5/25/12
- Guide Made/Released

5/26/12
- Guide Approved

6/1/12
Patch Preview
- Hemorrhage AD ratio lowered
- Grace period on ultimate removed. This means Darius has to deal the killing blow with his ultimate for it to be refreshed, it will no longer refresh if the champion dies soon after by other means.

6/2/12
In Game Example Chapter added; may expand with more games.

6/4/12
Darius Patch Notes
- Hemorrhage (Passive) bonus Attack Damage ratio reduced to 0.3 from 0.4
- Noxian Guillotine will now only refresh its cooldown when it deals the killing blow
- Apprehend pre-pull animation modified to be more readable for enemy Champion
- Fixed a bug with Hemorrhage applying Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow and Spell Vamp effects

There is no greater symbol of Noxian might than Darius, the nation's most feared and battle-hardened warrior. Orphaned at a young age, Darius had to fight to keep himself and his younger brother alive. By the time he joined the military, he had already developed the strength and discipline of a veteran soldier. The first true test of Darius's resolve occurred in a crucial battle against Demacia, where the Noxian forces were exhausted and outnumbered. Darius's captain called for his troops to retreat, but Darius refused to accept such an act of cowardice. Breaking formation, Darius strode towards the captain and decapitated him with one sweep of his gigantic axe. Both terrified and inspired, the soldiers followed Darius into battle and fought with incredible strength and fervor. After a long and grueling battle, they ultimately emerged victorious.

Seizing momentum from this victory, Darius led his now fiercely loyal troops in a devastating campaign against Demacia. After proving his power on the battlefield, Darius turned his gaze homeward. He saw a Noxus riddled with weakness, where greedy, complacent nobles drained the nation's strength. Seeking to restore his country to greatness, Darius took it upon himself to reshape the Noxian leadership. He identified weak figureheads and violently removed them from their positions of power. Many in Noxus saw Darius's cull as an attempt to seize power, but he had a different plan for the throne. He had been watching the rise of Jericho Swain with keen interest. In Swain, Darius saw a leader with the mind and determination to bring Noxus to glory. Now allied with the Master Tactician, Darius works to unite the nation behind his vision of true Noxian strength.

''A united Noxus could control the world - and would deserve to.'' - Darius

Both are 975RP

Default

Lord Darius

Darius is a very potent jungle and top laning champion who can easily punish melee or farm based champions with consistent harass and high damage. However he is countered by ranged champions and even some melees who have strong early games. This will be a guide to top lane Darius; read on to learn how to abuse foolish enemies and secure your title as a dominant solo laner.

Pros +


High damage

Strong vs Melee

Low mana costs

(Overpowered ultimate)

Cons -


No sustain

Easily kited

Countered by ranged

Summoner Spells Back To Top
Recommended:

Ghost

You can take this for consistent chasing/escaping as well as more efficient tower diving. Unlike the other spells listed below, this can also be taken over Flash, with Ignite still chosen as a summoner spell.

Exhaust

If you need to shut down a high value target with a powerful ultimate, Exhaust works well all game 'round, allowing you a large advantage in 1v1s or team fights.

Alternatives:

Flash

Flash is great for all around escaping, chasing, and tricking opponents. This works well on Darius because it can allow him to get into melee range to deal out the damage he needs to.

Ignite

This is taken to add to Darius' already ridiculous kill potential as well as improving your ability to dominate early game.


Teleport

This can be taken for better map/objective control; the ability to appear at team wards can help you be more involved in these scenarios and could help secure a win much easier.

Passive: Hemorrhage

Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33 / 36 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) magic damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.

Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.

Explanation:


One of the reasons why Darius counters melee champions so hard; this ability's can add up quicker than most think and make your harassing power extremely deadly.



Q: Decimate


Darius swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take more damage than those struck by the shaft, taking 50% additional damage. Physical Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210) (+0.7 per bonus attack damage)

Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds

Cost: 40 mana

Range: 425

Explanation:


A low cooldown, low mana cost ability; I max Decimate first as my major source of early game damage to harass and farm to my full potential.

