So what's the tradeoff for playing Azir?

metaworldpeace10·May 7, 2016·2 votes·485 views

Like seriously? Vladamir has to pay more health on his abilities for his sustain. Xerath pays for his long range damage through extreme immobility. What's the trade off for Azir who has:

-Burst damage -Sustained DPS -CC -Long range -Mobility -Late game scaling -safe laning phase -zone control

Is the tradeoff because he has a "high skill cap" if so, that's pretty pathetic. This guy needs some tradeoffs, because he is basically the jack of all trades mid laner and crowds out entire classes of mages in the mid lane.

5 Comments

redniwediSMay 7, 20162 votes

You see, listing everything one by one doesn't really give you a usable picture of what a champion is. Please don't be one of those people.

Zone control covers almost everything you listed, so listing it at the end is just plain redundant. All zone control mages have sustained damage, burst damage, CC, decent range, and wave clear that gives them a relatively safe lane phase along with a decent late game.

The only thing that isn't a natural part of being a zone control mage is mobility, and Azir's mobility is part of his damage combo. It's cooldown isn't exactly lengthy, but in a fight you either use it offensively for more damage or defensively. You cannot do both.

So what is Azir not good against? Well, he has no sustain of his own so, naturally, other long range champions should do well against him. His own mobility is rather limited, so more mobile champions can also do well post lane phase. His mobility outside of that dash combo is also non-existent, so a team built around an Azir will be weaker against fast rotations.

Just keep in mind that every jack of all trades is a master of none.

SylverblitzMay 7, 20161 votes

He does have a lot going for him. The only real 'weakness' that I can see is that all his damage comes from his soldiers aside from basic attacks. That would be ok if they didn't refresh pretty swiftly. He is very bursty but without his ult any dive champion or assassin can be effective against him like LeBlanc, Zed etc.

japan hate accMay 7, 20161 votes

When his ult and E is down, he's very vulnerable. He is also mana-hungry and pretty squishy.

GaleWinUnleashedMay 7, 20161 votes

Azir shares a weakness with Orianna.

Let them use Q, then get out of the way. Both of them are screwed during those few seconds Q is on cooldown. The majority of their damage is tied to a short radius around their objects.

Of course Azir has his wall to try and deal with you if you avoid the soldiers. But there's a good way to counter that, too. Blinks, specifically ones like Talon's and Katarina's, are very hard for Azir to handle if you can get him to ult first (or if you have the burst to kill him outright). And presumably most teams have a frontline tank that can try and get in Azir's face and force him to ult, leaving the way clear for an assassin to eat his face.

If he ults you off and you don't have a backup blink to get over the wall, don't waste your time walking around it. Back off and try again later.

His poke and escape are tied together; using one of them locks the other for a short time, because both require using Q. The instant he pokes you using Q, punish him for it if at all possible.

The main thing in lane is to at least avoid letting him hit you a soldier without even using Q. If you get that close, he can attack, Q, attack again, and maybe even get a third attack out of it.

CR4ZYRONDH4VIMay 7, 20161 votes

Azir is actually not very mobile due to long cool downs, he DOES NOT have burst damage (when dashing only one soldier will do damage to you), and he is the most difficult champ in the game to use. Also, his only cc is on a long cool down. He also is extremely squishy. In order to just auto attack with soldiers, he has to summon them which costs mana. There are more than a few drawbacks.