About Me
Hello, my name is Darian. I have been playing League of Legends since season 3.
This is a guide for the One True Lord of Gods Darius.
Darius is a champion that was created for pure brutality. 'Decimating the weak' using his ability, Decimate that deals a **** ton of damage to all that cross him.
He is what one would call or refer to as a Juggernaut, slow, deals a lot of damage and is hard to kill. This build, on the other hand, gets rid of that movement speed issue.

The reason as to why I build phantom dancer is that it gets rid of the movement speed issue, and runes are not wasted on it. Attack speed is also necessary for this build, it stacks press the attack in fights, along with your passive. That being said, each time the bleed ticks, it has a massive increase in damage, especially late in the game. Hemorrhagegrants 230 attack damage at 5 stacks when level 18 is acquired and 12% increased damage makes that AD a big problem to enemies.

While killing everyone using Darius, you will need the most important thing:

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Enjoy the br00tal dunking m8. \m/ (x) \m/

Press the Attack build:

1. Able to stick to and burst carries easily.
2. Can win any fight with good use of his mechanics(Yes, mechanics).
3. Extra tanky against his target and can heal back a lot of damage dealt to him especially with spirit visage and good positioning.
4. Great in teamfights due to the added movement speed being around enemies allowing him to dodge and maneuver easily through the battlefield.

Undying Darius build:

1. Can be kited very easily. (Unless you're against bronze trash that can't kite)
2. Can be kited very easily. ^ ^
3. Can be kited very easily. ^
4. Can outplay yourself with one bad movement or choice in a combo/fight easily.

Press the Attack build:

1. Ab....
2. so...
3. lutley..
4. none.
5. Just kidding, crowd control can ruin you. (Hence the reason you build mercury threads against enemies with a lot of cc)
6. Can outplay yourself with one bad movement or choice in a combo/fight with this build also.

Press The Attack Build:
Press the Attack with Phantom Dancer (core item)increases the stacking speed of Press the Attack and Hemorrhage.Using Press the Attack increases Darius' DPS by a great amount. The purpose of using Press the Attack is to pose a serious threat to the enemy team, in 1 vs 1 and in team fights, due to the massive amount of damage one can deal with such a rune. 12% increased damage from all sources is insane especially with Darius' base damage on skills. Decimating the weak just became much easier than before.

Triumph rune is necessary for each and every build in this guide due to Darius' potential to execute lethal blows in quick successions. Allows Darius to survive and potentially grant a large advantage in team fights due to the sustain from this, in simply killing, not to mention the heal from Q's which makes Darius the big juggernaut of the game. Hard to kill and tons o damage.

Legend: Tenacity is greatly important for Darius due to the fact that CC can destroy Darius. Reducing the duration of CC is a must due to the fact that Darius needs to be able to move to do his combos and survive. Not able to Q and heal back a sh!t ton of HP? Then prepare for death(in most cases)

Legend: Alacrity is a very very viable option for Darius. The insane amount of attack speed in Darius' kit allows him to not only split push hard, but also apply press the attack and stacks bleed E A S I L Y increasing his overall DPS by a ton. Much shorter fights overall and quick presence threat(just being there scares enemy). In team fights you can aim any target you can reach to get easy 5 stacks quick.(obviously, still make goal to aim the carries first/peel for yours)

Last Stand:To the fact that Darius brings a lot of attention to himself he will get aimed a lot in which Last Stand would be needed to deal as much damage as possible in fights while sustaining.

Unflinching is necessary due to the fact that when you put on ghost, it would be to either gap close or escape in which slow resistance would most likely be needed, not to mention not having the spell available grants the needed tenacity and slow resistance for Darius to be able to move more freely, especially with Alacrity instead.

Overgrowth is good for Darius due to the large HP gain from it in the game. Really good to useThe S9 rune stat selection: generally always want to get 2x adaptive force and a resistance stat(armor or mr).

