Let's talk about Darius and his rework.

Rule 34·Jul 15, 2014·12 votes·1,317 views

As Riot has stated from the previous Darius rework threads on GD and the CB, they intend to change Darius to be a 'ticking timebomb in teamfights,' where he will be able to outdamage near anything once he gets into range. They intend to lower his up front burst and DoT to an extent, while still making him able to duel other bruisers for well into the game. He will still have an intentional weakness to kiting, but massive damage if able to get his ultimate off at several bleed stacks. He will be reliant on his pull to engage, or if the enemy commits to fighting him, he can use his pull if they attempt to re-engage, and will continue to brutalize them with his superior melee-range power.

So how is this any different from pre-ult nerf Darius again? Why does he need a rework if you intend to keep him the exact same? This is a waste of resources that could be going towards something truly meaningful, such as reworking some of the old champion designs, that are nothing but point and click abilities that have been either nerfed to worthlessness or just hideously outpaced in terms of power, such as Poppy, Mordekaiser, Urgot, and Galio. The best changes you could make to Darius are minor changes that get rid of his invisible power and add up front power as needed (preferably in the same patch so he isn't just worthless for months between patches). Removing his attack speed slow while lowering his W mana cost to a flat amount and increasing the potency of the movement speed slow, for example, would be a good change to try out.

There is no need for a single person to do all of this when you can make these changes very simply in the course of 10 minutes of discussion across several patches. You aren't changing Darius' identity with any of the proposed changes, you aren't changing his playstyle at all; what you are doing is just changing some hidden power stats into either other hidden power stats that you prefer or visible power. There is no need to spend so much time having one person rework him when it seems like you aren't even going to change any of his skills around, or even change how they work.

If you're insistent on reworking him and actually plan to change Darius in a meaningful way, I'd like to see what your ideas are for him currently, because Darius is one of the few champions I truly enjoy playing. Otherwise, I don't see a reason to spend this long working on a champion that quite frankly shouldn't be that hard to fix in the first place.

12 Comments

reespectwamenJul 15, 20143 votes

yeah man we need visual update for kassadin. that guy looks like a fricking triangle black christmastree

HaestroJul 15, 20142 votes

I hope if they change him, they try to make him smoother to play/keep his power level more consistent throughout the whole match.

Rule 34Jul 15, 20141 votes

I hope if they change him, they try to make him smoother to play/keep his power level more consistent throughout the whole match.

Personally I don't mind him being strong early and weak late. That's kind of what a lane bully should be, and that's what I have in mind when I think of Darius. It will be exceptionally difficult to smooth out his early game power and his late game weakness, especially since their design goals are to keep him feeling the same; weak against kiting teams, but overpowering in melee combat.

What I expect to see is he'll lose early game power at the cost of still being worthless late game if they don't try to change any of his skills or how they scale. I'd like to see them just gradually remove the hidden power he doesn't need (AS slow, bleed damage) and add in up front power as needed (pull range, MS slow), and I think that would leave Darius in a much better spot than retuning his current skillset.

DesideriumJul 15, 20142 votes

I too wonder why it's taking them so very long to finish such a minor rework.

Their likely excuse would be that they are mixing it with the ephemeral "bruiser rework".

If they do anything to him, they need to put his ult back on a full reset. Giving his ult a cooldown even on successful kills did the same thing to his kit as making Zed's E a 4 second cooldown - completely ruins the flow and feeling and satisfaction of the entire kit.

hachimanJul 15, 20142 votes

It takes a really long time because first they have to think of a rework for him. Then they test him many times. Most of the time, the kit is thrown away and RIot has to make a new one and test that. Its a long process

Rule 34Jul 15, 20142 votes

It takes a really long time because first they have to think of a rework for him. Then they test him many times. Most of the time, the kit is thrown away and RIot has to make a new one and test that. Its a long process

They've gone on record as saying it's going to be a rework similar to Skarner's.

If you recall Skarner's original changes, they were nothing that should take more than a few hours of brainstorming to come up with.

I want to know why it's taking so much longer for any information about Darius to be revealed, especially considering over a year ago they said they knew what direction to take him and that they had already begun planning changes.

JbelsJul 15, 20142 votes

The problem I see with Darius right now is that his kit begs him to play like some kind of hyper carry, but offers no mobility or anything, so people build him bruiser. But then you have an ult that REQUIRES you to steal kills from people who need it more than you do if you want your ult to keep going. Darius has identity problems.

ShenronJul 15, 20141 votes

I'm sorry what. He has a hypercarry kit? Are, are you alright in the head?

JbelsJul 15, 20143 votes

I'm sorry what. He has a hypercarry kit? Are, are you alright in the head?

First of all, that's rude. And second of all, all I said was his kit reminds me of the sort of thing a carry would have. Even his E sort of encourages you to build AD what with it's free Armor Pen. My head is fine, but apparently the people on these new boards are no different than on the forums. = /

Jean Never WinsJul 15, 20141 votes

how soon before this one gets deleted

TTGOzJul 15, 20141 votes

I really love Darius in his current state right now . He can be so strong or so weak . I do feel like they need to work on his ult and passive though . Everything else is fine .