Board Thread:Game discussion/@comment-218.186.15.10-20130322103639/@comment-5606883-20130322115314

"A Darius might have really, really strong dueling power if he catches you, but he literally has 550 range of control."

So, you're saying that he only has control of where the minions are, and if he is smart and freezes the lane you won't have to worry about dying if you just sacrifice all your CS? That 550 range is longer than ranged autoattacks, let alone most targeted abilities. You need to get CS in order to be any use later in the game and to do that you need to enter that range, and Darius' burst damage is higher than most top champions plus his bleed stacks do alot of damage if you are in the early laneing phase.

The problem isn't that people are doing unconventional picks for top lane, like Soraka or something else like that. The problem is that, unless you have prior knowledge that the enemy top is going to be a Darius (which is impossible in Normal games), you are 90% likely to counterpick yourself because Nidalee, Kayle, and Cho'Gath (aka strong counters to Darius) aren't common Solotop champions. (Exception: Elise counters Darius and is a hot pick right now, but she has a high skill cap to play effectivly.)

So the problem is that he counters too many solotop champions, and unless the jungler camps top lane it will be hard to gain an advantage over him even if you outplay him because his kit is designed to do more damage with his Bleed.

You do, however, make a good point. Not all solotop champions should be the same or balanced. That would lead to boring gameplay- they should all have unique strengths, but also have weaknesses that everyone has a chance to exploit through superior gameplay (aka, greater skill or outplaying). Darius has weaknesses that only a few can exploit without a 2v1 situation 24/7 (the jungler camping top lane). He can't be kited by normal picks and his pull takes a great ammount of skill to bait out and dodge if you are Fiora or Rumble or another common Solotop champion without a dash or blink (like Riven or Zed.)

He should be kiteable and have less dominance over the top lane. Nerf the range on his pull and keep the nerf on his ulti and I say Darius would be 100% balanced.