God-King Darius

When God-King Darius dropped alongside God-King Garen back in June 2018 there was a whole in-client event where you had to pick a side. Darius or Garen. I picked Darius without hesitation because have you seen the splash? Alex “alexplank” Flores made Darius look like an actual god of war standing over a battlefield with a massive wolf at his side. One of the most intimidating splash arts Riot has ever produced.

What God-King changes on the Dunkmaster

The model is massive. Darius already has a big presence on the Rift but God-King amplifies it. Dark armor with red accents, a cape flowing behind him, and a giant axe that looks like it was forged from something ancient and violent. The wolf motif runs through everything. His passive bleed stacks leave these red claw-mark effects on enemies and at five stacks the Noxian Might buff activates with a god-king aura that pulses around him. Walking into a teamfight with five stacks active on this skin just hits different visually.

Decimate on Q swings the axe in a wide arc with a ground-crack effect on the blade edge. The heal on the outer edge has a dark red pulse that you can actually use to confirm you hit the sweet spot. Useful in lane when trading against champions who like to stand right on top of you. Apprehend on E pulls enemies in with these spectral wolf-claw marks on the ground. Cool detail. The pull animation has this brief wolf-fang visual that flashes on the ground before the yank happens. Crippling Strike on W slams down with extra weight. You can feel the impact through the animation. Landing W on a minion for the auto reset during a trade just sounds heavier than base.

But the R. Noxian Guillotine on God-King Darius is probably the single most satisfying execute animation in the entire game. He leaps up, brings the axe down, and on kill there is a massive red explosion with a wolf silhouette howling behind him. Gotten a pentakill with this skin exactly once, season 10 I think, and the five consecutive R resets with that wolf animation made my hands shake. Not even joking.

Voice lines reworked by Chuck Kourouklis. Darius sounds less like a military commander and more like a conqueror deity. Deeper, more commanding. New recall summons a spectral wolf that Darius rides before the teleport. (Sidebar for Darius mains: if you emote during recall theres a specific animation where the wolf howls. Tested it in about 12 games before I figured out the timing.)

The God-King event and details

God-King Darius released June 27, 2018 at 1820 RP as part of the Battle of the God-Kings skinline. Just him and Garen in the line. No chromas available which tracks because the red-black color scheme is so integral to the skin identity that alternate colors would break the concept. Still in the shop, still at full price.

The verdict on this Legendary

Darius has Dunkmaster which is a meme classic and God-King which is the serious option. There is honestly no contest between them for ranked play. God-King Darius is the skin you lock in when you want the enemy top laner to feel intimidated in loading screen. Loaded into a game against a Garen running God-King Garen last month and the thematic mirror match in top lane felt like an event. Pretty sure we both played more aggressive than normal just because of the skins. The R execute alone justifies 1820 RP.

Might sound biased because I have been playing this on and off for six years now but God-King is the definitive Darius skin. The wolf motif, the execute animation, the voice rework. Everything works together. Been spamming Darius in Diamond lately with this equipped and even after hundreds of games that R animation never gets old. Top 3 Legendary skin in the game for me personally. If you can only own one Darius skin this is the one. No contest. Every game you queue up with this equipped feels like an event. The wolf howl on pentakill is burned into my brain.