Overview
One of the certified dunk masters in League of Legends, Darius is a champion that excels at snowballing not just team fights with his ultimate but the game itself. A monster to deal with in lane phase especially when he’s able to get even a bit of a lead, Darius can turn bad situations into good ones and good situations into game winning plays. He’s a champion that’s great for players who want to fight and fight early and then fight some more. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Darius
He's extremely strong as a duelist early and will benefit from extended fights thanks to Hemorrhage [P]. You should be happy to trade blows, especially since you can heal up with Decimate [Q]. You need to be willing to fight!
Getting even one reset on Noxian Guillotine [R] can completely snowball the fight in your favor. It can be easy to use it too early (or dying before you manage to get it off), so it may take some practice on the timing.
Strengths
Thanks to Hemorrhage [P] providing a ton of bleed damage in an extended fight, Darius is one of the strongest champions in the early game. If you’re able to bait your enemy into fighting you, you can also follow up with Decimate [Q] to sustain your HP and then reel them back in with Apprehend [E] for the kill. Enemies will typically avoid trading auto-attacks with him for this reason, though that means he’ll have room to bully them away from the minion wave. Darius is always a threat to get a kill if you’re not careful, and this pressure spikes greatly once he’s able to get his Noxian Guillotine [R] online -- the reset mechanic on it can lead to some big multikills in the mid game especially.
Weaknesses
He’s so susceptible to being kited and kept at arm’s length that many Darius players will opt to take Ghost in addition to their Flash summoner spell. This gives them two ways to consistently reach enemies, which they can then juggle to minimize the downtime on their ability to close gaps. As the game scales, his effectiveness will gradually wane as enemies become more resistant to being killed by Noxian Guillotine [R] -- if he’s unable to get resets, he can end up as a walking meatshield without much meat to him at all.
Game Plan
Early Game: Picking Darius means you are confident you can win the early game (and win it hard) -- you need to be playing aggressively to gain CS advantages over your enemy at the minimum, though if you can constantly chunk them out, you can even threaten solo tower dives on them.
Mid Game: He can typically take early leads to become a menace in the mid game -- in team fights especially, he should find it easy to kill squishy enemies at this point.
Late Game: You’ll need to take creative angles to get into the enemy backline if you are hoping for kill pressure. It’s usually easier to help your carries by peeling off enemy divers.
