Ω Introduction Ω♦ About Me ♦ ♦ Contacts ♦ ♦ Pros / Cons ♦

Ω Preparation Ω♦ Rune Breakdown ♦ ♦ Summoner Spells ♦

Ω Darius Info Ω♦ Abilities ♦ ♦ Items ♦ ♦ Combos ♦

Ω Jungling Ω♦ Pathing ♦ ♦ Ganking ♦

Ω Playstyle Ω♦ Early Game ♦ ♦ Mid Game ♦ ♦ Late Game ♦

Play Video I've been a League of Legends player ever since the 6th Season, with me maining and learning the game through Darius. Right now I am a Darius Onetrick and my main is usually somewhere in Master/Grandmaster on the EUW server. I have peaked high Master before the end of Season 9 after which point I could no longer play properly due to my PC being broken. Season 10 I played well for a bit past the first month and peaked Top 400 (almost Challenger). At the moment, I constantly swap between accounts but I will be making the run for high elo again. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask me through the Discussions section of this guide, through private messages on MobaFire, through my stream or through any of my socials which I will link below.

Here are my op.gg links(the ones that aren't banned):
https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Rh%CF%8Cku
http://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Rhoku

I do not wish to claim that I am some amazing high elo god by putting my opgg and all these plays here. I simply want to provide SOME credibility to this guide. Know that you are receiving advice from a person who knows what he is talking about when it comes to Darius. I have mained him ever since season 7. He was the perfect champion for me which was why after picking him up, I immediately started climbing. With him being a popular pick and a great character to learn the game with, I want people to understand the basics of this champion. Now I am a Darius player first. Therefore this guide, while it should be informative for everyone interested, the people who will make the most use out of it should be jungle players who wish to expand their champion pool. Though he is fragile at certain stages of the game, a snowballing Darius is very difficult to stop. With him being a less popular jungler, those who know his limits will be able to squeeze out leads against unaware opponents and use his immense teamfighting power to secure objectives and overwhelm opponents. He can 1v9 very well but it is not easy to pull off.

This guide is essentially going to contain everything you need to know in order to start playing Darius jungle. But my original guide, although it focuses on Darius Toplane, has in-depth information about every aspect of the champion and if you want to strengthen your knowledge on him, it is definitely worth a look. Just click the banner!

If you wish to add me ingame, here are my usernames:
Rhόku(EUW)
Rhoku(EUW)
King Rhoku(NA)
very creative aren't they

For now, I exclusively play on the EUW server. I have an NA smurf but I am not actively playing on it at the moment. I apologise if I am rude to you. I am sometimes just tilted. However, do not let that discourage you from asking any question that you might have. I really enjoy teaching newer Darius players. You are also free to add me if you want to download some of my games. I will be playing more seriously once the season starts.

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgFs4nq79tvdbFtAkthvSQ

Here is my Youtube Channel. I don't have a regular schedule at all, as I only put videos on there when I can be bothered to make them. I'll mostly be uploading plays, guides and memes. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Twitch

https://www.twitch.tv/rhokutv

Here is my Twitch account. I stream there every now and again and I have linked it to this guide so you will know whenever I am live. At that point, feel free to come on and ask me questions live at any point in time. I stream mostly around midnight GMT.

Twitter

https://twitter.com/rhokutv

A while ago I was talked into opening a Twitter account so here it is. I mostly just post low quality Darius memes, make unfunny/rude jokes and screw around with my friends. If this method is convenient for you, then feel free to DM me on there.
_{If you are sensitive to certain topics/dislike edgy humour, then I suggest not visiting my Twitter.}

Discord

https://discord.gg/QYZqT3b

Here is the Discord Channel for my stream where all of my content will be announced. I will always be on there all the time so you may contact me through there as well. I'd like to see you come and be a part of the community I am trying to build.
These are all the socials that I check regularly. I'd link more but honestly, some are just a waste of time as I am almost never on. Enough about me then. Let us begin.

I will only explain how the viable runes synergise with Darius when it comes to jungling. I have already done an extensive breakdown of how every single rune and keystone in the game works with Darius in my other guide. Go check it out if you are curious.

Primary Trees

Precision

As the best tree for Darius, Precision offers you power in many areas that other trees simply cannot compare against. As a primary tree, you definitely get more consistent power from precision. For Keystones, Conqueror allows you to scale much better and be a lot stronger in all fights. It also is vital a lot of the time early game to the point where if you are fighting someone with Conqueror when you yourself don’t have Conqueror, you are at a disadvantage. Fleet Footwork lets you have a MUCH more healthy clear. This leads to you better being able to fight and go for opportunities in the middle of your clear, as you will have the health to do so.

