Hello! My name is wjezdzam and i currently play on EU west server and this is my Darius guide.
This is my first guide for solomid.net , so i take all forms or criticism and advices. I hope guys you enjoy this.

"Darius is a melee fighter who sticks to targets , drops their health pools with bleeds , and finally executes them for a kill" ~Phreak

Pros :

• extremely high , true damage with his ult
• very good DoT passive that stakcs and also affects other abilities
• good AoE spammable damage
• ability to carry games
• you will get a lot of kills
• snowballs well
• fun to play

Cons :

• low mobility (poor base movement speed - 315)
• low mana pool compared to his ult cost (that makes him not-so-much OP)
• there are certain abilities that can stop you from ulting everyone around
• he's definitely going to be nerfed in next patch

Here's a quick explanation of Masteries and Runes i took :



21/9/0

Offensive Tree

1/1 Summoner's Wrath +5 AD if you use ignite
3/3 Brute Force +3 AD , nuff said
4/4 Alacrity +6% AS , you don't rely on attack speed but you want 10% armpen
1/1 Weapon Expertise +10% armpen , stacks with Last Whisper and your E , gives you total amount of 63% armor penetration
1/1 Demotionolist - makes you kill turrets faster
[number]4/4 Deadliness More AD can't hurt
3/3 Brute Force 1,5% more damage from everything , you took it instead of Sunder (because you don't want flat armpen)
3/3 Vampirism +3% lifesteal doesn't hurt
1/1 Executioner scales well with your ult

Defensive Tree

3/3 Hardiness +6 Armor , works good against other AD tops
1/3 Resistance +2 Magic Resistance
4/4 Durability more hp can't hurt
1/1 Veteran's Scars same as above

If you play vs AP on top (which i don't recommend) , take +6 MR and +2 Armor.



9x Greater Mark of Strength +9 AD , works best for Darius
9x Greater Seal of Resillence +13 Armor , makes you a little bit harder
9x Greater Glyph of Shielding +24 MR at lvl 18 , if you play vs AP top (which , as i said above - don't recommend) take flat MR.
1x Greater Quintessence of Strength +3 AD to make you hit harder
2x Greater Quintessence of Swiftness +3% movement speed , i think it's enough (it gives you totally 325 movement speed which is the amount what most solo top champs have) , but if you want you can switch 1 Quint of Strenght for another Quint of Swiftness.


RECOMMENDED :
use it to escape , use it to close a gap to use your Apprehend.
makes your executioning work a lot easier
OTHER VIABLE CHOICES :

this will let you win every 1v1 fight
if they have shitloads of CC
map control
viable substitution to Flash , but that's about personal preferences.

Darius aims his attacks strategically, causing his target bleed. This effect stacks up to five times.
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.
Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.








Darius swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take more damage than those struck by the shaft.
Deals 70/105/140/175/210 (+0.7) physical damage to all nearby enemies in a circle. Champions in the outer half of the ability are struck by the blade, taking 50% additional damage.








Darius's next attack severs a crucial artery. As the target bleeds out, their movement and attack speeds are slowed. Crippling Strike's cooldown is lower the more bloodied the target.
The next basic attack deals 120/140/160/180/200% damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed by 20/25/30/35/40% for 2 seconds.

Crippling Strike's base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.








Darius hones his axe, granting him passive armor penetration. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe's hook and pulls them to him.
Passive: Grants 5/10/15/20/25% armor penetration.

Active: Pulls in all enemies in front of Darius.








Darius leaps to an enemy Champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing true damage. This damage increases for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target. If Noxian Guillotine is a killing blow, its cooldown is refreshed.
Leaps to target enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 160/250/340 (+0.75) true damage.

For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage.
Maximum Damage: 320/500/680 (+1.5) true damage.
The cooldown is refreshed if Noxian Guillotine kills the target.

Darius is tanky DPS who relies more on spells than auto-attacks (which of course, hurt when you have 300 AD , but mostly you use it to apply Hemorrhage stacks). This is why you should priorize Attack Damage in your build. Anyway , i'm gonna play a couple of games today to see if stacking Attack Speed is good with Darius.



Gives you % armor penetration that stacks with your Apprehend passive and with Weapon Expertise mastery. It gives you total amount of 63% armor penetration (checked it).
Craploads of AD and lifesteal. This is probably the best item for Darius.
Gives you nice Damage and Magic Resist , and a very helpful passive that can save your life in a teamfight.
Makes your W hit for 350% damage , enlarges your mana pool , enlarges your health pool , and makes you running faster to your enemies. If you want to buy this item , switch Frozen Mallet with Warmogs.
Awesome early game item. It makes you more tanky for your AD top opponent , gives you lifesteal to sustain yourself on lane , and some Damage. As the game goes on , i mostly sell it for Maw of Malmorius or Bloodthrister.



