League of Legends: Patch 13.5 Rebalances Azir for Late Game

Riot Games implemented pretty significant balancing changes in League of Legends Patch 13.5. Aside from the much-awaited Yuumi rework, this update also rebalances Azir with the intention of making him slightly weaker early on, but a lot stronger in the late game.

While the League of Legends dev team said that Azir is a pretty nifty and exciting champion to watch, many don’t find much success with him. To make the Emperor of the Sands a bit more viable, some adjustments were made in Patch 13.5.

First of all, Azir’s Sun Disc now applies his spell effects as a single-target spell. Next, Conquering Sands has its magic damage adjusted from 70/90/110/130/150 (+30% AP) to 60/80/100/120/140 (+35% AP). This change is more noticeable once Azir reaches 200 AP and above. Conquering Sands also has its mana cost increased from a flat 55 on all levels to 65/70/75/80/85.

Azir’s summoned soldiers now attack slower but this is compensated by the 50/60/70/80/90 additional magic damage. Moreover, the total magic damage the soldiers are capable of has increased to 50-200 (based on level and W rank) (+55% AP). It’s worth noting that the attack speed bonus granted while Azir has three soldiers summoned is removed.

Azir is not the only champion who got stronger in the late game. The dev team agreed that they were too heavy-handed with the nerfs made to Aatrox in previous updates. To put him back on track, Infernal Chains has its cooldown reduced to 20/18/16/14/12 seconds. On top of that, the flat 25% slow effect on all levels is now 25/27.5/30/32.5/35%.

Aatrox’s ultimate, World Ender, got its bonus AD increased to 20/32.5/45% as well. This is to help give some scaling power back into his kit.

Here are the other champion tweaks made in this update:

• Ranger’s Focus
  • Mana Cost: 50 > 30
  • Empowered Duration: 4 seconds > 6 seconds
• Volley
  • Physical Damage: 20/35/50/65/80 (+ 100% AD) > 10/25/40/55/70 (+ 100% AD)
• Enchanted Crystal Arrow
  • Cooldown: 80/70/60 > 100/80/60

• Health Growth: 100 > 95
• Armor Growth: 4.6 > 4.3
• Breath of Light
  • Burst Proc Damage: 20 to 40 (based on level) (+ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80) (+ 40% AP) (+ (0.031% Stardust stacks) of target maximum health > 20 to 40 (based on level) (+ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80) (+ 35% AP) (+ (0.031% Stardust stacks) of target maximum health

• Seastone Trident
  • Mana Restored: 20/28/36/44/52 > 30/40/50/60/70 (note: this is 100% of mana cost)
• Playful/Trickster
  • Magic Damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+90% AP) > 80/130/180/230/280 (+90% AP)
  • Mana Cost: 90/95/100/105/110 > 75/80/85/90/95

The full patch notes can be found on the official site.

So, what can you say about the newly rebalanced Azir in League of Legends Patch 13.5?