I have been playing Darius for quite some time now and have found him the most suited to my playstyle, my favorite lane (Top), and he's arguably one of the strongest top lane champions in the game. Darius is a fairly easy champion to pick up and play right away but like any other champion, he takes a while to master. I don't believe I have mastered Darius yet but I have learned the main keys to success on Darius. He is one of the most fun champions in my opinion for one reason: The dunks. This is one of the most attractive things about Darius and probably the reason most people play him. Darius makes a lot of people mad because of his ult, this adds to the fun. His bleed is a DoT so people get auto-mad about it, just like singed or teemo. He also sounds exactly like The Boulder if you have ever watched Avatar: The Last Airbender when Toph is in the underground earthbending tournament.

Sorry for no pictures for alternate runes/masteries set-ups I couldn't figure out how to add the External images in. Maybe someone could help. I see the "external image" button I just don't know what to put in the pop-up when you click it.

3/3/13

Darius' Ult was changed to no longer fully refresh on a killing blow, he gets the refresh but he can only use it again for another 12 seconds after the kill before it goes on cooldown. If he gets another kill during this time he gets another 12 seconds, I believe.

This was basically put in place to stop him from being able to snowball as hard in lane, and it's very similar to the Riven nerf. They wanted to keep his very good team fighting potential by still allowing him the reset.

Basically, now that it only refreshes for a short time, you want to only use it to secure a kill, if you're not 100% sure you'll get the kill otherwise, then use it. You now have to decide whether you want to risk them possibly getting away, or if you want to have the CD. I will say most of the time that you will want to use your ult, ESPECIALLY in multi-enemy situations. This change to his ult hasn't varied my Darius gameplay a lot but it has changed it somewhat and is worth noting.

Here's a link to a game of me playing Darius. It is on LoL replay.
http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/2706879/

This is obviously not a high elo game and that Teemo was really bad but It's a decent display of the basic Darius mechanics. I let Teemo poke me down early and my CS isn't great but I end up carrying my team in ranked so... This does show what I go on to explain a little later, Teemo can counter Darius but you need to know how to do it well, and know Darius' E range like the back of your hand.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/2706924/

That's me playing Darius against quite a bit better players but still pretty bad. I win my lane yet again.

I take 9/21/0 masteries on Darius. He is an AD bruiser with high damage output. I used to run 21/9/0 but his damage output early game is already so much that I don't believe he needs the full 21 points in offense. Late game you aim to become more tanky but still want to be able to dish out damage so to stay in team fights and work towards late game I believe 9/21/0 is the way to go. Depending on if you know who you're laning against and your own preferred playstyle the masteries I have placed in the defence tree can be switched around accordingly. I grabbed the reinforced armor mastery for better sustain against adc's on team fights. I grabbed the little extra magic resist instead of the health regen because almost every champ has something that will be doing a little magic damage to you. I don't

You can also take 1 point in summoner's wrath but I feel like the 5 Ap is a waste since none of your abilities scale with ap and how often will your ignite be on/off cooldown? Take it if you want. 5 AD is 5 AD I guess. As far as the Utility tree goes don't go into it, it is unneeded as Darius. 21/9 or 9/21 will be your best bets or anything in between, like 15/15. The final point in the Offense tree is really good with your ult, however, so if you are going to go more than 9 points into offense, you might as well go the full 21.

If going 21/9/0:
Offense tree:

• 1 point in Summoner's Wrath
• 4 points in both Fury and Deadliness, gives you more DPS
• 1 point in butcher, helps with last hits
• 1 point in Destruction, If you're gonna go 21/9 at least be useful and knock down towers
• 1 point in Weapon Expertise
• 3 points in Havoc for even more damage
• 2 points in Brute Force
• 3 points in Sunder
• 1 point in Executioner

These are pretty standard for an AD bruiser, you could take the magic pen if you wanted for more damage on your passive but that would mean sacrificing something else. You don't want the crit stuff because it doesn't help Darius since you won't be building crit. Darius doesn't scale off AP so don't take any of that. You can get the CDR if you want but his CD's are already low.

Defense tree:

• 2 points in Perseverance
• 4 points in Durability
• 2 points in Hardiness
• 1 point in either Veteran's Scars or Safeguard, Safeguard for more aggressive

Don't take any of the minion damage stuff, you won't need it if you know how to avoid minions. Grab the MR mastery instead of armor vs an AP top. Summoner's resolve only if you're jungling.

Darius' early game harass can be hard for a lot of top lane champions to handle. His paired with his is his main source of poke. They both scale off AD so i take flat Attack Damage marks for strong early game harass.

For seals I take flat armor runes because about 95% of the time you are going to be facing an AD champion top, so these will help you to stay in lane since you have no natural survivability.

For glyphs I take flat magic resist runes. Most bruisers top lane might have 1 ability that scales with AP so this can be good to cut out some of that damage. These also help to protect from ganks from their mid or junglers like or that do a lot of AP damage. Scaling magic resist glyphs could also work just as well.

For Quints I take Flat AD. I look to maximize Darius' poke in lane so taking flat AD Quints is going to assure that your auto attacks and abilities pack-a-punch.

