If you remember, back in February 2020, Riot Games implemented a plan to expand the jungle champion pool in patch 10.4. Their approach, in addition to introducing new champions with a tendency to jungle (Viego is one example), also included improving the jungle clearing capabilities of existing champions, especially those with area damage like Garen, Darius, Mordekaiser, Talon, Zed, Gnar, and Diana. However, aside from some minor experiments, the results have not been very effective.
Nevertheless, Riot has not given up on this idea, and in the PBE, they have introduced the latest updates for Darius in patch 11.8 for testing. Specifically, this champion’s passive, Hemorrhage, which originally provided 175% damage to jungle monsters, has now been boosted to a whopping 500% damage. This is an enormous figure and could help Darius – known for his tankiness – clear the jungle much faster.
For instance, there is a clip showing the Noxian General soloing the Dragon right from level 1. In fact, this champion didn’t even use Smite.
As we can see, while other jungle champions need to reach the necessary levels and have the right skills to take down the Dragon or rely on teammates for support, Darius only needs to stack 5 Hemorrhage points to take down this major objective by himself.
However, compared to others, Darius lacks the necessary mobility to truly become a jungle champion. With a base movement speed of only 340, he is not particularly fast, and even with items like Turbocharged Hexperiment or using Ghost like Hecarim, this champion still seems too bulky and clumsy for the jungle role.
Many players also believe that Riot is buffing Darius a bit too much. However, this is all just testing, and in the future, Riot may implement further adjustments for this champion as well as others like Garen, Zed, Gnar… to provide players with more options for the jungle role.