Why Darius needs help in todays game

Darius was once one of the best top laners on release as he would shut down the likes of Jax and many other melee Bruisers in the top lane. Darius's kit is made around invaliding your life if you get within range of him by weakening you with his bleed and slowing your attack speed before executing you with his ultimate.

Why does he need help?

1. League of mobility invalidates picking him at all nowadays, if you don't have high mobility you're basically useless unless you have the most insane damage to make up for it.

2. Have you ever played against or with a fed Darius? He's damn near impossible to stop unless you send 3 people to fight him. Have you ever played with or against a Darius who is behind? He's damn near impossible to come back unless you focus on CS and ks a few kills just to make yourself known in the game again and not a cannon minion.

If he falls behind he can't really come back from that, he's useless for a long time and can't do anything to fight back as his kit doesn't help him if he's behind, only if he's even or ahead of his opponent.

3. His kit focuses on him getting the kills but he cannot use the gold effectively. Basically, it doesn't matter if Darius is the most fed person on the map, he doesn't put great use to the gold, if his kit allowed him to be rewarded more for being fed, this wouldn't be a huge problem.

A 5-0 Irelia is more threatening than a 10-0 Darius.

4. He is the only bruiser without innate tankiness or sustain in his kit outside of slightly higher base stats. He doesn't need sustain so much as he needs tankiness in his kit. This also ties in the if he falls behind he is useless as he can't do anything to mitigate damage besides using all of his gold on tank items.

How could this be fixed?

For 1. He doesn't really NEED mobility, I can understand him being kited hard but he's one of the easiest champions to kit in the game(outside some tanks), maybe his Q could be changed to grant some mobility(not a dash, more like a charge or leap as he's a manly general).

For 2. Nerf his early game damage and rework his Q, W, E, and passive to be weaker if he's even with his opponent for the early game, maybe adding tankiness to his E instead of armor pen to help if he's behind, and make him much more punishing if he manages to get farther ahead of his opponents but still able to take him out.

For 3. If he does get reworked, give him a mechanic with his R or passive that rewards him for getting kills so that his team would WANT him to secure the kills. In his lore he inspires his soldiers by decapitating his own captain and instilling fear into the enemy. Perhaps if he gets kills with his ult his team gets some movespeed or damage for 3 seconds. In part 2 I answer more on how if he's ahead he can be more threatening and an actual threat.

For 4. I answered this one earlier, his E could have armor pen removed and instead have tankiness added to his kit instead.

He wears all that armor but it protects him as much as his birthday suit.

TL:DR Darius needs help as he is not great to play against when fed or play with when he's behind. His kit needs revamping to be useful and actually more enjoyable to play with or against.