Best Darius Build Guide | Runes | Spells | Items in League of Legends

Darius is one of the best Top laners in League of Legends in patch 12.15, and he is in S tier. He has a positive win rate of 51.1%, which for one of the most popular Top lane champions is crazy. His pick rate has increased from last patch to 9.9% and his Ban Rate is over 30% at 30.5%!

This all comes together to show you how powerful Darius is in the current meta.

This is only possible due to how well he builds and sets up - Darius into the best matchup will still struggle if you have the wrong runes or items! We have for you the best of the Darius Top build guides out there for the Riot Games MOBA, with the Darius runes, the Darius build, and Darius’s matchups!

Best Darius Build

Best Darius Runes

First off, we will start with the best Darius top lane rune build, which focuses on the Precision runes as a primary and the Resolve tree as a secondary!

Best Rune Path	Precision	Resolve
Best Keystone	Conqueror
Best Slot 1 (Rune)	Triumph	Bone Plating
Best Slot 2 (Rune)	Legend: Tenacity	Unflinching
Best Slot 3 (Rune)	Last Stand

Taking Conqueror as the keystone of choice on Darius allows him to gain up to 54 Adaptive Force when attacking champions. This means that the longer Darius is in combat, the more damage he will do - perfect for his play style!

Triumph heals him when he gets a takedown, meaning when he is getting ganked by the pesky enemy Jungler, killing one enemy means he has a lot higher chance to kill another.

Legend: Tenacity gives Darius up to 30% tenacity just from gaining Legend stacks, which are gained from killing champions, monsters and minions!

The final rune in the Precision tree is Last Stand. This works well with Conqueror, as the lower HP you are, the more damage you do!

Resolve is your second rune tree, and you want to have Bone Plating for extra damage reduction when being hit after the first time, and Unflinching gives Darius even more Tenacity and slow resist - up to 30%!

Best Darius Rune Shards

Best Rune Shards	Effect
Offence	+10% Attack Speed
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
Defense	+6 Armor

Attack Speed and Flex are the perfect combination, as Darius gets a little extra Damage and AS where he needs them earlier on in the game. The Armor Defense means he won’t get out-dueled by AD Top laners as easy!

Best Darius Summoner Spells

Best Spells	Icon
Flash
Ghost

Hecarim and Shaco are two of the few champions that don’t use Flash, but Darius needs it to keep up with enemy champions. Ghost and the additional movement speed also helps with this as Darius is immobile without it. Popping Ghost when chasing down an enemy with 5 Hemorrhage stacks on is the plan, so stick to it!

Best Darius Abilities Order

This is one of the most important parts, as you want to make sure you are leveling the right abilities at the right time! This is the best Darius skill order:

With your skill order, the main ability you want to prioritize is Q, Decimate. This is Darius’s wave thinning ability. Being on a low cooldown at higher ranks helps massively into tougher matchups.

E, Apprehend is next, as you can pull enemies in on a 14 second cooldown. Finally, level W, Crippling Strike. It is already a low cooldown so the auto attack reset can wait!

You should have Darius’s Ultimate Ability, Noxian Guillotine leveled up at 6,12, and 16.

Best Darius Items

Darius builds some tankiness and sustainability items early on, before he gets the damage to make him a killer juggernaut.

Best Starter Darius Items

First Item	Second Item
Doran’s Shield	One Health Potion

Doran’s Shield gives Darius 80 HP, but gives the Endure passives, meaning he heals more and takes less damage against ranged champions.

Best top Game Darius Items

These are your core Darius items that you want to build towards first!

First Item	Second Item	Third Item
Trinity Force	Plated Steelcaps	Death’s Dance

Hearthbound Axe builds into Trinity Force and that is the first item to get, so make sure you build into the mythic item before you finish anything else. This is because all of the Trinity Force stats play perfectly into Darius’ hand! It gives 30 Physical Damage, 30% Attack Speed, 300 HP, and 20 Ability Haste.

Plated Steelcaps stops Attack Damage, and most Top laners are AD, so the extra armor helps. Death’s Dance early on will help him around the mid-game where he can sometimes struggle, so negating damage is good! Death’s Dance comes with 55 Attack Damage, 45 Armor, and 15 Ability Haste.

Best Final Late Game Darius Items

This is the final build that you want to aim toward when playing Darius.

First Item	Second Item	Third Item	Fourth Item	Fifth Item	Sixth Item
Trinity Force	Plated Steelcaps	Death’s Dance	Dead Man’s Plate	Force of Nature	Sterak’s Gage

The final three items should be tanky, to allow you to have some survivability when enemy champions start scaling. The first is a Dead Man’s Plate, which gives 300 HP, 45 Armor, and 5% Move Speed to keep up with enemies.

The fifth item you will want to build is a Magic Resist item of Force of Nature. You will net 350 HP, 70 Magic Resist, and another 5% Move Speed. This is when you will be starting a team fight, so good coverage is always welcome.

The final item is Sterak’s Gage, which gives you a shield below 30% HP, as well as 400 base Health. This can be switched for Thornmail or Spirit Visage if the enemy are heavily physical damage or AP focused!

Best Champions to pair Darius with

These are the best champions to play with Darius, so try out a duo queue!

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Skarner	56.1%
Fiddlesticks	55.3%
Nunu & Willump	54.0%

Strongest Champions against Darius

If you see these champions picked on the enemy team, play super safe!

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Wukong	46.6%
Vayne	46.6%
Yorick	47.3%

Wukong can kite Darius, which is one of Darius’ biggest weaknesses. Vayne is similar but she can keep Darius at range, and her True Damage negates his armor. Yorick and his minions and maiden can gives Darius too much to kill, which he will struggle with.

Weakest Champions against Darius

Finally, we have the best League of Legends champions to play Darius into in patch 12.15.

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Gwen	54.6%
Renekton	53.8%
Nasus	53.4%

Gwen, Renekton, and Nasus all will try and out-duel Darius, something which is never a good idea. Gwen is too squishy, whilst Renekton’s burst combo cannot get Darius low enough, Nasus requires stacks to do damage, so Darius can just engage every time early on in the laning phase!

Hopefully, you are now ready to climb and improve your win rate with Darius in League of Legends after this guide and Darius build! We also have a guide on the best Darius skins too!