From playing the new Darius on the pbe, while he's more balanced, he's way weak in lane now

Current Darius is oppressive if he's ahead and absolute garbage when behind, new Darius is meh when ahead and even easier to shove out when behind.

With the old Darius, when he got ahead, he would zone without doing anything except being by minions as if you got near him, he would murder you unless you had hard CC or mobility. When he was behind, he couldn't cs for a damn and would be killed anytime the enemy laner wanted to kill him.

With the new Darius, if he manages to get ahead, he's way too easy to avoid as he is slower and his main damage tool is on a delay(which is fine) and can be fought much more easily now. When he's behind, he can't do crap to get back in lane unless the enemy is super greedy or he gets help from his team.

Example: Darius is 1-0 against the enemy Jax and Darius is level 7, Jax is level 6. Jax decides to jump on Darius by priming his R and then jumping then hitting Darius with his R W auto proc for 200+ damage(maybe 300+) then turning on his E once he lands. Darius tries to back off and ready his Q while backing off but gets stunned and hits Jax with his inner blade for roughly 70-100 damage and takes another 60 from Jax E and another auto attack damage.

Darius has 2 choices: either try to fight him and hopefully kill him despite being jumped and unable to do much for retaliation and kill him, or back off and try to heal up with potions and hope Jax doesn't keep jumping on him to get him lower.

If Darius tries to fight him, he won't win as Jax will outdps him with his attack speed buff and R/W procs while Darius only has his W to do reliable damage along with his bleed and autos. If Darius enters blood rage, he will be below 50% health while Jax will still have roughly 80% health, giving him 60 bonus AD(if I remember correctly at level 7), making his total AD generally 190 or higher(depends on items, runes, and masteries). If Darius entered blood rage and has a total of 100 bonus AD, his ult will only do 350 damage to Jax at 5 stacks. Say Jax has 700 health when Darius enters blood rage and Darius is at 200 in the scenario I mentioned above. If Darius ults and ignites Jax, it should kill him(should) or Jax will survive with some health, thus making the lane his now if Darius gets near him when he cs's.

If Darius was behind, saying he was 0-1 and Jax is 1-0, Jax can do the same thing mentioned in above scenario, just now Darius can't even hope to fight back as he will die without a chance in hell.

What I am trying to say is Darius got a better late game at the cost of losing to top laners that are supposed to have strong late games in the early game now, some harder than others. Darius is also WAY more feast and famine now, meaning if he famines, he's an even worse detriment to his team than before as he has little to offer when behind besides ksing his own team, selfish champ.

With the Jax scenario, it might not be Darius, but Jax that has the issue of having too strong an early for his late game, but this is also similar if he gets behind against most top laners.

Old Darius was strong or supposed to be strong against the following champions in lane: Jax Riven Fiora Rengar Aatrox Mundo Irelia Nasus Poppy Shyvana Volibear Wukong Xin Zhao Yasuo Olaf Rumble Malphite(to an extent) Singed Shen Maokai Jarvan Zac Nautilus Tahm Kench

New Darius(from my testing on the pbe) is strong or supposed to be strong against the following in lane: Nasus Aatrox Mundo Poppy Fiora(yes he's still good against her after the rework) Yasuo(if he doesn't fight him in minion waves) Tahm Kench

While you might say that he is still strong against Nautilus, Zac, and some of the other Bruisers/Tanks I mentioned, he can't keep them with him as long as before as his slow duration is reduced along with his only movespeed steroid. The tanks with CC can either ignore him(Malphite, Nautilus) or if they wish to disengage they can CC him and walk away or cripple him to the point of not wanting to fight(ex. Malphite E).

And for the champs he did lose in being strong against/meant to be strong against, a lot of them either curb stomp him now, or can destroy him much harder than before(Riven, Irelia(can curb stomp now), Rumble, Jax, Rengar, Shyvana, etc..

This is just my opinion from trying out Darius on the pbe, I had some friends who played the following champs test a 15 minute laning phase with a mid and jungler(no bot lane) to see how his lane was. His late game is better but for losing that much early game power which now makes him lose to champs that scale hard/hyper scale in the EARLY game is absurd. Write Your Thoughts