The problem with Darius though is he feels really undertuned. A garen's ult (non-villain) is matching a 5 stack darius dunk damage, and his villain ult is doubling a 5 stack darius ult in true damage.

All around Darius is just really weak right now. I can actually abuse my E early game to get a leg up on champs like Riven (minion wave) but a Riven can always escape if she gets low. Always. Top that off with her early E can absorb 100% of any non 5 stack dunk. The numbers are just really low.

Also, if you build tank Darius, you do almost no damage. Like, I try to randomly pick up red buff at lvl14 and it starts kicking my ass because I do no dmg and have no abilities that enhance tank stats.

You need to build dmg to do dmg, but you have no survivability, so it just fails. As riven I can E to absorb big hits, dash around when needed with Q, and stun people to get the jump on them. As darius, they can still attack you right after you E (so fast actually that if they use a stun as you pull them, you literally cannot basic attack before they stun you). You have no damage avoidance, are easy to kite, and still get blown up.

Damage and CC doesn't compare with a lot of other tanky champs. I can be toe to toe in lane with riven (creep score, kills) and at lvl 7 or so she can kill you before you get 5 stacks up. Which stinks, because youre built entirely around 5 stacking on people... people that you either can't touch, or will kill you before youre lethargic arms can swing 5 times. Doesn't help that inner Q doesnt apply bleed, and E doesnt apply bleed...

After 10 games or so I've only had a cool bloorage dunk sesh 2 or 3 times, both pretty cool. But if your ult leaves them at 5% hp you don't get the reset..