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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Hemorrhage (PASSIVE)
Darius Passive Ability
Changes have been made!
Darius' passive





















Let me first introduce myself and my experience with Darius.
I have played League Of Legends for about two and a half years now and mained Darius for about one year straight and played about 600+ games with him alone. Before the 5.16 patch when his kit was changed a bit, I tested almost all builds that could be considered effective back then. I have successfully played him against every champion and have played him in every role except ADC. In other words, I have experience with this champion to say the least, both the old and the new Darius and I hope that this guide will prove helpful into making you an experienced Darius player and eventually turn you into the monster that is Dariusaurus!

Also, I think it's extremely fun to put rhymes here and there, so you'll have to excuse my rhyme-ness.
Runes




The correct selection of runes on Darius is essential to benefit even greater on what is already top notch.
We take 3x

We take 9x

We take 9x

And we take 9x

These runes boost your entire kit even further, with the scaling Armor and Magic Resist runes adding up to making you one of the most disgusting opponents to face post level 6.


Darius has no escapes, neither does he have a gapcloser. In fact, his entire kit is based on "never retreat" as quoted by the top lane king himself. Let's begin analyzing our points in masteries!
The 9 points in Defense are pretty self-explained. You will gain the extra defensive stats needed to prolong fights, but you will need to rely more on damage than defense to gain full effect from Darius' kit.
So in addition to building some defense, building Attack Damage and Stuff-That-Shreds-Armor
(I'm looking at you,

Who doesn't love to bleed them faster, survive any disaster and dunk like a master, eh?
In Offense we have 21 points that are also pretty self-explained, on so much steroids it's what makes us Dariusaurus' after all, but now this is where it gets interesting.
Darius exceeds extremely well in melee fights and there are few who can beat him in a 1v1 if played properly, but it is important to remember that the enemy may have



Besides this, the points put in Offense further increases your entire damage output to a huge degree (thanks Capt. Obvious), who can say no to additional damage on the dunks and passive even further? It's dunkmasteries for true dunkmasters. Bleed 'em dry!
If you want maximum efficiency and deadliness, it is very important to max
Apprehend first thing after maxing
Decimate as the Armor Penetration from
Apprehend basically "levels up" all you are and all you have including your passive
Hemorrhage in terms of damage!
Taking

The second reason is that if you can succesfully bait their escape ability and time the










The third and final reason to pick


Take












When an enemy is chasing you, either with low health or not you should always use





Fear for your fate? - Just Decimate!

Use



When it comes to




Your ultimate ability

Hover your mouse over the ability icon to see the calculated max damage with your current amount of Attack Damage. The main thing to keep in mind with this ability is to only use when you:
---> Have reached max stacks of

---> Have gotten the enemy relatively low on health and applied enough stacks of





---> Have gotten the enemy down to low enough Health Points to kill them with its flat damage and they are about to escape and survive, but don't have flash and either can't reach them with the other abilities and basic attacks, or the other abilities are on cooldown.
Only ever "waste" it if you:
---> Have gained the 20 second refresh buff from killing an enemy, but it's just about to wear off and you see an enemy champion. In this situation, it's "use it or lose it", so you might as well make the best out of it by delivering that extra true damage in there.
Surprise mo********er!
Another thing I will share with you is an awesome little tactic that can work both as an element of surprise and as an escape with the








The Normal Scenarios
If going against melee champions, the fighting and trading is pretty straight forward. You need to use



The Nasty Scenarios
When playing Darius, there are a lot of things to keep in mind when facing any opponent with the potential to counter you, a few good examples would be a good





1. Use the Surprise m*********er! tactic, as soon as you have gained movement speed from






2. Run towards the enemy champion and use the max range of





The love from above
A great tactic, though very situational, is if you communicate with mid or bot lane to place a tactical ward for teleportation when you know that you can kill your enemy on top lane with your ultimate


Boots are very important, but choosing the right ones are even more important.
In games where you face more Attack Damage and/or basic attack-based champions than crowd controls,









The Dariusaurus Standard Build order
This build is designed for the majority of games in which you face a balanced team.
1st item:

Quickly get:

2nd item:
Either

3rd item:
Build


Or maybe even

4th item:
Either



5th item:

+50 Attack Damage, +400 Health, +100% Base HP regeneration, Area Of Effect Passive and Active and bonus damage on basic attacks based on max HP. It's important to note that




6th item:

Since we already have the properties of one




As written on the sidenote of alternative items for Dariusaurus, you need to observe and analyze the enemy team composition and make a tactical decision to which of the items in the Dariusaurus Standard Build that should be switched with one of the alternative items. Remember, need before greed! If the enemy team has made one of the two not-so-smart decisions of either having little to no Ability Power besides the support or little to no Attack Damage besides the ADC, then I strongly recommend this:
Strongest build when going against a full Attack Damage team:
















These are all great items against any Attack Damage based champions, especially those who rely heavily on Attack Speed. A few good examples would be



If it is your own team that is purely Attack Damage based, then

Strongest build when going against a full Ability Power team:
























The Secret Of The Black Cleaver
Here goes the tale of an item worth every single gold penny that you put sweat, blood and hard work into:
-
It gives you 40 AD
-
It gives you 400 HP
-
It gives you 20% cooldown reduction
-
It has two Unique Passives, one that grants movement speed for 2 seconds upon dealing Physical Damage or killing a unit and another Unique Passive that shreds off 5% Armor upon dealing Physical Damage, stacking up to 6 times, meaning 30% in total. Works 100% perfect with your entire kit.
But this isn't all...
Here is the super sexy "secret" about







Nasus difficulty:
Easy - Medium
The keyword here is: Deny minions!
Laning against Nasus is generally a favorable matchup for you because he has no range whatsoever except for his






If your minions reach his tower, then he gets exactly what he wants as he can, as mentioned before, regain all his health because of his passive lifesteal from


So you have to try and always punish him for slaying your fellow minions! Think of them as your cute and tiny friends just trying to bring some color into the League and have done nothing wrong and you'll want to reign vengeance on that Shuriman dog for slaughtering them!
Note: Be very careful about engaging Nasus while he has

This ultimate is among the most powerful in the League, and it is highly recommended that you only fight him in this form if you know for certain that you will win. If not, then wait for


Irelia difficulty:
Medium
Irelia is a pretty annoying champion, but only once she has her







Garen difficulty:
Skill Matchup
Ahh, Garen the Baron...
This lane is pretty much defined by skill. Garen has the advantage if you pull him in to engage, since he can just use



The trick here is to hit him with



Try to avoid using





It's very important to keep your passive debuff


A good Garen will try to bait your




If Garen is doing well against you despite your every attempt, then try to roam and get a kill on other lanes, get yourself that


Renekton difficulty:
Skill Matchup
Another skill matchup.
When going against Renekton it is important to keep in mind that



When Renekton uses










Note: Do NOT attempt to spam





Another note: Renekton knows your ultimate, and will use his own to counter yours, so only use your ultimate



Riven difficulty:
Medium - Hard
Riven has damage, but only physical so stack armor quickly here!
It will benefit you beyond belief, and will give her only grief.
Tactic-wise, you need to keep your distance when she uses her ugly combo of


When Riven hits level 3, she will be overconfident and go her fugly combo of



If she choose to go bursting in, which is something you have to be prepared for, then you can counter this by moving back as soon as you see her rush. Her stun will then fail, if not, it will at least not help her land an extra hit on you and you can start dodging away from her





Note: Wait for Riven to waste her




Gnar difficulty:
Medium - Hard
Laning against Gnar is pretty much a matter of three things:
1. Dodging his

2. Staying out of his auto-attack range to not let him stack his

3. Disengage him when he is about to turn into Mega-Gnar through his passive

Mini-Gnar is squishy, and as long as we can land a solid




Note: If you are fighting Mega-Gnar, stay away from walls as his ultimate


Lulu difficulty:
Challenging
If you happen to be against Lulu, then luck is not by your side, mate.
However, since we can't rely on luck to beat our counters, there is luckily (pun intended) a way to counter your counters!
Lulu is rarely seen top, which is great, but sometimes the enemy knows what's up when you pick Darius in Champion Select and choose to go Lulu to screw you. When this happens, you need to keep a few things in mind:
1. She has extremely high burst with

2. She can keep her distance with great ease with a self-casted


3. She can polymorph you with


4. She can and will keep your HP bar low and slow you most of the time with

5. She will use her ultimate


Knowing your limits is key to winning lane against a counter.
Mentioned above is what limits us against Lulu, but here is the good news:
Lulu like most other Ability Power Champions is squishy, meaning once you get the opportunity to land abilities and basic attacks on her, it will hurt her quite a lot, so ask for early ganks.
Get yourself



Try to bait Lulu's abilities by running towards her to



Since Lulu knows her advantage against you, you have to try and keep your distance as much as necessary. You may also need to farm minions with your abilities in order to not be denied too much.
When you are under your turret and Lulu tries to poke you, use




Garen:
At the earliest point I'll be in my lane
Getting farm first to drive you insane
While last hitting minions makes my ranks ascend
It's just a matter of time before I'm farming your friends
With my eyes on the prize and decisive strikes
I silence the ones Demacia dislikes
"Blood for Noxus"? Oh yes, you're damn right
The last thing you'll see is a bright f***ing light
With Demacian Justice you'll be easy cash
You'll be ****ting your pants before you waste that flash
Go ahead and harass, I can take all you can bring
I'll just release myself from slows and let my passive do its thing
Please try to shut me down, let's go 1v5
I have my courage active, I can easily dive
The might of Demacia has come to stay
I'll be fighting my enemies through night and day
Go gather your friends and I'll just go all in
Behold my mechanics as I spin to win!
Darius:
Long Sword, potions, trinket and Q
Beginning like a boss is simply just what I do
I have my fangs out, axe ready
I'm steady and deadly like a fed Lee
Even from the start I will bleed you dry
The time is always right to make you cry
So I Decimate, leaving your fate to my axe's blade
Watching your health being shred while in need of aid
You obviously depend on ganks to survive
You struggle to farm while I am more than alive
As I hit 6 we both know who owns the lane, so run
You can silence me, fear me, root me, slow me, taunt me or stun
My superior kit works like a dominant dream
I pull you in, cripple and delete with Noxian Guillotine
So pray that your day stays free from pain
The hand of Noxus is here and blood is the new rain.
Good luck in mastering Darius, I hope we meet on the Fields of Justice!
-Defarakka.
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