Darius Build Guide by OTGBionicArm

Hello, I'm OTGBionicArm, and this is guide is about one of the most murderous powerhouses in the game, Darius, the Hand of Noxus. Darius is a very special kind of character. He walks a blurred line between melee AD carry and bruiser or off-tank. But he is neither. He is both at the same time. He excels greatly at things like slaughtering the entire enemy team single handed, but has a few problems with sustain and getting focused.


This guide will cover what options are good on Darius, how to play him top lane, as a jungler, and a kill lane support.
/league-of-legends/champion/darius-98 /league-of-legends/champion/darius-98

Pros:


+ Hits like a freakin' train carrying trucks. Even to tanks. Even his early game damage is not to be trifled with.

+ Absolutely murders squishies. At end game, I actually shouted "WHAT?!" when Decimate took out half of Miss Fortune's health before executing her with Noxian Guillotine.

+ Noxian Guillotine resets its cooldown on kill.

+ Apprehend is a mini Rocket Grab that can hit multiple targets and cannot be blocked by minions.

+ Hemorrhage can pick up many would-be kills. If people are under 10% health and trying to run from you, it's like... wait for it... YOU HAVE SLAIN AN ENEMY.

+ Hemorrhage deals magic damage and Noxian Guillotine deals true damage. This makes Darius very hard to itemize against.











Cons:

- Apprehend is on a long cooldown, and Crippling Strike is not the best CC ever by any means. Darius can be kited. Hard.

- His ultimate can be baited by Heal or moves like Fury of the Sands and Wild Growth.

- Suffers from " Darius Syndrome". (Patent Pending)

- Given the same treatment as Tryndamere when fed. CC'd, focused and killed.

- Doesn't have the best ganks ever when jungling. This is remedied by laners having strong CC.

- Has sustain issues. I find I'm often owning so hard I forget that he runs on mana.

OTG, you said " Darius Syndrome". What the heck does that mean?


" Darius Syndrome" is what happens when a player succumbs to the delightful glee of mashing the R key to take ALL the kills! This is a problem that leads to much criticism of Darius. His ultimate, Noxian Guillotine, prompts you to get more kills to refresh it, it lusts for blood and kills and doesn't care who you stomp to get them, including your own team.

Reasons why you shouldn't take every kill with Noxian Guillotine:

• It makes your team as a whole weaker. Your allies get less gold because you've taken every kill.
  
• When you're insanely fed, you're target numero uno. Darius has no natural escape and being focused can easily get him killed.
  
• You look like a try-hard tool.
  
  
  "League of legends is a game about destroying the enemy Nexus. Champions are merely an obstacle to that goal. Kills don't mean everything." ~A wise man (me).
  
  Though, as DuffTime has pointed out to me, do take kills on top priority targets. Akali getting fed? She needs to die, don't even question it on a fed or threatening target. Take that kill. just don't make a habit of taking ALL the kills.
  
  This video has absolutely nothing to do with the section other than it's title. Watch it for a good laugh. XD
  
  A video sent to me by GTFDvideos for this very section! I laughed my *** off and I'm glad people liked my guide enough to do things like this!
  
  

When Jungling:

OTG, why don't you go full on offense in your mastery trees? 21/9/0 seems more viable on Darius!

Other Optional Runes:

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: Use these to stack your Hemorrhage faster. Since Darius's optimal builds don't focus on attack speed, this is a good idea to have over the Greater Mark of Attack Damage.
  
  
• Greater Mark of Desolation: These are helpful if you are facing multiple armor stacking characters to really eat them in conjunction with Apprehend's passive.
  
  
• Greater Mark of Armor: Helpful if you opted not to take Greater Seal of Armor.
  
  
• Greater Seal of Health: Gives you a nice boost in maximum health at the start of the game.
  
  
• Greater Seal of endurance: Scales better into late game than Greater Seal of Health, but gives less initial maximum health.
  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Gold: Helpful as either a support or a jungler to get more gold when you cant farm as much. Or be super troll top lane and use these to out-farm the enemy.
  
  
• Greater quintessence of Vigor: Massive health regeneration is super helpful for lane sustain.
  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Health: Bigger boost to early game maximum health!
  
  
• Greater quintessence of endurance: Again, these scale better into late game than the Greater Quintessence of Health but offer less initial maximum health.
  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Big boost to early game damage. Use these if you want to really hammer people early game, at the cost of some mobility.

Recommended Summoner Spells:

Other Viable Summoner Spells:

Hemorrhage: (Innate): Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33 / 36 (+0.3 per bonus attack damage) magic damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.

This passive makes Darius a real threat. Anything he touches bleeds. And those bleeds start to REALLY hurt after awhile. It makes it very hard for people stay in lengthy 1 on 1 fights with Darius. Remember that this deals magic damage, and most bruisers won't build magic resist to counter it's damage, which is good for you.



Decimate: (Active): Darius deals physical damage to all nearby enemies in a circle around him. Champions in the outer half of the ability are struck by the blade, taking 50% additional damage.

• You can use this ability both to last hit minions or to poke the enemy laner at a safe distance.
• Always try to hit as many targets as possible in team fights, the more people bleeding from Hemorrhage makes Darius faster.
• This ability should be maxed first, as it is your main source of damage.

Crippling Strike: Darius' next basic attack deals additional damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed for 2 seconds.
Crippling strike's base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.

• Try to use Crippling Strike immediately after using Apprehend.
• At 5 stacks of Hemorrhage, this skills cooldown is just as long as it's duration. Abuse it.
• This ability procs Sheen and other on-hit effects. This can be helpful in destroying turrets.

Apprehend: (Passive): Darius gains armor penetration.
(Active): Darius pulls in all enemies in front of him.

• You can use this ability to pull people through walls and terrain.
• This ability has a lengthy cooldown. Really try to get them every time you use it.
• This ability can be used to pull the blue buff golem out of his camp and safely kill it. You can use this to snatch the enemy teams blue if you think their jungler is getting it. (I tried, this technique does not work on red buff.)

Noxian Guillotine: (Active): Darius leaps to target enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage.
The cooldown is refreshed if Noxian Guillotine kills the target.

• Try to get as many stacks of Hemorrhage before executing the enemy with Noxian Guillotine.
• This ability is your only hard gap closer, but don't waste it just to catch up.
• This ability makes Darius a good janitor. Much like Master Yi, he can come into a losing team fight and mop the floor with the damaged enemy team.

Starting Items:

When you start the game you should choose your items based on what enemy you are laning against.

• 
  Boots of Speed and Health Potion x3.
  When to buy: When laning against a champion that relies heavily on speed or skill shots. Example: Kennen
  
  
  
• 
  Cloth Armor and Health Potion x5.
  When to buy: When jungling, or when you are laning against a champion that relies heavily on harassing you with auto attacks. Example: Fiora
  
  
  
• 
  Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion
  When to buy: When you are laning against burst champions, or any champion who cannot DPS consistently. Example: Talon

Boot Choices:

Depending on the enemy team, choose your boots wisely:

• 
  When to buy: When your enemy laner has scary hard CC you fear.
  
  
• 
  When to buy: When your enemy champion relies heavily on auto-attacks for damage.
  
  
• 
  When to buy: When you are jungling, useful for traversing the jungle to counter-jungle, or get to ganks faster.
  
  
• 
  When to buy: When you want an offensive edge, and wish to stack your Hemorrhage faster to kill your laner quicker if they have poor dueling skills.

GP10 items:

These items are extremely useful early game for Darius's sustain issues to be addressed, as well as giving him additional gold. They also build into very helpful items.

Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold.
When to buy: When you are having trouble in lane, falling behind or are against a duo lane or if you are Support Darius.



