You sure know your stuff, I'll say that much! I'm going to use this (more or less) as my primary Darius reference for now. Also, I look forward to the addition of a "Threats To Darius With This Build" section, if you choose to do it. <3

Awesome guide - It was a huge help to me, since I've been away from League for a while, and this guide gave detailed steps about which items to go for and why.

love it

^^ voted :D

Also some images you can save if you want:

https://gyazo.com/f59173d27f4adccb17d6061e7cf264b8
https://gyazo.com/26aef1f3699083480a4efc834871f282

I got a quadra, and some pretty good wins.
(Gyazo is image sharing website)

This is pretty good. I also find it funny how that "Lord Dunk" guy who i used to follow the guide to, said in a comment how "****" your guide was, and how you shouldn't get sterak's because "It sucks" and that "Maxing E is STUPID", then goes ahead and steals the ideas, then suddenly gets more votes than you. Its incredibly sad. Just because his "looks" good, doesn't mean it works well.

Im forever with you, and im voting right now

Lol, got a 1v3 Triple against Rengo, Yasuo and Lux XDDDD. Thx man!

This Guide teaches those that may have only played one game with Darius what to do, what to avoid, and everything in-between.

Cool Build

hello again and thnx for answering

Yes, armor quints and health seals are for a safe start agains every lane. that means you can sustain against a pantheon, udyr, yasuo, lee sin etc, as far as you land decimate regularely. with numbers that means: 2.5% lifesteal from Vampirism, + 8% lifesteal and health regen from Runic Armor + 3% heal of your max health every 4 seconds in battle (Grasp of the Undying). thats a lot of healing but, for sure with a cost at damage. my build focuses to late game, as darius base damage scales well at late game. Darius has the second base AD in the list with first being Mordekaiser.Your text to link here...


The build you suggest is the one 've used in most of my games as Darius and its very good for snowballing, getting first blood and dominating the game. the only problem with the glass cannon daius is that if your team doesnt follow your engage, you are dead. of course every build depends on the way someone plays a specific champion. my build focuses on good farming, able to get alive from an early gank, or maybe take a double kill from that gank(if you play wise). and again I shall explain my way to enter a 5v5 teamfight.
- wait the initiator to engage.
- pick my target(not full health)
- kill him with my ulti
- my ulti will be available and with a simple Q i can execute almost any target.

Also, i want to mention an important thing.

Many Darius players tend to enter a fight with Q. thats way too wrong. best was in my opinion is AA-W-AA(if u have Opressor mastery you now deal 2,5% more damage to that target thanks to W slow)-Q to heal-AA/Hyndra-ulti-dead. use the Q to heal in a fight, its critical.

With the preseason release, i tried the runes you suggest, with many combinations.(Fervor of Battle, Deathfire Touch) and both of them was succesfull. So, that's why, after all. i say every build depends on a player's specific playstyle).

Finally, 2-3 things about the items.
Sterak's = OP (Darius 18 lvl base AD is 140,9.with 25% to your base AD its pretty big damage.
Ravenous Hyndra vs Titanic Hyndra = both are good on Darius, it is up to you which you wanna get.
Trinity = always good ( W makes tons of damage, passive from Phage, some extra attack speed)
Spirit Visage = best healing
Derad Man's Plate= just OP
Thornmail = enjoy immortallity agains AD auto attackers (Tryndamere/Jax/AD carries)
Youmuu = really good but only if you are used to playing this champion and this item. i wouldnt recomend on an amateur Darius player.
Black Cleaver is a must now. if the enemy team isnt stacking armor i prefer to take Trinity instead.
Bloodthirster = i almost never see this item on Darius, but if you are somehow fed, this thing will make you even happier.
Sunfire Cape = i was always getting this item last season for maximum dps, untill i ''stole'' a pentakill form an Akali with the items passive.

PS. Glass Canon Darius is always good and fun( Lord Dunk's build), but gives more cry when you die( most people somehow get satisfied when they kill Darius. dont give them reasons to be cocky) . Tanky Darius is less fun and more sustain early game, but is God mid and mostly late game. that's all man.

And about that cooldown reduction...ehm thats a thing i havent find out yet, i cant say something about this. my CD is always from BC and Spirit Visage.

Hi and thanks for the feedback!

RUNES:
I imagine that starting with the runes you have suggested is a much safer start, and is probably advisable in higher echelons of play. I will probably add it as an alternative rune page suggestion, because it looks pretty sturdy. The health seals and armour quints will significantly boost physical EHP and provide a minor improvement on the Q health regen.

I think the only reason that i'm enjoying the success I am with this rune page is because the flat AD helps with picking up first blood against people who underestimate your bleed damage and let you stack up to 5 on your passive in the first few minutes.

Something this build used to feature was 9x CDR blue runes, to give me 7.5% CDR, and then a point in sorcery for an additional 2.5% to reach the CDR cap with cleaver and visage. The early 10% CDR was crazy valuable in the early game (against physical top laners only) - if I were to add this again into this build somehow, how would you do it? Right now I am capping my CDR using Youmuu's when I am snowballing, but that isn't always an option.

MASTERIES:
I prefer taking the Deathfire Touch keystone mastery because I tend to poke with Q, so the overall damage in lane over time is higher - but perhaps picking up something like Grasp of the Undying would be better?

Once I've had time to sit down and re-create my masteries section, I will probably add this in as a strong alternative.

Please let me know if you have any other comments.
Cheers!

hello bro and congrats about your guide. i used to main darius for a loong time, i mean i have more than 500 games with him.i want to mention one thing though. i used to go 21/9 and ad runes and i was winning hard. but one day i got pwned by a tryndamere. then by a lee. then by a jayce and a khazix. after that i decided to change masteries-runes.(9-21, red dmg, armor quints helth yellow and MR blues). that build worked better, because i was so durable, and all i had to do is to enter a teamfight, Q them, and dunk them on eby one, while i wasnt dying.the recent changes to darius compliment and help his durability, so my opinion is 12-18 masteries, with emphasis on lifesteal.please give it a try and let me know how you liked it. also great instructions about the overall gameplay and communication.

I like the emphasize on speed and movement with your build. It helps keep you alive, kit, move to where the action is, and case down opponents. It just works very well with darius.