Aatrox Minor Start Doran's Shield and go for Conqueror. The recent nerfs to Aatrox hit him hard. Stay passive level 1 and 2. Look to fight him after level 3. Use your E to dodge the "sweet spot" of his 1st or 2nd Q and secure a Q with it since he can use his dash to dodge your Q if he is quick. Unless you E him and instantly use Q afterwards. His ult denies you your ult reset, should you decide to use it on him before getting rid of his ult first. In lane I recommend that you use your ult to get rid of his ultimate since you deny him a lot of damage by destroying his ult because he loses out on the bonus AD he has in his ult form. After that utilize your passive to finish him off. As mentioned before play it cool early and focus on farming early game. By mid-game you will win against him by default when you're even.

Akali Even Start Doran's Shield to deal with her Q. Phase Rush or Conqueror both work against her however I am personally more of a fan of Phase Rush against her. Akali is tricky to deal with but manageable. To punish her the most important thing to do is to get rid of her shroud and E and all-in her when both are down. They both have to be down in order for you to be able to kill her. That doesn't mean that you can't just do the AA>W>Q combo on her when she is CS'ing. However having both of her E and Shroud down will ensure you either her flash or a kill. Also after 6 she can use her ult to disengage. If she does that she basically nullifies all of her kill pressure in lane against you. If she uses her shroud don't stand in it as it gives her the power to deal damage to you with no counter-play aside from a Q at best. The nice thing as Darius against Akali is that your bleed gives an indication of where she is hiding in her shroud so you can Q her in it. Overall Akali is hard to catch because but once she wastes her E and her shroud is on cooldown you can all in her and will come out on top. If you get snowballed on things will get ugly though so don't play light-minded. Hexdrinker is really good against her but if the enemy teamcomp doesn't allow it go for standard build path and play a bit more cautious. If you went for Conqueror you can go for an early Specter's Cowl.

Camille Minor She wins short trades with her passive and loses all-ins throughout the game. Avoid trading with her when her passive shield is up. All-ins are always in your favor. As I said she wins small trades with her passive so don't let her go for them without punishing her by extending the trade. If you struggle against her Tabis are an excellent early buy. Most Camille players ban Darius though because it's a hard counter in the hands of a decent Darius player. Be careful about pushing as she probably has one of the best gank setups out of all toplaners. Post-6 make sure to Q first after using your E on her so she can't dodge it with her ult. Keep in mind that the worst thing for her is you pulling her out of her Hookshot which will drastically make her not only weaker in a 1v1 but also leave her no escape other than flashing away.

Cho'Gath Tiny Trade with him whenever you can. Since Cho'Gath is a traditional tank you shit on him hard. Make sure to extend the trades as long as you can and zone him off of farm. Don't let him get any CS because his passive gives him unmatched sustain in lane.

Dr. Mundo Tiny Go Conqueror, start Doran's Blade and buy Executioners first and continue with your usual build path. Punish him for trying to CS early since his early game is very weak. He will probably avoid coming close all together and farm only using his cleavers which is fine since he won't be able to get all the CS and he will miss a lot. You can try to catch him off guard by using the Phage Passive and Tier 2 boots to grab him. Otherwise it'll be one very boring lane.

Fiora Even Depends on the Fiora's skill level. The fact that she has her parry to potentially deny your ultimate, gut your attack speed and movement speed at the same time can make her a very though match-up to lane against. She can also parry your E if she is really good. You can try to cheese her by casting your ult at 4 stacks instead of 5 stacks or using your E to CC her during your ult cast time so she can't parry it. This matchup basically revolves around Fiora's parry and the vitals. Late game you can only win against her if you have good mechanics and specifically build to split vs her. Try to shut her down early. Early Bramble Vest or Executioners Calling (my personal favorite because it's cheaper and the effect is so much better) in combination with tabis into usual build path shits on her pretty hard. Keep in mind her vitals make it so none of your defensive items matter to her as long as she hits those. Therefore it is crucial that you don't go full tank after your core if you want to win a 1v1 against her. You will need Grievous Wounds later on if you want to 1v1 her. Mindgaming her with your E and ult is a crucial part to win against her. Always Q or Ultimate right after you E or she will just parry it often putting you in a bad position to be in. Using your E and immediately your Q or Ultimate afterwards won't leave her the opportunity to parry since she will be CC'd. When she ults you and you think she can win hug a wall to prevent her from procing all vitals and denying her the heal. Overall Darius has the upper hand on Fiora in my honest opinion.

Galio Minor Start Doran's Shield. Galio is another obnoxious Aftershock abusing mage. He deals a lot of burst damage and his Aftershock mages him nearly unkillable for the duration. The thing is that you You only deal physical and true damage and shit on immobile mages like him. A free lane. Punish him if he steps up to CS. The only reason he is at 2 is because his Ultimate and his Taunt can really screw you.

Gangplank Minor Start Doran's Shield and take Second Wind. Now... Cpt.Spankplank can either be a very good GP and have a barrel under his hairy ass constantly and bully you with barrels and slowly whittle you down with Sheen+Grasp Q procs and perfectly make use of his W to avoid as much CC as possible for him or he can be a very bad GP and don't have a "safety barrel" by his side at all times. Investing in some early armor to negate a majority of his poke is crucial as well as rushing boots to get into ranged to E him. Utilizing the "Rage" passive from Phage will let you get close enough to pull him. Since it's meta to run Grasp on GP nowadays go Conqueror against him since you will need the extra damage.

