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An interesting tidbit that I found in the archive of the old league boards, Riot Designer CertainlyT who worked on Darius [his first champion] mentioned that Darius R had to be redone because the legal team said that the particles were way too crazy (enemy exploding into pieces)
CertainlyT also answered some questions regarding Darius kit:
Q: Are you happy overall with the way Darius ended up? Did you have to make any "compromises" in design for the sake of balance?
A: I am very happy, though I don't think he's perfect by any means. I went through about 5-6 "W" skills, none of which were perfect. If I could do it all over again, that skill would probably be different.
Design is constantly about making compromises. The only issue with Darius was his E, Apprehend which scared our Live Balance team to no end. It used to be a bit longer of a pull with an even bigger knock up."
Q: Do you feel that Darius has a boring model, being a generic human male knight in armor? It seems to be a concern.
A: I fought to make him an eagle, and his ult involved picking enemies up and drop them on other enemies. Unfortunately our 3d modelers couldn't make his axe fit in the eagle's talons.
it gives a glimpse on how different Riot functioned in early 2010s compared to now as the champ designers had way more influence on how the champion turns out compared to now where the product team is more involved
also it shows how hectic it must have been as Riot was pumping out a champion every 2-4 weeks back in 2012 so stuff like this could happen where a champion's animation has to be redone few days before they hit PBE
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