The Azir update pushes him away from his theme and makes him a generic, non unique battle mage

Riot has taken measures on Azir to put him back in line and even though the goal was probably achieved (winrate will rise to a more normal number)... Almost all of the things that made him unique just disappeared over his patch history, the last hit to what was left of his unique arsenal was making his ult a normal terrain. I know you guys at Riot had good intentions to make Azir playable and give him more counterplay but you should have taken the other path.

I think that Riot's intention on keeping Azir's Shurima Shuffle made them go so far that they turned him into a generic battle mage just to keep it... I will admit it, at first, I wanted them to not rework his abilities and try to find a way to give him a weakness without removing Shurima Shuffle but the updated kit opposes the principles of Azir's theme. He is supposed to be THE emperor, standing far back and commanding his soldiers to do all the work for him.. Now he behaves as a short range, frontline battle mage and that does not live up to the fantasy of the champion at all IMO...

There are kings who fight alongside their soldiers in the battle but Azir is just not that kind of guy, you know what I mean?

Think about Rek'Sai. Her update was seen as a complete success because they managed to balance the champion while making the true fantasy of her theme come true with the kit update. Gaining fury really fast, the new ult, not a tanky vanguard anymore but a more assassin like playstyle.. The way she should've been from the start. And fortunately with her update, both goals of living up to the fantasy\theme of the champion and making it balanced were achieved.

I think Shurima Shuffle and his defensive tools should've been sacrificed for the sake of letting him live up to his theme in return for keeping his range and relevance at long range..