Garen Tiny A budget Darius. Everything he does you just do 10 times better. Your passive does a good job at countering his passive. Don't let him regen from his passive and force extended fights against him and you win the lane. Care if you are the villain and you're not in a minion wave of yours and when he is even as it actually gives him a chance of 1v1'ing you. Freeze the wave right outside of your tower and starve him off of farm and EXP. When he tries to Q you pull him in so he is slowed and proceed to run him down.

Gnar Even Start Doran's Shield and take Second Wind. Obnoxious champion to deal with. However he is often told to be much more troublesome for Darius than he actually really is. You just gotta play it right from champ select. He will buy Black Cleaver + Mallet and try to kite you to death. To counter this to the best of your ability take Ghost and if you're familiar with playing with Phase Rush you can go for it too otherwise take Conqueror. Build Righteous Glory or Dead Man's Plate after Cleaver/Trinity. Take Ghost as well. All ins are always in your Favor if you can get to him. Lastly if you're clean you can pull him out of his jump which is his only escape against you. Rush Tabis against him since it seriously cucks him.

Illaoi Minor Stupid champion design. You auto-win pre-6, especially level 1-2. Her whole kit relies around her tentacles and her whole 1v1 basically relies around her pulling your soul and then ulting you and hitting you with her tentacles. Once you realize that all you have to do when she ults is either disengage and then reengage or dodge the tentacles she becomes easy to deal with. Make sure you dodge her soul pull then you win. Watch out for tentacles slamming down as they can hurt quite a lot when stacked.

Jarvan IV Even Start Doran's Shield to counter his Q poke. J4 is a rare pick in the top lane and generally only picked to hard counter certain champions in lane such as Singed or Gangplank. If you happen to lane against him he will try to poke you with Q through the wave. And that ability hurts a lot. If he ever EQ's you in lane it usually either means that you're getting ganked or he just committed suicide. Short trades are in his favor so try to force long fights. If he ults you he is the one stuck in there with you, not the other way around. Even when he is behind his ultimate will be very tough for you to deal with since it traps you for a good amount of time and the only thing you can do about it is flash out. The only reason he is Even is because of his ultimate it is truly crippling since you don't have an answer to it other than flashing out of it or waiting it out.

Jax Even This matchup entirely revolves around Jax's E and Q. Watch out for level 1-2 as he beats you at those stages. Always skill E 2nd so you can disengage if he should engage on you at level 2 with his Q+E. Post-3 Bait out his E by walking up to him and AA him, backing off and then reengaging. Smart usage of your E to deny him his Q+E is the key to winning this matchup. If he jumps on you while having his E active pull him mid air to deny him and gain some distance so he can't stun you. Then fight him. The reason why your E helps you against his E is because it's a slow and a displacement at the same time and enables you to counter his Q+E. A good Jax will save his Q to dodge your Q at which point he then will use his E to deny you stacks for your passive, putting you in a very bad spot to be in. Therefore don't use your E aggressively unless you have a big wave backing you up or you know his E is down or you're so far ahead that it doesn't matter anyways. Lanes snowballs heavy from both sides but Jax snowballs harder than you because he is more mobile. Once he gets Essence Reaver you cannot afford to slip up against him. If you get hit by his E you're gonna lose unless you're ahead. Tabis, Adaptive Helm and something that provides and AS cripple like Randuin's Omen are the best items you can build against him.

Jayce Major This only applies to Jayce players who absolutely know what they are doing. Players without experience on this champion are free. Jayce is basically another one of those obnoxious poke champions. Start Doran's Shield 1 pot and play passive until 6 unless you get a jungle gank. Luckily most Jayce players tend to get really cocky when laning against Darius, opening them up for a nice gank. Cheese him by buying Tabis first and make sure you deny him a snowball since he is reliant on it to be really effective. He falls off harder than you do. Jayce becomes useless if he gets shut down early. Taking Phase Rush can work really well into him. I would strongly recommend taking TP instead of Ghost against Jayce though since you don't want to get poked out of lane and walk all the way back, losing a lot of EXP and CS. Use your E to pull him out of his leap mid-air.

Yasuo Tiny One of the biggest issues Yasuo has against Darius is that his base stats are really low for a melee champion. Especially his base HP. Add to the fact that Yasuo is one of the hardest champions to truly play well (I am not making this up, that's a fact) and you got yourself a matchup that's easy for Darius. Don't get cheesed Level 1-2 as he actually wins at those levels if he manages to hit level 2 before you. Tabis into Phage give him nearly 0 chance to deal with you in lane. Punish him for trying to CS if he steps up too far and try to shut him down/win by mid-game as he outscales you. Late-Game, given that he itemized correctly, he will destroy your ass. Fortunately for you though most Yasuo players lack the patience and knowledge to actually scale up and then destroy. If you get a lead on him he should never come back into the game. Zone him off of farm and EXP. Don't get too light-minded though. You can get outplayed. If he is smart he will try to wait out the stacks to deny you from using a max damage ult. The likelihood of you finding a Yasuo who can play this matchup really well is extremely small.

