Suggestions from an Azir Main

Hi I'm AkajiFlare, a player currently in low gold (high gold last season). Who has played Azir pretty regularly since launch. I don't play much ranked and mostly play with my buddies but this year I'm hoping to test myself in soloq. (So far it's been a pretty good time.)

The only reason I'm saying I'm not a big ranked player is because I'm not sure my ranked history shows how much Azir I've played. I play him whenever I play league, he's what makes the game fun for me and I'll play him top, mid, support, and during season 4 I played him Rylai's rush in the jungle.

I think Azir is fine as a champion right now. Azir suffers from a problem that Thresh, Yasuo, and Orianna also suffer, in that their utility, outplay ability, and lack of significant weaknesses make them constantly resurface as threats in competitive play.

< &

But the difference between Azir and these champions is his (now) 43% winrate, and at times lower than 38%

TLDR; So is Azir really that hard? Should he be buffed? Should he be reworked?

I think** Yasuo, Azir, and Lee have alot in common in terms of difficulty**. There's a big margin for error for these champions in spacing and hitting skillshots and making these mistakes regularly makes the champion unviable. But their core differences come in their different playstyles and strengths.

Yasuo and Lee are undeniably some of the more mechanically difficult champions in League, but their difficulty doesn't seem to negatively effect their winrates too much, many players would say Yasuo is in need of nerfs right now. Why isn't Azir in a similar place?

Azir lacks in burst damage in the early game, whereas both Lee and Yasuo can burst their opponents early in the game. Burst is great in outplay champions because the outplay is sudden, and early game champions are favorable in higher elo. **Azir doesn't do much damage in the early game **unless the opponent is overconfident or they aren't avoiding soldiers properly. This is fair because of Azir's oppressive range. If he does too much damage in the early game he will straight up hard counter champions with low mobility or lack of range.

TLDR; Azir's bad early game and lack of lane damage lead are a weakness that causes frustration in beginners, and leads to him being unplayable in competitive. ** If Azir is buffed** to the point where his early game damage is strong** he feels oppressive in lane**.

**Azir's original kit had a very clear play pattern.
Fight someone with your soldiers, Q them when they run, E and knock them up, possibly ult. ** But with the E knock-up removal flying to a soldier in melee range is often useless, save being a way to save yourself when you're both low hp.

You can also view Azir E as a way for junglers to counter his long range escape. You can get behind Azir to block him from running away.

So I'd like to suggest a way to "rework" Azir. But I personally think the champion is currently healthy and could just do with some very light E shield buffs.

Q- Azir's bread and butter skill shot. Move a soldier, deal some small burst, and slow a target. This makes sense to me and changing this ability too much would make Azir feel like a different champion. I think it should remain the same but the Q should count as an auto attack. (Basically a soldier move command with an empowered auto, different from live because it would add a fervor stack.)

W- So there are many items that don't work with Azir that we thought might during the reveal right? Iceborn gauntlet, Lich Bane, Wit's End, Nashors. We thought he might build similarly to Kayle. I think that Azir would be a more interesting champion if he could use these items to some extent, but he could become INCREDIBLY hard to balance. Azir soldiers would also stack fervor and deal attack damage and that would be hard to counter.

Here are changes I suggest to move Azir towards being able to use these items.

Azir soldiers deal magic damage only during every circumstance. They can apply on-hit effects but only if multiple soldiers attack the same target but the damage is converted to AP. W base damage doesn't scale very well over the course of the game and relies heavily on damage. Soldier attacks are melee.
** There are many items that would have strange interactions and let me explain them**.

No AD scaling on soldiers but deals the percentage health. Probably a bad item on Azir. Definitely overpowered in the early game vs mages. But terrible base damage and AP scaling might deter people from abuse. Since multiple soldiers are required it might cost too much mana in the early game to really use. Hey feels way more worth it. If multiple soldiers attack same target it applies. Azir can't crit with his soldiers. They can proc but I mean, it's not worth it.

Azir soldier cast range should be nerfed, but not by too much. They still Q the same distance but Azir should be making a decision when he puts a soldier up to CS or fight. He can stil EQ combo and fly away but the range at which he can actually create the soldier should be reduced very slightly.

TLDR; On hit effects.

E; This spell should retain it's long CD throughout the game and not get too much CD reduction. I think live values are pretty fair. I think it makes sense that Azir shouldn't have too much CC outside of his ult. I think that Azir should have some incentive to use this skill in close range other than a quick TLD so the shield should scale with AP, but a very small shield.

Using E on a soldier destroys the soldier after your travel is complete.

R; Same. The outplay wing-sec, Shurima shuffle, goodness.

Q:AkajiFlare WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?

A: I think Azir's lack of synergy with these items was a good choice at the time. Azir working with all these items would make him unbelievable hard to balance and every item rework would leave him in a weird place. But now that he's been on live for so long I think he could make use of these items and become a** shorter range battle mage**. I** think this fits in more with his kit and synergy with these items would make him a more fun champion.**

TLDR; Some late night ramblings of a bird-brain.

Hehe be kind to me please, these are just some thoughts. I'm no Riot balance team member and honestly I'm fine with Azir as is. I just think this could be fun and wanted to try my hand at reimagining a champion.