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Darius Build Guide by Rhoku

Jungle [S11] What is a King to a God? Rhoku's Darius Jungle Guide

Jungle [S11] What is a King to a God? Rhoku's Darius Jungle Guide

Updated on October 20, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Rhoku Build Guide By Rhoku 24 3 77,756 Views 5 Comments
24 3 77,756 Views 5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Rhoku Darius Build Guide By Rhoku Updated on October 20, 2021
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Runes: Regular

1 2
Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Last Stand

Sorcery
Nimbus Cloak
Celerity
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2
Default
LoL Summoner Spell: Chilling Smite

Chilling Smite

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

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
I am
I've been a League of Legends player ever since the 6th Season, with me maining and learning the game through Darius. Right now I am a Darius Onetrick and my main is usually somewhere in Master/Grandmaster on the EUW server. I have peaked high Master before the end of Season 9 after which point I could no longer play properly due to my PC being broken. Season 10 I played well for a bit past the first month and peaked Top 400 (almost Challenger). At the moment, I constantly swap between accounts but I will be making the run for high elo again. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask me through the Discussions section of this guide, through private messages on MobaFire, through my stream or through any of my socials which I will link below.


I do not wish to claim that I am some amazing high elo god by putting my opgg and all these plays here. I simply want to provide SOME credibility to this guide. Know that you are receiving advice from a person who knows what he is talking about when it comes to Darius. I have mained him ever since season 7. He was the perfect champion for me which was why after picking him up, I immediately started climbing. With him being a popular pick and a great character to learn the game with, I want people to understand the basics of this champion. Now I am a Darius player first. Therefore this guide, while it should be informative for everyone interested, the people who will make the most use out of it should be jungle players who wish to expand their champion pool. Though he is fragile at certain stages of the game, a snowballing Darius is very difficult to stop. With him being a less popular jungler, those who know his limits will be able to squeeze out leads against unaware opponents and use his immense teamfighting power to secure objectives and overwhelm opponents. He can 1v9 very well but it is not easy to pull off.

This guide is essentially going to contain everything you need to know in order to start playing Darius jungle. But my original guide, although it focuses on Darius Toplane, has in-depth information about every aspect of the champion and if you want to strengthen your knowledge on him, it is definitely worth a look. Just click the banner!


If you wish to add me ingame, here are my usernames:
RhĎŚku(EUW)
Rhoku(EUW)
King Rhoku(NA)
very creative aren't they

For now, I exclusively play on the EUW server. I have an NA smurf but I am not actively playing on it at the moment. I apologise if I am rude to you. I am sometimes just tilted. However, do not let that discourage you from asking any question that you might have. I really enjoy teaching newer Darius players. You are also free to add me if you want to download some of my games. I will be playing more seriously once the season starts.


Youtube


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgFs4nq79tvdbFtAkthvSQ

Here is my Youtube Channel. I don't have a regular schedule at all, as I only put videos on there when I can be bothered to make them. I'll mostly be uploading plays, guides and memes. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Twitch


https://www.twitch.tv/rhokutv

Here is my Twitch account. I stream there every now and again and I have linked it to this guide so you will know whenever I am live. At that point, feel free to come on and ask me questions live at any point in time. I stream mostly around midnight GMT.


Twitter


https://twitter.com/rhokutv

A while ago I was talked into opening a Twitter account so here it is. I mostly just post low quality Darius memes, make unfunny/rude jokes and screw around with my friends. If this method is convenient for you, then feel free to DM me on there.
If you are sensitive to certain topics/dislike edgy humour, then I suggest not visiting my Twitter.


Discord


https://discord.gg/QYZqT3b

Here is the Discord Channel for my stream where all of my content will be announced. I will always be on there all the time so you may contact me through there as well. I'd like to see you come and be a part of the community I am trying to build.
These are all the socials that I check regularly. I'd link more but honestly, some are just a waste of time as I am almost never on. Enough about me then. Let us begin.


Pros


+ Can potentially deal incredible amounts of damage.
+ Difficult to kill due to his tankiness.
+ Can win entire teamfights singlehandedly.
+ Is very good at exploiting mistakes. Low Elo Stomper.
+ His 2v2 potential immensely high.
+ Snowballs hard and can be used to win any lane if played correctly
+ Can easily come back into the game off of a single teamfight. He may be down, but he is never out.
+ Probably one of the best champs at contesting Scuttle

Cons


- Immobile and Very Easy to kite.
- Missing E can sometimes mean certain death against strong, mobile kiters. (like Kindred)
- Falls off and becomes more team reliant lategame.
- Very difficult to play against better opponents. Harder to land Qs.
- Not a good tank. Has mediocre peel.
- Bad in 1v1s if he misses Q
- Has a very weak early clear and suffers against better jungle champions.
- People in SoloQ are prone to stealing your Ult resets

PASSIVE ABILITY
HEMORRHAGE


♦︎ Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 5 seconds, dealing 13 - 30 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) physical damage over the duration. The bleeding will trigger every 1.25 seconds, and can stack up to 5 times, for a maximum of 65 - 150 (based on level) (+ 150% bonus AD) physical damage over the duration.
♦︎ Upon applying full Hemorrhage stacks to an enemy champion or killing one with Noxian Guillotine, Darius gains Noxian Might for 5 seconds.
♦︎ Noxian Might: Darius gains 30 - 230 (based on level) bonus attack damage and instantly applies full Hemorrhage stacks through his usual means.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Hemorrhage makes Darius a massive threat in lane as he is essentially going to win trades due to it. It is one of the two reasons as to why fighting Darius is a bad idea. The bleed stacks are a built in Ignite of sorts as they will be securing kills for you very often. It also has great synergy with your ultimate so try to get an idea of just how much each stack increases your ultimate’s damage by so that you can get access to Noxian Might faster. Noxian Might itself is what makes Darius such a monster.
♦︎ This passive gives Darius enough damage so building full damage on him is not ideal. You want to be surviving long enough in a fight to get you passive and then oneshot the enemy team with the overwhelming damage that it provides you with. Nothing closes out a fight faster than a Flash + Q with Noxian Might along with him executing everyone unfortunate enough to get hit. It turns disadvantaged fights in your favour and allows you to sweep up whatever’s left of the enemy team even when behind.

