Azir: From Majestic Eagle to Puny Pigeon

Rito Plox ------------------------------------

 I just wanted to talk about Azir. I like him, he is fun, and his taunts are great. But Rito has been too hard on this guy. He has been nerfed in the past and continues to be nerfed in the patch 5.17. I just wanted to talk about my experience with him and what I think is wrong with him.

First, the story: Okay, so recently I bought Azir with the sale, before patch 5.17. I wanted to buy him cause my friend used to main him and his kit looked like fun. I had played against an Azir mid before, and I got poked soooo much, so I thought that would be helpful, since my mid lane is my worst. After buying Azir, I played him on a Custom game against bots. It was pretty decent. Not until 40 mins at a full build could I actually 2v1. Later on I played him in a game of Hide n Seek, thinking his W and E would be great for jukes. It wasn't mainly cause I couldn't do the combo where You place a soldier, E, then Q him away and follow him. Afterwards, I played another custom game to practice that technique. I ended up being able to do it 2/5 times. Finally I thought I was ready for real 5v5, and then patch 5.17 came out -.- I played him anyways, and my first match I got paired against Zed mid. Zed is already a good champion, and like most AD mid laners, can chunk more than a mage early game. I tried to poke constantly, and worked on farm too. Eventually he engaged for a trade off, in which I used W E to flee back under tower. I did this cause I had absolutely NO MANA to fight him. Being Zed, a no mana caster, he kind of had me beat right off the bat. Eventually he became greedy and tower dived. Using my ult and some other combos, I was able to get a kill after dying. After that, I only got one more kill and ended up feeding 2/10/4. I still had fun though, so I decided to try again. This time I went up against a Yasuo. Oh great, another AD, manaless champion. But, I tried my best. Once again, I ran out of mana before 5 mins, and was dead before 10. Luckily I once again ended up getting a kill after Yasuo dived. Now from here you'd think that, with both of us having a kill, the laning phase would be pretty equal. Nope. The game continued to go downhill after that, with Yasuo getting way too fed by me and my teammates. I plan on playing Azir more, but I don't expect to win any of those games

Azir's stats and stuff: I think Azir should be able to do more damage early game and actually be able to cast more than 5 abilites without running out of mana. I know most mages are mana hungry, but atleast they can stay in lane till like, 10 mins, and still be doing good before having to back for more mana. In fact, by then they would probably already have a kill! And Azir's abilities don't do much damage. On one of the games mentioned above, I was able to reach about 300 ability power, and with his Q at 50% Ap, his W at 60% and 40% Ap, his E at 40% Ap, and his Ult at 60% Ap, I need to use almost all of my abilities on one champion to deal the damage equivalent of one auto from an ADC. Azir is also a champion that is all about positioning and zoning. With such a small W range, you have walk real close to the enemy and place one, then back off. You take poke damage from that, and when you are at a semi-safe distance, your soldier just turns right back into sand! It's like Tahm's W range! And why did they have to nerf Azir's speed? He was already slow to begin with, but now he is like the turtle of all birds. And 90% of the time, I'm buying boots to run AWAY fast.

Okay, my point? Well, I enjoy Azir as much as the next guy, but I'm not once of those guys who's like "GAMES ARE ALL ABOUT FUN! :DDD IF I LOSE 50 TIMES IN A ROW I DON'T CARE CAUSE I HAD A LITTLE FUN! :D" In fact, those people don't even exist in League. I also feel like he would played played more often if he was better. I've only ever seen 2 Azir's in my life other than me. One of them I mentioned in the story, and the other was a Diamond IIII who mained him for 2 months and did great!!!.......... Because he had more skill than most LoL players (He is now Platinum something). Azir requires skill to play, because of his nerfs, he's not like Yi, Kat, or Blitz. I know what some people are going to comment: "Then why don't you just main him for 2 months and shut up?" But I prefer to play a variety of champions, and not main only one for so long. Anyways, I guess I just want Rito to buff him a little. Give him a damage boost, some better range, and just make him able to get kills on his own against an enemy of the same level.

I also recommend you read this Post: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/TZRLaFNZ-are-these-azir-nerfs-for-real Although it was made after the major nerfs, it still has good points, as well as the comment section.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please don't hate. I'm just expressing my opinions, which seem to match other's opinions. I just wish Rito would listen to these opinions. Well, Good bye