[2.6a] Darius Guide - Darius ~ Strength Above All!
Darius ~ Strength Above All!
Darius Build
Best Build Guide for Darius
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
Typically you go for a BRUISER build when your team doesn't have a tank. This allows you to be a front-line threat with Glorious Enchant and Dead Man's Plate . You can walk up, hook someone with Apprehend and initiate a fight.
The OFFENSIVE build is more fitting if your team already has a lot of meat, e.g. Alistar support, Dr. Mundo jungle or Malphite mid. Keep in mind that this a very risky build. You don't have a lot of health, and rely a lot on dealing damage to survive. If you get stunned or nuked, there's very little you will be able to do.
Starting Items
- Long Sword to help you last hit which you will later build into Black Cleaver (BC).
- Ruby Crystal against hard ad match ups like Vayne & Wukong
First Recall
- Phage is the first item you buy. It gives you health, attack damage and movement speed which is perfect for Darius
- Stinger is the second item, which is good for landing faster stacks in early game
- Boots of Speed is a recommended purchase either before or after you finish off Trinity Force to get you that extra mobility
Default Build (Bruiser)
- Trinity Force is a standard must-have item on Darius as it allows you to move faster, deal more damage with your abilities (W), and generally grants you attributes that Darius can make well use of. This is your first and most powerful power spike
- Glorious Enchant is used for engaging team fights. You use it to gain massive movement speed in order to catch enemies with Apprehend .
- Sterak's Gage gives you a lot more sustain and a shield which the enemies might not expect. Allows you to live longer and escape team fights if you get burst by an assassin.
- Dead Man's Plate is your second power spike. It gives you even MORE movement speed, armor, and health. By now you should be flying across the map like an unstoppable killing machine.
- Randuin's Omen is bought to let you survive longer in team fights. ADCs will probably hit you a lot, and so will other bruisers in the top/jungle. This item makes them all weaker
- Spirit Visage as a final item is bought to give you some magic resistance as most of your items grant you armor. It also heals you more with the help of your Decimate
Vampiric Build (AD)
- Trinity Force is a standard must-have item on Darius as it allows you to move faster, deal more damage with your abilities (W), and generally grants you attributes that Darius can make well use of. This is your first and most powerful power spike
- Death's Dance gives you AD, health, and life steal as well as turning all damage into bleeds. Allows you to live long enough to heal back up with your other items
- [protobelt_enchant] is used for a quick catch with Apprehend . It is used as a gap closer for ranged matchups like Vayne, Teemo, and Kennen.
- Bloodthirster generally grants you a crazy amount of life steal which you can abuse with AA+ Crippling Strike . Together with death's dance you should be healing like a mad man through your auto attacks and second ability.
- Sterak's Gage gives you a lot more sustain and a shield which the enemies might not expect. Allows you to you live longer, and escape team fights if you get burst by an assassin.
- Guardian Angel is basically a second lifeline. At this point, you have so much regeneration that if you do die, you can surprise enemies through the rest of your items.
Flexible Items
- Maw of Malmortius is useful for the vampiric build against heavy AP compositions
- Quicksilver Enchant is powerful if the enemy team has a lot of CC, e.g. Annie, Ahri or Camille.
- Thornmail is taken if the enemy team has full AD, meaning no mages or champions with ability power. Generally not advised though
- Warmog's Armor can be taken if you are in a tough lane. It will let you regenerate health when you are out of combat and have over 2,500 maximum health, which will save you time, gold, and experience by letting you stay in the lane instead of recalling and running back. Also useful in long team battles where you can run out, regenerate and run back in.
Boots
- Boots of Swiftness are useful against matchups with slows, like Nasus, Lulu, Tryndamere and Malphite.
- Mercury's Treads are useful against matchups with stuns, like Kennen and Jax.
- Plated Steelcaps are useful against ad poking matchups like Vayne, Teemo, Wukong and Fiora.
Darius Runes
Best Runes for Darius
Conquerer
- The only rune that fits Darius. It stacks, like your passive, allowing you to get stronger the longer a fight lasts. Also useful as you can apply many stacks with Decimate
Gathering Storm
- A good rune that scales with the game, allowing you to have pressure at all times
Conditioning/ Hunter Titan / Spirit Walker
- Conditioning to round out your resistances. Useful for a team or enemies with mixed damage (E.g. Kennen).
- Hunter Titan is good if the enemies have a lot of stuns. Gives you health and tenacity, allowing for different boots
- Spirit Walker is powerful against enemies with slows like Olaf and Nasus. Lets you press them even further
Sweet tooth
- A really good rune that gives you more lane sustain and extra gold. The rest are irrelevant for Darius.
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
Combo used in order to catch up to people
Lane trading combo for killing someone
Basic combo to trade with your opponent
Darius Matchups & Counters
Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters
Don't take free poke, and try to get 5 stacks. That's it.
Ability Tips & Tricks
- This ability gives darius a stack every time he lands an auto-attack on enemy champions or hits with his Crippling Strike or the outer blade of Decimate .When fully stacked, he gets extra attack damage. Because of this ability, Darius doesn't need a lot of damage and is therefore typically built as a bruiser.
- Your main trading ability. Useful for clearing big waves, poking laners and applying your passive on multiple targets while getting healed. This is the bread and butter to becoming a strong darius player.
- Useful tip is to use Q + Flash to quickly land it on your enemies without them expecting it.
- Super powerful ability after you get Sheen you can pull in enemies, land an attack and then use this ability with your Q to deal tons of damage. This ability also grants you 25 attack range, so you can use it for enemies trying to escape you.
- Landing this ability is vital for your survival. You can use it to pull enemies while they are performing an action, like Hookshot , Lunge and Spirit Rush . Use this ability to catch enemies running away from you, or to start a fight.
- Has somewhat medium-range, allowing you to close gaps after a fight. Killing an enemy with this ability will instantly refresh the cooldown, allowing you to further dunk your opponents.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Can potentially deal incredible amounts of damage.
- Difficult to kill due to his tankiness.
- Can win entire teamfights singlehandedly.
- Is very good at exploiting mistakes.
- Can turn a gank into a Double Kill.
- Snowballs hard and can be used to win any lane if played correctly
- Can easily come back into the game off of a single teamfight. He may be down, but he is never out.
Weaknesses
- Immobile and very easy to kite.
- Missing E can sometimes mean certain death in some lanes.
- Very difficult to play vs high elo toplaners.
- Not a good tank.
- Has mediocre peel.
- Can be killed very quickly if he misses Q