Hello everyone. I have recently reopened my coaching sessions.

I have been sporadically coaching people over the year or so I have been making content in. I went through multiple techniques and general ways to do so and I think that, given enough information about the student, I can find the best way for them to learn and improve at the game as soon as possible.

Now, thanks to the website, I can accept and do more sessions than ever in addition to it being easier to get them to begin with. Click on the image below if you want to get good fast.


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 more than the first month and peaked Top 400 (almost Challenger). Because I am so busy with my university, I usually spend my time playing things for fun & working on creating content for you guys. 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.


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. I've seen cases where someone picks Darius for the first time when filled Toplane, thinking he is an easy champ to play, only for them to fail miserably as they don't know a thing about the character. If you are a Toplaner or a Jungler/Midlaner who needs a champion for Top, learning Darius can give you a staple pick that you can use to effectively carry entire games and shut down teamfights.

Be sure to check out my Darius Informative Commentaries. My channel has more videos like this one for different elos, VODs featuring different matchups, tutorials explaining certain mechanics and more. So pleae Subscribe to my Youtube channel for more useful content.


I have made a Season 12 Darius Guide which contains many of what is contained within this guide so if you are better at learning through videos, check this video out. Keep in mind that this guide will probably contain more details so if you want to make the most of everything, watch the video to get a good idea and then read the guide in order to expand upon your knowledge If you wish to expand your champion pool, read my Mordekaiser guide. He is a similar champion to Darius so if you are a Darius player, you will have no difficulty picking him up.

https://www.Youtube.com/RhokuTV Here is my Youtube Channel. I don't have a regular schedule so far but I upload as frequently as I can. I put up informative commentaries, guides, VODs from my stream demonstrating how you should play into specific matchups and more. If you are interested in learning Darius, my Youtube channel goes hand in hand with this guide in helping you so please check it out.

https://www.Twitch.tv/RhokuTV Here is my Twitch account. I have an updated stream schedule that I keep on my discord. I have the link to my discord here also and I ping whenever I go live. When I am live, feel free to come on and ask me questions at any point in time. I stream mostly around 7 PM CET.

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 memes, make jokes, troll my friends and argue with randoms over nothing. If this method is convenient for you, then feel free to DM me on there.

https://Discord.gg/QYZqT3b Here is my Discord Channel where all of my content is announced. I will announce my youtube videos, streams and more on there. Join it if you want to stay updated with me. I will also always be on there 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.

Pros + Can potentially deal incredible amounts of damage. + Difficult to kill due to his tankiness. + Can win entire teamfights singlehandedly. + Is very good at exploiting mistakes. + Can turn a gank into a Double Kill. + Snowballs hard and can be used to win any lane if played correctly + Can easily come back into the game off of a single teamfight. He may be down, but he is never out.

Cons - Immobile and very easy to kite. - Missing E can sometimes mean certain death in some lanes. - Falls off and becomes more team reliant lategame. - Very difficult to play vs high elo toplaners. Sometimes you need to slow with W or E to be able to hit Q. - Not a good tank. Has mediocre peel. - Can be killed very quickly if he misses Q - People in SoloQ are prone to stealing your Ult resets

The important thing I have to tell the person reading this is to try to pick their runes themselves. It is by no means WRONG to copy runes but at the very least try to understand WHY you are taking the runes you are taking. Don't just copy the runes and go into the game without consideration of what your runes do. Although I have given you the optimal rune choices in most matchup descriptions, there will be times when my advice won't be specific enough. Only you know what you are up against so therefore, learning to pick the best runes yourself is the best way to go about this. Learn what each rune does and think whether it is useful or not in your specific scenario. Doing this will make you a better player. Quickly skimming through this guide before you get ingame when you've picked Darius for the first time in your life, will not.
In order to save time, here is a video from my Youtube channel where I break down the main page you are supposed to take into every game.


With Darius, 3 of the 5 trees are viable options whereas the other two are situational. Darius is very versatile rune wise and has a surprising variety of playstyles, despite being a simple champion. Though you do need more skill and game knowledge to utilise some keystones and runes. What you take is all based on your personal playstyle, what you find most fun, and, more importantly, the team comp that you're up against.

Below I have a FULL breakdown of how EVERY SINGLE RUNE in the game synergises with Darius. Some might think this is excessive but I did not write this to be read in one go. Basically, I wrote it so that if a player is wondering whether a certain rune synergises with him, they can simply refer to this guide and find out. If you've seen the videos above, especially the first one, you do not necessarily need to read the rest of this section and may just go to the next one.



The Precision tree is an excellent one for Darius as both a primary tree and a secondary tree. The keystones all provide different playstyles and there are very powerful individual runes that offer a lot for Darius like Triumph. You should be taking Precision as a secondary tree always when going for any Resolve tree primary tree setup, and when going for Phase Rush into easier matchups. It gives you access to Triumph, along with one of the Legend runes which is immensely useful.

CONQUEROR Conqueror is the most versatile keystone as it works against almost everything, can be used in most situations and it gives Darius quite a bit of healing as it synergises with Noxian Might. Though Lifesteal sucks on Darius, the healing on the rune is very impactful in earlier fights when you have not tanked up that much. Though it has been changed and nerfed in ways that make it slightly worse for Darius, it is still the best keystone for him in the game. It gives you far more damage than most keystones, it makes you a monster in teamfights or fights that last long and it does not take any playstyle adjustment to use. Overall, this is the keystone you want to run 90% of the time.

PRESS THE ATTACK Press the Attack is a rune that requires you to play a lot more selfishly, as it is a dueling keystone. It makes your split pushing and early laning a lot stronger, allowing you to beat somewhat problematic matchups that can outdamage you in lane. It also helps your bleed stacks guarantee a kill. The sacrifice you have to make when taking this keystone is that Press the Attack is very bad in teamfights. As Darius, you won't be fighting a single target in teamfights. You will almost always get focused down. Which is why Conqueror would work better as it helps you in fights against multiple targets.

FLEET FOOTWORK Fleet Footwork is a keystone that should only be taken into the worst matchups. It offers no damage, it does not help too much in teamfights and it makes your all ins weaker. It does give you a bunch of movespeed and healing which lets you survive, or even cheese a kill or two against a laner who you normally wouldn't be able to reach. It also has uses in a split push scenario, as it allows you to heal back up so that you can siege better, AND it gives you a little extra movement speed which can help you escape the enemy team when they decide to collapse on you. I'd recommend you to gather some experience with Darius before using this Keystone.

LETHAL TEMPO Lethal Tempo is a very situational rune that is also quite tricky to use. The general idea is to damage someone with a Q and then slow them with W or pull them with an E so that you can actually land your autos on the enemy. It helps to be good at managing your auto attacks with this rune, as if you are not able to cancel AA animations, then this rune will be nigh useless on you. Against most competent players, they will be kiting you which won't allow you to fully utilise the keystone at all. It is also only good in duels, as in teamfights you won't be tanky enough to just stand still and AA someone. If you wish to quickly stack up your passive, Hail of Blades is the better option.

OVERHEAL Overheal is not a very good keystone for Darius. Remember that Darius' Q heals for PERCENTAGE MISSING health so the shield is going to have to come purely from auto attack lifesteal if you do not have a healer on your team. The extra shield scales with 10% HP which is has its uses for Darius. I won't recommend you take this rune but if you really wanted it, you could opt for Legend: Bloodline which, along with a Doran's Blade, would let you stack it up decently quickly in the midgame. Lifesteal isn't too great of a stat for Darius though. Overheal is also, vastly overshadowed by Triumph which works too well with Darius to NOT take.

TRIUMPH Triumph is the cream of the crop when it comes to the Precision tree. It is undoubtedly the best rune by far. Darius excels at cleaning up fights which is what Triumph helps you do. There have been COUNTLESS times where Triumph has saved my life in an important teamfight. It GREATLY helps you fight battles against multiple opponents, with it helping you in the 2v1 when you are trying to fight off a gank. Triumph is also AMAZING for when you are diving the enemy under their turret. It allows you to walk away with a SLIVER of health and due to it healing percentage missing health, it almost always saves you from the last turret shot. It is too good. Just take it.

