Welcome to my Gare- *cough* sorry Darius guide. I prefer him as a top lane and a jungler. His kit is fairly volatile and some even say overpowered. Through out the guide I will show you how to play this monster.

First

Your not a tank, neither is your counter part Garen you were meant to do damage embrace it! so don't have the mentality that you can initiate a team fight, he doesn't do too well. However don't be a afraid to pick off champs, you can 1v1 almost anyone.

Secondly

Your a bully, you cant be a passive turret huger, you need to assert your lane dominance. Now please play smart don't over extend, but make sure your presence is known.

Finally

Your weakness, yes everyone has one, and knowing your counter can better prepare you to play better and become the executioner you were born to be.

Pros

Great damage, even with a lot of tank items
BLEEDS
Goes hard on the paint for those kills
BLEEDS
His ult dose true damage
Garen on steroids
Bleeds for dayyyys
His ult refreshes if you kill your target with it
BLEEDS
Has a pull
Passive armor pen
Did I mention the bleeds?

Cons

No escapes
Gets focused HARD
Crowd control kills him
Can take a lot of the teams kills (even more then

Karthus
Nothing much else

This refers to the first rule, your a damage dealer, so i build him offensively. 21/9/0 I take [Summoner's Wrath] because its free stats, the ap doesn't do much but the dot synergizes well with your passive. I take the armor masteries in defense because top lane is almost 100% ad champs so you need to mitigate their damage. Now lets not forget the rare cases of ap such as, Cho'gath,kennen,rumble,ect. so i still go magic resist. When jungling you need the durability so you can gank better and more deadly, being able to take more pain while ganking leads to more kills and getting more fed. I take the magic penatration, you may be asking your self , bloodsfury are you crazy? hes a physical dealer, that's just a waste, so hear me out. His passive [Hemorrhage] scales with physcial damage yes, BUT, heres the catch, Deals magic damage so if you can ignore the magic resist that they may or may not have, you bleeds will hurt, A LOT.

I got armor pen marks because you still deal mainly physcial damage so armor pen stays strong. For seals its armor because mainly top lane consists of tanker brusiers that deal physical damage (Cept anti bruiser [Lux] :P) as for jungling, you need the armor to survive the jungle creeps, pretty standard on all junglers. I take magic resist per level because not only do they out level the flat runes by lvl 8, but your gaining level really fast in a solo lane and by the time you need to deal with the pesky mages you'll be ready to drop the axe on there head.I just LOVE movement quints on this guy, it gives you the extra push to take down your enemies , i know there a bit expensive but I'll tell ya it was the greatest investment I've made in runes.

So your skills are all very handy and all but your main damage comes from using them correctly and in proper order. Lets go through the skills and see what each of them do.
Your Q Decimate causes damage in a circle around you dealing more if the targets are hit of the tip of axe or the outer ring of the spell. Its a mini [Garen] spin that also applies your passive which is really good for poking and harrasing.

Your W Crippling Strike Causes your next basic attack to slow the target, the cooldown is also reduced based on how many stacks of [Hemorrhage] you have on the target. Basically your chasing skill, it makes sure your victims cannot escape. It ends up with a 2-3 second cooldown with max bleeds very great slow.

Your E Apprehend Pulls all targets in a cone to Darius, while also, giving passive armor pen. Basically this will grab the people you need out of position and your team can focus them down. Its like a blitz grab, only a really short range. Use as they run away so you can slow them and bring the pain (his ult).I max this first because of the early armor penetration, because its real easy to build armor against Darius early game but if you have enough to penetrate it, then there wasting there gold trying to counter you.

Your R Noxian Guillotine Basically your bread and butter skill. It does true damage and gets amplified by up to 2X damage for the amount of bleeds you have on the target. It also refreshes the cooldown if you kill someone with the ability. This is what makes Darius well... Darius. He becomes a kill machine with this ability by just dropping the hammer, rather axe, on their heads.

Ignite This spell works wonders on securing kills, works really well with your bleeds as well insuring any kill. The 50% healing reduction on it well help you fight the Dr. Mundo and the Sorraka from healing and taking away your kill.

Flash Is by far one of the greatest spells ever, it can be used so well offensively, defensively, just get it, it works wonders.

Ghost is a great tool if you don't fancy using Flash its a preference really

Exhaust Its a great tool because it's not only a slow but a damage reduction too, can change those scary carry's into not so scary kills.

Teleport This spell is really good for ganking situations because a tele ward combo can be an easy kill, Or even get a kill bot and tele up to top so the tower does not fall.

Early Game

I start Boots and 3 Health Potion because its the common staple for your build as it makes getting your t2 boots much faster, now if you get lanes such as Tyrndamere or Firoa i'd suggest getting Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion. Now in some cases people like to take Regrowth Pendant and 1 Health Potion, and that's situational. If you know that your lane opponent can only do burst damage, such as Jax and Wukong, then go ahead and get the regrowth pendent, it will make your Philosopher's Stone that much cheaper and get more gp10. After you get your feet wet in lane you should get your gp10 asap, why? Because, the longer you have the gp10 the more gold they will generate, meaning you can get more gold then your opponent if you can out farm them, and if you are not doing so well against a really aggressive laner then the gp10 will keep you from being useless mid and late game. DO NOT SELL/USE YOUR GP10 ITEMS IN TILL THE LAST MOMENT you want to keep them as long as you can, now, if you cannot survive in team fights then maybe it is time to get that Randuin's Omen but try to hang on to them as long as you can. After you get your gp10 get your Vampiric Scepter and build it into a Wriggle's Lantern. I get the Lantern because its a free ward, which means you can not get ganked by their junglers or mid lane. So you can continue your lane in peace knowing that your Wriggle's Lantern will lead the way.

Mid game

Now your team should have dropped one or two towers and you should have plenty of gold in your coin purse. Go back to base and get your self your Phage and/or Frozen Mallet and begin working on your Atma's Impaler. Thesse items will help you grab kills and give you the durability to get your kills. After going on a bloodthirsty killing spree, you need to show them what your really capable of. Get your Bloodthirster or Aegis of the Legion and begin to round out your build.

Late game

Ok, Your pushing down mid lane, You've gotten inhib turret on mid and are working on bot and top. Team fights are breaking out left and right, and your contesting Baron Nashor. Time to break out the big guns. Get a Randuin's Omen and round out your build with whatever the enemy team has (heavy ap grab some magic resist/ fed ad carry get a thornmail). Now your job as Darius is to kill their carry, which is what all bruisers jobs are. The easiest way to do this is to spark a team fight by pulling a champion off guard and focus them down instantly giving your team the advantage in the team fight. Dive into the fight and fight pass their ap carry, ignore the tank, and past there bruiser, and focus the ad carry. Eventally you'll ult some kills and win the team fights pushing all the lanes and eventually wining the game. Be careful, because at this state of the game every kill matters why? Because when champions are dead for over 1 min then you can do some pretty serious damage to their base and/or nexus. Even on little mistake can cost your team the match.

Darius is a very strong, if not, the strongest bruiser in the game currently. He devastates top lane and can destroy teams easily. All in all hes an animal up in top lane and is a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks for reading my guide on Darius, The Hand of Noxus, If this helped you be sure to up vote it, it helps a lot. Also check out my Hecarim Guide(here)