Talk:Darius/@comment-34510754-20180131025541

I think that Darius has indeed lost quite a bit of bully power in top lane in early game due to new revamped champions which makes them less vulnerable to darius harrassment. And with the change of rune system, it is hard to actually build a hybrid darius early game with both damage and tankiness. Most suitable path now for Darius is perhaps Resolve, which give him the tankiness that he need, but definitely some damage reduction, and maybe not as OP as he was before. But nevertheless, the standard rush for black cleaver still gives him a lot of advantage against most melee top champions. And situtional items like deadman plate makes him tanky in mid game, and maybe a spirit of visage can give him some MR and the passive on increase of heal does helps in survivng team fights, while building up the blood stacks you need to activate the noxian might before dunking the enemies.

For summoning spells, perhaps from time to time, I would take exhaust or teleport with flash. Of course a teleport makes him more mobile in the map, but to win lane exhaust may actually be a more suitable choice than ghost inmy opinion. As exhaust can reduce damage intake by 40% and in the mean time, slow enemy, coupled with Darius pull and W, the enemy would have little chance to escape, (unless of course if you are against a Singed or Teemo which can run). In early games 1v1 lane fights, exhaust will give you the time to stack up your passive, and with Resolve and a little tank, you can outdamaged most top melee champions early games.

Of course, new champions introduced in recent years like illaoi, really give darius a tough life in mid games, but darius is still one of best bruiser in game.