PRESENCE OF MIND Darius has some mana issues. As a lane bully, you will be using your abilities to harass often and can easily go on auto-pilot and waste all of your mana. If you are bad at managing your mana, you will very quickly run out and be left completely vulnerable in lane. But his mana pool isn't that big of an issue to the point where you need to sacrifice Triumph. Getting your mana back in a fight is nice but it is not too useful, as with proper mana management, you won't be in a position where you will ever NEED to take this rune. You are not Kassadin. You don't need it. The extra healing from Triumph is MUCH better. There is no way to make this rune work so don't even try.

LEGEND: ALACRITY Legend: Alacrity is the rune you want to take from here whenever you are up against a team with either little to no CC, or CC that you know you are going to be able to avoid. This rune is mandatory for when you are planning on building Black Cleaver, as you need attack speed on Darius in some form. Even if you are going for [[Trinity Force], the extra attack speed will make you a splitpushing monster. The rune assists in your snowball so if you are confident, this is the one to take.

LEGEND: TENACITY Legend: Tenacity is a god send. Darius HATES being CCed and locked down. CC not only allows for your enemies to kite you out, but it also leads to you getting focused down and oneshot because you are not able to properly retaliate. Legend: Tenacity works very well into CC heavy teams and it scales the best into the lategame, as being stunlocked in a teamfight is a death sentence. Sometimes, the appearance of single champions make taking this rune a necessity. Sejuani, Braum, Morgana, Lux, Neeko are all examples of champions that force you to take tenacity. This rune is also very useful in certain lanes like Ryze, Kennen and even Renekton due to their stuns being able to stop you from either catching up to them or retaliating.

LEGEND: BLOODLINE Lifesteal is not a great stat for Darius. It helps when trying to sustain and for when you are trying to take jungle camps but it does not help you at all in fights. Life steal/spell vamp on Darius is not too good on general but if you really wanted it, you'd be better off picking up a Death's Dance or using Conqueror. The rune is also designed to scale to late game, as it starts off with no lifesteal. And Darius is not the best character lategame. You could maybe use this rune together with Overheal to get the shield without having to build lifesteal ingame but I wouldn't recommend it.

COUP DE GRACE Coup de Grace used to be a good option to pick up as opposed to Last Stand before. But now it no longer gives you the additional AD that it used to give which synergised with Triumph so well and together could help turn lost fights around. It is great for early on fights where you need the bleed to secure a kill so you should be only taking it against easy lanes where you want to snowball harder. But overall, it is inferior to Last Stand. It also does not increase the damage of your ultimate so I'd only take it if I knew I'd be in a position where I can't easily use my ultimate.

CUT DOWN Cut Down does not work with Darius at all. You are going to be building health. And even if you build full damage, Darius has so much base hp that it does not even work. Never take this rune.

LAST STAND Last Stand is the best rune in this tree. It gives more damage than Coup de Grace and it is active more often because as Darius, you are immobile which means you will be taking a lot of damage which is what Last Stand helps with. It helps against tougher lanes and it helps in teamfights. You mostly want to take this rune if you are taking a Precision keystone.

Darius cannot properly utilise many of the runes in this tree. His immobility however, allows him to make good use of the extra movement speed provided. You mostly will be taking Nimbus Cloak and Celerity/ Transcendence along with a Conqueror page for the most part though because Nimbus synergises very well with him. You may also take a Phase Rush page into specific matchups.

SUMMON AERY Summon Aery is not a very good keystone for Darius. The tree itself is not too great but the keystone itself is even worse. It helps in poking but Darius is not the kind of champion who would get any use out of this. Summon Aery may proc twice due to bleed but that tiny synergy is nothing impressive. Do not take this.

ARCANE COMET Arcane Comet is the worst rune in the game for Darius. Do not use it.

PHASE RUSH Phase Rush is an immensely good keystone for Darius that makes certain matchups that were impossible before, entirely doable. Though you lose the potential damage of Conqueror, you get a massive amount of sticking power. This keystone is going to help against teams who have lots of slows where the movement speed and the slow resist are going to help you exist in teamfights as opposed to being slowed down to a crawl and not being able to do anything. It is great in dealing with kiting champions and, combined with Ghost, it lets you run very quickly in and out of fights. Phase Rush is also commonly taken with Teleport as it compensates with ghost in a way. But there are many situations where Ghost is irreplaceable. When combined with Unflinching, it essentially makes you immune to slows.

NULLIFYING ORB Although Nimbus Cloak is a great rune for Darius, Nullifying Orb is a great pick up into certain AP matchups like Cassiopeia or Ryze that give you a hard time. It scales with AD which means that once you have your passive activated, you will get a much bigger shield. If Nimbus Cloak wasn't as broken as it is, this rune might be worth it to take. But at the moment, if you are going Sorcery and NOT taking Nimbus, you are making a mistake.

MANAFLOW BAND Manaflow Band is a decent pickup on Darius because his mana pool is not that great. If you are looking to spam your abilities in a lane to poke an opponent, then Manaflow Band might be a viable option. I'd only recommend it if you are going Black Cleaver, because Sheen solves all of your mana problems.

NIMBUS CLOAK Nimbus Cloak is probably the best rune in this tree. You essentially want Nimbus Cloak if you are ever going to take Ignite, as it gives you SOME movespeed to work with. Even without Ignite, Nimbus Cloak is great in certain situations, especially for when making plays with Flash. Darius' relevancy in game is directly related to whether he has his summs up or not and Nimbus makes your Flash or Ghost plays even more powerful.

TRANSCENDENCE Transcendence gives you extra Ability haste at level 5, 8 and a new passive at level 11. This is why I like using it more than Celerity. It reduces the cooldown of your abilities by 20% per takedown which is great.

CELERITY Celerity gives you a tiny bit of early movement speed which is nice and it amplifies the ridiculous amount of movement speed given by this tree anyway. You can take it if you enjoy the extra movement speed but it is not always necessary.

ABSOLUTE FOCUS Absolute Focus allows you to do a bit more damage when you are at higher HP and allows you to win earlier trades. But you are playing a character that likes to face tank a lot of damage so you won't be getting much use of this rune. You're better off going for Transcendence or Celerity.

SCORCH Scorch gives you a decent bit of poke in lane and a bit of early game power. It has a 10 second cooldown so you can use it often if you fight a lot in lane. It is the go to in this section if you are not looking to roam often.

WATERWALKING Waterwalking is a decent rune if you are looking to roam through the river often. It helps a lot in early river fights and skirmishes, with it also helping in fights around Rift Herald / Baron .

GATHERING STORM Gathering Storm is not a very good rune for Darius. The AD comes to you later on in the game in a point where it has no impact on anything at all. It is a lategame rune and Darius is not a lategame champion.

This tree is very good for Darius as it allows for you to pick up a variety of defensive runes that help with most playstyles and matchups where you might struggle. Second Wind makes some nightmare matchups more doable and Demolish’ turret destroying power allows you to snowball very hard by taking plates in seconds. It also makes you a very dangerous split pusher, as it, combined with Trinity Force, leads to you melting turrets.

GRASP OF THE UNDYING Grasp of the Undying is a good Keystone that Darius can take. Though there are runes that provide more damage and more utility, Grasp of the Undying lets you do very well in short trades. This is why it is optimally taken into matchups where the enemy champion will be looking to go in for quick trades and back out like Renekton or Riven, or taken into matchups where the enemy champion cannot retaliate properly after you AA them for the stack. This Keystone can also give you a very nice bit of health to work with.

