@Meddler and Community - Azir Balance in Next and Future Patches Ideas From an Azir Main[Detailed]

Recently, I saw Meddler's post that the upcoming Azir nerf's would likely not be his last. In people have not heard about these nerfs, here is what is happening in 6.11:

Direct: -His W is no longer able to be used directly on a tower to damage it -His ult duration is 3 seconds at all ranks, from 5/6/7 -His ult no longer increases allied move speed by 20% after passing through

Indirect: Stinger attack speed is being reduced to 30% from 50%

I have been an Azir main since his release, I mained Zed from when I started up until then. In season 5, I was placed into Bronze V and climbed to Gold V with pretty much just Azir. This season I was placed in Bronze again, and am closing in on Gold again, again with mostly him. Azir is easily my favorite champion, and ive stuck with him through all the times he was weak or out of meta.

I think these nerfs are the perfect direction to go in to reduce unnecessary power. His W being able to shred towers even faster than he does normally was admittedly too strong late game for a champion designed for late game anyway. His ult duration is a perfect nerf, as far too often I would get free kills when my opponent strayed too near me at the tower, and I would just toss them in, and the wall would keep them stuck there for easily long enough to kill, unless they burned flash to escape, or were named Zed/Kat/a few more. And of course, late game the 7 second duration makes Azir nearly untouchable short of extremely hard focus or an enemy assassin with a blink who could blow Azir up in a matter of seconds(Talon, Zed). The 20% move speed was just pointless overloading that, while not being particularly important very often, was clear and unnecessary power. On the other hand, approve of the Stinger nerf even more. For Azir, it has been FAR too efficient to buy just Stinger and Codex and sit on them till the inventory is full, and then combine them into Nashors. This nerf will reduce the effectiveness of this, forcing Azir to be either weaker early, or drop 1k gold to complete Nashors.

I fell in love with Azir partially because of his lore, but mostly because of his awesome, fun, complex, and rewarding kit. I love his scaling, the drifting is endless fun, and overall, he is just so fun to play, and he is the only champion that I have not gotten bored with, even after hundreds of games played. Now with the threat of a nerf hanging over my head, I am extremely worried about his future, and came up with a few ideas of my own. Obviously, I dont want all of these put in at once, but I am hoping someone might take notice, and maybe help me as well. Its a long shot, but I hope I might make even a little impact.

1. This is indirect, but is something that seems more and more necessary. To me, this is the BEST POSSIBLE way to nerf Azir. Rylais has become 100% core on basically every single control mage in League, and Azir is no exception. Rylais is a massive powerspike for him, and one of the reasons he is so strong. A nerf to Rylais would be the absolute ideal way to tone down Azir's power due to its insane synergy with his kit, and would open up more diverse build paths for control mages in general.

2. Solider attack range. Not Q range, but the actual radius the solider can attack in, while keeping the stab extension the same. This would make laneing against him less oppressive for melee champ's, or champs he can bully early.

3. W solider recharge rate, especially early game. Like some of my other idea's here, would make him far less frustrating to play against, and would make the Azir need to think more carefully about when and were to place soldiers, instaid of basically putting them wherever and spamming attacks all over the lane.

4. It breaks my heart to say this, but reducing, NOT REMOVING, the free attack speed on his W, from current 10/20/30/40/50 to maybe something like 5/10/20/30/40, would take some power out of him.

5. Q cooldown at lower ranks, or even at higher ranks. This would force Azir's to build some CDR to reach the cooldown right now, and would make laning against him more pleasant, while keeping his late game largely strong, as long as he builds some CDR. Also, it would make Azir's have to think more careful about when to Q, place it better, and reduce the spammability greatly.

6. Increase Nashors Tooth price. Nashors feels extremely cheep, especially for its power on champ's who use it well(Azir, Kayle). If its price rose, in combination with the 6.11 Stinger attack speed nerf, it would take some more power out of Azir's early, while retaining his late strength.

7. The most tentative idea I have come up with so far, remove the shield on his E. It gives him a ton of survivability, which he was a lot of anyway with his E, ult, and huge range. The shield makes his duels huge, and makes him very effective in lane. For a mage like Azir, it feels just a little out of place, and defidently very powerful.

Thank you for making it through my post, if anyone has any ideas of their own, or something to add to what I came up with, that would be awesome. If I come up with anything else il probably add it. Thanks again, constructive criticism is fine with me.

Long Live