Irelia Minor Start Doran's Blade. The only chance to beat you is level If she ever tries to cs by using her Q post level 3 when you have QWE force a fight on her. She will try to stun you in order to disengage. It's easy to dodge so you should have no problems doing so. Then she will most likely use her W for the damage reduction on your Q at which point you can just continue to run her down. Once you have a lead zone her off of farm, EXP and make her pay. When you're confident and have a large minion wave backing you up you can even go for a dive on her like I have done numerous times. Her asking for a gank should be a simple double kill for you once you have more experience at turning ganks around.

Kled Even Save your ult for his dismounted form. And don't get bamboozled by his Q and E. Since he can juke your Q really well with it. Wait for the Q to pull you and then E him to bounce him off of you and then use your Q. Other than that care about his jungler since his Ult into Q is a lot of trouble against you considering he does max % HP damage. Tabis are godly against him.

Ornn Tiny Start Doran's Blade and go for Conqueror. The recent changes to Ornn made this lane even easier than before. Make sure to dodge the last tick of his W to avoid the brittle because that shit hurts. Use your E to prevent him from using the 2nd part of his ultimate. Be careful of getting ganked though. Ornn has a disgusting amount of CC in his arsenal.

Pantheon Even This lane is frustrating. He will constantly poke with Q's and punish you for trying to CS. Start Doran's Shield and go for Second Wind to deal with his constant poke. Also go for Conqueror. Invest into some early armor and play it cool until you're level 6 since pre-6 there isn't much you can do. Post-6 though, provided you tanked up enough to survive a full all-in + Ignite, you'll beat him without a problem. Pantheon has no combat ultimate and is very weak in all-ins since he isn't a champion who thrives in prolonged fighst. If you aren't careful enough Pantheon can shut you down pretty hard. He is extremely reliant on snowballing since he falls off extremely hard. Darius isn't as reliant on snowballing as Pantheon is. As long as you get XP, stay somewhat even in CS and don't give him any kills you are doing fine in this matchup. The pressure is on him, not on you. TP can work well here but personally I take Ghost against him..

Urgot Even Despite many people claiming that Darius is a hard counter to Urgot I think that's not the case due to the fact that Urgot is broken right now. Bait out his W, wait it out and then go back in and brawl with him, you will win extended trades/fights. Care for his ult when you're low on HP since his ult is an execute and try to avoid his Q. I recommend starting DShield in this lane. If he is running Spellbook always check what his current Summoner Spells are before you attempt to do anything.

Vladimir Minor You have to play around his pool. If the bar turns red don't let him Q you for free. Start Doran's Shield and look to bait out his pool with your E. As soon as your E is back up try to hook him again since his Pool has a longer CD than your E. Vlad has good all-in potential, Darius has better all-in potential. I heavily recommend going Phase Rush in this matchup and going for a level 3 all in. Vladimir struggles against beefy Bruisers who deal a lot of damage because he can't kill them before they kill him. Darius is one of those kind of champs.

Heimerdinger Major Start Doran's Shield and take Second wind + Conqueror. Heimerdinger has always been frustrating to play against as an immobile melee champion. The best approach to this would be rushing Specter's Cowl and then destroying his Turrets with Q's or a quick AA+W and then all-inning him when he has little to no turrets placed. Stacked turrets into a grenade can easily chunk you so hard that you need to cower behind your turret or need to recall. Other than that if you can't cope with him his pushing nature opens him up for a nice gank. Just play it smart so you and your jungler don't get double killed.

Karthus Tiny Start Doran's Shield if you're not confident in your ability to dodge his Q's otherwise start Doran's Blade or Long Sword. Basically you can just run him down whenever he walks past the middle of the lane. I advise taking ghost and Phase Rush in this matchup and going straight for a level 3 all in (if the position of the wave allows it).

Trundle Major Believe it or not you can't exactly fight this guy straight up at 6 because his ult makes him really tanky by stealing a large portion of your resistances. You have to bait it, wait it out then fight him unless you clearly have the advantage on him. Phase Rush is excellent for doing just that. After Trinity Force/Cleaver + Sterak's you can easily bash his head in. Be careful in teamfights if you're the only beefy one on your team since you will probably be the target of his ultimate.

Malphite Tiny If he went Comet start Dshield. Other than that he is pretty free as your Kit completely destroys him. Malphite stacks more Armor than Health really which is really bad against Darius since your Ult is more effective the less total HP a Champion has and your E passively gives you total armor pen. His attack speed cripple is annoying but he is really easy to beat as Darius.

Maokai Tiny Make sure to keep pressuring him since he has very good sustain in lane. Other than that it's important that you Q him instantly after you pull him otherwise he will just dodge it.

Nasus Tiny Start Doran's Blade and go Conqueror + Unflinching. Probably Darius' easiest match-up. All you have to do is freeze on him and punish/all-in him whenever he dares to come close. Never let him CS and always freeze the wave on him. Free matchup. There is legit nothing he can do, aside from trying to farm with his E I guess.

Nautilus Tiny He has disgusting CC to setup a gank for his jungler and it's very hard for you to stick to him because he can just R you and Q away.

