RTO Here! About Me I am a Peak 578 LP Challenger, North American Top Laner and Streamer representing Team Radiance, whose mission is to promote positivity in League of Legends. My main is Renekton, but I play many other champions when I am target banned. I also have an incredible amount of top lane knowledge that I want to share with you guys. Darius is easy to pick up, and very forgiving for new players. He excels in most matchups and is a strong lane bully, along with having 1v2 potential throughout the game. If you like this guide, make sure to check out my even more in depth guides at my new website

★ The best choice of rune for damage output from Darius currently, is Conqueror. You gain up to 5 adaptive force (based on level) for 8 seconds, stacking to a max of 12. You gain 9% increased healing from all sources, so it's great for prolonged trades, skirmishes and late game teamfights. It's very strong with your heal.

★ Triumph can help grant you a clutch kill, or a quick escape from an enemy thinking he's secured the kill on you in a 2v1. It works in teamfights very well, contributing to the latter, and potentially allowing you to turn a teamfight.

★ Legend: Alacrity is a the best choice if you're going to try focus on carrying, and want the extra attack speed for extra damage output. If the enemy team has a lot of CC - hard or soft - tenacity is the best choice for Darius - especially due to his lack of mobility and getting shut down by CC, if you decide to fight a lot with your team or help you escape while split pushing if the enemies collapse on you.

★ With Coup de Grace, you deal 8% more damage to champions under 40% hp. Helps you to secure a kill, especially vs an enemy that doesn't expect the extra damage, and it's very easy for Darius to drop an enemy to that threshold, especially when fed or snowballing. Last Stand is a good pickup if you want to be that kind of tanky carry frontline, where you'll be in the middle of fights constantly, taking the brunt of the damage, along with AoE damage. It can also help you turn around teamfights at that last, clutch second.

★ In the current meta, tower plates are one of the first objectives you want to be focused on, and Demolish helps you achieve this. If intend to split push a lot, or want to end a game fast, Demolish is a good choice to take.

★ Another rune to help keep yourself alive longer, especially if being focused down by a single target, taking less damage from their next 3 abilities or attacks you receive from them. Good if you're going to be making quick trades with the opposing laner.

★ If there is very high damage top that can shred through you, such as Vayne and Neeko, Aftershock is a viable rune to help you sustain throughout the damage they output.

★ Works well with Legend: Tenacity due to the extra tencity you receive. You want to take this if the enemy team has very high hard CC that will shut you down easily.

★ The quicker your attack speed, the higher your damage output. No brainer.

★ Your next two runes are interchangeable depending on the enemy match up you're against. You want more damage? Adaptive force! More AP? Take magic resist. More physical? Take armor. Want / need more hp? Take HP!

PASSIVE ABILITY

Hemorrhage ✦ INNATE: Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities that strike with his blade 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. ✦ Hemorrhage will not be triggered when attacking structures. ✦ Hemorrhage will not be applied if the autoattack is dodged, parried or if it misses.

Q

Decimate ✦ Darius hefts 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 enemy champions hit by the blade) missing health. The shaft of Darius' axe will not apply Hemorrhage or heal him.

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. Crippling Strike can critically strike for 100% (+ Infinity Edge 25%) bonus physical damage. If Crippling Strike kills its target it refunds its mana cost and half of its cooldown. ✦ Crippling Strike resets Darius' autoattack timer. ✦ Crippling Strike's target will only gain 1 Hemorrhage stack for the attack.

E

Apprehend ✦ PASSIVE: Darius gains armor penetration up to 35% at max rank. ACTIVE: 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. ✦ Apprehend does not deal damage and thus will not apply any Hemorrhage stacks or any other spell effects. ✦ Apprehend can pull targets over terrain just as other similar abilities can.

R

Noxian Guillotine ✦ After leaping unstoppably for 0.25 seconds, Darius attempts to execute the targeted enemy champion, dealing 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, 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. ✦ Noxian Guillotine does not go on cooldown or consume mana if it's interrupted. ✦ Noxian Guillotine will apply one stack of Hemorrhage 5 if Noxian Might is active.

