Playing against azir in high elo, his early game lane presence is GIGANTIC. he dominates the lane and is extremely hard to play against when played right. His escape power is absolutely retarded. He's basically completely invincible and ungankable in lane when played right.
That said, as good as his kit makes him in lane, it just has nothing that translates into team fights. His end game scaling makes basically like putting nami top. Sure he's got some neat tricks, but his neat tricks don't really translate into effective damage. Due to that fact he'd really be best as support, until you consider his presence and harass push lanes and his mobility is entirely self-centered. He's just got a really bad support kit, only really workable in fringe scenarios. He just isn't designed intelligently.
His place sucks, and if you just straight up buff his late game he'll turn into a really retarded character. His incredible range extention combined with larger/faster than liss escapes already make his laning phase way too good.
