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Darius does not need a % missing health heal

Spicy Meatball·9/16/2015, 2:01:05 AM·4 votes·1,133 views

I don't normally take to the forums to complain but I honestly find games involving this champ completely unplayable now.

This should not need explained to anybody who has recently encountered a Darius within the rift, but here goes anyway. I've dug up his patch notes and I'll explain what bothers me.

Q - Decimate.

COST: 40 mana ⇒ 30 mana NEW CAST TIME: Instant cast ⇒ 0.75 second delay NEW DECIMATE THE MEEK: Darius now heals for 10% of his missing Health for each enemy champion hit by Decimate's Blade, up to a maximum of 30%. BLADE DAMAGE: 105/157.5/210/262.5/315 ⇒ 20/40/60/80/100 BLADE RATIO: 1.05 bonus Attack Damage ⇒ 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 total Attack Damage HANDLE DAMAGE: 66% of Decimate's Blade ⇒ 50% of Decimate's Blade CLEAN HANDLES: Enemies hit by Decimate's Handle no longer receive a stack of Hemorrhage

The problem I have here is that whilst his damage has been reduced slightly, with the additional attack damage provided by his passive he will end up doing far more. This percent of missing health heal just means that any decent Darius player will buy titanic hydra, black cleaver and a bunch of tanky hp items, allowing them to walk into a team, deal outrageous damage and every 3 seconds (that is the actual cooldown with 40% cdr) deal massive aoe damage and heal for up to 30% of his missing health with Decimate, which could be anything up to around 1500.

Before the juggernauts patch, Darius was a strong champion. He was probably leaning more towards overpowered than underpowered. As he was given massive buffs and one tiny nerf, he is left with zero outplay potential for a lot of champions, and is in general not fun to play against. Whilst the updated passive is arguably a nice incentive to gain 5 stacks on a target, the % missing health heal is honestly ridiculous and anybody in their right mind should have realised this.

I'm aware Riot are planning to increase the mana cost of Decimate as he levels up in this upcoming patch (will have no effect), whilst also decreasing his missing hp heal to 12% per player struck. They also plan to increase his highest missing hp healed to 36%. This isn't even a nerf, it's a mid/lategame buff disguised as a nerf.

5 Comments

UberAffe9/16/2015, 2:04:09 AM3 votes

still don't understand why he got a heal in the first place.

53436278DEL19/16/2015, 2:09:48 AM1 votes

wanna know a fun fact ? aatrox passive doesnt even heal based on max health its a flat amount also his w doesnt heal based on missing health its also flat

N0rth Wind9/16/2015, 6:14:12 AM1 votes

Fun facts!

  • Darius needs a heal because it's his only way of surviving fights. Old Darius was often forced into instant retreat before he could actually fight, so he had to go overly tanky. % missing HP is a nice mechanic that (1) doesn't top him off without risk (you gotta fall low on HP to get healed for more), and (2) synergizes well with being tanky, not snowbally. You can't go full AD Darius and still heal through everything.
  • The new Q was **intended **to do more damage. That's why it has a delay. The old one had a bad scaling and was relying on a high base (300 or so) to do damage, but it was instant so it was oppressive regardless. This one gives you no excuses for not dodging it.
  • Use the mechanics. I see a lot of people trying to dodge my Q outwards, after I E-hit-W them. Dude, it's designed so it has a weak inner ring -- you are **not **going to outrun me, you're slowed by 90%, so run back inside and smack me.

I see so many enemies trying to run like chickens after I E-combo them in order to set up my Q. And when I'm faced against a Darius myself, I just get Fiora (my other top main), I let him grab-W me and the moment he begins the Q windup animation I either Q inside it and break a Vital while he's helpless (and take like 30 damage from the inner ring, while doing 350 in an instant), or I W and block it altogether (if I'm not worried about him ulting me soon after). But then it's "omg FIora OP".

USE THE MECHANICS.

Bait his E, block his W if you're Jax/Fiora/Pantheon/Teemo, dodge his Q to deny him the heal, if you can't dodge it, dive inside it, there are half a dozen ways to mess him up but people just get pulled inside, slowed, then sit there and watch the axe swing. Then they complain. Too bad, more kills for me.

LadyRenly9/16/2015, 6:23:30 AM1 votes

I preferred Darius as the ultimate bully, the king of level 1. He had to use that to make himself relevant as the game went on. If he really wanted sustain, get hydra. If something can do decent heals, damage has usually got to give somewhere

Spicy Meatball9/16/2015, 2:30:22 PM1 votes

@North Wind, that's fair to say, but if you run towards him he gets 5 stacks on you and immediately gains 40-200 ad. He has around an 80% banrate, please don't try and deny that he is overpowered. No other tank in the game can regain >1000 hp every 3 seconds with an easy to land ability (and please don't deny it's easy to land 1v1 or in a teamfight, it's not even slightly difficult).