If you choose to take Crippling Strike at level one for a brush cheese, you will want to sit in the brush that is closest to the enemies tower. When they arrive in lane, and come to start farming, you will AA > Crippling Strike > AA, while following their escape route. You will most likely blow the enemies Flash at minimum when executing this strat correctly.

You can take Decimate level one instead, hard pushing the wave into their tower, denying the opponent CS or securing level 2 first, thus securing lane priority. You will need to ward the river asap if you're doing this, as you can be very vulnerable to ganks.

You can last hit with Crippling Strike, much like Nasus and his Siphoning Strike, it refunds half of it's CD along with full mana when killing a unit. Do not use this if you're at risk of a trade or all-in, you don't want to be left out to dry by using it on a minion and having it on CD!

At level 3, you generally can start to 1v1 any enemy with ease, especially with the heal that Decimate provides, as long as the enemy is in your axe range and not stood next to you - high mana cost though, beware! Noxian Might is one of the biggest turning factors in a fight, you want to be stacking, and hopefully keeping it stacked, as much as possible, especially throughout a skirmish or teamfight.

Once you're 6+, you can focus on pushing the wave into the enemy tower and trying to take some early plates with Demolish. Don't use Noxian Guillotine just for last hits either, you can use it as a small gap closer, using it early for max damage with Noxian Might, or to stick on them along with Crippling Strike.
Help out your jungler if he comes to take Rift Herald, and secure first blood tower for your team. At this point you can potentially invade the enemies jungle, taking away vital XP, gold and their blue buff, if you're on red side.


Outside of laning phase, you have the option to group with your team and take objectives, or split push. If your team has a strong team fight, you can group with them, invading the enemy jungle, forcing fights over objectives, or pushing lanes.

Darius excels at split pushing for multiple reasons, including


The ideal times to split push are as follows -

If Baron Nashor is alive and your Teleport is available, you can split push bot lane.
If Baron Nashor is alive and your Teleport is down, you will be split pushing top lane.

If Baron Nashor is dead, and your Teleport is down, you will split push bot lane, especially if a dragon will be spawning.
If Baron Nashor is dead, and your Teleport is available, you can split push top lane.

You want to split push the lane opposite to the most important, neutral objective, if your Teleport is available. This way, you can take the majority of pressure off the objective, as the enemies will not be able to answer you solo, and they give up the objective to your team. If you know the enemies will be collapsing on you soon, you will want to spam ping your team to complete the objective as quickly as possible. If the enemies collapse on your team, you can Teleport to them to quickly reach the fight, or chunk down the enemies defenses.
Make sure you have good vision around you, so you can see enemies coming from fog of war, which you can either back off, or choose to take the fight, potentially securing a 1v2.

If you're in the middle of a fight, you can Flash and Apprehend into the middle of the enemies, as long as your team is ready to follow up, this is if you're going to be relied on for heavy engage - which Darius does not excel at. You want to try and focus down the enemy ADC, or squishies first, you have high damage and can easily get your 5 stacks, with your trading combo - which is as follows

AA > Crippling Strike > AA > Apprehend > AA > Decimate and finish them off with a Noxian Guillotine.

Use your Decimate on up to 3 champions if you can in a teamfight, giving you the maximum heal possible, and proccing Hemorrhage on all 3, doing a significant chunk of DoT damage. Make sure to maintain Noxian Might throughout the teamfight, it is completely essential to stomping the enemy team.

Be careful if the enemy team have a Lulu, she will Whimsy you, completely negating any of your damage and essentially rendering you useless. The same goes for any very hard CC such as Morgana's Dark Binding, Malzahar's Nether Grasp, or an Ezreal that has built Iceborn Gauntlet to kite you - this is less effective due to your Noxian Guillotine's leap, and if you have chosen to take Ghost.

I hope you have enjoyed and learnt enough from my Darius guide, to decimate your enemies, and conquer the game.

If you're interested in seeing more of Darius, Renekton and myself, please follow my stream! I am streaming every day, and I engage with my chat consistently.

If you like this guide, make sure to check out my even more in depth guides at my new website

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