AFTERSHOCK Aftershock is one of the best runes for Darius in the game. Aftershock, much like Conqueror, both synergises with Darius’ kit AND is in a great tree which makes it a very good choice. I’d suggest taking it only after you are used to hitting your hooks but with enough experience, that should not be too difficult. Aftershock makes certain difficult lanes very easy ( Riven, Akali), allows for you to tank much more damage in teamfights, AND it encourages Flash+E engages, as without it, you usually get focused down and oneshot.

GUARDIAN You should, under no circumstances, be thinking of taking this rune in a solo lane. Even if you are autofilled and are playing Darius support, you’d be better off with Aftershock. You do not have a gap closer like Braum or Rakan that lets you quickly get to your ADC to use this rune and as a Bruiser, you will be fighting solo/diving the enemy backline alone a lot. Even if you could use it properly, which Darius cannot, the shield wouldn’t even be worth it. It is nice to be friendly and work with your team but understand that Darius is a selfish champion.

DEMOLISH Demolish is an incredible rune in this group and is probably the one you will be taking every time. Darius has a lot of lane pressure and can easily take enemy plates. Not a lot of people know that Darius’ E armor penetration works on turrets which makes it even more effective. This rune helps you split push harder later on in the game and it accelerates your snowballing. It is sort of the Triumph of the Resolve tree. Trust me when I tell you that once you start playing with Demolish, it is very difficult to go back.

FONT OF LIFE Font of Life is a very terrible rune. As I explained in the explanation of the Guardian keystone, Darius is a selfish champion who needs to be great at working alone first, and with his team second. Even if you are playing Darius support, you don’t have a great way of mass applying this rune. Not to mention how the heal is just pathetic.

SHIELD BASH This rune is unusable. Darius has no way of generating a shield for himself. You might combine it with Overheal and Legend: Bloodline so that you can make shields and make use of this keystone but it is just not worth it. The tiny amount of damage you get from this rune pales in comparison to the sheer power of Demolish.

BONE PLATING Bone Plating is a great rune for Bruisers and Fighters in toplane. And Darius is no exception. You will be wanting to take Bone Plating into characters like Irelia or Kled who will be hitting you multiple times per trade. Taking Bone Plating into a champion who can easily poke you OR a champion who can attack you and disengage with ease is not optimal though, as this will mean that if your lane opponent is smart, you will be getting no use out of Bone Plating.

SECOND WIND Second Wind is the most general rune out of this group and you will be combining it with Doran's Shield very often to combat lanes with oppressive poke. Second Wind is great into ALL ranged matchups and even some melee matchups that can either poke often ( Aatrox) or ones that can easily disengage from you. You will be taking this most of the time.

CONDITIONING Conditioning is the black sheep of this group. Second Wind and Bone Plating both make your laning easier whereas Conditioning does not really do anything until after 10 minutes. However, the buffs to your Armour and Magic Resist that Conditioning gives is nothing to scoff at. You can take it if you are up against a high damage team, if the team has a lot of big damage dealers and if they have a mix of both physical and magic damage that is difficult to itemise against. The key thing to keep in mind is that you have to make sure that you are laning vs a character where you can easily beat them( Sion) and don’t need extra help in lane from the other two runes.

UNFLINCHING Unflinching is a situational rune. But it is very effective in such situations. Unflinching gives you Tenacity and, more importantly, Slow Resist that can do wonders vs certain matchups and certain compositions. Unflinching is essentially MANDATORY when the enemy team is populated by champions with lots of slows ( Ashe). You can combine Unflinching with Phase Rush to be practically immune to slows or even take it with Legend: Tenacity to cut the duration of all CC in half. If you are up against a team where Tenacity is not that useful, then this rune is not what you should be taking.

REVITALIZE Revitalize seems good in theory. Spirit Visage essentially does the exact same thing but better so when stacked up with it, Revitalize sounds like a great choice. But you have to remember that it only comes into play when you are at low HP. Not to mention how the healing is honestly negligible at times. Explaining how this rune is bad is hard so you will just have to take my word for it. The Tenacity and Slow resist from Unflinching and the extra HP from Overgrowth are things that you WILL be missing when you take Revitalize. HOWEVER, if your team has a champion like Soraka, Janna or Yuumi who will be healing and shielding you often, Revitalize would be a very good choice.

OVERGROWTH Overgrowth is a simple but good rune. If the other two situational runes in this group are not applicable, you can go ahead and just take Overgrowth. This rune gives you a decent chunk of health. If you like the extra HP from Black Cleaver but want to go Trinity Force, then this rune will make up for the lacking health. The best part about this rune is that it works really well into difficult lanes where you won’t be able to farm too much.

The Keystones and the runes in this tree range from completely useless to situational for Darius. Simply put, the Domination tree is not good for Darius in anyway. You might be thinking that the extra healing from Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter are great but you would only partially be right. Lifesteal on Darius is NOT a good stat. Spell Vamp/Lifesteal from abilities is BARELY a good stat. Though it helps you heal up and take jungle camps, the healing you get is not going to make a difference 9/10 fights you take. Not to mention how it becomes nigh-worthless in the lategame. I would recommend you to stay away from this tree. You may experiment with it here and there or even take it for fun but overall, the tree is difficult to properly use. It is home to both Predator and Hail of Blades which are awkward to use but they both have their purposes.

ELECTROCUTE Electrocute is not a very good Keystone for Darius. Now on its own, having the ability to get a bit of burst in short trades sounds great and I agree. But you have to understand that the tiny buff in short trades is not nearly enough to compensate for the TERRIBLE set of runes that the Domination tree has. Not to mention how Electrocute won’t synergise with your passive as it procs early into the fight, not later on in the fight which is when you will have your passive activated. Lastly, in Mid-Late game teamfights, you are going to have to kill people VERY quickly. Most of the time, you will only have the time to land a single W or a Q before ulting which won’t even proc Electrocute. So overall, I wouldn’t recommend this Keystone.

PREDATOR There are a few Darius players in the world that make use of this rune. Predator Darius is a very roam heavy Darius build. It is very unusual, difficult to use, situational and at times, just useless which is why I would not recommend this Keystone at all. Worst of all, it does not really offer much strength in lane which means it is only useful against lanes you dumpster anyway. If you are a player that likes roaming quite a bit, then Predator might be an okay Keystone. But I’d highly recommend better Keystones if you do not have experience playing Darius.

DARK HARVEST Dark Harvest is a very fun Keystone to use, despite not being a very good one. Try it out in a normal game a few times, because once you get ahead and start killing people, Dark Harvest adds like 300 extra damage to your ultimate which guarantees the execute most of the time. In theory, the synergy might seem very good but not so much in practice. You have to keep in mind that Darius, once ahead, does enough damage with his Ultimate to people to the point where he can oneshot them from half health. Dark Harvest is ONLY good when massively ahead but it does not always work with your ultimate. If winning the game is your intention, I wouldn’t recommend Dark Harvest.

HAIL OF BLADES Hail of Blades is the only Meta Keystone in this tree. It is very cheesy, tricky to use, easy to counter play when against better players and forces you to use the horrendous Domination tree. If you do not utilise your slows properly, landing all of the autos might sometimes be difficult. You have to be good at cancelling your AA animations too. With all that said, Hail of Blades DOES give you a very quick way to stack up your ultimate and allows for you to be VERY DOMINANT in the early laning phase. I’d recommend it against immobile characters who cannot disengage very well, as that way you can just wail on them and get your 5 stacks up very quickly. But you have to understand that Hail of Blades falls off VERY quickly. The thing in most teamfights is that most of the time, you will be killing people with your ultimate before reaching 5 stacks and getting your passive with the R execute instead of stacking it up fully. Despite that, Hail of Blades works when the fight begins instead of other Keystones that come into effect only later on in the fight which can be good in certain circumstances. Try it out for yourself.

SUDDEN IMPACT Sudden Impact has no synergy with Darius whatsoever. It ONLY activates when you Flash. And Flash has a 5 minute cooldown. Utterly unusable. Not to mention how Darius has Percentage Armour Pen built in already, making the flat Armour Pen nigh useless.