The reason you take flat instead of scaling is because you just need to worry about winning early, if you can do that you will snowball. Don't shoot for late game with runes.

You could probably take armor pen. marks if you wanted, but Darius' passive does magic damage and he already has a bunch of armor pen. from his E so it isn't necessary.

Movespeed Quints wouldn't be bad, probably a viable choice, experiment with whichever you like better.

Against a Jayce/Nidalee/Teemo/Elise you should probably grab flat health regen Glyphs for better sustain as they will be poking you down a lot.

is probably the most OP spell in the game and you'll see it used just about 99% of the time. This is a nice escape that will get you out of trouble. You can use it both offensively and defensively. Especially good for flash-pulls or flash-dunks. You basically need this on Darius as he has no escapes. I would always take this unless you prefer ghost, they serve almost the same purpose but I think flash is a little stronger for most situations. In case you didn't know this is a blink ability that can go over walls and has a pretty high CD.

is better on some champions like and but a good into a can set up a perfect initiation for a team fight. Take it if you like it better, this can work just as well as flash and you can ghost-pull or dunk but flash is faster and harder to predict, AND you can get over walls.

is also one of the strongest spells in the game. Most bruisers top and AP carries mid will take this as it provides a solid way to secure your kills. This paired with Darius' bleed damage can be nasty and even pick you up some unexpected kills. You can use this before you ult to get there health down faster and finish them with a dunk, it's a pretty nice trick. This pairs really well offensively with all your skills and you should think about taking this over everything else as it provides the most damage for Darius. In case you also didn't know, this does true damage over 5 seconds to a champion based on level. That sounds a lot like your passive, except the passive is magic damage.

could also be viable but I believe overall that ignite is stronger. You don't need the CC and ignite pairs better with your passive. Your w already slows attask speed and ms so this is overkill. You would basically use this when you're out of range to catch up but you already have flash for that.

always when jungling. Don't take smite exhaust take smite flash, he already has a ton of cc and doesn't need exhaust. The flash pulls are also ridiculous for ganking.

You could take this instead of ignite against high burst damage champs such as Riven. This gives you a decent shield but you win almost every exchange anyway and ignite will help more for exchanges on Darius anyways.

Not needed on Darius unless you plan on not buying wards all game. Reveals a portion of the map, so it's not at all a bruiser spell.

You don't have mana probalems, never take this. Unless you really, really want a pentakill and don't think you'll have enough mana, don't even consider it.

This really isn't something to take on Darius, the CC removal could be useful, but the damage from ignite is much too powerful. Basically never take this.

Ignite will be taken by most top champs so essentially barrier would be a better choice, this spell isn't super good right now and is mainly a support spell. You could bait people, but people already underestimate Darius' damage so you don't need it.

No, this spell sucks, don't die a lot and you won't need it. It instantly spawns you back, which is only good late game, but the CD is still like 5 minutes, so just get a GA instead.

A decent spell for top, you can take this in place of ignite if you want but only against a duo top or if you know you will be shoved out of lane a lot. This can help to keep your tower up and help you roam but ignite is too good to swap out. Ignite gives a huge offensive boost while TP gives you utility, and darius is naturally a greedy champion, so take ignite.

Pros:

• Incredibly strong poke in lane
• Naturally tanky
• The refreshing dunk
• High Penta-kill Potential
• His laugh and dance are fun to use
• His passive damage is very hard for opponent's to calculate
• Great Gap closers
• Hard to counter

Cons:

• No escapes
• People call him OP when he's really not that OP
• Most Darius players are awful
• If you got the Lord Darius skin you're depressed because Bioforge is better
• His Ult has a pretty long cooldown if you don't get the refresh which cuts out a lot of your damage
• You'll probably get kited and embarrassed at some point.

One of the best passives in the game. This is really hard to calculate when laning against and can shove your opponents out of the lane. It does magic damage so if they start cloth you can still get in a lot of good poke. Use this when running away also because it gives movespeed which can lead to some epic chases/escapes. You can get some sort of Magic pen. if you want to enhance the damage, but you won't need it. Keep the stacks up with autos and q's.







This is your poke. Always hit them with the outer half of the circle. This is one of the quickest ways to tell a bad Darius from a good Darius. A good Darius will know the range and can hit you with the blade every time. This also stacks your passive. Good for clearing creep waves. Paired with a sunfire cape you can just about 1 shot an entire wave. Use this to gain movement speed to escape as it has no cast time, and hitting a champion will give ms from your passive.







A (next auto attack) based ability. The slow pairs well with your E for closing the gap on your enemies. This also resets your auto-attack timer which can make it good for last hitting and taking turrets faster. Make sure not to use it when fiora is parrying, teemo blinded you, or jax is dodging. Follow up with this move after a pull to maximixe your cc. If you can fit an auto in after the pull and before the W do it.







Your best contribution to ganks/team fights. This pull every thing in front of you and has a decent range. This can set up good initiations for your team or secure kills on escaping foes. Don't be afraid to go for the flashpulls, they are really scary and can win your team the game. This can go through walls. This has a nice range, longer than your q and can very rarely pull a bit past the range indicator. It pulls minions, monsters and champions. Your E can pull blue/red buff over the wall.







