Yorick is a very annoying lane to deal with. Since Darius lacks mobility, if Yorick has ghouls and manages to catch you in his cage, you're in trouble. What you need to do in this situation is flash (or AA+W the cage quickly) to avoid dying. But sometimes, since his cage is buggy as hell, AA+W killing the cage will actually doesn't reset your W cooldown so you can't trade him properly.
Yorick is a free kill without his ghouls. You must stop him from approaching the wave, which actually prevents him from generating graves. But once he has ghouls you have to give him lane priority in order to survive, which also means he can generate even more graves.
Yorick beats you with his ghouls and his cage which allows him to kite you, which is why you must have your ghost against him so as not to let him retreat without damaging him.
The Maiden is really really strong in 1v1 or even 1v2 situation so try to get hit by his skill shot under your turret so that The Maiden aggros onto you and actually dies under turret or try to kill her when Yorick's going for a recall.
Yorick is a losing matchup and you have to mechanically outplay him in order to beat him. For example you can wait for his spells and then flash in to get closer while he is helpless.
Quinn
First, Quinn is a range champion so she doesn't need to put herself in danger to last hit the cs. Then she can blind you with her Q when you get closer push you away with her E to cancel your garb. If you manage to E her, try to walk behind her and then AA+W. This would mean that if she headbutts you, she will knock herself to your side of the lane which would allow you to kill her.
Vayne
It's the same as Quinn, she is a range champion so she doesn't need to put herself in danger to last hit the cs. Then she can dash away with her Q or she can catch up with you thanks to her passive. Moreover she can push you away you her E and even stun you. She have true damage so you can't tank her. On top of that, when she ult then Q, she's invisible, which makes her impossible to AA or ult so you need to tempo her ult and then re-engage with the ghost or stridebreaker. Sterak is really strong against Vayne because the only counter to her true damage is shields, that's why Shen is a "counter pick" to Vayne.
Wukong
Wukong is extremely powerful against bruiser thanks to his Q that shred your armor. If you ever die to his cheese, play safe because this champ snowball very hard. He is pretty good against Darius because of his E that gives him a massive AS steroid. If you try to Q him when he has it, he'll probably just dash into you and spam AA+Q until you die so be careful. However your bleed stacks reveal him so you can keep chasing him after his W. You just need to survive laning phase and you're good to go.
Tahm Kench
This champ counter every toplaner in early game, even Darius can't trade him without a skill gap. You really need to dodge his Q because of the slow (or even the stun) to win the trade in early game. His E has low cooldown so he can clutch even at lvl 6 with your ult. Once you manage to survive the laning phase, Tahm Kench is much less powerful in late game so it's not really a big deal.
Jax
Jax is a very strong champion and can be tricky to beat for a newer Darius. You really do not want to die to Jax in this lane. If he gets fed he will be too strong to match on a splitpush and will easily be able to 1v2. Bork rush also makes Jax insanely hard to 1v1 that's why bramble / steelcap rush is very good against him. When your both level 1, start with your Q beause he'll probably takes his E. A good Jax will most likely jump into you with Q if you try to Q him so try to bait his Q or wait for an opportunity. If he jumps with his E, you have to grab him and then Q him, you'll win the trade by healing and doing some free damage. You can't beat him if his passive is stacked up, you have to think about him like a DPS toplaner. When his E is up, don't use your W instantly, hit him with it just as the stun goes off because even if you are stunned, the animation for the W will continue playing and it will actually hit him. Remember that you have a better power spike at lvl 6 than him.
Akali
Akali is a very good champion in laning phase. Her most powerful tools to beat you is her smoke and her empowered AA. Unless you're invading or waiting in the bushes, take your Q level 1 and aim for trades Q for Q because yours is stronger (heal + damage). Remember that Akali beats you because she can kite you with her Q and AA so level 2 - 3 when you have your slow + grab you can stick to her (even more with ghost + nimbus cloak) and kill her.
