Kassadin and Ryze were the premier mid laners at the start of Season 13. But since the the nerf hammer came down on them, Azir has risen from the ruins.
He has a high 59.3% presence and 49.3% win rate in major regions in Spring 2023 based on stats from gol.gg at the time of writing.
The Azir god himself, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, has used him most frequently in pro play: nine times with a 66.7% win rate and positive 3.0 KDA.
In League of Legends patch 13.4, Riot Games aims to “lower his oppressive early lane pressure” with these adjustments while rewarding pros for their mechanical prowess team fights. Overall however, it’s a sizeable buff that impacts all levels of gameplay.
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League of Legends patch 13.4 nerfed Azir’s base stats but buffs everything else
Base Stats
- Base Mana decreased from 480 to 380
- Mana Growth increased from 21 to 36
W – Arise!
- Soldier Recharge Time adjusted from 9/8.25/7.5/6.75/6 seconds to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
E – Shifting Sands
- Magic Damage increased from 60/90/120/150/180 (+40% AP) to 60/100/140/180/220 (+55% AP)
R – Emperor’s Divide
- Magic Damage increased from 175/325/475 (+60% AP) to 200/400/600 (+75% AP)
The changes to his base stats even out each other. “He’s obviously recuperating that as he gains levels,” Nick “LS” De Cesare commented in his patch rundown. “He gets to level five inside of laning before he gets a recall… pro players are easily going to be able to manage the new mana change.”
Arise’s soldier recharge time (W) only received a slight nerf at level one, up from nine to 10 seconds. At later levels, they will recharge faster. Since it’s his second max ability, this change isn’t that impactful.
The real meat is the base damage buffs to Shifting Sands (E) and Emperor’s Divide (R) that’s compounded by an increased AP scaling ratio. Pro players utilize these two abilities to set up big initiations that have the potential to completely turn the tide of the game. From this patch onwards, he’ll only hit and hurt harder.
In solo queue, Azir had a 51.1% win rate on patch 13.3 according to Mobalytics, which has risen to 54.7% on the current patch. Do you need any more reasons to play him?
Read the full League of Legends patch 13.4 notes here.
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