It's always exciting when Riot sets a new champion loose on the Fields of Justice. Recently, they've release Darius, the Hand of Noxus. Darius is a melee champion with good damage output, while being quite tanky.

Now I know that a lot of summoners think Darius is a Garen clone, and I slightly agree. I think that Darius is like Garen... When you give him a good kick in the nuts! He'll certainly not let you get away with it!

I've focused this guide on Darius being solo top. I've really enjoyed playing him these first games, and I believe he's the perfect champion for players who have an aggressive play style. It's my first guide, so please let me know what's good and what's not. It's been made following JhoiJhoi's epic guide on making guides. Props to her!

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Champion Spotlight

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Pros + Very aggressive playstyle + Easy farming + High damage output + Quite tanky + Extremely superb ultimate

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Cons - Below average movement speed - Expensive itemset - Mana-hungry when you spam - Not that good against heavy CC - Easy overextender

I only slightly adapted the masteries that were suggested by Riot in the Champion Spotlight. I believed that, due to the extra AD Darius gets from my runeset, I could make him a bit more tanky instead of relying on cooldown reduction. I still got 9/21/0, taking a point in Bladed Armor and Honor Guard , while dropping the points in Indomitable and Enlightenment .

In my opinion, Darius is best played aggressively. Therefore, I prefer more damage and take Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage, while still being tanky with Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.



Personally, I don't think Darius is a slow champion. If you think that movement speed is a valid reason to give in to actual damage, you can replace the Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage for Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed.

Summoner spells are the most easy part about Darius. It's quite certain which are good on him, and which are totally out of the question, but I'll list them anyways.

Mandatory Summoner Spell

Always, and when I say always I mean ALWAYS pick Ghost. Ghost on Darius is so useful, whether you use it to save your ***, run after a kill, initiate a gank or run to midlane to help. Darius is a tad slow, and you're going to need the extra speed boost sometimes. You'll thank me later!

Preferred Summoner Spells

My preferred second Summoner Spell, used to secure a kill that becomes out of reach. It deals damage over time on top of the damage over time caused by Hemorrhage (remember the heal debuff caused by this spell and the fact that the damage Ignite deals is true damage).

Another good option. Similar to Ghost, use Flash to escape when you're chased down or get close when you're the one chasing.

If you're that kind of player that wants to be all over the map, use Teleport. If you're just going to use it to get back to your lane, I think it's a waste of the precious Spell slot on Darius.

Less viable picks

Similar reason as picking Ignite: we want to secure that kill. If we don't want to do it via damage over time, why not keep him in place. Very handy if Apprehend is on cooldown, but gets less usable later in the game.

Could be handy when you're up against a huge load of CC. The range on your abilities isn't that big, so you don't want snares, stuns, roots and the like. Cleanse will help you with this.

If you're really really really a spammer, you might want to take Clarity so it restores your mana. Generally, you should learn to be careful with the amount of mana you use, and shouldn't take this, but it could be useful if you really want it and can't take Blue buff.

Don't pick these. Just don't!

Darius' skills explained

Passive: Hemorrhage Riot sure is in the mood of making champions that have stacking abilities, as is the case with Darius' passive. Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33 / 36 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) magic damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Seems like an extra Ignite, though the damage is no true damage. Furthermore, Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.

Q: Decimate His main ability, looking a lot like Hecarim's Rampage, deals a huge bunch of damage. Darius' swings his axe around, dealing 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage) and applying a stack of Hemorrhage. If you hit something on the outer edge of the axe, you deal extra damage: 105 / 157.5 / 210 / 262.5 / 315 (+1.05 per bonus attack damage).

W: Crippling Strike When you use this ability, Darius' next basic attack will deal 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 / 200% physical damage and will apply a 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% slow for 2 seconds on the target. The base cooldown is reduced by 1 second per stack of Hemorrhage on the target.

E: Apprehend This ability lets you pull enemies in a small cone in front of you towards you. Never let the dying sucker escape, hehe! Furthermore, this ability adds a nice 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% armor penetration passive. Tip on Apprehend You'll notice that you can get mana hungry sometimes. Get blue buff if it's available for you (though, your caster gets priority here). To take less damage while getting it, Apprehend the big Golem from the other side of the trees, and finish the small creeps off later.

Ultimate R: Noxian Guillotine As the name suggests, Darius' ultimate is very deadly. Darius' leaps onto his target, and cleaves his axe into their skull. Besides from dealing a major migraine, you'll also deal 160 / 250 / 340 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) true damage. TRUE DAMAGE! Plus, for every stack of Hemorrhage, this true damage is increased by 20%, adding up to a whopping 320 / 500 / 680 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) true damage. If you kill the enemy, the cooldown refreshes immediately, but I've seen it refresh without you getting the kill. Pretty sweet!`

Skill Sequence

The skill sequence is pretty straight forward. First three levels, you'll put a point in Q > E > W, after which you'l max Decimate first and Crippling Strike second. Level your ultimate Noxian Guillotine whenever you can.

Combos

When in the same lane, use Decimate on the enemy followed by an auto-attack, after which you'll use Crippling Strike to deal extra damage. Keep auto-attacking, using Decimate and Crippling Strike as they are off cooldown. If they flash or run away, get up to them and use Apprehend to keep them with you. Finish with Noxian Guillotine, because it looks just flippin' cool!

When ganking a lane, use Apprehend to pull the enemy towards you, immediately auto-attack and use Crippling Strike for the slow. Keep dealing damage with Decimate, Crippling Strike and finish with Noxian Guillotine.

Starting Items

Start of with Boots and 3x Health Potion. If you have picked the alternate runes, take a Doran's Blade instead. This will make sure you'll have some sustain, with enough AD to be dominant.

Core Items

These are your core items. Do not stray from these if you're playing Darius as an offtank. At first return to base, buy or upgrade your boots to Mercury's Treads (or Ninja Tabi, but I prefer Mercury's Treads). Then, rush a Phage and buy a Pickaxe. Later on, build your Aegis of the Legion, Frozen Mallet and build out your Pickaxe into either Maw of Malmortius or Tiamat, depending on the enemy team: if you're up against lots of magic damage, buy Maw of Malmortius. If you want to push out your lane and farm big time, Tiamat is your friend.

After that...

The rest is really up to you. Look at what the enemy team is (capable) of doing and how they build their champions, then buy items based on that. Good items on Darius are Randuin's Omen, Shurelya's Battlesong, Force of Nature and Sunfire Aegis for defensive items, and Last Whisper, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Atma's Impaler and Zeke's Herald for offensive items.

As with all champions that are just recently released, Darius is quite cool to play. I believe this champion is the perfect suit for every solo top player that likes to (or tends to) play aggressive, dealing a lot of damage while staying quite tanky. Again, I slightly agree on Darius being a Garen clone... I look at it like this: Garen became Darius when you kicked him in the nuts. And boy, does he wants revenge!

Please comment with your ideas on Darius and this guide, and let me know what your results are!

TO DO:

• More detailed explanation of Situational Item choices
• In-depth gameplay description and explanation on role in teamfights
• Fancy looks, videos etc.

MIGHT DO: (thus: not important)

• Dominion guide
• Jungle guide?

May 26th, 2012
Slight cosmetic fixes

May 24th, 2012
Initial guide, with explanation in runes, masteries, spells, items and skills.