Finished items:

All of the items I suggest are optional; I do not like force builds on anyone, I will give my list of suggestions and why to buy them, you ultimately decide how you build Darius. This is a guide after all, not a command.

• 
  Why to buy: To help your team out, as well as get some stats you enjoy yourself, all for a low price.
  
  
• 
  Why to by: To synergize with items such as Frozen Mallet and Warmog's Armor, as well as gaining some defense.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To counter champions that heal themselves like Vladimir, Dr. Mundo, or Volibear.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: For the magic resistance and massive health regeneration in conjunction with a high health total from other items like Warmog's Armor. Movement speed also helps with Darius's lack of mobility.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: You are getting focused more than you'd like, this item makes the enemy team think twice before focusing you as focusing someone with a Guardian Angel is asking to be eaten by the rest of his team.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: The single largest boost to raw damage in the game.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To more easily whittle down tanks and people with high armor to make them Noxian Guillotine noms.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To get some passive damage ongoing in duels that stacks with your Hemorrhage, as well as some armor and health.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To more easily whittle down champions with slightly higher then normal armor values to make them Noxian Guillotine noms, while also gaining reasonable offensive stats.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To punish teams that have multiple AD carries.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To be a gigantic walking health bar, and to fuel items like Atma's Impaler or Force of Nature.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To get some attack speed to stack your Hemorrhage faster, as well as deal extra magic damage every hit.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To troll hard. Hemorrhage deals magic damage, so they will be taking moar bleed damage! The bonus damage is also a nice addition.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: For an unrivaled mix of damage and life stealing. This item works wonders for Darius's sustain.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To **** with combo based casters like Brand, Veigar, or Anivia.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To gimp AD carries and bruisers with attack speed steroids like Olaf.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To be bulkier and have amazing sticking power. It is very difficult to escape Darius when he has this item.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To counter champions with large health pools like Sion, or Cho'Gath, as well as to stack on-hit damage with Hemorrhage.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To be more deadly at lower amounts of health, as well as a fail-safe against AP casters.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To stack Hemorrhage faster and critically strike more often as well as gain some mobility which Darius lacks.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: To counter chase down characters like Vayne and Jax.
  
  
• Shurelya's Reverie
  Why to buy: To give Darius much needed sustain, as well as an escape/mobility option.
  
• 
  Why to buy: For a very good mix of offensive and defensive stats, as well as the Sheen proc on your Crippling Strike.
  
  
• 
  Why to buy: For lane sustain, the free ward, and better farming. Mandatory when jungling.
  
  
• Zeke's herald
  Why to buy: To help out your fellow AD champions, or you are Support Darius.

Finished Builds should look like:

Against a balanced team:



This is a very balanced build in terms of offense, defenses and health. It works best against a traditional team. Frozen Mallet and The Bloodthirster for damage, sustain and sticking power. Guardian Angel makes you a massive troll.

Against an AD heavy team:



This build is to counter a team of mostly scary AD champions. Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen to punish AD champions, and The Bloodthirster to out sustain them. It finishes off with Infinity Edge for major brutality.

Against an AP heavy team:



This build is to counter teams with many scary AP casters. Banshee's Veil and Maw of Malmortius is hilarious against casters. This build also utilizes Trinity Force over Frozen Mallet for it's better burst damage.

When you've suffered from Darius Syndrome and now you have to be the tank, carry and support at the same time because your team is underfed:



I'll give you a little theater of the mind here. You're owning hard. You've killed everyone you saw. You feel like you're doing awesome. You look around and you're down 4 turrets and haven't pushed any because you've been to busy taking everyone's kills with Noxian Guillotine. You look at the scores. You're 13/0/0 and everyone else on your team has next to no kills and are struggling to stay in team fights.

This what happened to me in those examples of Darius Syndrome. And this what I had to build to save the game from a loss. And what happened? I won. Single handed. Am I try hard tool? Yes. Yes I am.

Huehuehuehue Support Darius:

zeke's herald

Believe it or not, Darius makes a good support for a kill lane. Why is this? he operates well without many damage items and can afford to start the game with defensive items and Sight Wards. I stumbled upon this build by accident when I was forced bottom lane so I was like "LOL GES IME SUPRT GAIS".


LolShredder Darius



Darius is a hilarious shredder via Hemorrhage. You practically don't even need your ultimate with this build. You do insane on-hit damage and AoE Sunfire Cape damage to everyone around. Mostly a troll build for funsies.

OTG, Darius seems like a total murder house. Why wouldn't I use all offensive items?

That makes sense! Then I should stack all defensive items right?

Here is a list of the most common enemies you will see at solo top. I will list them alphabetically, show how to win the lane, difficulty in doing so, and what items to take early and late game to counter them.

/league-of-legends/champion/riven-83

• AKALI, THE FIST OF SHADOW
  
  Difficulty: 3/10
  
  Akali is pretty simple for Darius to fight. She is squishy. You murder squishies like no ones business. Really put the pressure on her with Decimate. Important to note is that you can Apprehend her out of her Twilight Shroud. Do this to really freak her out. By building an early Negatron Cloak you will make her do nearly no damage, and she will not build armor to counter you, so murder her. Put a Vision Ward in the middle of your lane for extra lulz. Just whatever you do, don't even let her get a single kill. Don't let her leave the lane either. Call MIA, ASAP on Akali, if she ganks and gets kills, she becomes somewhat of a dunk machine.
  
  Summary: Murder her, deny her farm, Apprehend her out of Twilight Shroud
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak, Vision Ward, Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late Game items: Oracle's Elixir, Force of Nature
  
  
  
  
• CHO'GATH, THE TERROR OF THE VOID
  
  Difficulty: 5/10
  
  This is either a really easy opponent or a really hard one, depending on the player. Cho'Gath is fairly easy to fight in the sense that his moves are fairly obvious and easy to dodge. Rupture is one of the most obvious and easy to dodge moves in the game, but Cho'Gath players know this and generally look to see how you dodge and change how they use the move. Don't be too predictable. Be wary of Cho'Gath's Vorpal Spikes. They hurt when you're near his auto attacks. When he gets his ultimate, Feast. Have your jungler come in whenever he gets stacks. If he gets big, he's scarier and hard to kill, but if you shut him down and deny him stacks, he's actually kinda cute. :3 Also be aware that he can do the same thing you do, execute. If you're low on health he may Feast you. You don't wanna be a snack.
  
  Summary: Dodge Rupture, Deny him stacks of Feast, Fight like a gentleman
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads Negatron Cloak, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Madred's Bloodrazor, The Black Cleaver, Last Whisper
  
  
  
  
• DARIUS, THE DUDE OF NOXUS
  
  Difficulty: ???
  
  This fight is essentially which Dude farms better and who hits 6 first, and who gets the first Noxian Guillotine. Remember that the only semi counter to true damage is more health, so an early Warmog's Armor is a good idea, so is some sustain through Philosopher's Stone. Basically any flaw of Darius I've mentioned through the guide; abuse the hell out of it. Call in for ganks on him. If you get some early kills on him, you are the top dude, man. Just don't let him piss on your ****ing turret, man. That turret really tied the summoner's rift together.
  
  Summary: Be better than the other dude, gank him early, abuse his weaknesses
  Suggested Early items: Philosopher's Stone, Chain Vest, Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late Game items: Warmog's Armor, Randuin's Omen, Atma's Impaler
  
  
  
  
• DR. MUNDO, THE MADMAN OF ZUAN
  
  Difficulty: 7/10
  
  Dr. Mundo is pretty damn annoying. He is insanely popular right now, so expect to see him a lot. His damage scales very well, even when he's building full tank. You really have to shut him down early, while he still hurts himself a lot with his Infected Cleaver and Burning Agony. Make sure you dodge all his cleavers. They are his only CC, and they hurt a lot. Before level 6, he has no natural escape and he is pretty easy to gank, so call your jungler in early. When he has Sadism, he is much, MUCH harder to kill, even with two people. Build an Executioner's Calling to counter his ultimate. Show him that you don't appreciate him going where he pleases.
  
