Yo, I'm OB.I used to be named Sir Obliterator. I peaked D1 both pre-season 10 and mid-season 10 I'm also known as the Disco Prince back when I played him with Clease Ghost , Blade of the Ruined King and Ohmwrecker . But that playstyle strains the brainand mentals of the Diamond players so I had to tone down the creativity. Honestly my goal is to give you 3 things. 2 Setups and a showcase of what you may not know about the cahmpion. The first set-up is the exciting, exotic and fun set-up. The second set up is the "sheep's" route which is basically just the basic, normal and reliable way so that you have the best chance at winning. I've already given you both set ups. Now we go on to the showcase.

The difference between this guide and the rest i guess, would be a matchup note on EVERY single champion and further mechanics. The purpose is to open your eyes and show you there is still much more to know about Darius. Enjoy the advice; I know it will be useful.

THIS PART IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART:

If there is one thing I want you to take from my guide it's that there isn't a runepage, an item, a strategy or dark magic that will make you win every single game. Some games will be doomed. YOU WILL LOSE. YOU WILL GET KITED, YOU WILL SUFFER POKE, YOU WILL SUFFER PEEL CC TO MAKE YOU USELESS. Playing Darius isn't nice dreams and sunshines like Ryze. Especially in the upper side of the ladder, you're only going to see "disgusing disease champs". It will feel like it's a battle of what team quality is better, and you can't control that. It sucks but- you just have to toughen through it and keep playing consistenly well and you'll climb. I said climb, not win everything. That means gradually you'll be winning more than you lose. So yeah, just work on your endurance because there are going to be annoying and unwinnable games ahead. You gotta understand plans crash and burn.

THIS IS INTENDED FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS

If you're reading this guide, it is because you already know pretty much ALL the fundamentals and basics of the champion. You know his strength's, you know his waekness'. You know his combos and what your teamfighting plan is. I will not go over stuff you should already have in the bag. The last thing I want to do is waste your time so let's get down to the real deal.

I'm a hit you up with a:

Sheep set-up summary
Anti-sheep set up summary
Mechanics*
Early, mid and late game macro plan
Advice when behind
Bonus

Sheep Set-up Summary

If you're looking for the most optimal, most efficient way of playing darius in the hopes of coming out of the game with 15LP... utilise this. You literally can't argue the build; you got the movespeed , damage , a tonne of HP and resistances. The most important stat you're chasing for is HP and this set up has plenty. It's reliable and offers the most for your team. To be honest, I see only two drawbacks and one of them is argueable. The one drawback is you might get outscaled by hyperscale melee's like Riven and Fiora. You won't be able to duel them towards the late game with this build because you're building more for your team than yourself. That's about it.

Anti-Sheep Set-up Summary

Some people still want to win but just not in the sheep's set-up. For whatever reason, maybe you want to feel unique and don't want to be part of the herd. Don't worry, I've got you covered. I've tried to make this is as optimal as possible even though in terms of optimality, it will never come close to the sheep's standards.

Anyway, Deaths Dance... It hasn't been fully explained. When you are healing from your auto attacks, bleed, Q's, W, and R,s ALSO on multiple champions you are tanking a lot of effective HP. Just focus on your abilites landing on champions and be aware of your mana pool. Missing abilities and wasting mana is going to be your enemy. Just make sure that you don't buy DD before sterak's because DD deals less damage than sterak's

I've made a video that showcases everything in terms of mechanics for darius. I missed out only one mechanic (auto-W-Q but W animation goes under Q) but that's because i'm pretty sure everyone knows that mechanic. Play Video
Video Summary:
Tiamat/Ravenous Hydra + Q combo efficiency
R over wall
R wall hops

R wall hop spots
R champion-made wall hops
Bleed duration vs Noxian might buff duration
QSS/ Mercurial Scimitar + R (Airborne Dunk)
E to fix Q aim
E to disclace into R

Once you get to lane, check what champion you're playing against. I have notes on every single one. Follow the tips as well as the next bit of information:

Remember- League of Legends is a 5v5 game. That means you aren't alone in the lane. You never know when the jungler could appear to help the opponent. That being said. If they have a danagerous jungler such as Elise. You need to play as if she's close the bush. You can't go for every cs you want because you can't be certain on whether or not she punishes you for one of them. So...

Ward at 3 mins

Don't go ham alone if you can't see where she is on the map

Pay attention to her score and the map (if she's 0/0/0 chances are she wants to create impact on your lane) If she ganks a different lane then you are free to go aggressive on your opponent since there's nobody to help.

Make sure you don't mess up minion wave positions when recalling. If you plan to recall, push your lane and make sure it goes under tower to prevent a freeze. A freeze, 9 times out of 10, leads to a jungle gank and you lose minion gold and exp and the enemy laner will create a gap in terms of both of those rescources.

Your Q. This is your bread and butter. to put it simply: don't miss it. For example if you're fighting jax, don't walk up and Q, since he's just going to dodge it with his Q. Understand that missing your Q doesn't help you in anyway possible.

Recalling spots. Sometimes when you're recalling, there's a chance the enemy laner wants to cancel it after killing the minion wave crash under their tower. You can use the new Alcove to recall since nobody goes out of their way to check it after a waveclear event.

Random skirmishes and invades. Someone has to tell you this so I will. Solo exp gets you so far you don't even realise it. If your jungler is duelling for scuttle crab or getting invaded and your laner is going to give some assistance:
Ping to back off
Push the wave relentlessly unless you think the jungle is looking to gank you next (if that's the case just cs normally)
The reason why is because for every minion exp that the enemy laner misses counts to the exp gap that happens during mid-game. CS and exp make snowball differences- Here's an example:

(level 6, 1 long sword vs level 7, 2 longsords)
(level 11, black cleaver vs level 13 black cleaver, warhammer and pickaxe)
(level 13, black cleaver sterak's vs level 16 black cleaver, deaths dance and steark's)

If you keep farming and keep getting calculated kills, snowballing like this will happen. In extreme cases you can reach exp gaps of level 10/11 supports to your level 16 state. You can thank solo exp buffs.

Lastly, try and convince your jungler not to gank on cannon waves. When they do plays like this, they expect you to stop trying to kill your cannon to assist with the gank. The reason that sucks is because 9 times out of 10 the gank just burns their flash. losing a cannon for a flash might sound worth it but that 80g might be what completes your tabi's which can be used to chase for a kill regardless of the junglers intention.

Let's be honest, everyone knows what to do in the early game. Cs properly, get plates, get first tower and get any available kills. That's straightfoward, but where macro starts to be a real stat is mid-late game. There are so many people who don't know what to do at those stages so let's run through some things.

If the game is really favoured to your team then the game is gonna end soon via grouping as 5 mid and ending the game. But i'm just talking about 20-3 leads.

If the game isn't a landslide then you need to focus on the current objectives. I'm talking about Dragons, Rift Heralds, Towers, Scuttle Crabs, Enemy Jungle Camps and dead laners farm. Take as much as you can but with a bit of caution; don't try to take the entire enemy topside if you don't see the jungler+mid on the map. You don't want to throw all your effort from early game do you?

Take what fights you can win. You need to take into account what summoner spells they have up, what vital abilities they have up escpecially ultimates and if their champion desgin poses a threat to you. Maybe you're fed and have 2 levels above everyone but that doesn't mean you should fight next to veigar. He'll cage you and force a flash from you or you're open to heavy damage. If he has flash then you're both trading summoners which is not good since the ranged gap will persist.

