Azir received a handful of balance changes in League of Legends Patch 13.5 and, according to Riot Games developer David “Phreak” Turley, early data suggests the update worked.
Phreak shared some early stats about Azir’s win rate following the patch’s release on March 8. He pointed out that the champion’s win rate is already increasing, and this could be a signal of things to come.
“His Average-Elite skew may have fallen from around 3.5 percent to around 0.5 percent,” Phreak said on Twitter last night. “There is certainly not enough data to be confident in the Elite measurement post-patch yet, but if this holds, he has legitimately like +4 percent win rate headspace.”
The goal of these changes was to lower Azir’s impact in pro play while increasing his win rate in solo queue. If what Phreak is saying is true, the devs could have achieved their goal. Azir, however, currently has the lowest win rate among mid laners in Platinum and above with 42.72 percent, according to a League stats site U.GG.
Phreak underlined that players have begun to pick Lethal Tempo on Azir and are maximizing the champion’s W as the first ability. The developer expected items like Nashor’s Tooth to be a much stronger option for the Emperor of the Sands but “Nashor’s still doesn’t appear worth it.”
In League Patch 13.5, Azir received a series of changes. All of the champion’s abilities were tweaked with the exception of his ultimate. The devs removed his additional attack speed when summoning a third soldier and nerfed his Q, among other changes targeted at pro players. It remains to be seen if the changes will impact the pros.
