A way the Darius rework could go, please hear me out @Riot take a look at this too

Darius as we know through his lore and his in game design is a general of Noxus who has earned a reputation and is known as the Hand of Noxus. He is a soldier who rose the ranks through the army and eventually through an outnumbered battle cut off the head of his cowardly captain and inspired his own troops in doing so and won the battle outnumbered with the odds against him.

I don't know what general/soldier in history inspired CertainlyT to base Darius off but Darius is basically what every soldier is envisioned to be; strong, smart, and will kill anybody within his range with no mercy.

But Darius is no ordinary soldier, he has learned the ways of the human body to strike at the most vital points to kill effectively and quickly as stated in his passive and his W. Darius isn't like an ordinary soldier who just chops at his enemy to kill, even in the heat of battle Darius will strike to make his enemies bleed out no matter how desperate or hot the situation is.

Now how does this relate with his rework focusing on his bleed?

Why should it focus on his bleed?

His rework focusing on making his enemies bleed to death before executing them will make Darius one of the most unique champions in the game. How his kit would work is with his bleed cap having theoretically 10 or more stacks with thresholds affecting the enemy for the negative but positive for Darius.

Hemorrhage: Darius aims his attacks specifically to make his opponents bleed dealing magic damage over 5 seconds scaling with his bonus AD or Total AD. He gains 5% bonus movespeed for every bleeding champion. The cap is 12 stacks with certain bonuses being achieved at certain thresholds. 3 Stacks Darius crippling strike damage will increase its damage by 10% and increase with another 10% for every stack after 3 stacks(caps at 100% more damage) 6 stacks The enemy will have lost a lot of bleed and will start to deal 10% reduced damage. 9 stacks The enemy has too many blood vessels cut and bleeding and will have their attack speed reduced by 20% 12 stacksPrevious bonuses will be doubled in effectiveness(not the crippling strike one) and crippling strike will gain a bonus effect of stunning the enemy for 1-1.5 seconds.

Now these ideas may be either too strong, too weak, too random, or not make sense but my main reasoning is when someone cuts open your blood vessels and arteries, you won't be able to fight as effectively as before and at 12 stacks Darius will have a full clear cut of someone's artery because he has hacked his way through that when he cuts it they will be in a state of shock(sort of) and unable to move for a bit. The crippling strike gaining more damage is because he has hacked his way through the enemy allowing him to cut the major artery more effectively. The slowing of attack speed and reduced damage is all about how the enemy loses blood and their full strength blows are no longer as effective as before. This hemorrhage change makes him brutal to fight in a long fight but will be VERY difficult to pull off unless you've fought him in extended trades numerous times before hand, will explain this in his E.

Q: No longer decimate, not sure what to name this move but it's sort of like a axe swing type move where he swings it in front of him a certain range, think of his E range but wider in range and swinging it across but not in a full circle, just a 180. This move can be charged, when fully charged he leaps to a location about 500 or so units away from him, he lands and then swings it, if you don't charge it, it will do the normal swing but no reduced or increased damage based on charge duration. He CANNOT use it to escape if he was in combat within 3 seconds ago(taking damage) as he does not tolerate cowardice or encourage it for himself.

Q Passive: Will not tolerate cowardice: Darius gains increased movespeed when chasing a bleeding enemy and they have their back turned to him, the movespeed from hemorrhage increases from 5% to 20% until the enemy turns around, dies, or the bleed wears off.

This move may not be the best thing but you get the general idea, his moves are more avoidable now and he can chase fleeing opponents or initiate fights with them.

**W: ** Crippling strike, same concept that it slows movespeed but it no longer reduces attack speed, instead it has a different effect of taking % reduced damage from his enemy. The cooldown is reduced by .4 seconds for every stack of hemorrhage on the enemy when he uses crippling strike.

W Passive: When Darius uses crippling strike on his opponent, he critically strike his opponents artery and takes 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% reduced damage from the enemy, this bonus increases by 10% for every stack 3+ of hemorrhage on his enemy capping at double bonus.

Self explanatory, though he no longer slows attack speed taking % reduced damage from his opponent sort of makes up for it, though the numbers may seem too high the goal is the same, more stacks of hemorrhage=better results.

E: Same, a pull but no longer gives armor pen, instead gives a different effect. E Passive Darius hones his axe which allows him to cut through his enemies much more smoothly. Rank 1 has no difference. Rank 2 every 2 autos on the same champion within a 3 second succession adds another stack of hemorrhage(so 2 in 1 auto) Rank 3 every auto adds 2 stacks of hemorrhage Rank 4 hemorrhage deals 20% more damage Rank 5 hemorrhaging enemies leave a trail of blood, giving sight(not true sight) when they are above 5 stacks of hemorrhage

Now 12 hemorrhage stacks would not be achievable with Darius's attack speed or his spells, instead he hones his axe to cut his enemies much more effectively and cleanly that he will now deal bonus stacks of hemorrhage and increased later. At rank 3, he can get 12 stacks of hemorrhage rather quickly though that probably should be changed since he would be live Darius but much more deadly. It could be tweaked to add 1 1/2 stacks per auto(making 3 in 2 autos) but I'm not sure how that would work, you get the general idea though; hones his axe to cut cleanly for better results.

R The same but with a bit of a twist to it, because Darius can get 12 stacks I thought his ult should do peanut damage at 0-3 stacks(100 damage or less) but absolutely shred people at 10+ stacks(400+ damage), his ult could potentially not even have a scaling to it but that's up for discussion. His ult WILL fully reset on kill but it will be harder to secure kills with it as he needs roughly 9 stacks to get to live 5 stacks damage.

Deals 40/60/80 true damage to a target champion increasing by 10% for every hemorrhage stack on his enemy, if Darius secures the kill it fully resets and any allies around Darius temporarily gain a morale boost which gives increased movespeed for 3 seconds(roughly 20% or so).

The true damage SHOULD be insane at 10+ stacks as you should NEVER be allowed to get there unless the enemy is suicidal or confident in winning a fight against you. The morale passive is optional, throwing it out there as it makes sense with him thematically. The reason it should reset is because it is much, much harder to execute people with your ult anymore due to its damage.

This is my idea on Darius's rework where he revolves around his bleed in making fights work, he can't bully as hard I think as his damage will be abysmal without getting multiple stacks of hemorrhage on his opponent(which won't happen in laning phase I hope).

Thoughts and ideas? Not everything needs to stay or go to make Darius rework successful.

English is my 2nd language so I'm sorry for poor grammar.