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Azir Q&A: Gameplay - COMPLETED

RiotZenonTheStoic·9/10/2014, 6:00:12 PM·23 votes·237,488 views

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EDIT - Alright guys, we're headed back to work. Thanks for all the questions!

Friends of Shurima! With Azir being turned on soon[tm], we thought this was a great time to let you ask us pretty much whatever you want about his gameplay and balance.

Azir is an interesting champion that breaks a few "rules" of what a mid laner is supposed to do. One of the bigger ones is the fact that to access the majority of his damage, Azir has to right click pretty much like an AD carry. This looks deceptively simple, but if you've had a chance to check him out on the PBE you'll know it's much harder than it looks. Between his soldiers, resurrecting lane turrets, and making a truly uncrossable* wall, Azir brings a lot of novel concepts to the game, and I'm sure you'll have a bunch of questions.

Joining me in this thread is Squad5, who is responsible for Azir's balance and gameplay health. We did a lot of work to make sure we can actually release these crazy ideas without breaking the game, and Squad5 was central to identifying the trade-offs, appropriate strengths and weaknesses, and overall balanceability (as opposed to balance--we're okay with getting balance wrong, as long as there is a path to improvement) of the champion.

*Unless you're Malphite, I guess. Or Vi. Or Maokai. Or Fizz. Or Nocturne. Or Vladimir. Damn you, untargetability!

Here are some other things you might want to check out: Azir Reveal Shurima: What Lies Beneath the Sands?

Check out the other Azir Q&A sessions here: Azir Creative Q&A Azir Art & Sound Q&A

356 Comments

Frostguard9/10/2014, 7:55:54 PM48 votes

What was the reason to not make the soldiers make use of item 3060 Banner of Command? It really looks like an item for Azir; as an emperor he should be leading his army, Banner just makes sense and it would make his soldiers even better.

Airyce9/10/2014, 8:00:22 PM16 votes

Will Yasuo's Wind Wall block shots from Azir's turrets?

Nssheepster9/10/2014, 6:06:40 PM10 votes

I guess I shoulda put this in the gameplay Q/A...:

I had a full page-and-a-half Word document of questions...I tried to keep it organized for you. Tried.

I. Items a. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc on-hit effects? b. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc spell effects? c. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc Runaan’s Hurricane? i. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc it regardless of Azir’s range? ii. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc it only when he’s close enough? d. Do Azir’s Soldiers proc Ravenous Hydra? e. Can Azir’s Soldiers critically strike? II. Passive a. Is Azir’s Sun Disc base damages only, or scaling? b. Is the range the same as real turrets? c. Can you direct them similar to Heimerdinger’s turrets? d. Do they focus like real turrets? e. Can Azir’s CDR-AS passive be “overcapped”? i. Will more than maximum (40%) CDR give more AS? III. Q a. Can Azir’s Q direct soldiers over walls? b. Does Azir need to have vision of an area to direct Soldiers there? IV. W a. If Azir’s Soldiers are walked through, do they apply the Q slows? b. Do Azir’s Soldiers block movement? c. Do Azir’s Soldiers damage someone when formed underneath? d. Do Azir’s Soldiers push champions aside when formed beneath them, or the reverse? e. Can Azir’s Soldiers be stacked on top of each other, similar to Heimerdinger’s turrets? f. What is the maximum possible number of Azir’s Soldiers at one time? g. Do Azir’s Soldiers function with Auto Attack? h. Can Azir’s Soldiers attack one target while Azir hits another? i. If Azir is in range of the target he attacks, and a Soldier is, do both attack, or just the soldier? j. If two of Azir’s Soldiers are in range of a target, do both attack, or just the closest? k. Can Azir attack while his Soldiers are out of range of his target? l. Is there a damage reduction for multiple Soldiers attacks on one target? V. E a. Can Azir knock up multiple enemy champions with one E? b. What is the E’s knock up hitbox? VI. R a. Can Azir’s ult go over low walls, blocking two paths? b. Where does his ult originate from when you cast it? c. Will an indicator for the “push” range of Azir’s ultimate be added? VII. Azir Overall a. Just to be 100% certain, he has NO AD scaling, right? All AP? b. More as a point to mention than a question…..Reputation i. He is from Shurima, meaning:

He’s the RULER of Nasus, and Renekton, both of which are good solid picks and have been for some time. That gives him a lot to live up to. ii. He is also a “minion-mancer”
That puts him in the ranks of other solid picks like Heimerdinger and Zyra, even somewhat similar to Zed. More to live up to. iii. He is also an AP auto-attacker
This puts him among Kayle and Teemo, both some of the most strongly felt about champions in the game, and an AP AA’er is something players have been asking for for sometime. All of this gives him a LOT to live up to, so I seriously hope that wasn’t forgotten.

Wullf9/10/2014, 7:03:02 PM8 votes

I am wondering about two things:

**His Soldiers auto-attack instead of him , but they do not apply on hit effects. ** Does it mean that if Azir were to buy sheen and then summon soldier and both him and soldier were in range of attack target, the on hit effect would not be applied because the one who attacked the targaet was the soldier?

Sorry if answer to this question can be looked up somewhere: just say where, then.