Q
DECIMATE

♦︎ Darius prepares his axe for 0.75 seconds, then swings it around himself, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies, reduced to 35% against enemies hit by the shaft.
♦︎ Darius heals for 15% - 45% (based on the amount of enemy champions hit by the blade) MISSING health. The shaft of Darius' axe will not apply Bleed or heal him.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Decimate is your main trading tool in lane. It is useful for wave clearing, poking weaker laners, trading vs stronger opponents, mass applying Noxian Might and staying alive thanks to its healing. Learning to land this ability is mandatory if you are going to be a good Darius, because a Darius that cannot land his Qs is not going to be of much use. And in many of the harder matchups, the opening for them to go in for a trade is you missing your Q.
♦︎ A trick to learn with Q that is useful for executing low health enemies and turning teamfights around is using it in conjunction with Flash. You learn how to do it consistently with experience after getting used to Flash range and Darius’ Qs’ outer zone. Try to get good at hitting Q as doing it in higher elos is difficult.

W
CRIPPLING STRIKE


♦︎ Darius' next basic attack within 4 seconds gains 25 bonus range, deals bonus physical damage and slows the target by 90% for 1 second.
♦︎ If Crippling Strike kills its target it refunds its mana cost and half of its cooldown.
♦︎ Crippling Strike resets Darius' autoattack timer.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Crippling Strike allows for you to slow the enemy enough to hit them with a Q, apply massive amounts of damage if you have Sheen and it is the source of most of your combos. An E->AA->W->Q combo is good to learn on Darius so make sure you know how to do it. Make sure to be used to your attack speed so that you can efficiently reset your autoattack timer with it. W is a great tool for farming as it refunds both half the cooldown and the entirety of the mana cost. Lastly, make sure you know how to cancel the animation of W by using it with Q. Further explanation on how to do this in the Combo section below.

E
APPREHEND


♦︎ Darius gains armor penetration.
♦︎ After a brief delay, Darius pulls in all enemies in front of him, slowing them by 40% for 1 second, and briefly grants sight of the area around the pull.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Landing this ability is vital to your survival on Darius in some matchups. Landing it can grant you kills, whereas missing it can get you killed. Instead of going to the people kiting you, you just bring them to you. This ability allows Darius to stand a chance against ranged laners and it gives him outplay potential against many things.
♦︎ Much like his Ultimate, Apprehend cannot be stopped. This means that it can be used to cancel things that suppress you like Warwick ultimate or Malzahar ultimate if you time your E correctly. E can also be used to pull people out of dashes. If you have great predicting skills and reactions. You can essentially render the dashes of many champions obsolete. Camille’s hookshot, Aatrox’ E and essentially ANY movement spell that isn’t instantaneous and isn’t explicitly states as being unstoppable. If you are fast enough, you can stop the really quick ones like Akali’s R and Irelia’s Q.
♦︎ You can utilise E to escape ganks or even engage the enemy team, which should work better if you have Aftershock. The passive armor pen makes you a nightmare to fight for tanks and lets you shred towers better which is always nice.
♦︎ People often don't utilise the slow of this ability. Basically, the champions that you pull are slowed for 1 second after you use your E. Now this is only situational, as some champions having movement abilities means you have to do your AA->W->Q combo immediately after pulling but if your opponent is immobile and you need to make optimal usage of your slows in order to run them down properly, you can use the slow of your E in order to land an extra auto before doing your combo (so basically E->AA(during E slow)->AA->W->Q).

♦︎ One thing to note is that despite your character model getting bigger, your E range stays consistent. That is why you might run into situations where you have Sterak's Gage activated and your E goes through the enemy champion’s model but it still does not hook.

