Board Thread:Game discussion/@comment-218.186.15.10-20130322103639/@comment-218.186.15.10-20130325152524

I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way (and I'm not trying to start a fight, just a discussion), but saying that a champion counters another in lane is simply another way of saying that you have a vast advantage over the other champion. And indeed, Darius isn't that strong. I'm not saying he's weak, but let's break this down:

First, he counters Riven, Fiora, Wukong and Nasus? I believe that it's anyone's game with those champions.

Riven does a lot of damage herself early on, and if she trades with Darius, she'll have the initial advantage (she has a stun + shield if Darius pulls her, plus her passive) unless she stays and fights when her skills are on CD, which isn't very good play by her. Furthermore, her Q acts as a disengage tool, along with her dash. Fiora? Her early game damage is blazingly high, and her W reflects Darius's W. Having a speed boost on her E and a double dash makes her rather mobile as well, and her passive semi-counters Darius's own passive. Wukong can make use of his initial burst + AR shred to go against Darius. Granted, he does not have much sustained damage, but he still has an initial burst advantage, plus his Decoy makes for a great escape tool. Nasus? His Wither has a CD at rank 1 that is shorter than Darius's pull all the way until rank 4. Combine this with the AS slow to reduce the rate Darius applies stacks and the initial damage from Q + E, he can indeed go against Darius.

I'm not saying that they counter him. I'm saying that all these champions have kits that allow them to go against Darius and potentially win, depending on the skill of either player.

Utility? I believe all the other solo-tops have utility that are either on-par, or even better than Darius's, and they all benefit the champions themselves too.

About the CS thing: if Darius is going to harass you with his Q in the first place, that means that he's going to push the lane towards you, unless his Q completely misses lane creeps, which is unlikely. Plus, any for of last hitting will push the lane, unless the enemy laner is so perfect to the point that he manages to last hit every single creep right when it's 1 minion hit away from death.

Furthermore, it is highly possible for laners to bounce back from having little farm during the early game. Watch any tournaments and you'll see many solo-tops who have an initial CS disadvantage due to a 2v1 lane, but still manage to either help the team or farm back later in the game. Early game CS is no doubt important, but it's not the end of the world if you face a CS disadvantage compared to the enemy laner.

Once again, I'm sorry if I offended you, but I feel strongly about certain topics, and it's really frustrating to see such a lazy and overdone nerf done to any champion, especially after what they did to Rengar and Diana (who I've played all the way from pre-nerf to post-nerf). They are balanced now, but the way they got balanced (massive nerfs to slight re-buffs) were really bad for the game. I hope that they either rework his ulti again or do a full rework like what Morello said.