Noxus, Basketball and Dreamcrushing all at once. The moment you enter level 6, you're livin' the dream, friend, because your KD ratio will only grow and grow from this point onward.

Generally, the problem I've often had when getting ganked is that I usually ended up not having enough mana to re-dunk or just battle it out with the remaining opponent.


HEH WELL I GUESS THAT'S NO LONGER THE CASE


Now, you will never have a shortage of mana. Never. Never ever. Especially late game: you're Ryze, basically.


Oh, and the whole "On max rank, refunds the full cooldown on kill" thing? That's like whatever, honestly. It's nice, but it's not overwhelmingly nice, y'know?


LET ME THROW SOME FACTS AT YOU:

IT SCALES WITH AD!

IT DOES TRUE DAMAGE!

IT IS RECASTABLE FOR 20 SECONDS UPON KILL!

IT MAKES ENEMIES RAGEQUIT!

IT WILL MAKE YOU ROCK SOLID!

*NEW*RECASTS COST NO MANA!

*NEW*AT MAX RANK IT BASICALLY HAS NO COOLDOWN AND NO MANA COST!


I can not tell you enough how awesome this ultimate is. If you follow this build, You'll do anywhere from 900 to 1000 points of unblockable damage to up to 5 enemies in the lategame. Using this skill will make you happier on the inside and will be the fuel for many conversations amongst your friends. Example? "Eyyy, remember how I SLAMDUNKED that worthless Teemo that one time? Haha! Yeah, I do!"

With the use of complicated mathematics, I can conclude the following:

Using this ability will make you manlier than ever before. Even if you're a woman.

*NEW* Also, since RIOT is a lot smart much very, they've reworked this skill. It now injects testosterone into your veins.

Back to Top

Let's talk Skill Combos.


The Warning Shot


So this is pretty straightforward. Get into lane. Walk up to the enemy. Press Q. This is your way of telling them that for every 3 minions they last hit they'll be paying a sixth of their health. Plain, simple, efficient and effective.


The Head Dribbler

This is basically the way you'll be doing trading during laning phase. This is the most damage you can do without fully commiting to the fight. Autoattack first, then immediately cancel your AA with Crippling Strike for tons of damage. Your enemy is slowed and he'll feel quite sad because of it, so follow up with yet another autoattack, and, when your enemy moves to the range of the outer ring of your Decimate, press Q and watch their healthpool dissipate. Keep in mind, that each time you damage the enemy with your AA or any of your skills, they will bleed for an additional tonne of damage. Smooth.

"Get out of my face!"

SLAAAAAM DUUUUUUNK; this is your kill combo for when you feel like trading is not enough and you could use the extra 300 gold in your bank account. Pull the cowards in with Apprehend, cancel your autoattack with Crippling Strike, autoattack once more (or however many times you can before your Q comes off cooldown), Decimate - with the outer ring, of course - autoattack them a few times, and when you'll finally feel like the time is finally nigh...

SLAM DUNK


And collect your 300 gold bounty while spamming CTRL and 4. Your man level rose up by one.

The Teamfight Commotion

I'm proud of this one. It's basically your teamfights in a nutshell, but remember - there's never a single, correct recipe for a teamfight. Generally, walk up to the nearest/squishiest enemy champion, Apprehend, Autoattack cancel with Crippling Strike, no real time to autoattack again, you're doing too much damage (you're Darius, remember?), so just Decimate instead, and...

YOU GET DUNKED, AND YOU GET DUNKED, EVERYBODY GETS DUNKED!


No penta, though, your Ashe teammate took the last kill.
Back to Top

Let's talk My Way Darius.

Get it? It's, well, MY WAY, haha! Ehh...



SO, WHAT IS "YOUR WAY", JACOB?



It's something that most of you will probably not agree with, although this is the way that brings me the most enjoyment out of playing Darius, and, paired with that, most success.

In short: I drop Black Cleaver in favour of Trinity Force, followed by Youmuu's Ghostblade shortly after.

Slightly longer version: I believe building a more offensive, more responsive Darius allows you to respond to most situations more quickly, while also capitalizing on enemy mistakes much more sharply.

I've found it extremely annoying to play without the speed required to quickly respond towards the enemy teams mistakes. Black Cleaver is certainly a fantastic item on the regular, tank Darius, although Trinity Force is way better if you plan on getting a offensive, attack speed based item sometime in your build.

It seems to me like you're able to carry games with greater success when using Trinity Force, especially when coupled with Youmuu's Ghostblade, so a simple idea sprung into my mind: "Why not try something new?"