Mid-game to me is like preparation for the late game. But that doesn't mean the game needs to last 40 minutes. The whole point is for you to get to your goal before anyone else does: Level 16.
R damage numbers below
Cleaver = 979
Cleaver + longsword = 994
Cleaver + Jaurim's fist = 1002
Cleaver + Pickaxe = 1017
Cleaver + Jaurim's fist + Pickaxe= 1039
Cleaver + Sterak's = 1082
I've typed it down for you so you know what HP you want to dunk them at to succeed in your resets.

So what i'm trying to hammer home is, farm up for your level 16 then make really descisive fights. But if your summs are up you can make pre level 16 fights for example for a beneficial dragon or a favourable skirmish.

Late game for you starts at level 16.
You're looking for the 3v3 skirmshes, 5v5 teamfights and so on. However some champions will decide to split and you may be forced to attend them. If you're not fortunate with your teams, you attending to the splitpush may leave your team open to a 4v4 and they might lose it and blame you. You're gonna have to make a choice:
1. Group for the 5v4 and get an engage off for a advantageous teamfight and outpush the splitter.
2. Attend the splitter and hope your team doesn't die in the 4v4 /4v5 depending on the splitter and their summs.
3. Stay out of vision but close to your team to bait an engage from them and you come in for a 5v4 advantage

Of course each and every one of those choices has a flaw and a weakness. 1. They can back off or disengage whilst their splitter takes more towers. 2. The splitter can back off or disengage from you whilst the enemy team engages your team 4v4 and come out on top due to your abscence from the teamfight. 3. They can play it saslow and defensively whilst slowly taking down towers in front of your team.
That's if they have a splitpusher though. If they have a teamfighter/engager, you will 100% want to be on the teamfight eruption spot. Something like a Shen doesn't split like a Tryndamere or Jax; it's inneficient for them to split for towers since it will take too long compared to traditional splitpushers.

(However Shen is a weird example because he can split and ult if a teamfight breaks out. But the point is, his damage to towers has no comparison compared to traditional splitpushers like Jax which is why I recommend to join the team and force an engage.)

Objectives also become more important now more than ever such as Baron and Elder dragon. You don't have TP so you have to start pathing towards it 30 seconds before it spawns.
HERE'S THE KICKER: YOU CAN'T FIGHT FOR OBJECTIVES IF YOU'RE DEAD SO DON'T BE FIGHTING 1 MIN BEFORE IT SPAWNS. After all, you prefer a triple kill over a single kill right?

Avoid further deaths by not overextending

Don't frontline because you'll die first

Peel for who's strong on your team

Keep making sure you get every cs you can escpecially when you're deprived from gold

Don't even look at Sterak's Gage. This item is for those who are even or ahead. The HP is good but if you're extremely behind you need to build HP+Resistances.

Try to shrug off the tilt. Nobody enjoys being 0/4. and chances are that person is shouting at the screen or something. I've been there. Just supress that tilt and play more defensively. If you afk, that just makes the enenmy succeed in their initial plan. Think about the long term. Imagine their faces when you stayed in and drawn out the game to where the early feeding doesn't matter and you win after? It happens. Don't let them have what they want. But the best advice to be given is without a doubt: Don't be behind in the first place.

I've kept a sticky note for general improvement everytime i lose a game and I thought it would be somewhat useful for some of you. Hope it helps.

PS: Don't do rift herald if it means your life is on the line. Darius has no escapes so if they catch you doing rift alone, unless you can avoid cc and stack sucessfully, you're dead. Also, you're not tryndamere, you run on mana and don't dps objectives that well so even if you do rift, you lost most of your mana pool and your HP bar. If you do rift try to do it with someone. This saves time and resources.

Congratualtions. You now know everything there is to do with Darius. From here on out I'm gonna make small adjustments, icon implants, bullet point imports, images, general organising and polishing up the guide so it looks easier to read.

Remember: Some games are destined losses. You will lose. No guide on Earth will make you flawless until rank 1. Not to mention you're human so you're guranteed to make mistakes regardless. Don't focus on winning, focus on improving. Because that's what's guranteed.

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