  Summary: Shut him down early, dodge Infected Cleaver
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads, Executioner's Calling, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Madred's Bloodrazor, Last Whisper, The Black Cleaver
  
  
  
  
• FIORA, THE GRAND DUELIST
  
  Difficulty: 4/10
  
  She's semi squishy, but she can defend herself with Riposte. She also regenerates health through Duelist. This means you have to murder her fast, and with a vengeance. Bait her Riposte by activating Crippling Strike and walking towards her, when she wastes it, Apprehend her and wail on her. Her damage output is higher than yours when she has Burst of Speed available. Try to avoid her if she activates this, but she'll likely Lunge at you. Be aware though that once she's used those moves they have lengthy cooldowns and with Hemorrhage you largely out damage her. Darius excels at longer duels, where as Fiora actually sucks at them, she's better at skirmishing. When she gets her ultimate, Blade Waltz, be aware most Fiora players use this move to save face when they are about to die as she is untargetable. They also use this move to dive you and avoid turret shots, so watch out for that, too.
  
  Summary: Bait Riposte, Avoid dueling her when she has Burst of Speed, murder her
  Suggested Early items: Ninja Tabi, Chain Vest, Heart of Gold
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen, Frozen Mallet
  
  
  
  
• GANGPLANK, THE SALTWATER SCOURGE
  
  Difficulty: 6/10
  
  Yar har fiddle dee dee! Being a pirate is not alright with me! This guy's Parrrley hits insanely hard if it crits. Don't worry too much about his passive, Grog Soaked Blade, which slows you and does DoT damage, because you also have a passive that does (a lot more) DoT damage, and it speeds you up! It's annoying to try to gank Gangplank because he will just Remove Scurvy and be k, but he can only do it once evry blue moon, so try to CC him more than once. Later in the game build Frozen Mallet because he will waste Remove Scurvy trying to get away, then you Apprehend him and slow him again. Early game he will likely try to maximize his gold gain from Parrrley. Use this time to harass him and call in for ganks. Shutting him down early goes a long way. He will be squishier early game cause he typically rushes critical chance items. Don't under estimate him though, Raise Morale is a massive steroid, and Cannon Barrage is a massive AoE slow, he is very adept at catching you when you're fleeing. Be aware that his ultimate has global range, alert your team mates when he reaches level 6. And don't stand at your turret to recall at almost no health. He knows you're doing it, and it makes him laugh.
  
  Summary: Harrass/Murder him early to shut him down, build armor, don't recall at your turret
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Mercury's Treads, Heart of Gold
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Mallet, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• GAREN, THE MIGHT OF DEMACIA
  
  Difficulty: 9/10
  
  People have been asking; "Why should I play Garen when I have Darius?!" Well, readers, the reason to play Garen is to beat up Darius. Garen is everything Darius hates to fight; high sustain, inherit tankyness, and his own execution ultimate. Garen laughs at your low sustain, dependency on mana, and inability to spin while shouting your homeland's name for extended periods of time. Garen is also difficult to gank unless he was at really low health, which he won't be due to Perseverance. Unless you and your jungler are rocking Chain Vests, he is very capable of popping Courage, silencing one of you with Decisive Strike and then Judgment to spin2win. Do not underestimate the power of spinning2winning. And when he hits 6 he can drop the MIGHT... of DEMACIA on your face. If you and your jungler get the jump on him though, much like Darius he has no real hard escape move other than running fast with Decisive Strike. So a hard CC gank from the likes of Nautilus or Rammus will be required to effectively shut him down.
  
  Summary: Request ganks from a high damage, hard CC character, execute him before he executes you
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen, Sunfire Cape, The Black Cleaver
  
  
  
  
• HECARIM, THE SHADOW OF WAR
  
  Difficulty: 1/10
  
  Don't be fooled by how badass this guy looks, he's completely terrible. Low damage output for a bruiser, hard to use displacement move, bad sustain, his ultimate is only useful for the fear and gap closer. Just butcher him early. He can't really farm well, Rampage is a flat out terrible move. Spirit of Dread does next to no damage and is on a long cooldown. Devastating Charge and his ultimate, Onslaught of Shadows are his only really threatening moves, and only if the player is good enough to use them properly. Just shut him down with ganks or executions with Noxian Guillotine and laugh.
  
  Summary: Abuse how bad Hecarim is, murder him
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen, Frozen Mallet
  
  
  
  
• IRELIA, THE WILL OF THE BLADES
  
  Difficulty: 5/10
  
  Irelia is pretty high sustain and has a very powerful gap closer. Her auto attacks restore health via Hiten Style and when she activates it, the healing is doubled and she deals extra true damage. She's a damn good duelist and can dish out the pain really fast. Don't try to dive her ever if you have more health than her. She will use Equilibrium Strike and stun you in the turret, possibly getting her a kill instead of you. She likes her some Sheen and that thing really hurts in conjunction with her ultimate, Transcendent Blades; she'll keep proccing the Sheen with them to deal death. She has no natural escape outside of stunning you, so call in for early ganks on her. You have to keep the pressure on her though, simply auto attacking her every few seconds is enough to make her keep popping Hiten Style making her eventually go oom.
  
  Summary: Keep the pressure up on her, call in for ganks, don't chase her under a turret
  Suggested Early items: Philosopher's Stone, Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• JARVAN IV, THE EXEMPLAR OF DEMACIA
  
  Difficulty: 2/10
  
  
  Jarvan IV pretty much forces Flash on you, and your entire team to escape Cataclysm, which is actually ingenious. He effectively halves the amount of summoner spells you get to pick. But then Flash, does kinda counter him flatout. He can be very annoying with the harass from Martial Cadence but that's all he's really got unless he wants to go oom using Demacian Standard and Dragon Strike to attack you, which is a losing duel for him. Be aware of when he does throw his Demacian Standard on or near you instead of near minions, he may be initiating a gank and it's a pretty nasty one, high damage, a knock up and Cataclysm does a lot of damage and forces the use of Flash, not to mention whatever his ganker does to you. But generally, Jarvan IV is very low sustain and pretty easy to rough up.
  
  Summary: Harass him with Decimate, take Flash
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Nina Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• JAX, THE GRANDMASTER AT ARMS
  
  Difficulty: 6/10
  
  Jax is only scary if you let him be. Early game he isn't very good at dueling, and he's pretty squishy, so lay down the choppy choppy on him. But if he gets farm, kills and items, he becomes very annoying to fight in a 1 v 1 situation. He can block attacks with Counter Strike, as well as stun you. His Empower and Leap Strike combo is particularly annoying. His ultimate, Grandmaster's Might makes him VERY scary to fight 1 v 1, it makes him deal extra magic damage every third attack, and it really hurts. he can pop the move for increased armor and magic resist, making him much more durable and harder to kill. Jax scales incredibly well with hybrid items, so try to really shut him down early game with Decimate harassment. Call in for ganks early. If you shut him down well enough, he won't become a dunking machine.
  