There is no debate or question over which one is the best here. The other runes don’t work and Triumph is honestly the most powerful rune in the game if you don’t count keystones. It is stronger than half the keystones anyway for Darius.

For the most part, you want to go for Tenacity. As a Jungler, you have to deal with more CC than a roamer so you need the extra tenacity. However, the attack speed is good for more DPS and it helps your clearing so if you do not need the tenacity or if the enemy CC is avoidable, then go for Legend: Alacrity.

The cases in which Coup de Grace is useful are not really common. The opposite is true for Last Stand. Just take Last Stand as it is MUCH better.

Domination

In my opinion the Domination tree is overall, the worst tree in the game for Darius. It can be fun to use here and there in Normal games but if your goal is winning, then stay away from this tree in general. The only reason you'd even consider the Domination tree is purely due to Predator. Predator for Darius jungle is a very powerful rune, as it pretty much acts as like a Ghost on a shorter cooldown. It does not really let you outplay and do much DURING fights like Ghost but it makes your ganks quite formidable and gives you overall mobility which Darius is obviously lacking. The downside is that you cannot take Precision or Conqueror so your clears will be weak and your 1v1ing will be much worse. Predator is difficult to use and if you think you can play the gank heavy playstyle that make this rune worth it, then you are welcome to try it.

Since Sudden Impact has virtually no synergy with Darius, you want to be going for either Taste of Blood or Cheap Shot. Both don't really offer much to Darius Jungle but I'd suggest going Cheap Shot for the tiny extra bit of damage. They are both terrible.

These are all either bad, have very little use or are good but insignificant. Just go for Eyeball Collection to have the extra AD.

You can either take Ravenous Hunter that lets you clear more healthily and get a nice chunk of healing from your ultimate provided you have fully stacked it up, or Relentless Hunter which gives you movespeed which Darius loves. The runes are nice but the fact that you have to stack them up combined with how Darius' ganks are kinda terrible makes it a bit difficult to use to their full potential.

Secondary Tree

Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak is vital for Darius Jungle. This rune combined with blue smite lets Darius actually have viable ganks that aren’t just him running up to someone. This also makes his plays with his other summoner spell, Flash or Ghost, to be more devastating. Even if you are taking predator, the in fight mobility that Nimbus Cloak can give is VERY versatile and it can be used as a mini Ghost if needed. Basically speaking, if you are jungling on Darius, get it.

Overall, you mostly want to go for Celerity out of these three if you want to have all of your movespeed amplified. Darius Jungle relies on movespeed quite a bit which makes this rune very strong.

Instead of Celerity, you may also take Waterwalking. Darius already is very powerful in river fights and Waterwalking only amplifies this.

Stats

You mostly be wanting to go this setup as the Armor will also be helping you against the camps themselves, in addition to the enemy. Although the adaptive force and the armor can be adapted to the enemy team, you almost ALWAYS want attack speed in the first slot

Item Set

THIS SECTION IS OUTDATED!
Here is a video I made about Darius’ Items. It is mostly for Toplane but it applies to jungle as well. I will make more specialized videos for Jungle later on but for now, this video plus the things I’ve written below should be enough. Play Video

STARTING ITEMS

FIRST BACK

JUNGLE ITEM

BOOTS

TRINITY FORCE vs BLACK CLEAVER

The choice between Trinity Force and Black Cleaver is one you are going to have to make depending on your playstyle, the enemy team composition and whether you are able to generate a lead or not. The TL;DR of the comparison is that you want to go Trinity Force if you are ahead and are up against squishy champions. This makes you a better splitpusher, duelist, a bigger backling threat and overall just a better carry. Black Cleaver however, is what you want to buy when you are up against more than 2 tanks, when you have fallen behind, as it lets you be more useful to your team in teamfights, or you want to go for hard wins the early game as it is cheaper. Do not build both of them at the same time for the love of god.

TRINITY FORCE

VS

BLACK CLEAVER

VIABLE ITEMS

ITEM POOL

The thing with Darius is that there is no one concrete combo. This is not a fighting game. This is not Riven where you have a combo lined up for every situation. As Darius, you have your abilities which you can use in any order. It all depends on the situation.

