User blog:RoznosicielCiast/Some really important things/myths about Darius

Hey guys!

How many times have you seen QQ about The Dunkmaster Darius? How many times somebody wrote nonsense bragging about him? How many times have you felt sad/mad/angry/annoyed because of these?

The answer is "So many times", isn't it?

As i have said in several posts, i am passionate and skilled Darius player. That one, which is not jumping at everything which pretty oftenly results in high amount of kills and assists. Though, i have already once chain ulted for pentakill.

Okay, but what's the problem? Some people are just spamming about him, but nothing really happens.

'THIS IS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM. 'LoL community in fact knows only one side of truth about him. When the reality is just not same. And, problem is growing. I promise, after first days of his release, bragging was almost everywhere. After some time, it faded a lot and i haven't seen any massive spam about it.

But now it happens again.

I have evidences for re-rising of Massive Whining. It really slowly happens again. When i was playing ranked games 1-2 months as him, people just threated me like average player. But now, i begin to see people flaming me for it.

So i have decided to explain what is reality about The Dunkmaster. Not only because of spam about his OP'ness, but also about fake arguments that are oftenly used against these, and also because of facts that people don't really know.

No matter what, he is strong. Maybe even a bit OP. But not godly strong.

 * Though he is actually dealing high damage, he lacks hard some other statistics. No built-in sustain. No defence steroids. No escaping tools. No gapclosers (though his ultimate is gapcloser in some point, and pull is not counted as gapcloser). No way to play when losing hard. Tons of damage =/= OP. This one is actually known, but it's still important.

His ultimate is not only his main source of damage.

 * As we all know, true damage is kick-ass. It really gives him high presence in teamfights and lane. But what about early laning? Just think about it, Q between 5-11 levels is far above ultimate. Why?

- Much lower cooldown

- Great poke

- Great farming tool

- 315 + 105% bonus AD when hit by blade as AoE = possibly more damage than 1st lv R
 * And what about his passive which in fact should be hold at as high amount as possible for all the time, because it's actually overhelming then.

You shouldn't try to counter him only with pick. You should focus at counterbuild and counterplay.

 * The worst idea ever is to counterpick and play in any way you want. I have already stomped such champions as Yorick, Garen, Teemo, Kayle, Tryndamere, Jax, Jayce, Pantheon as Dunkmaster Darius. And it mostly happened because they just picked these and went into any playstyle and build they wanted, when i counterbuilded and counterplayed them.
 * By the way, this is happening not only with Darius. You actually should counterbuild and counterplay in every game.

You should sometimes think about banning/firstpicking him at ranked games.

 * Leaving him alone gives a chance of being picked by skilled enemy. Though, there are several better bans, his damage output is still reason for considering about it.

Darius is easy to master out.
- Knowing his Q's blade range and properly hitting with it
 * Haha. That's so popular thing. But, let me show you what do i call as "mastering out Darius":

- Knowing how to poke with it - Knowing how to act when you are ganked - Being able to pull enemies in most effective way without often missing - Knowing how to avoid being kited - Knowing ways how to counterplay and counterbuild as him and against him - Knowing which enemies you should strike with ult (no, not every enemy approaching nearby) - Knowing how to secure (NOT STEAL) kills - Knowing how to effectively kill without stealing kills - Knowing most efficient combo - Knowing how to act at top and in jungle You have to know at least almost every of these to really think about mastering.

Darius is vulnerable to kiting.

 * Oh yeah. Doesn't really matters if he can pull you. Of course, you can get rid of his pull and then try (which is in fact, one of ways to counterplay him), but it won't work that easily if it's not Bronze V.
 * Short word about range. It's 550. Highest AA range in game belongs to Caitlyn (650), which is the only champion that can kite him and propably not get pulled from level 1. In mid and late game, Tristana, Kog'maw and Twitch can also do it.
 * Having 575 AA range doesn't keeps you safe. Though, 600 is enough in most situations, like Ashe with high attack speed kiting him with initial slow from W and Q turned on for all time. Remember, he has 340 movement speed, which is more than all long AA range champions.
 * At all, long AA range keeps you safe better from Q range (480). And, 525 range is average to do it.
 * A lot of poking abilities can outrange him easily.

It's easy to score a pentakill with him.
- You need to be in range to do it. If you aren't, it's done. - Mostly only one pull for each teamfight. After that, you can be kited. - It's impossible in midgame and beggining of lategame due to mana cost. Considering that you have to use rest of skills to stack passive, i find average amount of mana for it around 800. - You can be CC'd down during it.
 * It's so easy that the only one pentakill i have ever seen live was mine.
 * Chain ulting. It wasn't ever easy. Why?

- You MUST win the teamfight in order to chain ult pentakill. - There is high chance of striking wrong target when they are together. - It takes some time to stack passive at least a bit. - There is high chance that your team is bursting them faster than you can ult. - If you want to do it, you will propably do it in late game. How do you think, how high is chance that you will be CC'd and bursted in average lategame teamfight?
 * Overall, you need very specific situation to do it properly. Or just some luck.

Teemo/Garen/Fiora are best counterpicks.
'''
 * Okay, let me explain why these are not counterpicks.
 * Teemo. He is counterpick ONLY in early game. Why? Because he is ranged. That's logical - Darius is zoned in early game by ranged champs. But his range is enough low to get pulled. Blind? Doesn't matters, Q is still damaging, and additional damage and effect of W still occurs, pull is unaffected, ult too. Just rush Hexdrinker and ward bushes with pink wards and it's possible.
 * Of course, well played Teemo will stomp Darius, but it doesn't means that it's ultimate counter.
 * Garen. He is counter only for late game. In early game he is pretty easy to stomp. Darius' passive keeps Garen's passive unactive for long time. Q is still nice poke. W is effective, but only when casted after Garen's Q. Pull prevents him from running away, even on Q. Ultimate takes down W's whole effect. Everything reverses in late game.
 * Fiora. The person who came with it first was propably braindead. Her abilities are fully countered by specific gameplay's way (YES! It's true!). And Fiora's ult when Darius is jumping at her is not negating it, just preventing from activation and returning at no cooldown. Anyway, exhaust and armor shut down whole Fiora's effort.
 * '''Of course, this doesn't mean that he is uncounterable. There are several champs to do it, but i really prefer counterbuilding and counterplaying much more over counterpicking against him.

Kayle's ult is ultimate, perfect counter.

 * This is not true. Of course, skillfully casted can take down whole dunk, but there is actually one gap.
 * If enemy player is not going to ult yourself perfectly after noticing your jump, you can just wait a second to force him to do it. If he will do it, just wait these seconds and dunk.
 * If enemy player is going to ult yourself perfectly after noticing your jump, it may be hard. But, there comes one, slight gap. Pull also keeps targets knocked up for a short while. Instant pull + dunk can prevent her from saving yourself.
 * Overall, i still prefer her as good counterpick against Darius.

Darius is lame at higher elo.

 * Believing to Lolking, his win rate at platinum ranked games is flowing around 52%, which is actually high (highest rates at platinum are averagely 58%).
 * Pick ratio is flowing around 12%. This means that you can see him averagely once per 8 games.

In my opinion, after recent PBE nerf, Darius is really fine.
'It took me so long time to write it. If you are going to flame me just because you don't agree, better think twice. If you don't agree, use ARGUMENTS. I would really love to discuss about it in cultural, logical way.'