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I started playing league back in season 2, I had never played ranked and I only started to really climb when I could put more hours into the game! I have huge amounts of Darius experience in every ELO starting in Silver when I picked up Darius in S5. This guide provides the basics of playing Darius in EUW and how u can play him effectively and climb easily. This year I am currently aiming to get Grandmasters and hopefully higher!!!

Welcome to Season 14! Darius is in a decent Spot with the new item changes it would appear. Trinity is working very well at the moment, paired with Steracks and titanic Hydra, I would also reccomend building Jak,Sho as this seems to be very strong as a 3rd or 4th item! Stride is not really working that well on Darius and titanic Hydra is a suprise addition to his possible item inventory! Concerning Runes Conq is the only rune at the moment that works extremely well with Darius, due to the damage and some healing.

+ Incredible amounts of damage. + Very difficult to kill due to his ability to heal back. + an win entire teamfights by himself. + Can punish mistakes very easily. + Able to turn a jungle gank into a double kill. + Free armour penetration. + He can go down but he is never out. A feeding Darius can easily get back into the game with a few kills in a team fight. + Good Survivability. + Helpful in team fights. + Ranged Skills. + Can deal TONS of damage. + Very low mana cost on ALL of his abilities. + Decimate deals massive damage if the enemy is hit properly. + Noxian Guillotine refreshed after a successful kill with it. + HE IS MADE FOR A PENTAKILL!!

- very easy to kite. -Missing your E means death. -In higher elo's landing your Q is difficult as its easy to spot. -Falls off Post 40-50mins -if u are behind early its a struggle.

Hemorrhage is the most important part of the Darius kit. The bonus AD you can get by reaching 5 stacks in teamfights or in lane can swing the gamestate in your favour at the right time. Everything you do in lane must be situated around this passive, as knowing when to trade passively with lower stacks and when to reach 5 stacks can influence how much of an early bully you are in lane! The bonus AD reaching 5 stacks gives you amplifies every other ability as they scale on this amplified damage. The key within teamfights is making sure you spend the maximum amount of time up with Noxian Might This way you can guarantee the maximum amount of damage.


Decimate(Q) is essential to master in order to effectively hit your enemies at the edge of the blade, It gives Darius massive amounts of 1v1,1v2 and 1v3 pressure as the healing you can get scales on how many targets you can hit with the edge of the blade (up to 3). It has a relatively low mana cost but you can run out easily if you try and spam it, make sure you use it effectively and only last hit with it when you are behind or in an unfavorable, or ranged matchup.

Crippling Strike (W) This is used as an auto reset to get Noxian Might quicker during a combo. It can also be used in conjunction with flash to get you quick and unexpected kills. It scales of Noxian Might and can be used on towers to split push effectively. It has a low cooldown and can be reset in half and the mana refunded when it is used as the killing blow. This is an essential tool when learning to last hit under your tower and its 90% slow is useful when keeping targets in range of your other abilities in order to get easy kills.

Apprehend (E) This ability is essential to doing well with Darius, landing this can grant you easy kills or assists. Using this well will make you effective even against ranged poke. The armor pen is really nice into tanks, and can help you transfer into the mid game. the best combo you should use with it is an (E) auto (W) as the (E) has a slow built into it. You can also (E) AA and w if you are fast enough as this will guarantee 5 stacks. Your (E) is essential in engaging in team fights as you can hook multiple people and engaging match winning team fights!!!!
Noxian Guillotine (R) The SLAM DUNK!! This ultimate is insane and can be essential in winning fights. This move is the ultimate finishing move!! Combined with your 5 stacks of Hemorrhage, you become an absolute monster in teamfights. At rank 3, if Noxian Guillotine kills its target, its cooldown resets completely!! You can combo this ability in a 2v1 in order to completely change the outcome of a lane once you hit level 6. You need to be careful as this ability counts as a dash, so any other moves for example Miasma cancel it.

When using Darius, it is essential that you understand how to play around his passive. When Darius damages an enemy, they take 1 stack of Hemorrhage or bleed, once you reach 5 stacks of hemorrhage, you gain Noxian Might for 5 seconds which applies bonus damage to your abilities scaling from 30-230 per level. In lane you need to keep count of how many stacks you have applied to your opponent and when the best chance to get 5 stacks and use noxian might, will be. In most case scenarios it is better to aim for 5 stacks at the start of every fight so that you can use the maximum damage combo possible. It is also wise to try and passive juggle. This is when you gain 5 stacks of Hemorrhage in a team fight and look to auto or attack other opponents which prolongs the duration of the stacks and therefore the duration of Noxian Might. Be wary though as this does not apply to minions and monsters, only champions. The main thing to get across is knowing when to try and go for 5 stacks and when to surprise your opponent with a Flash Decimate when they are on 4. Another thing to mention is that if an enemy is on 4 stacks and you manage to Decimate him with other opponents in your Decimate range you will get 5 stacks and also apply a full 5 stacks to any other enemies hit, this is another more advanced form of passive juggling. Refer to the video for a visual reference.