Olaf Major Start Doran's Shield to help deal with his constant Q harass. Olaf can seriously demolish you if you're not careful. Look at what he is running. If he is running Ignite and Conqueror be extremely carefully. Pre-6 you beat in an all-in provided you don't constantly get hit by his Q's. Post-6 he can make use of his ult CC immunity to dodge your Q and use the bonus AD coupled with his W and Conqueror to beat the ever living F out of you therefore it's best to respect him post-6 until you get your core or he makes a really stupid mistake. Also your ultimate kinda makes his passive only partially useful since you can burst him down before he can make the most use of it. A lot of people just think about Olaf spamming Q in lane and that being his strength but besides his Q spam in attempt to run you down you should be most careful about his W couped with his passive, Conqueror and constant E's. The additional dueling power and sustain he gets from it will end if you aren't careful. You outscale him hard in teamfights and in 1v1's. Just be careful and don't int him otherwise it will get ugly for you. Prioritize HP over armor. Overgrowth is very useful against him in the long run since he deals so much flat true damage.

Poppy Tiny Start Doran's Blade and go for Conqueror. Hopeless matchup for Poppy. Just make sure you don't stay near wall so you don't get stunned. Other than that your Kit completely destroys her. Your E cancels her ult and she has no real escape she can only go in. Save your pull to cancel her Ult post-6.

Quinn Major The most notorious Darius matchup. Start Doran's Shield go for Phase Rush and take Second Wind. There are much worse match-ups for Darius but this one can be played by any rookie and will work against a lot of Darius players. Her E, Q and very strong poke are though for an immobile Darius to handle. If you're clean you can pull her as she E's you. If you manage to do that she is done for. Dead. If you can't do that then I suggest to farm it out until 6 and then all-in her with everything you've got. Let the wave push to you and use the entire lane to run her down. Thin out the wave with a well placed Q first. Invest into early armor, preferably Tabis if the enemy team comp allows it. If not get a Raptor Cloak. Ping your team mates if she is MIA. You don't want her to snowball, ever.

Renekton Even Start Doran's Blade and go for Conqueror. An early-mid game monster. In the right hands, that is. The way you play against the Croc is you don't let him run away after he dashes in to trade with you, blowing all his CD's. It's a skill match-up that can go either way eary-mid game. Late game however you will naturally win against him if you happen to 1v1 him. Renekton is dependent on his abilites and can't do much if he doesn't have his abilities up. Darius on the other hand has lower CD abilities and a passive which makes his autos hurt a lot. Rush Tabis agaisnt him or if the enemy teamcomp doesn't really allow it go for Raptor Cloak. You need early armor against him since you don't want to lose more than half of your health off of a combo. Save your E to pull him back in after he dashes out. If he is quick you won't be able to but he basically zones himself off of farm after he trades with you and you save your E. Whoever kills the other in this match-up will be dictating what happens in lane.

Singed Tiny Start Doran's Blade take Conqueror and Unflinching. Singed players hate to face Darius. Therefore you might experience that they want to proxy your minion wave to bypass having to lane against you. Deny him the proxy by covering the jungle when the minions spawn so he is forced to lane against you. Don't give him anything for free. Whenever he thinks he can use his poison to go through your minion attack him with your AA's and abilities and save your E to pull him back in after he flips you. Early boots along with a Phage are good to stick to him as best as you can. Force him to lane against you. And never let him proxy. I heavily recommend taking ghost against him. He will get Rylai's sooner or later therefore I love to go Unflinching vs him to hard tilt him.

Cassiopeia Major Go Doran's Shield + Second Wind and take Phase Rush, Nullifying Orb, Celerity, Gathering Storm and Unflinching. Also take Ghost. Cassiopeia is a DPS mage and a hypercarry. Nearly her entire kit counters you in some wy. Her Q gives her movement speed which she can use to kite you, her W slows you AND grounds you which means you can't ult on it, her high DPS melts everybody and she has a stun/slow in her ultimate effectively making it extremely hard for You to get to her. Add to all those things that Cassiopeia's core items grant her a large amount of HP which Darius hates and Rylai's being a core item for her and You got yourself a hard counter match-up. Requires experience. Pre-6 it's much easier to do something against her since she won't have Rylai's, a lot of Movement Speed and she won't have a lot of damage. Try to force a big lead pre-6. Dodge her Q while dodging her E. There are 2 approaches to this match-up as far as I am concerned. You either shove her in as hard as you can so she is forced to focus on farming and can't harass you OR you let her push and then use the entire lane to run her down with Ghost (my personal approach). If you don't get hit by her Q you potentially get the opening to pull her in and run her down. If you get hit by her Q back off instantly as you wont be able to pull her in because she will outrun you. Also get Adaptive Helm.

Gragas Tiny Go Doran's Shield to deal with his barrel poke and general sustain from his passive and go for Conqueror. All-in him every time you can and zone him off of farm and XP. He can't step up against you at all. The only form of safety he has against you is his ult and his Body Slam (which you can exploit by using your combo properly). He is probably gonna spam barrels to farm and never come close if he is smart. That's fine because he will miss a ton of farm that way.

Karma Major Karma is the embodiment of a lot of things Darius hates. Ranged, heavy slows, targeted hard CC, shields and movement speed steroids on demand. Go for Phase Rush, Doran's Shield and Second Wind to deal with her strong poke and take Ghost. The good thing is that she can't reliably solo kill you. Also she doesn't get picked that often. Even less in Top. If you land your E on her makes sure to quickly AA>W to proc Phase Rush and then stick as close to her as possible since she will try to root you to get herself away from you. If you stick to her as close as you can after procing Phase Rush before you get rooted you will be able to keep running her down.