Getting a feel for the "extra damage" zone can greatly increase how effective your harass and burst are.



W: Crippling Strike


Darius' next basic attack deals 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 / 200% additional damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 2 seconds.

Crippling strike's base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Cost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 mana

Range: 300

Explanation:


Yet another reason Darius fares so well against melee champions; it is hard to escape from him after being hit by this ability with Hemorrhage stacks on the target, and is also why Phage is a core item.



E: Apprehend


Darius hones his axe, granting him 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% passive armor penetration. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe's hook and pulls them to him.

Cooldown: 24 / 21 / 18 / 15 / 12 seconds

Cost: 45

Range: 550

Explanation:


Although this ability doesn't directly do any damage, the passive Armor Penetration is very useful in the mid to late stages of the game with the pull effect being great at disrupting enemies and bringing them into your comfort zone; melee range.

I take a point in this at level 2 to bully my lane easier as well as help my jungler perform more efficient ganks. I max it last because it does not scale as well as my other abilities and the Armor Penetration is not as vital early game.



R: Noxian Guillotine


Darius leaps to target enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 160 / 250 / 340 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage up to 320 / 500 / 680 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage).

The cooldown is refreshed if Noxian Guillotine kills the target.

Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 seconds

Cost: 100 mana

Range: 475

Explanation:

One of the most ridiculous ultimates in the game; a single target, AD scaling true damage nuke that has it's cooldown reset if it kills a target. I will not be surprised if the cooldown refresh aspect is removed but Darius would still be a fine champion without it.

A great tip for ultimates like this is to make a mental note of its damage and click on the enemy you plan to execute with this, you will be able to see their exact health for the best opportunity to kill them. Another trick is to see how many boxes are in the enemy champion's health bar; 1 box = 100 health.

This ability basically counters any attempt at the opposing team making skillful plays because you can simply cut all their heads off.

TL;DR: Abuse this ultimate while you can.

Other item that are suitable depending on the enemy team is ninja tabi.

WITH WARMOGS ARMOUR : 4444 hp max with Bloodthirstier max + atmas AD = 360

Also other good alternate items that could be useful as the last item are:

Force of Nature or Randuin's Omen

Other Goood items for Ad champs Last whisper or other armour items

Frozen mallet instead of trinity force for tankyness

For the early game you want to follow the Lane Match Up chapter below depending on your opponent and use your own intuition to decide what to build against unorthodox top lanes. Remember to buy plenty of to give yourself map awareness and lane safety for farming and dominating your opponent.

Always pay attention to the map and be nice to your team by calling MIAs and be where your team needs you for objective, whether that means you helping them directly kill dragon or holding your opponent up top so that he can't help his own team.

Darius starts to shine when skirmishes and team fights break out as he is able to output high amounts of damage onto a single target, such as quickly eliminating a carry off the enemy team.

are as important as ever in the mid game to control the map when teams start to group up and go for objectives.

Something else to remember is that you are not the official tank/initiator. In a perfect world you should be the secondary provider of these roles as you are mainly a damage dealer but happen to have some of the utility that a tank might.

Darius scales well throughout the entire game and your ultimate will be doing crazy damage, allowed you to cut down an entire enemy team extremely quick. Even with your short cooldowns and refreshing ultimate, your priority target will be the enemy AD or AP carry as they do the most damage from the other team.

For teamfights you want to be spamming Decimate while using Apprehend to either peel an opponent off of your carry or grab one of theirs and stick to them like glue.

Remember to use your ultimate to finish off low health enemies; this will allow you to either severely damage another enemy or just finish off another low health enemy and begin to chain executions together.

Make sure to not use Apprehend to pull an enemy tank or initiator into your team and do their job for them.

Thank you for reading my Darius guide, like and comment if this guide has helped you!