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Azir Balancing

RdNeo··2 votes·453 views

So I've been playing a bit of Azir lately and I've also seen some (read: a lot) of people complaining about how overpowered he is. To be honest, I agree that he is. However, I want to make sure that I can help "negotiate" the nerfs that are bound to hit him so that he's still viable.

I think the most important part of Azir, and what I love most about him over other mages, is that he is a DPS mage. He's not useless when he doesn't have cooldowns (not that he's like that for long, considering itemization). So I feel like he shouldn't have the crazy poke his Q offers. Especially in lane. I can out trade almost anyone by just Q + AA.

This is just a start, what do you guys think? What's bothering you the most about Azir?

EDIT: I've had some more time to think and I believe that Azir's ult is another thing that is somewhat problematic.

I'm sure you've noticed, but Azir's ult takes enemies on a ride. One of the most satisfying things about his ult isn't just the giant wall that is created, but the knockback (and thus, disable/stun). For a DPS mage, the time it takes for the enemy to get pushed back and bounce up is enough to get about two AAs in (depending on Attack speed). This is even better if they've already used their gap closer and flash (obviously). I'm not completely sure if it's intended since he seems like a difficult champion to code, but if the wall instead knocked them back (the same distance) but more akin to Alistars knockback, instantaneously, it would provide the opponent more room for counterplay.

Again, please share your thoughts!

6 Comments

UberAffe1 votes

I wouldn't mind some rebalancing of his damage to be based more on his soldiers aa's than his q damage. Maybe the q itself wouldn't even do damage but the soldiers would get some increased stat for a period of time along with the reposition.

Seems like you play azir more than I do so you might have an idea of if this rework would be interesting for him: Passive unchanged

Q summons a shield soldier that can be repositioned twice while it is up --shield soldiers reduce the damage of all projectiles that pass through them by some % (both enemy and ally projectiles) --slow(stun?) enemies that they hit while repositioning --have low scaling autos with lower range --repositioning does cost mana and has a cd

W summons a spear soldier that can be repositioned twice while it is up --spear soldiers increase the damage of all projectiles that pass through them by some % (both enemy and ally projectiles) --reposition increases attack speed and range for a short time --similar range to live slightly more scaling per auto because only 1 up at a time --repositioning costs mana has a cd

E Allows Azir to travel to a target soldier -- traveling to a shield soldier grants a shield to Azir and any ally champions in a certain range -- traveling to a spear soldier grants increased movement speed to Azir and any ally champions in a certain range -- traveling to any soldier grants that soldier an extra reposition(at no cost?)

R Unchanged except that it resets the cd of E when used

RdNeo1 votes

{quoted}

I wouldn't mind some rebalancing of his damage to be based more on his soldiers aa's than his q damage. Maybe the q itself wouldn't even do damage but the soldiers would get some increased stat for a period of time along with the reposition.

Seems like you play azir more than I do so you might have an idea of if this rework would be interesting for him: Passive unchanged

Q summons a shield soldier that can be repositioned twice while it is up --shield soldiers reduce the damage of all projectiles that pass through them by some % (both enemy and ally projectiles) --slow(stun?) enemies that they hit while repositioning --have low scaling autos with lower range --repositioning does cost mana and has a cd

W summons a spear soldier that can be repositioned twice while it is up --spear soldiers increase the damage of all projectiles that pass through them by some % (both enemy and ally projectiles) --reposition increases attack speed and range for a short time --similar range to live slightly more scaling per auto because only 1 up at a time --repositioning costs mana has a cd

E Allows Azir to travel to a target soldier -- traveling to a shield soldier grants a shield to Azir and any ally champions in a certain range -- traveling to a spear soldier grants increased movement speed to Azir and any ally champions in a certain range -- traveling to any soldier grants that soldier an extra reposition(at no cost?)

R Unchanged except that it resets the cd of E when used

I appreciate the time you took in writing this out. I can see what you're trying to achieve with the damage modifications and various boosts. He's an emperor, so he helps all his people and commands the battle field (both enemies and allies). However, I don't believe that Azir's current moveset is the issue.

