Hi and welcome to my guide! In these builds I focus on making Darius sufficiently tanky while also having a high attack damage. Darius is an incredibly fun and champion to play, and is easy to learn. Darius is an AD caster, much like a Noxian Garen. He deals out tons of damage, has a fun ultimate that will often win you teamfights. I prefer to build Darius with alot of attack damage, enough tankiness, and with a little attack speed to gather hemorrhage stacks with his basic attacks.

Pros

Very high damage
Great Harass
Refreshable, true damage ultimate
Fun to play

Cons

Very vulnerable to CC
Weak(ish) early game
No escape spells/vulnerable to ganks

The runes are pretty standard for a solo top.

Greater Mark of Attack Damage
A little extra ad that will aid in last hitting and scales well on Darius's Decimate
Greater Seal of Armor
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
For more survivability
Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Armor pen that will synergize well with Darius's apprehend's passive armor penetration.

I prefer a 21/9/0 mastery set on Darius, with maxing his offensive traits while getting the useful defensive for increased survivability. The veteran's scars mastery on defense is too valuable to give up. For more defensive/tanky builds a 9/21/0 would work nicely.

I grab a standard boots and pots first on darius, for the increased mobility and potions for that little bit of sustain on top.


sight ward
If you are running an ignite exhaust summoner setup, sight wards are MANDATORY. Without an escape you need to be aware of ganks. Also, if the enemy jungler is preparing to gank you then take into account their health. I've found that if they are 60 percent health or lower, with the laner not too close to your position,then you can often kill the waiting jungler and escape from the opposing laner.

After getting my boots i grab a vampiric sceptor for better sustain, which will result in you staying in top lane longer.

You may be wondering why i get beserkers greaves instead of Tabi or Mercs treads, but i like to build my Darius to have his be able to fight well with his basics as well as his abilities. Instead of just using his combo and then having to wait for cooldowns, i prefer him to have have a reliable basic attack as well, which will later work well with your Black Cleaver.

I then get my phage for increased survivability/tankiness which you will later build into a Frozen mallet. The slow also aides you in chasing enemies down.

The Brutalizer works so well on Darius in my opinion. It is his most core item. He benefits from the additional ad, cooldown reduction, and the armor pentration substantially.

You finish your phage into a Frozen mallet, the slow will help for chasing, if they are still alive after your combo.

I then build a Black Cleaver. The ad will help you substantially, and with its passive your armor penetration will be devastating. You'll shred tanks and squishies will be a thing of the past.

Everything past that is situational. If tankiness is not a problem, then you can finish your vampiric into a for even more attack damage. If you are being focused in teamfights, or you are not lasting long enough, then build an .

Other Viable items:
, , ,

Now if you prefer to build Darius it a bit more tanky, which many do and may be necessary, this is what I get and why:


Using the Dorans shield again here would work fine, but is not necessary.


On my other build i would have built the Vampiric Scepter into a late game, but in this one i would build it into the wriggles for extra armor and damage.


I would take Mercury's treads for boots to deal with Crowd Control effects on Darius, as he has no built in way to deal with them. These could be exchanged for Ninja Tabi, depending on how AD heavy or how much CC is on the opposing team.


At this point i would get a phage, for the extra damage and tankiness that it gives you. The passive also helps with chasing. You will later build this into a Frozen Mallet


To further increase our health pool and tankiness.

B.f. Sword
to give us the extra ad needed, that scales well on his abilities. This we will build into a Maw of Malmortius


Finishing this from Phage for the increased health and to make the slow more reliable.


To increase Darius armor and make him increasingly tanky. This will be built into an Atma's Impaler


This will give Darius much needed ad, and good magic resist to give him good all around tankiness. The magic shield will prevent their AP carries from nuking your health pool.


Then we build a Warmog's to become increasingly tanky, grabbing the giant's belt first. We will finish this with an Atmas impaler to compliment the health.


We then build this to compliment the health we build into Darius. You could choose to finish this before you finish Frozen Mallet, but that is preference and according to need.

The last item will be situational, but as i doubt you will need to be more tanky unless you are tanking for your team(you shouldnt be) you can choose from a range of offensive items such as:
, , , ETC.

Darius's passive. Is a Damage over time that lowers the cooldown of your crippling strike and increases the damage of Noxian Guillotine. Coupled with an ignite, enemies can escape with a fairly large health pool and still die to your passive.


Darius's main source of damage. This is the bread and butter of Darius. Make sure to always hit the enemy with the outside ring of this for the extra damage. This has a low cooldown and mana cost, so make sure to harass with this whenever you can


This ability when activated will make your next basic attack do extra damage and will slow the enemy. Crippling strike's cooldown will be reduced the more hemorrhage stacks there are, which will aid with longer engagements with the enemy.


This is Darius initiate skill. This skill can actually pull people through walls, so keep that in mind.This has a rather high cooldown, but whenever it is off cooldown make sure to pull the enemy into your minions, unleash your combo, and then do it again when it is off.


This is darius's ultimate. It is ridiculously strong, but make sure to try and not ks every kill with it. Make sure to always last hit the enemy with this, as it refreshes if it deals the killing blow. Also make sure that you have as many hemorrhage stacks on the enemy as you can before using it, to deal as much damage as you can with this. In teamfights this is almost guaranteed multikills if you can utilize this correctly.

I max decimate(Q) first, and get a point in apprehend to start harrasing. After maxing Decimate, focus on Crippling strike. Once you get Crippling Strike, then you can start using youre combo and take chunks out of youre lane opponent.
skill order basically: R>Q>W>E
Using your combo:
The order you will cast will be E,W,Q,R.

Use your apprehend to pull them into melee range, and the use your crippling strike. Get in as many melee hits as you can, and as they are running away, use your Decimate as they walk through the outside range of it for the additional damage. When apprehend is off cooldown, repeat the combo, use your summoners, and pick up the kill. You should play very aggressive and should be able to keep your enemy from farming and win your lane if you use your skillset correctly.

These are mostly preference.

I would reccomend taking

:

This spell is way strong on Darius. If you can get stacks of hemorrhage and an ignite off an the enemy, a kill is almost guaranteed.


Helps with preventing the enemy from running away from your combo. This will enable to get multiple hits off on the enemy without them escaping and is a good 1v1 summoner to use against other bruisers/carries.


This summoner is also very useful on Darius. Will help chase down enemies to last hit them, or if you are in danger can help you escape. I have used ghost with exhaust and ignite and both have worked wonderfully.

other viable summoners include

:

If you know how to utilize this well very good summoner spell.


Very good escape/ chase spell


Good for solo top, prevent your tower from being pushed

Do not use

:
Never ever take this.....unless maayybe you were in dominion. Just dont use this.

This is a waste of a summoner spell....do not use

Not useful enough. Helps with pushing, but other than that not viable.

Darius is tanky enough to not have to need this. Health potions instead of heal.

Darius isnt mana hungry enough to take this one. If you really need the mana, take a mana potion.

Thank you for reading my guide, i appreciate and am open to constructive criticism. I am going to be constantly revising this guide and updating this guide on Darius. He is a very fun champion that is arguably overpowered if built and played right. This is my first guide on Mobafire. Please send me a message with suggestions and feedback before voting down, thanks!