Azir Changes and Long Term Solutions

Azir Changes on PBE for 6.23

> Shurima's Legacy (P): > Turret AD per minute increased to 4 from 3.* > Gold reward for enemies killing Azir's turret lowered to 50g from 100g. > Arise! (W) recharge time lowered to 10/9/8/7/6 from 12/11/10/9/8

Hey guys, Right now Azir is on a 38% winrate for Gold players or higher (src: leagueofgraphs.com). Its obvious there will be changed, and the current PBE Updates are only provisional.

Current Problems with Azir Azir was always high skillcap champion, who shines when mastered. He also is a champ that needs peel, but shines when protected. He is good in Lategameteamfights, sieging and overall in most grouped situations, his turret passive is very strong if coordinated well with his teammates. Those things lead to absurd power in high elo play (High Mechanical Skill and Team Coord). So Riot kept nerfing Azir.

There are different Solutions imo, to solve those Problems:

• Push Azir into the High Skill Champ, but decrease his Power in Coordinated Teams. Azir mains will agree, we want an Azir who we can play in Soloq, without haveing the need to play in a perfect coordinated team. We just want to enjoy Azir. So maybe nerf his Dmg against Nash or Drake, to decrease threat to Objectives, the Removal of his Towerpush was also a good change in that matter and most importantly remove his turret Passive. His Turret will lead to spikes in Azirs power, which can be abused by a well coordinated team. Having that turret in Sieges is super strong. But a lone Azir in Soloq cant make that much use of it, especially if the turret is on CD, he lacks power that went to his passive. Alternatively we could maybe get some Passive similar to old Cassio, a late game scaling passive e.g. kill Minions to gain mana reg, Attackspeed and CDR.

• Remove Azir from official Tournaments. Yeah, sounds like the last solution, but i rather have an Emperor that i can play, than having Azir nerfed into the ground and not being seen in BOTH, soloq and competetive play.

• Rework Azir I really fear this, but it could be an awesome rework, which would even increase the fun we have with Azir. The two Options Rioters mentioned would be either a High Range Immobile Poke Azir to keep his overall playstyle concept, or alternatively the smaller ranged Battle Mage Azir which has Shurima Shuffle and Drifts. Personally, i like the Battle Mage idea, it keeps the signature of good Azirs, who will usually make use of Shuffles and Drifts.

Honestly, i dont know in which direction this all is going, but i hope Riot will keep the Character of Azir, and still let him be the high skill Champ, a Char u need to play tons of games not to feed, and still havnt mastered after Hundreds of games.