What you said at the beginning is more of what I'm going for. A straight up nerf to Q damage might put him in line, in my opinion.

DrNova1 votes

I disagree. He's tough if you dont use proper positioning. Once he blows his Q, if your not in that zone, he cant do much to you. I'm assuming your bronze/silver, and people at those levels just dont do well at all when positioning is important.

RdNeo1 votes

{quoted}

I disagree. He's tough if you dont use proper positioning. Once he blows his Q, if your not in that zone, he cant do much to you. I'm assuming your bronze/silver, and people at those levels just dont do well at all when positioning is important.

I see what you're saying, however I just want to point out that Riot doesn't balance champions based on the low tier players. Diamond+ player will not have a hard time positioning soldiers correctly. Furthermore, once itemization comes into play, the CDR built on Azir will have his Q on a 3.6 second cooldown. Even if he misses, he has created a zone of danger that the enemies will have to work around. I can only speak from my experience but I have never been in a situation where I had no soldiers available after using my Q. If they somehow bypass my zone, I will have another soldier available to either dash away with to wait for cooldowns or to create another, more defensive, zone.

You might ask why I don't use two soldiers to Q someone, it will do more damage having two soldiers going at someone, right? You're right, it would. However he already does so much damage with one soldier in the early to mid game that I can play this safe style, saving at least one soldier to escape.

Erockandroll1 votes

I think the most important part of Azir, and what I love most about him over other mages, is that he is a DPS mage.

I'm not so certain about this. He gets a whopping 60% AP on his soldier's auto's. This is more AP than Kayles E or Teemos Toxic shot. While not having the most Impressive Attack Speed.

And with Azir you can pretty reliably attack with two, (sometimes 3 soldier). His Q has a 50% AP ratio, and each soldier after the first does 25% of the damage. So two soldiers with his Q does 62.5% AP and Three soldiers Does 75% AP.

While his Soldiers Auto's have a 60% AP scaling, it would be 75% AP with two soldiers and 90% with three.

What I'm Trying to say is that his kit. does a fair amount of Burst damage while scaling well almost exclusively on AP.

If anything, his kit is really meant to zone. While simultaneously being good at sieging turrets.

RdNeo1 votes

{quoted}

I'm not so certain about this. He gets a whopping 60% AP on his soldier's auto's. This is more AP than Kayles E or Teemos Toxic shot. While not having the most Impressive Attack Speed.

And with Azir you can pretty reliably attack with two, (sometimes 3 soldier). His Q has a 50% AP ratio, and each soldier after the first does 25% of the damage. So two soldiers with his Q does 62.5% AP and Three soldiers Does 75% AP.

While his Soldiers Auto's have a 60% AP scaling, it would be 75% AP with two soldiers and 90% with three.

What I'm Trying to say is that his kit. does a fair amount of Burst damage while scaling well almost exclusively on AP.

If anything, his kit is really meant to zone. While simultaneously being good at sieging turrets.

Where you quoted me is me trying to point out what he's aimed to be. According to Riot he is a Mage/Marksmen. He does damage with AAs however it's magic damage and is reliant on abilities. Thus I feel like the damage in his AAs should be noticeable, the fact that it's higher than Kayle's or Teemo's is sort of irrelevant in that he is limited by available soldiers. Kayle can itemize so that she has constant E up time (See Kayle-Bot's builds and recommendations as a good example of high tier Kayle) and Teemo's is always on. Furthermore, I don't feel like Kayle is in a great place currently so I don't think using her as a sort of benchmark is the best idea. If you suggest that Azir can also, and should, itemize towards 40% CDR, then the "limited soldier availability" I mentioned earlier is not so much of an issue. He will constantly have a way to output damage. However, this is a mid-late game scenario which is the time Azir should shine. My nerf suggestion was to lower his Q damage overall in order to center him around DPS rather than Q+AA poke. Currently I trade, safely, by Q+AA in lane and almost no one can out trade me (Actually, no one has been able to out trade me so far, including Zed and Leblanc).

To weaken his early game and make him more of a DPS mage throughout the whole game something would need to be done so that an Azir player thinks more about getting AAs on his target than hitting their Q.

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