R
NOXIAN GUILLOTINE


♦︎ Darius becomes unstoppable for 0.25 seconds and attempts to execute the targeted enemy champion, dealing icon true damage, increased by 0% - 100% (based on Hemorrhage stacks).
♦︎ If Noxian Guillotine kills its target, Darius causes all nearby minions and monsters to flee in terror for 3 seconds during which they are rapidly slowed by up to 99% over the duration, activates Noxian Might, and is able to recast the ability within the next 20 seconds at no additional cost. This can occur multiple times in succession.
♦︎ At rank 3, if Noxian Guillotine kills its target, its cooldown resets completely.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ The execute. The dunk. The identity of Darius. Noxian Guillotine is why Darius is feared in teamfights. A good Darius will make proper usage of it and clean up teamfights at every opportunity. There is a bug ingame, as the “Maximum” damage displayed, does not factor in your Noxian Might AD so it is lower than what you will ACTUALLY do by 60-345 damage.
♦︎ It is a good idea to know how much minimum damage your ultimate does so that you are able to get an easy reset off of a low HP opponent which should win you the fight. Just know how much your ultimate does as you do not have an indicator like Cho'Gath or Pyke. Make sure to take shields and heals into account, as you might need an auto or two before utling to make sure they don’t get in your way.
♦︎ Although it is always good to secure the kill with your ultimate, keep in mind that sometimes, it might be better to use the ultimate early, when it won’t kill. This is useful vs champions who have invulnerability spells ( Fiora, Kayle), in fights where getting your passive is more important than getting your ultimate off, when you have a Sheen and just need the empowered auto and for when you are about to die which means that you might as well use it so that your team can capitalise off of your damage.
♦︎ If you are looking to Flash+R, make sure to buffer your R before you Flash as that makes it instantaneous and impossible to avoid, even if the enemy Flashes.
♦︎ You are unstoppable while ulting. Unless the spell ( Sivir) or the damage ( Fiora) is blocked, the ability is going to go through no matter the distance or anything. It cannot be avoided and can only be stopped by killing Darius. If your target gets out of vision, goes untargetable( Zhonya's Hourglass) or you yourself are in stasis( Bard R), then the Ultimate does not go through but it also does not go on cooldown so you will be able to use it again instantly. It is a good idea to ward the other side of a wall or a bush, when you know that your opponent is going to be using Flash to try to escape.
♦︎ A little known trick with Darius is that you don't have to kill an enemy with your Ultimate for it to reset. I know it sounds crazy but if the enemy just dies milliseconds after you use your ultimate, regardless of whether it is you or your ally that kills them, you get your ultimate back. If you attack speed is high enough, you might be able to get your ultimate back if you kill the enemy with your Auto Attack right after ulting.
♦︎ Another thing to consider is that Darius' R is technically a movement ability. If you look closely, Darius slightly moves closer to his target that he uses his ultimate on. This basically means that you cannot use your ultimate if you are grounded, by Cassiopeia's Miasma for example, or rooted.

I will only explain how the viable runes synergise with Darius when it comes to jungling. I have already done an extensive breakdown of how every single rune and keystone in the game works with Darius in my other guide. Go check it out if you are curious.


Primary Trees




Precision

As the best tree for Darius, Precision offers you power in many areas that other trees simply cannot compare against. As a primary tree, you definitely get more consistent power from precision. For Keystones, Conqueror allows you to scale much better and be a lot stronger in all fights. It also is vital a lot of the time early game to the point where if you are fighting someone with Conqueror when you yourself don’t have Conqueror, you are at a disadvantage. Fleet Footwork lets you have a MUCH more healthy clear. This leads to you better being able to fight and go for opportunities in the middle of your clear, as you will have the health to do so.



There is no debate or question over which one is the best here. The other runes don’t work and Triumph is honestly the most powerful rune in the game if you don’t count keystones. It is stronger than half the keystones anyway for Darius.
For the most part, you want to go for Tenacity. As a Jungler, you have to deal with more CC than a roamer so you need the extra tenacity. However, the attack speed is good for more DPS and it helps your clearing so if you do not need the tenacity or if the enemy CC is avoidable, then go for Legend: Alacrity.
The cases in which Coup de Grace is useful are not really common. The opposite is true for Last Stand. Just take Last Stand as it is MUCH better.



Domination

In my opinion the Domination tree is overall, the worst tree in the game for Darius. It can be fun to use here and there in Normal games but if your goal is winning, then stay away from this tree in general. The only reason you'd even consider the Domination tree is purely due to Predator. Predator for Darius jungle is a very powerful rune, as it pretty much acts as like a Ghost on a shorter cooldown. It does not really let you outplay and do much DURING fights like Ghost but it makes your ganks quite formidable and gives you overall mobility which Darius is obviously lacking. The downside is that you cannot take Precision or Conqueror so your clears will be weak and your 1v1ing will be much worse. Predator is difficult to use and if you think you can play the gank heavy playstyle that make this rune worth it, then you are welcome to try it.



Since Sudden Impact has virtually no synergy with Darius, you want to be going for either Taste of Blood or Cheap Shot. Both don't really offer much to Darius Jungle but I'd suggest going Cheap Shot for the tiny extra bit of damage. They are both terrible.
These are all either bad, have very little use or are good but insignificant. Just go for Eyeball Collection to have the extra AD.
You can either take Ravenous Hunter that lets you clear more healthily and get a nice chunk of healing from your ultimate provided you have fully stacked it up, or Relentless Hunter which gives you movespeed which Darius loves. The runes are nice but the fact that you have to stack them up combined with how Darius' ganks are kinda terrible makes it a bit difficult to use to their full potential.


Secondary Tree




Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak is vital for Darius Jungle. This rune combined with blue smite lets Darius actually have viable ganks that aren’t just him running up to someone. This also makes his plays with his other summoner spell, Flash or Ghost, to be more devastating. Even if you are taking predator, the in fight mobility that Nimbus Cloak can give is VERY versatile and it can be used as a mini Ghost if needed. Basically speaking, if you are jungling on Darius, get it.
Overall, you mostly want to go for Celerity out of these three if you want to have all of your movespeed amplified. Darius Jungle relies on movespeed quite a bit which makes this rune very strong.
Instead of Celerity, you may also take Waterwalking. Darius already is very powerful in river fights and Waterwalking only amplifies this.

Stats



You mostly be wanting to go this setup as the Armor will also be helping you against the camps themselves, in addition to the enemy. Although the adaptive force and the armor can be adapted to the enemy team, you almost ALWAYS want attack speed in the first slot



Item Set


THIS SECTION IS OUTDATED!

Here is a video I made about Darius’ Items. It is mostly for Toplane but it applies to jungle as well. I will make more specialized videos for Jungle later on but for now, this video plus the things I’ve written below should be enough.




STARTING ITEMS


Hunter's Talisman
Hunter's Talisman is pretty much your most viable choice into the jungle. Darius’ clear sucks a lot but at the very least, Talisman allows for you to take a few camps like the Raptor camp with many creatures more easily. His bleed synergises with Talisman very well, allowing you to the trick where you Q the raptor camp and do the red where this just gives you a ton of HP back. Overall, Talisman is much better than Machete.

