How to Counter Darius

Darius is a monster. He is the ultimate "noob thrashing" machine! But don't worry, I'll teach you noobs how to fight back!

Lets start first with our analysis of Darius.

Name: Darius
Champion type: Bruiser
Main damage type: Physical
Range: Melee
Play style: Cooldown Skills Harassment with Nuke Finishing Move
Teamwork: Not a team player; best at laning, ganking, and killstealing (KS'ing)
Escape skills: None
Weakness: Sustained damage with lifesteal (think Xin Zhao and Sivir)
Classification: Tough to beat 1v1

These are the more important features that I have found to matter most during laning phase. He's not very good in big team fights, so you can pretty much kite/ignore him and wipe out his weaker teammates as he's chasing someone on your team.

How to Lane Against Darius

You will notice that Darius is stronger against certain champions than others. Admittedly, he is strong against many champions. However, there are still champions which can wreck him in lane.

Note: we will assume that Darius will take top lane against you.

• Worst Champions to Lane Against Darius
• Melee DPS carries (Master Yi, Hecarim, Akali, etc.)
• Support types (Soraka, Orianna, Blitzcrank, etc.)
• Ranged champions with no escapes/disables (Ashe, Caitlyn, etc.)
• Pure tanks (Shen, Cho'gath, Rammus, etc.)
• Best Champions to Lane Against Darius
• Long range harassers (Teemo, Ziggs, Varus, etc.)
• Bruisers (Olaf, Maokai, Xin Zhao, etc.)
• Mages with harass skills and "damage over time" (Malzahar, Brand, Cassiopeia, etc.)

Darius has great harassment abilities, so he will do best when he is able to wear you down. But will you let him get the chance to do so? NO! Don't even let him get close! This is why champions like Teemo do so well against him; they can OUT-HARASS him to no end! Of course, you still need skills in order to keep it going without dieing yourself, so keep that in mind.

Bruisers do best against him because of his limited "sustained fighting" capabilities. I have found that Olaf, Maokai, and Xin Zhao are among the top counters to Darius. Olaf and Xin can beat the living snot out of Darius, while Maokai can wear him down from afar using Saplings (just remember to start with Doran's Ring and level up your Sapling [E] skill).

You can win easily before he hits level 6. Once he hits level 6, you will need to be more careful and also build more Health items to survive his nuke.

How to Gank Darius

Most Darius players grab ignite and flash/ghost.  This means that you will have to gank him more than once in order to successfully destroy him! The first gank should be to remove his escape summoner spell (just gank and he will use it to escape). If he sticks around, you should wait around for him to push again. Once he's beyond the river landmark, jump in and secure the kill!

How to Fight Darius in Team Fights

Darius is very poor in team fights due to many factors. 

• He has only one "area of effect" skill. 
• He has no shield to initiate with. 
• His attack speed is super slow.
• He has low Health base stats.
• His ultimate will not be used to initiate, so you can count it out of the first half of the battle.
• His skills have relatively high cooldowns, so you will be able to pounce on him and deliver damage before he can reciprocate.

There are two ways to fight him during team fights. You can either focus him with ALL of your teammates to just destroy him with one blow, or you can just ignore him and take out his teammates first. This part is your call because team fights are never the same. Kill him first only if he deals tons of damage. Save him for last if there is a bigger threat on their team! (Darius is terrible at chasing).

Conclusion

The term "overpowered" is used too often and without much proof. Just because the noobs with less than 1,000 wins lose to a certain champion doesn't mean that you (you're a pro, right?) will lose to that same champion as well! In this situation, it is the players who try to analyze and gather information about the enemy before engaging in half-baked battles who win out in the end. Best of luck, and stay GOSU!