DUNK. DUNK. DUNK. This is what makes Hairy Dari, Hairy Dari. This is a high damage nuke that refreshes upon getting the finishing blow on an enemy champion. This is the reason you have high pentakill potential and one of the most rewarding skills in the game. Make sure to get the refresh or you will have to suffer a modest cooldown time. Don't be afraid to killsteal with this unless you're jungling. It doesn't have too bad of a CD and also stacks your passive so if you can't get them low enough, sometimes you should just do it to be safe or hope your bleed finishes them.

This isn't a necessary chapter but I assume I could add it anyways to clear up how you can combo your abilities.


-->-->AUTOATTACK-->-->AUTOATTACK-->-->-->

I ignite first just so I can get them lower to hopefully get the ult refresh. This won't always be the burst but for most situations it will be. This is probably overkill as your abilities do a lot of damage. If you don't need to ult, don't because it will save mana and the CD. They will probably flash either right after they realize you are going for the kill, (when you pull and do the autoattack combo), or right before you ult, in whichcase you just flash dunk them.

Buy Q at level 1 unless invading, in which case you may want to grab e first. Grabbing your w or e at level 2 depends on who you are laning against. If it is a ranged champion like you are going to want to grab your E at level 2 to be able to close the gaps and pull them into a dangerous postion. If they are another melee champion you'll probably want to get your W to maximize your damage when exchanging. Max Q, W, E, every time, grabbing your ult at level 6, 11 and 16. Some people like to max Daarius' w first which could potentially do more damage, but since it is based off your auto attacks and has no range, it isn't good for lane harass and I would not recommend it. If you need extra poke and are playing against a really immobile champion top, you can take an extra point in Q at level 3 instead of your E. I rarely do this but sometimes when i'm playing against a shen or something I will grab it.

: against a really heavy AD bruiser, against a champion with a lot of poke or just for a safe start, OR against a team with a slow/low sustain jungler or a lane partner you are pretty sure you will defeat. Also safe/really strong S3: OR Take this option if you think you won't be able to survive an early gank and need the heal, or if you think you will all-in/get all-in'ed.

: Get a doran's or two and boots. Always wards and pots too. Doran's maximizes early game damage and survivability at a low cost, so pick them up. Always grab boots if you can, their jungler will be picking them up quick so you need to stay at/above their move speed.

: always either go: If you're winning lane, they have a lot of cc or you're facing an ap top. if you're against a scary ad. Grab most likely as it will give you quite a bit of MS in chases.


: Flat attack damage is almost needed on Darius, this gives him the little extra AD that he needs to stay effective through the mid game. Your Doran's blades at the beginning help with this but you will want to make sure you never forget to buy a little AD. These little guys can turn into a Phage, Hexdrinker, Brutalizer, or Last Whisper, all very effective on Darius.
Strong on almost all bruisers it gives you a solid amount of damage and magic resist and the shield can really save you from a scary gank from their mid/ap jungler. It is weak late game and Maw of Malmortius doesn't add much so I would sell it late game.
This gives you the health that you need to turn you into the scary off-tank nuker that Darius is. This item also gives quite a few different options to build into and you will most likely pick up more than one of these. It will most likely turn into a Randuin's, or a Frozen Mallet, or possibly a Warmog's.
This is a really strong armor item for most tanky bruisers. This can turn into either a Frozen Heart, or a Randuin's Omen, both nice items. The one you pick is situational, I would almost always get one or the other, but never both.