Hunter's Machete
Hunter's Machete is worse than Hunter's Talisman. Focusing on the single target camps with Machete like Gromp and both buffs is not the worst, especially if you are starting blue side but I’ve tried out both and Talisman is just better.

Health Potion
Honestly, with how terrible Darius’ clears are, especially early on, triple Health Potions instead of Refillable Potion can be worth it. If you are feeling confident about clearing though, go for the Refillable Potion.

Refillable Potion
I enjoy getting this over Health Potions because you get to use it beyond the first back. It is really helpful in certain situations and in fights as well. But only get it after you are more confident in your clears.




FIRST BACK


Control Ward
Control Wards are vital. As a jungler, vision control is a bigger priority for you so you should always be carrying around a few Control Wards, placing them down in objectives or even for your laners to help them out.

Stalker's Blade
Stalker's Blade is the go to option for Darius early on. The Blue Smite, combined with Nimbus Cloak, actually allows Darius to execute ganks that are more than just him walking up on someone. Smite can be used in a lot of ways and learning to manage it and save it so that you have it up in ganks is a skill. Overall, I would never go for Red Smite on Darius. Blue Smite just turns him into an actual jungler. Not a good one. But one that can gank at least.

Boots of Speed
Picking up an early Boots is great. It lets you kite better. It lets you stick to enemy champions better and it allows you to dodge skillshots much more easily and as a jungler, you get to move around the map faster. Not by much, but every bit helps. I love being able to move around so I usually pick it up on my first back. Doing so also allows me to more quickly upgrade it into one of the two very powerful upgrades straight away after I finish my Jungle Item.

Long Sword
AD in the jungle is very useful and if you are going for Stalker's Blade - Warrior, you might want to go for a few long swords instead of boots. It lets you clear your camps faster and it makes you more dangerous in fights. It is risky but if you are snowballing, it could be a good path to take playstyle wise.




JUNGLE ITEM


Stalker's Blade - Warrior
Darius’ normal playstyle is getting damage that also gives him utility and tankiness, with the option of outlasting the opponent and waiting for 5 stacks to always be available. But the nature of the Jungle role opens up a new path for Darius that is more fun and more 1v9 yet more risky. Going for the damage items like Ghostblade and etc. allow for Darius to be a very major backline threat. You are no longer looking to get 5 stacks. Your goal is to do your combo of AA-W-Q and then use your ultimate straight up. If you are fed and are going for more damage items, you will straight up oneshot squishies with this combo. Not to mention how in a teamfight with Flash, the extra AD will make your plays very devastating if you managed to get Noxian Might off of someone. Now going FULL damage is stupid and I wouldn’t advise it. But getting an early Warrior instead of a Cinderhulk will give you so much damage that you will be able to snowball out of control and you might even have enough money for Trinity Force if you get enough kills which just gives you 1v9 amount of damage, even if you just build full tank afterwards. It is new but if you are fed and want to carry, if you want to 1v9 or if you simply want to blow squishies up, try it out and see if you enjoy the extra damage.

Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk
Warrior is fun and very good for solo carrying. But it is VERY risky. The lack of tankiness in the form of hp or resistances will leave you VERY squishy to the point where a fed mage or adc on the enemy team could shut you down for good with the help of proper peel. If you would like a bigger margin for error, if the enemy has more damage or if you simply are not as confident in your ability to carry, Cinderhulk is a very powerful option and the buffer passive of the item should be useful, as going full tank will allow for you to stick to people and eat their damage more.




BOOTS


Ninja Tabi
Ninja Tabi are amazing. They essentially work into every AD jungler in the book. And into some, it is mandatory. Lee Sin, Rek'Sai and Olaf are great examples of champions that you need Tabis against if you do not want to be destroyed. Ninja Tabi give you a decent bit of armor but the passive is what makes this item shine. The reduction of AA damage makes this great into any and all autoattackers. If the enemy team has a strong auto attacking character, say a fed ADC, Toplaner or a fed auto attacker, you will probably be looking to pick up Ninja Tabi.

Mercury's Treads
Mercury's Treads are great items as well. The tenacity that they provide can be great into matchups where they have stuns that you cannot counterplay. Champions like Kennen, Ryze or even Neeko where dodging her stun is possible but very difficult. Treads work very well into high CC teams with champions like Sejuani, Morgana or Braum where you getting stunned is an inevitability. Though I wouldn’t recommend it for Toplane, but as a jungler who is going to be dealing with everyone on the enemy team from early on, getting Mercs earlier is well worth it if heavy CC is problematic.

Boots of Mobility
Boots of Mobility are for when you are going the damage build and would like to go in and out of lanes over and over again. It is for when you are super fed in terms of kills, are getting all the damage items, are camping lanes and just ganking people non stop. You WILL be set behind in XP but in terms of gold, these boots can help you ramp up your snowballing to a maximum and let you solo win a game in 5-10 minutes. But doing so requires a LOT of good jungling knowledge. And honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it as it gives no actual combat stats and the other upgraded boots are better DURING fights. But if you are fed and love to live on the edge, pick them up a bit and see if you like the high speed playstyle.


TRINITY FORCE vs BLACK CLEAVER


The choice between Trinity Force and Black Cleaver is one you are going to have to make depending on your playstyle, the enemy team composition and whether you are able to generate a lead or not. The TL;DR of the comparison is that you want to go Trinity Force if you are ahead and are up against squishy champions. This makes you a better splitpusher, duelist, a bigger backling threat and overall just a better carry. Black Cleaver however, is what you want to buy when you are up against more than 2 tanks, when you have fallen behind, as it lets you be more useful to your team in teamfights, or you want to go for hard wins the early game as it is cheaper. Do not build both of them at the same time for the love of god.


