Darius: To Make or Break
*As a note, my apologies doubly if this counts as a double post or a spam, I sure hope it doesn't! I wanted to bounce this idea off the best of the league community for some discussion, and I forgot about the community beta. I did my best to reformat it though<3
Ok, first off, my humblest apologies, there's a lot here as far as reading goes, but its all for comparison and explanation sake, so bear with me.
Alrighty, so hello there everyone! This is really my first post on the forums, so nice to meet everyone. I'm a fairly new League player, I've been in it for about the last year or so, just for season 3 as of yet! Its been a real blast to play so far, and I've gotten into it pretty heavily with my wife in my spare time, trying all sorts of roles and champion types, and I've gotten pretty familiar with most, if not all the champions. I love playing mages and APs, but I do tend to favor melee, especially while I leveled. Out of all of them, though, Darius I enjoyed and still enjoy the most!
Being in ranked, watching the championships, and just general theory crafting amongst the community (as seen in as well [URL="http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3743561"]here[/URL]) and my own thoughts, I'm sure everyone can see that Darius falls into a somewhat precarious position. He's by no means UNDER powered, as far as dueling and kill potential go (especially against melee), but when it comes to team fights or dealing with anyone ranged/with any sort of get-away, he falls behind fast, and lacks ANY form of defense or sustain that most top laners and junglers have. I think the term most used is "Non Viable" for competitive play when describing Darius, which is something I'm well aware affects a ton of other champions. I'm no professional of course, and a long way from being meta myself, but I've gotten this feeling as of late of hitting a brick wall when playing Darius, he seems to lack the utility that so many other tops and jungles have, so here's what I came up with. Its sorta an algorithm for determining what is "viable" and where improvement is needed amongst the melee champions;
The Algorithm!
First (Defensive) Tier- A and B Second (Offensive) Tier- C and D
Algorithm- A or B must be present. If not, all of C MUST be present to compensate.
So, it makes little sense at that, but I'll give the values-
A= Sustain (Self Heal/Healing) B= Defensive Ability (Anything that delays IMMINENT death, such as defensive stat gains, shields, health increase not affected by healing reduction, and becoming untargetable for any period of time)
C= Gap Closer/Get Away D= Hard CC (anything BUT slows. You can buy slows. Hard CC, as I define it, includes Stuns, Fears, Roots, Suppresses, and Displacement) *Special Note- Being primarily a ranged champion (Jayce/Gragas) has special consideration as well, and has some leeway with the above, but mostly will just be considered a bonus in the analysis.
So, this suggests that; "If said melee champion does NOT have sustain or a defensive cooldown, they must have a solid gap closer AND get away". I'm sure you can all see where this is going, but for sake of comparison, lets look at a few champions.
Jax
A- No Self Heal
B- Defense in his Ult Active and ability to deflect auto attacks with Counter Strike
C- Leap Strike can be used on enemies for assured gap closer, or allies/wards to get away
D- Hard CC stun that can hit multiple targets with Counter Strike
Analysis- Ok, Jax is fairly competitive at the moment, so this seems to fall in line with the algorithm. He's a very solid champion, with outstanding damage, CC, and getaways.
Zed
A- No Self Heal
B- Ah, tricky, but his Ult does indeed count as defensive, as it makes him untargetable
C- Gap closer and get away present in his living shadow
D- No Hard CC
Analysis- Zed has always been seen as high risk/reward character, but his burst damage has always been outstanding, and it requires very little windup besides starting with Death Mark. Popular at championships of course!
Jarven VI
A- No self heal
B- A Shield that strengthens with nearby enemies
C- A solid gap closer and get away in Standard + Dragon Stike, and a VERY solid gap closer in Cataclysm
D- Knock up from Standard + Dragon Stike, and to a lesser extent, terrain from Cataclysm
Analysis- Very solid, which makes sense for a meta jungler. Having 2 gap closers, or a gap closer and then a getaway is one of his strongest points. He's also surprisingly ranged.
Renekton
A- Self heal on Q, good damage
B- Ult increases health by a fair amount, not a heal/affected by Grievous Wounds or Ignite
C- Slice and Dice, double get away and gap closer, can go through walls
D- Cull the Meek stun, and fair amount of damage
Analysis- Ok, so...Uh, he's got it all. Lots of damage and utility, which is why he's a popular pick, and pretty much good at tanking, diving, and running.
