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

Having seen all the things said about the Darius nerf, I posted a little argument about why I feel that the current nerf to him was not good for the champion and the game as a whole in the comments. It ended up being too long though, so I thought I'd repost it here as a discussion topic instead:

Darius has naurally lower base damage on all his basic abilities combined compared to other champions. His bleed isn't all that strong unless it lasts for a really, really long period of time.

What makes him dangerous is the very fact that his ult is up.

You enter a fight knowing your limits: while you do more damage than Darius initially, can you kill him fast enough before you reach a certain threshold? If you can, go for it. If you realize that you can't, back out while you still can, as he only has 1 chance to pull you back and slow you.

Now, when a Darius expends an ult on you, you know that you've just gained a 2 minute window to either farm in relative peace or even kill Darius (if you're not too behind) until his ult comes back up. While this may sound fair, note that Darius' damage output is balanced around his ult - he does less damage compared to most other top laners who can produce the same level of damage as a Darius with his ult with their own basic abilities.

Darius has to basically sacrifice the only aspect of himself that makes him dangerous to kill you. And considering that he's only ever going to touch you if you come within 550 range in the first place, it really isn't very fair to Darius. Even if he does catch you, you know that if his ult is down, you'll be able to out-duel him with equal (or even slightly less, depending on the champion) farm any day.

And about his lack of counterplay - not every champion has to have equal dueling power. Put a Soraka against a Darius and it's only normal that darius will win if they both trade blows. My point is that if his supposed lack of counterplay is the fact that you either fight him and either win or lose, or you don't at all, then that's not really a fair statement.

It's only normal that some champions have strengths that other don't. Why? Because a champion's power does not come from damage output only. A Soraka (just to prove my point) provides an insane amount of sustain but sacrifices damage output for it. A Darius might have really, really strong dueling power if he catches you, but he literally has 550 range of control. Stay out of it and he'll be unable to touch you. A Darius may have a lot of innate power, but lacks the high skill ceiling of strategic thinking that others may be able to achieve.

Sure, he'll draw a lot of attention and distrupt teamfights, but then that's where you make use of the strengths of your own team mates to find a solution. That's the beauty of this game. You don't win based on individual power. You make use of your own strengths to exploit the other team's weaknesses, and vice versa. The team with the better execution of their strategy wins.

Just because a champion holds a lot of innate power in lane does not mean that he's overpowered. The type of power that it is (for example damage) and the lack of others (like CC/team buffs) also matters. After all, it's impossible to have a game of variety and strategy whern every single lane match-up is 50-50. You have to sacrifice lane power for team power, and vice versa. Counterplay does not always have to occur for every single action in the game. A strength is a strength, and a weakness is a weakness. 