Kayle Minor Used to be much harder but the nerfs to Rageblade and nerfs to her as a champion hit her like a truck. Also the meta shifting to short games doesn't give her enough time to acquire her items and become this huge hypercarry threat. This matchup is easy pre-6 but post-6 she gets her cockblock ultimate which just makes her more annoying to deal with since a well used ultimate can deny you your ult reset and ultimately shut you down in teamfights. Tabis are great against her because she deals the majority of her damage through AA's. Then continue to build into your core and after that pick up Adaptive Helmet. Phase Rush + Ghost highly recommended.

Rumble Minor Doran's Shield + Second Wind. Respect his early game. Sit back at Level 1-2 and farm safely. At 3 you can step up more. He is immobile so he can't escape from you. Phase Rush can work against him but he will most likely buy a Seeker's Armguard on his first back and maybe even Tabis as well. Therfore I recommend going for Conqueror. Ghost heavily recommended. The best moment to fight him is when he overheats since he can't use any abilities to kite you/fight you. If you struggle against him "Spectre's Cowl" makes for an excellent early purchase against him.

Shen Minor The only reason he is at Minor is because his ultimate can deny you your Ultimate Reset. Other than that the match-up is simple. Avoid attacking him while he has his Spirit's Refuge up and lastly use your E to hit your Q because he can use his Dash to dodge it.

Sion Tiny Start Doran's Blade and go for Conqueror. You outright destroy Sion since he is an immobile tank. Bash his head in whenever he comes close. Freeze the wave on him right outside of your tower and force him to walk up, don't shove him in. You don't want to shove him in since, by doing that, you allow his W to scale give him free farm. It's also worth noting that your E cancels his Q. Post-6 block his escape route by standing in the way of it.

Teemo Even Second Wind + Doran's Shield. Conqueror or Phase Rush both work here. However I am more of a fan of Conqueror. There are 2 types of Teemo players. Those who max Q and ONLY poke you with it and never AA you. In that case play passive and wait until you have Tier 2 Boots and/or Phage. In this lane it's really good to purchase Specter's Cowl first. Conqueror will provide enough damage for You to be able to murder him. The general strategy is to let him push into you and waiting for the wave to be close to Your tower so You have enough room to run him down, auto a minion before going in so your Conqueror becomes active (if you didn't go Phase Rush) and once Conqueror is active just Ghost at him. He won't be able to kill you through Specter's Cowl even with ignite. If you're running TP you will have to wait for Tier 2 Boots and Phage to get to him since he is pretty speedy thanks to his W. Against auto-attacking Teemo players you just abuse their positional mistakes by pulling them in with your E since Teemos AA-Range is really short (only 25 more range than Apprehend), especially compared to his Q range and from there on just murder him. Also don't be one of those players who use their W when blinded. Get Oracle's Lens.

Vayne Major Go Doran's Shield. I personally permanently ban this champion because the margin for error is almost non existent against her. Go Fleet Footwork + Ghost and rush Tabis as your first item. Also take Celerity and Nimbus Cloak. Try to abuse the fact that she has low range compared to other ranged champions. Farm it out until you have Tabis and Phage then make use of Fleet Footwork + Phage Passive to get a massive speed boost to grab her. She will try to Condemn you away at which point you use your W right before. In lane don't let her proc her W on you. Use brushes to your advantage. When you miss your E she can easily capitalize hard on it or straight up all-in you post-6. Ghost only works well into this matchup if you're confident in your ability to not get poked down too much until level 3. Generally though you should be concerned about how you reach her and keep in mind she has stealth and her Condemn. Righteous Glory is basically a must have against her. Fleet Footwork + Celerity + Phage Passive will help you out immensely though. Be careful though the odds are highly stacked against you vs Vayne unless the player piloting the champion is very bad.

Wukong Tiny Wukongs early game is terrible. He usually looks to dash in to do his rotation and get out with his Clone. The thing is that he has no escape if he uses said abilities to trade. If he ever dashes in auto him before he uses his Clone so your bleed gives an indication of where he is heading from there on just pull him back in and proceed to do your thing.

Yorick Major Almost nobody but players who either main Yorick or main Darius know about this counter.His cage, ghouls, sustain and general tankiness due to the items he likes to build makes him very hard to deal with on your own as Darius post-6. You have to get ahead early to win this one. Pre-6 to be exact. Yorick can run you over even when both of you are even. Provided he hits his stuff. Post-6 when he has his ghouls and you get trapped in his cage and he hurls his ghouls at you, you either flash out or you die. Simple as that. The most important thing in this match-up is to not get trapped into his cage and then targeted by his ghouls. If you can avoid his cage and force a fight on him you, you can win. To add even more salt to injury Yorick deals a pretty decent amount of magic damage. So don't just stack armor against him. You need MR against him or else he will melt you. Luckily they are like 10 Yorick players in the world so the likelihood of you bumping into one is extremely low.