2**)I'd like to hear your opinion on Azir Support.** Do you think that building Azir tanky and focusing on his utility (slow, knock up,* the Manwall*) is viable way how to play him? Because he does offer quite a lot of utility and adding "the wall" effect to his Manwall can create nice moments with Vayne + Azir botlane.

Moobeat9/10/2014, 6:19:42 PM8 votes

In the past, you noted Azir had a long development time and went through a lot of different kits. What are some of the now scrapped abilities that you guys tried out and decided to not go with or shelf for another potential champion?

MelitoMayhem9/10/2014, 6:15:10 PM7 votes

I don't know how the live values of his turret smite are but boy was that op on pbe. are you concerned about the blance of this spell?

MetaSire9/10/2014, 6:05:00 PM6 votes

Were there concerns during design about distinguishing him from other champions that use clones/minions to apply zone control? For example, in what ways did you purposely make him different from champions like Orianna, Zed, Zyra, Heimerdinger...?

iComeInPeace89/10/2014, 11:17:11 PM4 votes

I'm late! I had a few questions, but this Q and A didn't show up on my news along with a bunch of other news until now, I hope I could still get them answered and sorry if they've already been asked.

Do Azir's soldiers deal damage in the time of his normal ranged projectile attack (with a delay), or does it feel more like a melee attack where you click and go?
I noticed Azir takes out a lot of damage potential during the time it takes to cast a second or third soldier because Azir cannot auto attack when he presses W for a really long time it seems. Is there any plan to fix that and make things feel less clunky by enabling basic attacks and other soldier attacks during that time?
Do Azir's soldier attacks extend and hit units outside of the solders like Lucian's Piercing Light?
Since soldiers do not exactly auto attack, Azir has no method of ward clearing if his soldiers are in range of the ward he is attempting to clear, is that planned, can you make it so that Azir uses normal attacks against wards or soldiers deal damage to them etc?
From where does Emperor's divide start to push out, in front of Azir, middle, or behind so can he push them to target direction if they are directly on top Azir or even behind him?
Will his soldiers attack the attack move thing where simply pressing A (or whatever hotkey applied) button will make the champion auto attack the nearest target? BTW, ZenonTheStoic, you have yet again made an amazing champion, I love playing Lucian. Last question, why does Azir have no face?

Wayayuhi9/10/2014, 6:14:31 PM4 votes

How do you tend to approach making sure a champions theme and story comes through on its abilities? A lot of reworks seem to be stemming from this. Obviously an emperor is nothing without its servants, but how do you get to that point? A web diagram of thematic words?

Basically I'd love to see a documentary showing a champions journey from concept to release, but since I can't have that I'm going to invasively probe your creative process from the mechanics standpoint.

Janna pls9/10/2014, 6:19:39 PM4 votes

Why did you have chosen we cant double attack someone (so attack as azir and attack as sandmage)

(Pls let him come live today)

lmintelligent9/10/2014, 6:26:43 PM4 votes

So Azir will be an early poke champion and a late game support champion?

Tactical Magic9/10/2014, 6:31:59 PM4 votes

How are effective teams using Azir's ult? Are they splitting the team and taking out the front-line champs (subsequently giving them free access to take an objective), or jointly passing through the wall to attack the squishies?

Azhoris9/10/2014, 6:02:53 PM4 votes

What was ur main inspiration for Azir design ?

LuckyReden9/10/2014, 6:24:26 PM3 votes

what were some other abilities you considered using on him?

Bombfuse9/10/2014, 7:44:37 PM3 votes

How long does Azir have to proc his passive on a tower? For example, when a tower is destroyed top lane can Azir head up there 10 minutes later and raise a tower of his own?

YeahIAteIt9/10/2014, 7:46:25 PM3 votes

How does Rylai's work with his soldiers? Multi-Target or Single target %, or does it work at all?

dialMARK4acti0n9/10/2014, 6:14:27 PM3 votes

I know you worked on Lucian and the Xerath rework. How was the change of pace to an auto-attacking mage for you? And how did you make that decision to make him an "auto-attack mage"?

Jakkura9/10/2014, 6:09:47 PM3 votes

I played Azir on the PBE, and he had a bug where when you used his Q, his soldiers wouldn't travel as far as the indicator, or would travel in a different direction. Has this been fixed?

killyouxxx9/10/2014, 9:13:06 PM3 votes

isnt it time to release him?

Bsul9/10/2014, 9:48:00 PM2 votes

How would Rilays, CDR or MP work on him? Would rilays make his soldiers attacks slow on hit? if not would frozen mallet do so?

Would CDR make his autoattack faster?, If i have 2 soldiers lined 400 yards from each other. Can it be possible to command them to strike at the same champ that is walking in that direction with 2 attacks within 1 second? as soldier a) hits first, then he reachers attack range of soldier B and soldier B hits.

U said there is a formula for his dmg reduction on multiple soldiers. Would that affect so as well?

Is there a range indicator for the soldiers?

Why does heim get autoattacks on turrets but my soldiers are lazy as fak?

RavenYT9/10/2014, 6:37:30 PM2 votes

if I summoned a sand soldier near an enemy champ located out side of my AA range. would clicking on that enemy champ move Azir to the target to AA? or will he stand still while the sand soldier attack the enemy?