: Of course most of the items are going to be situational but any of these items are generally going to be good:
Good all around tanky item. Always get it if your support doesn't. Don't upgrade into Runic Bulwark until very late game, gives a ton of survivability and utility to the whole team.
Really strong on most bruisers, buy the phage early and finish it late. The slows are really good and can be just what you needed to pick up that kill. Gives both of the best stats for Darius, Health and AD.
If you see the adc on their team getting fed, buy this instead of Randi's. The mana is really nice for team fights as multiple Q's and Dunks will drain it quickly. The AS debuff really helps to shut out the damage of their adc along with the armor. CDR is good on every champ as well.
I never really liked this on Darius in season 2, but in season 3 this item is just so strong that I would probably get this as your second or third item in almost every game. The passive along with the massive amount of health is so strong this season that it's a must.
Always. Best item in game, ask Moscow 5. But seriously, always consider this, buy it early if you are way ahead to avoid giving away shutdown gold and late game for team fights. Some items may be better for survivability so use your best judgment.
Core. Get it if they have AP top or a fed mid or an AP jungler. Maw isn't super strong but you can finish it late game if you want. I don't think I've ever finished the Maw on Darius. Gives AD and MR.
By far one of the strongest items on Darius. Get this when you can. Preferably early, but not before some sort of damage unless you're getting wrecked. Get against Bruisers that will have a lot of Attack Speed like Lee Sin or Jax. The move speed debuff can be a good way to catch the enemy team out of position.
Also really strong. If you need to get tanky and want to farm, buy this. Buy against an AD that you are scared of but when you also want more damage to go along with your survivabilty. This pairs like crazy with your bleed in team fights.
Get this early game if you are snowballing, early game damage is great on Darius. Don't upgrade this into a Black cleaver anymore unless you are lightyears ahead of your opponent. Rarely ever upgrade this and rarely buy it, the doran's blades should be enough to get you through the early game, along with a hexdrinker or phage.
This was very strong in the Preseason and I would've said to get it every time then, but now at the start of Season 3 I would say to only get this item if you're very far ahead of your lane partner. This is a good snowball item so that's when you should pick it up, when you snowball. Don't pick it up at the end of the mid game if you pick a bunch of kills as it is more of an early game item. There's a better AD item for Mid-Late game.
This is a pretty strong item on Darius that I recently started using. This isn't really an early game pickup as I would probably take a over it for early game snowballing, but if you're getting fed mid/late game and didn't pick up much damage early, I would definitely consider this. This gives AD, lifesteal, and a little health regen along with a passive that gives your autos AoE damage and an active that does 60-100% of your AD to an area around your champion. This adds a lot of extra AoE damage to Darius in teamfights. If you pair this with a few Q's the damage from your passive, and a Sunfire Cape, you will be doing tons of AoE damage.
Strong against heavy cc teams. Nice damage as well. Don't pick it up as a core item but always grab it when they have a strong CC like Warwick or Malzahar's ultimate.
If you start picking up kills mid game or almost into late game and the enemy is picking up a lot of armor, I would grab this. This gives you some solid AD along with a ton of Armor Pen to keep your damage from falling off.
If you're ahead but they have some scary AP damage get this. Helps stack your bleed faster. This does extra MR and can be a good offensive item that also doubles as MR against a fed mid when you're trying to carry.
I honestly haven't tried this item yet but it provides TONS OF DAMAGE and a lot of utility as well so it's worth a shot. I wouldn't get it late game so if you're doing well in lane I would pick it up early. The zeal won't do you a ton of good but the sheen procs paired with your w and the phage that you will be buying anyways will be good. More like a BiForce for Darius but the AS from the Zeal isn't awful.

If you are winning lane you are going to want to pick up more of the damage items, so that would be something like a Brutalizer into a Phage and then a GA if you're still doing well.

If you're being outharassed and not winning your lane you might want to consider a to keep you in lane/the game and will probably want to skip the black cleaver and build tankier items, make sure to pick up a little AD along the way such as a Maw or Frozen Mallet so that you're actually useful in teamfights.

Darius is very strong all game and snowballs pretty hard, with no natural escape spells and top lane being easier to gank than mid most of the time, this is going to make you a big target for the enemy jungler. A fed Darius can surely carry the game and lead his team to victory so the enemy team will want to prevent you from getting kills.

Darius is an aggressive champion. You want to play somewhat aggressive against almost every champion you face. Of course there will be times when you are countered and need to sit back but once you hit 6 you can turn on the heat and start playing aggressive against most counter-picks to Darius. Use your Q to harass all the time. It has a very low mana cost and does a lot of damage. Don't be afraid to use your entire burst on them to poke them, your moves don't cost much mana and almost every time you go in to exchange with the enemy, you will come out on top.

KEEP YOUR BLEED STACKS UP. When you can, always get that extra stack on them. Auto them when they get close and Q them when they run away. If you know your bleed is about to wear off, hit them again. Your passive is incredibly strong for harassing and the mare stacks you keep on the enemy the faster they will be shoved out of lane.

Be careful of ganks. With flash being your only escape mechanism be sure to use it wisely and always be warding, you are very vulnerable to ganks. The crystalline flask, 2 wards, 2 pots helps a lot to sustain and prevent early ganks that can shut Darius down.

Know Darius' strength. If the enemy jungler is low and your lane partner is low, go for that double. Darius is very strong and has pretty high burst. Play mind games on the enemy jungler. If you have a ward and know the jungler is low, try to get to them and burst them before the lane can react. This can not only score you kills but will scare the jungler into not ganking your lane anymore, which can give you an easy lane win.

If you are losing/tied in lane than just keep farming and helping take objectives with your team.

If winning your lane by a substantial amount, make sure to roam around to your mid/their jungle. Help your mid out. Darius is a good roamer and can help your team score some kills.

If you are annihilating your lane and their jungler is behind, set him even more behind. Make sure you're not being dumb and you have wards placed, but feel free to run into their jungle and take buffs/camps and try to kill/scare the jungler. This can help your team by putting the jungler behind enough that their ganks aren't worth anything. If you're way ahead, also help your jungler out, give them a couple of the kills so they can be more effective where you can't, bottom lane. When you're ahead by a lot, make sure you keep top lane pushed up, try not to let them get your tower.

Make sure to help your team secure objectives, most likely dragon or mid lane turrets. Since you're ahead, you will have a lot of gold that you can be spending on wards so make sure you're helping the support and jungle out by placing tons of wards. Be sure not to get behind in farm with all the roaming you're doing and be sure to keep track of your lane. As Darius you can take turrets relatively fast so always help your team with that. If you already have your GA at this point, grab an oracle's and clear out some wards.