Riven
A- No Self Heal
B- Valor shield, scales 1 to 1 with AD
C- Valor is a gap closer and getaway, as is Broken Wings, with the third strike able to leap over walls now
D- Ki Burst is a stun, and the third Broken Wings strike is a knock-up
Analysis- I see a lot of complaints around that she's way over powered now. All in all, she's a terror when on a roll, but then again, who isn't? Following the formula, she's in a VERY good place though.
Ok, so that's no fun, these are all like, the best of the best! We'll look at some of the underplayed and fun champs that are not often picked competitively.
Warwick
A- PLENTY of self healing, Q, Passive, Ult.
B- No defensive option
C- Ult is a gap closer, and E can work in your favor with runspeed, but no real getaway
D- Ult Suppression CC
Analysis- Still a solid champion, but his lack of other CCs and weak pre 6 ganking is what holds him back a lot.
Master Yi
A- Meditate is indeed a heal
B- Meditate is also damage reduction, but Alpha Strike also makes Yi untargetable
C- Alpha Strike is a real decent gap closer and poke, and even works as a get away. To pick up the slack, Highlander is a huge speed increase with slow immunity
D- Nah, no CC to speak of, not even soft CC like slows
Analysis- I think everyone is aware that Yi can be a real terror in lower leagues, but he falls off in high end competition I hear. Overall though, still a great fighter. Of special note though, Yi is made to be a high burst fighter, as you'll usually see him build mostly offensive items, and very few defensive. Suffice to say, he's not meant to be a "tank", so to speak, but a carry-type fighter, yet he still has very good defensive capabilities and a heal...Another example...
Tryndamere
A- Q heals at the cost of his rage
B- Undying Rage- The ultimate in defense, especially when combined with his Q
C- Spinning Slash does what it needs to, closes gaps, getaway, and gets through walls even
D- No hard CC though
Analysis- Again, another fighter you'll see dump everything into offense rather than build defense. Trynd's ult is what really makes this happen, 4 seconds of NOT dying will do that, but his weakness comes in the form of being easily kited, something that Darius (even with my proposed fix) suffers just as easily, though for a champion that SHOULD be played as offensively as Yi and Trynd, especially since fights are nigh inescapable once started, Darius has to build totally into defense to stand a chance.
Trundle
A- Self heal from passive and Subjugate
B- Defense stat steal from Subjugate
C- No real gap closer or getaway, but Frozen Domain does speed you up to somewhat account for that
D- No hard CC, but it IS worth noting that Pillar of Ice can displace a channeling champion, so I'll give it a half a point here.
Analysis- I love Trundle, honestly, but he is niche in that he's a good anti AD jungler, but man oh man is it tough to get in the fray with him later, due to his lack of gap closer or range. I see him as a good counter to Lee Sin, but use my algorithm on Lee Sin...He's got everything as well, haha!
Mordekaiser
A- His Ult does heal
B- TONS of defense. His passive Iron Man, and his Creeping Death Shield easily have enemy dives turn into your win or a double kill
C- No gap closer/getaway besides flash, unfortunately!
D- Hue hue hue....Yeah, no CC
Analysis- So, while old Morde has the first two prerequisites, what keeps him down is his major lack of any form of CC, and no way to close gaps or get away. But his passive and shield are what allow him to go all in and either go out swinging, or end up with a triple kill and a new ghost buddy!
I can keep going, and you can too! Just scroll through the champion list and try it out! Keep in mind, I did this mostly with melee ADs, but it works just as well with others, like Gragas, Katarina, Gangplank, etc. I tended to stay away from the ranged ADCs and APCs, though some of them still fit, as you'll see, but ranged champions have that inherent advantage over melee (I think Rumble came up as my only questionable exception, but seeing as he is MOSTLY ranged and his Scrap Shield is Defense+Gap Closer and Getaway, I have to say he fits). However, we can't forget the topic of the article here, so one more!
Darius
A- No self heal or sustain
B- No Defensive abilities or cooldowns
C- Only half is present. Apprehend can close gaps with more than a few champs you're looking to clobber, but this is in no way an escape or getaway, unless you're trying to respawn at the base
D- Hard CC in the form of Apprehend's pull, as it displaces and will interrupt channeling
Analysis- So there we have it, he's missing the two biggest components of a melee champion, and he's definitely out as far as a getaway goes. This is a huge problem, not only in laning against anything ranged, but especially in team fights. There's nothing to stop Darius from being focused, no way for him to get in and try a desperate dive on the APC or ADC, and definitely no way to make it out once he's gone in.
What to Do About It?!
As I see it, there are 2 ways to go about fixing this for Darius in a way that makes sense for his kit, and doesn't change him from the bottom up.
