@RIOT Azir rework suggestions,ideas

http://assets.vg247.com/current//2015/09/league_of_legnds_azir.jpg

As some of you may know Riot told the community that Azir is gonna receive a rework to reduce his really high skill-ceiling and probably fix his kit all around so he can be played in soloQ with more success without nerfing him too much at a really high level of play.

Q: First of all let's talk about what does he bring to a team?Why would i pick him to round out a team?What tools does he bring to teamfights that are more beneficial to a team?What is his role in a team? A: His passive can be one reason given it can used on destroyed enemy turrets thus providing a really good pushing power. He brings some slow on Q which is not that insignificat but it's still there.However he can attack with his soldiers from 800 range and provide huge amount of DPS in a prolonged fight. His ulti is probably the biggest reason you would choose him.It is an excellent peeling tool to stop melee champions in their tracks and a great tool to distrupt a fight and separate the enemy from their peers.His ulti can be used both offensively and defensively.

However when you play Azir you don't just play against the opponent,you play against Azir's kit itself too because of changes he got throughout his lifecycle:

• He still has game affecting bug that affect his gameplay negatively:Sand soldiers does not attack even when commanded after a Q in certain scenarios.This is a really nasty and annoying bug.
• The other is not a bug however it impacts again the gameplay:The activation range nerf on E from global to 1100 is visually confusing and detrimental to his gameplay.Lost several kills and died several times because of this changes alone. Why is this?Because of what i see on the screen.I see that i still have thether with my soldier which means to me that i can interact with it with EVERY spell in my kit.However the range nerf on E made this not true thus resulting in confusion and worsen gameplay.It might have been a good change balance wise but his whole kit got a hit with this.
• With one of the patches the sand soldiers position after casting Conqueinr Sands(Q) has been changed.Not sure about the reason of the change but what a i know that when you have 2 or especially 3 soldiers and you cast Q they will line up next to each other making it impossible to hit a target with every soldier.In my opinion this was an overall nerf also if you have 2 soldiers out and you cast Q it's now possible that your Q WON'T hit the target even if you were accurate because their now a gap between the soldiers...
• Did i mention he still has bugs?

While my changes may not reduce his skill ceiling,they may even increase it however his new kit would provide much more counterplay while making sure that the Azir player if play correctly gets rewarded for its efforts.

One direction is keeping his long range DPS mage with peeling.The other one is the more tactical one which provides more utility sacrificing damage.

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PROPOSED CHANGES

This one is about keeping his ulti intact while keeping his DPS style.

Shurima's Legacy(Passive): The cooldown should be reduced given matches end faster.

Conquering Sands(Q): This ability is a reposition tool for soldiers thus i think it should do only this and not deal any damage however it gets CDR reduction mechanics.

OLD: Active: Azir orders all Sand Soldiers to dash toward the target location, dealing magic damage to all enemies they pass through and Slow icon slowing them by 25% for 1 second. Magic Damage: 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 / 145 (+ 50% AP) Enemies hit by multiple soldiers do not take additional damage, but are Slow icon slowed by an additional 25% per soldier beyond the first.

NEW: Active: Azir orders all Sand Soldiers to dash toward the target location, slowing enemies they pass through by 25% for 1 second. (DAMAGE REMOVED!) Passive:Sand Soldiers passing through (an) enemy(ies) reduces the remaining cooldown of Conquering Sands by X . Passive:Sand Soldiers that pass through an enemy either reset their duration or increase their uptime by Y seconds.

Example for first passive: Let X be 0.5 second. There is 1 soldier out.You cast Q.Soldier goes through 2 enemies. Which reduced the remaining cooldown by 1 sec. Pretty simple.Balance wise it could be restricted that however many times a soldier goes through an enemy the reduction is applied only once. So if you have 3 soldier out then cast Q and they ALL go through several enemies it can quickly spiral out of control.But it may work.

Example for second passive: You have 2 Soldiers out. You cast Q. S1 was about to expire but gone through an enemy reseting its duration and letting him to battle for another 9 seconds. S2 also hit an enemy reset its duration.

S1 did not hit any enemy.He expires. S2 did not hit any enemy.No reset on its duration.

S1 did not hit any enemy.He expires. S2 hit an enemy.His duration gots reseted.

You can switch out the reset to just increased uptime and you get a different scenario all around. Balance levers:

• Have to hit an enemy to get any benefit aside from the reposition of the soldiers.
• X can be modified as needed.
• Y can be modified as needed or keep the duration reset completely.
• Slow amount and duration could be increased now that it doesn't deal any damage.

Arise!(W): This spell is the center of Azir's kit.Soldiers extend his attack range to a certain point allowing Azir to deal huge amount of damage over time from a relatively safe distance

Passive: Azir permanently has bonus attack speed and stores a Sand Soldier periodically, up to a maximum of 2 stored at once. Bonus Attack Speed: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60%

Active: Azir summons an untargetable Sand Soldier at the target location for 9 seconds, expiring twice as fast while within range of an enemy turret, and expire instantly if Azir moves too far away.

When Azir attacks an enemy in a soldier's range, the soldier attacks in his stead, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. Multiple soldiers can strike the same target, with each soldier beyond the first dealing 25% damage. Azir can only command soldiers when near them.

Soldiers cannot attack enemy structures, but Azir can cast Arise! on top of an enemy turret to sacrifice a soldier and deal it 60 - 230 (based on level) (+ 40% AP) magic damage.

No mechanical changes here.However soldier's attack range could be increased. DAMAGE cannot be increased here.We really don't want soldiers dealing 500 magic damage per attack with over 1.0 attack speed,do we?

