League of Legends: Azir Guide

Introduction

The newest champion to hit the rift – after a lengthy delay – is Azir, the Emperor of the Sands. Some might remember him from a long time ago when the concept of a sand mage was revealed but consequently scrapped. And he’s back with a vengeance for Xerath. But lore aside, the Emperor has some interesting mechanics and he adds a new spin to the idea of a right-click auto-attacking oriented mage (similar to the likes of Teemo and Kayle). So let’s uncover the Emperor in another guide.

Azir, the Emperor of the Sands, is a ranged zone control auto attack mage who relies on his Sand Soldiers doing his bidding. His abilities all rely on his Sand Soldiers being on the field, so we’ll get to covering that first. His W, Arise!, summons an untargetable Sand Soldier that remains on the battlefield for up to 9 seconds (the countdown timer goes twice as fast when they are within enemy tower range). Whenever Azir attacks an enemy unit that is within a Sand Soldier’s range (be it in his attack range or not), the Sand Soldier attacks instead, dealing magic damage in a line.

Azir’s Q, Conquering Sands, commands all of Azir’s currently deployed Sand Soldiers to move towards a target location and slightly beyond it from their own locations, dealing magic damage to all enemy units struck, with diminishing returns on same target hits. These Sand Soldiers can then attack freely from their new positions, making Conquering Sands Azir’s primary tool for repositioning his Soldiers.

Azir’s E, Shifting Sands, allows Azir to dash towards target Sand Soldier, dealing magic damage to all units he passes through and briefly knocking them up. Upon hitting an enemy champion, however, he immediately stops and gains a damage blocking shield that scales from his additional HP. Used either as a gap closer or escape mech – quite obviously – Shifting Sands allows Azir to get around the battlefield and reposition himself for a better view at his Soldiers mauling the enemy team.

Azir’s ultimate ability, Emperor’s Divide, summons a phalanx of shield bearing sandy soldiers (not to be confused with Sand Soldiers) that knock back enemy units from slightly behind Azir to the target location. At their destination, they form an impenetrable wall for enemies, and a movespeed boosting gate for allies. These soldiers cannot be issued commands, but they do automatically bop back enemy units that try to pass through (or over) the wall – with a few exceptions. Blinks can port past the wall, champions that have crowd control immunity may pass over the wall (Malphite’s Unstoppable Force and Nocturne’s Paranoia, for example), but dashes will be interrupted.

Looking at this kit reveals a few things. First off, every ability (aside from his ult) relies on Sand Soldiers being out on the field, meaning there’s no use – and no possibility – for an Azir player to rank any ability other than Arise! at level 1. Furthermore, it should come as no surprise that his Arise! is his primary source of damage during team fights but up until that point, his Sand Soldiers won’t be quite as useful. Getting into setting Azir up. I run an unconventional mastery book and an even more so unconventional mastery page, so bear with me.

In the Offense page, I take the following:
4/4 Fury: Since Azir is a right-click mage, Attack Speed is welcomed from all sources.
4/4 Sorcery: 5% CDR is great, but it also means 6.25% free Attack Speed.
3/3 Mental Force: More AP is always great, and this is pretty much mage-essential.
1/1 Arcane Mastery: Flat AP. Hooray!
2/3 Executioner: If I didn’t go for 4/4 in Fury, I would 3/3 this and take 1/1 in Dangerous Game. However, Azir’s going to stay at range most of the time regardless, and the 5% Attack Speed is quite handy early game.
3/3 Archmage: 5% increased AP. It’s like a mini Deathcap.
3/3 Devastating Strikes: Free Magic Pen., like a mini Void Staff.
1/1 Havoc: Yay for increased damage, right?

In Utility, I take the following:
2/3 Fleet of Foot: 1% increased movespeed is nifty. Not game-breaking, but nifty.
3/3 Meditation: 3 mana per 5 is not something to scoff at. Looking at how low Azir’s mana costs actually are, this is quite significant.
3/3 Summoner’s Insight: Lowered cooldowns on either Flash-Ignite or Flash-Barrier is very useful.
1/1 Runic Affinity: If we get a Blue Buff, this means it’s ours for longer. Hooray!

My rune page looks like this. And I can explain, so I will:

9/9 Greater Mark of Magic Pen: considering Azir deals next to no physical damage, he’s going to put Magic Pen to better use than he would Hybrid Pen.
1/9 Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power: Just to complement the 16AP at Lv18 from Mental Force.
5/9 Greater Seal of Armor: For some additional Armor. Anyone that feels they don’t need it can easily swap it out for something along the lines of AP/Lv or Mana Regen, but this is my way-to-go.
3/9 Greater Seal of Mana Regen: This is basically because I’ve stepped away from running Seraph’s on Azir, so I take a bit of extra Mana Regen to refresh that resource.
5/9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: gets me to 45 at Lv18. It’s something if we don’t run Athene’s.
4/9 Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration: To work with our Seals and Meditation.
3/3 Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: This is what makes this rune page all kinds of weird. Usually, you’d find things like Flat AP or movespeed in these slots. However, 15% CDR at Lv18 in combination with 4/4 Sorcery means a Nashor’s Tooth (which we build) puts us at cap CDR. Nifty, huh. Additionally, it increases our Attack Speed per level by more than we would get without these runes, since his Attack Speed/Lv is quite low (because of how he’s supposed to be played).

