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So Riot... Mind Telling me what kind of Mage Azir is?

Souijinn·7/19/2015, 7:32:00 PM·43 votes·5,324 views

Lately, I've been seeing waaaaaaaay too much Azir . Whether I'm playing against him, or just playing another lane and seeing someone else go against him, the consistent theme is its always that hes obnoxious early and later on.

He's got Range/Safety, Poke, and Zoning... Okay that's fine. Lux is that. Ziggs is that. Lots of mages have a good amount of that. But He's also got Dps and Burst... Okay, Cassiopeia is Dps and to a minor extent Burst... but why does he have the rest? Hes got a gap closer too? And an impassable Wall that adds to his safety/burst? And he can also Siege?

So what's the verdict here? Azir is a Ranged/Dps/Poke/Zoning/Burst/Siege Mage!

I know hes getting a change in the upcoming patch... but lets be honest here. The change isn't even going to address his main problems. Its just most likely adding to the problem.

70 Comments

Vistha Kai7/19/2015, 7:45:22 PM34 votes

Azir is a ranged, melee, tanky DPS, assassin, mage, tank, support, jungler. He excels at everything.

Stiv12347/19/2015, 7:51:13 PM18 votes

I think he is supposed to be a DPS mage, but with the current damage on his Q and soldier auto attacks, he can just burst for 195 - 315 + 110% AP (which hurts a lot similar to Orianna QW) every fucking 4 seconds. They should outright remove the damage on his Q and give it a much lower mana cost along with a lower cooldown, so he actually uses his soldiers for damage, while increasing the damage per extra soldier AA from 25% to 40 or so.

Erockandroll7/19/2015, 8:50:00 PM6 votes

Their probably trying to remove his spell slinger identity. Focus more on auto attacks and individual spell cast, rather than combo casting with auto attacks in between. Thanks to the fact that he got massive AS boosts off of CDR.

The problem with his DPS Identity, is that he has no reason to build AS. Full AP Builds, Grant him both Burst, And DPS. And he does not need to be the source of AS, when you have Jungle Nunu, Jungle NId, or a Censor on your team.

The AP item rework probably has something to do with it. Considering a 40% Slow (from Rylals) on his soldier Auto attacks would increase the Zone potential by like, a thousand percent?

Zarxis7/20/2015, 3:49:37 AM5 votes

Azir is meant to be an AP marksman that primarily does damage through the use of his soldier's autoattacks. Riot refuses to redistribute his kit's power to make him truly focused into his intended role. Instead, they continue nerfing him in general because they've made him a generalist. He's starting to resemble Yasuo— he's becoming a feast-or-famine snowballer that relies on his early-game gimmicks to get fed.

Durzaka7/20/2015, 5:06:18 AM4 votes

Well first, Azir does have poke, but he is far from a poke mage. His poke combo requires 2 skills, and is on a longer cooldown than other poke mages as well as an overall shorter range on his poke.

The rest is fair, although I think Zoning and Sieging are more or less one in the same, if youve got one you probably have the other.

I think the problem is that Azir maxes Q first every time, which gives him a large amount of damage early, because lets face it, his other skills dont get a good benefit from being leveled up.

The changes they are making on the PBE arent going to fix Azir, they are going to break him. No one will stop leveling Q because it is too important, so he basically has no attack speed until level 13. So he losing about 2/3 of his overall damage because of the change that is at the same time making his passive terrible. And of course the removal of the knockup is just stupid. Having it stop when hitting enemies on not knock up feels really fucking bad, should have removed the shield and kept the knock up.

B1naryB0t7/19/2015, 10:47:07 PM4 votes

Based on the release videos, he was designed to be a zoning mage (which is a nice way of saying lane bully) Players then complained about the lane bullying, especially since azir stays more than relevant late-game. So they seem to have made him a poke hypercarry, which will be nerfed next patch to the azir we all know and love, trash mage.

aperson17/19/2015, 10:09:41 PM3 votes

His Q travels way too fast, even Pros can't dodge it. And he straight up needs a new E. Like he pulls his soldiers to him or something. The mobility and shield gives him waaay too much, and it's super uninspired. At the very least give an incentive for blocking him. Like instead of damaging who he touches, he increases the damage of the soldier he E's to.

I understand the Shurima Shuffle thing is cool and all, but when his entire lane pattern post-6 is to all-in the enemy laner every time they show their face you know something's not right.

Lugg7/19/2015, 9:21:42 PM2 votes

Am I the only one who thinks that Azir should do AD damage? His soldiers spear you. Plus I think that would make him even more unique and allow teams to more easily run an AP top.

Abyssphere7/19/2015, 9:15:17 PM2 votes

I don't know why his kit ended up how it is. Like you would think their internal testing would have revealed that he... is good at everything it's possible to be good at. Even champs like Lee Sin are adept at less things than Azir is.

Shes Gone Now7/19/2015, 11:07:56 PM2 votes

Basically he is the Lee Sin of mid lane. He's kit makes him overly versatile, and unless your a artillery mage you can't kill him because of his ult.

BlunterMonk7/20/2015, 3:32:21 PM2 votes

Heimerdinger

Sinneli7/21/2015, 9:19:18 AM1 votes

Azir is, much like other DPS mages, reliant on positioning. He does not thrive in the middle of the teamfight, but rather,on the backlines. He can engage and create a wall which prevents movement to prevent assassins from coming in, but allow me to tell you about this.

Azir is vulnerable after a dash. He has no method of escaping afterwards except his ultimate. In a teamfight situation, an assassin coming from the side towards Azir will leave him completely undefended if he used his soldiers Q. Forget summoning a soldier again. He can only focus on one zone to attack for soldiers present. Either the front-line or the back. If he recalls his soldier to get rid of an assassin who might burst him down, the front-line will suddenly lack the high DPS on a certain zone where the soldiers had been.

To counter Azir properly, being in two lines instead of one fight in the middle would be a better strategy. Tank in the middle, mages and ADC walking around the edge. Soldiers can only attack in a synchronized format.

It will reduce his DPS output immensely on an entire team.

Joe Dredd7/20/2015, 6:03:35 AM1 votes

remove slow on azir q 2012

TotalJerk7/20/2015, 5:08:23 PM1 votes

It depends on how you focus your build. Attack speed and CDR for a DPS build. Raw AP and a little survivability for burst. Mana for Seige/poke.

stealthfox947/20/2015, 6:37:12 PM1 votes

Azir is a classic case of Riots designers getting over their heads.

Sea Cappy7/20/2015, 7:33:23 PM1 votes

He's the kind of mage that wins, that's what he is Azir

Myrddin7/20/2015, 9:17:10 PM1 votes

a useless one in a couple days