Talk:Azir/@comment-26905764-20150907045656

While Azir doesn't seem to be as dominant in Solo-Q it's hard to justify his coordinated team dominance and not nerf him just to save his solo-Q spot. I'm not sure how he could be balanced to stay in his comfortable spot in solo-Q while not being oppressive in well coordinated teams. You can't give him the mobility of short ranged mages nor the safety net of immobile champions via CC at the same time, if you want him to be a long ranged high burst high dps AOE killer machine. That alone is pretty strong in solo-Q but in a coordinated team it usually means that even if the enemy outplayed the front line and deserved to wreck the back line, the back line just goes whoosh and is safe again despite the enemy having played better. On top of that, the way he was he didn't even need to stay in the back since he would actually initiate from a huge distance and force a fight onto several enemies while they were under the supposed safety of their tower and didn't even leave much of a gap open for meaningful counterplay.

That said, it could be interesting to try out a sort of new mechanic with him, where the abilities he maxes first gain an additional effect so that Azir can go into different roles depending on what the team needs. While this does make him more difficult to gage before a match it also opens up the opportunity to separate his power into different needs so that he can be more safe in solo-Q without a team but not offering as much in team fights or on the other hand offering less safety but more for team fights and siege.

I can't propose an exact idea since I don't play Azir but I think it to be along the lines of maxing either Q W or E first. The highest ability or the first to reach the current highest level (e.g. when you level two abilities to lvl3 the first one to be lvl3 gets the effect) will offer the effect the ability stands for.

Q: Bonus is the higher damage. Azir's Role: poke, siege, burst

W: Bonus is high attack speed or new effect e.g. increased damage for consecuitive attacks, extra tower dmg via summoning on it. Azir's Role: DPS, taking towers, zoning, area control (stay away from those high powered consecuitive attacks)

E: Bonus is knock up and/or empowered shield. Azir's Role: initiating, strong dueling, good self protection.

We could even give the AS increase back to his level this way. I'm pretty sure a lot of Azir players wont think this is a good suggestion and I'm not claiming my explicit suggestion is good. What I'm trying to do is to offer Azir different roles so that they can be balanced out differently, as I currently think his solo-Q needs and coordinated team power are too intertwined to be nerfed in a manner that works for professional play and doesn't put a bullet in the kneecap of the rest of the Azir players.