And I did. And it was awesome.

The sheer power of being mobile and responsive is something I personally value way higher than being a thorned boulder. You can kill squishies almost instantly, and when the bruisers and tanks catch up to you, they won't stand much of a chance either.

"Jacob, but why would you even change up your already good build?"

Almost full tank, typicall Juggernaut Darius is only really effective if you have a team to back you up, if your team has even the slightest edge. Otherwise, you are mostly unable to do anything. By adjusting my build to more offense and speed heavy I've lost the ridiculous survivability in favour of more carry potential and squish murder power.

However, I do not reccomend my style of play and buildpath unless you posses considerable mechanical skill, game knowledge and champion mastery.



This style of play relies heavily on your muscle memory being flawless, memorising your, your team's and opponent's cooldowns and range, and having an extremely snappy playstyle. You NEED to be a good player to make this build work. But when it works, it isn't just good.

It's extreme.
Back to Top

Let's talk Playstyles

PUT ON YOUR BIG BOY PANTS AND PLAY THE MUSIC VIDEO ABOVE, WE'RE TALKING MAN TALK NOW

Some of you may've read through the whole text.
Most of you just skipped to this part to read my mad man blabber.
I welcome both of you, and I'm about to turn you into

A MAN


.
.
.

LANING PHASE

MAIN THEME: Be aggresive. Be relentless. Show them who's boss.
HOW TO: Estabilish dominance. Punish them for every mistake.
DETAILS: It's common knowledge that Darius' early game is amongst the strongest in the game. Your mission is simple: utilize it to it's fullest.

The very moment you get to lane, start analyzing your opponent. What is his playstyle more likely to be: aggresive, or passive? Is he overconfident with his positioning? Does he prioritize harassing you, or last hitting? Take mental notes of these things.

Be aggresive right from the start with your Decimate. Very few champions in the League can outmatch your early game damage, so don't be afraid of fighting.

Pay attention to how close you are to levelling up. When you're one minion away, engage the enemy lane in an all-in. Before they'll realise, their health will be down to half-dead teemo levels, and they'll flash away. Too bad you leveled up, and you pull them back right into the fray and murder them. You slipped up? That's okay. Flash, Decimate, autoattack and ignite (should you take Ignite), you get the drill.

Now's the time to decide how you'll be spending your 300 extra gold.
The very moment you come back to lane, you're likely to be a level ahead of the opponent. DON'T WASTE THAT ADVANTAGE. Be aggresive constantly, be relentless and stubborn. Make them know that for every last hit they take, they'll have to pay you in half their healthpool.
It's natural that they'll be asking their jungler for help now, and that's okay. If he comes, he'll probably be unaware of your insane strength and damage, so you'll have a good shot at killing him too.

If he does come, you have two options:
a) Run away, somewhat likely to survive
b) Die, but take them both out with you.
If you're a man like me, you'll always take B. You're probably level 4 or 5 now, with your enemy being level 3 or 4. Their jungler is probably level 4. The enemy laner is beat up from your last fight with him, while you're in good shape.

If the jungler foolishly engages you in combat, make him pay for it and make him never forget what you've done to his face. Show him what a "Head Dribbler" or two can do. If you managed to kill him, you probably leveled up. If you're level 6, you're set for a doublekill.
Force a fight with the enemy, SLAM DUNK, "Doublekill!".
You're officially a man now.
.
.
.
Obviously, these are the ideal circumstances, but I really want you to realise this: playing defensively is wasting your potential. Be aggresive like you've never been, don't be afraid to die once or twice. So long as you're dominating the lane heavily, you're doing it right.
You'll probably be getting ganked often, but there's not much you can do about it. Try to read the movements of your enemies, they often telegraph when a gank is coming. If, as suspected, you ARE getting ganked, don't really try to run - try to take someone out with you.

ITEMISATION: Get basic boots, a Phage if you're doing okay or even a Tiamat if the stars aligned. Generally aim to get either a Black Cleaver or Sterak's Gage ASAP.

MID GAME

MAIN THEME: Ramp up the pace. Become a global threat. Be aggresive.
HOW TO: Constantly destroy whoever comes to stop your top lane rampage. Start roaming, counterjungle the enemies.
DETAILS: If you're a competent Darius, you're doing very well at this moment. Do not blow your lead, stay aggresive, make them wish to uninstall the game and question their skill. Hunt their jungler in their jungle, go mid from time to time. You're on the right path.

Chances are, the outer top lane turret is gone on the enemy side. He has a negative score, and their jungler abandoned him a long time ago, but that doesn't mean you can't make his life a nightmare, does it?

