Guide · Top

Darius Guide

the Hand of Noxus

Fighter

Tank

Tier A Top

Darius, the Hand of Noxus, is a fighter and tank champion that is easy to pick up. Across our 751 analysed ranked games, Darius is mostly played in Top (88% of its games), and more rarely in the Jungle (12%), with a 50.0% win rate in that role: tier A among Top champions (#11 of 48, ranked by win rate). Darius's damage is mostly physical (77%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. 23% of that damage is true damage and therefore ignores resistances. Win rate varies with game length: 53.3% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 366 games) versus 45.2% in short games (under 25 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 664 Top games played with Darius, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Darius is a fighter who gets stronger the longer a fight lasts. His attacks and abilities cause bleeding (Hemorrhage, up to 5 stacks); at five stacks he goes into a rage and gains a huge attack damage bonus. Decimate heals him based on the champions hit by the blade, and Apprehend pulls enemies toward him. His ability to escape is limited: he wants a prolonged close-range fight, not a chase.

The lane trade

Q › AA AA › W › AA AA

When: You want to trade without fully committing.

Decimate at the edge of its range so the blade connects, an attack to stack Hemorrhage, then Crippling Strike on the next attack: the bleed slows the target and stops them from leaving.

The full engage (kill)

E › W › AA AA › Q › AA AA › R

When: An enemy is within Apprehend range and you want the kill.

Apprehend pulls them in, Crippling Strike slows them, your attacks and Decimate stack Hemorrhage (up to 5 stacks) and heal you. Finish with Noxian Guillotine: its true damage grows with the number of stacks on the target, so do not cast it too early.

See all 3 Darius combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Hit with the blade of Decimate, on the outer edge of the axe, to get the most damage and healing while staying at the limit of your range. Stack Hemorrhage with your attacks between abilities. During the cooldown of Apprehend you are vulnerable to harassment: avoid exposing yourself when it is not available.

Common mistakes

• Casting Noxian Guillotine without Hemorrhage stacks: its damage depends on them.
• Engaging without Apprehend when the opponent can harass you: you are fragile during its cooldown.
• Trying to chase: your ability to escape or catch up is limited, force a close-range fight instead.

Riot's official tips for playing Darius

• Decimate is a powerful harassment ability. Strike an enemy from maximum range for the greatest effect.
• Noxian Guillotine does more damage the more attacks you can land prior to it. Use Noxian Might to deal maximum damage.
• Darius benefits greatly from enhanced survivability. The longer you can prolong a fight, the more powerful he becomes.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate, and Death's Dance (89 games, 61.8% win rate).

Youmuu's Ghostblade+Dead Man's Plate+Death's Dance

89 games · 61.8%

Youmuu's Ghostblade+Dead Man's Plate+Force of Nature

59 games · 57.6%

Sterak's Gage+Youmuu's Ghostblade+Dead Man's Plate

54 games · 74.1%

Skill order

Max order : Q > E > W57.4% · 61 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q		●		●	●		●		●
W	●													●	●
E			●					●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 79 games).

Starting items

Doran's BladeHealth Potion58.8% · 51 games

Doran's ShieldHealth Potion41.7% · 24 games

First completed items, in order

Youmuu's Ghostblade›Dead Man's Plate

17 games · 64.7%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3650 gold, 73 CS, 4782 XP. At 15 min: 5628 gold, 113 CS, 8179 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Ghost51.2% · 389 games

Flash + Ignite49.7% · 179 games

Exhaust + Flash48.1% · 81 games

Most-played runes

Stormraider's Surge + Precision

48.2% · 251 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak97%

Celerity100%

Gathering Storm97%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Alacrity98%

Triumph94%

Shards

Attack speed96%

Adaptive force96%

Health scaling76%

Conqueror + Sorcery

48.8% · 213 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Alacrity99%

Last Stand98%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Celerity98%

Axiom Arcanist78%

Shards

Attack speed99%

Adaptive force98%

Health scaling76%

Conqueror + Resolve

55.2% · 134 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Haste50%

Last Stand97%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Bone Plating71%

Unflinching58%

Shards

Attack speed95%

Adaptive force91%

Health scaling73%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Darius's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team54.4% · 169 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Youmuu's Ghostblade 64.2% ▲

Dead Man's Plate 57.8% ▲

Force of Nature 62.3% ▲

Stridebreaker 50.9%

Sterak's Gage 64.8% ▲

Death's Dance 63.0% ▲

The item that stands out most is Youmuu's Ghostblade: 64.2% win rate, +13 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team45.0% · 198 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Dead Man's Plate 51.5%

Youmuu's Ghostblade 43.9% ▼

Death's Dance 54.9% ▼

Sterak's Gage 52.1% ▼

Stridebreaker 40.8% ▼

Spear of Shojin 43.8% ▼

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team50.8% · 297 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Youmuu's Ghostblade 49.7%

Dead Man's Plate 53.5%

Death's Dance 59.6%

Stridebreaker 50.0%

Force of Nature 48.8% ▼

Sterak's Gage 62.2%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Darius in Top

Fiora Darius: 46.7%15 games

Fiora has the edge in 53% of the 15 Top duels against Darius. See the Fiora guide.

Malphite Darius: 60.0%15 games

Malphite has the edge in 40% of the 15 Top duels against Darius. See the Malphite guide.

Ambessa Darius: 60.0%15 games

Ambessa has the edge in 40% of the 15 Top duels against Darius. See the Ambessa guide.

Renekton Darius: 68.8%16 games

Renekton has the edge in 31% of the 16 Top duels against Darius. See the Renekton guide.

Who Darius is strong against

Renekton68.8% · 16 games

Malphite60.0% · 15 games

Ambessa60.0% · 15 games

Fiora46.7% · 15 games

How to play against Darius

• When Darius's axe grab is on cooldown, he is vulnerable to harassment attacks.
• Darius's ability to escape from fights is limited. If you have an advantage against him, press your lead.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Darius's matchups.

Darius Top: what our games say

Laning phase against the Top average

Measured over 79 Darius games with a timeline; the average covers 82 champions played Top in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Darius in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Jungle	87	52.9 %	7.2	453

Roles where we have at least 40 Darius games.

Abilities

PassiveHemorrhage

Darius' attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for physical damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Darius enrages and gains massive Attack Damage when his target reaches max stacks.

QDecimate

Darius 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 and large monsters hit by the blade.

WCrippling Strike

Darius's next attack strikes an enemy's crucial artery. As they bleed out, their Move Speed is slowed.

EApprehend

Darius 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.

RNoxian Guillotine

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.

Other Top champions to know

Most played

Jayce50.6 %Yone47.8 %Camille50.1 %Jax54.9 %Ambessa47.7 %Malphite46.2 %Renekton51.1 %Garen50.6 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Ornn59.1 %Aurora54.8 %Urgot54.6 %Yasuo54.2 %Sylas54.2 %Warwick53.6 %Cho'Gath53.2 %Anivia52.8 %

Frequently asked questions

Full Darius page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides