User blog comment:Nuclrdmntr/How to beat Darius AKA Dunkmaster D/@comment-192.203.137.242-20130122155844

Why no love for Swain or Nidalee? I pretty much use these two champs, along with Yorick, exclusively to counter Darius. Swain just shits all over Darius hard, especially at level 2 when your EQ will chunk him for godlike amouts of damage. Even level 6 isn't so bad because as Swain you're naturally going to be building tanky (RoA, Zhonya's/Iceborn) so you can just go lolbird when he grabs you. Seriously, sometimes I'll purposely get grabbed by Darius so I can EQWR him and laugh as he instantly regrets his decision.

My itemization against him is usually RoA + T2 boots to begin with. usually Treads as Hemorrhage stacks DO hurt, but Pen is viable if you're absolutely dunklording him. Tabi is another choice if you seem to be getting hit a lot by max range Decimates as well as the enemy team being predominantly AD.) I'll get a Guise and Glacial Shroud afterwards, most likely followed up by a Grail. The Guise is great as any Darius (or player for that matter) worth their weight in salt will be building MR. This rather common on Darius due to his highly disproportionate yet favorable damage/defense tradeoff. Expect Hexdrinker (into Maw), Treads (almost 100% of the time really), QSS (into Mercurial), Aegis (into Runic), or Wit's End (lol.).

Glacial Shroud is really self explanatory. You get armor to negate Q, W, and AA damage, you get CDR which means more DPS, you get Mana which means more harass and ultimately more lolbird, and you get the option to upgrade it into two equally great alternatives: Iceborn Gauntlet (#1 Kite) & Frozen Heart. Of course, if you plan on grabbing a Zhonya's instead, I'd grab the Chain Vest and work on the rest of your build before commiting fully to it.

The rest of the build is generally up to the person, however, I generally end up going: Treads/Pen, RoA, Iceborn, Grail, DCap, Void/Liandry's/DFG. You can substitute Iceborn for Zhonya's or Frozen Heart but I really, really love that item.

AD Nid is pretty damn good against him due to retarded poke, great sustain, and great mobility in brush + post 6. Still, Darius can rush a Warden's Mail which will make you a sad kitty. Getting grabbed is also pretty bad as you're pretty squish, however, you might still be able to escape utilizing Cougar and Brush. If he has Frozen Mallet and/or Randuin's you better not get grabbed.