But Darius Rework.... How is it in reality?

Stats Attack range increased to 175 from 125. Attack damage growth increased to 5 from 3.5. Health growth increased to 100 from 93. Armor growth increased to 4 from 3.5. Attack speed reduced to 0.625 from 0.679. Attack speed growth reduced to 1% from 2.65.

Hemorrhage Now deals Physical damage from Magic. Per stack damage reduced to 「 9 + (1 per level) 」 from 12 - 36 (based on level). Bonus AD ratio unchanged Total damage reduced to 「 45 + (5 per level) 」 from 60 - 180 (based on level) REMOVED: Bonus movement speed per Bleeding champion. NEW EFFECT: Whenever an enemy champion reaches maximum Hemorrhage stacks or dies to Noxian Guillotine, Darius enters a Blood Rage for 5 seconds gaining 「 30 - 200 」 bonus attack damage and applying maximum Hemorrhage stacks on hit

Decimate Blade width reduced from 275 to 220 NEW EFFECT: Has a 0.75 seconds time delay and displays its effective radius ( including Blade and Handle areas) Darius can move during cast time. Blade damage changed to 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140% AD) from 105 / 157.5 / 210 / 262.5 / 315 (+ 105% Bonus AD). NEW EFFECT: Darius heals for 12% of his missing health for every enemy champion hit by the Blade, up to 36%. Handle damage changed to 14 / 24.5 / 35 / 45.5 / 56 (+ 35 / 38.5 / 42 / 45.5 / 49% AD) REMOVED: Handle applying Hemorrhage. Mana cost changed from 40 to 30/35/40/45/50

Crippling Strike AD ratio changed to (+ 40% AD) at all ranks from (+ 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100% AD). Slow increased 90% at all ranks from 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40. Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 2. Cooldown changed to 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds from 8 seconds at all ranks. Mana cost reduced to 30 at all ranks from 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50. REMOVED: Attack speed reduction. REMOVED: Cooldown reduction per Hemorrhage stack on target.

Apprehend Range reduced from 550 to 535 Cast time reduced to 0.25 seconds from 0.32. NEW EFFECT: Slows enemies pulled by 40% for 1 second. NEW EFFECT: Places enemies ahead of darius instead of directly on top of him REMOVED: Enemies would be pulled in if they escaped the area during cast time.

Noxian Guillotine Damage reduced to 100 / 200 / 300 from 160 / 250 / 340. NEW EFFECT: Subsequent casts are for free. NEW EFFECT: Upon executing an enemy champion all nearby non-champions become terrified for 3 seconds. NEW EFFECT: Mana cost removed at Rank 3. REMOVED: Mana refund on cast. Cast time increased

I posted all the changes that were done from 5.16 to now, which means i also took in account the balance changes that were made to darius since the rework. Some of them like the ult cast time increase, or E range nerf weren't listed (i don't know why), but you can definitly see the cast time nerf on some videos, and you can check old E range on wiki as there is a page made for old darius abilities

This thread goal is to burry forever this discussion, Darius rework is objectively the best rework made in the entire game. If you asked any high elo player on how to balance darius by making him viable in high elo and low elo they would have said that it was impossible and you needed a full VGU, that darius kit cannot work in this game. And now, i challenge you to find me any high elo player above master that thinks Darius is either weak or strong. "But this game isn't balanced around high elo", too bad then? because in this thread i'm going to list every single thing that the rework brought to balance darius, and then i will rest confused on why people want to nerf darius for low elo, what's the point of giving darius counterplay if you nerf him because people can't use this counterplay?

darius was of course a popular pick in soloq, but was also picked in pro before he was olafed by riot when they removed his reset at lvl 6. Picked in the midlane to counter melees like who were broken back then

https://youtu.be/1a3ZD2s3cQA?t=1016

Pre-rework darius was an abomination, the REAL "can't lose any match up" champ, but wait, when i say any match up it means ANY FCKING MATCH UP. You picked a ranged champion? apprehend had an insane range, and if you left the area you were still hooked, . Passive gave bonus movement speed you had no troubles to trade with a ranged champion, and don't forget that Q had no delay which means it was even better to trade with someone that wanted to disengage. You also couldn't disengage from him once you were hooked, because now his hook places you nearly 200 units in front of him, before you were directly on top of him and he could run behind you while continuing to trade with his W slow, AND YOU COULDN'T KNOCK HIM BACK! if you did this with you would just knock him back in the direction you were going to run

Among the melees, skirmishers couldn't do anything against darius. His damages were insane before 5 stacks, he had THE HIGHEST base attack speed in the game at lvl 1, his Q applied a passive stack no matter where it hit and was instant, oh and it also dealt a high amount of damage even if it didn't hit with the blade. All of that made darius able to auto-win the lane, and there wouldn't be a single moment where you could fight darius.