If you are ahead at this point always just keep all-ining your opponent. and shoving your lane to take that turret to allow you to roam. Be sure you have wards as all-ining can put you in a bad positon to be ganked. Darius is a really good all-in champ so if you kepp doing it they really can't don anything about it.

If they are just camping under the turret buy some defensive items or get your jungler to dive with you, the turret is a very important objective as it opens up their jungle, allows you to roam, gives your team gold, and gets you closer to their nexus.

If you are way behind then make sure you aren't getting all-ined and if you are, call for jungler or play passive. Try to still keep your lane pushed because you want that turret and, as Darius, you can pick up a lot of kills mid by roaming which can get you back into the game.

Make sure you're keeping your CS up because it's easy to get behind while taking objectives and roaming.

In team fights make sure to pull their ap/ad carries and burst them. This can easily win your team the fight. Spam your abilities and don't be afraid to run in there. You should be building tanky enough to initiate and take enough damage to stay in the fight. Dunk when it's up and when they're low, always. At this point your team probably doesn't need kills so ks'ing doesn't matter (not that it really does anyways). Make sure you secure every kill with your ultimate. DUNK DUNK DUNK DUNK DUNK. Make sure you nuke the crap out of everyone on their team. At this point you should be tanky enough to waltz right into the middle of their team and not get blown up in 3 seconds, if you do, make sure you're getting some health and armor items. Darius is really good at peeling enemies off your team, if you didn't initiate with your pull or your cooldown is back up, make sure to pull people off your adc or ap carry, this can help them last longer and can win you the teamfight. Spam your q in team fights, among the confusion it's going to be hard to position yourself to hit them with the outer part of your q, so don't worry about it. Use your w on their adc or ap carry. If you execute all of this perfectly and your team isn't way behind, chances are you just won the teamfight.Most people don't realize that if all you do in a team fight as darius is dunk everything, you're actually doing a TON to help your team. Your R is probably one of the highest damage nukes in the game, and since you can spam it's ridiculous. It barely has any delay and in team fights no one is worried about ks'ing. The .3 seconds it takes your dunk to kill someone can prevent that enemy from getting off some hard cc or damage opposed to if you let your team finish them which might take an entire extra second or two, which could give them just enough time to get off their cc or that last spell/auto-attack. Doing this 5 times in a team fight just finishes the enemies off faster, enabling your team to hopefully survive longer and win the fight.

PENTAKILL!!!.....

Late game you should be just about done with your build. Late game you should never be building damage items, if you missed out early and had to build tank, don't start building damage late game because it won't make a big enough difference. Build tanky so that you can use your utility to initiate teamfights and sustain long enough to use your dunks. Late game is similar to mid game except you probably won't need to be farming at all. Make sure you stick with your team, that you're still warding if you have an open slot, and that you're doing your job in teamfights. There's nothing different you should be doing with Darius that you wouldn't be doing with any other champ late game. Stay with your team, do your job in team fights, help with objectives and you'll be doing the most for your team as you can late game.

As with almost all champions make sure to stick with the team. You don't need to continue cs'ing. Makes sure to take objectives with the team and that you're always looking to catch someone offguard with your E and get a good initiation. Split pushing really isn't an option on Darius as he has no escapes so don't do it unless you know it's safe to do so, you're better off to leave a Shen jungle or someone else to do it.

Make sure you have gotten the first turret, and hopefully the second. If the first turret isn't down you can easily take it quickly and probably safely.

The KEY thing as Darius is to not get caught. Late game there will be wards everywhere and turrets down so it is really easy to get caught, especially being a slower champ without any natural escapes. Make sure you have vision before roaming around. If you can steal blue buff, you might as well, mana helps a ton in team fights with Darius.

Contesting Baron:
You can be the one to run in and disrupt the other team taking Baron. You're tanky enough that you can accept the damage without dying and have enough damage to steal it if you time it right. Your pull can grab an adc over the baron wall or pull him from the back of the pit. Darius is really good for running in and interrupting Baron but make sure once you commit you stick with it because if you get caught, you won't be escaping.

This isn't a jungling 101 guide so I'm not going to explain the mechanics of jungling just the way Darius jungles, any differences with him as a jungler and his ganks.

Darius is a very fast jungler with scary ganks. I don't jungle him very often but you will generally build the same things except you'll want to get a . His sustain isn't the best but his ganks are really strong which makes up for it. This is a role where might be more worth than flash but I would probably still pick flash over ghost. When ganking, try to bait out their flash BEFORE you pull. Your pull has a decent range and should be able to reach them even when they flash. If you can do this they're dead. Try not to ks as jungle Darius, only secure kills, as hard as that can be with his ult...