But like I said earlier her smoke is very powerful so try to make her walk outside of her smoke or wait for its end and then go for the all in. If you manage to hit her before she go in her smoke, you can see where she is thanks to your bleed ticks.
Your E is also very important since you can cancel every Akali's dashes if manage to grab her before she reaches you, this way you will 100% win the trade and even more if you cancel her R.
Indeed, her ultimate deals an incredible amout of damage. You can both get one shot level 6 (obviously depends on the items) but a great akali player will often win.
Negatron Cloak is a good defensive choice as you can builds into FoN later on.
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is the kind of matchup where if the opponent makes a mistake she dies : if she misses her Q, W or R you have an opening to kill her. But it is not up to you to initiate the duel, you have to wait for her to make a mistake.
If she takes Conqueror she'll be hard to kill due to the healing and she'll dealing more damage but you can (probably) escapes her. If she takes Phase Rush you can kill her with an all in but you will not be able to follow her movements.
Her W stops you from using your R and if you get hit by her R you'll probably die.
Buy Mercs and Negatron Cloak then build it into a FoN.
Lucian
Lucian is a range vs melee matchup so obviously not the best ones for Darius. He has a very good early game, thanks to his tons of damage, his dash he can pratically kill you with two combos and escapes with his E. In order to beat him you need to wait for him to make mistakes or waste his dash and then you can E - AA - reset W, after that Lucian will be defenseless. Steelcaps and Stridebreaker will be requiered to beat him 1v1. If you think you're too impatient and really want the creeps take resolve(second wind), if not take sorcery(nimbus cloak).
I'm going to skip the 'presentation' part because I'm nobody, I don't even have a good rank on LoL (I'm trying to reach platinum...) and I'm just doing this for fun and share my knowledge. Maybe one day if I reach the Challenger I would do this part but for the moment I will leave it empty.
PROS
+ Has a lot of damage + Has great tankiness / survivability + Can solo win teamfights + Can punish a mistake quickly and easily with his E + Can turn the situation to his advantage with his Q + Is never out of the game / can pop off with just a teamfight + Able to easily snowball a game + Is invincible in laning phase against almost every matchup + Free + Good skins
CONS
- Is very easy to kite (thank God they added the stridebreaker) - Is easily manageable by crowd control - Is much less powerful after 40 minutes - Is vulnerable if he misses an ability - Works less and less well when climbing elo / is very predictable - Is very bad at peeling - Is boring for some people (i'll explain it)
The runes that are circled are the ones you can take for real games, other ones are either really bad or pur trolling. Moreover, if you see the tree have between 1 - 3 then it's probably a secondary tree.
PRECISION
Conqueror is always good but sometimes not easy to stack. It gives healing which is very useful for bruiser in general and a ton of AD which is the best stat for Darius. When you don't need that bonus AD, Lethal Tempo is another option. The bonus AS makes you stack faster or keep your bleed stacks up with the bonus range. I'll recommend conqueror most of the time but lethal tempo is a very good keystone anyway. Then, if you just need to survive the lane, Fleet Footwork can be sometimes the solution if you think your laning opponent is better and you just want to play it safe.
The thing that decides if you take Triumph or Presence of Mind is your gameplay. Triumph is often the best option but if you have mana you can Q, and if you can Q you can heal, that's why Presence of Mind can be a good rune for players that either greed really hard or just love to harass and trade in lane.
Last Stand is always the better option because you're a bruiser so Cut Down is completely useless since you stack HP and you'll be often low HP and playing with your Q CD to get back up mid HP / full HP so it synergize well. Coup de Grace isn't bad but Last Stand just better if you look at the %.
RESOLVE
Grasp of the Undying WAS a good keystone but nowadays it's honestly useless, the trading in lane are kinda bad, stacking HP is useless as well in the current meta so wouldn't recommend taking it. Aftershock can rarely be taken into heavy damage matchup like Riven since it provides a lot of tankiness after a cancel grab for example, but most of the time Conqueror is better. Guardian if you're playing support versus hard poke champions and need to stay be your ADC side.