  Summary: Shut him down early with ganks and harassment, don't fight him 1 v 1 late game unless it's a clear advantage
  Suggested Early items: Ninja Tabi, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late game items: Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart
  
  
  
  
• KENNEN, THE HEART OF THE TEMPEST
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  You may wanna just ask to jungle instead of lane against this little *** hole. He is possibly the most annoying thing to lane against top lane, not just for Darius, but for any bruiser. He's ranged, and though squishy, he's very good at evading your attacks with Lightning Rush. His Thundering Shuriken does amazing damage and stacks his passive, Mark of the Storm. When you are hit with the third mark, you are stunned for 1 second, and Kennen unleashes pain upon you. He also runs on energy, so don't be expecting him to recall for mana. He's in the lane as long as your don't kill him, so you are going to need help from a high CC ganker like Nautilus. if a ganker can CC him well, consider him melted in seconds flat, unless he managed to Lightning Rush away, which is always annoying. Oh, and don't ever Apprehend him when you are next to your team and he has his ultimate, Slicing Maelstrom. You're just asking for AoE chain stuns and death.
  
  Summary: Call in for hard CC ganks, avoid getting 3 Mark of the Storm
  Suggested Early items: Boots of Speed, Philosopher's Stone, Negatron Cloak, Hexdrinker
  Suggested Late Game items: Maw of Malmortius, Force of Nature, Mercury's Treads
  
  
  
  
• LEE SIN, THE BLIND MONK
  
  Difficulty: 9/10
  
  This guy is kinda frustrating to fight, not not as bad as Kennen. You can actually hit Lee Sin. He excels in quick retreating harassment by using Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike and then using Safeguard / Iron Will to dash back to a minion. This harassment is what I like to call "douchebaggery". He is also a FAR better duelist than you, due to Flurry and Tempest / Cripple. You won't wanna fight him 1 v 1 for any prolonged period of time, he has many tricks up his sleeve. Don't fight him near his turret either, he can Dragon's Rage you into it's range, which is devastating. When you call in a gank, if he's getting hurt a lot, he will try to Dragon's Rage one of you away. This is insanely frustrating and if he has his ultimate up, he may very well escape. Just try to harass him with Decimate as much as possible and avoid Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike.
  
  Summary: Avoid his douchey harassment, harass with Decimate
  Suggested Early items: Boots of Speed, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late game items: Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart
  
  
  
  
• MALPHITE, THE SHARD OF THE MONOLITH
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  Malphite is anti-AD, period. Ground Slam debuffs your attack speed and does reasonable damage based on his armor. His passive is Granite Shield which comes back whenever he doesn't take damage for ten seconds, so try to keep his shield down with Decimate. Harass him as much as possible to get him to leave the lane or die. Brutal Strikes makes him an exceptional farmer as well as being able to buff his armor and damage on activation. Respect Malphite's early game damage. While he isn't terribly hard to gank, he can make some escapes with Seismic Shard. In team fights, spread out! His ultimate, Unstoppable Force can make his team eat you all alive in less than a second.
  
  Summary: Harass him a lot, spread out in team fights
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late game items: Last Whisper
  
  
  
  
• MAOKAI, THE TWISTED TREANT
  
  Difficulty: 8/10
  
  Be very cautious around this tree. His Sapling Toss is very annoying, it does damage on landing and then follows you around and explodes. Speed is key here to avoid them. His Arcane Smash doesn't hurt terribly but it slows you and knocks you back a bit. Twisted Advance is his most frightening move, he probably will only use it when his jungler comes in to gank. He blinks to you and roots you, making you easy bait for the jungler. Ward VERY well when Maokai is in lane. His ultimate, Vengeful Maelstrom isn't very good and probably will only be used in team fights. He is pretty easy to harass though, and he goes oom trying to harass you very quickly. He'll either be a menace, with the help of his jungler, or a pushover because he wasted so much mana trying to harass. He also has no real way of getting away from ganks.
  
  Summary: Avoid his Sapling Toss, harass him a lot, call in for ganks
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late Game items: Last Whisper
  
  
  
  
• MASTER YI, THE WUJU BLADESMAN
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  Master Yi is a special mention because he typically is not seen top lane. However, he is actually a complete counter to Darius. I am talking of course of AP Master Yi. AD Master Yi would be obliterated by Darius, but when he goes AP, he becomes Darius's most annoying enemy to face. He has very good base attack damage, even when building AP, through Wuju Style, and every 7th auto attack procs a double auto attack for him. But what makes him truly annoying for Darius is AP-powered Alpha Strike and Meditate. He will stand at the back of the minion wave and use Alpha Strike to harass you and be untargetable. It's very hard to harass him back because of his speed. And here's the kicker; when you actually come close to killing him, he will pop Meditate and full heal. u mad? He will use this ability to bait your Noxian Guillotine and be k. There is a way to counter this though, counter-bait his Meditate and Apprehend him out of it. Stops the move completely. He is still slippery and hard to catch after, he will just pop Highlander and book ***. You have no way to deal with him on your own, so call in the hard CC ganks.
  
  Summary: Call in for hard CC ganks, bait Meditate and Apprehend him out of it.
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Negatron Cloak
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Force of Nature
  
  
  
  
• MORDEKAISER, ES NUMERO UNO BRAZIL
  
  Difficulty: 4/10
  
  Mordekaiser is a very strong character. He has amazing farming, harass, durability, and can get a clone of your champion when he kills you. Why is he rated a 4/10? Because you can easily use his inherit strengths against him to abuse his weakness. Like Darius, he lacks anyway to leave a fight. He lanes SO HARD. Just let him push up to your turret in 3 seconds flat then call your jungler. Easy target. He has an utter lack of CC, so him chasing you around isn't to threatening. The only difficult thing about Mordekaiser is if you die to him. If he gets a Darius clone, say bye bye to your turret.
  
  Summary: Let him push and call in for ganks often, Don't let him get a Darius clone
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak
  Suggested Late Game items: Force of Nature
  
  
  
  
• NASUS, THE CURATOR OF THE SANDS
  
  Difficulty: 8/10
  
  Nasus is deceptively hard to shut down. One may think; "Stop him from farming Siphoning Strike and he's easy peasy!" If only it were that simple. His passive, Soul Eater gives him amazing lane sustain. You can try to harass him, he'll like just Wither you to get you to go away. Nasus generally wants to act like you're not even in the lane. He just wants to farm. That is his entire plan, goal, quota, what have you. He will just farm. He won't want to waste mana to attack you, unless you really push him to, so harass him as possible. He may throw Spirit Fire down to get you to stay away from him. Avoid standing in the bad. It debuffs your armor. Call in for ganks often on Nasus. The longer you can keep him from farming, the better. A wise person once said; "They let me farm as Nasus, so I became a God." and that is exactly what will happen if you do. He is probably the best dunking machine in the game if he's insanely farmed and fed. Also, watch out for the Noxian Guillotine bait in his ultimate Fury of the Sands. This ultimate can very easily turn the tides on you and make it a kill for Nasus instead of you.
  
  Summary: Call in for ganks often, stop his farming as much as possible, watch out for his ultimate being used as Noxian Guillotine bait.
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• NIDALEE, THE BEASTIAL HUNTRESS
  
  Difficulty: 9/10
  
  I ****ing hate the Nyan Cat song because of Nidalee. AD bruiser Nidalee is becoming more and more popular top lane due to her utility and high burst damage in Aspect Of The Cougar. She can switch between ranged and melee dps on the fly and effectively has 6 abilities to choose from at any given time. AD Nidalee will not use Javelin Toss very often due to it's bad damage when AD. However, in her human form, she still possesses a heal through Primal Surge which also buffs her attack speed, and Bushwhack for free semi- sight wards. Harass her as much as possible before she gets Aspect Of The Cougar. As a cougar, she is very threatening in melee range, Takedown really hurts, and Pounce is an amazing chase move as well as juking maneuver. However, she has no CC and hard CC will stop her escapes for the most part. Call in Nautilus.
  
