Playing Darius in high elo is asking to lose, and this is how you fix it?
it's honestly just sad but Darius is currently a troll pick in high elo due to the latest few nerfs and him just sucking against coordinated teams in general. Just take this Diamond I game as an example: https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/33975253/darius.jpg This is Papa Dunk, he's an ex challenger Darius main and without a doubt a really good player, especially on his main. https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/33975254/darius2.jpg
But he struggles to win games with darius, despite doing exactly what his champion should do and really using him to his full potential https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/33975256/darius3.jpg He bullied the hell out of his enemy laner, got a lot of early pressure and almost won the game....
If he didn't pick Darius. This was a very close game and if he had played any other champion other than Darius they would have won. But Darius is just garbage. He's a pretty bad champion and he's held back simply because of his bully playstyle that just falls off a cliff in late game.
And here is how you fix it: Currently Darius struggles really hard in teamfights, especially later on in the game and his early game is overly opressive, which makes a lot of people just despise going up against him. So, I suggest changing some of Darius' abilities to siphon some power away from his overbearing laning phase and even it out more by adding more utility to his kit.
First of all:
Remove Noxian Might and add it his ultimate Currently Darius' pre 6 is really punishing due to the nature of his Noxian might buff and it makes trading against him extremely difficult. Locking Noxian might behind acquiring his ultimate would help make his laning phase less opressive while giving the enemy some breathing room early on.
Secondly:
Q should deal less damage when hitting one enemy champion but deal more when hitting multiple enemies. Additionally hitting multiple champions should apply more stacks of his bleed, capping at 3 when catching 3 people in his Q
This would bring his 1v1 down a notch but make him so much more lethal in team fights, where he should be able to excell due to the nature of the Juggernaut class where they WANT to brawl in the middle of the enemy team
And lastly:
Change Crippling strike from a 90% slow to a movement speed steal This would give him some way to actually maneuver through teamfights while functionally being the same in an 1v1 scenario.
Honestly, Darius doesn't need straight up buffs as he'd just become a pubstomper again but leaving him in this awful state should not be allowed. He's really bad in higher tiers of play and adding this kind of additional skill expression would be godsend.
Edit; Here's the proof for it being a high diamond/master-level game https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/33975258/darius4.jpg
first hehe


as an AD item
Obviously he is oppressive and a reason why he can't be buffed