TASTE OF BLOOD Taste of Bloodis usable but its not very good. The healing it gives in lane is not very high and the cooldown means you can’t proc it often. This rune is better on ranged champions that poke as it gives them access to easy sustain at the expense of their lane opponent. Darius cannot as easily make use of this rune as he has very low range. As bad as it is, if you ever go Domination you will probably take it as the rest of the runes are horrendously bad.

CHEAP SHOT Cheap Shot might sound like an okay choice as it has a low cooldown and Darius has more than 1 movement impairing ability but you have to remember that we use E along with W in a single combo. And also, the amount of damage this rune offers is quite pathetic. It being true damage means nothing. If you have Hail of Blades and can properly space out your E and W, then maybe you can get more than one use out of this rune. It's either this or Taste of Blood and honestly, Taste of Blood is a bit better.

EYEBALL COLLECTION Eyeball Collection is what you should be taking in this group if you are bad at warding. It is SOMEWHAT useful if you are snowballing and switching to sweeper to get the extra AD from wards but it is a very terrible rune as the extra AD is negligible at best.

GHOST PORO Ghost Poro is useful if you are going to be warding often, as knowledge of an upcoming gank is very vital. But the better you get, the less you will get out of this rune as you will eventually learn how to track enemy junglers. Overall, I’d recommend this rune as it is more forgiving of wasting stealth wards.

ZOMBIE WARD Zombie Ward is like Ghost Poro but you need to be taking sweeper or buying a ton of control wards. Overall, if you are looking to have vision control just take Ghost Poro. Zombie Ward might only work if you are trolling as Support Darius.

ULTIMATE HUNTER The Hunter runes do not work on Darius. You are not known for ganking other lanes. You will be getting two stacks at most which makes these runes very ineffective for you. Not to mention how Darius does not even need his ultimate to be on a lower cooldown, as it is low enough as it is. The benefit given by it is miniscule.

RELENTLESS HUNTER As mentioned with the previous Hunter rune, you can’t stack it properly. But out of combat movespeed is SOMEWHAT useful as it lets you get to skirmishes faster, get to midlane for the once in a blue moon Darius gank and it lets you get back to lane a bit faster. Its not good, but its SOMETHING.

INGENIOUS HUNTER Darius only builds items with actives in certain games. He can’t even utilise this rune properly. It may be an okay pick if you are running Predator but honestly, just go Relentless Hunter instead.

RAVENOUS HUNTER A fully stacked RavenousHunter actually gives you quite a bit of healing with your Ultimate which CAN be useful. But more often than not, it WON’T be. Still, when going for a rune in this group, it is either going to be this or Relentless Hunter.

Inspiration is probably the trickiest to use tree with Darius. You need to be VERY good with him to use these runes and Keystones properly but once you do, you can actually craft great playstyles for yourself. You have to be creative with this tree. Inspiration is also the go to secondary tree as you need Time Warp Tonic if you are going to start with Corrupting Potion. Magical Footwear synergises with this combo well, as the potion gives you movement speed when you need it which lets you delay your early boots to get an extra 10 movement speed later.

GLACIAL AUGMENT Glacial Augment is a tricky keystone to use to its full extent. But it can be done. The slow form the autoattack allows you to set up an enemy for a Q without needing to use your W or your E. It also allows you to and encourages you to build Turbo Chemtank and Randuin's Omen, as the actives of both items will be great in teamfights. A Glacial Augment build is a tanky, full teamfight oriented build where you will be looking to engage the enemy and mass apply slows to everyone. I’d say go for Black Cleaver and skip Sterak's Gage as you are going full tank. Remember to pick up a Gargoyle Stoneplate as it will let you engage and then survive your own engage as the enemy team focuses you down. This build doesn’t let you duel or splitpush too well though.

UNSEALED SPELLBOOK Unsealed Spellbook used to be a very nice choice for Darius. After trying it out for a while, I regret to inform that it is no longer as good as it used to be. It isn't bad by any means, but it is far too difficult to use properly. It kinda lets you have Teleport which lets you splitpush without having to worry about your team on the other side of the map but I dunno. This Keystone is the most difficult one to use properly but when done right it can pay off greatly. It is still WAYY TOO MUCH EFFORT for very little gain in my opinion. However, do not let that deter you from trying it out and forging your own playstyle as it is doable.

PROTOTYPE: OMNISTONE This Keystone is like Unsealed Spellbook but for keystones. You might think that it is also another high skill high reward keystone like Unsealed Spellbook but you would be very wrong. The rune picks a keystone at random and honestly, you can only take it into easy matchups where getting the wrong keystone wouldn’t screw you over. Imagine getting ready to all in a Riven level 6 and then getting something stupid like Fleet Footwork where just picking Aftershock would’ve been a lot better. You have to know how to use every rune to make it work but again, “smart” or otherwise, it is still RNG. You may try your luck but I wouldn’t recommend it with this specific keystone.

PERFECT TIMING Perfect Timing is a useful rune. It is situational though. Stopwatch is an overpowered item and the active can be used very well on Darius and virtually any other champion in the game. You can save it to survive a dive, to turn around a fight by using it to avoid your opponent’s crucial damage source or even save it for a lategame engage. It also builds into a Gargoyle Stoneplate or a Guardian Angel which are both decent pick ups for Darius.

HEXTECH FLASHTRAPTION This rune is only good for bush cheeses and in very NICHE cases where you have to cross a wall. It may be used to cheese a ranged opponent once but after that one instance, they probably are not going to fall for it again. I would not really recommend this rune at all.

MAGICAL FOOTWEAR Magical Footwear is a viable rune to run, and it is what you are going to be taking if you are going to go for the Time Warp Tonic + Corrupting Potion combo. It synergises with them, as they give you the early movement speed you need in certain fights and give you a kill’s worth of gold along with 10 extra movement speed. But I personally cannot live without an early Boots buy. You only get the movement speed when drinking the potion which means that all the other times in the lane when you have to dodge skillshots, when roaming and when running back to lane, you are stuck with the default, 340 movement speed until 10-12 minutes into the game. Not to mention how Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads are sometimes vital early purchases in some matchups and taking this rune does not allow that.

FUTURE’S MARKET Future's Market is a great rune to take. Often times with Darius, you are 100-200 gold off your main purchases. Future's Market allows you to circumvent that. It works really well into difficult lanes where you cannot farm too well as it gives you that little bit of extra gold to build those defensive items that might help you kill your opponent and snowball the lane. Though it is unnecessary into easier lanes, it still helps in certain scenarios.

MINION DEMATERIALIZER Minion Dematerializer is a tricky to use rune which has a purpose that you won’t be needing if you are going to build any damage. However, if you are going for any full tank build with Black Cleaver, then you need this rune to be able to actually waveclear properly.

BISCUIT DELIVERY Biscuit Delivery is a great option to go for if you are running the Corrupting Potion + Time Warp Tonic combo but do not want to take Magical Footwear. The Biscuits give you very nice sustain early against tough matchups. They also allow you to make mistakes. If you take a bad trade that leaves you low enough to be all inned and killed, you can simply take a Biscuit and heal back up some of the damage you took. They also give you a bit more mana to play around with.

TIME WARP TONIC You want to be taking this rune exclusively with Corrupting Potion. This rune allows for you to have more movespeed early on before you get your first boots, Corrupting Potion gives you a bit more damage that works very well with Darius’ bleed AND it lets you survive DOTs like Teemo Poison or even Ignite in some cases as it gives you half of the health and mana from all potions instantaneously. It is not my cup of tea but it might be yours.

APPROACH VELOCITY Approach Velocity does not work with Darius. You can only apply your CC once you have already reached your target. The only situation where it might work is when you are running in to help out a low HP ally but that is not common enough to take this rune I’m afraid.

COSMIC INSIGHT If you like the Inspiration tree but dislike the Time Warp Tonic + Corrupting Potion combo, then you can opt for this rune. This rune gives you AH for EVERYTHING which is very nice. The AH it gives for your summoner spells is what Darius really loves though. Flash and Ghost allow for Darius to actually be a threat to the enemy backline and having them on a lower cooldown is great to have.