The easiest damage combo for Darius is Apprehend, AA, Crippling Strike, Decimate. This applies 3 stacks of Hemorrhage, its really good for poking in lane and showing early dominance. If the enemy has flash or No escape you change the combo to E, AA,AA,W,Q. This is because of the E slow which can allow you to path forwards and get another AA off on the enemy. This combo also ensures that your next auto will get you 5 stacks while you are in range. This combo is insane when you can use you R. so this makes in a half hp execution combo. E,AA,AA,W,Q,AA,R. this should kill most people at half hp or higher, during the early to mid-game. It is really important as a Darius player to practice how fast you can W,Q. You need to be able to animation cancel this ability so that it looks like one Decimate motion but with the Crippling Strike. Refer to the video for a more in depth look and a visual representation.

Make sure that you only use E Apprehend when it is absolutely necessary. The cool down is insane at its level 1 so you must learn to use it efficiently and effectively. It is not vital to use in a poke combo, walk up to your laner and try to path inside their movements. If the laner is smart they will always play around your E as they have 24 seconds to go in and out of trades. try to punish people when they have no cool downs or no escape, combo your E alongside your W in order to make people stick to you. When you are getting ganked wait until the last second to E, this way you can get the slow from it and escape effectively.

Darius is an insane lane bully in the early game. you need to quickly ***es how effective you can be at punishing your laner and adapt different styles in order to effectively gain a solid early lead. If you are against a Yasuo for example you can afford to push the early lanes and you have a clear advantage against him when going into level 3. If you are confident enough you can force hard aggressive trades while trying to 1v2 the enemy jungler if the Yasuo is low enough. The problem comes when you face someone like a Vayne or someone with ranged poke. I would suggest not pushing the first two waves, let them push into you and sustain, if the enemy pushes too far forward and you have higher HP than them go in with Ghost and run that *** down! If you are worried about jungle pressure try to force your jungler up and take a lane trade if possible while making sure you start whatever combo u decide to do with a Q, this enables you to get a really easy 1st stack in which you can long trade the two enemies with your jungler and then reuse your Q again once it comes off of cool down. If you decide that you want to push the first wave against someone ranged, try to hard push the 3rd wave, this way you can back on another Doran’s item while also making sure the 4th wave crashes just below your tower putting you in a freezing position and enabling you to run them down with ghost and small item advantage. Flanking in brushes early as Darius is really nice! whenever you can look to cheese and flank your opponent as you can usually hit a Q,AA,W really quickly from a brush and burn a flash. If you find yourself falling behind as Darius pick up boots as early as possible and try and get phage, farm under tower and look to roam mid with ghost whenever it is up! more than not the enemy toplaner will get annoyed at how safe you are playing and try to dive with the jungler! YOU CAN OUTPLAY THIS WITH YOUR E AND Q!!!!! make sure you use your E,Q at the last second under tower for a true combo and a very annoyed enemy top and jungle!

Mid game can be tricky for a Darius player. Lots of small decisions need to be taken into account when going into mid-game as these things can dictate what you do and how you do it. Mid-game is where Darius spikes the hardest, you can hit level 11 and 16 and your Ult can completely decimate enemy teams! The hardest part about this stage of the game is deciding whether or not to commit to pushing top lane and destroying towers or rotating around the map to push your lead that you gained in the early game. A good rule of thumb for a Darius player is to look at the lead you have and if it can dictate objective control, this way you can understand how efficient it is to help your team push objectives or if it would be wiser to create pressure in top and force more enemy team members from objectives. If an important objective is up it is essential that you slow push top and rotate down, if you can save ghost and flash for these fights around objectives that is an added bonus, which can win games. In low Elo it is so important to take control of fights after 15 minutes, as 9/10 games are won and lost during this time! ESPECIALLY in plat and Below. It is really important to prioritize Herald effectively in the mid game, as you may or may not know herald deals 2000 true damage to the tower! towers gain more stats the more people are around them and the lower they are! SO!!! make sure you use herald to execute them not start on them! From 20mins onward you need to be constantly rotating around the side-lanes to create pressure while looking for flanks with your team around objectives! it is essential in this part of the game to save ghost for important fights as it can win or lose you team fights as Darius. One final tip for mid-game is ple***ssse try not to die!! this halts your ability to create pressure in the side-lanes and ultimately gives back map control and pressure to the enemy team, meaning they can control objectives which decides the game.

This is the saddest part of the game as a Darius player. If the game is not over by 40 minutes then it is a lot harder to win by yourself, by this time the enemy ADC and midlaner can shred through you! However you can still catch people out and look to hard engage on their ADC with a Flash E! Your main objective however in late game is to engage second and protect your backline! If you can kill someone in a sidelane then your team should be able to rotate and take objectives however your damage is staggered and you do get out-scaled by a lot of champions during this part of the game!