Intro

Alright well, I've looked around at Darius guides for a while and never found one that matched how I play Darius so here we are. Who am I? Well I'm nobody, I'm not a pro, I'm not a die-hard player, and I'm not even a "e-sports watching lol expert". However, I have been playing league since season 1 and I'd like to share this build with you, and hopefully you'll have the same results that I do.

*********DISCLAIMER*********
I am an engineering student, therefore time is not an abundant resource for me. This means the "guide" will start as a build and slowly I'll keep adding sections until it becomes a real guide.

Ideology

The main difference with my build is that I don't focus on armour pen stacking but rather focus on burst trading as a tank. Essentially the build revolves around Titanic Hydra and W (auto-attack resets), which plays out to you running around like Tank but still hitting like an assassin. If you're familiar with any military strategy, I see this as the "Combined-Arms" version of Darius, evenly combining good stats to apply the most threat to a situation. (for the un-informed -->https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_arms)

Masteries

With the new season 6 keystone masteries I've seen every single other Darius build going with either Fervor or Deathfire, but in a build with scaling health as a staple I figured that Grasp of the Undying would fit better. This mastery feels OP in game, every 4 seconds your AA steals life equal to 3% of YOUR max health. The more health you stack, the more life you steal, the longer you stay in the fight to apply stacks.

Summoner Spells

Flash is a must, Darius has no other gap-closers.
Ignite is also a must, early game is where Darius shines so Ignite guarantees early kills (especially against people with teleport).

Teleport is cool and all but I made this guide for my play style which does not feature teleport so leave it at home when you slip on your big-boy shoes.

Items

I finish Titanic Hydra as quickly as possible as it allows you to stack your passive significantly faster. Titanic Hydra's on-hit damage means that all the health/AD items you build (ex. Black Cleaver) will stack straight damage and add damage through health scaling passive.
The second item to complete is either Deadman's Plate or Black Cleaver, most of the time I find myself finishing theses two together as I buy pieces from each depending on how I'm doing.
Example order:
-Phage
-Chainmail
-Caulfield's Warhammer
-Black Cleaver
-Giants Belt
-Deadman's Plate

After the first 3 items are done and you have boots, the last 2 items are situational. I've given some options above but realistically it changes from game to game, although I tend to find myself finishing games before I have to worry about it.

Ability Sequence

Max Q first, this is a no brainer
I max W second because CDR on this ability is crucial to the build but I take a second point in E before finishing to get up to 10% armour pen.
Max E last

Theory

With a defense heavy scaling build, I take straight damage at the beginning because your damage advantage is highest in the first 3 levels. So play very aggressive as soon as you hit 2. In most games I will flash/ignite for a kill as soon as I hit 3 sometimes even when hitting 2 if they're low enough. For a flash engage like this you want to hit Q the moment before you flash so that the Q delay means it activates as soon as you re-appear. Next move is to auto-attack until they start to run away, then hit E at max range to bring them back, drop ignite on their head and chase down for last AA. They should be dead now.
Attack Sequence:
-Flash-Q maneuver
-AA
-W
-AA
-E
-Ignite
-Profit
Hopefully this nets you a first blood and a Tiamat.

For a standard engage try this out:
-AA
-Titanic Reset
-AA
-W Reset
-Q
-E
-Ult

The other thing to note about auto-attacks and auto-attack resets is that this build has a significant amount of on-hit effects.
So for each AA remember these:
-Titanic Hydra Passive
-Black Cleaver Stack
-Darius Passive Stack
-Steal life equal to 3% of your max health (every 4 seconds)
-Apply Deadman's Plate Passive
-Black Cleaver MS buff

More to come.