Hello Summoners, my name is Weeznaz and I am writing this guide to help players who are brand new to Darius. Good news about Darius is that Darius is one of the easiest champions to pick up and use, and due to "Juggernaut" changes has become a lot stronger than before. The bad news about Darius is that he is a very immobile champion who needs help using Flash, positioning, or items in order to get in range of his targets during teamfights. Darius has a very dominating laning phase and can handle almost any champ in the early game.

Passive = Hemmorrhage
This passive is basically an extra damage spell. Each time you auto attack an enemy or hit the enemy with the edge of Decimate or Crippling Strike you give them a debuff that lasts for a few seconds. Once you get 5 stacks you get an extra 40-200 attack damage depending on your level. This passively given damage is why I'm not a huge fan of buying Sterak's Gage or Titanic Hydra and focus more on tanky items to let me walk into an enemy team and stay alive as long as possible.

Q= Decimate
This is your primary harass ability. How this spell works is once you press Q there is a small delay until the Q lands. Before it lands you will see a range indicator. You want the enemy champions to be just at the edge of the radius, this will make them take more damage, it will slightly heal Darius, and it will apply a de buff to the enemy champion

W= Crippling Strike: This spell not only makes your next auto attack much stronger and slows the enemy target, but it also resets your auto attack animation. It's really important to auto attak then press W then your champion will immediately auto attack again. If you press W then auto attack you will have to slowly wait for the next auto attack and get less damage in during the same amount of time.

E= Apprehend
This spell is a form of CC that will pull enemies towards you. This spell has a very long cooldown even when maxed, so you always max this spell last.

R= Noxian Guilletine
This spell is an execute. Before using this spell on an enemy champion you at least want to make sure that they have all 5 stacks of Hemmorrhage on and are low in health, at least below 30 ish percent.

Spell MAxing order: R>Q>W>E

Depending on how you want to play Darius there are many different rune pages you can take

Quints= Move Speed or Attack Damage or Attack Speed
I prefer the move speed in order to help me stick to targets better in the late game. Since Darius is given a large damage steroid through his passive, I don't feel I need Attack Damage Quints, but Attack Damage Quints are beter for snowballing the lane. Alternatively Attack Speed quints help you lay on your passive faster which is why if I am running a laning phase oriented rune page I will select Attack Speed over Attack Damage.

Marks= Attack Speed Or Attack Damage
If I am running Move Speed Quints I run Attack Speed marks in order to get my passive off faster onto an enemy target.
If I am running a different Rune I will pick up Attack Damage marks just to have more presence in lane.

Seals: Scaling Armor or Scaling Health
If I am going in blind I prefer going with scaling armor and scaling magic resist. If I am going into a matchup against an AP champion I will use scaling health instead just for the lane matchup.

Quints: Scaling Magic Resist or Scaling Cooldown Reduction
I usually run Scaling Magic Resist. If the enemy team doesn't have a threatening magic damage dealer I will make sure I get at least 10% CDR in runes, since I won't be buying Spirit Visage.

I run a 9-21 page in order to soak up a lot of damage as a tank. You can run a 21-9 page if you wish, I just prefer the 9-21 and recommend it to new Darius players.

1: Homeguard Teleoport-> flank the enemy team. The reason I prefer to take teleport over Ignite is for the map pressure and the ability to use Homeguard boots in order to close the gap onto the enemy team. Now Ignite can help you dominate the laning phase, but after that point you may find yourself struggling to close the game or to engage onto the enemy team, where as Teleport gives you one more option of engage.

2: Getting of 5 Stacks quickly
you want to get 5 stacks off onto a target as quickly as you can. Here is how you can do this.
Hit the enmy champion with the edge of Decimate -> pull in the enemy champion -> auto attack -> press W -> this lets you auto attack again-> auto attack the target 2 more times. You want to weave in your damage dealing spells in order to get off your passive faster.

3: Auto attack an enemy champion after have given 5 stacks of your passive to a different enemy champion. Once you get 5 stacks on one opponent just use your auto attacks or use a damaging spell and give another enemy champion 5 stacks instantly. This is great if you want to get ready to dunk multiple people or just to "spread the love"

When playing Darius it is important to know your role? Am I the solo tank of the team or can I build more damage? I prefer to just build as a Tri Force tank for consistency, but if your team has other tanky people then you can build more damage.

1: Phage
Phage is a core item on darius because it gives him health, attack damage, and a passive that helps him stick to targets. Darius needs every bit of help he can in sticking to another target. Important to note, whether you want to build Black Cleaver or Trinity Force don't complete either unless you are getting very fed. I prefer to use the money needed to complete either item and put it into an item that will make me more tanky, as completing either item will make you a sub par tank.

2: Black Cleaver vs Trinity Force
At some point in the game you want to complete your Phage item. In my opinion Black Cleaver is inferior to Trinity Force in a COMPLETE build. The major difference between Black Cleaver and Trinity Force is that Black Cleaver gives you early access to 20% CDR. While getting CDR is great on Darius, I feel Darius can get CDR very easily through either Spirit Visage or Frozen Heart and as such I would rather get the additional move speed + attack speed + spellblade passive that I can't get through other items.

3: Deadman's Plate:
This is my normal and favorite second item on Darius. It gives a large ball of health, and the Momentum passive helps Darius traverse the map, get into a teamfight, and keep a target down while he is dealing damage to this person. The only reason I wouldn't build this item is if I am vs 5 AP champions, which can happen a lot in ARAM. if I find myself against 5 AP I build Turbo Chemtank so that I have some form of engage.

4: Spirit Visage and Frozen Heart. Both of these items give much appreciated defensive stats and CDR. I usually build Spirit Visage first so that I have a large health pool and magic resistance to help deal with an AP threat on the enemy team. In a normal build I complete these 2 items and then finish my Trinity Force.

5: Thornmail
In my standard build: Tri Force + Spirit Visage + Deadman's Plate + Darius Base values= more than 3600 health. With this much health I like to use my 6th item to make sure the ADC doesn't shred me down, with Thornmail we get 400 armor( great for facetanking an enemy ADC)

6: Warmog's Armor
This item can be bought instead of Thornmail, but as item 6 I prefer Thornmail
If I am against 5 AP threats, I will get this as my second item right behind Phage

7: Banshee's Veil
I don't normally pick up this item when against a standard team comp.
However if I am against a 5 man AP team, I pick up this item at some point

8: Randuin's Omen
While I don't pick this up in a normal build, if I am against an entirely attack damage enemy team I will pick up this item early on. Also if I am against an enemy in lane who has early access to crit chance (like Yasuo or Tryndamere) then I will pick up this item before Deadman's Plate

9: Homeguard Enchantment on Mercury Treads vs Ninja Tabi
Normally I prefer to purchase Mercury Treads to get rid of CC as best as I can. However if the enemy team is more attack damage heavy and don't have as much CC then Ninja Tabi would be the better choice

10: Elixir of Iron or Elixir of Ruin vs Elixir of Wrath
All of these Elixirs are viable options. If against heavy amounts of CC, use E. of Iron
IF you want to increase your sieging potential then E. of Ruin is great
If you want to deal more damage/ are snoballing then E. of Wrath is a viable option.

11: Black Cleaver + Sterak's Gage + Titanic Hydra
All of these items give Darius more carry potential but less defensive and tanky characteristics. I am not a fan of building these items on Darius, but this style of playstyle is a possible alternative.