Some mana , health and a very useful bubble.
This item is my core on Darius. Provides crazy amount of Armor , enlarges your mana pool enough to don't have mana issues and gives you 20% of CDR to spam your spells harder which is your primary source of damage.
Everything what's Frozen works well with Darius. This gives you alot of HP , some Damage and awesome passive that lets you stick to your target easily.
Good substitution for Frozen Heart. It gives some Health , lots of Armor , has awesome passive , active and it's builded from gp5 item. If you rather this more than Frozen Heart , buy a early Heart of Gold.
This item can be good , assuming you need to be in the middle of teamfight. If teamfight goes on for 10 seconds , boom. You just did 450 AoE magic damage to all units around you. It also provides armor and HP.
Take this if you play versus Warwick , Malzahar or Skarner , or if you want a Cleanse that also takes all debuffs of you.
The highest amount of MR on single item. Buy this if you're screwed by casters. Synergizes well with your Warmog and/or Frozen Mallet , but you don't really need health regeneration.
I haven't tested this item yet , but 1270 HP and 40 HP regeneration haven't killed anybody yet. However this item doesn't provide anything else , so it doesn't seem as good option as items listed above.



These boots handle with your poor base movement speed. If the enemy doesn't have alot of CC , alot of physical damage or they just run faster than you , go ahead and buy these.
Fed enemy AD carry? Facing Trynda on top? Go ahead and buy those. With Frozen Heart it makes physical damage tickles.
I pick these boots most of the time. CC kinda screws you and this item helps you handle with it.



You are Darius. You focus mostly on dealing damage with your skills rather than your autoattacks , but if you want to become a Trynda and crit them in the face , get some of these items.

In my opinion , crit chance isn't best on Darius but if you have to become a major source of damage in your team (or when your AD Carry sucks) go ahead and buy it.
If you bought Infinity Edge , this will help you crit more often aswell as running faster.




/ The active is nice , CDR is nice , but you don't want to have flat armpen and 30 AD is not so high for the value (2687)
You don't want this because you have your % armor penetration. And also , you don't need attack speed.
You're not that mana hungry to build this item , and it doesn't provide anything else.
This will let enemies focus you harder than usual. You don't want to be focused.
This item is good but let your support carry it.
Theoretically , this item could be viable as it can heal you of 20% damage dealt by your ult , but spending 3600 gold for just 40 AD , 20% spell vamp and 15% lifesteal is a waste of gold. (AP is useless for you)

Many people say "OMG Darius is OP his ult is broken".

They are wrong. His ult does horrible damage but if you prevent it from killing 1 person , you break about 40% of darius' damage potential.

Champs that can stop his ult :

Vladimir and his Sanguine Pool
Soraka and her Burst Heals
Tryndamere and his Undying Rage
Fizz and his crazy jumps
Fiora and her Blade Waltz (untargetable ftw)
Kayle and her Intervention
Nocturne and his Shroud of Darkness
Sivir and her Spell Shield
Shaco and a well-timed Hallucinate

And all kinds of damage-absorbing bubbles : [ [
I think this list is long enough to not call his ult "broken OP shit".

And , from the items :

Banshee's Veil , but it will be rather impossible for bubble to block his ult which is used as finisher.
Zhonya's Hourglass that active can save your butt. Must-have for AP's if they're facing Darius.
Quicksilver Sash can take 5 stacks from hemorrhage making ult 50% less powerful which can be enough for you to survive.

And this is only about his ult. When you're facing Darus in opposite team , you should know that :

• His mobility is terrible. Once he closes the gap to his target , he won't let it go but he doesn't have any gap closers so it's hard for him. Keep your distance by positioning yourself properly or by constantly knocking him back (Alistar , Janna , Lee Sin , Vayne comes to mind)
• He doesn't have any escape mechanism. Use it for your advantage and camp his lane. He's very vulnerable to junglers with hard cc such as Alistar , Maokai , Nautilus , but the slow is enough to kill him.
• The more stacks of Hemorrhage you have , the stronger he becomes.

• Try to avoid fighthing him if you already have a stack or two. Let it fade and then start aggroing.
• He has good damage output , but no sustain except for lifesteal. Early game he has no sustain. Any strong pokers such as Gangplank , Pantheon or Kennen can make his laning a living hell.
• Darius isn't the real tank. Of course , he may be tanky but if you focus him , he doesn't stands for long. If you consider him as a main source of enemy team damage , don't hesitate to focus him.

Incoming : In-Depth sections of each stage of game , Jungle Build & routes and other stuff.

25.05.2012 : 1.2 Added : Even more counters, Item build section

24.05.2012 : 1.01 Added : How to Counter chapter, Added some items to Item Build
1.0 Posted a guide