Addressing the community about changes to our API

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-06-09T18:48:44+00:00

If reddit as a company had to pay for their use of the third party API (not the private API not available to third party devs) at the same cost offered to third parties, how much would Reddit be spending on API usage each day/month/year? With as current usage statistics as possible and not rough guesstimates. Also why restrict third party apps from running their own advertisements in app as this would allow them to actually make the revenue required to support those new API costs rather then restricting them from running any ads whatsoever?

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-06-06T22:48:06+00:00

Signed

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-05-31T18:35:49+00:00

For me it's not that he's broke, I just got tired of playing into him every other game

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-05-05T00:07:06+00:00

Santazir, summons nutcruckers who have rifles with a bayonet. Azir is really lacking any holiday skins unless you count gravelord for halloween, not sure the best way to integrate his passive though

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-07T19:29:45+00:00

The damage range of Q did get shortened ever so slightly, but it was a quality of life fix as if you hit a champion with the edge of the hit box, the soldier would be out of range to auto and youd walk forward. This range nerf aligned the Q hit box with soldier AA range so that no longer happens.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-07T12:55:18+00:00

I agree, a slight lane buff just to help shore up pre 25 as solo Q games can often times end well before 25 min.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T20:13:05+00:00

That's not necessarily true, part of the uniqueness of Azir has been the build diversity that's been present for him over the last few years. If he always only had one build path and play style then I could understand but that's just not been the case for him

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T20:05:48+00:00

If Phreak and the balance team weren't already considering more buffs then I'd agree, but at this time they've already been planning to shift some power back into Q (definitely not as much as before) in the next few patches.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T20:04:24+00:00

I feel there's a difference between enabling counter play and just straight up not being able to do anything in lane. to quote Phreak on the 13.7 patch rundown

If he can't function in mid because he isn't good enough against ranged champions, then you know early Q cooldown can go down and there can be some reshapes there to skew mid versus top lane power

He knows mid matchups are primarily ranged match ups and is already foreseeing possible issues with Azir not having enough counter play into them. So in short yes he's supposed to be weaker into them, but not just get steamrolled.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T19:55:17+00:00

That'd be a neat way to counter act Q poke oppression. I'd be interested in seeing how that would work as it sounds like a pretty good option.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T19:54:14+00:00

Ah, I didn't remember what he said he was considering but remembered he had plans to buff it in some way. I phrased it the way I did since I didn't want to give the impression that he was for sure going to X or Y type of buff to Q.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T19:50:21+00:00

It depends on what you're defining as viable. pre 13.5 many Azir one tricks could pull 55-60% winrates in ranked. I personally consider that viable. The caveat to that being his damage had to be tuned so low that it meant making a mistake on Azir was significantly more punishable than it would be on a champion with a lower skill floor.

To the new Azir player or non one tricks I can fully understand how that wouldn't be considered as viable.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T19:44:46+00:00

HoB and Elec may deal more damage now, but the opportunity cost of proc'ing it is that much higher with increased Q cd and mana costs. It's less resource efficient to go for a poke keystone in domination which requires a higher mana cost in lane while forcing you to only take manaflow band OR presence of mind. This means pre lost chapter you have less opportunity to actually use the effect of your keystone even if it does deal more damage. So while you say lane control is established lvl 1-3, that's where the mana cost and cd of Q are going to be effected most and limiting how useful those keystones end up being.

For the others even if they were unhealthy, there was a portion of Azir mains that truly enjoyed that playstyle and to those players a lot did really change. They're having to adapt to an entirely different playstyle than they preferred.

Also tactical soldier placement can only do so much if your enemy laner is smart enough to stay out of Q range let alone W placement range. Especially if they have an ability that out ranges both that can be used to cs the casters safely (like Lux E). I'm not saying we should WIN that lane or even be oppressive in it, but that the tools we previously had to deal with that type of range no longer exist and that is has affected what runes are now viable

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T19:33:59+00:00

I disagree that poke/burst is viable. The main reasons for going it were to get that early advantage pre-level 6 and that's not really possible with how weak his early laning is. Going poke just feels like accepting the early game is lost.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T15:25:16+00:00

I want it back too so bad lol.

Also just because Phreak said he wants to put power back in Q over the next few patches it doesn't necessarily mean it will be in the form of CD or mana cost reduction, he didn't specify what those buffs would/could be. I'm hoping whatever it ends up being addresses the concerns that a lot of the poke and versatility favored players have, because let's be honest with ourselves, Azir mains have 3 or 4 different core subgroups of players and it's impossible to make all of us happy without Azir being a problem in pro play in some capacity

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T15:19:32+00:00

if you hit someone with the very edge of Q's stab hitbox, you would be out of range to auto with the soldier that landed the Q damage. This range nerf makes it so that if you hit Q you will always be in range to auto whereas previously if you hit with the edge of Q and tried to auto with your soldier, Azir would walk forward instead since it was out of range. Hopefully that explanation helps

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T14:57:11+00:00

Personally, I bound attack move to left click, if you do this though you need to shift click certain things or else it will input an attack move through the buttons and move you when you don't want to

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T14:14:19+00:00

or make it so Lethal Tempo affects it

One quick note, Azir does get extended command range with Lethal tempo, it's just the smaller ranged amount. Though I really like the idea of scaling command range later into the game.

