Azir's rework is coming soon. We know what direction the rework is going in. Either Azir loses his current range or he loses his dash. Below is a link to the poll. I've posted it first on Azirmains to get a good idea of how the votes are split among true mains, now posting here to see how the community at large feels. Vote!
Honestly, the shuffle is the reason why he's been so hard to balance. If it were just his range and poke, he'd just be a strong artillery mage - and we don't have a lot of artillery mages to begin with. But no, he has the ability to basically decide who dies by jumping into the enemy team, using his ult to knock back who he wants and separate them from the rest of their team. Yes, I appreciate the skill expression that it takes to pull off the shuffle, but what can you do when you're the one who gets shuffled? I would much rather him excel at poke and harass from great range than have him be all up in your face like that. There are some mages who can do that, but I feel like Azir shouldn't be one of them.
In a similar vein to what Riot said when they were reworking Yorick, "We have tons of combo Mages that can initiate a fight, but we only have one Sand Emperor".
Range that's his power fantasy... if they take out his sand soldiers I will riot and I don't even play Azir
Keep the sand soldiers
The issue isn't that he has a dash. The issue is that his dash will follow the soldier while the soldier does its own dash. I'm pretty sure that's the part to which they were referring.
Wait are we voting for what we want Azir to lose? Or what we want him to keep?
Shuffle
it's what makes him fun
See as the poll has over 200 votes now (and the ratios are unlikely to change by much) I think it's safe to say my own opinion now.
I think keeping his identity as a long range DPS mage is more important than the shuffle.
Shuffle is an iconic flashy play, but in all honesty, it's not even a very good one from a cost benefit perspective. You give up your ult, and your E, your two major forms of peel, to place yourself behind or in the middle of enemy lines, and knock them into your team. The risk is high, and the move is often not worth the value of being able to disengage an enemy trying to jump on top of you or your ADC in a SoloQ game.
I classify it has high risk, medium reward. Risk has to do with variance to me. How bad can this play possibly turn out vs how good it can turn out? For you the shuffle it ranges from delivering your team's midlaner for free into the enemy team or winning the game. Very high risk. How high is the reward? Well I consider it the average of the worst and best cases, so it's pretty much zero sum or average as far as rewards go.
Compare that to say an Orianna ult, which is low risk high reward play in my book. The worst thing that happens when you miss an Ori ult is "oops, lets try that again in 40 seconds" The average of the worse case scenario (nothing) and the best (winning the game) is pretty high overall.
If Azir is shifted to being more for engage he becomes a much more risky, less consistent champion imo. A few number changes in AP ratios is the difference between you shuffle a team and blowing them up, or you shuffle a team and dying before you get your DPS off. That I feel would continue to make balancing a headache. When he's strong he takes out your team with a shuffle, when he's weak die without dealing enough damage. This is way different from say lowering the ratio on say Orianna's W or R. You could cut it in half and it would still be a great ability because she's CC'ed their entire team still do AoE damage but most importantly she wouldn't be in the middle of their entire team!
Azir focused on being a long range sustain DPS is much easier to adjust and balance from a numbers perspective. His weakness becomes clear and he's treated the same way as an adc. Kill him quickly, don't let him draw out the fight and get a lot of value dealing sustained damage.
I think the argument that it's unlikely for another long range AOE dps champion to exist but it's very possible for us to get another shurima shuffle champion is pretty good, but i'm not azir main.
Why is this even up for debate? Why would Azir as a character want to run into battle when he is an emperor who has the ability to raise soldiers?
I want to keep the shuffle, otherwise his ult is just boring.
also aram mains voting range you aren't azir mains, you just put the champions in your aram account to increase the cancer and nobody likes you.
We don't need another Ziggs/Xerath. Shuffle all the way.
i've played azir. i can do the "shurima shuffle".
i'd like to see an alternative ability for level 1 on his E. the shield is too small and with a squishy mage/marksman using your only escape option to engage seems a bit contradicting.
depending on how it's done azirs marksman role could start to take off. all he needs is an ability to revolve around it.
