What is the best build for Darius?

We do not publish a best build for Darius, and the reason is worth thirty seconds. The most recorded Darius top build on patch 16.14 is Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Death's Dance, in 102 games. A finished item set is read at the end of the game, so a build only appears once the game ran long enough to buy it, and a game that runs long is usually a game you were winning. Any share of wins taken from those games leans high for that reason on its own, which is why there is not one in this answer. The page lists every recorded build with the games behind it.

What are the best runes for Darius?

The most recorded Darius top rune page on patch 16.14 takes Conqueror out of Precision, with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Last Stand beside it and Celerity and Nimbus Cloak out of Sorcery. Players who ran it won 47.5% of 758 games, range 44.0% to 51.1%. A rune page is locked in at champion select, so that share is not inflated by long games the way a build is, but it counts who picked the page rather than what the page did.

Darius build, patch 16.14

Q: What skill order should I use on Darius?

Recorded Darius top players max Q, then E, then W. 502 recorded games on patch 16.14. Win comparisons only count games that ran long enough to finish the max: 100% of 501 Q-first games and 100% of 1 W-first games. Short games are missing from both sides, and short games are usually decided ones.

2,267 games of Darius recorded on patch 16.14, across top, jungle, mid, support and bot.

Win rate

49.5% of top games this patch

Pick rate

2.6% of top games

Games

2,010 top, patch 16.14

Rank in role

25 of 122 top champions

Win impact against the average top pick on patch 16.14: -0.2 wins per 100 games (range -1.8 to 1.3) 2,010 games Pooled

What most Darius top players build, patch 16.14

Build Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Death's Dance, and run Conqueror

The rune page they run

Precision

Conqueror

Sorcery

Shards

758 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

The skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 502 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q		Q	Q		Q		Q
W	W													W	W		W	W
E			E					E		E		E	E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 E, 11 R, 12 E, 13 E, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

Max Q, then E, then W. The level by level count.

102 games finished this exact set. It is the set recorded most often, which is a fact about players rather than about the items.

Share of those games that were wins, in percent 60.8% (range 51.1-69.7) · 102 games · Measured

Games that finish a build are games that lasted, and lasting usually means winning, so this figure leans high before the items do anything. It is how those games went, not what the build does to your chances. How far that can bend a number.

Darius top is the role with the most recorded games on patch 16.14: 2,010 games, of which 995 were wins. That is the role this page leads with. Measured on this page: top and jungle, the roles that cleared 30 recorded games.

wins 0.2 per 100 vs the top average · 2,010 games on 16.14 · first-time players measured (1,823 games) · no clear move vs 16.13 (-10.0, range -21.4 to +1.4)

The build above is the one recorded most often, nothing more. Every recorded build, with its own games and its own share, is in the build list, in the order players built them.

Why this answer

A champion and role pair needs 30 recorded games before we put a score or a win impact on it: under that, a handful of lucky games moves a win rate by ten points. The same floor applies to a single build and to a single rune page, and anything under it prints its games and no number.

The share on that figure says how the games went, not what the build does to you. Nothing on this page measures that; the method note at the end says why.

What do most Darius players build?

Item sets recorded on patch 16.14, most built first, never sorted by how the games went. The share is how many of a build's own games were wins; a build under 30 games shows its games and no share.

Darius, top

8 item sets were recorded in this role and 5 of them cleared 30 games.

Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Death's Dance
60.8% 102 games
Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Force of Nature
45.3% 75 games
Sterak's Gage, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Dead Man's Plate
55.2% 58 games
Sterak's Gage, Dead Man's Plate and Stridebreaker
51.3% 39 games
Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate, Force of Nature and Death's Dance
67.6% 34 games

A finished set is read at the end of the game, so every share here leans high: games that last long enough to finish a build are usually games that were already going well. How far that can bend a number.

Darius, jungle

4 item sets were recorded in this role and 0 of them cleared 30 games.

Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Force of Nature
not enough games yet. 25 games so far, this needs 30. 25 games
Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate and Death's Dance
not enough games yet. 21 games so far, this needs 30. 21 games
Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate, Force of Nature and Death's Dance
not enough games yet. 10 games so far, this needs 30. 10 games

What runes do most Darius players run?

Whole pages that players actually ran, most recorded first. A page is locked in at champion select, so long games do not inflate its share the way they inflate a build's; it still counts who picked the page rather than what the page did.

Darius, top

10 complete pages were recorded in this role and 6 of them cleared 30 games.

