A God Who Calls Himself Emperor; A Comprehensive Dissection Azir's Kit
Preface: As an avid Azir player since his introduction, I can easily say he is my favourite League champion, if simply by virtue of his thematic and its execution alone. His kit to me is amazing, and I feel it is incredibly appropriate, and is fine in the context of the game itself.
That being said, it's obvious there is something inherently wrong with it, as this will be the third time Azir has been cycled in and out of the meta and professional scene in between his patch changes. With the amount of legitimate discussion going on, and seemingly increased awareness of Azir this time around, I will be taking this opportunity to look at Azir's kit both individually (piece by piece), and collectively (how all the abilities fit and operate in the context of each other), and subsequently come to a conclusion as to what action, in my opinion, should be taken (if any).
And so I begin;
PASSIVE - Shurima's Legacy RANGE: 400 STATIC COOLDOWN: 180 (starting after the Sun Disc is destroyed) INNATE: Azir places a marker above the ruins of all destroyed turrets outside the enemy base. DISC OF THE SUN: Azir raises the Sun Disc from the selected marked ruins after a brief delay. The Sun Disc functions like a standard turret but gains bonus attack damage equal to 15% AP. It also grants Azir any gold it earns. The Sun Disc loses health over 1 minute and loses its armor if Azir dies or moves too far away.
By itself, I think this ability is fine. All the appropriate levels are there (cooldown, duration, limitations on placement), and what's more, is an ability that gives the player a choice, creating more room for strategic placement/usage/timing, counterplay, and poor placement/usage/timing. My stance on this ability is pretty neutral, as it is certainly a unique, but otherwise very balanced, ability.
As for the main abilities, I will begin with Azir's second ability, his W, as it's the crux of his kit, and the only ability that can be levelled at level 1.
SECOND ABILITY [W] - Arise! RANGE: 450 / 800 COST: 40 MANA + 1 SAND SOLDIER COOLDOWN: 1.5 RECHARGE TIME: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 PASSIVE: Azir permanently has bonus attack speed. He also has a stock system for this ability; he stores a Sand Soldier periodically, up to a maximum of 2 stored at once. BONUS ATTACK SPEED: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60% ACTIVE: Azir summons an untargetable Sand Soldier at the target location for 9 seconds, expiring twice as fast while within range of an enemy turret, and expire instantly if Azir moves too far away. When Azir attacks an enemy in a soldier's range, the soldier attacks in his stead, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. Multiple soldiers can strike the same target, with each soldier beyond the first dealing 25% damage. Azir can only command soldiers when near them. Soldiers cannot attack enemy structures.
Arise! is the centerpiece of Azir, and what is most readily identifiable about him. It is essentially Minion-mancering on a typically larger scale than normal, as most "Minion champions" (eg Heim, Zyra, Malz etc) have limited control over their minions, and in fact manipulate them more than control. Azir however exercises COMPLETE CONTROL over his soldiers. By itself, the ability is somewhat average, as its limited placement range is very compromising for Azir, which granted could be a fair thing. On the other hand however the damage output of a single soldier late game is immense, rivalling and even surpassing some (maybe even most) AD Carries, with the additional benefit of dealing Magic Damage as opposed to the other's Physical. This ability is what truly sells Azir, and cements him into the "Hyper Carry Late Game Mage", a role that I feel should rightfully go to an Emperor. As for how much damage it deals, I am legitimately fine with it's damage output. It has it's (rather obvious) counterplay, and demands constant attention of the player to maximise output, which does become straining after a while. On top of this, it's damage that is primarily DPS in nature as opposed to burst, and rarely does anything fewer than 3/4 shot even a squishy target with little to no resistances. Incorporating his Q changes this dramatically... My stance on this ability is that it MUST STAY, REGARDLESS OF THE IMPACT THE REST OF HIS KIT HAS ON IT, on the grounds that it is fundamental to Azir, in ways of his theme, design, character, role, and kit.
Now proceeding through the remainder of his kit, in numerical order. FIRST ABILITY [Q] - Conquering Sands RANGE: 875 COST: 70 MANA COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 ACTIVE: Azir orders all Sand Soldiers to dash toward the target location, dealing magic damage to all enemies they pass through and Slow icon slowing them by 25% for 1 second. MAGIC DAMAGE: 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 / 145 (+ 50% AP) Enemies hit by multiple soldiers do not take additional damage, but are Slow icon slowed by an additional 25% per soldier beyond the first. Conquering Sands resets Azir's autoattack timer.