The biggest thing to remember for Darius though is the cancelling of his W animation. You use your empowered W on a target and then press Q just as Darius begins his auto attack animation. This way, Darius still hits the enemy with his W but the wind up for the Q begins which allows for you to hit your enemy with the two abilities one after another. Add an auto attack and you are left with an AA+W+Q combo that can get you 3 stacks in seconds. With Trinity Force, this combo will be able to chunk squishies down and do so VERY quickly. Get into practice tool and work on being able to do this combo reliable.

Another thing you can practice is to make sure the enemy has no chance to escape your ultimate. If you are in a teamfight or are chasing your opponent down where your target is out of your R range, and your ultimate will immediately kill them, then the obvious thing is to Flash+R. But remember, if the enemy predicts that you will do this, then they can Flash too. In order to circumvent this, you have to press R on your target and THEN Flash. R+ Flash. In the opposite order. Why this is better is due to the fact that when you press R on someone, Darius will walk towards them and ult immediately as they get in range. So if you R before you Flash and are in Ult range with your opponent for mere milliseconds, then Darius will automatically begin ulting. And we all know that Darius Ultimate cannot be dodged once it begins. This techinque essentially reduces the time window the enemy has to Flash or dash away to a bare minimum. It being super easy to do is also a plus.

One more thing you can do is practice Flash Q and Flash E. They are not really any special mechanics but you have to practice the timing. The key idea is to Flash just before Darius swings his Q around, NOT when he winds it up. Remember, in League of Legends, the more time you give your opponent to react, the less successful you are going to be. Be lightning quick so that you can kill them before they can react. Both Flash Q and E will get better as you play more Darius and get used to his hitboxes and whatnot though.
Here is a video I made where I do all of the above and explain how to do so, how they work and etc. along with a few more tips here and there.
Play Video

Overall, you want to be staying away from Gromp earlier on as you will have Hunter’s Talisman since it is what you will be running 99% of the time. I can’t give you a guaranteed route that will work ALL the time but this one has worked so far. Keep in mind that if you are doing a camp but see a lane that needs help IMMEDIATELY and you CAN make a difference, drop the camp and go help. This is only if it is an emergency though. Don’t be doing this earlier on.

Red - Raptor - Wolves - Blue - Gromp - Gank/Crab - Back - Krugs - etc.

You mostly want to start at Red, regardless of whether it is your toplane or your botlane leashing you. It is true that 2 people leashing is better than 1 but Red Buff gives you HP regen and it lets you do more damage and clear faster which leads to you overall having a healthier clear. But if you want to start botlane, you may use this path which is essentially just a mirrored version. You want a decent leash regardless, as any bit helps at the end of the day. And also, HIT YOUR QS ON THE MAIN MONSTERS. The healing from your Q is vital so make sure you don’t miss it. EVER.

Blue - Wolves - Raptor - Red - Krugs - Gank/Crab - Back - Gromp - etc.

After this you mostly wanna path in a way through your camps that will lead you to the lanes you wish to gank/objectives you plan on pressuring/taking. You want to kill camps as soon as they come up because camps have levels. You see, a camp will have the level of the average level of all champions in the game. And the higher level a camp is, the more XP and Gold it will give off. So if you kill them quickly, they will respawn more and you will get a bigger overall yield from them.

Keep your eyes open for invade opportunities. Lets say your enemy jungler ganks top but you can’t make plays botside. Then go take all of his botside camps but be sure to start backing off when his team starts rotating.
Play Video
Kiting camps is a very important part of jungling as it reduces the amount of damage you take by quite a lot. My Jungle gameplay contains quite a bit of it from a Darius’ perspective but it is not really a tutorial whereas this video is. So go check this video out and try to apply it in game so that you minimize HP loss.

Another trick you can do is quickly Q the raptor camp and THEN start doing redbuff. The Talisman passive combined with your bleed will give you an INSANE amount of HP regen overall, which will make your inital clear very healthy.

As Darius, you have to pick your ganks very carefully as you are not very good at them until you get your blue smite. In earlier levels, you mostly want to be looking at counter ganks but if you are just ganking by yourself, try to do so towards lanes that are pushed up as they will have time to walk away if they are closer to your turret. Once you get near the bushes, use your Oracle Lens so that you are not spotted by wards.
Also keep the amount of setup your laners have in mind. If you are ganking for a Leona+ Draven who can instantly start fights, you will have a much easier time than ganking for a Vladimir top who will basically do nothing until you come and engage. Once you get your blue smite and your ultimate, your tankiness and your burst will allow you to dive very well so you basically want to run at the enemy, blue smite them and then pile your slows on. Try to save your E for the last with this. Basically run in, do your AA-W-Q but save your E for when they Flash. It is also not bad to use your flash in ganks earlier on.
Use Blast Cone and your vision plants as much as possible too. Olaf has a VERY SIMILAR playstyle to Darius in the jungle in terms of both builds, paths and ganking patterns so if you are a jungler looking for a good parallel that you are familiar with or a player who wants to learn more about jungle but apply it to Darius, then Olaf is similar enough to the point where your knowledge should improve your Darius Jungle gameplay.

