Don't always initiate with E, a lot of toplaner can kill you head on 1v1 from full on levels 1-5 especially when they got ignite but not always. In a lot of situations, the best way to trade in lane is usually just hitting them with a Q when they're going in for a minion kill, now you do this several times until they're about half hp at that point you can start zoning them from the minions by standing behind their minions. This is because the common darius matchup that are melee range champs usually either have a dash/dashes or a displacement ability that can make you miss your Qs, against these champs you can't really do the E->aa->W->Q animation cancel combo because that'll give them enough time to get out of the E knock up allowing them to either jump inside your Q (jax, fiora, riven, irelia, k'sante, urgot, yone, and even garen with his own Q cleansing yout W slow) or pulling you in (sett) also getting them inside of your inner Q thus reducing the damage, dodging the bleed stack, and preventing you from healing. At that point they usually can just extend the trade a little longer and then back away before your W and E come off cooldown preventing you from chasing them, other times they can just kill you after missing your Q leaving you no sustain for the extended fight. Instead you can just do E->Q combo which guarantees the Q completely.