In the interest of total honesty, this ability is what annoys me the most, and, alongside his E, what I would consider contains the most 'unnecessary' power in his kit. Azir's W, which I have already admitted is, at the least, the single most important aspect of his kit, defines Azir the most, and puts him into the Late-Game-Hyper-Carry-Mage role. Yet with so much of Azir's kit being focused, http://champion.gg/champion/Azir, it would seem Azir players are still maxing Q first. In my opinion, Conquering Sands simply deals more damage than it should. Truth be told it shouldn't really deal any damage to being with, and should be used with the main intention of MOVING AZIR'S SOLDIERS. TL;DR it isn't. Players are maxing it first, and combining it with the Thunderlord's Decree mastery to strengthen Azir's early game and make it easier to reach late game and dominate. This to me is infuriating. Azir's main trade-off for his borderline insane damage output in the late game is SUPPOSED to be gated by the incredible difficulty in reaching the late game first. Conquering Sands not only circumvents this, but actually puts him almost on-par with (and even stronger than some) most of his mid-lane competition, which should never be the case. Whats worse is the flow on effect this causes.
Azir having high damage on his Q does two main things -
- Gives him a semblance of burst damage
- Gives him poke damage To make it worse, this in turn does something further for Azir -
- Removes his weaknesses when comparing similar champions (mages) Simply put the amount of added benefit Azir gets purely because his Q deals notable damage is ludicrous.
As such my stance on this ability is that it's damage should be severely tuned down, especially in the later ranks, with a shortened cooldown depending on the impact this has on Azir.
THIRD ABILITY [E] - Shifting Sands RANGE: 1100 COST: 60 MANA COOLDOWN: 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 ACTIVE: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemies he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops and gains a shield for 4 seconds. MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 40% AP) SHIELD: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 15% bonus health)
I mentioned previously that my main problems with Azir would be his Q (already explained) and this ability, his E. But this is more simple and lesser than it's counterpart by far. I think it's too much simply by virtue of being in a kit that includes a self peeling ability and is a somewhat reliable escape on an incredibly important priority target for the enemy. That said I really like this ability, and it's significantly less sinful than his Q, and what's more can be interrupted by the opponent. Oh and Shurima-Shuffles. As an extra, it does open up a way of playing Azir that Faker uses (to generally great effect), wherein Azir is used to create picks from range for his teammates, something which I believe is fine as it's nowhere near as polarising as Poke/Burst/DPS/Everything Mage that the Q creates, and is furthermore only as effective as the enemy's misteps, whilst utilising Azir's primary forms of both disengage and escape, leaving him incredibly vulnerable. My stance on this ability is that it should stay, and I personally am fine with the way it is now, but by the same token would not be surprised to see it get nerfed as it is a somewhat significant source of 'extra power'.
FOURTH ABILITY [R/ULTIMATE] - Emperor's Divide RANGE: 250 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 140 / 120 / 100 ACTIVE: Azir calls forth a phalanx of soldiers from behind him, charging forward in the target direction. WIDTH: 4 / 5 / 6 soldiers When the soldiers finish their charge, they stand as a wall for 3 seconds, blocking enemy champion movement and dashes. These soldiers cannot be ordered to move or attack. Enemies impacted by the charge are dealt magic damage and Airborne icon knocked back. Allies and Azir can pass through the wall. MAGIC DAMAGE: 150 / 225 / 300 (+ 60% AP)
This ability is probably the second most readily identifiable thing about Azir, and I view it in a very similar way to Arise!. While I don't deny this ability is powerful, and think that while it certainly fits Azir's theme and character/design, I would probably be able to agree that it's not a NECESSITY on his kit (though I would be greatly disappointed to see it go). HOWEVER. In the context of the GAME AS A WHOLE, I believe that having Emperor's Divide (or such an ability) is GOOD FOR THE GAME, AND FOR THE CHAMPION WHO HAS IT. What having abilities like Emperor's Divide does for a champion is give them 100% viability in any circumstance, regardless of their state of balance, as they will ALWAYS HAVE THAT ABILITY. And being honest, now that it only lasts 3 seconds it's really not that oppressive. All that in mind, my stance on Emperor's Divide is that I would like for it to stay on Azir - I don't think it's stupidly overpowered on him - but at the least it should stay in the game somewhere, somehow.
Special Mention: Spell interactions on Arise! Thunderlords and Rylais are fucking busted on it.
Conclusion: Azir is actually more balanced than I feel most people realise, likely due to misplaced concerns over his soldiers. Azir SHOULD deal consistent damage, and murder anything foolish enough to stand in his way for long enough, but he shouldn't be killing-on-sight, a possibility that is primarily only created by his Conquering Sands, which I consider to be the main (I would like to say only) issue for Azir.
I realise this is a Trump-level wall of text, and I don't doubt many will want a TL;DR, but if you can't be bothered to read to fully understand my conclusion, you don't really deserve a TL;DR.
Note: Does anyone know what ZenonTheStoic thinks about Azir right now?