Start wolves always, it gives a fast start. Get help with them and then blue. You CAN gank at level 2 so do it. Your level 2 ganks are insane and probably the best level 2 ganks in the game. Mid is less predictable for level 2 ganks. Use flash if you need and you can score your mid an easy kill. Do the regular jungle path and gank often. As jungle Darius you can use your ult to take kills but make sure you're not setting your lane behind by doing so. You might even want to ult early to get them low so your lane can get the kill. Darius takes creep camps really fast so you can ask your team for a hard leash and go for smiteless and then run over and steal their red before they get there, but make sure their jungler isn't just as fast like Mundo or Shyvana.

When jungling Darius, unless you somehow get extremely fed, I would build mainly tank and probably little damage, always a phage early for better ganks and maybe a Wit's End a little later for better clear times, but mainly tanky. Start with your Q when jungling and still keep the same maxing order. You might want to max E for better CDR. Get E at 2 if ganking and W if you're not. Get E if you're ganking at 3 if not, grab another point in Q and then your E at 4. Your E is your main ganking tool so use it wisely. Try to get your mid to CC them first so you can get in a land a W. Try to save your E for when they flash or they are about to get away, and then pull them back in. Never miss out on a kill because you were scared to ks with your dunk, Kill>No-kill always.

Darius' jungling is basically the same as any others, he can counter jungle decently because he will be able to fight just about any jungler he encounters after 6, maybe not before.

I would get the component of my on my first back for sustain along with boots. I really like Philo Stones on all of my junglers as it provides extra income and tons of jungle sustain and it's pretty cheap. A shurelya's is also really good on a lot of junglers for ganking potential and what-not.

I would look at a lot of the items I mentioned in the build section, specifically aiming at more utility items. I think an Ohmwrecker might also be a really good item especially for jungle Darius as the sustain from the catalyst will help and you can get some better ganks in by ignoring some turret damage. I doubt I would build a Black Cleaver on Jungle Darius as you won't need it for clearing jungle creeps and your goal won't be getting fed as much as getting your team fed, as opposed to Lane Darius' goal. Also you will get some damage from the early, so you won't need a ton more damage.

A could probably do instead of the but the Spirit will provide better survivability and a Wriggle's would be better for Shyvana or Olaf who need the lifesteal more than you.

An item I sometimes get even when topping is a as it provides a lot of good team survivability and damage along with some health. A decent offensive utility and something to look into. If you have a lot of teammates that will benefit from the extra lifesteal, go for it.

As far as Dragon you want to coordinate it with your team, Darius can take dragon relatively early as opposed to some other junglers and you should always have it warded.

I wouldn't buy an Oracle's elixir early as Darius as not a lot of people are buying it now and you're going to be turret diving a lot as Darius so you have a higher chance of losing it. Ward often though, make sure your buffs are taken care of and ward for your lanes if they need it.

As mentioned before you can pull both of the buffs over the wall so remember this for invades/counter jungling as it can score you a free buff, or prevent you from being counter jungled if a Blitzcrank tries to pull it over.

His late game will be about the same as lane Darius so refer to that. For mid game just be sure you're leading your team as far as objectives like Dragon and Baron go and same for the buffs. Give 2nd blue to your mid, you won't need any more as Darius. Make sure you're trying to control the mid game as this is where junglers need to have a lot of presence and gank often. Don't be selfish and worry about yourself getting fed, worry about getting your team fed but make sure you aren't getting behind in levels, which is easy to do as a jungler.

His ranged auto attacks will poke you out of lane and you won't be able to get near him unless you land a really good pull. His w passive refunds mana which will give him good sustain to outpoke you. Make sure you out exchange him when he all-ins you and you should win the lane. Be passive until 6 as he will just poke you down and destroy you before 6.



Most people are awful at teemo and just pick him because he is a counter-pick to darius. Your pull is the same range as his auto attacks so grab it at level 2. If he gets caught by your pull you can easily burst him and kill him. Start rejuv bead vs teemo. If you manage to stay even with him before 6, you've won.



With ranged auto attacks and a lot of escapes she can poke you down and when you go to close the gap she can pounce away. Try to be aggressive if you can but if she is out-damaging you then make sure you get help from your jungler. Most likely it will end up as a pretty stagnant lane.



Possibly the hardest matchup against Darius, she can stay out of your range and poke you and her ult is the perfect counter to yours. I haven't found a surefire way to beat her in lane but try to catch her with your E when you can and make sure not to get hit by her splash damage. A good Kayle will be able to block your ult with hers so you might have to Dunk at an unpredictable time to try to throw her off. This may mean sacrificing the refresh, but if that's what you have to do, do it.



Some people think Jax counters Darius. I have beaten him every time in lane and don't believe he is that bad. Make sure to out-exchange him and you win. Don't W when he's dodging and he really can't counter you much.

Shouldn't be very hard to beat. Harass her very hard until 6. When she hits 6 she'll think that she can suddenly fight you, but your ult does more damage she will soon find out.


Cho can be difficult because his silence is really long, always think twice about diving cho. His ult does essentially the same thing as yours, so make sure you ult him first. He will always out sustain you so just try to beat him in farm, if he does try to fight you, you should win fairly easily.


Can prove tricky, has ranged auto's and spells that do damage based on your health. No real ultimate so play against her similar as you would to jayce. Build a lot of early game magic resist, hexdrinker and merc treads always.