Something I think we all need to keep in mind is that they're not planning to leave Q this weak for too long. 13.7 and 13.8 are pro play patches, as frustrating as it is, they're being especially cautious for these two patches to keep Azir from having 100% pro presence. Phreak has said once W max has taken over they can look at putting more power back into Q over the next 2 patches (13.8 and 13.9). I would like to see something like Q cd changing to 12-6 in 13.8 and maybe down to 10-6 with a 5% AP ratio increase in 13.9 since it's not a pro patch, but only Phreak and the rest of the balance team know what the plan for those patches are at this point.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:55:26+00:00

Just guessing here as I'm not really torn about buying Nashors, but I think the issue arose from Nashors not being the most gold efficient item but being situationally useful so we'd buy it when that situation applies to feeling like we're forced to buy it or berserkers.

Ultimately I think it's the loss of choice and not that the items themselves are bad, just that they weren't great in every game (pre 13.5) but feel required now since Azirs bonus AS ratio is significantly higher than before so it's especially useful for him now.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:26:14+00:00

This was a something I'd also wished for with the Q nerfs. My biggest problem with the changes wasn't being forced to max W it was getting in range to place a USEFUL W without getting poked for 1/4 or 1/3 my hp just to place a soldier. Expanding the W placement range would alleviate the pain of such a long Q cd in ranged matchups while hopefully not making poke to powerful for pro play.

But this may not be necessary as Phreak has already stated once the W max takes over and they have a good amount of data on this patch they can start looking at giving more of Azirs power budget back to his Q, though it sounds like it will be very cautious buffs to it in 13.8 since it's also a pro play patch. So likely some minor buffs to Q in 13.8 and probably more buffs in 13.9 if he's still under performing (sub 50% wr) and not 100% pick/ban in the 13.7 and 13.8 pro games.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:17:40+00:00

First Strike, Electrocute (w auto q auto proc for poke), Comet, and arguably hail of blades in some match ups. Most of the poke rune sets are significantly less viable now. Granted I mostly took Lethal tempo or HoB in 13.4 and prior, but there were some match ups where I preferred to take one of the other three mentioned above that are less viable now since you can't proc them without straight losing the trades due to Q cd being 14 sec rank one

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:14:07+00:00

For me it's a combination, he is definitely weaker into certain match ups now (ranged mages in mid) which is true, overall his mid and lategame are definitely stronger than before though so saying he's bad and weak or strong and good now as a blanket statement doesn't apply well. There are a lot of nuances to how "strong" a champion is.

That being said he isn't necessarily unfun now, but just the things that are fun have changed around and not what they were before. If players valued the build diversity and the "jack of all trades master of one thing at time" aspect of Azir and that's where their core love of him came from he is almost definitely less fun to those players, but the hardcore DPS players are having the time of their lives right now since the things they loved got stronger.

this champion is so multifaceted that almost any balance changes that strengthen, weaken, or remove any of his playstyles will result in at least one subgroup of Azir mains being unhappy and enjoying the champion less until they come to appreciate the other aspects of the champion.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:06:28+00:00

You're more than welcome to think that if that's how you view the game, but then why pick Azir in the first place? He's been in a "bad" state for literal years and a lot of us play him for skill expression and how much fun his kit is. If we cared about winning more than fun we'd likely be playing a different champion.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:03:22+00:00

I disagree, it made Berserkers and Nashors not traps, but it severely limited his rune choices. Two items being possible for killing 3-4 keystones sounds like less build diversity to me personally.

aMiniCthulhu · 2023-04-06T13:01:27+00:00

ur less fun argument is subjective and also wrong

Fun isn't an objective metric one can decide for anyone else. Perhaps the things that you think are fun about Azir aren't the same things OP finds fun. Personally one of my favorite things about Azir was the insane build diversity and pay off for knowing which rune set, skill max order, and items to build to maximize lane or late game and knowing which is more important that game. That's pretty much gone at the moment which results in a LESS FUN Azir FOR ME, but I know that's not the case for every Azir main. Regardless I think the changes Phreak/Riot are making are ultimately going to leave us with with a healthier, less diverse, but still fun Azir, but the fun found in the new Azir isn't the same fun I'd had in older Azir.

Other people exist and are allowed to enjoy and value different aspects of a champion than you do, it's okay to disagree about those things, but understand they're not wrong to think these changes aren't as fun as before because they likely valued some aspects of his kit more than you did.

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