After that, it’s time to talk itemization. I’ve created a nice way to build Azir, after trying things that consisted of anything but Nashor’s Tooth. I’ve found that building Nashor’s Tooth, even though Arise! doesn’t apply the passive, is a vast increase in damage because of the sheer amount of attacks you can get off during the time an enemy is within a Sand Soldier’s auto attack range. Additionally, 20% CDR means 25% Attack Speed (+50% = 75% bonus Attack Speed from 1 item) and 60AP means 45 additional damage (because 60AP becomes 63 thanks to Archmage).

So we start off going into lane with a Doran’s Ring and 2 Health Potions. This gives us more HP to bash through, and provides us with some AP to be able to pressure our enemy during the laning phase, should we desire so. We’ll try to back when we hit either with 1250g or 1600g. The former lets us pick up a Catalyst the Protector and two pots (or a ward), whereas the latter allows us to pick up additional Boots. First item to finish should be that Rod of Ages to get stacking asap. This gives us the mana we desire without the mana regen we no longer need; the health to get the upper hand in prolonged fights or lengthy trades with a lane opponent and increase the potency of our Shifting Sands shield; and the AP that makes us deal lots of damage. After that, it’s time for that dreaded Nashor’s Tooth. Picking up a Stinger is going to increase our damage by far more than a Fiendish Codex would allow. This is because the 52,5% Attack Speed allows us to deal much more damage than when we’d get a Fiendish Codex. A matter of “more attacks with less damage”, or “fewer attacks with more damage”, and there being vastly more attacks than there are damages. So Stinger into Fiendish Codex into Nashor’s Tooth. However, with our rune page, there is exactly zero need for us to pick up Ionian Boots of Lucidity, meaning we can opt to either go for Sorcerer’s Shoes or Berserker’s Greaves. I’m still contemplating whether to pick up the former or the latter, but for now I’ll stick with the Sorcerer’s Shoes. Not only do those increase the damage dealt by Arise!, but also the damages dealt by Conquering/Shifting Sands and Emperor’s Divide (as well as the random Nashor’s Tooth damage we deal when there’s no soldier around).

After our core is done, it’s time to assess the situation. Basically, there’s three items I’d advice to pick up, and those are the items that make up the trinity of late game mage itemization: Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff, and Zhonya’s Hourglass. The first makes us deal ridiculous amounts of damage, it’s nothing more than a flat increase in damage. The second we will build when the enemy has surpassed the 60MR mark (since all mages have a threshold where they’d deal more damage to a champion with a Void Staff than they would with a Deathcap). The third we build when we want to have a backup plan in case we get dove by something along the lines of a Warwick or Kha’Zix or anything annoying with a gap closer that’s close to the meta. A combination of the three will be the completion of our build.

As a side note, there’s always other items to build. Should you believe there to be no reason to build a Zhonya’s Hourglass and instead desire the slowing effect of a Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, be my guest. It’s amazing, but not ideal for a champion like Azir. A small positional error can easily cost you. Should you believe the rune page is not for you and you prefer the sustain a Will of the Ancients gives you? 9/0/21 and Nashor’s + WotA = 40% CDR. There’s other itemization options, I’m merely offering you mine.

Gameplay-wise, there’s not that much to say, really. I will say that trying to last hit with a Sand Soldier is absolute garbage early in the game. The lack of damage and Attack Speed is absolutely horrendous when trying to farm under pressure. You can pressure your opponent with a Sand Soldier no doubt, but be wary that this also means you can’t last hit a minion at the same time. It’s not an ability cast when a Sand Soldier attacks, it’s an auto attack replacement. Second, W-Auto-Q-Auto is a potent harassing tool for early game trades and it’s easily capable of making your opponent burn through a Health Potion. Third, Shifting Sands is your only mobility, so make sure the enemy jungler isn’t nearby when you decide to use its offensive capabilities (in that it gives you a shield and knocks the enemy up briefly in addition to dealing damage). And lastly, keep in mind that your ultimate has more than one use. It’s a damage dealing ability, it’s an additional wall the enemy has to surpass, and it serves as additional mobility should you desire its movespeed enhancing properties.

I hope you can put this guide to good use. Azir isn’t easy, nor easily mastered. Have fun.

Nigel Wiersma