[B]Major Solution[/B]- My Suggestion, make a major change to one of his moves that keeps with the theme of his kit. Darius' theme, you may ask? Some may say "its the DUNK", others may say "Bleeds!". Both are right, but that's not the whole picture. Darius' kit, in my opinion, is "Conditional Damage". All of his moves contain it to a degree, but I state it as the fact that all of Darius' abilities have an optimal and suboptimal way to deal damage which require special conditions or wind-up to be met. Decimate (Q) for example, does most of its damage on the outer blade. It CAN be used at close range, either because you need the damage NOW, or you want to get as many bleeds on the table as you can, but for damage optimization, you WANT to hit the target with the axe blade. Conditional damage is just that, there are conditions to get the most damage out of all his moves.
Crippling Strike has 2, using the ability right after and auto-attack, and using it with as many hemorrhage stacks as possible optimizes Darius' damage as well as getting a drastically reduced cooldown on the move.
Apprehend, while it does no damage, is in its most optimal stage if you actually pull someone in...Well, that's being jaded, haha! But in a team fight, its most optimal if you're pulling in more than one enemy from the opposing team.
And of course, Noxian Guillotine...Well, having all 5 Stacks is a must for the most devastating damage Darius can dish out, but where I start to see issues is that you may often find yourself dead before that strike lands. In lots of cases, you may have to use Guillotine early and hope bleeds finish that target while they walk away from your corpse.
Ok, so now that I've explained myself, here's what I see as the conditional damage solution, and it involves Crippling Stike. Here is the current tooltip with my proposed changes-
[W] Crippling Strike/Concussive Slam
First Active (only one press of W): Darius next basic attack deals additional damage and slows the targets movement and attack speed for 2 seconds. Crippling Strikes base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.
Cooldown: 8 seconds Range: 145
Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana Total Physical Damage: 120/140/160/180/200 % Slow: 20/25/30/35/40 %**
Second Active- Concussive Slam (on Second Press of W): Darius turns his weapon sideways to strike with the flat of his axe, and can now leap to a targeted location. Upon landing, Darius slams the ground, dealing 50% of the damage of Crippling Strike, and slows all enemies hit for 1 second. Darius lands prepared for battle, gaining X% damage reduction for 2 seconds, but no longer slows attack speed of enemies or adds stacks of Hemorrhage to any targets hit.
Cooldown: 16 seconds Range: 550 (?)
Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana Total Physical Damage: 60/70/80/90/100 % Slow: 20/25/30/35/40 %
Alright, so looking at this, conditional damage is indeed present. Are you in melee range, and want to get the FULL power of Crippling Stike, as an AA reset and powerful attack/slow? Or do you want or need the utility of a leap or damage reduction? You're losing a lot with the second press of W, as you do half damage, have no AS slow, reduced CC time, no hemorrhage stacks, and twice the cooldown of crippling strike (whether its cooldown is affected by current hemorrhage stacks, I'd leave that up to devs for balance). What Darius DOES gain from this, however, is a small solution to his most glaring issues. He undoubtedly will have a getaway now, and a ground targeted gap closer, with some defense he sorely needs, but still at a great conditional cost. He still won't have any sustain though, and with increased cooldown on Crippling Strike from using Concussive Slam in its place, he won't have the sticking power or damage to always win an even one on one duel. I still feel that this is the best solution for what ails him most now, and one that fits in thematically with his current kit, even if Riot doesn't like wordy tooltips, I think its something any new or old Darius player can get used to pretty quick, while not posing a serious risk to the balance of the game or the role of a fighter.
As I showed above, the defensive tier is vital to a brawler/fighter, they NEED some form of damage control to be considered an off-tank without building full tank alone. To that end, and that end alone, I have...the Band-Aid™ fix.
Quick Fix Solution
Ok, the easy out to at least his defensive issues could be as simple as modifying his passive. Currently, besides damage over time, Hemorrhage also increases Darius' run speed by 5% per bleeding champion. So, quick fix, just have him also take 5% reduced damage per bleeding champion. This will modify his laning phase a slight bit, making him somewhat safer against ranged champions, and give him a chance to actually do damage and build stacks in a teamfight before going down for the count.
Conclusion
Alright, so anyone who's made it this far, I thank you! I had been thinking about this a while and wanted to post my idea on a manageable fix for one of our favorite dunkmasters. I still don't think Darius is unplayable, not by any means, but like many other champions out there, I believe Darius needs some attention, and is able to retain his niche with a few quality of life changes.
