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Darius Build Guide by Spadjii

Top (7.22) ULTIMATE NBA PLAYER GUIDE

Top (7.22) ULTIMATE NBA PLAYER GUIDE

Updated on November 10, 2017
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Spadjii Build Guide By Spadjii 37,283 Views 2 Comments
37,283 Views 2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Spadjii Darius Build Guide By Spadjii Updated on November 10, 2017
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Recommended Items

Runes:

Precision
Press the Attack
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Taste of Blood
Ravenous Hunter

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
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Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
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Introduction to my favourite NBA player.

THE ULTIMATE DUNK GUIDE





IF YOU WANNA' DUNK: I am Spadjii and I want to give you a spicy guide on how to use my favourite champion since the beginning of time. Bare in mind, this guide was written through my own Darius experience in Season 7 so if you think i have made any glaring mistakes feel free to let me know as any recommendations for Darius, I will take on board to make this guide better.

DISCLAIMER: This is also my first guide so it may not be perfect but my passion for Darius has led me to creating a guide so like minded NBA players can get together and enjoy this beauty of a champion. I will try to make it as in-depth and informative as possible to make sure I covered ALL aspects of Darius and why I personally main him.

<3: Darius is a top lane-born early to mid sustain juggernaut with high lane and fight sustain and conditional damage with absolutely no mobility and little late game potential. He is the bane of all melee tanks and bruisers in the top lane and establishes himself as one of the toughest lane bullies top lane offers with the most satisfying ultimate in the game (in my opinion), the NOXIAN GUILLOTINE.

What I think of Darius for the new season: So far, I have realised that the new runes will HELP Darius more than hinder him, and here's why. Being an aggressive laner, Darius needs tools that will allow him to bully the enemy laner and eventually kill them consistently. From what I've found, the new runes are perfect for this as it gives him more choices on how to deal the damage he needs to. Also, with the Ardent Meta finally slowing down a bit, it will help you more towards the mid game with less worries about carries doing absurd damage while their Soraka is healing them for half their hp every few seconds. Champions like Soraka and Janna are natural counters to Darius, so with them being picked less often and ardent being less effective, it allows Darius to be more useful in the middle stages of the game.The new Sterak's too is insanely strong on darius as it gives him EVERYTHING he wants and giving him easier time dealing with CC in fights.

ONTO MORE PERSONAL MATTERS...

NOOB: I'm an EUW player with 141 games under my belt as Darius in ranked by the end of Season 7 finishing with a 61% w/r in G2, I want to say I one trick him but i use other similar bruisers in the case he is ever banned. Here's my OP.GG if you ever want a look: Spadjii

OTHER STUFFS': I've played Darius since the beginning of the season and have racked up 255k mastery points by the end, he has an incredibly fun kit which keeps you interested in him with a brutish furious personality. Mastering Darius has also helped me realise the potential damage a champion can deal and allowed me to learn other aspects of the game as I did not have to focus on what my champion capability is. He is rather easy to pick up and you will most likely be shunned for playing Darius but there is a clear as day difference between a GOOD Darius and an AMAZING Darius and I believe he is one of those champs that will allow you to learn about game mechanics more than other top laners.

ENJOY THE REST MY COMRADES :D
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LOVE AND HATE

This section I will dedicate to his strengths and weaknesses so you know in what situations he thrives or starves in:

Why you SHOULD love Darius:
+AMAZING CHARACTER
+LANE AND FIGHT SUSTAIN
+REALLY GOOD SNOWBALL POTENTIAL
+SATISFYING ABILITIES THAT DO DAMAGE
+THE DUNK
+EZ 2V1 POTENTIAL
+TANK SHREDDER
+PENTA-MACHINE


Why you SHOULDN'T love Darius so much:
-NO MOBILITY
-ABILITY RELIANT
-NO DAMAGE IF NO STACKS
-CAN BE BURSTED DOWN IN TEAM FIGHTS
-REALLY UNDERWHELMING IN LATE GAME
-HATES KITE CHAMPIONS AND CC
-LESS CC THAN TOP TANKS
-INCREDIBLY VULNERABLE TO GANKS PRE 6
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NEW RUNES (IMPORTANT)



I will try to analyze every single viable rune setup and keystone for Darius here which will be rather important for you to decide on which of these fits YOUR play style and I will give my reasons for each choice and which I would go for personally. The choices lye between the Precision, Domination and Resolve rune trees, some have a few viable options, others have 1 route that works.