TRINITY FORCE
VS

BLACK CLEAVER
Trinity Force has much more damage and it lets you outplay your opponents better. You will be less of a use to your team utility wise but that does not matter as you will be a dueling monster and a splitpushing threat with how quickly you take down turrets. Your burst makes you very dangerous to the enemy backline and allows for your Flash plays to be even more powerful. You want to go for Trinity Force if you are fed and it is up to you to carry. As a jungle, you will also LOVE the 5% extra movespeed.


Black Cleaver is what you should go for if you are looking to play more around your team, if the enemy has a tanky lineup, if you fell behind in lane or if you want to build cheap damage items and win the game quickly(better into lategame teams. Lets you 1v9 finish the game before they can scale). It has more AD and HP but it does not offer anywhere close to the damage Trinity Force does. Your bleed passive synergises with the item very well, because if you hit an enemy once, the bleed stack will lead to them having the full Black Cleaver armour shred. If you wish to work more with the team incase there is another carry, and especially if you are looking to frontline for your team, then Black Cleaver with a full tank build might be a viable option.




VIABLE ITEMS


Sterak's Gage
Sterak's Gage is an incredible item for Darius. The stats that it gives are great. The health is great but due to Darius’ high base AD, the item gives you up to 70 bonus AD which is very powerful. The shield along with the tenacity is very powerful in teamfights as it stops you from being bursted down. It lets you survive getting caught, survive some burst, and it helps you 2v1. Another great thing about this item is that the shield scales off of the HP you will build and the bonus AD will scale along with your level, leading to the item scaling well as the game continues.


Dead Man's Plate
This is a great best tank item for Darius. It gives you great tank stats and it gives you an okay slow on your next auto attack. The damage is somewhat negligible. But the slow on the AA is not why we build this item. The movement speed is. The movement speed lets you chase people down better and, more importantly, it allows for you to rotate much faster. This becomes exceedingly more useful as the game goes, as you might have to collapse on someone or get to an objective before a fight breaks out. The movement speed is also helpful when splitpushing.


Spirit Visage
The tank stats of this item are great. The increased healing on it, makes Spirit Visage your go to Magic Resist item. It synergises incredibly well with Darius, as your Q hits now heal for 20% of your missing HP instead of 15. It is a great option when the enemy players pick up grievous wounds and a VERY good purchase when your team has a healer.

Righteous Glory
Turbo Chemtank is a very nice item. It gives you a powerful active, decent tank stats and is quite cheap. It allows for you to catch up to characters who would normally kite you out. It helps you teamfight better, so it is a great 3rd of 4th item to pick up. If you are up against some cheese champion like Zilean or a Vayne, then Turbo Chemtank might be your only hope of reaching and killing them.



ITEM POOL


Randuin's Omen
This item is great if you are up against champions that build crit. Yasuos, Tryndameres and fed ADCs come to mind. The slow on it is very great in teamfights and when catching people out for your team. It makes you tankier than Dead Man's Plate but the movespeed from Dead Man's Plate is better for the Jungle so get this if you just need to tank up and be better in teamfights.

Adaptive Helm
Adaptive Helm is somewhat inferior to Spirit Visage but if you are up against an AP champion that spams abilities like Ryze or Cassiopeia, then you need to go for this item. Adaptive Helm also works vs the AP damage portion of Corki’s autoattacks, Kai'Sas passive and Kog'Maw’s percentage health damage. It works against ANY SOURCE OF MAGIC DAMAGE THAT IS REPEATED. It should work against Mordekaiser as well but if you are going to itemise against him, it is better for you to pick up Quicksilver Sash, break free of his ultimate and disengage as he only beats you with his ultimate.

Thornmail
Thornmail is a very niche item but it is great at what it does. Though for most of the game, you will be sitting on a Bramble Vest, upgrading it to Thornmail is not a bad idea at all. The massive amount of Armour helps greatly when you are stacking it against a full AD team. This item is optimal against an enemy team that has healing autoattackers( Fiora, Draven with Bloodthirster). It also SOMEWHAT helps against those that build on-hit but on-hit builds tend to be nigh impossible to deal with once the one building them gets ahead. Overall, Thornmail is a great pickup if you are up against a full AD team.

Gargoyle Stoneplate
Gargoyle Stoneplate is, in my opinion, a very underrated and underutilized item for Darius. If you are planning on frontlining for your own team, you are your team's only engage or you are up against heavy DPS, this item is a MUST HAVE. It only helps in teamfights so you will be mostly wanting to take it into games where you will be working with your team extensively. The item allows for you to tank a LOT of damage (unless you are up against a character like Vayne or Kog'Maw) for quite a long time. It gives you time to stack your passive off of tanks during the active duration of the item, then allowing for you to engage and reap the enemy team after its effects are over. It is also a great item for saving you if you are low, with it not decrease the damage of your ultimate being a nice bonus. But it is somewhat counterintuitive if you are going for a Trinity Force based build, as it cuts your damage by a significant amount. Normally, you would stray away from this item but if you fell behind and you are in a position where you HAVE to work with your team, this item is an excellent choice.

Death's Dance
Death's Dance is a damage item. It gives you a lot of AD and makes all of your abilities do quite a bit of damage. The CDR is great, the lifesteal allows you to sustain much better and the passive of the item makes you impossible to burst down along with Sterak's Gage. The biggest weakness of the item is its price. There are cheaper items that work better with Darius and the time it takes to build Death's Dance is enough for the enemy, who is building properly, to screw you over. Not to mention how it is super risky, meaning that if you get taken down with it, you will be throwing away a massive lead and it might be the mistake that costs you the game if you are your teams only carry. If you know you can play carefully, it is an okay option.

Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel is the item that you want to be getting if you are super ahead and have to carry your team. It is when you know that your death would probably lead to the end of the game which is why you would immediately build this item and then get into teamfights to abuse your mid-game powerspike. The stats on it are not that appealing but the passive is really great. Keep in mind that this item isn't going to allow you to go “oh I get to turn off my brain and run at the enemy team”. When you carry, you have to think the MOST. So when you die, make sure that you have taken down enough people with you to the point where your team can actually follow up and help you as you revive. The item does fall off super hard lategame, where a tank item would be much better though. It is a good choice as a third item.

Youmuu's Ghostblade
Youmuu's Ghostblade is the only lethality item I'd recommend. It works very well against a squishy team and combined with Black Cleaver/ Trinity Force, you will just oneshot squishies instantly. Overall, high risk but high reward item. Don't use it if you are new to Darius or if you are going for the tankier, Cinderhulk build.

Knight's Vow
Playing support AS Darius isn't great. HOWEVER, if you are feeding and you have a fed carry on your team who is your only hope for victory, then it does help to get tanky support items like Knight's Vow or Locket of the Iron Solari to help them out.

Quicksilver Sash
Quicksilver Sash is a great item to pick up and sit on if you are your team's only carry and are against Malzahar or Mordekaiser. It is even more important if you are a jungler as Mordekaiser can stop you from securing objectives. Just train yourself to use it quickly. You almost never want to upgrade it to Mercurial Scimitar unless it is hyper late game, and you have completely filled out all of your item slots.

Executioner's Calling
Executioner's Calling is similar to Bramble Vest in purpose. Darius’ bleed allows for him to apply Grievous Wounds very effectively with this item. If they have a strong healer on the enemy team and nobody else is willing to pick this item up, then it might be you who has to do it. Executioner's Calling is also great into Vladimir and Swain, as they are big healers who won’t be auto attacking you. Unfortunately, Executioner's Calling does not build into any useful item for Darius later down the line. Once another character in your team gets Grievous Wounds, you should be selling it.

FLASH
Flash is vital on Darius. It makes him a threat to the enemy backline, it saves your life when you get caught which will be often as an immobile champion and it allows you to outplay your opponents in any situation. It also lets you cross walls when it is urgent and make plays around major objectives, letting you steal with smite.
GHOST
Ghost is a great summoner spell as it eliminates one of the things that inhibit your destructive abilities on Darius which is your lack of mobility. Ghost makes it difficult to nigh impossible to kite you, it makes it easy to land your Qs, it lets you run away from bad fights(not as effectively as flash), it also lets you chase people down and it is on a much lower cooldown than Flash meaning you will be able to make more plays. Ghost takes most 1v1s from tricky/impossible, to easy/doable. In toplane, most Darius onetricks take it all the time but it is much more risky in the Jungle, as Flash is just necessary and if you fall behind with Ghost, you are likely going to stay behind.

Smite
You cannot jungle without Smite. No jungle items, no objective control, MUCH worse clears, etc. Bad idea in general. My other guide is more useful if you are planning on playing him toplane.

The thing with Darius is that there is no one concrete combo. This is not a fighting game. This is not Riven where you have a combo lined up for every situation. As Darius, you have your abilities which you can use in any order. It all depends on the situation.

The biggest thing to remember for Darius though is the cancelling of his W animation. You use your empowered W on a target and then press Q just as Darius begins his auto attack animation. This way, Darius still hits the enemy with his W but the wind up for the Q begins which allows for you to hit your enemy with the two abilities one after another. Add an auto attack and you are left with an AA+W+Q combo that can get you 3 stacks in seconds. With Trinity Force, this combo will be able to chunk squishies down and do so VERY quickly. Get into practice tool and work on being able to do this combo reliable.

Another thing you can practice is to make sure the enemy has no chance to escape your ultimate. If you are in a teamfight or are chasing your opponent down where your target is out of your R range, and your ultimate will immediately kill them, then the obvious thing is to Flash+R. But remember, if the enemy predicts that you will do this, then they can Flash too. In order to circumvent this, you have to press R on your target and THEN Flash. R+ Flash. In the opposite order. Why this is better is due to the fact that when you press R on someone, Darius will walk towards them and ult immediately as they get in range. So if you R before you Flash and are in Ult range with your opponent for mere milliseconds, then Darius will automatically begin ulting. And we all know that Darius Ultimate cannot be dodged once it begins. This techinque essentially reduces the time window the enemy has to Flash or dash away to a bare minimum. It being super easy to do is also a plus.

One more thing you can do is practice Flash Q and Flash E. They are not really any special mechanics but you have to practice the timing. The key idea is to Flash just before Darius swings his Q around, NOT when he winds it up. Remember, in League of Legends, the more time you give your opponent to react, the less successful you are going to be. Be lightning quick so that you can kill them before they can react. Both Flash Q and E will get better as you play more Darius and get used to his hitboxes and whatnot though.
Here is a video I made where I do all of the above and explain how to do so, how they work and etc. along with a few more tips here and there.


Overall, you want to be staying away from Gromp earlier on as you will have Hunter’s Talisman since it is what you will be running 99% of the time. I can’t give you a guaranteed route that will work ALL the time but this one has worked so far. Keep in mind that if you are doing a camp but see a lane that needs help IMMEDIATELY and you CAN make a difference, drop the camp and go help. This is only if it is an emergency though. Don’t be doing this earlier on.

Red - Raptor - Wolves - Blue - Gromp - Gank/Crab - Back - Krugs - etc.

