The current characters of choice in top-lane are ones that can contribute to control over Dragon or tanks that can peel for their back-line. While this might be fulfilling for some players, I've long been of the school that likes dueling in the top lane. However, standard damage dealers like Fiora and Shyv find themselves outmatched by the tankier choices in the lane like Maokai. There is a duelist that excels in the long-winded skirmishes that have become common, though.

Darius is bulky enough to deal with the harassment of Kennen, Lissandra, and Lulu while having the damage to kill off Cho, Maokai, and Hecarim. At level 6, Darius threatens enough damage to straight kill off any opponent and this gives him a lot of zoning potential. A single hit Apprehend can result in a forced Flash or death, and he can quickly turn around Jungle ganks with his burst damage.

Runes and Masteries

For your reds, you want to build nine Greater Marks of Armor Penetration. Combined with the passive of Apprehend, you'll be able to slice right through a Doran's Shield start. Your nine Greater Seals of Scaling Armor and nine Greater Glyphs of Scaling Magic Resist allow you to go with a damage heavy build while maintaining the bulk that you'll need in the later game. Your quintessences can be varied, but I prefer going with three Greater Quintessences of Attack Damage, which make early last hitting easy.

Your masteries will be a standard 21/9/0 set up, where you want to emphasize bonus resistances, health, and dueling power.

Summoner Spells and Items

You actually have leeway in your summoner spells for the first time in a while. Of course you want to go Flash, as it gives you an escape as well as a proactive gap close (rather than the reactive gap closer of Apprehend). The standard Teleport is a fine choice for your second summoner, as it gives you a global presence that will allow you to help contest objectives as well as sneak behind the enemy and execute their back-line. Ignite gives you even more killing power in lane, as the burn plus the bleed will finish off any opponent you get below 300 hit points. It's also an ideal way to stop high sustain characters like Vladimir and Hecarim from ignoring your harassment. Ghost will allow you to close the difference between you and the enemy back-line while preventing the enemy front-line from body blocking your path, a common problem with Darius.

Your starting buy is dependent on your lane opponent. Against ranged autoattack harassment or high physical damage spell casters, like Kennen and Riven, you want to start with a Doran's Shield and Health Potion. Against more passive lane opponents or those that rely on heavy amounts of spell damage, such as Maokai and Rumble, you should start with a Doran's Blade or a Long Sword and health pots. Finally, against a character that often goes Crystalline Flask first, like Kassadin, you should match the flask.

From there, your early buys will provide you damage. Your core is a Brutalizer, a Tiamat, and boots. The Brutalizer provides you substantial early game damage, and the Tiamat makes you a split-pushing threat. Before the Tiamat, you rely on using Decimate to clear, and while it is quick, it drains your mana pool quickly. With a Tiamat, you can shove hard while reserving your mana to dunk anyone who chooses to challenge you.

Boots are the standard decision of how you want to contribute to the team - if you get an early lead, build Boots of Mobility and show up in other lanes. Ninja Tabi allow you to handle Fiora, Aatrox, and Irelia, while Merc Treads are ideal for dealing with teams with three or more sources of hard tenacity-affected CC. I actually enjoy going Boots of Swiftness against stationary AD Carries like Varus, Kog, and Ashe, but they're a bit of an off choice.

Your other buys are heavily dependent on the enemy comp. Against an AP top, build a Hexdrinker early, while building a Warden's Mail against auto-attack reliant duelists. If your opponent is neither, build Bami's Cinder. You end build should look like this: Boots, Youmuu's, Hydra, Sunfire, Maw, and then another varied defensive item. Your goal is to be a bulky enough front-line that the enemy carries can't burst you down before you snatch them up with Apprehend.

Early Lane: Constant Bullying

Darius is the archetypal lane bully, he can throw out absurd amounts of early damage to an opponent that walks into his reach. Most of your early game is going to be abusing this fact, using the threat of damage to force your enemy away from the minion wave. Put yourself in the middle of the minion wave and try to put yourself between them and farm. If they close in to get farm, use the edge of Decimate to whittle down their health.

Once you've hit level two, pick up Apprehend. Whenever the enemy tries to get close to the wave, don't walk towards them. Stand your ground and see if they'll draw themselves farther in. If they get in range for Apprehend, use it. The standard combo once you've nabbed an enemy is E > Auto > W > Auto > Q. You want to wait until they gain a bit of distance to use Q so that you get the bonus damage, and you want to auto before using your W because it is an auto-attack reset. If you use W immediately, you're just leaving damage, and a stack of your passive, on the table. You're going to max your Q first, then your W. While E's passive Armor Pen looks nice, the amplified auto-attack gives you more damage during your burst.

Your early goal isn't really to kill the opponent. Sure if they stay too long and are prime for a Flash > Q, go ahead and try, but you just want to build up a minion advantage into your level six power-spike. Once you've build up around 1000 gold, go back to base. Build two longswords and some boots, and if you have enough to go straight into Brutalizer, make that purchase. Once you get your Brutalizer, you're gonna put out so much damage that the enemy Jungler is going to set up a tent in the river.

Once you hit six, Guillotine allows you to 100-0 the enemy easily. Remember to get all five stacks of Hemorrhage on the enemy before using it, and an indicator will be above the enemy if Guillotine will kill them. If the enemy Jungler comes in, focus your efforts on the one with lower health - if you're able to kill one of them you may be able to turn the fight completely.

Darius in the Team: How Not To Be Kited

Generally this is where Darius tends to fall off in the game. Sure, you might have gotten sixteen kills in lane, but now we're fighting over objectives and you're a slow-moving tank. Don't think like that. Make the game revolve around you. The primary way you're going to accomplish this is by split-pushing. Communicate with your team what you're going to do - tell them to push another lane or go for Dragon, while you delve deeper into enemy territory. You are such a threat that a single person cannot defend against you - make the enemy team play the buddy system and group up on you. And they need to answer you, since your W allows you to quickly chop down structures.

Ward heavily in the enemy Jungle, but don't necessarily scamper off right when you see the enemy. Find a point where you think you can fight, and try to pick someone off. My favorite places to wait are in Gromp's Spawn and in the red buff brush. If they turn to fight you rather than immediately flashing, kill them. I know that sounds flippant, but unless you're fighting a Volibear or a Zac, you're going to be able to slice right through them.

Eventually you're going to need to group with your team for a team-fight despite your protests. This is okay, what you're going to do in these situations is simple: you're going to burst down their front-line. Use your massive reach to keep them off your carries with W and E and try to build up 5 stacks of your passive. Once they're low, use your Ultimate. Rinse and repeat. Allow your Jungler and Mid-laner to try and pick off the squishier targets in the enemy team, but even if they fail, you can walk towards them with your Ultimate still up and finish the job. You can't be kited if you're not fighting the person that wants to kite you. If this seems too boring to you, the other thing you can do is Flash into the enemy team and try to grab their most immobile character (read: Support). Normally this strategy is ideal if you have a hard-engage Support like Leona, Fiddlesticks, or Annie.

Conclusion

Imagine a game with a Kennen on the enemy team. Miserable, isn't it. Now imagine if that Kennen was three levels down and died immediately after being stared at. That's the sort of situation that Darius in the top-lane causes. There are situations where Darius is a bad pick - incredibly mobile enemy team comps are hell for him, especially if Kalista is on the enemy team. But now is the time to experiment - there are tons of characters that haven't seen play in months common on the rift now, and Darius has some strengths that line him up favorably with the current meta-game.