Farming is rather easy for Darius, can't last hit all possible minions in wave with AAs only, use your Q and kill multiple. Unless your laner is freezing lane, then use trade tactics. Walk up to creep that is close to dying but actually don't aim that one creep but the enemy champion, scare him off, take some damage, but in return get around 3 cs. Walk back. (In that instance you should have Doran's Shield)
On the other hand, just basic laning tactics, trading, last hitting, letting enemy lose cs and exp from you letting your lane push in by killing the front line minions and let around 4 casters push in your lane and keep them there. Most of the times you can kill your laner and make them lose atleast 2 creep waves. Can use W to farm. Hard to miss CS with Darius.
(To be updated for depth and explanation)

Passive:
Hemorrhage: Darius's basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 13 - 30 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) physical damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times for a maximum of 「 500% damage 」 over the duration.
Upon applying full Hemorrhage stacks to an enemy champion or killing them with Noxian Guillotine, Darius gains Noxian Might for 5 seconds.
Noxian Might: Darius gains 30 - 230 (based on level) bonus attack damage and instantly applies full Hemorrhage stacks through his usual means.

Decimate (Q): ACTIVE: Darius hefts his axe for 0.75 seconds, then swings it around himself, dealing 40/70/100/130/160(+100/110/120/130/140%
maximum AD)physical damage to nearby enemies, reduced to 35% against enemies hit by the handle. Darius also heals for 12% missing health for each enemy champion hit by Decimate's blade, up to a maximum of 36% missing health. The handle of Darius' axe will not apply Hemorrhage.

Crippling Strike (W): ACTIVE: Darius's next basic attack within 4 seconds gains bonus range, deals 50/55/60/65/70% AD bonus physical damage and slows the target by 90% for 1 second. If Crippling Strike kills its target it refunds its mana cost and half of its cooldown. [Resets basic attack animation]

Apprehend (E):PASSIVE: Darius gains 15/20/25/30/35(%) armor penetration.
ACTIVE: After a brief delay, Darius pulls in all enemies in front of him, slowing them by 40% for 1 second, and briefly grants sight of where the axe went.

Noxian Guillotine (R): ACTIVE: Darius leaps to the target enemy champion and attempts to execute them, dealing 100/200/300(+75% bonus AD) true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine's damage increases by 20%, up to 100% increase in damage. If Noxian Guillotine kills its target, Darius causes all nearby minions and monsters toflee in terror for 3 seconds and it can be recast within the next 20 seconds at no additional cost. At Rank 3, Noxian Guillotine's cooldown resets completely. This can occur multiple times in succession.
Info achieved from: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Darius

Trade Combo: Capable of adding 3 - 4 hemorrhage stacks in this combo.
[E > AA > W > Q] or [E > AA > W > Q > AA]
(Combo can be done in approximately 3 seconds, slightly less) Play Video
Step Axe: Simply stepping ahead of the enemy and making escape very difficult.
AA > W > AA > Q *moving towards direction enemy is running* > E/AA > W > R (Combo can be done within 6-8 seconds with sure kill)

Crippling Death: Good for slow enemies
Q > AA > W > AA > W/Q/E > R /{AA -> R}
(Time it takes to do combo depends on enemy's CC capabilities).

With the builds listed, there are different ways to operate:
Press The Attack [Fighter Build 1(Bruiser with much more DPS)]: You deal and take more than enough damage to be a serious threat/raid boss. So you can peel for your allies and hunt the carries and kill them with ease, them being the enemy's tanks/carries. You have enough DPS/Sustain/Resistances to deal with every role and terminate them.
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Undying Darius[Figher Build 2]: You can take and sustain a **** ton of damage, a bit more[a lot more] compared to the Press The Attack build. Your goal with this build is to stay near your carries and block every skill shot, taking as much damage as possible. You may most likely be the one to initiate/start fights with your E with good positioning and timing to make sure your carries can follow in with your play. With The Black Cleaver, you will still be able to deal some damage to squishy targets, so you can dish out and even increase the amount of damage your carry deals, to all targets affected by your passive thanks to the 30% armor reduction from Black Cleaver

