Azir as a Hypercarry

So we all know Azir got shrekt pretty hard by the recent nerfs, and we have probably all heard about the buffs that are coming out 5.5. Apparently these are the only buffs he's getting though : http://www.newsoflegends.com/index.php/wip-pbe-2702-34643/

An increase of the range of his W - thank God, cause this was definitely the most debilitating part of the nerf, as everyone agrees. But my question is will this really fix the problem with this champion?

Riot has argued Azir is supposed to play like a late game hyper carry, which just doesn't quite match what the statistics are saying about him. Out of curiosity, I compared him to primarily the other AP hypercarry that's doing well right now, Cassiopeia, keeping in mind that Azir was originally supposed to counter her. I also looked at Vayne and Jinx - two other popular hypercarries of the game - for extra information.

Check out the convenient diagrams for each champ by following these links. http://champion.gg/champion/Azir http://champion.gg/champion/Cassiopeia http://champion.gg/champion/Vayne http://champion.gg/champion/Jinx

If we compare them, we notice a couple of things. A.) Cassio is much more reliable in the late game than Azir. You're much more likely to win a game with Cassio after 35 minutes than you are with Azir, meaning her scaling is much harder. Her passive ensures this for just about every game. The longer a Cassio remains in game, the more dangerous she is. Azir, on the other hand, may make something happen for his team late ensuring a victory, but it isn't likely because... B.) Azir has no kill pressure. In fact, according to these diagrams, Azir is only good for heavy damage and wave clear, whereas Cassio has basically the same wave clear, same damage, and far more kills, meaning she gets more gold, scales even harder, and wins games easier since she can get picks. Azir's kill pressure, according to this, is one of the lowest for any midlaner (compare to Zed, Ahri, Kat, Leblanc, Xerath, etc.), which sort of defies what a midlaner or a hypercarry is supposed to do in the first place. This makes playing him more as a utility mage in the top lane more viable and reasonable than as a midlane carry. C.) Despite what every Azir hater on the Internet would have you believe, Azir has actually less survivability than Cassiopeia or Vayne. These champs actually dies less, probably because they can actually outdamage their opponents at most stages of the game, or are better duelists.

What's interesting is that, if we look at Vayne's matrix, we see that she shares similar traits to Cassio - high damage, high farm, and high kill pressure. Also much higher win rates after the 30 minute mark than Azir. All three of these champions excel in these areas, except for Azir who lacks tremendously in one area - kill pressure. Why is this??

Generally, lack of kill pressure is the biggest complaint among new Azir players (not that there are many these days with the nerf). Clearly there's good reason to complain too, since Azir's lack of kill pressure is seemingly the only factor that is affecting his ability to be on the same tier as other hypercarries of the game. The only other hypercarry that seems "balanced" in any way is Jinx, who has all of her stats around the average but still carries a crap ton of games.

My question is, will the increased range of W - the only change Rito is planning on making to Azir in 5.5 - and it isn't even back to the original range - actually help Azir get back to a playable condition? Or is the problem deeper than just an issue of range? I want to say the solution lies in giving Azir more damage even though it seems on his graph that he isn't lacking in that area. If you compare his damage to all the other matchups by pulling down the comparison data in each of the matchups they have listed he generally does less damage than each of them, or it isn't significantly higher. This is actually really problematic for a champion that relies on big damage to keep harm away from him. Nerfing him like this sort of ensures that you can dive an Azir and not get punished for it, which is not, I believe, how Azir should function. I know that Azir was largely OP before the nerf, but his skill cap was/is also much higher than the average champion. Shouldn't high risk champions yield high reward, like high damage, or high pressure? According to this data, Azir is simply a high risk champion that is entirely dependent upon his team. He has no ability to kill or pressure anything by himself, which sort of flies in the face of the whole hypercarry concept, and also means that the reward part is severely and devastatingly lacking. It doesn't help that you aren't in a great position as Azir to help your team win their lanes by roaming, as roaming is considered one of Azir's weaker capabilities. "Hypercarry," and indeed the word "carry," implies that the champion who falls in that category should be able to "carry" the team through whichever phase of the game they spike in, but with Azir a team seems to always be carrying him. Doesn't help even further that Azir doesn't really have a clear power spike (We know it happens somewhere around 30 minutes, but it clearly isn't all that effective. With Vayne and Cassio you have an above 50% chance to win the game at this stage, with Azir it's around 45%). His ability to carry is directly related to the success of other lanes, which is not the case with Jinx or Vayne. If jinx or Vayne get ahead and stomp lane, usually their team wins - period. That's how hypercarries generally work - either shut them down early or the faceroll you in the late game. The carryability (for lack of a better word) of this sort of champion should not be dependent upon the limitations or abilities of one's teammates, rather, it should be directly connected to the skill of the player using the champion, and right now that is not what's happening with Azir. One could argue that this was a problem with Azir even BEFORE the nerf that ruined his late game damage output and his overall survivability, as the complaint about Azir's lacking kill pressure has been circulating the ongoing conversation about this champ since release.

So this all leads me back to another question I have asked myself for months, as well as on here in other posts: what exactly is Azir's role? Is he supposed to be a carry? Or is he a utility mage best played either top or bot as support? Right now he doesn't really fill any role easily, but will slightly increasing the range of W actually return him to healthy playability?

I think all of this is very much worth considering in light of the recent 5.4 patch in which Rito preaches on and on and on about "healthiness" in game, while simultaneously nerfing hard several midlaners that didn't really need a nerf.

Just things to think about.