  Summary: Call in for high CC ganks on her, harass her a lot before level 6
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen, Frozen Mallet
  
  
  
  
• BROLAF, THE BROSERKER
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  Dude, Olaf is so buffed up right now. Much like Darius, Olaf likes true damage, high amounts of health from items, and butchering people mercilessly. This is a true epic battle of the gods of TRUE DAMAGE. Undertow is Olaf's main harassment early game as well as his only CC. It has a fairly long range and moves very fast. Try very hard to dodge it, as it opens up his onslaughts. Olaf will typically rush Wriggle's Lantern and stay in lane forever with Vicious Strikes. Olaf is a very angry duelist when you get him lower, his attacks become faster due to Berserker Rage. His form of true damage Reckless Swing summons the powers of Norse Gods to smite you with lightning. It's not as painful as your Noxian Guillotine, but it's on a 5 second cooldown at max rank. Dueling him is actually asking for death as Darius. He simply out damages you and out sustains you. You need to call in for a hard CC, high damage gank (like from Rammus). Try to bait his ultimate, Ragnarok before the jungler comes in, and punish him for using it too early.
  
  Summary: Don't duel him, Call in for hard CC high damage ganks
  Suggested Early items: Ninja Tabi, Giant's Belt, Chain Vest
  Suggested late Game items: Frozen Heart, Warmog's Armor
  
  
  
  
• MANTHEON! THE ARTISAN OF WAR
  
  Difficulty: 5/10
  
  I was about to type a 300 joke but opted not to. Pantheon has very high early game burst and a targetable, gap closing stun with Aegis of Zeonia. Having one point into his Heartseeker Strike makes his attacks automatically critically hit on targets under 15% health. This combined with Executioner from masteries is just evil. Spear Shot is his main harassment besides his stun and it does good damage. Just work on your sustain and defense to keep up with his harassment early game. After about 20 minutes, he really falls off in damage and you shouldn't have to worry about him any more unless you fed him. His passive, Aegis of protection can block your Crippling Strike so auto attack him before activating it. Be careful when recalling at low health. He may try to use Grand Skyfall to plow you into the ground. Watch for the giant circle of "don't stand here". He's pretty easy to harass back if you have enough defense and sustain and not terribly hard to gank either, so just shut him down early with the help of your jungler.
  
  Summary: Focus more on durability and sustain, watch for Grand Skyfall when recalling, call in for ganks on him
  Suggested Early items: Philosopher's Stone, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• POPPY, THE IRON AMBASSADOR
  
  Difficulty: 6/10
  
  Poppy is semi annoying for Darius to fight. This is because of her passive, Valiant Fighter, which reduces any damage you deal to her that exceeds 10% of her current health, by 50% (except from your ultimate). Since you are a very hard hitting champion, this can limit your damage potential. However, she's still pretty easy to rough up with Decimate and Hemorrhage stacks. You may want to wait a bit longer to use Noxian Guillotine on Poppy due to her passive. Her main harassment is Heroic Charge followed by Devastating Blow, they deal respectable damage, but are costly. She goes oom very fast if she's really trying to hurt you. Just don't let her charge you into a wall, she'll stun you and give you a beating. If asking for a gank on Poppy, ask for a hard CC. Her Paragon of Demacia ability gives her bonus armor and movement speed to escape ganks. Do not target her if she uses Diplomatic Immunity on a target that is not you, she's completely immune to anything you do to her. However, if she does use it on you, feel free to kill her because you win that duel 10/10 times, provided she didnt Heroic Charge you into a wall.
  
  Summary: Don't let her push you into walls, harass her, call in for hard CC ganks
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, The hexdrinker
  Suggested Late Game items: Maw of Malmortius, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• RENEKTON, THE BUTCHER OF THE SANDS
  
  Difficulty: 9/10
  
  Renekton is just scary pissed. All the time. He's is hyper aggressive and won't be afraid to attack you. He is not a passive farmer like his brother, Nasus. He will instantly take offence to your presence and go on the offensive. He has very good early game burst damage, especially if his rage bar is over 50%. He can use Cull the Meek to heal himself a bit, as well as hurt you a lot. Generally, his harassment combo is to use Slice and Dice once and use Ruthless Predator to stun you, then Cull the Meek and Slice and Dice again to retreat. You can exchange well enough with him, but he may win a straight up duel due to his stun before level 6. Use this time to call in a gank him as his only escape is Slice and Dice. His ultimate is Dominus, which is visually and mechanically like Nasus's ultimate. Watch out for him baiting your Noxian Guillotine with it. If you can shut him down with ganks, he shouldn't be that threatening, but a FED Renekton is an overwhelming butcher machine. Don't let him take your job.
  
  Summary: Don't duel him, only harass, Call in for early ganks, Watch for him baiting Noxian Guillotine with Dominus
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• RIVEN, THE EXILE
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  Riven is very top tier as far as bruisers go. She farms insanely well, very high mobility with Valor, which also shields her, and Broken Wings, as well as having a stun nuke with Ki Burst. She generally stacks offensive items at first, so she's moderately squishy. Try to harass her, she may not insantly turn on you if she really wants to farm. Call in for very early ganks on her that have hard CC. With her mobility, she can get back to her turret in no time flat. Don't engage in lengthy duels with Riven unless you know you can win. Her ultimate Blade of the Exile makes her gain 20% more attack damage, and improves the range on her moves. She HURTS. Very bad. She can also use Wind Slash while this ultimate is active to execute you, so watch out for that. Hard CC is what's needed to shut Riven down. make sure someone on your team can do it.
  
  Summary: Call in hard CC ganks, harass her with Decimate
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• RUMBLE, THE MECHANIZED MENACE
  
  Difficulty: 5/10
  
  Rumble gets +10 cool points for being voiced by Invader Zim. As Rumble uses an ability, his heat level rises, when he's over 50% he is in "the Danger Zone" and his abilities deal extra damage, however when it hits 100% he silences himself and does bonus damage on his attacks. Flamespitter is his main harassment, making it hard to stand in front of him to farm minions. He mostly spams it to keep his heat levels over 50%. He has a shield/movespeed buff in Scrap Shield, which he will engage whenever you try to harass or gank him. It only lasts a second though, so keep up the pursuits. His most annoying move is Electo-Harpoon which slows you and can be used twice at a time. Try to hammer Rumble when he silences himself and overheats, but dont stand there and auto attack him, his auto attacks do hurt quite a bit, and he most likely had Flamespitter active. Just call in for ganks and shut the little guys mech offline. His ultimate, The Equalizer is actually kinda scary cause it's four moderately sized AoE's in a line that slow and deal DoT damage. Try not to stand in the area he lays down his ultimate, you will be equalized. INGENIOUS!!!
  
  Summary: Harass him when he silences himself, call in for ganks, don't stand in the bad
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads, Negatron Cloak, Hexdrinker
  Suggested Late Game items: Force of Nature, Maw of Malmortius
  
  
  
  
• SHEN, THE EYE OF TWILIGHT
  
  Difficulty: 8/10
  
  Shen's recent buffs has made him incredibly popular as a solo top bruiser or tank. Normally he trades well with most bruisers, is very sustained and without a moment's notice, can be in any team fight he pleases. However, Darius is somewhat scary to him. Why is this? Because you can deny him the ability to teleport with his ultimate, Stand United by Apprehending him. Sure, the whole shield thing still happens, but they still run a very high chance of dying because Shen couldn't be there to save them. In laning phase Shen is very sustained through Vorpal Blade and the fact that he runs on energy. His passive Ki Strike hurts quite a bit, and he can trade well with most people, but you out damage him with Hemorrhage stacks. Usually Shen will Shadow Dash into people to take 50% less damage from them in the exchange and win, but this does not effect the damage from your Hemorrhage so he might just use the move to escape. He is rather durable with Feint and can Shadow Dash through walls and backwards to juke and escape. Hard CC is the best way to gank him and shut him down. He often stacks health as many of his abilities scale off it, so it may be wise to build Madred's Bloodrazor.
  
