League of Legends - Darius Champion Strategy and Item Build Guide

This page contains a champion character strategy guide for Darius – the Hand of Noxus  in League of Legends (LoL), including stats, skills and abilities, rune builds, recommended gear and equipment, and playstyles.

Darius

Basic Information

Champion Stats

Lore

Skills

Icon	Description
	Hemmorhage Aims his attacks strategically, causing his target to bleed. This effect stacks up to five times. Enemies that reach max Hemorrhage cause Darius to gain Noxian Might, greatly increasing his damage.
	Decimate (Effect Radius: 425, Inner Radius: 205, Cost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 Mana, Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5, Blade Physical Damage: 40/70/100/130/160 (+ 100/110/120/ 130/140% AD), Shaft Physical Damage: 14/24.5/35/45.5/56 (+35/38.5/42/45.5/49% AD)Winds up and swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take more damage than those struck by the handle. Darius heals based on enemy champions hit by the blade.After a short delay, swings his axe around himself, striking enemies in its path. Enemies hit by the axe’s blade take 40/70/100/130/160 (+105% bonus Attack Damage) physical damage. Enemies hit by the handle take 50% damage (does not apply Hemorrhage).Heals for 12% of his missing Health per enemy champion hit by the blade (max: 36%).
	Crippling Strike (Cost: 30 Mana, Cooldown: 9/8/7/6 5)Next attack strikes an enemy’s crucial artery. As they bleed out, their Movement Speed is slowed.Next basic attack deals 0 physical damage and slows the target by 90% for 1 second.Crippling Strike refunds its Mana cost and 50% of its cooldown if it kills the target.
	Apprehend (Effect Radius: 535, Angle: 50°, Cost: 45 Mana, Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12, Armor Penetration: 5/10/15/20/25% )Hones his axe, passively causing his physical damage to ignore a percentage of his target’s Armor. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe’s hook and pulls them to him.Passive: Gains 5/10/15/20/25% Armor Penetration.Active: Pulls in all enemies in front of Darius and slows them by 40% for 1 second.
	Noxian Guillotine (Target Range: 460, Cost: 100 / 100 / 0 Mana, Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80, True Damage: 100/200/300 (+ 75% bonus AD), Bonus Damage Per Stack: 20 / 40 / 60 (+ 15% bonus AD), Maximum True Damage: 200/400/600 (+ 150% bonus AD)Darius leaps to an enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing true damage. This damage is increased for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target. If Noxian Guillotine is a killing blow, its cooldown is refreshed for a brief duration.Leaps to target enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 100/200/300 (+75% bonus Attack Damage) true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage.Maximum Damage: 100/200/300If Noxian Guillotine kills the target, it may be re-cast at no cost within 20 seconds.At rank 3, Noxian Guillotine unlocks – its cooldown resets entirely on kills and it no longer has a Mana cost.

Strategy

• Position your (Q) Decimate so that the blade will hit a champion. Also, damaging more enemy champions will heal Darius more.
• You can also last hit minions with (W) Crippling Strike.
• Always try to aim for the activation of your Hemorrhage passive as it gives you more damage.
• Apprehend has a very short cast range. (W) Crippling Strike + (E) Apprehend gives you more chance to land the pull.
• (R) Noxian Guillotine is a very powerful skill especially in a team fight. Make sure that whoever your casting it to dies because a wasted (R) Noxian Guillotine can lessen his presence and damage output in a team fight.

Runes & Masteries

COMING SOON

Summoner Spells

Top Lane
Flash	Teleport

Item Builds

Top Lane

Starting Items

Starter Items
Doran’s Shield	Health Potion	Warding Totem

Core Items

Core Items
The Black Cleaver	Sterak’s Gage	Dead Man’s Plate
Mercury’s Treads

The Black Cleaver – The Black Cleaver is a must for Darius since this item sits well with his kit and playstyle. Aside from the added health, it also gives extra damage and armor penetration which is always good for him. This item also helps him in catching his enemies since it gives off extra movement speed when hitting an enemy champion.

Sterak’s Gage – Sterak’s Gage makes Darius a little more tanky as a juggernaut. When Darius takes a certain amount of damage, he will have increased size, damage, and a shield based off 75% of his health. This item increases Darius survivability and can save him from burst damages.

Dead Man’s Plate – Dead Man’s Plate addresses Darius’ lack of mobility. This item also gives him armor and health, which is crucial when you want to be an effective Darius.

Full Build

Full Build
The Black Cleaver	Sterak’s Gage	Dead Man’s Plate
Titanic Hydra	Spirit Visage	Mercury’s Treads

Titanic Hydra – Titanic Hydra scales with your health. With the added health of your core items, the cleave and crescent active of this item becomes powerful and hard to deal with.

Spirit Visage – Spirit Visage gives you magic resistance and health. Aside from that, it amplifies any forms of healing you have. You can always replace this with Banshee’s Veil if the enemy’s AP champions are giving you a hard time.

Mercury’s Treads – Mercury’s Treads will help you in your lack of mobility since it reduces the duration of all crowd controls.

Situational Items

Situational Items
Thornmail	Frozen Mallet	Maw of Malmoritus
Randuin’s Omen

Thornmail – Thornmail gives Darius a lot of armor and the passive can counter the enemy team if they have a lot of AD.

Frozen Mallet – Frozen Mallet is a good offensive item if you want to apply a soft crowd control to your basic attacks. It can also proc with Darius’ (W) Crippling Strike. 

Maw of Malmoritus – It is a good item if you want the extra magic resist especially if the enemy team has a burst AP champion.

Randuin’s Omen – Build Randuin’s Omen when the enemy has a lot of mobility. Replace this with Dead Man’s Plate if needed.

Playing Against

• Get away when he is winding up his (Q) Decimate. It has a long delay and can easily be avoided if you position yourself correctly against him.
• His (E) Apprehend has a small range. Try to move sideways when running away from him so he can have a hard time landing the skill.
• It is wise to deny Darius his Hemorrhage passive. Do not engage in extended fights with him and if you hear the sound indicator, quickly apply crowd control on him if possible and retreat immediately.
• Be careful when dealing with Darius at low health as he can cast (R) Noxian Guillotine on you.
• Darius can easily turn a 1v5 fight in his favor if he manages to cast (R) Noxian Guillotine on everyone. Thus, facing him with low health is always a bad idea.

Hard Counter

• Kayle – A good Kayle player can easily outlane a Darius in the top lane. Righteous Fury allows Kayle to harass Darius in the laning phase. He can also mitigate most of the damage that Darius deals because of her Divine Blessing and Intervention. 
• Teemo – Darius won’t be able to reach Teemo because Teemo can spread Noxius Trap around the lane. Darius will also have a hard time dealing damage to Teemo because he can just quickly escape with Move Quick or retaliate and fight back with Blinding Dart, making Darius blind and unable to land an attack.
• Jayce – Jayce is a pretty safe pick for most top laners that are slow and have little to no mobility. Jayce can always switch to Mercury Cannon to harass Darius from afar. He also has a number of damaging skills and mobility that can give Darius a hard time getting close.

Strategy Video

COMING SOON

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