This leads me to the next point, new darius ACTUALLY has a window of power. Every single spell damage were nerfed in exchange of bonus ad when darius has 5 stacks , please realise that his W used to deal 200% bonus AD as an auto-attack reset, if he had 250 ad, AA+W would deal 750 damage in 1 second. His Q dealt 310+105% bonus AD, his ult dealt way more damage before he had 5 stacks

https://youtu.be/9h1ebIccpFA?t=79

this means darius was both a monster in teamfight and in 1v1, as he was IMMEDIATLY strong instead of a delayed window of power, his Q was also instant leaving no counterplay

what is darius today? needs 5 stacks to be relevant, and it's hard to get 5 stacks in 1v1 due to a very trash attack speed. His base attack speed went from the best to the worst and stacking attack speed is less efficient as it depends on base attack speed. His attack speed/lvl has been reduced from 2.65 to 1% needs to hit with the blade of Q to be relevant, and it's hard to do it against divers/skirmishers needs to be careful to not miss E as the range is way smaller than it used to be Can be kited easily as his E range is smaller, he no longer gains bonus 25% movement speed in teamfight, can you imagine how darius was fast before?

And now i'm going to destroy some popular arguments that were upvoted

"Darius has too much utility for a juggernaut" escuse me? his only utility is a small range hook and 1 sec slow on W? Udyr has 1 sec stun on 6 sec cd, nasus has 5 sec insane attack speed slow+movement speed slow, his E is an AOE 40 lethality for his team Darius doesn't slow attack speed anymore, can you imagine what it was in pro to be a diver and being permanently slowed while having your attack speed reduced? old darius W slowed for 2.5 sec and the cooldown was reduced by 1 sec for each passive stack going to 4 seconds without cooldown reduction, he was able to permanently slow you with an attack speed slow. This also made almost any toplaner not able to 1v1 him

"Darius doesn't fall off in late game" Yes he does, just not as hard as before , pre-rework darius had an inexistent late game while being one of the strongest midgame in the game*

https://youtu.be/zxw9dsLA6BI?t=929

aren't you seeing something wrong here? Because i can see a phage darius able to destroy a 119 armor shen in 1v1 without black cleaver, without any armor pen as he maxed E last and had +5% armor pen AND WITHOUT ULTIMATE Now since you didn't know it his passive used to be magic damage actually, and a lot of tank didn't have magic resistance per lvl like shen (yes he didn't just like i don't remember how many tanks didn't have it singed and maokai included) which means if they went full armor against him, they would often see in their death recap "hemorrage 1500 magic damage" if you read above the damage of his passive, "Total damage reduced to 45-135 from 60 - 180 (based on level)" 180 without counting the ad ratio that didn't change, 180+30% AD magic damage per second lmao

they made his passive physical damage while nerfing the damage, this made darius midgame worse while improving greatly his late game, but WAKE UP SHEEP NO ONE FALLS OFF IN LATE GAME ANYMORE, darius's win rate goes from 44% at 10 min to 53% at 15 min, to 50% at 40 min+ riven that used to fall off hard, now had a similar win rate curve than darius (source leagueofgraph)

Riot actually removed the trash late game from many champions due to , which i'm glad they're nerfing because it's bullshit(not even sure if the nerf is enough).

"Darius is still binary as fuck" if you say this, then you have no idea what darius is since the rework. i'm not afraid of saying that darius is THE LEAST BINARY melee in this game, find me someone who is less binary He can still survive if he fucks up with Q healing (but it isn't 100% guaranteed as you need to hit with the blade), he can dunk someone and get noxian might and win the fight, he can get 5 stacks by attacking if the fights goes well, he can manage to hook in some situation a carry. he can still deal damage to tanks due to his E bonus armor penetration that you folks want to remove Because yeah, once you remove this armor penetration then don't complain about darius being binary You want darius to be kited constantly by chasing the backline and getting cc'ed, or darius to actually be able to deal some damage to the frontline due to his armor penetration, and thus not being binary?

"darius has no counterplay" i don't understand, you can CC him while he channels his Q, you can dash/use mobility to dodge his Q while dealing damage to him while he's channeling Q and in the end prevent him from healing/doing more damage/applying one more passive stack what else do you need? you can also outdamage him before he gets 5 stacks which takes an eternity with his new attack speed/Q

https://youtu.be/kQh6bCvlxD8?t=273

even if you don't dodge Q because you're bad at renekton, you can still outdamage him hard because like i said darius's damage are delayed to 5 stacks now tell me what doesn't have a counter, you want a list of champions that are going to destroy darius really hard in lane?

"Darius has 51% win rate and 10% pick rate"

...ok? he had 51% win rate before the rework while being as much popular in low elo but was never picked in high elo, why are you complaining about his win rate now?

https://i.gyazo.com/790069f69df2fcc8653eeec7397de803.png

your favorite darius main you're welcome