You mostly want to start at Red, regardless of whether it is your toplane or your botlane leashing you. It is true that 2 people leashing is better than 1 but Red Buff gives you HP regen and it lets you do more damage and clear faster which leads to you overall having a healthier clear. But if you want to start botlane, you may use this path which is essentially just a mirrored version. You want a decent leash regardless, as any bit helps at the end of the day. And also, HIT YOUR QS ON THE MAIN MONSTERS. The healing from your Q is vital so make sure you don’t miss it. EVER.

Blue - Wolves - Raptor - Red - Krugs - Gank/Crab - Back - Gromp - etc.

After this you mostly wanna path in a way through your camps that will lead you to the lanes you wish to gank/objectives you plan on pressuring/taking. You want to kill camps as soon as they come up because camps have levels. You see, a camp will have the level of the average level of all champions in the game. And the higher level a camp is, the more XP and Gold it will give off. So if you kill them quickly, they will respawn more and you will get a bigger overall yield from them.

Keep your eyes open for invade opportunities. Lets say your enemy jungler ganks top but you can’t make plays botside. Then go take all of his botside camps but be sure to start backing off when his team starts rotating.

Kiting camps is a very important part of jungling as it reduces the amount of damage you take by quite a lot. My Jungle gameplay contains quite a bit of it from a Darius’ perspective but it is not really a tutorial whereas this video is. So go check this video out and try to apply it in game so that you minimize HP loss.

Another trick you can do is quickly Q the raptor camp and THEN start doing redbuff. The Talisman passive combined with your bleed will give you an INSANE amount of HP regen overall, which will make your inital clear very healthy.

As Darius, you have to pick your ganks very carefully as you are not very good at them until you get your blue smite. In earlier levels, you mostly want to be looking at counter ganks but if you are just ganking by yourself, try to do so towards lanes that are pushed up as they will have time to walk away if they are closer to your turret. Once you get near the bushes, use your Oracle Lens so that you are not spotted by wards.
Also keep the amount of setup your laners have in mind. If you are ganking for a Leona+ Draven who can instantly start fights, you will have a much easier time than ganking for a Vladimir top who will basically do nothing until you come and engage. Once you get your blue smite and your ultimate, your tankiness and your burst will allow you to dive very well so you basically want to run at the enemy, blue smite them and then pile your slows on. Try to save your E for the last with this. Basically run in, do your AA-W-Q but save your E for when they Flash. It is also not bad to use your flash in ganks earlier on.
Use Blast Cone and your vision plants as much as possible too. Olaf has a VERY SIMILAR playstyle to Darius in the jungle in terms of both builds, paths and ganking patterns so if you are a jungler looking for a good parallel that you are familiar with or a player who wants to learn more about jungle but apply it to Darius, then Olaf is similar enough to the point where your knowledge should improve your Darius Jungle gameplay.
As an early game lane bully, this period of the game is going to be the most important one. Darius spikes very hard during early-midgame fights where nobody has the damage to burst him down. Gathering a lead in early scuttle fights or counterganks will allow for you to be the main carry of your team up until the very end of the midgame. Darius jungle is a tricky playstyle. You NEED levels as Darius as without levels, Darius is very terrible as that is how he gets all of his stats. But you also need kills to be effective. This is why I think that you should be playing around clearing your jungle but also being there for bigger fights. You should be trying very hard to track your enemy jungler and just mirroring their ganks. Darius will win most 2v2s so learning how to countergank properly is the way to go if you want to put yourself ahead, and more importantly, put the enemy jungler behind. You also want to be looking to gank botlane the most as you will be getting more kills and an objective out of it. Speaking of objectives, PRIOTIZIE THEM. Try to plan your jungle routes around the objectives that are up and make sure you do not neglect them. Laners pay very little attention to objectives as they are wayy to busy fighting their opposing laner. You are the one who has to initiate things most of the time. Take as many drakes as possible and never give them away unless you have no other choice. So plan around ganks/fights that give you multiple kills, objectives, and invades/1v1s where you are trying to put yourself ahead of the enemy jungler. Be careful when invading though as if the enemy laners start rotating, you are ****ed as you really have no good escape since you are immobile.

Overall, try to get as big as you possibly can get in terms of both XP and Gold, as you will need it if you want to truly 1v9.

Mid Game Playstyle

The midgame is arguably the most important part of the game and most of the time, it is when the game is on its way to finish as game length has been very low lately. The length of a game gets lower the higher up the ranks you go, as people tend to be better at closing games out and knowing what to do with leads. The midgame is when Darius spikes the hardest. As long as you haven’t died more than 3-4 times and actually have ganked your team a bit and have kept up in farm, you should be one of the key players for your team so keep your eyes open. And even if you did feed, getting multiple kills in a single teamfight can get you back into the game so you should always keep your eyes open.

Mid game when you should be looking to end the game. Your biggest priority should be taking down your opponent’s first turrets in every lane using Herald or by just wiping out the enemy laners and taking the turret with your allied laners. but that alone isn’t enough to win you games. The tricky part of this stage is balancing how much time you spend farming with how much time you spend getting kills and/or objectives around the map. Though the more fed you are, the more fights and objectives you should be taking as you are just powerful enough to do so and taking as many as possible is the way to rush the game to a quicker finish. I myself play primarily around Botlane and Midlane. This is due to the fact that if I win midlane, then I can roam together with midlane to 3-4 man top or botlane. Not to mention how Midlane can help for both Herald and Drakes. Botlane has 2 kills instead of 1 and a successful botlane gank will usually amount to a turret or a drake. And in this meta, getting as many drakes as possible is a win condition due to how powerful Dragon Soul is. I usually do hit my toplaner up with an early level 3-4 gank to help them snowball. This is simply my playstyle though. I just think its easier to win the game through the botside. Rift Herald is a powerful objective so if you get ahead early, take it with your toplaner or even alone if you aren’t afraid of the enemy 2v1ing you. Rift Herald can actually help you take T2s and push the game to an early win VERY quickly. But be aware that taking inhibitor before Baron is sometimes bad as it is just giving the enemy free farm. Superminions give a lot of gold so try to only use it to take the other turrets first.