  Summary: Call in for hard CC ganks, Apprehend him when he starts shouting "GUINSOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
  Suggested Early items: Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late Game items: Madred's Bloodrazor, Last Whisper
  
  
  
• SHYVANA, THE HALF DRAGON
  
  Difficulty: 4/10
  
  Shyvana is a lot scarier as a jungler, and only if you are also a jungler. In Lane she gets pushed around easily because she has no decent poke, Flame Breath is laughably easy to dodge. She can trade well enough with Twin Bite, and chase well with Burnout, but she has no CC. Just harass her with Decimate and the occasional Apprehend, Crippling Strike combo. When she gets her ultimate, though she becomes somewhat frightening. Dragon's Descent literally turns her into a dragon and all of her moves become more powerful and have a larger or AoE range. She also becomes tankier. Just use Dragon's Rend to make her land and avoid the tail and mouth... FUS RO DAH stuns her... Oh, wrong game. But yea, watch out for her trying to dive you with her ultimate. Just call in ganks to shut her down.
  
  Summary: Harass her with Decimate, Call in for ganks, she has no hard escape move, Shout FUS RO DAH in all chat
  Suggested Early items: Ninja Tabi, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• SINGED, THE MAD CHEMIST
  
  Difficulty: 6/10
  
  Singed is an odd one to fight. He seldom auto-attacks. He generally will harass you by using Fling to through you in his Poison Trail and Mega Adhesive. His passive, Empowered Bulwark makes him pretty beefy by having a lot of mana, which he builds anyway. Rules for fighting Singed; Don't chase him, don't chase him, and... DON'T CHASE HIM. He just runs around with Poison Trail on and he is faster than you. Just don't do it. At level 1, he may come at you and Fling you to show he means business and will displace you. Retaliate and lay down the pain with Decimate and Hemorrhage. He CANNOT trade damage before he has Poison Trail. Harass him while he's farming with Decimate. His sustain is pretty bad early game, so you should be able to force him out of lane easily with harassment or ganks. Once he gets his ultimate, Insanity Potion he becomes super tanky and extremely fast. It's probably the most potent steroid in the game, and makes Singed very hard to kill. However, Singed is very hampered by hard CC even in his ultimate. So call in Rammus, who can both catch him, and hard CC him.
  
  Summary: Don't chase him, Harass him a lot, Don't chase him, ever
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak, Mercury's Treads
  Suggested Late Game items: Warmog's Armor, Force of Nature
  
  
  
  
• SION, THE UNDEAD CHAMPION
  
  Difficulty: 4/10
  
  Sion has two very different play styles, watch his item build, if he's going AP, buy MR, and obviously if he's going AD, armor. AP Sion isn't too bad if you start with Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion because he does burst damage with Death's Caress and Cryptic Gaze. AD Sion will just stun you with Cryptic Gaze and start auto attacking you. Enrage makes Sion gain giant amounts of maximum health via minion kills, and he can toggle it for an insane amount of bonus attack damage. This makes even AP Sion's auto attacks hurt. Sion is easily kited outside his stun, and AP Sion is predictable, he will use Death's Caress and wait til it's almost over to stun you and blow up his shield, so just stay away from him. He also has bad sustain through his mana, and has no escape, so just call in ganks and tell him to get on YOUR choppah. His ultimate, Cannibalism makes him have insane attack speed and life steal. Don't ever 1 v 1 him when he's in his ultimate, AD or AP, you will just die.
  
  Summary: Call in for ganks, Don't 1 v 1 him while he's in Cannibalism
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Force of Nature, Frozen Heart, Madred's Bloodrazor
  
  
  
  
• TALON, THE EZIO WANNABE
  
  Difficulty: 1/10
  
  Talon going top lane against any bruiser is a joke. He's better at countering mages. Anything he does, it's like "Oh, how cute, you do that, Talon. :3" He's squishy as hell and has very bad sustain, just give him the Akali treatment and murder him as well as Vision Ward your lane for lulz. His main harassment is Rake but he'll go oom fast trying to harass you. Noxian Diplomacy actually hurts quite a lot, but then, you'll just murder him for touching you because you generally build armor anyway. His more annoying move is Cutthroat, which blinks him to you and silences you. Just auto attack him and make him go away. Hitting him about three times will hurt him far more then he ever will with his burst. His ultimate is Shadow Assault, but it should be called Shadow Retreat, he'll probably only use it to get away from you. Vision Ward to laugh at him.
  
  Summary: Murder him, Tell him Altair was cooler
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Mercury's Treads, Vision Ward
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen, Oracle's Elixir
  
  
  
  
• TEEMO, THE SWIFT SCOUT
  
  Difficulty: 5/10
  
  Teemo is generally a counter to most bruisers, but not to Darius. Decimate will hit him regardless of you being blinded by Blinding Dart and Hemorrhage stacks do more damage than his Toxic Shot. Just murder him like you've murdered all squishies before him. Try to have your jungler gank him early because at level 6 he will have the entire lane rigged with Noxious Traps. He only has Move Quick to get away from you, but if it was a lengthy fight, he may just succumb to Hemorrhage or, for fun you can use Noxian Guillotine to cleave the little guy in half! Oh, don't walk in bushes. They are made of pain.
  
  Summary: Murder him, Call in for early ganks, Don't walk in bushes
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak, Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Force of Nature, Frozen Heart
  
  
  
  
• TRYNDAMERE! THE BARBARIAN KING!
  
  Difficulty: 7/10
  
  Tryndamere is a total noobstomper, so don't be a noob. A fed Tryndamere can carry a game single handed and he doesn't afraid of anything. He trades well because he stacks critical chance items, and gets passive bonus attack damage from Bloodlust, he can also drop your attack damage with Mocking Shout, or slow you if your back was turned to him. Bloodlust can also be activated to heal him, giving him good sustain. His harassment is auto attacking you and then using Spinning Slash to retreat. It is a wise choice to shut Tryndamere down early by harassing him, or calling in ganks to kill him. Once he hits 6 he gains Undying Rage which can allow him to win some fights, even if he was losing, and retreat. Your entire goal fighting Tryndamere is to make him pop his ultimate fast and force him to retreat before he murders you. Hemorrhage can actually get kills on a retreating Tryndamere as it stays on him even though he is immune to death. Don't use Noxian Guillotine when he screams, that's like the biggest whiff of whiffs. Hard CC ganks are needed to kill him when he has Undying Rage.
  
  Summary: Call in for early ganks, and hard CC ganks when he has his ultimate, Don't use Noxian Guillotine when he is in Undying Rage
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest, Ninja Tabi
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Thornmail
  
  
  
  
• UDYR, THE MANBEARPHEONIXTURTLETIGER
  
  Difficulty: 9/10
  
  Udyr is a very good duelist if he gets close to you because he can stun you with Bear Stance, do a lot of burst damage and attack very fast with Tiger Stance and then walk away and regenerate health and mana with Turtle Stance. Laning Udyr generally doesn't use Phoenix Stance as it is better for jungling. Generally, dueling him is a bad idea, so try to just harass him with Decimate. Call in ganks on him to shut him down, Bear Stance is his only escape move. He has no ranged poke and absolutely has to be in melee range to do anything, so kiting him is pretty easy for the most part, even when he's using Bear Stance.
  
