Azir, Kalista, and Ryze may get separately balanced for pro-play in the future

Plenty of champions are hard to balance, but few have been as problematic as Ryze, Azir, and Kalista. Well, according to multiple Rioters in multiple posts, they may start balancing these champions exclusively for coordinated play.

In a Quick Gameplay thought from Meddler last month, he mentioned that these three champs have been tough to balance over the years.

For a while, quite possibly a long while at that, we’re going to be prioritizing most other champion work over closing that gap (the balance between solo queue and pro play) as a result. That means Azir, Kalista and Ryze will be balanced for their strong cases (organized play primarily), even if that leaves them quite weak in other contexts.

Meddler goes on to say that this doesn’t make him happy and that the team wishes there was a different solution. But, not having to worry about balancing these champs for solo queue should give the team more time to balance some of the more untouched champs.

Yesterday, Ryze changes hit the Public Beta Environment. There was a post on the forums by Riot Repetoir contextualizing those changes that confirmed Riot’s thinking on these champs. However, any mention of Kalista was absent.

A few weeks ago, Meddler mentioned in one of his Gameplay thoughts that we may do a last big mechanics pass on both Ryze and Azir before accepting balancing them strictly for pro long term, so you’ll be seeing those changes coming to the PBE now, starting with Ryze.

While we already have seen the Ryze changes, we’re currently still waiting for the Azir ones. However, the plan is already in place. Apparently, the team intends to make his soldiers completely single target, removing a lot of his wave clear but keeping his high damage. These changes should be coming soon to the PBE soon.

With Ryze changes here and Azir changes waiting in the wings, we could be seeing the last real balance change aimed at us, the normal League players, for these champions. Finally ... what is going to happen to Kalista? Is she still on the chopping block? We’ll just have to keep our eye on the PBE for now.