Conqueror Precision with Sorcery

758 games

Precision

Conqueror

Sorcery

Shards

758 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

Other pages players ran

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Precision

667 games

Conqueror Precision with Resolve

369 games

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Resolve

90 games

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Inspiration

34 games

Conqueror Precision with Inspiration

33 games

Keystones picked, one slot on its own

Conqueror: 48.6% 1,162 games
Stormraider's Surge: 51.6% 795 games
Hail of Blades: 40.0% 45 games

5 keystones were recorded in this role: one slot on its own, counted across every page that used it, so the share carries the rest of each page with it.

Darius, jungle

7 complete pages were recorded in this role and 1 of them cleared 30 games.

Stormraider's Surge Sorcery with Precision

180 games

Sorcery

Stormraider's Surge

Precision

Shards

180 games ran this page exactly as it is drawn. We never stitch the most picked keystone onto the most picked second row and call it a page: nobody ran that one.

Keystones picked, one slot on its own

Stormraider's Surge: 51.8% 197 games

3 keystones were recorded in this role: one slot on its own, counted across every page that used it, so the share carries the rest of each page with it.

What skill order should I use?

Counted from recorded level-ups on patch 16.14, one player per game.

Max Q, then E, then W

502 recorded games on patch 16.14. Win comparisons only count games that ran long enough to finish the max: 100% of 501 Q-first games and 100% of 1 W-first games. Short games are missing from both sides, and short games are usually decided ones.

not enough games

Darius top skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 502 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q		Q	Q		Q		Q
W	W													W	W		W	W
E			E					E		E		E	E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 E, 11 R, 12 E, 13 E, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

Almost nobody maxed W first, so there is nothing to compare. +1 wins per 100 games (range -10 to 11) 500 games Measured 499 games maxed Q first, 1 game maxed W first.

Max Q, then E, then W

Only 44 recorded games on patch 16.14. A soft read.

Darius jungle skill path Each filled cell is the skill most players took at that level, from 44 games.
skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q		Q	Q	Q	Q		Q		Q
W	W													W	W		W	W
E								E		E		E	E
R						R					R					R

Levels 10 to 18

10 E, 11 R, 12 E, 13 E, 14 W, 15 W, 16 R, 17 W, 18 W

When do players buy each piece?

The pieces of the most recorded Darius top build, in the order players buy them. The time is the middle of the spread across every recorded game on patch 16.14, measured at the buy rather than at the end of the game: half the recorded buys of the item happen before it, half after.

Buy times, earliest first

Youmuu's Ghostblade: 13:13 602 games
Dead Man's Plate: 20:18 409 games
Death's Dance: 25:04 1,079 games

The bar is scaled to the latest piece of the set. Each item links to its own page, where the whole spread sits beside the games behind it.

Who counters Darius?

The opponents Darius top loses to most and the teammates Darius gains the most beside on patch 16.14. The chip is the edge in wins per 100 games, and the games behind it sit under the name.

Hardest opponents

102 more opponents sit under 50 games against Darius and are counted, not ranked. Every measured Darius opponent, with the full table

Best teammates

Every measured Darius teammate, with the full table

These numbers come from 108,616 ranked games we recorded on EUW, Korea and NA, found by following Diamond players and the people they play with. That is not every rank and it is not every region. Everything on this page is patch 16.14. Counted up to 24 July 2026.

How does Darius rank?

Every role we recorded Darius in on patch 16.14, scored or not. Win impact is measured against the average pick in that role on the same patch, and a role needs 30 recorded games before it is scored.

Darius by role

top B -0.2 wins per 100 games (range -1.8 to 1.3) 2,010 games Pooled: 50 2,010 games
jungle C +0.3 wins per 100 games (range -1.8 to 2.4) 224 games Pooled: 47 224 games
mid not enough games yet. 20 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 20 games
support not enough games yet. 9 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 9 games
bot not enough games yet. 4 games so far, this needs 30.: not scored 4 games

Why no share of wins on this page says a build is good for Darius

A finished item set is read at the end of the game. A player who bought the first two items and lost at twenty minutes never finished the set, so they are not in its row. Everybody in the row lasted long enough to buy it, and lasting is most of what winning looks like. The share those games won is pushed up by that on its own, before the items do anything at all, and the push is largest on the most expensive builds and backwards on the ones you buy when a game is going badly.

We know the size of it. In simulation, with every item's real effect set to exactly zero, an item read at the end of the game shows about 92% as a sixth completed item. A defensive item with a real 5 point benefit shows about 20 points the wrong way, because it gets bought when a player is behind. The measurement is here.

So this page counts and labels rather than ranks. The estimate that answers the real question is taken at the moment of the buy, from the state the purchase happened in, and it runs in the desktop app because it needs the game in front of it.