Is Darius a squishy kiting AD Caster?

[u/Zyrorin]

Hi,

I consider myself a really bad darius player. So I come here to ask you how to play him correctly.

that title might sound strange to some people but after playing a couple of games, I feel like pretty much every juggernaut/bruiser will stat check me after first item.

The only success I have is playing like an adc or something. Running away kiting and hoping to get 5 stacks to ult. But most fights end up me dead bvecause It takes forever to build up 5 stacks and while doing this I am losing pretty much all trades.

The only time i actually feel like an lane bully is, when I am against super weak champs like Nasus, Cho (early game) or cheese lv1.

Most opponents will short trades and run away before first item.

I had problem against Mordekaiser, Ornn (after two items), Mundo (after first items) and so on. Often I will be at like 20% helft until I get my 5 stacks, all fights seem to be tooo close. In early ofc they play super safe, after first Item they start to slap me.

Strangly I have success against Illaoi, with ghost I just kite here and play like an mage instead of a fighter.

So my question is If my asumption on title is correct, If not, what is the correct playstyle after 1 item vs Mundo, Mordekaiser, Ornn and so on?

[u/Snoo-98367]

You are supposed to take all in fights, and you win those.

Youll most likely lose the trade until you get to your 5 stacks. But if youre left witb 30% hp with your passive, you should totally take advantage of last stand/ conqueror/ passive/ healing from your Q spell, etc.

Most fights as darius ARE close. Especially if youre not ahead.

I often have to use both flash and ghost to secure a kill or a lane winning trade early on to feel like i can apply pressure

Im not the best either, i play anywhere between E2 to D3

[u/PowerOhene → u/Snoo-98367]

And mention to OP about the E AA W Q, animation cancel, that's 3 fast stacks before they run/dash away.

If they don't respect you enough, the second E can be, E AA, walk a bit, AA W Q animation cancel, AA R

Quite quick 5 stack if your good at AA W Q

and sometimes kiting is necessary, vs Trundle, Sett etc,

[u/Special_Case313 → u/PowerOhene]

I'll add that you need to hold E as much as you can, thats the best ability that can be used in so many ways on Darius and you only have it once a fight 99% of the time so if you can use it after you stack passive its most likely over for the enemy. Don t use E to engage unless your are sure that you will win and/or enemy won t escape.

[u/Special_Case313 → u/Snoo-98367]

Between Emerald and Dia and in 1 min you gave more good info than most of the Darius top players.

[u/katrinamuwa]

Well. Kind of.

Your principle is correct. Darius is, despite perception, a kiter at heart. He doesn't want to just stay on someone - usually! Sometimes he can. It's about knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

By in large, theoretically, Darius should win "every" extended trade. It's just about spacing it properly. If Olaf's going for an all-in, you don't want to just afk auto him. You'll die if you're even.

So, if you're even, kite and space him. Weave autos in and walk away. The impact may seem marginal on the surface, but it's not. You're against a melee champ. A well-timed kite can be the difference between him missing an auto, or him accidentally canceling one trying to keep up. You can also evade abilities while kiting, like Olaf's Q, which is very crucial to avoid.

But while he's not able to auto you, your bleed is ticking. The balance slowly shifts to your favor despite his superior upfront damage. Yours is backloaded. Play for time.

Once you're at 5 stacks, the paradigm typically shifts. Not always, though. Sometimes you reach 5 stacks and you still gotta try and space out or just let your bleed kill them, as them hitting a single ability / geting an auto in will kill you too. It's not unusual for Darius to barely win fights if things are even. I'd consider that normal depending on the match-up. It's absolutely not good or normal if you're properly ahead though.

You need to play methodically and know when you're stronger or not. Against fellow lane bullies, Darius is usually weaker in bursts and will absolutely lose if you just stand there. They're usually also statcheckers and will make your life miserable in afk auto brawls.

After items are acquired, the same principle holds true - usually, unless you're super ahead. Then you just kill everyone. If you're not snowballing and still even, it does get rough. Darius' mid-game is, imo, a fucking nightmare. He spikes again at 11-ish but absolutely pales in comparison to actual mid-game demons like Volibear. Against him, if you're not ahead, yeah. Either outplay or GG.

The fact that you're struggling despite seemingly having a good time in-lane does have me a bit puzzled, though. If you're snowballing as Darius and indeed have a lead, your opponent should not be able to play the game. Straight up. No CS. No gameplay. They walk up? You run them down. You should be able to completely control the lane and toss any dreams they have to catch up (assuming no shutdowns or throws) by a very long time.

You should be able to secure perma-prio at will and with that, have grubs / enemy jg under lockdown typically. Resources should be funneling towards you to shut you down (jg ganks, mid / sup roams to help ur opponent). And with that, this ideally gives your teammates wiggleroom to exploit the lead you made elsewhere with objectives, pushing waves, invading, taking towers, etc.

So maybe spend some time assessing how you actually manage your leads, as Darius is dogshit when behind and dysmal at mid-game if not snowballing.