Ankle Breaker build[Assassin]: You deal much more damage than anyone can take, literal overkill. This build is great against squishy team comps, in which you just put on ghost and youmuu's in team fight and head straight towards your target which should be a carry, before duskblade{unseen)attack fades. In doing so you have a 95% chance of instantly killing your target and getting Noxian Might passive from a simply W > Ult in which you Q in the crowd and just dunk away. Note: Timing is necessary in using this build because you are very prone to dying.
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Transcend and Destroy[Fighter Build 3](: Very high attack damage, with a decent amount of resistances and HP. Tend to deal very high damage and you fast AF in fights b0i. Some won't agree with tri-force but trust in it. Mostly some would say "WTF Triforce and cleaver, gg troll Darius." Fact is this build is very good, can take much more damage than PTA build due to higher HP and resistances, you will deal more damage due to higher attack damage because of sorcery's rune: Transcendence(giving you AD for each % of cdr over the cap). This build MIGHT cost a lot of gold but works exceedingly great late game(where Darius usually falls off). Able to solo carry with this(Darius is not a hyper carry, but with this... You AN OP B0I). Play around your team as usual and when you see your 'W' whack enemy forces, they'll be like b0i, Darius is f*ckin broken. Keep in mind you are still off-tank so peel for your teammates please, thank you. xD (WILL GO IN DEPTH WITH THIS BUILD) Play Video

*View Notes listed next to items on each build*
Darius' kit works best/is more efficient with these particular stats:
Health(HP), Cooldown Reduction(CDR), and Attack Damage(AD).

Black Cleaver: this is the most important item in almost all possible builds with Darius. This is the Golden Item. Provides Health, CDR, and AD which Darius NEEDS to be useful.

Trinity Force: this item is only good for particular builds, in this case, would be Ankle breaker(Assassin build) and Transcend and Destroy(3rd Fighter build and possibly best late game in patch 8.3). This item is necessary to an extent in these builds because of the Health, Cooldown Reduction, Movement speed, Attack speed and autoattack damage enhancer: Spellblade(unique passive). Helps get off faster combos and enhance dps by a lot.

Sterak's Gage is necessary against high cooldown crowd control champions like Sejuani and Malphite in which they can start fights easily and lock you down, allowing their carries to target you and possibly burst you down in which the barrier(that scales off Healthwhich Darius has a lot of) Sterak's Gage provides, comes in handy, saving yourself around 1/4 - 1/3 of your HP. The 30% tenacity is great also.
Dead Man's Plate: The item that makes you a FAST B0I. Great item on Darius due to the movement increase and additional slow on the charged basic attack. Provides good resistance against physical damage and very nice HP. So movement speed to be less prone to being kited,
and a slow to make it even easier to stick to your target when you catch up.

Spirit Visage: The other Golden Item. on Darius. Darius needs sustain, which is provided by his Q: Decimate healing him for 12% for each target hit by the blade of his Axe up to 36% missing HP. 36% of around 2500 - 4800 HP is a lot plus bonus healing from Spirit Visage = cancer sustains. In addition to increased heals from possible Lifesteal from items and rune Legend: Bloodline. ITEM MAKES YOU HARD AF TO KILL.
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Check the build examples for the best items against certain matchups

Riven - When fighting against Riven, plan to use your E to stop her 3rd Q early in it's animation, will negate its damage and disable Riven for a brief period in which you can hit her 1-3 times (3 times[depending on how good your animation cancel with Darius is] with trade combo from combo chapter)
Jayce - When fighting against Jayce try to dodge his cannon Q's and stop his hammer Q with E in order to win the fight easily against him. You can also E him in his hammer E to make his knockback pointless if timed properly, in which you then Q to hit him and heal.
Yasuo - Stop his ult attempt with your E, right before the cyclone hits you use E to stop him. Stops him from hitting you during knock up and also gives you an advantage when you both regain mobility.

Darius Mastery Points = A lot
Experienced Darius player. Trust my guide. You won't regret it.







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