Azir buffs coming to League of Legends were teased by Riot Games on March 27, and Riot developer David “Phreak” Turley has since detailed the changes on Reddit.
The developer revealed the team decided to increase Azir’s basic armor, attack speed growth, W damage, the summon range of his passive and its duration. At the same time, they’re toning down Q by increasing its mana and stab range, while also lowering the cost of W. When it comes to that ability, more of its damage will also come from rank up instead of champion level.
The developers are basically strengthening Azir’s W while nerfing his Q, which is somewhat a reversion of the changes the champion received in patches 13.4 and 13.5. In these updates, the devs buffed the Emperor of the Sands’ Q and slammed his W with the nerf hammer. This was to improve his win rate in solo queue while making him less of a viable option in pro play.
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The devs partly achieved their goals since Azir is no longer a meta pick. His win rate, however, remains poor. In Platinium and above ranks, he has the second-lowest win rate among mid laners with 44.7 percent, according to a League stats site U.GG.
It’s no surprise the devs are looking for ways to tweak’s Azir position in the solo queue meta. It’s almost impossible to tell how the changes will impact the champion at this point, though. We will have to wait for April 5 when Patch 13.7 drops and see for ourselves.