As you start snowballing, the rest of the momentum should just come naturally as you go from one side of the map to the other, taking objectives left and right. As long as you are fed, you are the one dictating the game and you do NOT want to give the enemy ANY room to breathe. Be ruthless, be quick and be decisive. You fall off.

Mid game is when teamfights occur most often and you should ALWAYS be involved. Before we get into these concepts, there are a few more things that you should know. One of these things is the importance of your summoner spells. You might’ve noticed that after playing a bunch of Darius, WITH your Ghost and Flash, you are an unstoppable god but without them, you feel like an immobile turtle who rarely does anything without help from your team. This is why sometimes, it is better to get into fights only when you have your summoner spells. And sometimes, a single kill won’t be worth a summoner spell. It is up to you really. Just be aware of your limits as a Darius who has no summoner spells as overstepping and expecting to be saved by your Ghost when in actuality it is on cooldown can be a great way to int away a game. Another key tip is to NOT DIE. Seriously. Dying throws away such a massive gold and XP lead. If you just focus on not dying and you keep farming properly, you will eventually build up a 3-4 level advantage over the enemy team. That is not to say that it is ALWAYS bad to die. But it is just bad MOST of the time. With how bounties work recently, if you have a lead, then the game is going to slap a bounty on you which will make death even more punishing.


Here is a Coaching video I will be linking multiple times in this guide as it explains a lot of concepts at once.

Teamfighting

Teamfights in most elos are a chaotic mess where nobody really knows what’s going on. And sometimes, that includes you at times. To keep focus in teamfights and not do stupid things, you have to, first off, clear your head when a teamfight is coming up. Concentration is key. The next thing is to establish what your goals for a teamfight are. What is your role for this current game? Are you acting as a peeler where you will be sticking to your carry, stopping everyone from getting to them and getting 5 stacks off of the tank that is going to attack them in order to then run the enemy team down? Are you a tank frontliner who will be the one engaging and facing the enemy tanks? Or are you a squishy yet dangerous threat to the enemy backline who can use his summoner spells to decimate the enemy backline? Whatever your goals are, keep them in mind but do not adhere to them too much. It is a dynamic game and sometimes, unpredictable things can happen. You might be trying to get 5 stacks off of a tank but then an assassin will be caught and reduced to 300 health right next to you. At that point, switching targets will allow you to get to your passive faster. Do not tunnel vision too much. Keep a general overview of how the fight is going. And if it looks like you guys are all gonna die, it might be better to fall back and mitigate the losses.

Your goal as Darius should be to kill the enemy team which you do by getting access to your passive. Your passive is a GAME CHANGER. It can turn the tide of battle as it lets you oneshot essentially anyone on the enemy team unless you are very far behind. There are two approaches to go about doing so but keep this thing in mind. IF A LOW HP ENEMY IS IN YOUR RANGE, GO FOR THEM! AUTO THEM ONCE AND USE YOUR ULTIMATE TO KILL THEM. The more you play Darius, the more of a sense you are going to get for how much damage he does with his ultimate. Now that we got that out of the ways, lets get into the two ways. Manually stack up to 5, and then chunking a backliner with a combo and executing them with R. Manually stacking up to your passive can take quite a bit of time. You need to be a frontliner to do so and as a tank, you will be very prone to getting comboed and chunked down. The other way is to get your hands onto a Soraka or a Jhin or some other low HP backline champion and using your combo to get them low enough where your Ultimate will be enough to kill them without 5 stacks. This way is easier to do when you are flanking and you are generally going to need a summoner spell to do it effectively. But this way IS the more effective way to go through teamfights unless you’ve built like a full tank. Flanking is all about vision control and having superior positioning. You could also do it with splitpushing but splitting as a jungler is a very bad idea.

If you haven’t carried the game to a victory by now, know that it is no longer up to you to win the game. Darius is strong early, immensely powerful midgame but also terribly weak lategame. Although a tank build will allow you to do more than a damage build, you will get shredded to bits either way by the enemy backline. You have to work with your teammates and if your teammates are feeding, then the game is essentially lost. Splitpushing is not really an option as you are the Jungler. If the enemy team sees you on the other side of the map, then it is a chance for them to begin rushing an objective with your team not being able to stop them. Just be a meatshield/ Smite bot for your team. Teamfighting lategame is very difficult as one misstep results in your immediate death. If you do not have Flash or Ghost, then you will not be able to do any killing in a teamfight if the enemy carries know how to kite properly. Your ultimate damage is still staggering though. You should be saving your squishy teammates from assassins and peeling for them until you get your Noxian Might after which point you should try to oneshot at least one of the enemy carries using your Flash. Your ultimate also helps deal with tanks. Don't tunnel vision on attacking the enemy.


PROTECT YOUR BACKLINE.



They have the damage to carry now, you don't.
Thanks a lot for reading this guide. It was difficult to get this out ASAP as I don't have too much time on my hands. I will be putting in more improvements as time goes on! Matchups and Synergies will come soon! But for now, I hope this is good enough. I tried to contain everything you need to know in this guide. If you do have any specific questions or need something explained in more detail, then simply contact me and I will try my best to help out as quickly as possible. And be sure to check out my original Darius Guide for more Darius information :D

-Rhoku

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