Toughts on Darius

Many times i got messed up by a Darius with only a brutalizer and i don' t hide adversion to him.

I know he is not OP and this is not a rant about that or how do against him, let' s be clear, but because he can either be unstoppable or useless led me to think what he got wrong on his kit, for both him and the enemy. Also note i do not speak of balancing and numbers, but gameplay as counterplay, decision making and skill expression.

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The skills

• Passive: Hemorrhage: Darius' basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for X (+ 30% bonus AD) magic damage over 5 seconds. This stacks up to 5 times for a maximum of X (+ 150% bonus AD) magic damage over the duration. Darius gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding enemy champion.

I think that this is a really good passive: it might be a bit brainless actually, but it determines the kind of efficency and power that stands for a bruiser/tank/duelist: the more the fight goes, the more they contribute to damage. It allows for great dueling power but i dislike a lot his passive ms, since it could have a better mobility effect.

• Q: Active: Darius swings his axe, dealing physical damage to all enemies within a 425-radius area around him. Champions more than 270 units away from him are hit by his axe's blade, and will take 50% additional damage.

Simple but effective, characteristic and with a broad usage and decision making: it can be used to push, to poke, it can be saved for later in a duel or used instantly for lower damage for grabbed enemies, might require careful positioning in a teamfight for maximized use and leads to an intresting lane phase.

I pass W for the moment

• E: Passive: Darius gains armor penetration; Active: After a brief delay, Darius pulls in all enemies in front of him.

This is something that makes players fear Darius by a lot. Biggest team contribution from Darius that can pick key targets from behind enemy lines, a tool that can force duels on a lane and that might help counter some oppressive top mages. Even if a bit OP i deem it good because it' s a power unique to him ( almost) and he pays for it since he has no engagement forms besides this. Passive side could be changed however.

• R: Active: Darius leaps to an enemy champion and strikes a devastating blow, dealing true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage. When Noxian Guillotine kills the target, it can be recast within the next 20 seconds. This can occur multiple times in succession.

... many people will throw stones at me, but i like this. It requires some degree of risk, decision making, waiting time and so on since you can use it in varius circumstances. It enhances passive, it is based on time and timing and can work well both for damge and defence focused builds, somewhat. Yeah, from using it well and using it good there is not a big difference in skill but a lot in game effects.

WTF, would you say, i have defended him only so far?! because while i think these skills are good picked one by one, they all fall broken because of only a thing. And i guess you know what.

• W: Active: Darius' next basic attack deals bonus physical damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed for 2 seconds. Crippling Strike's base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.

A tool that deals more damage up to double the ad, that slows and that cripples enemy dueling power. If used right after E it allows to force engage an enemy and cripple him, forcing a burst fight or an escape. There should be some decision making here but actually that is tied to the kind of boots you have, so you can manage slow or early dps easily. It hyperscales with bleeding stacks, like as if he does not already with passive and ult, adds burst damage to other damage plus the poke of the Q and costs few mana. All strictly tied to AD.

W to me is the true culprit of Darius toxic gameplay: while E can be dangerous to use - since you use a slot skill to force duels but does not really give in dueling power by itself - W gives a complete duel advantage with a simple key press (A basic attack and W istantly add 2 stacks and a slow), while the passive has a role of power curve management, the Q has a broad use in his own and the R, albeit hateful, is not so much uncounterable as it looks.

Add a Brutalizer to that and you have a lot of health gone due to Q poke, an E more ready and that can negate a lot of armor and deal massive damage, a W that has a great CD reduction and that spams slows and as reduction and a ton of AD that works with 4 skills, while dealing mixed damage of all sorts. If you manage to deal damage you have absurd results. If you manage not, you are screwed. Always. And he can be poked down, and he can not scale well enough due to starve, and he has a low skill expression and is limited in his ways... And while the first 4 skills i exposed can live together happily - by having a bruiser/tank hell even a bit "heavy carry" aspect- the W is the catalyst that breaks them all.

But how can it be repaired? Removing AS reduction could be a thing but that would weak too much Darius probably, and that would still not remove the permadamage/permaslow/permahyperscale effect. I think that this skill needs to be redone, since not only deals more problems to the gameplay than the rest of the kit but also because does not flavour skill expression and is not characteristic, so is the most "salvageable" one from all the others. I have no true proposals, however i think that an utility/defensive skill would help him a lot: not to make him tanky but rather giving some other side utility, like regen or tenacity on use, that is still tied to bleed in some way.

Toughts?