Talk:Darius/Strategy/@comment-195.69.193.12-20120711061508/@comment-62.1.167.177-20121202181005

Riot recommends Regrowth Pendant item for Darius as first item for a reason (and not a single RePe variant), which is Darius' severe lack of range AND defenses/bubbles. Darius is in high risk of exposure throughout ALL the game, it's just that with his ulti available he builds (usually) enough threat for enemies to keep the distance.

Unfortunately, Darius is designed to work with his ulti, in the same way as Tryndamere: Without ulti he doesn't pose a serious threat due to being prone to kiting.

If you don't buy additional health regeneration to Darius early, you have to be VERY, VERY cautious pre-ulti which on one hand is a MUST, on the other hand forces the Darius' player to a mindset completely opposite to Darius AFTER lvl6 (with ulti).

In other words, you have to consider being a chicken during lvls 1-5, but also being on alert for opportunities to grab/slow/trade blows (being exposed, that is), a squishy assassin way of thinking, then after 6 (and only as long as your ulti is ready) you have to really, really become bloodthirsty and offensive in order to bully opponents back and zone them.

The enemies KNOW that you want to achieve these things, and Darius *IS* melee, so they will try to bully YOU pre 6 and then they will try to bait you and be sneaky with you and your lack of serious range.

Darius is powerful, but suffers from a great disadvantage: He can quickly become quite predictable: Ever experienced a game in which your Darius missed his E grab 80% of the time, unless they were trolling/feeding? That's because they expect your abilities in specific orders (for instance, no one expects you to ulti full healths without hemo-stacks).

Oh, and no defenses. :(