Darius Build Guide by Krafty0z

Introduction

I enjoy using this build as Darius, it might not be the strongest Darius build out there, but it feels great to use a classic build from Season 2. With everything changing in League of Legends, sometimes you miss the old HUD, old items, old maps, and you cannot really change any of that, but you can use builds and strategies from that time, I wanted to bring a build to MOBAFIRE that I use, and that I used to use in Season 2, when Black Cleaver used gave attack speed, he used to be able to stack so quick with it. This is a Tank/Damage build and should not be copied exactly and should be modified to what you need, it is just items that I recommend on Darius and what order I recommend them.

Champion Introduction

Darius is a high damage fighter who specializes in dueling and can duel almost any champion in the game, although Darius is not very durable, he has very high base damage, and you can do very well just building full tank. Darius can be played Top or Jungle, but I recommend you play him top, since he cannot really gank a lane without the laner setting up for a gank due to his low CC. Darius top lane is very strong, but can easily be pushed out of lane by a tanky, sustaining, ranged champion like Vladimir who can harass with almost no punishment.

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ High Damage Output + True Damage + 25% Passive Armor Pen. + Attack Speed/Movespeed Slow + Has a pull + Very Mobile with Passive

Cons

+ Not very good pre-6 + No Escape + Low natural durability + No sustain + Susceptible to poke + No strong CC

Situational Items

Pick up one of these items as your last item depending on what would be most beneficial to you.

Last Whisper would help you dish out more damage without your Noxian Guillotine, and would equal a total of 60% Armor Penetration.

You can get Trinity Force so you can proc TF-Sheen on Crippling Strike (Only problem if Rage passive is wasted with BC and TF).

Frozen Mallet along with your passive, Rage (BC/TF), and movement speed runes allow you to stick onto your enemies allowing you to stack your passive with ease.

Randuin's Omen allows you to duel most people due to its attack speed slowing passive(Works great while your W is on CD) and it gives you some health and armor if they are AD heavy.

Guardian Angel gives both MR and AR and it also revives you I recommend you sell it on CD if you are ahead and purchase it after the 5M have passed.

Frozen Heart allows you to slow enemy attack speed in an area around you, allowing you to 2v1/2v2 with ease, it will also help you obtain max CDR, and it gives 100 Armor and 400 Mana. I recommend it against AD heavy teams or if you find yourself running out of Mana easily.

Banshee's Veil can block a single spell every 40 seconds of not taking damage from a enemy champion, I recommend this against a AP heavy team.

Spirit Visage, it can help you get to 30% CDR and it increases all healing effects on you. I recommend this if you have healers on your team and need a bit more MR.

Mercurial Scimitar, if you are ahead and are constantly being shutdown by CC this item is great, it gives 35 MR and it removes all CC from you and grants you 50%+ movement speed for 1 second.

Skill Sequence

Hemorrhage(P) is Darius' passive, it allows Darius to apply bleed that does 12/15/18/21/24/27/30/33/36(+ 30% bonus AD) magic damage over 5 seconds. This stacks up to 5 times for a maximum of 60/75/90/105/120/135/150/165/180(+ 150% bonus AD) magic damage over the duration. This also increases Darius' movement speed by 5% for each enemy champion affected by Hemorrhage.

Decimate(Q) is Darius' most damaging basic ability(70/105/140/175/210/ +70% AD) if enemies are struck by the blade of his ax it does(105/157.5/210/262.5/315/ +105% AD) instead. Decimate applies Darius' passive and should be a priority when leveling abilities.

Crippling Strike(W) slows movement speed and attack speed(20/25/30/35/40%) and deals (20/40/60/80/100%) additional physical damage and applies Darius' passive, this should be maxed second unless you are against someone who is stacking health and armor.

Apprehend(E) is Darius' gap closer, you pull enemies within 550 range of your cast, it passively gives (5/10/15/20/25%) Armor Penetration and should be maxed last, unless you are against someone who is heavily stacking Health and Armor.

Noxian Guillotine(R), Darius' dunk! It is a dunk/"leap" that does 160/250/340(+ 75% AD) true damage when you use it on an enemy. The damage can be increased 20% per blood/passive stack, up to a maximum of 320/500/680(+ 150% AD), landing the killing blow with Noxian Guillotine allows it to be recast within 20 seconds, and restores 25/50/100 mana per kill. At Rank 3 Noxian Guillotines cooldown is completely reset upon landing the killing blow!

Spells

I recommend Ghost and Ignite for maximum damage output, Ghost along with Frozen Mallet, MS Runes, Black Cleaver/ Trinity Force's Rage passive, and Darius' passive allow for alot of mobility when chasing an enemy, Ignite is helpful for securing kills with Darius' passive, but can be traded for Teleport, and Ghost can be traded for Flash if required.

Runes

The runes are the usual, Flat AD reds, Flat Armor yellows, Flat/Scaling MR blues. The only difference and possibly unusual to you is the Movement Speed Quints, Darius' passive, Hemorrhage, gives him 5% Movement Speed for each enemy champion bloodied by his passive, which works great with MS Quints. These are the runes that I enjoy using, and you do not have to use them, you can use any runes you want, these are just the ones I recommend.

Masteries

I go for a tank oriented mastery page, since Darius has low natural durability, you do not need to use the masteries I do, I enjoy using this mastery page. I grab attack speed so I can apply Darius' passive easier, I take 21 in defense to I can take more punishment against ranged top laners.