Zilean Major Not so much of a threat on his own but the utility he provides is deadly for Darius in the hands of even a semi-decent Zilean. Go for Doran's Shield + Second Wind. Take Phase Rush + Ghost. Be careful who you execute with your ultimate or his ultimate can deny you the reset which drastically cuts down your damage output. If he builds AP his Bombs will hurt a fuckton so it might be worth thinking about buying MR even if he is the only magic damage on his team. A decent Zilean basically denies you from doing anything meaningful in a teamfight. Thus it's almost always best to split-push when against Zilean.

Tahm Kench Major Start Doran's Blade and go for Conqueror. Believe it or not but this fat catfish counters you. Generally you won't lane against him but if you do keep in mind that Top Kench has one of the strongest laning Phases out of all champions. His post level 3 all-in is more powerful than yours so respect it. At 6 it isn't won either since he effectively has 2 health bars and Darius hates a lot of health. If he snowballs on you you're gonna get destroyed in lane. In this lane you either just accept the fact that you can't fight him early and farm until you have your core or you dodge his Q's by side-stepping them or fighting in your minion wave. Tahm might be a beast in lane but he scales like garbage and he has no real waveclear. He can also save teammates from your R if he is quick enough. This is one of the very few matchups where I would think about building BORK at some point. Luckily for you almost nobody plays Tahm Top because, aside from a few very good matchups for him, it's troll.

Tryndamere Minor Go Doran's Blade and Phase Rush. In this matchup you can't leash your Jungler top because you have to contest Conqueror and his Fury. Tryndamere usually tries to shove lane and get his Conqueror + Fury going and will try to spin on you once he has hit level 2 to trade with you. If he does that, disengage. Other than that the key to winning this match-up is to always force him to use his fury for sustain, rather than additional trading power. By trading with him and knowing wave management. Freezing the lane right outside your tower will leave his Fury bar depleted and Conqueror unready. I recommend Phase Rush against him since it allows you to choose if you want to fight him or not. Also go Nimbus Cloak against him so you can kite him after you ult him and he uses his ult.

Viktor Minor I used to permanently ban this guy for well over 2 months until I found out a reliable way to deal with his annoying kit and perma slows. It's actually pretty simple. Go Doran's Shield + Second Wind and take Conqueror and Unflinching. You also have to go Ghost. After that rush Boots of Swiftness. Yes, Boots of Swiftness. This will, in combination with Unflinching, allow you to ignore such a large portion of his slows that it will allow you to catch up to him. If all of that fails you got Ghost as well. Phase Rush doesn't work against him because, believe it or not, he will legit be too tanky for you to kill because of all the armor he will have and the fat shield he gets from his Q every 2 seconds. Trust me, I've tried it. Overall simple when you keep those things in mind.

Lissandra Major Go Doran's Shield + Second Wind + Unflinching and Conqueror. Lissandra has got the be one the most frustrating and boring champions to play against. As Darius there isn't much you can do against her aside from trying to pull her during her E so she can't reactivate it. Other than that she just spams Q on the wave and perma shoves into you and you can't really retaliate against it. To add even more salt to injury even when you get ahold of her she has Aftershock + her ultimate + She will have Zhonyas effectively making it impossible for you to kill her or do much against her on your own. She is incredibly frustrating to play against. She is like a Malzahar on crack. If you're in a position where you are a carry you're gonna be the target of her ultimate in teamfights if she doesn't ult herself, making you have to pay 1300 gold for a QSS in order to participate in a teamfight. Pre-6 you can kill her if she is stupid but post-6 it's practically impossible for her to die to you.

Riven Even Go Doran's Blade + Phase Rush + Ghost + Bone Plating and Overgrowth or Demolish. With this setup you can exploit every single mistake she makes with ease. All things aside this matchup is completely dependent on how skilled the Riven is. Chances are if you're facing a Riven who is below Diamond 2 and/or is not maining the champion she is gonna feed you. If it's a good Riven it will be harder. The key to winning this matchup is to use your E rather defensively than aggressively. To cancel her 3rd Q to be exact. If she is bad and you notice it (comes with experience) you can use it aggressively. If you struggle then rushing Tabis and then going Phage is a good way to create more room for error in this lane. Lane snowballs heavy from both sides but Riven snowballs harder since she is by far more mobile than Darius. Luckily for you almost every Riven you are gonna meet is gonna int you.

Kennen Major Depends on how good the Kennen is and what he is running. It will most likely be Klepto Kennen. If he is decent it's gonna be very frustrating to deal with as it it's very hard hard to get ahead him on your own unless you get a gank. It's crucial that you start Doran's Shield and that you go for Second Wind. Phase Rush is great against him since, unlike other ranged match-ups, he has some form of mobility (his E). So you can use the extra sticking power to catch up to him even after he stuns you and tries to run away. Against bad Kennen players you can probably get them to overstep and get in your E range. Against good Kennen players you won't get any obvious openings in that case try your best to farm it out and get ganks. Ghost if you want a shot at winning lane with the risk of getting crushed if you fail. Teleport if you want the safe route and can handle getting poked for every 2nd creep you try to farm. This might be the best lane to rush Merc's in. You beat him in 1v1's later on should you split VS him but he outdoes you hard in teamfights.