Shifting Sands(E):

PLEASE reduce the tether range or increase the range on E to avoid the current situation where the tether range is longer than the E range.This disrepancy leads to visually confusing situations also it impacts his gameplay negatively in my opinion. Hell you could even nerf his tether range to 1100 to make sure we can always cast E while the tether is up.

OLD: Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemies he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops and gains a shield for 4 seconds. Magic Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 40% AP) Shield: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 15% bonus health)

NEW: There are several possibilities here.The lost damage from Q should be put here or on his ulti.

Version 1: Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemy units(except champions) he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops,knocks up/knocks back the enemy champion causing Sand Soldiers to quickly! rush to hit the target dealing %max hp on their way to everything they pass through.(Here also kicks in the cdr reduction from.) NO SHIELD HERE!It's pure offensive spell with a little utility.

Version 2: Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemies he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops and gains a shield for 4 seconds.The shield deals X magic damage (after the initial damage upon colliding with an enemy champion)if gets popped or after 4 seconds.

• Again he can get back here the knockup/knock back if needed.
• Shield can slow along with dealing damage,etc.
• Shield amount can be increased
• X damage can be adjusted

This version is a mixture of offensive and defensive.

Version 3: Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemies he passes through and gains a shield for 4 seconds but only if he didn't hit an enemy champion. If Azir hits an enemy champion,he stops,deals the magic damage and summons an additional Sand Soldier to aid him in the fight.

• Here you either use the spell defensively for escaping,repositioning and gaining a shield.
• Or use it offensively giving you a bonus Sand Soldier which can result in more damage than an OLD single Q.
• Again he can have the knock up/knock back if needed.

Version 4: Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, dealing magic damage to enemies he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops and gains a shield for 4 seconds. If Azir hits an enemy champion,he stops causing every Sand Soldier to quickly rush to his side and deal damage upon arrival in an AoE around the soldiers.Alternatively the area around the soldiers after 0.5 sec delay turns into quicksand.Quicksand swallows enemies inside and rooting them for 1 sec.

• This version is again a mixture of offensive and defensive by giving more time to hit the enemy to with the Sand Soldiers.
• Again he can have back the knockup/knock back if needed.

Emperor's Divide(R): The ulti which is highly valuable in teamfights.

OLD: Active: Azir calls forth a shield-wall of soldiers from behind him which charge in the target direction, Airborne icon knocking back enemies and dealing magic damage. Magic Damage: 150 / 225 / 300 (+ 60% AP)

When the soldiers finish their charge, they stand as a wall, blocking enemy champion movement and dashes. Allies and Azir can pass through the wall and gain 20% bonus movement speed when they do. These soldiers cannot be ordered to move or attack. Wall Duration: 5 / 6 / 7 Width: 4 / 5 / 6 soldiers

No changes are needed here.Though some of the lost damage from Q could be added here.

DIFFERENT ULTIMATE: A new ultimate that is about pure offensive use would be the following: Gate of Shurima(Gate of Babylon) Active:Azir opens a portal to Shurima(Babylon) which lets him summon Sand Soldiers in rapid succession until the portal is open.The cooldown on his W becomes 0(ZERO) or something as small allowing him to rapidly summon several soldiers to the battlefield near him. Passive:Azir's cast range on W is increased by a flat amount.

While the portal is open his cast range on W is increased by a flat amount or he gets it passively per spell level(R).

OTHER DIRECTION FOR HIS REWORK:

He gets a new ultimate: Eye of Shurima Active: Azir summons a sightseeing oracle at target location which gives permanent vision around until destroyed.Can have up to 1/2/3 at a time per spell level.Can be destroyed by capturing it like skarner's crystals.Capturing it grants bonus gold for the capturers. Passive:Shurima's Legacy cooldown gets reduced by 20/40/60 seconds and the Sun Disk loses health after 1.5 min.

• Or Azir can store up to 1/2/3 turrets per spell level.So he gets an ammo system for his passive.You can summon 2 Sun Discs as nexus turrets if given the right circumstances or summon 3 turrets for a lane to stop the enemy in their way.

Point of this ulti is to give him immense utility by sacrificing a lot of damage and teamfight capability.So this direction would push Azir into a map controller champion rather than focusing solely on his DPS minion-mancer style.

• Of course in this rework he could use the same changes to Q,W and E from above.

Final thoughts,additional ideas: If Azir can somehow manage to get out 4 or 5 soldiers with the new mechanics on Q he would get something awesome for achieving this. Examples: Every soldier deals full damage. Soldiers auto attacks inflict bleeding. Soldiers get increased attack range and piercing ability.

Soldiers placement after a Q should resemble tactical formations rather than the current system. 2 Soldiers get up in a line.3 Soldiers form a triangle.4 Soldiers form a square. And so on.

While i am not sure the changes i have for him would reduce his high-skill ceiling in fact they would proably increase it however it would be easier to balance and would be even more fun to play it,this i am sure about.

TL;DR: WALL OF SHURIMA

Edit(2017.06.01): Adding to my ideas: Her ulti should be an actual wall that pushes everything along its way rather than just the enemy.Yes this means allies and pets and everything. This would create an interesting situation when to use it and where cause it could cause some serious issues in teamfights if used badly.

Other thing is limiting the number of soldiers to one would be a problem(only mention it because it could be an option) and would make him very similar to Orianna as his soldier would function quite similar to Orianna's ball even though his soldier would disappear after a time.

2017.06.20-21

Another idea that popped into my head is that his auto attack speed in W could ramp up like Volibear's W. Putting more emphasize on prolonged skirmishes.

Regarding his new ultimate Gate of Shurima his sand soldiers should disappear after one attack to make it actually balanced,lol.