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Azir: Buffs/Tweaks/QoL

Frosty Hoodoo·3/11/2015, 7:25:43 PM·1 votes·741 views

Azir I feel is one of those champs who could use a few tweaks and/or few buffs. The buffs/tweaks I suggest are more QoL or Quality of Life changes. I am not going to say anything outlandish like how his E should be like how it was in development which would swap Azir's position with one of his sand soldiers. More like simple changes that improve how Azir plays while not being as "big of a lane bully" as RIOT put it.

Tweak/Buff #1 (Arise!): Make putting points into his W (Arise!) change the range of his soldier's reach. With 1 point into it for 325 Range for his soldiers, same as it now. However when maxed out with 5 points the range becomes 405, a tiny bit larger than it was before the nerf. The skill progression for range would look like: 325/345/365/385/405.

Tweak/Buff #2 (Arise!): Reduce the mana cost on his W (Arise!) by 10. So from 40 to 30. As currently his W+Q combo takes up 110 mana. Sometimes you are forced to use this combo because half a minion wave is out of your soldier's reach when before he got nerfed it actually could still reach an entire minion wave. This skill is Azir's main bread and butter skill considering he must take it at Level 1 and that his Q (Conquering Sands) and his E (Shifting Sands) are 100% dependent on it.

Tweak/Buff #3 (Conquering Sands): Make the mana cost scale with points put into it. Personally I think from just 70 into 60/65/70/75/80. Combined with the previous tweak/buff suggestion this would make it so by level 2 Azir would only have to spend 90 mana instead of 110 just to poke and sometimes reach a minion wave outside his soldier's reach. By having 5 points now in his Q (Conquering Sands), the combined mana cost for his Q+W combo is still 110 mana.

My other reasoning behind these sort of tweaks/buffs is that Azir is one of those champs whose Q+W+E and half of his passive (Attack speed buff) are all built around his sand soldiers, his R (Emperor's Divide) is not dependent on his other skills or his passive.

TL;DR: He is just one of those champs that has a very synergistic skill kit and I feel more care should have been given to how to buff/nerf his abilities.

3 Comments

Iceborn Pippin3/11/2015, 7:45:11 PM2 votes

Hmm maybe, but knowing RIOT this might go over their head.

MakeOutHiIIXXX3/12/2015, 3:23:20 AM1 votes

rito give us an explanation for why you wont do this.

GorillazNtheMyst3/14/2015, 4:59:49 PM1 votes

Azir is actually in a really good spot right now with the new buffs. Now only really hard matchups are visibly biased against you, whereas before you were ROFL stomped by basically anything. The added attack speed and range aid him tremendously throughout the game, and I actually don't think he needs too much more range than what they gave back to him. I don't think the scaling idea on W would work, because you'd still be saddled with a really crappy early game due to limited range, and you'd still have to wait until lvl 10 or so before you're at all effective. It would also make prioritizing points in W more "sensible" on paper, but would really hinder your ability to move your soldiers as points in Q early are so much more important even with the damage nerfs.

Increasing the mana costs of Q seems like an interesting idea, but I don't know how much sense it makes considering the paltry damage of your rank 5 Q. Yes it would help early, but it's not a change that would really help to balance him in any way.

All he needs at this point is a little bit more tankiness. He's awfully squishy even with a full rune page of defensive stats and 9 points in the defensive tree, though increased movement speed can help with this as an alternative I've been finding. Luden's Echo is more or less core for me at this point, as with 3 points in MS in masteries and tier 2 boots Luden's Echo makes Azir much speedier and difficult to lock down, making your defensive runes a little more worthwhile throughout the game. The added AOE and extra burst of Echo is also excellent on Azir, and is really the only thing that can make up for the Q damage nerf. He plays more like an ADC with this setup, which seems correct to me given that he's an AP ADC.