The stats you take into your specific games are unfortunately, very match specific which makes copying them off the internet suboptimal. It is not too difficult to decide which one to take however so do not worry. You may take double armour into a difficult AD matchup, double AP into a tough AP matchup or Attack Speed+AD into an easy lane opponent that you can kill. Are you good at CSing to the point where you don’t need the extra AD early on? Would the stacking health be better for you as the lane is easy enough early on? Ask yourself these questions and adapt to the enemy. One thing that I CAN tell you to take is Attack speed. You almost ALWAYS have to take early attack speed. Darius' attack speed scales terribly by level and he doesn’t start out with much which will make duels in lane difficult without compensating for it by using your runes, especially if you go for Black Cleaver.

FLASH Flash is vital on Darius. It makes him a threat to the enemy backline, it saves your life when you get caught which will be often as an immobile champion and it allows you to outplay your opponents in lane. Not taking Flash is a very bad idea. If you don't take flash, you are essentially nerfing yourself.

GHOST Ghost is a great summoner spell as it eliminates one of the things that inhibit your destructive abilities on Darius which is your lack of mobility. Ghost makes it difficult to nigh impossible to kite you, it makes it easy to land your Qs, it lets you run away from ganks while saving flash and it also lets you chase people down. Ghost makes many lanes killable like ignite while also letting you be an effective teamfighter. The recent changes to it have make it even more powerful when teamfighting and it allows you to Ghost preemptively to get to teamfight and clean it up for your team. This combination of Flash and Ghost is what most, if not all experienced Darius mains will be taking.

TELEPORT Teleport is the natural Summoner Spell to take as a toplaner. It allows you to recover from ganks/bad plays and salvage an otherwise horrendously bad wave that would leave you vulnerable. It lets you get back into lane faster to get items and have an instant item advantage against your opponent. It lets you have presence in the botlane and everywhere in the map and it is vital for splitpushing sometimes when the enemy has a strong engage and it is lategame. The macro utility of Teleport vs the unmatched power of Ghost. Though it is your choice at the end of the day, I highly suggest you take Ghost if you want to be a better Darius.

IGNITE Ignite basically makes some lanes impossible to lose. Ignite along with your 5 stacks of bleed guarantees the death of your opponent if they even dare to trade with you. The bad part about Ignite is that although it makes your a very prominent terror in lane, it falls off super hard and it doesn’t give the map presence of Teleport or the immense utility of Ghost. If you are a Darius player who relies on Ignite, please stop. You are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Learning how to use Ghost will boost you a few ranks just by itself. Trust me. Play Video

Everything ElseAll the other Summoner Spells are not good with him at all. Exhaust is only useful when you are fighting a laner with strong burst, when you are trying to catch someone out and slow them and when you want to weaken an assassin for your ADC. But supporting your team is not what Darius does. You can counterplay bursts by playing the lane/fights properly and Ghost can be used to catch up to people. It doesn’t make one person slower. Instead, it makes you faster which lets you reach everyone. Darius jungle is not exactly meta. If you wish to learn more about jungling, check out my Darius Jungle Guide. If you have no time and HAVE to go Darius jungle, I’ve heard that a build/playstyle of Olaf is the one most similar so try to replicate that if you are a jungler. Heal and Barrier are worthless. With you stacking health and resistances anyway, the amount that you get from them is not that impactful. Just do not even think about them. Even if you are going Darius ADC for some ungodly reason, just take Ghost.

PASSIVE ABILITY

HEMORRHAGE ♦︎ Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 5 seconds, dealing 13 - 30 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) physical damage over the duration. The bleeding will trigger every 1.25 seconds, and can stack up to 5 times, for a maximum of 65 - 150 (based on level) (+ 150% bonus AD) physical damage over the duration. ♦︎ Upon applying full Hemorrhage stacks to an enemy champion or killing one 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. Tips & Tricks ♦︎ Hemorrhage makes Darius a massive threat in lane as he is essentially going to win trades due to it. It is one of the two reasons as to why fighting Darius is a bad idea. The bleed stacks are a built in Ignite of sorts as they will be securing kills for you very often. It also has great synergy with your ultimate so try to get an idea of just how much each stack increases your ultimate’s damage by so that you can get access to Noxian Might faster. Noxian Might itself is what makes Darius such a monster. ♦︎ This passive gives Darius enough damage so building full damage on him is not ideal. You want to be surviving long enough in a fight to get you passive and then oneshot the enemy team with the overwhelming damage that it provides you with. Nothing closes out a fight faster than a Flash + Q with Noxian Might along with him executing everyone unfortunate enough to get hit. It turns disadvantaged fights in your favour and allows you to sweep up whatever’s left of the enemy team even when behind.

Q

DECIMATE ♦︎ Darius prepares his axe for 0.75 seconds, then swings it around himself, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies, reduced to 35% against enemies hit by the shaft. ♦︎ Darius heals for 15% - 45% (based on the amount of enemy champions hit by the blade) MISSING health. The shaft of Darius' axe will not apply Bleed or heal him. Tips & Tricks ♦︎ Decimate is your main trading tool in lane. It is useful for wave clearing, poking weaker laners, trading vs stronger opponents, mass applying Noxian Might and staying alive thanks to its healing. Learning to land this ability is mandatory if you are going to be a good Darius, because a Darius that cannot land his Qs is not going to be of much use. And in many of the harder matchups, the opening for them to go in for a trade is you missing your Q. ♦︎ A trick to learn with Q that is useful for executing low health enemies and turning teamfights around is using it in conjunction with Flash. You learn how to do it consistently with experience after getting used to Flash range and Darius’ Qs’ outer zone. Try to get good at hitting Q as doing it in higher elos is difficult.

W

CRIPPLING STRIKE ♦︎ Darius' next basic attack within 4 seconds gains 25 bonus range, deals 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. ♦︎ Crippling Strike resets Darius' autoattack timer. Tips & Tricks ♦︎ Crippling Strike allows for you to slow the enemy enough to hit them with a Q, apply massive amounts of damage if you have Sheen and it is the source of most of your combos. An E->AA->W->Q combo is good to learn on Darius so make sure you know how to do it. Make sure to be used to your attack speed so that you can efficiently reset your autoattack timer with it. W is a great tool for farming as it refunds both half the cooldown and the entirety of the mana cost. Lastly, make sure you know how to cancel the animation of W by using it with Q. Further explanation on how to do this in the Combo section below.

E

APPREHEND ♦︎ Darius gains armor penetration. ♦︎ 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 the area around the pull. Tips & Tricks ♦︎ Landing this ability is vital to your survival on Darius in some matchups. Landing it can grant you kills, whereas missing it can get you killed. Instead of going to the people kiting you, you just bring them to you. This ability allows Darius to stand a chance against ranged laners and it gives him outplay potential against many things. ♦︎ Much like his Ultimate, Apprehend cannot be stopped. This means that it can be used to cancel things that suppress you like Warwick ultimate or Malzahar ultimate if you time your E correctly. E can also be used to pull people out of dashes. If you have great predicting skills and reactions. You can essentially render the dashes of many champions obsolete. Camille’s hookshot, Aatrox’ E and essentially ANY movement spell that isn’t instantaneous and isn’t explicitly states as being unstoppable. If you are fast enough, you can stop the really quick ones like Akali’s R and Irelia’s Q. ♦︎ You can utilise E to escape ganks or even engage the enemy team, which should work better if you have Aftershock. The passive armor pen makes you a nightmare to fight for tanks and lets you shred towers better which is always nice. ♦︎ People often don't utilise the slow of this ability. Basically, the champions that you pull are slowed for 1 second after you use your E. Now this is only situational, as some champions having movement abilities means you have to do your AA->W->Q combo immediately after pulling but if your opponent is immobile and you need to make optimal usage of your slows in order to run them down properly, you can use the slow of your E in order to land an extra auto before doing your combo (so basically E->AA(during E slow)->AA->W->Q). ♦︎ One thing to note is that despite your character model getting bigger, your E range stays consistent. That is why you might run into situations where you have Sterak's Gage activated and your E goes through the enemy champion’s model but it still does not hook.