Ahri Even Ahri has high burst mobility with her ultimate and a charm that lasts for a long time. To deal with her as Darius as best as possible look to get Tenacity and MR or burst negating items. Basically if she has ult up you won't be able to kill her but her entire kit revolves around hitting her charm and then going to town. If you can avoid her charm then you're effectively taking away half of her kit.

Elise Major This champion is a massive headache to deal with as Darius due to her damage being % based and her having rappel to dodge your Q or ultimate not to mention her cocoon is basically a death sentence for you if you get hit by it. To deal with Elise as best as you can as Darius look to get Tenacity, MR and items that are meant to negate burst such as Sterak's Gage Maw (if the enemy comp allows it) and Death's Dance combined with something like Spirit Visage. If you don't get MR vs or build burst negating items against her she will obliterate you with her high damage. She can stall you out for a fairly long time with her annoying rappel and she will most likely build Zhonyas too. Don't forget that she can dodge your Q and Ultimate with her rappel. Also if thing aren't going to well she might try to dive you with her top laner. Ward up properly.

Annie Minor You won't lane against her but if you do go for Doran's Shield and Conqueror. She has a point and click CC and strong burst therefore she is not that pleasant to deal with. As long as you can survive her burst though you can kill her easily afterwards. Also after she stuns you and doesn't manage to kill you, you can just Ghost at her and she will be helpless. Rush Hexdrinker if the enemy comp allows it otherwise Specter's Cowl into usual build path.

Caitlyn Even Caitlyn is one of the harder ADC's to deal with as Darius due to her very long AA range her very high late game damage output and small forms of self peel. To deal best with her in a late game Scenario invest into a Randuin's Omen to deal with her high damage output and buy a Warmog's Armor to deal with her poke. You don't want to start fighting with 50% HP. This is where Warmog's comes in handy.

Darius Extreme In my honest opinion there is no match-up Darius cannot beat. If You take the right precautions, go for the right Runes and Summoner Spells, You're clean with your mechanics, itemize correctly and You have the game knowledge You have the potential to beat every single champion as Darius. At the end of the day Darius is about stat-checking people and destroying them with a superior output of damage. When it comes to damage Darius is on top of the ladder of the champions who have the highest potential damage outputs in the entire game thanks to Noxian Might and his general kit.

Master Yi Major Ouch... this champion basically deals only true damage with his E and Conqueror + Red Smite. Sure he does a lot of physical too but you get me... 4 only does apply if he is jungling and he is doing well. If you're laning against him he is a minor threat at most. Watch out if he is running ignite and Conqueror as he will try to cheese you at level 2. Start Doran's Blade. You can easily crush him due to Your laning phase being worlds above his. If he has items and actually gets going then the threat of 4 applies. As Cowsep (arguably best Master Yi world) once said: "To beat Yi in a 1v1 you have to outdamage him." Well this is easier said than done. First of all you cannot afford to miss your Q or E on him or you will lose or will have to blow flash. Second of all don't ever think about winning a 1v1 against him when you go for Cleaver. You have to go for Trinity Force + Sterak's + Death's Dance + Tabis + Warmogs + Gargoyle Stoneplate. If he engages on You (which he will most likely do) instantly active Stoneplate and get your Noxian Might ASAP. From there on use your E to guarantee a Q and if you don't have E up Q Flash so it hits him with the Blade from there on you should be in a position to bash his head in.

Brand Major The amount of damage this guy can put out is crazy. He will build Rylai's and be a major annoyance due to his passive slowing you for it's duration. Therfore always go for Unflinching vs him and consider going for Phase Rush. Adaptive Helm is extremely useful against him.

Blitzcrank Major Not a solo threat. If you get pulled you will basically almost always die as a result of follow up damage from his team. The only way to deal with Blitzcrank is to either dodge the hook or invest into a Gargoyle Stoneplate so you don't instantly die and can hope for your team to do something.

Ashe Even One of the best ADC's at abusing low mobility Melee champions. Build Dead Man's Plate against her and also build Righteous Glory. If she is on the enemy team then I would seriously think about busting out Phase Rush + Unflinching.

Anivia Major Fuck everybody who plays this boring non-interactive champion. Start Doran's Shield and go for Phase Rush + Ghost + Nullifying Orb + Second Wind and Unflinching. Basically if she is good you will never be in a position to kill her in lane. But if she is bad or slips up and you manage to grab her you can run her down relentlessly. Focus on farming and get Adaptive Helm later. Her wall, slows and stun are rough to deal with so be careful about your positioning.

Aurelion Sol Minor He will build Rylai's and try to kite you to death with his stars. To counter this go for Unflinching and also consider going for Phase Rush. Ghost is extremely useful against him so is Adaptive Helm.

Azir Tiny Oh Azir what has Riot done to you...

Bard Even Not a solo threat. Constant slows from his passive, constant slows/stuns from his Q. Generally slippery and a cucking ultimate. Annoying to deal with but once you get ahold of him he is one dead motherfucker. Unflinching is great vs him and Phase Rush too. Generally most people who pick Bard just wanna troll so you shouldn't be too worried about him.

Braum Major Not a solo threat. I fucking hate this champion so much. Whenever you get hit by his Q or an AA from him you're basically guaranteed to get stunned right afterwards as a result of team-followup. His ult is also extremely cancer to deal with. To deal best with him go for Unflinching and stack a fuckton of Tenacity. This champion is absolute cancer to deal with as Darius.

