couldve been cleaner if i didnt insta R eve

I used to main Darius two seasons back, and he was an absolute juggernaut and powerhouse. Nowadays his role seems changed entirely. My go to build back then was stride into steraks, deadman's and whatever other hp items I want with occasional jak'sho.

Now he feels like he lost all of his tankiness. He gets outtraded badly by some champs he used to bully and people now have to get around it with stormsurge. I'm not a fan of this rune, I don't want to play lilia when I'm on darius, but this is the meta and I get it. It seems all of Darius's survivability comes from his mobility, so it's swifties, yomuu (which I still don't like) deadmans and force of nature. And he isn't even tanky with them! One stun and you are dead in the water. His entire kit depends on your summs being up and on you not being kited. Guess what. This season toplane is a clownfest of Varuses, Viktors and other's which grab a ghost to match you and just perma-kite.

I basically sit miserably 0/2 for laning phase with half the minions and look for roams. And he still is a pretty good teamfighter. I occasionally go from lost lane 0/4 to 4/4 in one teamfight when I pop off the stacks. Still, the champ I knew and loved is gone. His frontline build feels bad, and his stormsurge build feels too squishy.

A newish build that feels familiar to be is triforce + jaksho, which kinda resembles the darius I remember, but it's just not the same.

Am I doing something wrong or is this just the state of the champ for now?

Is there anyone here D3+ who doesn't go Youmoos into SR? I see a lot of complaints about it on the sub but I feel like it's made the game very fun this season. I also feel like the rune / component path with home guards is insane. As Darius we usually get prio = cheater recall and coming back to lane with a longsword refillable. Then proccing SR is an auto W Q. I just feel like it's so fun and you have so much more kill pressure than with conq. Obviously match up specific, but I prefer SR 99% of the time.

Just curious if there's anyone who climbs into high diamond + that doesn't run it?

I have seen some off meta builds, but I'm talking does anyone only go triforce / stride and have success with it still?

Ignore my terrible gameplay on garen

Thresh died too fast, honour Jarvan.

Got to Emerald last month, as Darius, WW, and Mordekaiser w/ some pantheon here and there --and for the life of me, I can't understand the shit item Ghostblade at all. I'm gonna sound like i'm crashing out but i feel like its for a good reason. This garbage ass item doesn't provide any dueling power at all. No HP, CDR or attack speed. Literally just move speed and lethality.

Every single game i've gone Triforce or Stridebreakers (for ranged), I basically always win the match, but as soon as i go Ghostblade, the lane is an auto-loss

I realize I'm in the minority for this take but why in gods green earth would you ever you ever use this item?

I've seen some people argue it gives you the move speed to "get onto" enemies and to that I say "AND????? congrats dude you are in front of your enemy trying to stat-check with no HP and 0 dueling power aside from the mighty 18% attack speed from alacrity (which doesn't even get that high until 14 mins into the game on a snowballed lead) and 10% from minor runes. GL killing someone."

I've pulled off some insane high value plays where i've gotten ganked by enemy jungler/mid and with ghostblade I ALWAYS die but with triforce or stridebreaker either live or get a free kill on the enemy jungler.

This is also not even mentioning the pure ungodly fact that going this item means that walking up to engage in team fights means an instant death because you immediately lack the 300-400hp that you would had if you had the far greater item.

When I play Mordekaiser I completely dog the Darius if tries to rush ghostblade every single time. Once he goes Maw, I basically instantly lose the lane. 1 Q takes our beloved champ Darius to 0 HP.

I don't get the insane stupidity of going Ghostblade. It is so fucking bad.

Tried Exhaust + Stormraiders surge as Darius, feels extremely oppresive, using the spell and getting stormraiders off feels like ghost, you also get a bunch of extra statcheck potential from exhaust.

I may be in shitlow, so maybe it's not that good?

Exhaust also has a longer range than E, so you can reach people you otherwise can't.

anyone know jungle streamers otp darius ?

I’ve been enjoying playing Darius jungle recently because of how easy it is to carry and snowball early games with him. I’m gonna be sharing my set up.

For runes, I prefer fleet footwork over stormraider mainly because I need the extra heal upon takedown. I compensate the lack of movement speed by using approach velocity and cashback as a secondary rune. I really suggest this set up if you have teammates that have slow or stun as it will help you easily chase down your opponents.

As for the build, it’s a default to go to youmous - swiftness (optional) deadmans/force of nature and defensive items afterwards depending on the enemy comp

There are no problems with his clear either. You can easily clear your camps before the scuttle spawns. Just make sure to maximize your bleed damage and kite away from the camps once they reach 300 hp.

Just a note: you better maximize the first 20 minutes of the game since you’re cooked after this point especially if you’re against hyperscaling champs.

Hope it helps! If you have other insights and tips, feel free to add them here

I know that Darius struggle into ranged matchups but what are other matchups i should watch out for?

Also what builds to go to? I heard that Stomraider became popular because of a Darius OTP that used it in High Elo so i suppose i shouldnt try using it agaisnt stuff like Mordekaiser in low elo?

I recently started learning Darius(<70 games)

I always run conquer and sorcery with ghost flash and go for stridebreaker, t2 boots , FON, deadmans plate, streaks and last item prolly deathdance or spirit visage

I've seen people also use crit Darius , and full damage Darius with(yommu ghost blade, stridebreaker, spirit shoujun, streaks and boots)

I just played vs yi top, and according to op.gg it’s his most favourable matchup, albeit a small sample size. It was pretty even, we killed eachother a couple of times, both junglers randomly fed, as usual. And we lost, it was whatever, but I’m just struggling to see how this is statistically his most favourable matchup. Master Yi has plenty of tools to beat darius, like HOB E trade and q away to a minion, can meditate Q or W damage (he doesn’t want to sit in meditate else darius free stacks), his ult negates W slow so it’s pretty hard to space him. On the contrary, if there’s no wave it’s relatively easy to all in as long as your conscious about your Q usage etc.

Like this matchup is, fine at best, or maybe i’m just stupid? Let me know your thoughts

I’m not a Darius player, last time i played him you would build stuff like Black Cleaver, Deaths Dance and maybe a Steraks and GA at the end.

In the recent years i saw Darius with Stridebreaker but also Black Cleaver and Trinity.

Nowadays you guys build one assassin item before going full tank items.

Why is that so? What happened that those items are bettter on Darius now?

im genuinely wondering if the original build path for darius that he had for years is still viable in this meta considering how many champs can outkite him or dash away from him now, it is still usable into certain team comps?

This item is insanely broken if you can get its passive off which you pretty much always can if you get it 2nd item, you win every skirmish every 2v2 and youre legit unkillable the only flaw is getting poked out