Resolve is a really good secondary tree. For the first line, Demolish is the only rune I would recommend, pretty good to take first turret with Darius early pressure and splitpushing but since splitpushing is kinda bad ATM Demolish isn't the best best neither the worst rune overall. Font of Life and Shield Bash are just useless runes.
All three runes are good. Conditioning is more a scaling rune while Darius can be very dominant in laning phase so it can delay a bit your snowball. Bone Plating is great against all-in kit and Second Wind into poke comp. Both runes are really good on Darius since it help him be more powerful and allow mistakes in early game.
Same with Overgrowth, it's a scaling rune so often taken with Conditioning. Unflinching might be the best rune in all the Resolve tree for bruisers. Revitalize can helps early trades with the Q healing and maybe buff the sterak's shield but that's all, not very good overall.
SORCERY
Same as the Resolve tree, Sorcery tree is OKAY as a secondary tree so the keystones are not the most important part. Phase Rush can be used anyway to chase your opponent but is kinda bad since the Stridebreaker. Taking Arcane Comet is a crime so you shouldn't take it. As for Summon Aery, it's bad, we all know it. But I find very fun ,in laning phase at least, because it's like Teemo poison but with Darius bleed so it does some damage. HRHR → High Risk High Reward
What makes Sorcery a good secondary tree is the MS boost runes. For the first line we have Nimbus Cloak which synergize very well with Ghost and Flash. It's clutch in many situations so it's clearly the best rune of the three. Nullifying Orb can be taken into magic damage matchup such as Cassiopeia or Teemo but most of the time Hexdrinker is way better. Manaflow Band is okay for the mana but clearly the worst.
Celerity is the best runes because it works with Nimbus Cloak and Ghost otherwise it's not that great. Transcendence is okay thanks to the AH but really negligible since your item path give enough AH. Absolute Focus is maybe the worst rune on Darius since you'll never be high HP long enough to actually make it works.
Last line is the worst, every runes are meh. Scorch is really fun if you want to play Daeryus ( Darius with Summon Aery) but that's all. Waterwalking helps you to roam and works with Celerity but since Darius doesn't roam that much it's pretty bad. Gathering Storm is the "best" rune since it gives AD. It's a scaling rune too but this rune alone doesn't justify taking Sorcery.
DOMINATION
Electrocute and Hail of Blades are fun / troll keystones you take when you play crit / lethal build in URF. Dark Harvest is insanely bad, never ever take it even when trolling. Predator is the only keystone in the Domination tree that can have an impact when playing jungle, it helps to gank and catch up with the enemies. The thing is if you want to use it toplane you'll have to either start with Boots which is kinda bad or do a "cheater recall" which delay the snowball because you have no damage without AD.
I'll warn you, domination is a very bad tree for Darius. Almost every single runes don't work or are really bad. If you're an URF enjoyer and you have to take Hail of Blades I recommend taking Cheap Shot, damage are ridiculous but it still does damage. Taste of Blood is not that great considering your Q healing. Sudden Impact works only if you Flash and gives no damage.
Who ward anyway, we're in toplane so it doesn't matter (jk). For real both Zombie Ward and Ghost Poro are useless unless you perma invade with pink. Eyeball Collection gives AD more easily so it's a bit useful but not that much, if you have to take one rune, take this one.
New Glacial Augment is super strong, it can be used in toplane and in support. The slow allows you to chase the enemies, run away, peel your ADC and allies. I recommend not taking it toplane because we already have Stridebreaker and W's slow. Unsealed Spellbook can be used I guess, but most of the times it'll be useless. First Strike can also be used in melee matchup because with Apprehend you have the first damage. Anyway I'll recommend not using Unsealed Spellbook or First Strike.
Future's Market can be useful to buy powerspike sooner and snowball harder. Minion Dematerializer is very useful if you play a certain build more tanky and you don't have enough damage to correctly push the waves. And then Biscuit Delivery is great for poor mana management or just greedy players like Presence of Mind that love to camp in the bushes without recalling.
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