It's not like the toplane is a bunker that you're not allowed to leave. Roam, be everywhere. In their jungle, in top lane, gank mid lane, be around dragon, you get the point. If your midlaner is not doing so hot, prioritize mid as your gank target. Go around the enemy wraith camp/blue buff to gank them from behind. Don't aim to get the kill, but if it is necessary, secure it.

Bottom lane set their hair on fire again? Your AD Carry has genital herpes? Don't you worry, that's why we've teleport. Point it out clear to them - "I'm coming to wreak havoc, you bozos" an reap your blood money.

Their jungle is your jungle, so long as you have good stats and items. Feel free to borrow the enemy red buff, blue buff, golems, wolves, chickens, whatever. If they were to try to stop you, you'd kill them anyways. Aren't you having fun?

At a certain point it will no longer be profitable for you to keep on killing your toplane opponet - his score is long gone into the negatives and he's worth as much gold as a cannon minion. It's the spirit of Michael Jordan telling you to leave top lane.
Try to set up dragons for your team. Be communicative, atleast with pings. Be aware of the map - I can not stress enough how important that is.

Check the scoreboard often - it's your source of information about how you should approach the match. Who's doing the best in their team? Should you start beefing up, or are you free to increase your dunking power? How is your team doing?

Exploit every mistake the enemy team makes - Apprehend every straggler and make him watch his respawn timer impatiently.

Don't be afraid to count on your teammates in certain situations, but be more on the individualist side. You shouldn't put your life in the hands of random people from the internet, as prickish as that sounds. Unless you're confident of their skill, that is.

Another thing that would be important is something you should've done in the laning phase - analyze the players. Which one of your teammates can you rely upon? Who's the most competent, and who's the least? Same goes for the enemy team - who will be the most likely to slip up and put himself in a bad situation for you to exploit? Take mental notes of that.
.
.
.
Generally, just keep putting on the pressure - don't slow down. Slowing down means giving them a chance to recover. Play smart - you're a demigod, but even your manliness has it's limits. Don't get baited, don't get put on tilt, take nothing of the insults that are thrown at you.

You're Darius. You don't care about anybody's opinion of you. You're doing your job, and you're doing it well. Or, atleast, you should.

ITEMISATION: You must have a Sterak's Gage or Black Cleaver and second tier boots by now. Depending on how well you're doing, your next item choice can vary between going straight for one of the two mentioned beforehand which you do not already posses, or a Dead Man's Plate. Start buying it and begin thinking about your last items.

LATE GAME

MAIN THEME: Step down the aggresion pedal slightly. Secure the game.
HOW TO: Engage smart fights. Prioritize things. Coordinate your team if you have to. Communicate, but only if it's something constructive.
DETAILS: I won't be surprised if you haven't made it to the late game - most games when you play as Darius are rather short and end up in you stomping the opposition. But now that you're here, slow down a little. It's the point in the game when you no longer can exactly 1v5 the enemy team, so it's time to put on your leader pants instead.

Late game is by far the roughest on Darius. While Noxian Might and well placed decimates/flashes allow you to be as dangerous as ever, you can not go 1v5. You need your team to win, and you need your team in order to win.

It's time to group up. The enemy team will be doing the same, and teamfights will be very common. Your damage should be through the roof already, and it's not like you'll be easy to kill - you're tough as nails. Your mobility is high thanks to boots, Black Cleaver and maybe even Dead Man's Plate if you've built it.

As stated above, you shouldn't be as reckless as before - late game is the fascinating moment of a game where no matter how good you are, you can fall. And the bigger you are, the harder you fall.

Communication is key here. As far as I know, telekinesis and telephaty isn't a common thing right now, so nobody's gonna be reading your mind. Don't expect your teammates to follow up a brave and manly play if you didn't give them a heads-up. Be nice to your team, or don't speak at all. Coordinate fights if you have to. Set your priorities straight and inform your team of them.

Both teams will be more cautious now, so mistakes will be less common. When they do happen, though, they're grevious, so make sure you exploit them. Apprehend the ones who are too brave and make them regret their decisionmaking.

It is absolutely, positively crucial to make good use of Noxian Guillotine. Make sure to kill people with it, not use it to deal damage - you NEED these resets to be a big boy in teamfights. You will be dealing incredible amounts of damage, and it will show in the post game results. Even if you die, you'll be taking three of their team down with you, and that's fenomenal.

You'll start dying more commonly, and that's not a bad thing. It's only bad if you died without doing anything, but once again, it can be prevented by playing smart.

