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About me

I'm Infinite, but I also go by ShadowTagged on the NA server. I've been playing League since Gnar came out and Azir has been one of my favourite champions since I've picked him up. My favourite champions are Singed top, Gragas jungle, Azir mid, Lucian adc, and Thresh support. I don't main any lane but I prefer not to adc.

Pros

+ The most teamfight oriented hyper carry + Very safe in the laning phase + Unique playstyle that allows for countless outplays + Extremely high late game damage + Can make a tower every 3 minutes. + One of the most loaded champion kits in the game. + Fits in to many team compositions.

Azir is an extremely safe, high damage and high utility hyper carry. He can protect himself with Shifting Sands and Emperor's Divide. As well, he can farm under tower with soldiers. When not teamfighting, Azir can split push safely with Arise! and Shurima's Legacy.

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Cons

+ Weak early game burst. - You feel very useless without items. - His Shifting Sands can be body-blocked like a Body Slam. - Completely reliant on soldiers for damage. - Mispositioning soldiers usually means death. - Blinks will still cross Emperor's Divide - Shifting Sands scales off of bonus health. - High skill cap champion. - Is a very popular and strong champion in the metagame, so receives a lot of nerfs.

Azir is a hyper carry. Every hyper carry in the game has a lot of early issues, and Azir is no exception. His lack of instant mobility (you need to Arise! + Shifting Sands to go over walls, his dependence on his soldiers for his damage, you should consider practicing him if you want to take him into ranked.

Offensive Spells

Easily the best spell in the game. A 450 range blink that can let you escape a bad situation or even make flashy plays with your ult. Always take this.

DoT true damage when you need vision or just quick damage for a kill. It can even help you against that pesky Swain or Dr. Mundo with their insane recovery. This is the spell for manly men or manly women that don't need no Barrier.

Such a huge shield for 2 seconds that can make you seem a lot weaker than you really are. This spell can even make a difference in a losing battle - however, it won't save you from Ignite. You can pull off some pretty sick baits with this or deny tower dives.

The cooldown got reduced by a bit recently, making this even more able to compete with heal.

Defensive Spells

A good spell to take against burst champs or long range opponents like Xerath, it does block less than Barrier, but health is permanent, and it gives movespeed briefly for an escape tool or to dodge skill shots.

If you blind picked Azir and your opponent locks in a champion you might have trouble with, like Zed, you can use Exhaust to make them do pitiful damage and maybe even turn the fight around.

Teleport helps you get back to lane faster if you couldn't push, lets you set up easy ganks with any laner, and is the BEST tool for split pushing with Azir in the late game. It used to be so good because of all the objectives you could get to and the map presence, plus the reduced cooldown on towers. Now, Summoner's Insight is in the Resolve tree, so you can't get as low a cooldown as before.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Pretty standard on all mid lane champions for the early damage output.
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: You're an AP mage and these let you shred the standard 30-42 MR that your lane opponent will have. Or, you know, Orianna's `47-ish MR at level three when she takes Command: Protect.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: 20% from Nashor's Tooth, 15% late game and 5% from Sorcery helps give you the cdr cap on Azir.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health: AP mid laners don't do crazy amounts of damage with AA's, so this is the best defensive rune for... defending? against their spells. Scales really well into the late game as well.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Might as well take it. No real reason not to.
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: You're an AP mage and these let you shred the standard 30-42 MR that your lane opponent will have.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: These are decent for the CDR cap.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: That measly base armor isn't that much, but 9 bonus armor really can make the difference between first blood and surviving on 15 health. It also helps you reduce hard hitting harass such as Talon's Rake.

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Considering that Azir's mobility isn't crazy, the extra 4.5% movespeed might help you outrun that Annie, or dodge some harass from Brand.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These do actually provide some nice 27MR at level 18, but you shouldn't need it too bad if you can position behind your frontline in fights.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: I would take these against champions that you'll have a hard time against, like Diana, or high burst champions like LeBlanc. In conjunction with health seals, you might just live their burst.
  
• Greater Seal of Health: Grants 72 bonus health at level 1 and are effective against strong early magic damage dealers like LeBlanc, combine with flat magic resist blues for the best defense early on.

Masteries are a very important part of League and affect your late game damage output as well as early sustain quite noticeably, so I'm going to explain some of the more optional masteries for each skill tree.

Ferocity Tree

Sorcery An essential mastery on any caster that gives you a flat 2% damage increase, no reason not to take it. Expose Weakness This is the best of the three for Azir since he does a lot of AoE damage, Feast is only useful in lane, and Double-Edged Sword isn't great on ranged champions. Natural Talent scaling ability power that helps you out late game. Oppressor since Azir builds Rylai's Crystal Scepter, this is basically a free 2.5% damage increase upon completing it. Piercing Thoughts percent magic pen is pretty good if you know your opponent is picking up a lot of MR, not really worth the skill points lost in Cunning. Deathfire Touch All of Azir's abilities are AoE, so you'll never get the full effect from this. Not worth it.

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Savagery Azir has low attack damage, so this is pretty good early on for last hitting minions. Assassin flat 1.5% bonus damage for 99% of your laning phase and helps out quite a bit. Plus, the other masteries in this tier don't really suit solo laners so well. Merciless Another conditional damage increase that is useful for finishing off champions, if you can sustain without Meditation , take it. Dangerous Game pretty sick mastery that allows you to clutch onto your life sometimes, might as well take it because Bandit is useless. Intelligence gives you 5% more CDR and allows you to both hit the CDR cap and surpass it. Thunderlord's Decree at level 18, this does 180 bonus damage minimum in an AoE, so it adds some synergy to Azir's abilities and a surprising amount of damage. Plus, Azir can't use Stormraider's Surge or Windspeaker's Blessing .

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Resolve Tree

Recovery the sustain of this isn't bad, and synergizes well with Feast. Tough Skin Reduces damage from auto attacks, so it could work well against champions that autoattack you frequently, like Jayce, or maybe Orianna. Veteran's Scars more of a late game mastery that slightly increases your health. Not bad considering Azir builds Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Insight decreases your Summoner Skill cooldowns by 15%, and is probably one of the best masteries in this tree for Azir.

This is one of the easier of Azir's abilities to explain. Spoiler: Click to view Every 180 seconds, you can summon the Disc of the Sun from the ruins of a destroyed tower. Disc of the Sun functions exactly like a normal tower, but Azir receives and gold for enemies it kills. If Azir dies or moves to far away from his tower, it loses its armor. The tower's health decays over 1 minute, and the cooldown for this ability begins when the tower dies. Also, keep in mind that you can't summon a Disc of the Sun on one of the enemy's destroyed nexus or inhibitor towers.

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This ability allows you to control the positioning of your Arise! soldiers while applying a STACKING 25% slow, and doing moderate damage. Riot recently nerfed Azir's burst by making soldiers beyond the first deal no damage. Utilization: Spoiler: Click to view The soldiers can be moved about twice their AA range away from Azir, but make sure you don't move your soldiers to far because Azir would be very vulnerable, especially without Emperor's Divide. Your soldiers are technically projectiles while being moved by Conquering Sands. And as such, are able to be stopped by Wind Wall and Unbreakable. This ability is on a 3.6 second cooldown with max CDR, meaning that you can apply a 25-75% slow every ~4-ish seconds. Make sure you don't use this ability carelessly, it opens up a great time to engage on Azir.

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Arise!...Where do I begin? This skill makes Azir, well, Azir. Arise! is an ability that allows Azir to place down a soldier that will attack whatever Azir targets in about a 650 range. But wait, there's more! These soldiers do AoE magic damage in a line, can be moved and can nuke towers. As of patch 5.14, this skill grants 20/30/40/50/60% attack speed passively with each rank. Azir can even place up to three at a time. Utilization: Spoiler: Click to view It is possible for Azir to have up to three soldiers at once. Soldiers cannot attack structures. If more than one soldier is attacking the same target, the additional soldiers do 25% of the first soldier's damage. Since soldier basic attacks scale off of 60% AP, this means that the max damage is 90% AP + (60 + 5*lvl) damage on each autoattack instance, assuming the target is standing in the range of all three soldiers. The damage from soldiers will strike in a line, hitting enemies behind the target. The soldier's basic attacks do not launch a projectile and may pass through Wind Wall and Unbreakable. The soldiers scale with 100% of Azir's attack speed. Soldiers last for only 9 seconds, but expire twice as fast if they are near an enemy tower. If you land your Conquering Sands, you are usually able to get off one more autoattack than normal with your soldiers. Soldiers are non-targetable and do not have a hitbox. Which means that you can't collide with them and be blocked. Unless you are SURE that you can secure a kill or that you will not need to escape, do not place both soldiers out at once for damage. This may take practice and often seperates good Azir playes from great Azir players. Your soldiers give vision!

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Azir's third ability that allows him to dash to one of his soldiers, damaging all enemies in his path. He stops at the first enemy champion and gains a shield based on his bonus health. You can make some crazy outplays with this ability, trust me. This ability will get you First Blood. Utilization: Spoiler: Click to view The shield from Shifting Sands scales off of 15% bonus health, while the damage scales off of 40% AP. If no soldier is selected, Azir will dash to the closest soldier in range. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops IN FRONT OF them, not beside or behind them. Using Shifting Sands on a soldier moving from Conquering Sands will force Azir to follow the path of the soldier. Like this: Play Video The shield from Shifting Sands lasts for 4 seconds. As of patch 5.14, the knock up on this ability was removed to make Azir more vulnerable pre-6, and succumb to some specific counters, such as LeBlanc, as Azir can no longer interrupt her Distortion.

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And now for Azir's ultimate, which is just such an incredible power spike and allows you to pull off some really amazing outplays. It's great for pushing enemies into towers, kiting melee champs, and oh, you know, trapping the entire enemy team in a jungle camp for 3 seconds. Utilization: Spoiler: Click to view In simplest terms, this spell is the best peel in the game. It's Azir's way of saying "Get the f*** out of my face!" Using this spell causes 4/5/6 soldiers to charge forward, doing 150 - 300 + 60% AP in magic damage, plus knock any enemies back. The soldiers then remain as terrain (for 3 seconds) that is unpassable by any enemy champions. This includes dashes. Ally champions can move through the wall. A good way to get early kills or setup an easy gank is to get a soldier behind your opponent, using Conquering Sands if necessary, and then Shifting Sands to the soldier, walk behind them, proceeding to knock them into your tower with Emperor's Divide. Emperor's divide cannot pass through terrain, but each soldier will stop if they hit terrain during their charge. Enemies can be knocked through walls with Emperor's Divide. If a melee enemy flashes over your wall to get to you, walk into your wall an kite them, you may score a kill if you are able to keep a soldier on either side of the wall. If the enemy team is attempting to force a baron, knock the jungler back with your wall and attempt a steal with your soldiers or perhaps your jungler. If you cannot steal it, you can always attack the enemy team for 3 seconds. The following 'blinks' are able to pass through Emperor's Divide: Elise's Rappel Ezreal's Arcane Shift Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm Fiora's Blade Waltz Katarina's Shunpo Kassadin's Riftwalk LeBlanc's Distortion(2ND cast) Master Yi's Alpha Strike Pantheon's Grand Skyfall Shaco's Deceive Shen's Stand United Talon's cutthroat Twisted Fate's Destiny Urgot's Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser Warwick's Infinite Duress Yasuo's Last Breath Zed's Death Mark and Living Shadow. Unstoppable Force, Paranoia, Cease and Desist, and Playful / Trickster can pass through the wall. Any champion that is immune to CC can ignore the initial knock back of the wall. ( Ragnarok or targets with Banshee's Veil or Black Shield) When a champion with one of these blinks uses it on you, as soon as they become targetable, try to knock them back. Or if it is a champion such as LeBlanc or Zed, place a soldier where they place their sigil or shadow, as they will most likely reappear there.

You're forced to take a point in Arise! at level one, which makes sense because you can't use your Conquering Sands or Shifting Sands without it. Max your Q first because it allows you to move your soldiers more often, and does the most damage.

Then you'd want to max your W for more attack speed and more soldiers.

Obviously, take a point in Emperor's Divide whenever possible, and then take the final four points in your E.

( talisman of ascension = soldier auto attacks)

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This is Azir's standard harass combo in lane. First, you want to place down a soldier where your lane opponent is in range. Auto attack them until they move, then use Conquering Sands to move your soldier where they are moving, and attack again.

If you freeze your lane, this is a great way to harass your lane opponent while not taking much poke back. Plus, it only costs 110 mana.

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To begin this combo you want to have your lane frozen at your tower. When the other laner overextends, throw a soldier up, hit the minions a few times, then use Conquering Sands to get your soldier behind him. From here, Shifting Sands to that soldier, walk behind them, and use Emperor's Divide to lock them into your tower.
Throw in a few soldier auto attacks, and you just scored a kill.


This combo is what Burst Mage Azir was built around, after using Emperor's Divide, use Zhonya's Hourglass to confuse the enemy team while your team engages on the low health targets.


This combo right here is mainly used to knock your lane opponent into your tower when the lane is frozen on your side, or if they are a champion with a gap closer that makes them appear behind you ( Talon, Zed, Katarina)The shield from Shifting Sands is also going to weaken any harass that they attempt if they make it over the wall. Try to place soldiers where they are attempting to escape your wall from.

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You can perform this juke by placing a soldier over the wall that you'd like to bait your enemies' flash over. You then Shifting Sands to the soldier, and during the dash, you Conquering Sands your soldier to move to the opposite side of the wall. You'll end up curving to the soldier. Hence, the "Banana Juke".


*Pretty sure I linked a video of this in the Conquering Sands or Shifting Sands section. Credits to SivHD.

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This combo is a mix of the "Banana Juke" and the standard all in. It is an incredibly strong engage for your team, and is best performed with the Burst Mage Azir and with follow up from your team, such as a Glacial Prison or an Unstoppable Force.


You generally want to perform this rotation in the jungle, where pathways are small and the enemy team is likely grouped up. You want to use the Zhonya's Hourglass active immediately after you Emperor's Divide because this combo forces you into a very bad position most of the time.


When performed correctly, it usually leaves most enemies below 50% health.

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Starting Items:


Doran's Ring, 2x Health Potionis the standard opening for Azir, plenty of mana sustain and some more health.


Cloth Armor, 5x Health Potion is the start vs AD champions, to help you try and trade with them. ( Talon, Yasuo).


Boots, 4x Health Potion is start vs dangerous skill shot-based champions. ( Brand, Vel'Koz).


Riot Removed my stealth wards in Patch 5.22, so you'll have to rely on this and on your ward charges to keep vision. There's a map of good places to ward mid further in the guide.




First Back + Pre Core Items

A second Doran's Ring is really worth the cost due to it's amazing stats and then mana regen is quite useful, plus the passive mana restore on unit kill stacks.

This item is extremely useful for dodging abilities and just getting places faster. You never know, it could save you from that Elise's Cocoon.

This item is such a huge powerspike, giving Azir and effective 52.5% attack speed. For an attack speed reliant champ, that's massive. (Note: I usually prefer to finish Rod of Ages before I buy this, as I like to start stacking buy 15 minutes, it's up to you, however.)

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Nashor's Tooth

> Nashor's Tooth is an extremely cost efficient item on Azir. 80 Ability power, 20% CDR and 40% Attack Speed, plus it builds out of Stinger. His soldiers scale off of 100% Attack Speed, so the only reason you might be reluctant to buy this item is because Azir doesn't benefit from its passive. This item used to be a lot better on Azir pre patch 5.14, when the CDR gave him 25% bonus attack speed. That 15% AP magic damage on your auto attacks doesn't matter when your primary damage source scales with 60% AP.

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Rabadon's Deathcap

>I don't know if there's ever been a mage that I don't buy this item on. 120 AP + 35% Ability Power. The spike in your damage after completing this item is extremely noticeable, although, if you aren't having an amazing game, or are against someone like Zed, or even an Ezreal, I would think about getting a Zhonya's Hourglass prior to Deathcap.

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Sorcerer's Shoes

>The magic pen on these boots is a lot more useful than most other boots in my opinion, and gives you a large damage boost.

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Zhonya's Hourglass

>This is such a solid item on Azir. Even if you don't get fed, you still scale really well, so you'll get focused in fights. If you see a five man WOMBO COMBO headed your way, just pop the active to be safe for 2.5 seconds. You can also do really ballsy stuff where you use the all-in combo I mentioned in the Ability Rotations section and push one member of the enemy team into your team, then use Zhonya's Hourglass to wait out your cooldowns and think about your escape. The 2.5 second stasis is also pretty much necessary against champions like Zed or maybe even avoiding some hard cc coming your way, like Unstoppable Onslaught.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter

>This is sort of a personal preference. Azir has no single target abilities, so you can only apply a 20% slow, but that's still pretty good when you can slow target's with your soldier's basic attacks. Who knows, you might be able to get one more soldier attack off before you need to move them again. It also gives an additional 100 AP and 400 health, which is kinda nice, and with Rod of Ages, brings Azir to 3000 health at level 18. Having a large health pool is kinda nice on Azir, as it allows you to stay longer in teamfights. I've changed my opinion on this item since Nashor's Tooth became viable. If you're fed, or going even, it's not a bad idea to rush it as a second item.

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Luden's Echo

>The more I think about it the more useful this items appears to be. 10% movespeed is huge for a slow champion such as Azir. And 100 AP is nothing to laugh at. The passive of Luden's Tempest adds roughly 250 more magic damage to Azir's burst, so with it Emperor's Divide can easily hit entire teams for 1000 damage. Your soldiers can proc the Echo effect with their basic attacks, and Azir can charge it very easily with his E W Q combo. Definitely not a bad item if you need more burst or poke on your team.

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Q: "What's better, Void Staff, or Abyssal Mask?"

A: It depends on your situation.

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> Void Staff is the item to get when you're the only fed member of your team and the enemy is stacking MR, as it shreds 35% of their magic resist. A good indication of when you need this is if the enemy ADC has a Banshee's Veil. It's most efficient when the carries have +90 MR.

> Abyssal Mask is the item to get when the opposing APC is fed, the opponents have less than 90 MR, or if the enemy team is very close range oriented. If there is an Aegis of the Legion on the enemy team, Abyssal Mask will help counter the MR aura.

> Banshee's Veil is your top counter to burst mages that need to combo their abilities or land a stun to start their burst ( Brand, Annie, LeBlanc, Veigar). This item also gives some great defensive stats to help you tank a bit more of the damage that goes through the shield. Banshee's Veil is such a strong item when you're being bursted.

>Need defensive stats? Need to revive and pull off the sickest xPeke? Buy a Guardian Angel today! In all seriousness, you buy this item to live again when your team fights, or if you're in low ELO, die the second you respawn. But GA will definitely make your opponents think twice about what abilities they can blow on a target that will revive in 4 seconds, and you may get out alive if your team can peel for you.

> Hextech Rocketbelt is a new mage item that gives a small amount of AP, some health and some CDR, but the main perk is this short range dash that fires a buckshot style area of projectiles. The main reason that you may want to get this on Azir is the short dash that could be used as an escape, though Azir could make use of the fire nova with Shifting Sands.

>A new AP item that fires of hose of spikes that pass through minions and apply a heavy, but short duration slow that does OK damage, while providing health mana, and 80 AP. I wouldn't recommend this on Azir, as you have a perma slow from Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

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• Buy Sorcerer's Shoes standard, gives more damage
  
• Buy Boots of Swiftness when you gotta go fast.
  
• Buy Mercury's Treads vs very heavy cc team comps.
  
  
  

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Lane Harass Placment

aaaaWhen farming, attempt to zone your opponents from farming with their auto attacks by placing a soldier between their melee minions and them. Many opponents you'll face forget that Azir's soldiers have a strike through effect that extends slightly past the target, and you may be able to get free harass on your opponent.

Solo Blue Buff Placement

aaaaWhen taking your blue buff (with permission from your jungler of course) start by placing a soldier on top of the Golem, then as it attempts to find you, slide your soldier into the bush and continue to auto attack. You should be able to finish the buff quickly with a few auto attacks.

Dragon/Baron Placement

FYI, you can solo dragon when you finish your Rod of Ages, have a Stinger, and you may need Ionian Boots of Lucidity. I don't recommend soloing it, because you will be dropped down between 1/2 health and 2/3 health, so maybe scan it first with a Sweeping Lens.


aaaaWhen taking Dragon or Baron with a member of your team, place both of your soldiers on top of the monster and stand to the left of it for dragon, so your teammate tanks the AoE damage, or just strafe in front of Baron to avoid some damage.

Teamfight Placement

aaaaDuring teamfights, your soldier placement depends whether your team is playing passive, or aggressive. If your team is playing passive and is being engaged on, place soldiers in front of your ADC to zone enemy champions away from them. When playing aggressive, your goal is to place soldiers in the enemy teams backline to try and shred their ADC, or force them to walk into your team.

Your first priority during laning is to get as much cs as possible.

Here are some tips to make your lane safe for your while being challenging for your opponent:

• *Watch all of the minions* All of them, including your own. Not only will this help your CS, it will also help you find opportunities to harass your opponent when they go to last hit, or zone them with your soldiers. The more farm you deny your opponent, the better chances you have of keeping them shut down throughout the game.
  
• Try not to overuse your soldiers. Although Arise! only costs 40 mana, it adds up over time. You can always harass with your auto attacks or only pick opportunities when you know your can get your full harass combo (W + AA + Q +AA) completed, or if you can zone the enemy from something important such as a cannon minion.
  
• Try to freeze your lane to your tower by strictly last hitting the minions. If you can do this you have control over your lane and have a much better chance of getting a successful gank or completing your all in combo (W + Q + E + R + AA)
  
• Look at your map and listen for pings. Probably one of the most basic tips I can give, but it really does help and is crucial to knowing when you can overextend or if you need to leave lane to go help (ie, the opposing jungler is ganking top, I can safely all in their Katarina).
  
• Ward your lane.
  
• Try not to use all of your abilities when being overextended without wards, their jungler may kill you before you complete your combo or come in for clean-up duty.
  
• Your cs and your tower are more important than kills. Think of cs as your job, but kills are just an added bonus that your employer doesn't mind you doing.
  
• As of Patch 5.22, The Rift Herald is a thing. Try to ward around it, don't be that guys that steals it from the top laner, they need it more than you do.

There is no real numeric time when mid game starts, but I'd say that it's after the first dragon and first two towers have been taken. It'll probably be around 20 minutes at this point, and you should have your Rod of Ages, Nashor's Tooth, and if you're quite fed, perhaps your Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Anyways, your main objectives during mid game are:

• Continue to put pressure on your lane by keeping it pushed out if you're ahead. At this point, if you're ahead, the enemy laner has probably seen your all-in and will likely not push your lane to tower with you in it. You want to keep mid tower for as long as possible.
  
• If you're behind, try to stay in lane to put pressure on the other laner and set up a gank. When you're behind, try to get the other laner to push you to tower so you can freeze and force them to stay to get ganked, or roam, which brings me to the next point.
  
• Keep track of your lane opponent. Call your Missing in Action pings and try to keep the area around your lane warded so the other lanes know when your mid laner is missing, and will probably stay out of fights in their lane, which leads to a lower possibility of them being baited into your lane opponent.
  
• Continue to get as much cs as possible, and keep in mind that eventually Azir outscales most other mid laners. Azir's late game is insane, just try to make sure he gets the cs to get there.
  
• Help your team out with objectives. If your team needs help with some pushing or a dragon, make sure to do as they ask unless you have a really good reason to not, i.e., don't say you can't miss this wave of cs.
  
• Roam and try to pick up some kills. If your team is fairly ahead or someone needs help in a lane, don't be afraid to push your lane and then roam for a very easy kill with Emperor's Divide.

Late game also doesn't have a set timer to when it starts, so I'll just say that it begins when a team has two or more inhibitor towers or an acutal inhibitor. At this point in the game Azir is going to be exceptionally strong with everything his team could want him to do.

In the late game, your objectives are:

• Maintaining control over the map. Map control is achieved with your team by being on top of buffs, wards, having ward control over Dragon and Baron, as well as keeping your lanes pushed.
  
• Helping your team in fights. Emperor's Divide was meant to be a defensive ability, so if a teamfight didn't go so well, try to peel for your teammates with it as long as you don't die doing so.
  
• Split-pushing. This is one of Azir's greatest powers. He has huge, consistent AoE damage, lots of peel and an escape, as well as a tower nuke with Arise!. When a lane is fairly pushed or your team can't win teamfights, split pushing is the way to go.
  
• Securing Baron Nashor and Dragon. The buffs that these monsters bestow are incredibly powerful and better for you, often for teamfights with many places to trap the enemy team in with Emperor's Divide. Remind your jungler when they are up, and let him make the call to take it.

Like many of the mid lane mages with CC, Azir is a strong blind pick. However, there are many abilities that he synergizes well with, and some where it is unfavorable to choose him into.


>>>When to pick Azir:

• Lack of burst. Your team has a burst top laner and needs sustained damage for teamfights.
  
• Easy match up.The enemy mid laner has locked in a favorable match up that you feel comfortable playing against.
  
• Little cc.Few hard AoE cc champions on the enemy team.
  
• Friendly cc.Two or more hard cc champions on your team.

>>>Try not to play Azir when:

• Blinks. The enemy team has many champions that are able to get past your wall with blinks.
  
• Hard match up.The enemy mid laner chose a match up that you are uncomfortable with.
  
• Split-push.Your team or the enemy team is split-push oriented.

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A Word About Gnar

Just putting it out there, this combination WILL decimate entire enemy team comps. If you're playing this and can force team fights with Baron Nashor or 5 man pushing mid, you'll easily win the game with this combination.


But why does it work?


If you have ever played Gnar, you may be aware that his ultimate is similar to Vayne's Condemn, or Poppy's Heroic Charge. Except for one minor detail. Gnar's ultimate, GNAR! is essentially a multi target knockback that will stun all enemies that hit a wall for X seconds. The synergy between these two champs doesn't stop there. Mega Gnar's W is Wallop, which is another AoE stun effect.


But wait! There's more!


You may or may not remember about how Emperor's Divide works. If not, you can go back to Skills/Abilities to refresh your memory. tl;dr - Emperor's Divide creates A WALL of soldiers that charge forward that enemies are unable to pass through, but Azir's teammates may still pass through. Emperor's Divide counts as terrain to enemies. If GNAR! throws an enemy into terrain, they are stunned for 1.75 seconds, and take 50% bonus damage. With this combination of ults, Azir and Gnar are able to lock down entire teamfights for up to 3 seconds (includes Wallop stun duration). That's insane. It gives you and your teammates 3 seconds to destroy the enemy team without any sort of counter play. I recommend trying this combo with a trusted duo laner, tell me how it works.


Anyways, you want to do this with Gnar. *Make sure Gnar is about to transform into Mega Gnar prior to trying this*



The combo looks something like this when pulled off correctly (credits to UberDanger):

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Other Champions Azir Works Well With

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All of these champions are pretty godlike when it comes to teamfights for their AoE cc abilities that can lockdown entire teams, and it's very useful for Azir because he needs more time than most mid laners to make an impact on a teamfight.

Thanks for taking the time to read this guide! I hope you consider using this build in your next Azir game, hopefully it'll help you out. If you disagree with anything leave a comment and I'll reply with my thoughts on it, or even if your point is good enough, incorporate it into the guide. I have a YouTube channel where I draw champions occasionly, so here it is if you're into that kind stuff: BearticBlitz. I think that's it, I had a lot of fun writing this guide and will do my best to add and update to it!



Credits to the following:

>jhoijhoi - For her amazing BBCode guide and the multiple templates I used, all can be found here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506


>Ahpulzz - For teaching me how to play Kassadin and for the formatting inspiration from his guide, found here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/the-voidwalker-rises-in-depth-379157


>Emikadon - For showing me how visually stunning artwork can make a guide, her Katarina guide is here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/the-blade-of-noxus-390482


>Fellow Summoner, Ascended Azir - For wrecking me with the Azir all in and then teaching me about this build after the game. This guide would not be what it is without him.


>I made all of the chapter banners!


>Any video that I do not own has been credited at its location.

• 04/22/15 - After finishing the Main Core Items, decided guide was fit to release, more updates to come soon! View count: 98
  
  
• 04/23/15 - Just finished the Alternate Items chapter, going to test some more before I write the next section on "Soldier Placement". View count: 100
  
  
• 04/24/15 - Finished a section on boot enchantments in the Alternate Items chapter, started the "Soldier Placement" chapter, and finished a section on Early Game/Laning Tips. View count: 142
  
  
• 04/25/15 - I made banners! Mostly just to make the guide a bit more visually appealing. I think I'll continue adding graphics. View count: 230
  
  
• 04/26/15 - Cleaned up the guide a bit, took away the original introduction because it didn't look amazing, and I added a credits section to acknowledge those that have helped me with this guide. I also completed the damage calculations for each ability. View count: 808
  
  
• 04/28/15 - Added in a few screenshots of the step by step 'Banana Juke', made a solo blue buff video, and finished the screenshot for the dragon placement. View count: 1K
  
  
• 04/29/15 - Made a new section talking about when to pick Azir in ranked, I went pretty in depth about Gnar. Also added in a ward map in the Early Game/Laning Tips section. View count: 2K
  
  
• 05/07/15 - Another new section about generals goals during mid/late game, and added in a few cool pictures around. View count: 3K
  
  
• 05/14/15 - I worked out a new item build vs AD mid laners and updated the main build as well as the main item section accordingly. View count: 4K
  
  
• 05/28/15 - I added a few points about Luden's Echo into the 'Alternate Items' Chapter and wrote about Malzahar and LeBlanc in the 'VS Champions' section. View count 7K
  
  
• 05/31/15 - I added in Ekko to the 'VS Champions' section, moved Luden's Echo from 'Alternate Items' to 'Main Core Items', removed the old 21/0/9 masteries because when Riot moved Meditation to Expanded Mind 's place, the 1.5% of missing mana regen/5 became a lot less sexy. I added in a Burst Mage Azir build and added its rune explanation to the 'Runes' chapter. View count: 8K
  
  
• 06/20/15 - I added Athene's Unholy Grail to the items section, added in some music and added a new ability rotation. Thanks for 12K views, I'm really flattered <3 View count: 12K
  