As an early game lane bully, this period of the game is going to be the most important one. Darius spikes very hard during early-midgame fights where nobody has the damage to burst him down. Gathering a lead in early scuttle fights or counterganks will allow for you to be the main carry of your team up until the very end of the midgame. Darius jungle is a tricky playstyle. You NEED levels as Darius as without levels, Darius is very terrible as that is how he gets all of his stats. But you also need kills to be effective. This is why I think that you should be playing around clearing your jungle but also being there for bigger fights. You should be trying very hard to track your enemy jungler and just mirroring their ganks. Darius will win most 2v2s so learning how to countergank properly is the way to go if you want to put yourself ahead, and more importantly, put the enemy jungler behind. You also want to be looking to gank botlane the most as you will be getting more kills and an objective out of it. Speaking of objectives, PRIOTIZIE THEM. Try to plan your jungle routes around the objectives that are up and make sure you do not neglect them. Laners pay very little attention to objectives as they are wayy to busy fighting their opposing laner. You are the one who has to initiate things most of the time. Take as many drakes as possible and never give them away unless you have no other choice. So plan around ganks/fights that give you multiple kills, objectives, and invades/1v1s where you are trying to put yourself ahead of the enemy jungler. Be careful when invading though as if the enemy laners start rotating, you are ****ed as you really have no good escape since you are immobile.

Overall, try to get as big as you possibly can get in terms of both XP and Gold, as you will need it if you want to truly 1v9.

Mid Game Playstyle

The midgame is arguably the most important part of the game and most of the time, it is when the game is on its way to finish as game length has been very low lately. The length of a game gets lower the higher up the ranks you go, as people tend to be better at closing games out and knowing what to do with leads. The midgame is when Darius spikes the hardest. As long as you haven’t died more than 3-4 times and actually have ganked your team a bit and have kept up in farm, you should be one of the key players for your team so keep your eyes open. And even if you did feed, getting multiple kills in a single teamfight can get you back into the game so you should always keep your eyes open.

Mid game when you should be looking to end the game. Your biggest priority should be taking down your opponent’s first turrets in every lane using Herald or by just wiping out the enemy laners and taking the turret with your allied laners. but that alone isn’t enough to win you games. The tricky part of this stage is balancing how much time you spend farming with how much time you spend getting kills and/or objectives around the map. Though the more fed you are, the more fights and objectives you should be taking as you are just powerful enough to do so and taking as many as possible is the way to rush the game to a quicker finish. I myself play primarily around Botlane and Midlane. This is due to the fact that if I win midlane, then I can roam together with midlane to 3-4 man top or botlane. Not to mention how Midlane can help for both Herald and Drakes. Botlane has 2 kills instead of 1 and a successful botlane gank will usually amount to a turret or a drake. And in this meta, getting as many drakes as possible is a win condition due to how powerful Dragon Soul is. I usually do hit my toplaner up with an early level 3-4 gank to help them snowball. This is simply my playstyle though. I just think its easier to win the game through the botside. Rift Herald is a powerful objective so if you get ahead early, take it with your toplaner or even alone if you aren’t afraid of the enemy 2v1ing you. Rift Herald can actually help you take T2s and push the game to an early win VERY quickly. But be aware that taking inhibitor before Baron is sometimes bad as it is just giving the enemy free farm. Superminions give a lot of gold so try to only use it to take the other turrets first.

As you start snowballing, the rest of the momentum should just come naturally as you go from one side of the map to the other, taking objectives left and right. As long as you are fed, you are the one dictating the game and you do NOT want to give the enemy ANY room to breathe. Be ruthless, be quick and be decisive. You fall off.