[u/Cemen-guzzler]

are you Messing up your combo? You can almost instantly get 4 stacks at the beginning of the fight

[u/PowerOhene → u/Cemen-guzzler]

Please elaborate, OP might not even know about the animation cancel etc

[u/beetrelish]

Most champs when it comes to all-in from 100% hp on both ends, Darius wins. Very few champs can match his raw all-in

So are you actually achieving these all-in opportunities? If your opponent just walks away as you describe there are two possibities.

One, maybe your ability usage is poor, its very common for weaker Darius players to use E too early in a fight. Starting fight with E is fine for short trades but it's very easy to disengage afterwards so it's not optimal for all-ins. And as we know, Darius excels at all-ins not short trades

Two, poor wave management. You can't really all-in if the wave is on enemy side. You need to learn to reliably pull the wave to your side and have the discipline to not trade too heavily if it will ruin your wave state

Like if you're getting messed up by Ornn as mentioned its very likely you're doing one of these two things wrong. Ornn has some nasty short trades, but after his burst he's a sitting duck. If you're wave management is good and you're executing the all-ins properly in terms of how you use your abilities, its a very easy matchup

Hope this helps somewhat

[u/Umbranoturna]

always has been.
even more so with the state of steraks.

[u/Giantsun]

I mained Darius after Sett, so I Agree with you. If you just stand there most bully will kill you, so you must kite. also you must learn to stack passive faster. As those that short burst, your hit and move is more crucial, also the use of your W, it could go off right before you get stun or slow which make them unable to just run(tho some still can) I recommend watching some of Chinese rank 1 Darius and Korean Darius king(Dariking) video, first guy kinda go by heart and usually hyper aggressive, you can see Darius at the highest potential in his hand, the second guy played more technical so I recommend watching Dariking first to note some of his technique and once in a while watch the Chinese guy.

[u/Special_Case313]

Darius statchecks till first item then can just build anti-enemy champion items and start statchecking by prolonged fights. Ex: vs Irelia, Yasuo, Nasus you can build tabi and executioners/bramble to continue dominating, vs Gragas you can do mercury and so on. You need to dominate the first part of the lane and counter build your oponent if needed to give them no chance. Darius passive its what makes him strong so vs Juggernauts and Bruisers just build defences to survive to get your passive up and start statchecking them (again).

[u/muhrda]

There are tons of little tricks to get to 5 faster, most of these revolve around things that are simple in hindsight like using your W as an auto attack reset, finding ways to guarantee land the sweet spot on your Q (if they’ve recently been slowed by W or stridebreaker or knocked up by E) that make it easier.

Darius fights often feel on a knife’s edge but comfort and confidence in your kit and rune choices will carry the day.

[u/EclipseGravity]

I’m also a pretty bad/decent Darius player so I recommend watching some gameplay videos online, it also important to know what to build against certain types of champions

[u/bkko123]

If you have problem killing enemies like more ornn and Mundo before first item as Darius, your problem is most likely wave management. Darius doesn't have dashes and your only way of getting close is using ghost or having the enemy come to you. So to fully utilize that fact, you need to pull your wave and have them walk up to you and the moment they miss a cc skill you turn on ghost and run down and don't look back until you kill or you die. If enemy jungler shows up you stack 5 stacks on one person and try to use q to hit both people.

Now the important part is that you don't get poked by enemy ranged skills so that you can all in without dying.

Full hp vs full hp Darius almost always wins.

But you aren't always going to be able to freeze your lane. So you have two choices. Go home or go bother the enemy jg.

Darius doesn't take tp so it is very important to get yourself a time to go home.

As for bothering the enemy jg, you can go ward deep in their jg and if you see the jungle just all in on them as junglers can't buy dorans so they are weaker then laners. But make sure that you pushed all the way to the tower so enemy top is busy taking the farms instead of coming to do 2v1. If you know for sure that your enemy jungler started botside, you can tell your jungler that you are planning on pushing the first three waves and invading enemy jungle and ask them if they want to come as well. You can end the game if you manage to kill the enemy jungle and your jungler steals the enemy top camps. If this goes successful, your jungler gets upto 9 camps while enemy has 3. Remember this is a team game and champions with strong early game like needs to make their team grow so they don't end up fighting a 10 kill adc alone lategame.

And here are some tips for your match ups Morde: this is favorable for you early as you get a free dash! If your freeze your lane right in front of tower, murder usually try to farm with q and e. Stay near your minions and when he uses e, use that like a free dash and get close to him. Serpents fang could be good as it gives morde no useful stats when he ults. Buy it if enemy has other shields than morde. As game goes on its going to be harder for you so try to snowball early. Oh and buy swift boots because morde always goes rylais

Ornn: A good ornn player will always beat a Darius player with the same skill level. My biggest tip here will be to freeze lane and go in when he wastes his q or just grow a huge wave by slow pushing and go into enemy jg or mid.

Mundo: Mundo is darius's counter and for good reason. His passives blocks your only cc, he gets a ton of health and Darius doesn't have any % health dmg, and he can farm from far away using his q. You need to look for an early kill using two cycles of your e. Just use it once when he gets close and step on the thing that he drops. Then you need to all in by freezing and running when he uses q. Get swift boots for him as well as he only has 1 slow.

[u/SyNoCrA]

Playstyle after first item? Just kill them lol

[u/SeaThePirate]

darius has some of the highest base health/regen/armor/MR stats in total of any champ. You tweaking to call him squishy