R

NOXIAN GUILLOTINE ♦︎ Darius becomes unstoppable for 0.25 seconds and attempts to execute the targeted enemy champion, dealing icon true damage, increased by 0% - 100% (based on Hemorrhage stacks). ♦︎ If Noxian Guillotine kills its target, Darius causes all nearby minions and monsters to flee in terror for 3 seconds during which they are rapidly slowed by up to 99% over the duration, activates Noxian Might, and is able to recast the ability within the next 20 seconds at no additional cost. This can occur multiple times in succession. ♦︎ At rank 3, if Noxian Guillotine kills its target, its cooldown resets completely. Tips & Tricks ♦︎ The execute. The dunk. The identity of Darius. Noxian Guillotine is why Darius is feared in teamfights. A good Darius will make proper usage of it and clean up teamfights at every opportunity. There is a bug ingame, as the “Maximum” damage displayed, does not factor in your Noxian Might AD so it is lower than what you will ACTUALLY do by 60-345 damage. ♦︎ It is a good idea to know how much minimum damage your ultimate does so that you are able to get an easy reset off of a low HP opponent which should win you the fight. Just know how much your ultimate does as you do not have an indicator like Cho'Gath or Pyke. Make sure to take shields and heals into account, as you might need an auto or two before utling to make sure they don’t get in your way. ♦︎ Although it is always good to secure the kill with your ultimate, keep in mind that sometimes, it might be better to use the ultimate early, when it won’t kill. This is useful vs champions who have invulnerability spells ( Fiora, Kayle), in fights where getting your passive is more important than getting your ultimate off, when you have a Sheen and just need the empowered auto and for when you are about to die which means that you might as well use it so that your team can capitalise off of your damage. ♦︎ If you are looking to Flash+R, make sure to buffer your R before you Flash as that makes it instantaneous and impossible to avoid, even if the enemy Flashes. ♦︎ You are unstoppable while ulting. Unless the spell ( Sivir) or the damage ( Fiora) is blocked, the ability is going to go through no matter the distance or anything. It cannot be avoided and can only be stopped by killing Darius. If your target gets out of vision, goes untargetable( Zhonya's Hourglass) or you yourself are in stasis( Bard R), then the Ultimate does not go through but it also does not go on cooldown so you will be able to use it again instantly. It is a good idea to ward the other side of a wall or a bush, when you know that your opponent is going to be using Flash to try to escape. ♦︎ A little known trick with Darius is that you don't have to kill an enemy with your Ultimate for it to reset. I know it sounds crazy but if the enemy just dies milliseconds after you use your ultimate, regardless of whether it is you or your ally that kills them, you get your ultimate back. If you attack speed is high enough, you might be able to get your ultimate back if you kill the enemy with your Auto Attack right after ulting. Here is a video of me explaining this trick but basically speaking, you want to start the AA AS SOON as the R lands AND cancel the AA animation. It becomes easier to do on level 11 on as the Ult animation is faster as you level your R. Play Video ♦︎ Another thing to consider is that Darius' R is technically a movement ability. If you look closely, Darius slightly moves closer to his target that he uses his ultimate on. This basically means that you cannot use your ultimate if you are grounded, by Cassiopeia's Miasma for example, or rooted.

I've had a similar disclaimer in the Rune Breakdown chapter but I shall put it here as it applies to items too. Do not just look at my finished builds and copy them one to one. I tried to make them all as general as possible so that they'd work in most situations but no matter what build I put up here, there may be a better build that is optimal for your specific game that you yourself are going to come up with on the spot. It is difficult to do initially which is why I have written everything below. I have explained what the use of every item is, when you should buy them and/or what champions/type of champions they are good against. Ultimately, only you can decide what the best build will be and you should have a general idea before the game is even loaded. It is not WRONG to use a pre existing build but it should only be used as a guideline.

Doran’s Shield Doran's Shield essentially good into every matchup. If you don’t know what starting item to go for specifically and are new to Darius, just pick this one up all the time. Doran's Shield works well into unfavorable skill matchups that trade well into Darius, and is DESIGNED to fight ranged toplaners which is when you should be buying. It has very good synergy with Second Wind as well. Just do not buy this item later on in the game, as it is just a waste of money.

Doran’s Blade Doran's Blade is the item you want to take if you are confident in your lane, are good at Darius and/or need the early stats to fight your lane opponent. If you are planning on fighting within the first few levels, Doran's Blade is a mandatory purchase. Doran's Blade is also a very gold efficient source of stats. If bought it as a starter item against a Jax for example, you can buy one more as the extra stats will help you win early on.

Rejuvenation Bead Rejuvenation Bead is an incredibly underrated starting item that helps certain unplayable matchups actually doable. With triple Rejuvenation Bead, Darius has 25 Health Regen at level 1. That is 5 hp per second which is the equivalent of half a potion on. Permanently. It works really well into poke matchups. Another great plus is that selling one of the Doran's items gives you back only 180 gold whereas selling all of your Rejuvenation Bead gives you 315 gold. The item used to be even better when it built into Raptor Cloak but it is still good as it builds into useful items that you can pick up later on into the game.

Corrupting Potion Corrupting Potion is a starting item that lets you be more reckless with your Mana. It is also great into champions like Jax and Illaoi who build it as well. This is because, although you beat them in a trade, they drink a stack of Corrupting Potion and heal up the damage you’ve dealt whereas you wouldn’t have that luxury. If you also take Corrupting Potion, you will be able to match them and be higher HP overall. However, that whole thing along with a tiny bit of damage Corrupting Potion gives is not really worth it unless you take Time Warp Tonic along with it.

Cloth Armor Cloth Armor start is a bit old fashioned but it works somewhat into strong AD characters like Pantheon or even Jayce, who can potentially bully you out. Cloth Armor along with 4 Health Potions gives you a decent bit of early armor and sustain that lets you survive until you are able to build it into Ninja Tabi.

Long Sword Long Sword is a very greedy and a snowballing item. You only want to be only taking it into lanes like Sion where you just win straight up. Long Sword gives you a nice bit of damage but it makes you much weaker than you should be early on as Doran's Blade is so much more efficient with gold. It gives you health along with lifesteal for just 2 less AD. If you can get to your first back with Long Sword without dying, you have accomplished your goal, as you have not set yourself an entire kill ahead. But it is far too risky and it makes you too weak in early fights to take it into a lane that is difficult by any means.

Health PotionYou want to be buying Health Potions with whatever money you have left. They are pretty self explanatory. Just make sure that you do not waste them. A common mistake is spamming the Health Potions the second you take damage which only wastes them. A good guideline that I personally use is to take them only when I am below 60% HP IF my enemy laner can exploit my low health AND if I am not planning on going back to base soon.

Refillable PotionRefillable Potion. This item is not mandatory by any means. I personally get it every game. It gives me an extra bit of health that is useful when I take bad trades. If you have spare gold, pick one up and try it out to see how you like it.

Control WardControl Wards are vital. Though I will break this down into more detail in the warding section, know that you should be helping your team out with vision, as doing so leads to you knowing better where the enemy jungler is and adapting your playstyle off of it.

Phage Phage is Darius’ strongest item early on. Though there are more viable options when it comes to specific matchups, this item is useful against everyone. The stats on it, health and AD, are very good on Darius but the passive is what makes this item so great. With Phage, you can kill a minion and use the movement speed that you get in order to run up to your enemy laner and start fighting them. Since you will have more movement speed, you will be able to catch up faster. This item lets you stick to enemies, kite dangerous opponents and it builds into both of your big power spikes.

Chain Vest Chain Vest is not the best early purchase as it does not build into anything you’re going to be building quickly, unless you are going to go full tank. Despite this, the item is very good against champions like Jayce and Wukong who build lethality. It is also great against AD characters in general. As long as you aren’t feeding, you should be able to beat your laner if you have a Chain Vest on top of Ninja Tabi.

Spectre's Cowl Spectre's Cowl is a great item into annoying AP matchups that are able to easily poke you out. Rumble, Teemo, Cassiopeia and Ryze are examples that come to mind. Spectre's Cowl combined with Doran's Shield and Second Wind let you sustain from poke very easily. Going Phage into some of these champions can be high risk high reward, as if you do not get a kill on them without Phage, you will not be able to stay in lane too long as they will get their items and be dealing a lot more damage than before. Spectre's Cowl is the safer option and it is recommended against competent players. If you are confident/smurfing though, you can simply go for Phage.

Boots of SpeedPicking up an early Boots is great. It lets you kite better. It lets you stick to enemy champions better and it allows for you to dodge skillshots much more easily. I love being able to move around so I usually pick it up in my first back. Doing so also allows me to more quickly upgrade it into one of the two very powerful upgrades.

Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi are amazing. They essentially work into every AD matchup in the book. And into some, it is mandatory. Riven, Jax and Jayce are great examples of champions that you need Tabis against if you do not want to be destroyed. Ninja Tabi give you a decent bit of armor but the passive is what makes this item shine. The reduction of AA damage makes this great into any and all autoattackers. If the enemy team has a strong auto attacking character, say a fed ADC or a fed Yasuo, you will probably be looking to pick up Ninja Tabi.

Mercury's Treads Mercury's Treads are great items as well. The tenacity that they provide can be great into matchups where they have stuns that you cannot counterplay. Champions like Kennen, Ryze or even Neeko where dodging her stun is possible but very difficult. Treads work very well into high CC teams with champions like Sejuani, Morgana or Braum where you getting stunned is an inevitability. Overall though, unless the matchup specifically requires it, Mercury's Treads aren’t the best early rush.

Bramble Vest Bramble Vest is a great item into bruisers/characters that are both AD and love to heal. With Conqueror’s healing being greater, this item is going to be more useful. Bramble Vest works really well into Fiora, as it allows you to just win any fight against her. If you are good enough at playing the matchup, it is not necessary but Bramble Vest stops her healing which makes you a brick wall that she cannot overcome. Bramble Vest is also good into characters like Illaoi and Renekton who are known for turning fights using their healing.

Executioner's Calling Executioner's Calling is similar to Bramble Vest in purpose. Darius’ bleed allows for him to apply Grievous Wounds very effectively with this item. If they have a strong healer on the enemy team and nobody else is willing to pick this item up, then it might be you who has to do it. Executioner's Calling is also great into Vladimir and Swain, as they are big healers who won’t be auto attacking you. Though it is not as necessary into Swain. Unfortunately, Executioner's Calling does not build into any useful item for Darius later down the line. Once another character in your team gets Grievous Wounds, you should be selling it.

Kindlegem Kindlegem is an early component of Black Cleaver. The CDR is neat but not too great. On the bright side however, it can also be built into Spirit Visage which means that if you were on your way to building Black Cleaver, you can change your mind and go for Trinity Force if you happen to pick up a few kills in a skirmish or a fight.

Sheen Sheen is a great item. On your way to building Trinity Force, you will be buying Phage, either Sheen or Stinger, and then completing the item. I personally like Sheen more, as it massively increases your damage output if you combo it with your abilities correctly. Sometimes, when in a fight, it might just be worth it to use your Ultimate just to get the sheen proc. Sheen also allows for you to do a massive amount of damage in quick trades. Last but not least, Sheen lets you melt turrets as well. The CDR is also nice.

Stinger Stinger is great as well. The CDR is nice but this item is going to be giving you a decent bit of Attack Speed to work with. Though it won’t make your trades as strong as it would with Sheen, Stinger lets you get to Noxian Might quicker which makes it better in all ins. If you are up against a tank character who just lets you stand there and auto them, Stinger is the way to go.

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 and a better carry. Black Cleaver however, is what you want to buy when you are up against more than 2 tanks or when you have fallen behind, as it lets you be more useful to your team in teamfights. Do not build both of them at the same time.

TRINITY FORCE

VS

BLACK CLEAVER

Trinity Force has much more damage and it lets you outplay your opponents better. You will be less of a use to your team utility wise but that does not matter as you will be a dueling monster and a splitpushing threat with how quickly you take down turrets. Your burst makes you very dangerous to the enemy backline and allows for your Flash plays to be even more powerful. You want to go for Trinity Force if you are fed and it is up to you to carry. Although Darius isn’t known for his roaming, the movement speed helps you reach river fights and midlane quicker.

Black Cleaver is what you should go for if you are looking to play more around your team, if the enemy has a tanky lineup or if you fell behind in lane. It has more AD and HP but it does not offer anywhere close to the damage Trinity Force does. Your bleed passive synergises with the item very well, because if you hit an enemy once, the bleed stack will lead to them having the full Black Cleaver armour shred. If you wish to work more with the team incase there is another carry, and especially if you are looking to frontline for your team, then Black Cleaver with a full tank build might be a viable option.

Sterak's Gage Sterak's Gage is an incredible item for Darius. The stats that it gives are great. The health is great but due to Darius’ high base AD, the item gives you up to 70 bonus AD which is very powerful. The shield along with the tenacity is very powerful in teamfights as it stops you from being bursted down. It lets you survive getting caught, survive some burst, and it helps you 2v1. Another great thing about this item is that the shield scales off of the HP you will build and the bonus AD will scale along with your level, leading to the item scaling well as the game continues.

Gargoyle Stoneplate Gargoyle Stoneplate is actually a must buy for Darius, especially if you play in higher elos. We all get to that point in the mid-lategame where no matter how fed you are, you just get oneshot once you get caught and your team cannot do anything. THIS ITEM FIXES THAT. Gargoyle's Stoneplate allows you to survive so many situations where you would instantly get oneshot before. It also lets you engage and frontline for your team long enough for you to get 5 stacks. It is a very solid choice for third item after Sterak's

Dead Man's PlateThis is a great best tank item for Darius. It gives you great tank stats and it gives you an okay slow on your next auto attack. The damage is somewhat negligible. But the slow on the AA is not why we build this item. The movement speed is. The movement speed lets you chase people down better and, more importantly, it allows for you to rotate much faster. This becomes exceedingly more useful as the game goes, as you might have to collapse on someone or get to an objective before a fight breaks out. The movement speed is also helpful when splitpushing.

Spirit VisageThe tank stats of this item are great. The increased healing on it, makes Spirit Visage your go to Magic Resist item. It synergises incredibly well with Darius, as your Q hits now heal for 20% of your missing HP instead of 15. It is a great option when the enemy players pick up grievous wounds and a VERY good purchase when your team has a healer.

Randuin's OmenThis item is great if you are up against champions that build crit. Yasuos, Tryndameres and fed ADCs come to mind. The slow on it is very great in teamfights and when catching people out for your team.

Righteous Glory Turbo Chemtank is a very nice item. It gives you a powerful active, decent tank stats and is quite cheap. It allows for you to catch up to characters who would normally kite you out. It helps you teamfight better, so it is a great 3rd of 4th item to pick up. If you are up against some cheese champion like Zilean or a Vayne, then Turbo Chemtank might be your only hope of reaching and killing them.

Adaptive Helm Adaptive Helm is somewhat inferior to Spirit Visage but if you are up against an AP champion that spams abilities like Ryze or Cassiopeia, then you need to go for this item. Adaptive Helm also works vs the AP damage portion of Corki’s autoattacks, Kai'Sas passive and Kog'Maw’s percentage health damage. It works against ANY SOURCE OF MAGIC DAMAGE THAT IS REPEATED. It should work against Mordekaiser as well but if you are going to itemise against him, it is better for you to pick up Quicksilver Sash, break free of his ultimate and disengage as he only beats you with his ultimate.

