Darius can solo dragon at level one without Smite on PBE

If these buffs go through, Darius may become a pick-or-ban jungler.

The Dunkmaster Darius skin in League of Legends.
Image via Riot Games

A recent change on the League of Legends Public Beta Environment has seemingly unleashed havoc on the testing server.

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Darius received a buff to his passive that deals 500-percent damage to neutral creatures on the PBE. And as one League fan demonstrated yesterday, this buff allows the Hand of Noxus to kill a dragon alone at level one without even having to use Smite.

While other champions need a couple of levels and kite mechanics to pull off this feat, Darius only has to stack up his passive to take down the creature.

These changes seem out of the ordinary for Riot, which usually doesn’t go with such harsh changes and instead slowly adjusts a champion with lower increased percentages. Darius’ current 75-percent damage increase to neutral monsters on live servers isn’t enough to make him a legitimate jungle pick, but a 500-percent increase feels like an artificial buff to force him into the role instead of giving him other tools to handle jungle creeps.

The changes on the PBE are not yet final. Riot can still tinker with the numbers or remove the changes entirely before Patch 11.8 goes live on April 14.


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Cristian Lupasco
Finance expert by the day, cooking enthusiast by the night. Found a passion for writing about video games last year.