Her w can counter yours if she's good. You can see her parry coming so just don't derp and mess your w up. She will probably ult just before you dunk so be prepared for that. Fiora isn't very strong in the top lane as of now.


GP is really strong and has similar harass to yours. A formidable foe, just be careful because he is good at kiting, and Darius is good at getting kited. Never sit in his ult while fighting him.


Your Demacian twin. He will probably beat you early game in exchanges. Be careful and try to stop his passive with yours. Dunk him before he dunks you. Basically never try to fight him before 6 unless he is dumb and takes free poke.


She can snowball just as hard as you. Punish her early game but don't underestimate her damage. Her e can really turn things around so keep it in mind. It can come down to something as simple as First Blood, so make sure you don't lose to her early.


Jarvan has a lot of cc so be careful when the jungler may be nearby. He has a lot of poke and can stay away from you in lane. You will generally win exchanges but make sure you're not getting poked down first because he can also dunk you with his ultimate. Even though you're Darius you should probably never dive him unless you are 100% sure you will kill him.


Kennen is pretty strong against Darius but due to the recent nerfs to him he is pretty weak. You won't see him being picked to counter you much. If he is top just hit 6 before he does and pull him when he goes to auto you.


Kha'Zix shouldn't be picked to fight Darius, just stay near your minions and his damage is reduced dramatically. He can probably outdamage you but he lacks the cc to kill you, if he gets a gank from the jungler you're basically dead.


Darius destroys him, Lee sin's kit can be used to make some pretty insane plays so jsut be careful that if he's good, he might end up outplaying you. If you're a halfway decent Darius you have a good shot at getting fed.


Tons of armor. Your poke won't do much to him, this lane will probably result in a stalemate. Remember your ult does true damage though so you can still hurt him pretty good.


Q him when he goes to farm and he won't have a good time. He recently got buffed which dramatically increased his viability. He's weak early game so just try to get him behind on his Q farm.


You basically beat Olaf. Make sure you don't underestimate that Olaf passive and you'll be fine. His E poke if he chooses to max it first will most likely out-trade you so be careful of that.


This is a pretty good matchup. Don't let him hit 2 before you or he'll make you pay. Watch for his ult just before yours. Comes straight down to skill on this one. I might start red pot if they have a slow jungler.


He's really weak right now and you will pretty much destroy him in lane. He has crazy sustain and his late game is pretty good but he's just allaround weak.


A good riven can utilize her kit skillfully. Make sure you know what she does. Ult her before she ults you and you should be golden. She can block a lot of your poke with her E and your exchanges will be pretty even.


This is generally a bad pick against Darius but shen is shen so be careful. You can out harass him and all the health and armor he builds won't matter against your dunk.


Singed is a troll. He can cause some problems for you so just make sure you don't chase him. Your e is really good at countering him so use it.


Trynd won't be much of a problem. Make sure you catch him off guard with your ult or he will just ult instead. You might want to take exhaust in this matchup.


Vi will be a little tough, her poke is just as good as yours and her ult is annoying. Just be careful of all her shields, it can help her win trades.


A good Vlad will dodge a lot of your q's and r's with his pool. Other than that you should be able to poke him pretty well.


Your ult trolls his passive really REALLY hard. I have yet to face a Volibear as Darius but i'm sure if I did, it wouldn't be a very hard lane to win.


Wukong is pretty easy to beat, don't ult his clone. Remember you can pull him while he's invis. A perfect timing of his ult can screw up yours. If you see him about to dash get your w ready so you can hit him before he clones away. I have messed up my ult countless times by hitting his clone, so be careful of that.


Xin has TONS OF DAMAGE so be really careful when exchanging, I wouldn't play aggressive until 6.


A pretty good counter to Darius. Use the bushes to hide from ghouls and try to poke him back as much as you can. You WILL get poked down, so just try to farm under turret. If he isn't poking a lot then you can shove the wave and try to roam as you probably won't be getting kills off of him. You may want to take health regen quints for this one. Start rejuv, I use hp/5 quints for this lane.


Should be easy. He can ult and block yours though so be careful of that. His poke also has a longer range so try to sneak close enough to get a q or e off. Your exchanges will be near even so make sure he's not going to win the trade by ulting before you get to ult him.

Warwick is going to be one of your favorite junglers. Warwick does tons of damage but his ult makes it really easy for you to follow up with a pull. Make sure you don't e while he's ulting or you'll screw it up. Feel free to ult while they're in his ult. ALLY-OOP

Nunu's blood boil and slow will allow you to catch up to the enemy 100% of the time and since you win almost every exchange, you're going to be getting kills.

Maokai's ridiculous range snare and knocback is exactly what you need to catch up to them follow it up with your burst and a DUNK.

J4 is also great as he provides an insane amount of CC as well as a dunk. If you can nail the doubledunk with your J4 jungler you're going to get glad.

Hecarim will make the enemy team want to kill themslves, the sheer damage the two of you have combined is just insane, unless they're playing ulted alistar top lane, they're going to die.