Thornmail Thornmail is a very niche item but it is great at what it does. Though for most of the game, you will be sitting on a Bramble Vest, upgrading it to Thornmail is not a bad idea at all. The massive amount of Armour helps greatly when you are stacking it against a full AD team. This item is optimal against an enemy team that has healing autoattackers( Fiora, Draven with Bloodthirster). It also SOMEWHAT helps against those that build on-hit but on-hit builds tend to be nigh impossible to deal with once the one building them gets ahead. Overall, Thornmail is a great pickup if you are up against a full AD team.

Death's Dance Death's Dance is actually a great option for Darius after the changes to it. It is a bit pricier but it also is a lot better for Darius AND it has a much better build path which I love as the build path was my biggest problem with the old item. Now it is a solid third item choice if you are ahead, as the item prolongs your existence in fights for as long as possible. It stops you from getting quickly bursted down so it is very useful. But, its price means that you should ONLY be getting it when you are massively ahead. You should also try not to die with this item as if you start falling behind, you will have been better off with tank items instead of Death’s Dance. In short, you can get this if you are ahead and know how to play in a way where you do not die a lot. Otherwise, just go to your tank items.

Guardian Angel Guardian Angel is the item that you want to be getting if you are super ahead and have to carry your team. It is when you know that your death would probably lead to the end of the game which is why you would immediately build this item and then get into teamfights to abuse your mid-game powerspike. The stats on it are not that appealing but the passive is really great. Keep in mind that this item isn't going to allow you to go “oh I get to turn off my brain and run at the enemy team”. When you carry, you have to think the MOST. So when you die, make sure that you have taken down enough people with you to the point where your team can actually follow up and help you as you revive. The item does fall off super hard lategame, where a tank item would be much better though. It is a good choice as a third item. It is also viable if your team is ahead which means you can just turn your brain off and make plays. If they are fed enough, they can follow up well as long as you don’t int too hard/go in too deep.

Maw of Malmortius Hexdrinker is a great pickup into AP lanes but what it upgrades into, namely Maw of Malmortius, is a terrible item. It is probably one of the worst AD items in the game. I would not build into Maw at all if I had to get a Hexdrinker. And the only situation you would get a Hexdrinker into in the first place is a full AP team..

Quicksilver Sash Quicksilver Sash is a great item to pick up and sit on if you are your team's only carry and are against Malzahar or Mordekaiser. Just train yourself to use it quickly. You almost never want to upgrade it to Mercurial Scimitar unless it is hyper late game, and you have completely filled out all of your item slots but you NEED QSS still.

Titanic HydraNo good Darius player is going to recommend this item to you. And for good reason. With Darius, you mostly want to tank up very quickly and start stacking resistances in order to avoid being destroyed in teamfights. Keep in mind that only a FEW damage based items are good for Darius in all situations. Most of them, are only good if you are splitpushing and are planning on fighting 1 or 2 champions. In teamfights when you are up against the enemy backline, you will get shredded to bits. Titanic Hydra, suffers from this issue. It allows you to oneshot any squishy champion you get your hands on but realistically, you rarely even get people to 5 stacks as your combo gets squishy champions low enough to kill them with a 3/4 stack ultimate. On paper, the extra autoattack reset sounds great as it lets you get your passive in 1 combo off of the enemy frontline but if you are fighting the enemy frontline, then you will mostly be CC'ed and held down by that tank you are fighting while the enemy backline melts you away. And the lack of resistances opting for Titanic Hydra gives, allows for you to be killed faster. You might be tempted to try it out instead of Sterak's Gage but Sterak's Gage is straight up better. It scales with your other tank items, it gives you a massive amount of AD and it essentially allows you to beat any assassin(unless they are like 20 kills ahead) as you will be impossible to kill before you can chop them down. This item DOES have its uses though. It gives you that extra bit of waveclear that allows you to push lanes faster and it makes you tougher to beat in 1v1s. I'd only recommend this item if you are planning on split-pushing most of the game. I'll write more about split-pushing below.

Frozen Heart Frozen Heart is a VERY niche item that you will be building on VERY RARE occasions. The item is great if you are stacking armour against an all armor team but you really want to be buying this if your team if up against a lot of autoattackers. The item is also very cheap and cost effective so if you are behind but need to tank for your team, it is a great pick up. Not to mention how it has 20% CDR which comes in handy.

Warmog's ArmorWith how popular percentage health damage is in the game, building straight health without resistances is not a great idea. However, Warmog's Armor is actually very effective if you are up against a poke heavy team, as it allows for you to face tank many skillshots for your team and then heal everything back up.

Iceborn Gauntlet Frostfire Gauntlet is not the best item for Darius but I've seen it work so I am putting it down here. I don't recommend you build this if you are new to Darius but if you have Black Cleaver, are against a full AD team and want to be split pushing, it is a decent item. Honestly, the only reason you would consider this item is due to its price. If you are behind but want some splitting power against a Jayce or something, then it is an option. Not the best one, but it IS an option.

Boots of SwiftnessThese boots are only great vs a slow heavy team like Anivia, Ashe and etc. where their mere existence makes teamfighting hell for you. They are also great into tank Viktor top, as it lets you walk through his Frostfire Gauntlet slows more easily. The other boots are MUCH more efficient though, so only use this item as a last resort.

Wit's End Wit's End is an optional item against a full AP team. It makes you strong in 1v1 situations. But it is **** in teamfights as it requires you to sit there and spam autoattack which is not what Darius does. Overall, if you have to play splitpush into a full AP team, then it is somewhat viable but I do not recommend it at all. It works better on top of Black Cleaver though.

Phantom Dancer Phantom Dancer is a very troll item for Darius. It's passive stacks with Sterak's Gage which makes it even LESS viable. It is also not a good replacement at all. It leaves you too squishy and it does not stack with HP. It is a fun item but just don't get it. It used to be a better item before they changed it but now, it just has no purpose. It makes your splitpushing a LITTLE stronger and its price is great if you pair it with Black Cleaver but hear me out when I tell you to run far away from this item if you are new to Darius.

Essence ReaverIf your victory is guaranteed and you want to have fun, grabbing Essence Reaver or an Infinity Edge can lead to you doing crazy amounts of damage with your W if it crits. You are TROLLING if you are buying this item but when the game is guaranteed or you are just playing normals for fun, they are very entertaining items to purchase and play around with.

Edge of NightI used to love the old Banshee's Veil. Edge of Night fulfils the same purpose now. Though the stats on it are not too great, as Lethality on Darius is a troll stat. Overall, it suffers the same fate as other damage items but it is still fun to use at times. Just don't pick it up if you are serious about winning.

Youmuu's Ghostblade Youmuu's Ghostblade is the only lethality item I'd recommend and only if you are playing a roam heavy playstyle. It also only works against a squishy team. Overall, high risk and barely minimum reward item. Don't use it if you are new to Darius and even if you are good at Darius, don't use it either way.

Blade of the Ruined King Blade of the Ruined King is a powerful item against massive tanks. It also makes you very strong in splitpush 1v1s and it ruins the lives of any tanks that want to screw with you. It makes you squishy in teamfights which is why I rarely buy this item. It is great on top of Black Cleaver as it turns you into the ultimate tank buster(keep in mind that merely tanking up, helps against tanks as your passive means you have the damage you need to kill them whereas they, do not) and it helps in 1v1s against champions like Fiora. But then again, going for straight up tank items might be better for you in teamfights. Difficult item to use too.

Runesteel SpauldersSupport Darius is not something I recommend. You get poked down too hard, you have to share exp and you don't get a source of gold which SERIOUSLY weakens you. If you are trolling/playing for fun,then go for this.

Knight's VowPlaying support AS Darius isn't great. HOWEVER, if you are feeding and you have a fed carry on your team who is your only hope for victory, then it does help to get tanky support items like Knight's Vow or Locket of the Iron Solari to help them out.