Talk:Kayle/@comment-5077305-20120906145210/@comment-2124153-20120906175108

So, while it's true that Kayle vs. Darius is favorable to the Kayle player, it's no hard counter by any means, you have to do the work to get the win. Also, top lane is snowbally no matter what, so sometimes you can tiegame or lose through no fault of your own. The match-up is pretty similar to Riven (dealing with someone who can burst your nuts off), except Apprehend makes things a bit trickier since Darius burns no DPS to close the gap.

You have basically the correct idea. Darius has no answer to Reckoning whatsoever: it outranges everything he has, he can't remove the slow, and itemizing for MR is a half-measure at best vs. a Kayle player (who can just shift to building AD). So, if you max it first and only keep one point in E, you will get his health to such a point with cherry harass that he will die in any trade, AKA you are now denying him. Maxing Q first is annoying for aggressive players, but this is how you win from a dead even start. By all means, if you get a kill or two, switch back to maxing E.

When it comes to Righteous Fury, it's true that Apprehend will catch you if you start hitting him at max range. What is ALSO true, however, is that Apprehend is basically a skillshot, and thus you can juke it. If you make as if you're going to commit (ie you Q him, turn on E and close to attack range), you can bait Apprehend out of him if you back off at the last moment. He will whiff, and now his "gap closer" is on cooldown and he is slowed. Proceed to shred him to liquid poo.

If Darius doesn't bite, that's fine. You already hit him with Q, so you win the health trade and have only lost out on mana. The splash on Righteous Fury is gigantic, so he can't be anywhere near his minions. If he is, punish him by attacking the minion and hitting him with the splash damage, which is out of Apprehend range (maximum effective reach of Righteous Fury is 525 + 150).

The other thing to remember about Darius is that while he can stick to targets easily, he has to 100% commit to a fight. In other words, he can't get away without Summoners. You can take advantage of this by having the jungler come and piss in his Cheerios. This doesn't necessarily means a river gank, you can have the jungler come straight down the lane, either in plain sight or sneaking down through the bushes (since Kayle can push so easily, it's easy to set that up). Start a fight, let yourself get Apprehended, and then the jungler comes out and it's an instant 2v1 with no way for Darius to disengage. Self-ult if needed to minimize the damage that he is able to do.

Your Exhaust idea is also good (same reason: Darius can't disengage), although I think the other countermeasures are sufficient such that you can run with your normal Summoners if you want to.