Can we talk about Darius for like one second?

hashinshin·Apr 12, 2015·7 votes·1,161 views

Riot doesn't want to buff Darius, but why not? I'mma just briefly say some reasons why Darius should get buffed:

Darius dominates low ELO. Actually he doesn't, he has a 49% overall win rate, he doesn't even win half his games at low ELO. Jinx has a 54% win rate.
Darius loses to ranged champions. Yes he does. Because riot nerfed his pull... twice. Before that by Riot's own admission he had a fair game against both range and melee.
Darius isn't fun to fight. Yet we buffed Ryze, Kennen, and Cassiopeia?
Darius has a low skill cap. The strongest melee champion right now is Maokai. You know. Press W, go invulnerable, root for 2 seconds.

12 Comments

Critmaster GarenApr 12, 20155 votes

except that they just buffed him. people wanted the full reset back, and they got it. was it the buff he needed? hell no.

ive been saying that he doesnt need more power on his ult, and his hook range increasing with ranks on his e would have been much more useful to his lategame. but i got downvoted for it, people insisted on the full reset, and they got it. he still has a shitty lategame and a full reset now, for executes he cant get in range for. so there you go.

Elo GuyApr 12, 20154 votes

I think with the black cleaver change his tanky build path will be buffed.

hashinshinApr 12, 20152 votes

Darius his Q then W, and after those his combo is magical passive and true damage ult. He's one of the least effected by the BC change honestly. His physical damage gets them shredded, but then he has no more physical damage.

Critmaster GarenApr 12, 20154 votes

{quoted}

Darius his Q then W, and after those his combo is magical passive and true damage ult. He's one of the least effected by the BC change honestly. His physical damage gets them shredded, but then he has no more physical damage.

the movement speed bonus is going to give him more sticking power. a lot of it. and the cdr isnt bad either. a lot of his damage early on, that wins him trades is the magic damage from his passive.

while the loss of the 10 armor pen from brut isnt ideal, its not going to hurt him all that much.

KarlyrApr 12, 20151 votes

The Black Cleaver change will help him because of the Movement Speed for the chase potential. Phage was an excellent item on darius (on-release) then they removed it from Frozen Mallet and nerfed if afterwards.

Black cleaver won't be a "rush it" item. You'll have phage in your inventory waiting to be changed for the teamfights. This Change will help him lane primairly. And this should be why to be affraid that Darius jumps in win rate.

TomA3XApr 12, 20153 votes

I'd be fine with them buffing darius, as long as they remove that glitch / feature where if you flash away at the wrong time, his pull still gets you. It happens like 5-10 times a game, and its infuriating

ThePlasticSporkApr 12, 20153 votes

Darius literally just got buffed. As in, at the time that you posted this, Darius was buffed no more than a few days ago.

Anyways, to respond to you point by point

Darius is not a pubstomper. He happens to excel in crushing other melee champs, and Riot doesn't like champions that win or lose lane in champion select, because those champs are very binary, just like Darius. If Darius is strong, he automatically wins against melees and loses against ranged. That's not really interesting.
Darius is supposed to lose to ranged champs by virtue of being easily kiteable. This is to offset the fact that he destroys other melees. Working as intended and doesn't need to be changed.
Ryze is getting reworked, so he's not relevant to the discussion right now. If I had a choice between laning against the buffed Kennen and release Darius as a melee champ, I would go with Kennen every single time. Cassiopeia also isn't nearly as obnoxious in lane as Darius is for melees, especially in the toplane where if she poisons you all you have to do is walk into the numerous bushes there to break vision until you're no longer poisoned. I strongly detest the current iteration of Cassiopeia for several reasons, but she's nowhere near as frustrating as laning against release Darius as a melee was.
Maokai, unlike Darius, isn't going to be suddenly killing you from nowhere just because he hit a single ability. Getting hit by Maokai's root isn't nearly as likely to result in death as getting pulled by Darius. Maokai does not invalidate other melees in the toplane, and it's strongly debatable that Maokai is even the best melee in the game. In fact, Maokai isn't even breaching the top 10 winrates for any ELO.

Lost RApr 12, 20151 votes

He can be easily kited by a ranged champion, but his pull gives him a chance to counter that. On top of that, most ranged champions aren't very durable, and he gets movement speed for how many champions around him have bleed stacks. If Darius grabs a ranged champion, one of them is about to die.

TauNoob1Apr 12, 20152 votes

I may get some hate for saying this but Darius cannot be buffed significantly in his current form. When Darius is good in the meta he COMPLETELY dominates top lane and prevents any melee from being played there effectively. RIOT has admitted this and it is the core reason they are hesitant from buffing him.

BeatzBoyFTWApr 12, 20151 votes

He did got buffed in this patch. And despite Darius not being buffed properly, he is one of Nasus's counters, so to threads about "Nasus needs nerfs", go to hell :p

GuiltyGeckoApr 12, 20151 votes

I think a few base stats would really help him. Like having his MS be increased to 345 instead of 340 (A lot of non gap closing melee champs have 345), higher base regen or scaling since he doesn't have sustain, and perhaps a slightly lower cooldown on W so that he can stick to people better. He wouldn't need much to get him in a better state. Although he is up for a light rework at some point. Whenever that is...

A Miss FortuneApr 12, 20151 votes

Don't really see why people want Darius buffed, he counters basically every low ranged champion in the game and is probably one of the lowest if not the lowest skill based champions in top lane. He does every type of damage in the game, can go tanky and still do tons of damage, but his fall off is apparently late game where he can only nuke one target at a time. Not every champion should be buffed because they fall off in the game.

Yorick is the same way as Darius, dominates early and falls off late game to just a really powerful pusher and duelist, yet I don't see any buffs for him? If every champion was buffed because their players complained about how they don't excel at every part of the game then League would have no diversity.

Vayne sucks early game? Better buff her early game power.

Sona is squishy? Better make her a tank.

And before people mention win rates, remember they change all of the time and are almost never good to go off of unless they're absurdly high or low like Zyra on release or Azir after his nerfs.