  Summary: Don't duel him, only harass with Decimate, Call in for ganks
  Suggested Early items: Ninja Tabi, Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
  
• VLADIMIR, THE CRIMSON REAPER
  
  Difficulty: 3/10
  
  Vladimir becomes one of the bulkiest casters in the game due to his passive, Crimson Pact giving him health for his AP, and vise versa. Building flat AP, he generally ends games around 4000 health, Madred's Bloodrazor is a good choice against him. Vladimir has a weak early game. Transfusion hurts a lot, but it's on a long cooldown and he can be punished after he's used it with Decimate and some auto attacks. You want to be very aggressive to Vladimir at level 1. When he gets Tides of Blood he has more consistent DPS, and you can start backing off a bit, Decimate him for harassment. Call in for ganks on him early, but when your jungler comes, try to bait his Sanguine Pool ahead of time, for an easier gank. Also, don't use Noxian Guillotine when he's troll pooling. His ultimate, Hemoplague makes you take increased damage from all sources before blowing up. He can easily kill you if he has 4 stacks of Tides of Blood. Provided you haven't already murdered him. He is still squishy, despite his rather large health pool.
  
  Summary: Bait Sanguine Pool for your jungler, or before you use Noxian Guillotine, murder him early, take Ignite
  Suggested Early items: Negatron Cloak, Hexdrinker
  Suggested Late game items: Maw of Malmortius, Force of Nature, Madred's Bloodrazor
  
  
  
  
• VOLIBEAR, THE THUNDER'S ROAR
  
  Difficulty: 3/10
  
  Volibear is somewhat easy to counter, and he's highly predictable. Rolling Thunder makes him drop to all fours and move faster towards you, if he hits you, he flings you behind him. As the visual and sound queue is pretty obviously saying "You should probably avoid me right now!" you can avoid it most of the time. His Frenzy passively stacks attack speed on him, making him a decent duelist. He can activate the ability to execute you at lower health. His Majestic Roar is a pretty powerful slow, but has a short range. His only really annoying ability is his passive, Chosen of the Storm, when he drops to 30% health, he regenerates 30% of his health back over 6 seconds. Take this time to use Ignite then kill him anyway, or just use Noxian Guillotine to just flat out kill him. He is fairly easy to gank because he's a big slow bear, and has no hard escape moves.
  
  Summary: Avoid Rolling Thunder, Ignite him when his passive triggers, Call in ganks
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Frozen Heart, Madred's Bloodrazor
  
  
  
  
• SUN WUKONG, THE MONKEY KING
  
  Difficulty: 4/10
  
  Wukong is a more bursty bruiser, so he's pretty easily dealt with simply by building sustain items. He can't farm well, and has bad sustain himself, so try to rough him up with Decimate. If he gets really aggressive to you, he will go oom very fast by spamming Nimbus Strike, Crushing Blow and Decoy to escape. When chasing Wukong and he stands still, walk past him, it's probably the Decoy. Try very hard not to use Noxian Guillotine until you know it's Wukong and not the Decoy. Watch out for his ultimate though, Cyclone deals heavy AoE damage and knocks you up once, don't stand in it. He's fairly easy to kill in a gank though, even with Decoy, so call your jungler in to rough him up.
  
  Summary: Don't fall for the Decoy, Harass him with Decimate, Call in ganks
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen, Oracle's Elixir
  
  
  
  
• YORICK, THE GRAVEDIGGER
  
  Difficulty: 10/10
  
  Yorick has amazing harass, but is not sustained in his mana. He heals himself well enough, but if you keep making him use Omen of Famine he'll be oom very quickly. This means lay down the pain on him! Omen of Pestilence is his only CC, and it will slow you quite alot. His main damage move is Omen of War which makes him hit pretty hard and summon a ghoul that makes him faster as it's alive. Just call in a gank on him, because he's really easy to kill early on, and has no escape moves. However, once he gets some mana items and can spam more, he will harass you to the end of time, so counter with some items to sustain yourself. Also be aware, Yorick is the master of freezing his lane, and will generally try to stay at in front of his turret. At level 6 he gets Omen of Death which makes a copy of himself or whoever he cast it on. If that champion dies while the clone is up, they take over the clone and live on for 10 seconds. Choose your battles wisely with Yorick when he has this.
  
  Summary: Focus on sustain, Call in ganks
  Suggested Early items: Chain Vest
  Suggested Late Game items: Randuin's Omen

Yes, it's legit. I did it, and it works damn well. I ain't trolling you. Darius support works like Volibear or Blitzcrank support, it's a kill lane. This works because Darius's base damage values are high enough that you can afford to rush defensive items and Sight wards. Building items like Aegis of the Legion and Zeke's herald help Darius, his carry, the jungler and even a solo top if they are AD too. Support Darius is hyper aggressive to the enemy carry, like his fellow kill-laners, Volibear, and Blitzcrank. The third build is a somewhat support-type Darius build.

Refer to the " Darius Syndrome" section and repeat the mantra before attempting this.


Your carries:

• ASHE, THE FROST ARCHER
  
  Synergy: 10/10
  
  Ashe is probably the best carry to do this lane with, her Frost Shot along with your Apprehend makes sure things aren't going anywhere very fast, and taking a lot of damage trying to move. She's also a pretty safe carry because she can slow people and move away, and has a built in Clairvoyance in her Hawkshot. Enchanted Crystal Arrow is the main reason to go with her, this move pretty much means a kill for one of you. She fires it, you Apprehend, Decimate and Noxian Guillotine, and they are either dead, or about to be. Doesn't matter what support they have.
  
  
  
  
• CAITLYN, THE SHERIFF OF PILTOVER
  
  Synergy: 8/10
  
  Caitlyn is great to lane with because of her very long poke range. The enemy laners will probably have to back from Hemorrhage damage and damage from her auto-attacks very often (unless their support is Soraka), making this a lockdown lane. Very low health enemies will be picked off by her Ace in the Hole, even if it's blocked, they may die from your Hemorrhage stacks.
  
  
  
  
• CORKI, THE DARING BOMBARDIER
  
  Synergy: 9/10
  
  Corki's Gatling Gun and your Hemorrhage shred the hell out of people in seconds. Corki is also very adept at chasing down fleeing targets, as well as getting away from fights safely with Valkyrie. He has a very good poke range with Missile Barrage. He can also check bushes with Phosphorus Bomb. A very well rounded carry to ally yourself with.
  
  
  
  
• EZREAL, THE PRODIGAL EXPLORER
  
  Synergy: 5/10
  
  The extent of Darius and Ezreal's synergy together is essentially the fact that Apprehending an enemy means a free Mystic Shot or Trueshot Barrage hit for him. Otherwise, he's a pretty safe carry on his own with a built in blink from Arcane Shift and an attack speed debuff with Essence Flux. Not a bad lane, but it isn't the best.
  
  
  
  
• KOG'MAW, THE MOUTH OF THE ABYSS
  
  Synergy: 4/10
  
  You can do it, but it isn't the best depending on the Kog'Maw player. A bad Kog'Maw is semi suicidal with his passive Icathian Surprise, so expect lane feed. A good Kog'Maw player snipes the enemy carry and doesn't afraid of anything, so you'll be sitting there bored and looking silly. Overall, not a very fun carry for Darius to lane with.
  
  
  
  
• GRAVES, THE OUTLAW
  
  Synergy: 8/10
  
  This isn't a kill lane, this is an absolute murder lane. Graves is probably one of the meanest carries around, and his aggressive, close quarters play style works well with yours. Ping for Graves to attack your Apprehended target and he will Quickdraw in and Buckshot that poor sap in the face ten ways to Sunday. If they aren't dead, they are almost there and are going to be hugging turret for the rest of the game. Abuse the cover of his Smoke Screen. If he throws it at an enemy, you have a second or two to land Apprehend freely if you act quickly. In team fights, Graves ultimate works nicely with your Decimate. AoE pain for everyone!!
  
