Darius Build Guide by Rittap

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The Bleeding Edge - Darius (Solo Top)

Last updated on May 26, 2012

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Build 1 (Cheat Sheet)

Champion Build: Darius

Recommended Runes

Purchase Order

Ability Sequence

Mastery Tree Is Outdated

WARNING: These masteries are still using the old tree and have not been updated to the new tree by the guide author. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.

Masteries

Offense: 9

Defense: 21

Utility: 0

Guide Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Masteries

Runes

Summoner Spells

Skills & Sequence

Items

Summary

Changelog

Introduction

It's always exciting when Riot sets a new champion loose on the Fields of Justice. Recently, they've release Darius, the Hand of Noxus. Darius is a melee champion with good damage output, while being quite tanky.

Now I know that a lot of summoners think Darius is a Garen clone, and I slightly agree. I think that Darius is like Garen... When you give him a good kick in the nuts! He'll certainly not let you get away with it!

I've focused this guide on Darius being solo top. I've really enjoyed playing him these first games, and I believe he's the perfect champion for players who have an aggressive play style. It's my first guide, so please let me know what's good and what's not. It's been made following JhoiJhoi's epic guide on making guides. Props to her!

Champion Spotlight

Pros / Cons

spaaaaaaace

Pros

+ Very aggressive playstyle
+ Easy farming
+ High damage output
+ Quite tanky
+ Extremely superb ultimate

space

Cons

- Below average movement speed
- Expensive itemset
- Mana-hungry when you spam
- Not that good against heavy CC
- Easy overextender

Masteries

I only slightly adapted the masteries that were suggested by Riot in the Champion Spotlight. I believed that, due to the extra AD Darius gets from my runeset, I could make him a bit more tanky instead of relying on cooldown reduction. I still got 9/21/0, taking a point in Bladed Armor and Honor Guard , while dropping the points in Indomitable and Enlightenment .

Masteries

Runes

In my opinion, Darius is best played aggressively. Therefore, I prefer more damage and take Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage, while still being tanky with Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

Runes

Personally, I don't think is a slow champion. If you think that movement speed is a valid reason to give in to actual damage, you can replace the Greater Mark of Desolation and for and .

Runes

Summoner Spells

Summoner spells are the most easy part about Darius. It's quite certain which are good on him, and which are totally out of the question, but I'll list them anyways.

Mandatory Summoner Spell

Always, and when I say always I mean ALWAYS pick . on is so useful, whether you use it to save your ***, run after a kill, initiate a gank or run to midlane to help. is a tad slow, and you're going to need the extra speed boost sometimes. You'll thank me later!

Preferred Summoner Spells

My preferred second Summoner Spell, used to secure a kill that becomes out of reach. It deals damage over time on top of the damage over time caused by (remember the heal debuff caused by this spell and the fact that the damage deals is true damage).

Another good option. Similar to , use to escape when you're chased down or get close when you're the one chasing.

If you're that kind of player that wants to be all over the map, use . If you're just going to use it to get back to your lane, I think it's a waste of the precious Spell slot on .

Less viable picks

Similar reason as picking : we want to secure that kill. If we don't want to do it via damage over time, why not keep him in place. Very handy if is on cooldown, but gets less usable later in the game.

Could be handy when you're up against a huge load of CC. The range on your abilities isn't that big, so you don't want snares, stuns, roots and the like. will help you with this.

If you're really really really a spammer, you might want to take so it restores your mana. Generally, you should learn to be careful with the amount of mana you use, and shouldn't take this, but it could be useful if you really want it and can't take Blue buff.

Don't pick these. Just don't!

Skills & Sequence

Darius' skills explained

Passive: Hemorrhage
Riot sure is in the mood of making champions that have stacking abilities, as is the case with Darius' passive. Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33 / 36 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) magic damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Seems like an extra , though the damage is no true damage. Furthermore, Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.

Q: Decimate
His main ability, looking a lot like 's , deals a huge bunch of damage. Darius' swings his axe around, dealing 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage) and applying a stack of . If you hit something on the outer edge of the axe, you deal extra damage: 105 / 157.5 / 210 / 262.5 / 315 (+1.05 per bonus attack damage).

W: Crippling Strike
When you use this ability, Darius' next basic attack will deal 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 / 200% physical damage and will apply a 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% slow for 2 seconds on the target. The base cooldown is reduced by 1 second per stack of on the target.

E: Apprehend
This ability lets you pull enemies in a small cone in front of you towards you. Never let the dying sucker escape, hehe! Furthermore, this ability adds a nice 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% armor penetration passive.

Tip on Apprehend
You'll notice that you can get mana hungry sometimes. Get blue buff if it's available for you (though, your caster gets priority here). To take less damage while getting it, the big Golem from the other side of the trees, and finish the small creeps off later.

Ultimate R: Noxian Guillotine
As the name suggests, Darius' ultimate is very deadly. Darius' leaps onto his target, and cleaves his axe into their skull. Besides from dealing a major migraine, you'll also deal 160 / 250 / 340 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) true damage. TRUE DAMAGE! Plus, for every stack of , this true damage is increased by 20%, adding up to a whopping 320 / 500 / 680 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) true damage. If you kill the enemy, the cooldown refreshes immediately, but I've seen it refresh without you getting the kill. Pretty sweet!`

Skill Sequence

The skill sequence is pretty straight forward. First three levels, you'll put a point in Q > E > W, after which you'l max first and second. Level your ultimate whenever you can.

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Combos

When in the same lane, use on the enemy followed by an auto-attack, after which you'll use to deal extra damage. Keep auto-attacking, using and as they are off cooldown. If they flash or run away, get up to them and use to keep them with you. Finish with , because it looks just flippin' cool!

When ganking a lane, use to pull the enemy towards you, immediately auto-attack and use for the slow. Keep dealing damage with , and finish with .

Items

Starting Items

Item Sequence

Start of with and 3x . If you have picked the alternate runes, take a instead. This will make sure you'll have some sustain, with enough AD to be dominant.

Core Items

Item Sequence

These are your core items. Do not stray from these if you're playing as an offtank. At first return to base, buy or upgrade your boots to (or , but I prefer ). Then, rush a and buy a . Later on, build your , and build out your into either or , depending on the enemy team: if you're up against lots of magic damage, buy . If you want to push out your lane and farm big time, is your friend.

After that...

The rest is really up to you. Look at what the enemy team is (capable) of doing and how they build their champions, then buy items based on that. Good items on Darius are , , and for defensive items, and , , and for offensive items.

Summary

As with all champions that are just recently released, Darius is quite cool to play. I believe this champion is the perfect suit for every solo top player that likes to (or tends to) play aggressive, dealing a lot of damage while staying quite tanky. Again, I slightly agree on Darius being a Garen clone... I look at it like this: Garen became Darius when you kicked him in the nuts. And boy, does he wants revenge!

Please comment with your ideas on Darius and this guide, and let me know what your results are!

Changelog

TO DO:

More detailed explanation of Situational Item choices
In-depth gameplay description and explanation on role in teamfights
Fancy looks, videos etc.

MIGHT DO: (thus: not important)

Dominion guide
Jungle guide?

May 26th, 2012
Slight cosmetic fixes

May 24th, 2012
Initial guide, with explanation in runes, masteries, spells, items and skills.

Guide Discussion (5)

The Hand of Noxus

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