Corki Even He is very weak until later stages of the game when he gets his items. He is probably one of the best scaling champions in the game. To counter him to the best of your Ability look to build Tabis, Adaptive Helm and Randuin's Omen against him. Care when he has package. Warmogs is also good against him late game.

Diana Minor She deals massive burst damage but if you can survive her initial burst you can just murder her. Best items against her are Ninja Tabi and Adaptive Helm.

Draven Even Brother... Really depends on how snowballed/fed he is. He is completely reliant on Auto Attacks hence Tabis+Randuin's Omen cucks him hard. Also Righteous Glory is excellent vs him to run him down without mercy.

Ekko Minor Depends on how skilled he is and how many items he has. He is weak early and scales amazingly for that. He is hard to get ahold of due to his kit in general but he is melee after all so if you can tank his burst and can avoid to get stunned by his W you can kill him easily or force him to use his ultimate. Merc's arent really mandatory against him. Just make sure to get MR and something to negate burst like Sterak's Gage.

Evelynn Major Stealth, Strong Burst, Hard CC and an ultimate which can be used to deny you. Eve has a lot of things which Darius doesn't like. Laughably easy to deal with pre-6 and hard to deal with post-6. The best way to deal with her is to stack MR and Tenacity so she can't one shot you. If she is good you won't be able to kill her because she can just ult out. Overall very unpleasant to deal with Eve as Darius. QSS is also worth building against her at some point.

Ezreal Major Only applies if he gets Gauntlet (which he basically always does). He is extremely slippery with his E and his Q's are cancer since they proc the slow from Gauntlet. He also deals a lot of fucking damage if he hits his shit. Going for the "Extreme Anti-Kite Build" has proven successful for me against him very often. Also go Unflinching vs him.

Fiddlesticks Even Not a solo threat. He has disgusting CC and can basically deny you from doing anything meaningful for a solid 3,5 seconds. Stack Tenacity vs him and consider building QSS. Unflinching is also godly against him. You can cancel his W with your E too.

Fizz Even Only dangerous if he hits a good ultimate on you. There isn't much I can say here other than that you're gonna be taking a fuckton of burst if you get hit by his Ult into his rotation of abilities and ALWAYS Q instantly after landing an E on him. Look to get MR and burst-negating items.

Graves Minor His smoke screen is the only thing that is annoying about him since it can screw with your ultimate. Other than that if you mange to get him he is doomed. He does deal a lot of fucking damage though and he likes to go for crit items. Avoid his smoke screen as good as you can by walking out of it ASAP.

Hecarim Tiny Probably one of the easiest Junglers to deal with as Darius. It is META to run Ghost on Hecarim so if you survive his burst you can just murder him afterwards. He can only ult out. You can also use your E to cancel his E IIRC.

Ivern Minor Not a solo threat. This guy is lowkey broken right now. His shields and CC are difficult to deal with but he pops like a balloon so if you get ahold of him you can murder him easily. Go Unflinching vs him. Tenacity is also super useful vs him.

Jhin Even This guy is FAST but only if he crits. While Randuin's is a great item vs him you will need items like Deadman's Plate and RG against him. The good thing is that no matter how fucking fast he is once you have him he is a sitting duck. Watch out for his ultimate as he can use it to engage onto you from a safe distance.

Kai'Sa Major Coming soon...

Kalista Major Coming soon...

Kassadin Minor Coming soon...

Katarina Tiny Coming soon...

Kayn Even Coming soon...

Kha'Zix Major Coming soon...

Kindred Major Coming soon...

Kog'Maw Major Coming soon...

LeBlanc Major Coming soon...

Lee Sin Minor Coming soon...

Leona Even Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Lucian Major Coming soon...

Lulu Major Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Lux Minor Coming soon...

Malzahar Major Coming soon...

Miss Fortune Minor Coming soon...

Morgana Major Not a solo threat.

Nami Major Not a solo threat.

Neeko Even Coming soon...

Nidalee Even Coming soon...

Nocturne Major Coming soon...

Minor Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Orianna Even Coming soon...

Rakan Major Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Rammus Minor Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Rek'Sai Even Coming soon...

Rengar Minor Coming soon...

Ryze Minor Coming soon...

Sejuani Minor Coming soon...

Shyvana Minor Coming soon...

Sivir Major Coming soon...

Skarner Minor Coming soon...

Sona Major Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Soraka Major Not a solo threat. Coming soon...

Swain Minor Coming soon...

Sylas Minor Coming soon...

Syndra Even Coming soon...

Taliyah Major Coming soon...

Talon Minor Coming soon...

Taric Minor Coming soon...

Thresh Even Coming soon...

Tristana Major Coming soon...

Twisted Fate Even Coming soon...

Twitch Major Coming soon...

Udyr Even Coming soon...

Varus Even Coming soon...

Veigar Major Coming soon...

Vel'Koz Major Coming soon...

Vi Minor Coming soon...

Volibear Minor Coming soon...

Warwick Minor Coming soon...

Xayah Even Coming soon...

Xerath Minor Coming soon...

Xin Zhao Minor Coming soon...

Zac Minor Coming soon...

Zed Major Coming soon...

Ziggs Minor Coming soon...

Zoe Major Coming soon...