PRECISION

PRESS THE ATTACK BUILD

This can be called the modern day adaptation Fervor of Battle which was my primary keystone in Season 6, this however doesn't provide only AA damage but other benefits too. After 3 auto attacks, the rune will deal a fixed amount of AD damage dependent on level and make that target take an extra 12% damage from ALL sources, and yes that means your team as well. I think this is THE rune you should run on Darius as it synergises well with the W auto attack reset making it really easy to get at least 2 hits off, there isn't a fight in which you can't extremely reliably proc this on an opponent making it amazing for your Q and R follow up as those will deal even more damage to that target. I would personally run this run and I have tested it out in a few normal games and it felt like the damage increase was really significant, especially when laning.

The minor rune you should always take after taking Press the Attack is Triumph. It restores 12% of missing health per take down which is perfect for Darius and his ult synergy making you heal insane amounts in combination with your Q in fights. It also grants some gold on the side and who doesn't want that? The other runes like Overheal and Presence of Mind are useless as you will never reliably be able to get the Overheal shield being a melee front line juggernaut and Presence of Mind is not needed as your ultimate doesn't use mana after the first cast and Darius hardly ever has mana issues in fights in the first place narrowing down the option to only Triumph.

The Legend rune you take 99% of the time will be Tenacity for obvious, anti-cc reasons. This thing stacks up really fast since solo kills are quite common in the top lane when Darius is around and top lane cs is usually one of the highest in the game (assumin' you're decent at the game). By 10 stacks, it provides 20% which in combination with treads is 50% and if you really hate cc, buy Sterak's for a total of 70% tenacity which makes you stupidly resistant to stuns, slows, etc. The other Legend runes (Alacrity and Bloodline) are more damage fighter orientated like Jax or Fiora and ADCs. If you ever feel like going damage and messing around go for Alacrity in combination with Trinity Force, otherwise, Tenacity is the main choice here.

The last rune in the tree will also 99% of the time be Coup De Grace, making those dunks extra special, by increasing damage by 10% to targets under 40% health. A great boost in damage to go on that penta-spree in a team fight. The other rune that can be considered is Cut Down since tanks are most common in the top lane, however, Darius is already really strong against tanks as it is and it doesn't give you much of a damage boost since you build semi-tank too. Last Stand is out of the question since you don't really want to be low in fights and your Q heals you as it is making it really unreliable.

FLEET FOOTWORK BUILD

Fleet Footwork is the only other viable option since Lethal Tempo is an attack speed rune which Darius really doesn't need with his poor base AS and scaling. Fleet Footwork is also the modern day adaptation of Warlords Bloodlust, boosts your movement speed and heals you for a scaling AD amount. Though Warlords wasn't big on Darius last season, it is a viable choice that allows Darius chase his opponents with higher mobility (which he really lacks) making it easier to snowball and initiate. The heal is rather nice too for lane sustain but it will drastically fall of since you don't build AD which will make the heal really minor in later stages.

I take the exact same minor Precision runes as in the Press the Attack build.

The secondary tree I go for is Domination since it provides extra damage and sustain for Darius, I pick Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter as the secondary runes for extra healing on AAs and abilities which makes you quite tanky. More on these runes in the Domination path discussion below...

TREE BONUS: 18% Attack Speed - useful for laning, falls of late.

DOMINATION

ELECTROCUTE BUILD

Electrocute is definitely the only keystone rune you should take from this tree as Dark Harvest is more of an assassin and jungle scaling rune while Predator is a very sub-par rune compared to the others in its' base state and gets canceled as soon as you take damage which is definitely not what you want really making it useful for getting back into lane which is really, really boring... Electrocute however, makes you do stupid harass damage in a 1v1 and in fights as well as being really easy to proc (AA,W,Q or Q,AA,W etc.) which makes it ideal if you know that you have a very easy match up like Nasus or Maokai who can't really retaliate. This damage also scales when you hit 5 stacks of your passive meaning it can, possibly, do a BIG amount of damage if off cooldown during a fight.

The next rune you want to take from Domination is Taste of Blood, which heals you when attacking an enemy champion scaling with level and AD. This gives Darius some extra sustain which is a nice bonus. Cheap Shot can also be considered but it only works with hard CC (E - Apprehend) which is the longest ability cooldown which Darius has apart from his R (obviously) dealing some extra true damage for harass which is also, a nice bonus. Sudden Impact can't be used by Darius since he has no mobility apart from Flash therefore there is no need to discuss it.