Any champion with a really good snare/stun is going to be really good with Darius as he can chain cc well.

The best mids to pick with a Darius on your team are katarina and Orianna for the following reasons:


Darius has very good initiation potential with his so a great way to start a fight is to have orianna put her ball on you, then run in and pull as many as you can, then she can follow up with an ult. This cc chain can catch multiple opponents out of postion and easily win you a team fight.



Kat is very mobile but she doesn't come with a lot of cc. Darius has the cc she needs. Roaming together you too have HUGE burst damage, cc and mobility which can help you catch opponents and get away. In team fights, you're Kat's best friend because when she ults, you can pull anyone who tries to escape back over to her, or pull anyone off of her that's trying to cc her. Her ult also brings them down to the perfect health so you can dunk away. You're also both Noxus, Kat is HAWT, you're a big man with a deep sexy voice and they need to release Kat and Darius' kid as a champion.



Tf is good in almost any team comp, but a good tf is going to help you catch any and everyone. That gold card will give you just enough time to get the e in and then burst. His ganks at 6 are also going to be better than your jungler's most likely.

Darius' e has a really long cooldown for a basic ability. Make sure you use it appropriately because if you use it too early or late you'll regret it.

Darius' q can push the minion wave without you even really realizing it. Be wary that you may be inching closer to the turret.

Always remember you have no escapes. Darius can get caught really easily so be cautious.

Learn the Ult's damage output really well. Know approximately how much damage your ult is going to do with the amount of AD items you have bought and the # of stacks on the enemy. You WANT that refresh.

You can ignite early with darius if you don't think they're quite low enough to ult and the bleed+ignite will surely bring them low enough to ult.

Farm with the w. It has a low enough cooldown and mana cost that you can spam it. Don't go overboard but don't miss a siege minion because you refused to lose 45 mana.

Make sure when fighting to always back away before you q, the extra damage will always be worth it and it might just make or break a fight. Especially during laning.

You don't have to take every kill with your ult, although it will be really funny when you do.

Make sure to laugh whenever you dunk someone and spam your dance under your turret to taunt them into making a dumb decision and dive you.

Your E range is broken. It can pull over many walls that you wouldn't think possible, and often goes farther than the indicator, so don't be too cautious to try for a pull that could win you the game.

A good Darius will most likely play aggressive in lane and will try to all-in you at level 6. Make sure when he pokes you that you try to poke him back, if you are taking free poke, you're setting yourself up to get . Darius' Q pushes the lane, if he is spamming it he will push the wav into your turret, make sure you use this to your advantage and get all the last hits under your turret. Be careful if you're low as Darius has a great kit for turret diving. If you have ranged auto attacks, harass him a ton in lane. He can't do anything to catch up to you if you stay out of his E range.
Darius' E has a really long cooldown, make sure you know when he has used it because then you can play accordingly. If Darius trys to all-in you at level 6, make sure you are at full health and you are 100% ready for it, never underestimate his ult, that is the worst thing you can do against him, it will get you every time. is a really good spell to counter Darius and i don't know why people don't use it more against him. Try it, see if you like it, it can possibly be the sole reason you win lane against Darius. Don't let Darius roam, make sure he doesn't get your tower, he will roam and he WILL pick up kills, this is what Darius is good at so call those mias. Try to never let him get that last extra auto-attack or Q on you, the extra stacks of bleed damage add up and will shove you out of lane. Make sure you know how much damage his bleed will do, his paired with can do some serious damage and early levels can kill you without you even knowing it.

The best advice I can give for countering Darius is to pick a champion you are really good with and know well (unless it's Lee Sin). Do not pick a champion because they are a "counter" to Darius, a good Darius will beat the counter pick almost every single time. If you know your champion better than they know Darius, you should be able to win. If you know Darius AND your champion better then they know Darius, you will be able to embarrass them past to the point where they think whatever champion you played is a counter to Darius and proceed to www.lolcounter.com and downvote anything that says otherwise.

If you're the jungler, PICK SEJUANI, she is a little stronger this season than last, but her slows are really strong against Darius and she can actually ult Darius in mid air while he's dunking. She's tanky so it's hard to turn around during a gank and dunk her, just don't get kited by Darius because you will die.

If you're low and Darius is low, and he runs in a bush, this likely means he knows he can kill you don't hope that his ult is down, it won't be. Be afraid of bushes Darius might be in.

Learning the range on both Darius' Q and E are keys to success. Make sure you know how much damage you have built so you know how much damage your ult is going to do. Never underestimate the amount of damage you can do because you can make some crazy plays if you know exactly what you're capable of. Calculate your passive better than your opponent can and make sure to keep those bleed stacks up and you will be sure to kick them out of lane. Darius is one of the most fun champions in the league right now and if played correctly can win top lane against just about every matchup. One of the best parts about Darius is if you do manage to lose top you can ks with your ultimate and catch back up very easily. People could argue it might set the rest of your team back so you just have to judge whether the ks's will help you or screw your team.

Feel free to comment and let me know about anything that could be improved or that you disagree with.

Thank you to everyone who has already read or liked this guide, I appreciate it.