During teamfights, make the choice whether you want to wreak havoc in the enemy team or make sure nothing too-too bad happens to your team. If your teammates have good stats, the latter is a good idea. If you're the one forced to carry, go in and go in hard.

Once you commit to fighting somebody, stick to it. Switching targets mid fight is a bad idea, unless a better opportunity reveals itself, eg. : stop chasing Renekton if Vayne opened herself up. MAKE SURE TO USE PINGS!
.
.
.
If you master the late game, you will master the whole game. Late game is brutal and does not allow for mistakes to be made. Nobody is perfect, but there's only one victor at all times. Make it be yourself, and not the enemy. Be smarter than them, be one step ahead of their thought process. Relentlessly punish mistakes their team makes - "Exploit every weakness". You're soon to be rewarded for your masterful display of skill and combat skill - these 20 LP will look good on you.

ITEMISATION: You should have boots, Sterak's Gage, Black Cleaver and Dead Man's Plate by now. If you feel like it, swap out your yellow trinket for the red one. Finish everything out with either a Titanic Hydra or Spirit Visage.
Back to Top

Finishing Thoughts.

You've either made this far, or skipped directly to the bottom in search for some last-minute information about Darius.



Either way, thanks for being here.



This is my absolutely first guide for any videogame or any topic for that matter, and I'm positive that there's much left here to be improved. If you could, please, rate the guide and give me your constructive feedback. It's going to be helpful.

If you wish to, send me screens of your games using this guide. I may post them somewhere in this guide as proof that this whole thing is more than just words.

Thank you, once again, and I'll see you on the Fields of Justice!


Happy Dunking!



Here's some pictures or stuff! Ye

Pretty decent game from Thenarius, although he should aim to improve his creep score.


Andyboy1230 giving us a good example of a game, apparently his first time after reading the guide! Tabi may have been better against the enemy teamcomp, however.


Andyboy1230 once more, with nice stats, nice buildpath and plenty of dunks.


GuaxinimMalandro decided to share his Darius game using this guide. With "Space Jam" as his background music, I would imagine he had a great time. It also somewhat seems like mercury threads would've been better against the enemy team. Maybe.


Mentalfruit going for a quick dunkerino on the enemy team, finishing the game with the opposition surrendering. Just what we like to see.


'Ere's Earnerthiel, doing Darius Darius things against Non-Darius Darius enemies. Apparently, Earnerthiel is the only thing that carried his team to victory after turning the game around. IS OKEI.


One of FDorna's games played after reading my 99$ professional USA approved Darius guide. As you can tell, he scored many dunks that game.


Auske got himself some ground teambuilder beef, spiced it all up with fresh basketballs and ate it all in one bite.



VERSION LOG

24/10/2014: Initial release of the guide. We'll see what the future brings.

06/11/2014: The first guide update!
I've done these things:
- Michael Jordan sponsors the guide now*
- Included additional items in "Let's talk Items"
- Included a small chapter dedicated to runes
*kind of


22-11-2014: Minor guide update in order to get ready for Season 5, possibly more to come
- Had to re-evaluate Cloth Armor, it's generally considered a much better item now.

12-04-2015: Teeny weeny guide update.
- Reacting to the recent Darius buff
- Very minor "Let's Talk Skills" section update

03-05-2015: Ye. Bleeek Klevir updot.
- Updated champion difficulty curves
- Added new champion matchup difficulties
- Woo pepperoniiii! Black Cleaver is a thing now!

01-06-2015: Woo, all hail the Pringle Build!
- The second build recieved an update!
- The main build recieved an update!
- Mild champion difficulty rebalancing!
- Black cleaver opinion update!

29-07-2015: NEW OP OP BUILD
- Added Lebron James build for FREE ELO BOYS
- Youmuu's added to items section

23-08-2015: Reworked Darius = Reworked Guide
- Yep
- Titanic Hydra added to Items Section

01-10-2015: VIDIOS VIDIOS
- Funi vidios
- Free too
- Also, free vidios
- vidios

15-11-2015: NEW SEASON, NEW whatever I can't rhyme that well
- Updated masteries
- Minor tweaks to difficulty curves
- Updated item build
- More to come (?)

21-12-2015: THE JACOB SPECIAL AKA I'VE FINALLY UNLAZIED MYSELF
- Fully updated difficulty curves
- Updated item section
- Minor tweaks in all other sections
- Fixed some doofy spelling errors and what not

10-01-2016: MY WAY AKA MY WAY
- New build added, which is based on my personal playstyle!
- Minor adjustements here and there.
Download the Porofessor App for Windows

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide