RiotGypsy on Azir: so many wise words from design team member in single post that's hard to belive!

Design rant incoming: These opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our balance team. The problem with Azir is the fact that his kit has fundamental problems that we've yet to deal with. Remember old Tristana? W + Passive + R + Q created a hyper carry with insane range and peel who was virtually unassailable in the late game. Now take that kit and add: -Even more range -AoE at said range -An AoE knock-around that can be used at said range This is Azir's problem. When the character is at all viable he dominates the competitive mid lane because he brings most everything you could want from a mid laner. The AoE ranged waveclear and poke of a Ziggs, The safety of an Ahri, the wombo potential of an Annie, etc. This guy has everything. (Personal opinions to follow) While Shurima Shuffle is a cool play, I'd argue we were wrong to support it back when it was a considered a "bug." It conflicts too much with the strength/weakness profile the rest of his kit should have. Why does a guy with incredible range, damage, and safety also have AoE pick potential from that range? A success case against Azir should be to get him behind so he isn't a damage threat. Shurima Shuffle means this doesn't matter though because a losing Azir can still get your entire team killed if he has a team that's doing well enough to follow up. What do you do when an Azir who's doing decently is besieging your tower? You can't engage cause he'll escape (probably back to the tower he created), you can't defend cause he'll clear the wave and poke you out, and if anyone on your team was foolish enough to take a slightly immobile character then you can't even stay at the tower because he has a longer range and easier to execute Lee Sin R for your entire team. I imagine to get Azir into an actually good spot without a large scope rework we're going to have to do one of two things. We either support his ranged hyper-carrying by removing Shurima Shuffle (Can't cast Q while dashing). Or we support Shurima Shuffle by giving him a significant range nerf and increased tankiness/other things (make him a mid-range battle mage). I think it's 100% possible to get a well balanced Azir that's strong, fun to play, and doesn't need to be perma-ban/pick in competitive. Just feels like we'd have to make some hard to swallow changes to get there.