Azir's Q & E With No Sand Soldiers
Something that I have always found really awkward about Azir is that he absolutely has to have a sand soldier within range to get any use of his Q or E. I absolutely understand the logic behind this, those abilities actually use the positioning of the soldier in order to work. However, with no soldier on the field he has only two abilities, W and R (and placing a tower from his passive). In order to use Q or E, he has to place a soldier with W, and in many cases that telegraphs his intention to use one, or both of his other abilities. That also adds to the inherent cost to use those abilities, which is something else that sort of annoys me, but I will try to not get into that.
What if Azir's Q and E had different actives, or at least a passive, that is only available while no sand soldiers are within range?
I would honestly be satisfied with passives. Maybe make his Q an offensive passive and his E a defensive passive. I just want to give two examples that I am completely making up on the spot and I would really be interested in hearing other ideas.
For his Q passive, his auto attacks deal bonus magic damage that scales on his AP (or maybe some other stat to avoid giving too much of a buff to his current state. I always appreciate when abilities encourage different playstyles and/or build paths)
For his E passive, he gains increased resistances or a shield that has some sort of recharge mechanic. Maybe something like a shield that stacks based on how much mana he has consumed.
These would also make it possible to place a rank in something other than W at level 1
Remember that these effects ONLY work when there are no Sand Soldiers in range.
Again, these are not too thoroughly thought out ideas, but just something to throw out there.
Decent idea? Anyone have any better ideas for abilities that could go here?
Edit:
Okay, I have already received some nay-sayers who don't understand why this bothers me so much. I will try and expound on my point with a scenario illustrating why I feel his current kit is ridiculous.
Let say you are level 10 (I'm not going to bring base stats, items, runes, masteries, buffs, gold, team comp, enemy comp, .. anything else into this, just his level and abilities by rank/level.)
You have invested 1 rank in W (because you have to at level 1) and 1 rank in your ultimate, (because you pretty much do with every champion at level 6). You have 6 other ranks divided among your Q and your E in any available order, it doesn't matter for the sake of this example.
This is of course not optimum for Azir, no matter how you slice it, BECAUSE of the way his kit is designed.
With no soldiers on the field you can ONLY place a soldier or use his ultimate. Both of these are still at rank 1.
YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE LEVEL 6
Even after you place a soldier the only difference between level 6 Azir and level 10 Azir at this point is the base damage that his soldiers deal on attack which is a difference of 12 damage.
You absolutely must use your Q or your E in order to make up for this difference.
How is that not ridiculous to anyone else?