  
  
  
• MISS FORTUNE, THE BOUNTY HUNTER
  
  Synergy: 3/10
  
  She doesn't have the poke range of Caitlyn or Varus, she doesn't have the CC of Ashe, she doesn't have the high burst power of Graves. She just, kinda... there. It's doable, her ultimate, Bullet Time freaking hurts, and with your Decimate, I don't see any reason why a double kill couldn't happen. Her Make it Rain is pretty good to set up Apprehend as well. But eh... she just isn't a very good carry.
  
  
  
  
• SIVIR, THE BATTLE MISTRESS
  
  Synergy: 8/10
  
  Both of you have awesome early game burst with Decimate and Boomerang Blade. Abuse this, you can probably get a carry to leave the lane or die before the minions even spawn. She farms very well despite her low range, and has very high damage output. She also has a nifty Spell Shield to protect herself from things like Ace in the Hole or Requiem. Her ultimate, On The Hunt synergizes very well with you, as you lack mobility. When she pops this, there is no escaping her and Darius.
  
  
  
  
• TEEMO, THE SWIFT SCOUT
  
  Synergy: 10/10
  
  Teemo is also an exceptional carry to lane with for a few reasons. He can blind the enemy carry with Blinding Dart, making you win most exchanges. He can very easily get away from ganks with Move Quick, and his Toxic Shot stacks with your Hemorrhage making it very easy to shred health bars into nothingness. And the main reason to have Teemo ever in any game; he is a free- sight ward machine with Noxious Traps. With a good Teemo you should never get ganked, ever. Oh, and like you, Teemo also operates well with little to nothing as his core shredding build is rather cheap. He won't mind if you take a few kills with Noxian Guillotine so long as he gets all the farm.
  
  
  
  
• TRISTANA, THE MEGLING GUNNER
  
  Synergy: 9/10
  
  Tristana is a very good carry to have if you are laning against Soraka, Taric, or Sona. Her Explosive Shot reduces healing effects, which works wonders against them. She has a great burst with Rapid Fire, and good chase and escape with Rocket Jump. Her synergy with Darius is largely dependent on the player. Good Tristanas can Rocket Jump over the enemy carry, and use her ultimate, Buster Shot on them to send them flying helpless backwards, towards your turret, and away from the safety of their support, allowing you both to murder them.
  
  
  
  
• TWISTED FATE, THE CARD MASTER
  
  Synergy: 7/10
  
  Twisted Fate is a special mention, because he isn't very good as an AD carry. However, he has a targeted stun with Pick A Card, which is perfect for setting up your Apprehend ambush. AD Twisted Fate won't even use Wild Cards, they are pretty much worthless. Sealed Deck gives him a bit of extra damage every few hits, and raises his attack speed, and lowers his cooldowns, so more gold cards, more stuns. His ultimate is where he really shines though. He can assist your jungle in ganks on mid lane, or assist you from anywhere with Destiny. A good Twisted Fate's map presence is always scary when you see him port in with a gold card in hand.
  
  
  
  
• TWITCH, THE PLAGUE RAT
  
  Synergy: 5/10
  
  With his reworks he's now a decent AD carry, you just need to time with his Ambush to Apprehend and get a sudden chunk of damage. Both of you have excellent slows and AoE damage and massive DoT damage from Deadly Venom and Hemorrhage, abuse it to get early kills. If you get Twitch fed, he's actually one of the scariest carries as far as team fights are concerned due to Spray and Prey.
  
  
  
  
• URGOT, THE HEADMAN'S PRIDE
  
  Synergy: 9/10
  
  Urgot is a very scary, yet underplayed anti-carry. Not only does his Noxian Corrosive Charge stack with your Hemorrhage and reduce armor, his Acid Hunter locks on to targets affected by it. Urgot's auto attacks reduce the enemies damage dealt, which leads to you winning most exchanges. He also possesses a shield that makes his auto attacks and Acid Hunters to slow, with Terror Capacitor. Urgot's ultimate, Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser is one of the best displacers in the game, this along with Apprehend means the enemy is going where you please them to go, not where they do.
  
  
  
  
• VARUS, THE ARROW OF RETRIBUTION
  
  Synergy: 9/10
  
  Varus operates pretty much like a mix of Caitlyn and Ashe. He has almost the same poke range as Caitlyn with Piercing Arrow, and has a slow with Hail of Arrows. He just slightly not as good as either of them in both of those departments. However, he has better burst damage than both of them with Blighted Quiver and Piercing Arrow. His ultimate, Chain of Corruption is like a smaller range Enchanted Crystal Arrow that spreads to other champions. It's perfect for setting up Darius's onslaught. Be aware that Varus requires a lot more protection than most carries due to his lack of mobility.
  
  
  
  
• VAYNE, THE NIGHT HUNTER
  
  Synergy: 10/10
  
  This requires some good coordination, but the payoff is so good. Ping a target you are Apprehending from a bush, and a good Vayne will Tumble into a good position and Condemn the ***** on the wall, giving you ample time to murder them on the spot. This is a very high skill, high coordination, but high pay off lane. Vayne's chasing power is over 9000 and is one of the techy-est carries. Her aggressive chase down style meshes well with how much damage you do to people on your own.

Send me a link to a screen cap of your victorious games with my guide, either through MobaFire, or email me at OTGBionicArm@gmail.com! Thanks!

Here is where I will put your victories if you send them to me! Come on, everyone wants their moment of fame!

Edit; Sadly, I'm afraid I cannot add any more screen caps to my guide here. I lose track of them easily, and they slow down the loading time for people with slower computers and such, so I'll be nice to them. Thanks to everyone who already got on my hall of fame!


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/league-of-legends/champion/darius-98
Sent to me by The Sawce Baws!


Sent to me by Brautham, using my shredder build!



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Thank you very much for reading my guide, I hope you have as much fun with this axe-wielding murder train as I did! Remember that practice makes perfect and not every will do well with him first try. If at first you don't succeed, murder them into submission! >:D

If you liked my guide, up vote it and +rep me! It will be very much appreciated!
If you have any concerns with the guide, feel free to comment below with your ideas.

Please, try the build out before voting! Feel free to send me screen caps of good games you had using my guide! I'll post them on the guide!


Change Log:
5/26/2012: Guide created, covering items, masteries, runes, and how to use Darius's abilities.
5/27/2012: Added Sections for starting at top lane, and jungling routes.
5/28/2012: Added section for an evaluation for Darius as a jungler.
5/31/2012: Added section for specific solo top enemies (not done yet). Made many fixes and tweaks to the items. Finished the builds on the cheat sheet, because some people can't be bothered to read an entire guide >.>. Added hall of fame! Added a (admittedly somewhat of a joke) build for Support Darius!
6/2/2012: Took out the "Starting out at Solo Top" section, isn't needed due to the new Specific Enemies section. Made some fixes due to the upcoming Darius nerf.
6/4/2012: Finished the "Specific Enemies Solo Top" sections. Beginning preparation for Draven's Release and my forthcoming guide. Still the top build for Darius with 72%. Thanks everyone who voted! :D
6/18/2012: Many minor edits and fixes, as well as pretty new banners. changed the balanced build, added optional runes, and changed the masteries from 21/9/0 to 9/21/0 and 0/21/9.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Credits to Shizukani for the pretty dividers! :3

Thanks to Keondre, for playing many games with me as Darius and starring in my instructional video as Morgana!

Thanks to Felix102891 for letting me pull him through walls with Apprehend for screen shots!

Thanks a lot to NoxAeternum for allowing me to use his awesome Apprehend map!

Thanks to Berzerk for proofreading my solo top enemies section as well as supplying a demonstration video. Check out his complete guide to Solo Top!

Thank you to everyone who read my read my guide, gave me positive feedpack, constructive criticism, as well as screen captures of the victories they achieved using my guide!