  
• 06/21/15 - New chapter explaining some builds I like to take and the pros/cons of each. View count: 13K
  
  
• 08/11/15 - I've been super busy lately yet Azir has gone through his fair share of changes in 5.14 with passive attack speed on his W now, his attack speed scaling with CDR removed, and the knock up being removed from his E. I updated a few sections with this information and need to rewrite some champion matchups based on the change. View count: 20K
  
  
• 09/04/15 - Summer is almost over :( Anyways, Riot decided to nerf Azir's movespeed down and remove the additional damage on his Q. Since patch 5.14, mana regen items on Azir haven't really been necessary, so I removed Morellonomicon, Rod of Ages, Athene's Unholy Grail and Ionian Boots of Lucidity from the guide as I don't really see a use for them any more. The CDR is pointless with Scaling CDR blues. I also added a bunch of matchups for the lane and removed the 'Example Builds' chapter. I still want to add Varus, Viktor, Kog'Maw and Xerath to the lane matchups, but I need to play against them a bit more often. View count: 30K
  
  
• 09/09/15 - I fixed a few mistakes I left in the guide from a previous update and added a diagram to the "Lane Harass Placement" in the "Soldier Placement" chapter. I added a video by Bjergsen demonstrating the "Shuriman Shuffle" engage with Azir's ultimate in the "Ability Rotations" chapter. I've added a few more matchups to the guide as well. View count: 31K
  
  
• 09/11/15 - Now taking a computer science class to help my coding. Not much has changed aside from a few small typo fixes and edits. View count: 31K
  
  
• 09/15/15 - Reworked the "Masteries" chapter, added Jayce to matchups, and even used some kawaii ****ers ヽ( ★ω★)ノ. View count: 32K
  
  
• 10/14/15 - Changed my opinion on Rylai's Crystal Scepter, the AoE slow is actually really strong and it gives a lot of health and AP for how useful the slow is. Maybe it's because I'm playing so much Singed now? Who knows. View count: 37K
  
  
• 10/18/15 - Updated the "Introduction to Azir" chapter and made it a lot cleaner. Currently working on a Singed guide, and also I realized that Rage Against the Machine's "Evil Empire" album fits Azir well. View count: 38K
  
  
• 11/16/15 - Patch 5.22 dropped and reset everyone's masteries, so I redid them, and I wrote some notes about them. Everything that is AP is more expensive, so I'm playing more top lane right now until that gets changed. Azir didn't benefit from too much with the AP item changes and mastery changes, aside from Oppressor. At least he's getting a new skin, that's kinda cool. (Kinda has the exact same color scheme as Karthus, but I'm not complaining). On a final note, Yasuo is just stupid with his free sustain from Warlord's Bloodlust , Death's Dance, and the damage alteration from its passive. At least Yasuo isn't Tryndamere in Patch 5.22. These are rough times. View count: 41K
  
  
• 12/13/15 - Thanks to Patch 5.24, a bunch of new possibilities arose with Azir's combos, since Riot changed the way his kit flows together. I added a section about it in the "Ability Rotations" chapter. Gravelord Azir is out too, and that is beautiful. Also, thank you very much for a year on this guide nearly, and 50 000 views. q(^-^q) View count: 50K
  
  
• 12/20/15 - Merry Christmas! I made a small error in the first mastery pages, so I corrected that. View count: 51K
  
  
• 03/20/16 - It's been some time since any changes have affected Azir, but a new tier 2 mastery in Ferocity turns out to be much better in my opinion than Feast, so I changed the guide to include Expose Weakness accordingly. View count: 67K
  
  
• 06/08/16 - So Azir is finally getting nerfed quite a bit again. His Arise! no longer damages towers, his Emperor's Divide has had its duration reduced significantly and no longer grants movespeed. This makes Azir worse a split pushing and makes Emperor's Divide less abusive. Also, Riot stole all the fun. You can't pin champions to thick walls anymore. Barrier's cooldown was reduced so I recommend taking it more often. For some unbeknownst reason, Riot has recently been making CDR super available to a lot of items, like Iceborn Gauntlet, Hextech Rocketbelt, Trinity Force, and Zhonya's Hourglass, so the game is in this weird state where everyone has a lot of CDR, and fights happen more frequently, spell casters are more viable, and CDR glyphs aren`t as great, so I`d consider taking ability power or MR in some of your rune pages. View count: 86K