The next rune pick can be anything you want it to be. Zombie Ward will be useful if you want to de-ward with Control Wards or if your jungler is ganking for you a lot. Ghost Poro is good if you think YOU will be the one getting ganked a lot for extra safety which Darius needs. Eyeball Collection is useful if you roam a lot and want to go mid game orientated for extra AD into fights. Therefore, the choice is yours but I personally run Eyeball Collection since I roam quite a lot and try to go for mid-game team fights.

The last rune is rather powerful on Darius which is Ravenous Hunter, which gives you 2.5% ability damage healing every unique champion takedown and starts off on 2.5% base ability healing (works on creeps, monsters etc.) which can grow to a max of 15% ability damage healing. This is really powerful with Q as it heals 12% of your missing health and then also 15% of all damage your Q dealt which can hit multiple targets. This can heal up even a quarter of you health if fully stacked and allows you to sustain after fights by killing minion waves. Your R also heals you for any damage you deal so at level 18 with 6 items your R will do over 1k true damage which will heal you for 15% of that damage...and with Darius' R resetting every time you kill someone with it, you can imagine the crazy healing you can potentially reach with a minor rune. This makes the other runes useful(Ingenious Hunter and Relentless Hunter), but they will not be as useful as Ravenous Hunter so there is no need to discuss them.

The secondary runes I take are from Precision which are Triumph and Legend: Tenacity for extra healing on kills in combination with Ravenous Hunter and extra CC protection against mages and tanks.

TREE BONUS: 11AD - useful early and even late game for extra damage.

RESOLVE

GRASP OF THE UNDYING BUILD

This is the build path you want to go for if you want to have a more passive laning phase with extra sustain from Grasp and more tankyness and team fight survivability with extra resistances. Grasp is the only viable keystone from Resolve as Aftershock is a pure CC tank or support rune and Guardian is a support rune as well. Grasp was also a popular rune in Season 6 for Darius as it was a useful trading tool against melee top laners. Grasp will deal 4% of your max health as magical damage, heals you for 2% of your max health and permanently increases health by 5 every time it hits, an all around good tank rune.

The next rune you take is Unflinching as it gives you Tenacity after casting a Summoner Spell like Flash or Teleport for 10s by 15% and increases Tenacity by 10% for each Summoner Spell on cooldown. Useful against tanks and other forms of CC. Demolish is a mediocre rune for Darius as he's not a natural split-pusher so taking towers and First tower is not his priority. Darius manages to get first tower in a lot of scenarios due to his lane kill potential resulting in a lot of time to chip away at a tower and clearing waves. Font of Life is a support rune resembling Stoneborn Pact which is useless on a top laner.

Iron Skin and Mirror Shell are interchangeable depending on the mathcup be it either AD or AP respectively. They also give extra ARMOR/MR when healed so it's perfect for Darius' Q. The third rune, Conditioning, gives extra ARMOR and MR at 10 minutes and increases ARMOR and MR by 5%. This is a pure tank rune as it only provides resistances and a resistance % increase which is more useful on champions who build pure health and resistances which Darius does not.

The last rune is also up to personal preference, Overgrowth is a scaled down Sion W passive which grants permanent health per 8 creeps that die near you. Pick this if you want to be that little bit more tanky. Revitalize gives a boost to shields and healing by 5%, increases to 10% when below 40%. This is probably the least useful rune as it only affects Q healing and if taken with either Triumph or Ravenous Hunter, improves the healing from that too so it may not be as bad. I prefer taking Second Wind as it keeps you healthy in lane and helps you sustain through harass from ranged champions like Gnar, Kennen and Jayce. But then again, any of these can be useful in different situation.

For the second path I take Precision for Triumph and Legend: Tenacity for the CC protection and some extra healing. But equally, if you want to be more aggressive, you can take Domination with Ravenous Hunter and any other minor Domination rune.

TREE BONUS: 130 Health - free health, useful for early sustain and mediocre late.

CONCLUSION: feel free to take inspiration from any of these build, they all work in their own way and provide Darius with everything he needs. It's up to you to decide which one suits your play style more and which works in the mathup you're in. I personally like the sustained fight damage and extra CC protection so I take Press the Attack most games. Precision for fighting and sustain; Domination for damage and aggression and Resolve for resistances and tankyness. An angry Darius, is a happy Darius :3

*Feel free to tell me any other viable rune combinations that work that I may have underestimated*

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UPDATE SCHEDULE

KEY: White-Completed
Red-In Progress
Blue-Future Additions


09/11/2017 - Began to create the guide with basics
10/11/2017 - Will add more description under intro and other chapters such as runes.
11/11/2017 - Item builds and Skill analysis (may add some mathups)
12/11/2017 - Other additions
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Spadjii Darius Guide
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