Mid game is when teamfights occur most often and you should ALWAYS be involved. Before we get into these concepts, there are a few more things that you should know. One of these things is the importance of your summoner spells. You might’ve noticed that after playing a bunch of Darius, WITH your Ghost and Flash, you are an unstoppable god but without them, you feel like an immobile turtle who rarely does anything without help from your team. This is why sometimes, it is better to get into fights only when you have your summoner spells. And sometimes, a single kill won’t be worth a summoner spell. It is up to you really. Just be aware of your limits as a Darius who has no summoner spells as overstepping and expecting to be saved by your Ghost when in actuality it is on cooldown can be a great way to int away a game. Another key tip is to NOT DIE. Seriously. Dying throws away such a massive gold and XP lead. If you just focus on not dying and you keep farming properly, you will eventually build up a 3-4 level advantage over the enemy team. That is not to say that it is ALWAYS bad to die. But it is just bad MOST of the time. With how bounties work recently, if you have a lead, then the game is going to slap a bounty on you which will make death even more punishing.


Here is a Coaching video I will be linking multiple times in this guide as it explains a lot of concepts at once. Play Video

Teamfighting

Teamfights in most elos are a chaotic mess where nobody really knows what’s going on. And sometimes, that includes you at times. To keep focus in teamfights and not do stupid things, you have to, first off, clear your head when a teamfight is coming up. Concentration is key. The next thing is to establish what your goals for a teamfight are. What is your role for this current game? Are you acting as a peeler where you will be sticking to your carry, stopping everyone from getting to them and getting 5 stacks off of the tank that is going to attack them in order to then run the enemy team down? Are you a tank frontliner who will be the one engaging and facing the enemy tanks? Or are you a squishy yet dangerous threat to the enemy backline who can use his summoner spells to decimate the enemy backline? Whatever your goals are, keep them in mind but do not adhere to them too much. It is a dynamic game and sometimes, unpredictable things can happen. You might be trying to get 5 stacks off of a tank but then an assassin will be caught and reduced to 300 health right next to you. At that point, switching targets will allow you to get to your passive faster. Do not tunnel vision too much. Keep a general overview of how the fight is going. And if it looks like you guys are all gonna die, it might be better to fall back and mitigate the losses.

Your goal as Darius should be to kill the enemy team which you do by getting access to your passive. Your passive is a GAME CHANGER. It can turn the tide of battle as it lets you oneshot essentially anyone on the enemy team unless you are very far behind. There are two approaches to go about doing so but keep this thing in mind. IF A LOW HP ENEMY IS IN YOUR RANGE, GO FOR THEM! AUTO THEM ONCE AND USE YOUR ULTIMATE TO KILL THEM. The more you play Darius, the more of a sense you are going to get for how much damage he does with his ultimate. Now that we got that out of the ways, lets get into the two ways. Manually stack up to 5, and then chunking a backliner with a combo and executing them with R. Manually stacking up to your passive can take quite a bit of time. You need to be a frontliner to do so and as a tank, you will be very prone to getting comboed and chunked down. The other way is to get your hands onto a Soraka or a Jhin or some other low HP backline champion and using your combo to get them low enough where your Ultimate will be enough to kill them without 5 stacks. This way is easier to do when you are flanking and you are generally going to need a summoner spell to do it effectively. But this way IS the more effective way to go through teamfights unless you’ve built like a full tank. Flanking is all about vision control and having superior positioning. You could also do it with splitpushing but splitting as a jungler is a very bad idea.

If you haven’t carried the game to a victory by now, know that it is no longer up to you to win the game. Darius is strong early, immensely powerful midgame but also terribly weak lategame. Although a tank build will allow you to do more than a damage build, you will get shredded to bits either way by the enemy backline. You have to work with your teammates and if your teammates are feeding, then the game is essentially lost. Splitpushing is not really an option as you are the Jungler. If the enemy team sees you on the other side of the map, then it is a chance for them to begin rushing an objective with your team not being able to stop them. Just be a meatshield/ Smite bot for your team. Teamfighting lategame is very difficult as one misstep results in your immediate death. If you do not have Flash or Ghost, then you will not be able to do any killing in a teamfight if the enemy carries know how to kite properly. Your ultimate damage is still staggering though. You should be saving your squishy teammates from assassins and peeling for them until you get your Noxian Might after which point you should try to oneshot at least one of the enemy carries using your Flash. Your ultimate also helps deal with tanks. Don't tunnel vision on attacking the enemy.

PROTECT YOUR BACKLINE.

They have the damage to carry now, you don't.

Thanks a lot for reading this guide. It was difficult to get this out ASAP as I don't have too much time on my hands. I will be putting in more improvements as time goes on! Matchups and Synergies will come soon! But for now, I hope this is good enough. I tried to contain everything you need to know in this guide. If you do have any specific questions or need something explained in more detail, then simply contact me and I will try my best to help out as quickly as possible. And be sure to check out my original Darius Guide for more Darius information :D