Hi, thanks for looking at my guide. Hopefully it helps you with some of the matchup questions and build orders and the best items for Darius.

My name is xBluepic, and I've begun playing Darius a lot on my main and other accounts (platinum/gold). Darius has always been a character I've awed, but it wasn't until now in Season 6 that I really started to pick him up.

Darius is an incredibly strong juggernaut with insane capabilities for dishing out tons of damage while still being extremely tanky. However, he can be weak considering how his only healing comes from the blade part of his Decimate and heals from missing hp, and how he has no movement/dashes.

- Pros and Cons -

Pros:
- Very strong laner with huge all in.
- Can be bursty
- Can shred an entire teams armor with bleed and Black Cleaver
- Noxian Guillotine/ Hemorrhage reset and Apprehend can be huge for teamfights
- True damage and armor shred (with Black Cleaver) for huge damage despite being tanky.
- Doesn't have very many hard counters, since he wins most sustained fights.

Cons:
- No mobility. Easy to gank because of this. (ward up!!)
- Not very ranged.
- Decimate becomes useless when enemies hug really close.
- Ability heavy.
- No decent disengage.

This is my first guide so I will be brief but if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to e-mail me at:

drmrbluex@gmail.com

or comment on this guide. Thanks, and..

enjoy.

- Skills -

- PASSIVE - Hemorrhage -

Darius' autos and abilities cause the enemy to begin to bleed for an amount of damage over time. This scales with AD. You can stack this passive 5 times, causing Darius to go into a raged mode where he gains an amount of AD (more per level) and applies full stacks with his abilities.

Waiting to Noxian Guillotine once in rage mode can cause Noxian Guillotine to do a lot more damage. This is because the bonus AD will immediately apply.

Darius also gains this rage mode from getting kills with Noxian Guillotine

Click here to read about the actual ability: Hemorrhage


- Q - Decimate - Max 1st -

Darius begins to charge up a spin with his axe, releasing it in a circle after a second of cast time. It deals bonus damage and applies a blood stack if an enemy is hit by the blade of his axe.

Dealing damage with the blade part of his axe on an enemy champion also heals Darius for 12% of his missing HP per champion up to 36%.

This makes Spirit Visage strong on Darius.

Use Decimate to poke from a range, heal during fights, and to outplay/kite in case you are taking damage from behind. It is a full circle, so it can help you live from ganks and dives. It also does a lot of damage early on since it is Darius' only non-ult ability that increases in damage by leveling it.

Click here to read about the actual ability: Decimate


- W - Crippling Strike - Max 3rd -

Darius empowers his next auto to deal bonus damage and apply a very strong slow for 1 second.

Use Crippling Strike as an auto reset, and to help you in chases/dealing the most damage that you can.

Click here to read about the actual ability: Crippling Strike


- E - Apprehend - Max 2nd -

Darius reaches his axe out in a cone to pull in any enemy units to right in front of him. It also applies a short strong slow after the pull.

This is Darius' only CC beyond slows, and can be crucial in pulling the weak targets in a team fight to pick them out.

Apprehend also has a 5% armor penetration bonus per point put in, making it a strong choice to max second to also lower Apprehend's cooldown.

Use Apprehend to secure a kill, especially if they don't have flash. It can be crucial in getting you in range to get a kill, or to pull enemies into your minion wave and out trade them.

Click here to read about the actual ability: Apprehend


- R - Noxian Guillotine -

Darius jumps up with his axe over his head and unleashes a powerful guillotine-like overhead cut onto the foe. It deals true damage, scaling off of AD.

It deals 20% more damage per stack of Hemorrhage bleed.

Getting kills with this ability resets its cooldown temporarily, and causes Darius to go into Hemorrhage rage mode.

Putting a 3rd point into this ability unlocks it, causing any kills with it to completely reset the cooldown.

Use Noxian Guillotine to execute enemies in lane and teamfights, to gain a reset and continue to dish out crazy amounts of damage.

Click here to read about the actual ability: Noxian Guillotine

- Skill Sequence -

- Maxing 2nd: E vs W -

You want to max Apprehend second because it offers the best value for your points at an early stage in the game.

- Apprehend -


- Cooldown and Armor Penetration % per level
- Stronger ability than Crippling Strike

- Crippling Strike -


- Only cooldown reduced per level.

The recommended runes and masteries are going to be the most solid and balanced runes and masteries you can use.

- Masteries -

Grasp of the Undying <-- RECOMMENDED



- Solid overall since you should build a lot of health on Darius.
- Great in combo with his healing from Decimate.
- Crippling Strike can do lots of damage with Grasp added on. ( Flash Crippling Strike kill)
- Building Spirit Visage increases it too.

Fervor of Battle



- Only recommended vs melee matchups and as an aggressive choice against confident matchups and team compositions.
- Built around increasing auto attack and Crippling Strike damage
- Masteries building into the keystone removes some tankiness, so be ready to not be as tanky.

Stormraider's Surge



- Can assure you getting in range to pull or ult.
- Can be strong against squishy matchups
- Burstiest of the masteries.
- Doesn't always kick in so can be weaker in teamfights and if you're behind.
- Synergizes well with Darius' Noxian Guillotine.

- Runes -

- Standard -

- My Personal -

I use the % health since Darius has an extremely high base health amount compared to other champions so it also helps with building Black Cleaver first and scaling late game.

You can replace attack speed with armor pen or attack damage if you want to be burstier and have more awkwardly slow autos.

Attack speed in my opinion helps with applying more stacks and csing.

