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Suggestion on Balancing Azir

Daoist·5/3/2018, 7:02:53 AM·17 votes·7,844 views

I am an Azir main who started playing Azir on s5, and Shurima shuffled to Diamond last season. However, the constant nerfs places Azir in a unstable position - while I agree the fact that Azir can be strong in the hands of the Pro Players. In the PBE Azir change today - There are a few things that really hit Azir hard, both for the New Players, High Elo Players, and the Pros.

Base HP lowered from 552 to 500
W AP ratio lowered from 60% to 40%
damage changed from [60-160 based on level] to 60/80/100/120/140
Sand Soldier duration changed from 10 seconds at all ranks to 4/5.5/7/8.5/10 seconds
E cost increased from 60 at all ranks to 100 at all ranks, cooldown increased from 19/18/17/16/15 to 24/21/18/15/12

Combining these nerfs with the W recast and mana Buff, Azir's pushing power is basically stronger - While his ability to trade in lane, mana costs, and last game fighting power got worse.

I believe the real problem with Azir is his ability to shuffle - both in lane and during teamfights. Therefore I agree with the E mana nerf but I oppose the W rework - Pushing a Champion into a Ziggs-Like pushing machine isn't something healthy.

I believe reworking Azir's E is the key to close the gap between the pros and everyone else. The E's ability to shuffle anytime during teamfight give the pros too much power, while the pro Azirs can efficiently position and spam a bunch of soldiers to AOE, normal players cannot.

Therefore here is my suggestion:

E (Shifting Sands) cost increased from 60 at all ranks to 60/80/100/120/140 - New effect : Azir cannot cast Shifting Sands if there is more than one Sand Soldier present.

I believe this E rework efficiently lowers the caps for Pro-level team fight, and makes every Azir think about his position before spamming a bunch of Soldiers for AOE in the fights or to waveclear ( and it also removes the confusion for new Azirs about which sand soldier to shift to if more than one sand soldier is present). In return, Azir could get some of his wave clear and early team fight power back.

W ( Arise! ) Damage to secondary target minions changed from 25/60/75/100 (%)( At levels 1/6/11/16) to 50/75/100 (%) (At levels 1/6/11).
W ( Arise! ) Now deals full damage to secondary target champions

Thanks for feedback.

9 Comments

RNG Unable5/3/2018, 7:07:34 AM9 votes

Sounds good to me. But I still want the old Azir back.

SB Arneeman5/3/2018, 3:12:05 PM4 votes

The changes on PBE right now absolutely destroys Azir. What is the point of having waveclear if you don't actually scale up? 60-40% scaling nerf is insane, on an already weak champion.

However, I dislike your solution to fixing the problem. You shouldn't be punished for having more than 1 soldier up. A better strategy imo would be to remove the ability to cast Q during E - this changes your shuffle combo to have much lower range, and reduces his safety. Then they could add some power back into W or Q.

I've given up on Azir after the latest nerf, he feels unplayable in soloq. Another large nerf is ridiculous, especially when it does the complete opposite of what they said the wanted to do - increasing his early waveclear and gutting his numbers.

PowerSlave9935/3/2018, 2:04:04 PM3 votes

Riot:

Azir W attack speed is buffed by 0.9% at first rank.

People in LCS: OMG AZIR SO OPP!! Riot: Oh my god... we overbuffed Azir guys! Make him unplayable in the game and write that he has some random bug. HE NEEDS NERFS! HE IS OP BRO, HE WINS EVERY LANE NOW.

Riot nerfs him to the ground and welcome to the 44% and lower champion winrate : > )[slayer-jinx-wink]

SNIP3RIUM5/3/2018, 2:51:46 PM2 votes

My problem with these changes are that he falls off late game and didn't become as much of a hypercarry which really hurts his identity. What I suggest for Azir is the following:

Keep the W soldier decay time and base dmg decrease but increase the ratio to 60% ap as it was, because this adds up to a lot in a teamfight -20% ap per strike to 5 champions (potentially more than -90%ap per soldiers auto)
Keep the e mana nerf, but remove the additional dmg as it'll be useless.
Make q ap ratio scale per q lvl (e.g. 15/20/25/30/35) to make people choose between poke and waveclear or sustained dmg.
Keep r changes, maybe nerf it's dmg early, but I see that -50 dmg on r late game will be okay.
Keep the minion dmg decrease to further punish people who choose to max w as they'll lack waveclear compared to those who will max q.
The attack speed nerfs are fine, maybe just make the modifier to increase your attack speed by the same amount as the passive increase.

Pls tell me if anyone didn't agree with any point, we might reach a solution [slayer-jinx-catface]

no to toxic5/3/2018, 2:42:58 PM1 votes

I´m not a Azir main who abused Azir for free lp due to his piss easy kit and laodsa damage and I disagree despite not having read anything you wrote. Though I do think one of Azirs main problems is his waveclear is so good. He is supposed to be a magic dealing apc in the mid lane not that but also a great waveclear champ. I also understand the E nerf any consistant damage dealer who can easily escape basically loses his only weakness. But the W ap ratio nerfs seem scary. I don´t want to lose my bootleg adc replacament Riot.

0 Hogapu5/3/2018, 8:27:01 PM1 votes

The idea you propose would hit him too hard, and I think he would become way too clunky to play as. Giving him less mechanics and more stats is not what we want either, as he would become a right click apc... from a relatively long range, and very huge damage (if Riot still wants him to be viable after removing some of his mechanics).

Something in the same idea would be, all soldiers but the one Azir is dashing on, will die whenever he casts E. Meaning he wont be able to shuffle in with 3 soldiers and instantly exploding people. with his attk speed buff. I think that would be more fair, and would also go along the "Azir prepares a soldier if he hits a champion" thing that got added in his last rework.

thoughts ?