What if we back-loaded Darius some more

Big Lincoln·Apr 28, 2017·2 votes·305 views

I don't think he's OP right now but I wonder if this would make him feel less or more frustrating, if his bleed required 5 stacks before it activated? It might alleviate the annoyance of an even-ish trade coming out in Darius's favor because of the bleed damage ticking on you, and it would make him weaker in short trades so champs who excel at that can beat him harder, but the bleed would have to be a lot stronger once it DOES activate, which might make him feel cheesier depending on how you feel about it, and Darius might feel worse to play as a result

Would this make him feel less frustrating to deal with in lane?

8 Comments

LyingOnLineApr 28, 20172 votes

Oh, it would definitely make him less frustrating to deal with.

For one thing, it would mean that Black Cleaver is no longer a massive powerspike from bleed procing stacks and giving him effectively infinite movespeed boosts.

SlythionApr 28, 20171 votes

To play devils advocate:

He would need compensation buffs. Sitting at where he is right now, you can expect that to drop considerably because your "backload" is actually a pretty severe nerf to Darius himself.

His compatibility from Cleaver would be...cleaved (hue)

Perma-movement speed: gone
Easy Armour Shred: gone
His lane phase (which largely relies on his sustained damage from bleed to win trades) would be nerfed as well, which is a very important part of the game for Darius
Relating to the movement speed: He'd be much easier to kite
He doesn't provide as much to teamfights initially
You can expect his weaker early game to snowball him into an even weaker mid-late game

basically, he'd need some pretty major compensation buffs to keep him balanced, and I'm not sure if those compensation buffs would really keep him in the "non-toxic" playstyle that your nerfs are meant to put him in

RenownedWheat42Apr 28, 20171 votes

Laning phase, Darius then becomes ridiculously weak and has almost no viable way of winning trades. His weaknesses become MUCH more glaring. Hug him during Q, bait out his pull early so he can't use it when you disengage, and run when you've got 4 stacks. Even with his slow this becomes VERY easy and plenty of top laners have mobility/cc to keep him off you.

He'd need an attack speed buff maybe, along with stronger bleed due to 5 stacks being required.

Darkdemon653Apr 28, 20171 votes

Requiring 5 stacks before it does anything would be quite silly. And it would turn into what's basically Talon's innate. If his passive were to be changed, I would make it so the bleed stacks as it does now but does not refresh.

But ultimately, the change I would do is have the heal on his Q not happen unless the blade hits.

RenownedWheat42Apr 28, 20171 votes