First off, I would like to welcome everyone to the wonderful world of Darius. From Noxus with love, comes a new melee BLEEDER. That's right summoners! Darius' attacks cause his target to bleed over time and apply a stack, which buffs your movement speed! So we are going to capitalize on that! This is my very first guide for this game, but I will try to make it as friendly and as easy to follow as possible.

Just a heads up, people will cry and call you OP and tell you have no skill and what not. Well we won't listen to them, because we all know there are plenty of "OP" champions, and they can all own if you have skill.

!Warning!
Anyone coming in to see a flashy finger-painted guide. Look else where, I come at you plain and simple. Everyone's play style is different, so I won't pander to meek about how I play. All you have to do is use common sense, build to the situation and own some noobs. I won't spend 16 hours taking video, editing video, taking screenshots, cropping screenshots, adding fancy do-wa-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do graphics to make this guide more appealing. If you can't take the time to read what this GUIDE has to offer. Well then you shouldn't be READING a guide now should you?

Seeing as we need to apply stacks at a reasonable pace, and still maintain a sustainable build, because Darius is NOT a tank, we will go with Greater Mark of Attack Damage, Greater Seal of Attack Speed, and for glyphs either Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Armor are acceptable. For the Quintessences we can either go for a Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, or you may choose to throw a Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed or two instead. It really depends on how you want to ravage your target. These are very interchangeable, It just really depends on how aggressive you are with your champions, or how you portray the play style of Darius.

My personal setup: Greater Mark of Attack Damage x9, Greater Seal of Attack Speed x9, Greater Glyph of Health x9, Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed x3

As we look more into Masteries, you want to remember that we want an effective sustain, while stomping our enemies faces in.

Here is an example of my personal mastery page for Darius.



Although you may can choose to put the 2 points from Honor Guard into Tough Skin or somewhere else, this is what your build should look like.

ALWAYS, put a point into Summoner's Wrath , we use Ghost and Ignite as spells and this will give both of them the boost we want!

The 2 points we have into Enlightenment I feel are completely necessary, if you remove them and go into game I am sure you will feel the affects.

Ghost and Ignite are the 2 that I have found most helpful in nearly every situation. Ghost is without a doubt the only gap closer you have besides the pull. You will need it!

HOWEVER

There are situations where you may be up against a Varus, or a Ashe with ranged/slowing effects and they will set you up for a gank, so I feel that it is safe to say that Flash is also a safe alternative.

Pros

• Stacking bleed passive
• Lots of Potential in Team Fights/Ganks
• Slowing strike allowing for more quick burst damage
• TRUE DAMAGE ULTI!
• Pure ownage.

Cons

• Very weak if you can't figure out how to handle ranged harass.
• Will most likely get focused sooner or later.
• Not a whole lot of gap closing.

Decimate-> Crippling Strike-> Decimate-> Apprehend-> Decimate-> Noxian Guillotine-> Crippling Strike-> Decimate-> Apprehend-> Decimate-> Noxian Guillotine-> Crippling Strike-> Crippling Strike-> Apprehend-> Crippling Strike-> Noxian Guillotine-> Apprehend-> Apprehend



This skill sequence I believe will maximize the potential damage output of Darius.

Boots: There are three acceptable boots to buy as Darius, it just depends on how you play.
1. Ninja Tabi - Sustain against AD
2. Mercury's Treads - Sustain against AP
3. Berserker's Greaves - Faster attack speed = more stacks of bleeding goodness.

After that we Shurelya's Battlesong which gives obvious bonuses and advantages, I would recommend keeping this in any build you decide doing.

Next up; Aegis of the Legion, and Frozen Mallet. Both give nice sustain bonuses while frozen mallet give you that slowing affect that no one wants when getting hit by Darius.

Now, the last two items are entirely up to you, and your personal play-style.
Your best bet is with 2 of these last 4 items;

• Bloodthirster - Obvious effects, 20% Life Steal and a nice amount of AD.
• Last Whisper - Going along with that get stacks faster theory, while providing additional AD.
• Phantom Dancer - Still going along with the faster stacks, theory while giving you a nice movement speed boost along with some Critical Chance %
• Maw of Malmortius - Awesome sustain item, It is wonderful to have if there is a problem with AP characters.

So basically, your trying to apply two different types of armor pen, and it is working against each other, so instead of using the flat armor pen and speed from the Black Cleaver, you can use the Last Whisper to add on to the already passive armor pen % that you have from both Weapon Expertise and Apprehend, increasing the total % armor pen, instead of working against it. MAKES SENSE! And once you complete your build you have a WHOPPING 60% TOTAL Armor Pen! That's ridiculously close to your basic attacks being TRUE DAMAGE, ALONG WITH YOUR ULTI! Now, that's what I call OP!

Don't feel obligated to stick with just these items. If you feel your play-style calls for some sustain, the items listed below will help with that!

• Warmog's Armor
• Locket of the Iron Solari - A very under-used item, it has many benefits.
• Leviathan - another extraordinarily under-used item, if you play careful and you think you can keep stacks up, this is REALLY beneficial.
• Wit's End - I don't know what this hasn't shown its face in alot of builds, but it is definitely and option in terms of sustain while adding some ridiculous attack speed.
• Banshee's Veil - Really helpful against troublesome AP carries.
• Randuin's Omen - Lots of HP, and a nice active if you ever get in some trouble.
• Spirit Visage - Don't be afraid to take this, really helpful if used with Zeke's herald.
• Zeke's Herald - I see alot of people bashing on this item for Darius, but I personally have not seen why you wouldn't want to use this, cool down reduction + health + life steal. Can't really go wrong if you just need a little more UMPH!

as you can see here I have made some personal preference changes to the items, to help keep myself snowballing :P

Team work is ALWAYS very important, especially early game. With Darius you have a mean advantage, catching an enemy with the outside edge of a Decimate is really going to hurt, and it with give your team a chance to capitalize on an early game kill!

Remember to watch your map! Not everyone calls out those pesky MIA's. Paying close attention to your mini map will also show you openings for a gank on an enemy, and trust me. A fed Darius, is a happy Darius.

Try to team up with a ranged, preferably with a slow, stun or root. It's just unfair, and that's what we want!

Teaming with Darius isn't difficult, however... You can get a dud team:

Apprehend is one of the most useful moves you have even though you are maxing it last. You can use it to harass enemy champions, pull them into your turret and grab them when they are running away!



When I am about to initiate, I pop Ghost, then move on to Crippling Strike, followed by a Decimate, and at this point they are dead, you can ulti, or slap an ignite on them if they are by a tower. Bleeding + Flames = Death is imminent.

What you're looking for is to make a monster, that can dish it out. But take it too. Off-tanky but still stompy.

Make sure to practice your Decimate, so you are hitting all enemy champions with the outside edge of the circle;


This will deal extra damage and ruin your enemies chances of farming! It may even get you that kill that you missed before!

Remember, this is just a guide. It will not work for everyone, and don't feel obligated to follow the item builds to the "T". Mix it up a bit, take a look at the item's section again and see if you want to substitute something out! ;)

• 6/6/2012
  - Added 3v3 preferred build. I also find it to work extremely well in 5v5's.

• 5/28/2012
  - Added sustain item build.
  - Updated Item's section.
  - Replaced Black Cleaver for Last Whisper, it seems to work a bit better. - Thanks for the tip deepsorrow!