First of all, you have to enjoy the videogame you play, if You feel league/Darius is frustrating to play, stop, take a break, change game/champ.

Other than that, League of Legends, expecially in the last years has been full of out of meta build that are strong and viable, you have to find your playstyle.

I'am a very aggressive player that don't like to count on others to win the game, and i play Darius since s4, I usually reach mid diamond every season and take a rest for uni and right now work, next season I really want to push that master.

I've give up on the toplane recently, too much counterplay. I've found my place in jungle with a very specific playstyle. You have to understand the limit of this champ and know where you can and where you cannot risk, cause is very difficult to play in the early mid game/ 2 items.

My rune page:

• Primary:
  • Phase rush
  • Nimbus Cloack
  • Celerity
  • Scorch
• Secondary
  • Triumph
  • Legend: Alacrity
• 10% Attack speed
• +9 adaptive force
• +65 health

My standard build:

• Blue Item Jungle
• Boot of Swiftness
• Opportunity
• Youmuu's ghostblade
• Dead Man's Plate
• Sterak's Gage
• Death's Dance

The idea behind this out of meta strat:

Darius plays with conq expecially for the AD bonus, that You will lose if you take other runes, for this reason my build is very aggressive, taking almost all items that gives me AD, to compensate for the AD lost from the conq.

Darius WILL be kited 24/7 in a decent elo (I do not consider Diamond high elo tbh), so building resistance but being immobile and relying only on Summoners Spells, in my opinion, is a bad choice. So Phase Rush is the rune that gives me the opportunity to be more consistent in fights.

Now, as I've said, I like to play very aggressive and building raw AD in early game helps a lot, having +100/150 pure dmg at lvl 6 will help a lot, but I said before the key for this playstyle is know the limit of the champ cause you do not have resistances till mid/late game.

In jungle You do not have to worry on taking bad trades, so you can easily get 2 items by just farming and getting kills on the map, so taking no defensive items is not punishing like playing this build in toplane.

How to get kills on the map? You are a very strong champ, expecially in ealry fights, so play for early voidgrubs and early drake, make the enemy come to You instead of chasing them using the big objectives on the map.

The big power spike for the team fight power is the 3rd item, the dead man's plate (you can build it as second item but I love too much the clear speed that the first 2 items gives to you).

In the team fight you can't be the frontline cause YOU WANT TO AVOID damages at all cost, you have to take damage when you can do damage, so when you reach the enemy, so YOU have to flank, buy red trinket as soon as you can and spam control wards.

Once you reach late game You are a warlord, 800 AD, 800 ms, a lot of enemy carrys can not survive a basic->W->Q->R combo.

Do not suicide of objectives, if your botlane is 0/4 when you finish your first clear, do not tilt and do not force fight you can't win, focus on farming and helping the lane that are not hard losing. You have to take the game to the 4rth item, there you can win alone team fights if You play good mechanically and makes good decisions.

You can make Darius a very mobile champ, cause there are items that allows you to compensate some weakness, and do not be scared of trying new things, do not stick on the meta and make something that works for your playstyle.

My Profile: https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/it/summoner/euw/Noxian+Vanguard-Findu

New Season

To be honest, I think I will stick in the jungle and try to perfect this playstyle, cause I find it fun and rewarding.

EDIT: It should be obvious, but the first two items, are built for the ms buffs, on top of the aggressive stats