First off, I would like to welcome everyone to the wonderful world of Darius. From Noxus with love, comes a new melee. That's right summoners! Darius' attacks cause his target to bleed over time and apply a stack, which buffs your movement speed! So we are going to capitalize on that! This is my very first guide for this game, but I will try to make it as friendly and as easy to follow as possible.

Just a heads up, people will cry and call you OP and tell you have no skill and what not. Well we won't listen to them, because we all know there are plenty of "OP" champions, and they can all own if you have skill.

Seeing as we need to apply stacks at a reasonable pace, and still maintain a sustainable build, because Darius is NOT a tank, we will go with Greater Mark of Strength, Greater Seal of Alacrity, and for glyphs either Greater Glyph of Warding or Greater Glyph of Resilience are acceptable. For the Quintessences we can either go for a Greater Quintessence of Swiftness, or you may choose to throw a Greater Quintessence of Alacrity or two instead. It really depends on how you want to ravage your target. These are very interchangeable, It just really depends on how aggressive you are with your champions, or how you portray the play style of Darius.

My personal setup: Greater Mark of Strength x9, Greater Seal of Alacrity x9, Greater Glyph of Fortitude x9, Greater Quintessence of Swiftness x3

As we look more into Masteries, you want to remember that we want an effective sustain, while stomping our enemies faces in.

Here is an example of my personal mastery page for Darius.Although you may can choose to put the 2 points from Honor Guard into Tough Skin or somewhere else, this is what your build should look like.

ALWAYS, put a point into Summoner's Wrath, we use Ghost and Ignite as spells and this will give both of them the boost we want!

The 2 points we have into Enlightenment I feel are completely necessary, if you remove them and go into game I am sure you will feel the affects.

Darius' Favorites!
Exhaust and Ignite are the 2 that I have found most helpful in nearly every situation. Exhaust is without a doubt the only gap closer you have besides the pull. You will need it!

HOWEVER

There are situations where you may be up against a Varus, or a Ashe with ranged/slowing effects and they will set you up for a gank, so I feel that it is safe to say that Flash is also a safe alternative. (Flash+Ignite)

Pros

Stacking bleed passive
Lots of Potential in Team Fights/Ganks
Slowing strike allowing for more quick burst damage
TRUE DAMAGE ULTI!
Pure ownage.

Cons

Very weak if you can't figure out how to handle ranged harass.
Will most likely get focused sooner or later.
Not a whole lot of gap closing.

I dont want to say much at all. only that their best MAXT your Q first and next ur E.

Boots: There are three acceptable boots to buy as Darius, it just depends on how you play.
1. Ninja Tabi - Sustain against AD

The Bloodthirster - Obvious effects, 20% Life Steal and a nice amount of AD.

Maw of Malmortius - Awesome sustain item, It is wonderful to have if there is a problem with AP characters.