- Starters -

Doran's Shield <-- RECOMMENDED

- Best overall.
- Good for trading and poke matchups.
- Allows for totalbiscuits, which are awesome.

Doran's Blade

- Solid aggressive choice.
- HP makes it not overly aggressive.
- Life steal can be strong when last hitting with Crippling Strike.
- Decent choice if you want to be more aggressive.

Corrupting Potion

- Not very good on Darius, since his mana costs are low.
- Decent against poke and trade-hard lanes.
- Also good against sustain matchups.

Black Cleaver is the strongest, most synergetic, and overall best item on Darius

Let's take a closer look. Darius' Hemorrhage bleed does physical damage, which means yes, it does tick a % armor shred on Black Cleaver. That means after one auto, you will easily shred the opponents armor by 40% in a few seconds. With added autos and abilities, this is achieved extremely easily. In addition, Darius' Apprehend passive 25% armor penetration will make you do stupid amounts of damage.

Here's more; Black Cleaver is an improved Phage every any source of physical damage will proc the most speed buff. This means you gain perma move speed buff while you're Hemorrhage bleed is going off, making chases incredibly easy. This also helps with getting in Noxian Guillotine range, landing Decimate, and becoming in range for Apprehend.

Build this first always, unless you're behind.

- 1st-4th Items -

After Black Cleaver, or if you're behind, you should consider these items:

Dead Man's Plate



- Improves chase and lack of mobiliy
- Does a tiny bit of damage
- Gives hp and armor, great for most ad matchups
- Looks cool af with the trail.

Solid item on Darius.

Spirit Visage



- Improves healing from Decimate
- Gives 10% cdr, always good for Darius.
- Good amount of HP and MR. Can set you up for the rest of the game if there are not many AP threats.
- Increases base HP regen, which is fairly high on Darius.

A must have in most cases where the team is not full AD.

Boots

Boots should be completed before you complete your 2nd or 3rd item.

Mercury's Treads



- Solid vs CC and AP heavy comps.
- Tenacity never hurts Darius. Can help in getting Decimate out faster for survivability.

Ninja Tabi



- Great vs fed adcs and auto-based matchups

- After The Items Above / Situations -

Sometimes you get special matchups and team compositions to face and building differently is better.

Randuin's Omen



- This item will singlehandedly prevent crit champions from doing anything.
- Perfect for Tryndamere/ Yasuo
- Good vs fed adcs in catching them with the active and 1v1ing them.
- Solid overall, gives 10 more armor than Dead Man's Plate for same cost.

Titanic Hydra



- Solid after building two hp items.
- Gives better wave clear (after using Decimate)
- Synergetic with Darius' Crippling Strike
- Great for doing more damage but staying tanky.

Is a must have for scaling well into late game.

Thornmail



- Great against full ad compositions.
- Good against auto-based matchups and fed adcs.

Isn't a must have, but still viable in the right situations.

Sterak's Gage



- Solid finishing item on Darius.
- Survivability and more time to apply those Hemorrhage stacks!
- Stats also great for Darius.

Other Items Mentioned in the Item Guide (top of page)

Not going to go deep into them, because they really aren't as viable. I find these items to be flexible and balanced enough. Feel free to build aggressive items, as Darius still has strong AD scalings and damage. Just know what that mean's in fighting more than a 1-3 people.

Death's Dance - decent, but should really only be used to gain that last 10% cdr for 40% and if you're fed and need some more sustain against their comp

Trinity Force - expensive, but can do crazy damage with sheen and W. Don't forget that you're wasting 1250 gold on that phage if you have Black Cleaver.

Wit's End - I've seen it work. Really only good if you struggle against an AP matchup and aren't very good about getting stacks off.

Flash <-- RECOMMENDED

- A must have.
- Makes up for Darius' lack of movement.
- Great combo with Apprehend, Decimate, or his Noxian Guillotine.
- Gets you out of the **** you didn't expect to get into.

Teleport <-- RECOMMENDED

- Strongest combo with Flash.
- Great for making plays bot
- Allows you to stay top and pushing until a teamfight starts.
- Can be used to return to lane early on in the game.

Ignite



- Good against healing ( Dr. Mundo)
- Strong with Hemorrhage bleed passive.

Honestly not needed on Darius. His Noxian Guillotine is used as an execute, so what's the point in taking Ignite besides a fade away burn + bleed kill? Take this if you want easy early kills, but honestly in Ranked this shouldn't be used unless you're REALLY confident.

Ghost



- Helpful with landing abilities.
- Helps more with Darius' lack of movement.

Again, not really needed. Black Cleaver will give you enough movespeed. Should really only be taken if it is a movement-less matchup.

It's level 1, you started Decimate.

- Poke with Decimate from a range. (start casting -> move in to hit -> move out)
- Don't try and hit too many minions, or else it can push to wave to under his tower where he is safe.
- Don't use too much mana.

Also, don't be afraid to get max Hemorrhage stacks on someone early on at level 1. Guranteed you will kill them.

Level 2! Apprehend or Crippling Strike?

Q: Are they low?
A: Take Apprehend and try to get their Flash or potentially a kill

Q: Are they not low?
A: Take Crippling Strike and use it as an auto reset to dish out some fast damage and stacks.

Level 3...4...5...6!

Darius' Noxian Guillotine is very strong and can dish out big damage after reaching 5 stacks of his Hemorrhage bleed passive. Remember, his passive gives you AD increasing his scalings (ult does even more)

Thanks for reading in on my Darius guide. I hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to e-mail me or comment on this guide if you have any questions or suggestions:

drmrbluex@gmail.com

Good luck in the Rift!