Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

The reason for this is obvious, you want soldier's to deal damage so your opponent doesn't just sit there and take the soldier poke with out at least gritting their teeth.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

You'll want this because chances are you're opponent is an AP mid, and this will greatly help you take a few more hits early game but also scales up later to be beneficial, especially given the sacrifice of 0 in defense mastery for itemization. Some trade these for early game CDR, but these runes are so key that I don't feel its smart to sacrifice these.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

You want this because it will give you that early game nudge in champion pokes, it will synergize greatly with Sorcerer's Shoes and Void Staff. AP stacking does appear to have a cap in terms of over all soldier damage, and Magic Pen is what changes the game from 5-6 hits to kill a squishy to 2-3.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health

I now go full Great Seal of Scaling Health, I like it more this way and it gives you a good chunk of HP with out needing items, and that increases your Shield from E, since it is based on HP. This helps Azir not be so squishy.

The "No" of the Offense Tree

So the reason why I put only 11 points into the offense tree is because outside of the basic AP and CDR, the offense tree really doesn't benefit Azir as it does other champs. "WHAT!? Envy you Noob! All Damage Dealers benefit from Offense Tree!" well before we pick up the torches this is why: You don't benefit from Butcher , Arcane Blade , Blade Weaving , Spell Weaving because these all rely on the idea that you are going to hit them with Azir's AA and not soldier's AA which is rarely ever going to happen or you're playing him wrong. Outside of killing minions, hitting structures, accidentally hitting champs that are out of soldier AA but not Azir AA, and early game last hitting minions; you don't use your actual AA. This is why you won't be able to really use any of these mastery skills in a consistent and effective way to warrant points being put in these skills and in the end would be a waste.

Why does Azir benefit so much from Utility?

I'll gladly break this down, for starts 3 points into Fleet of Foot gives you 1.5% movement speed, not game breaking, but will help you keep in range of your enemy to position your soldiers and deal damage (this will also pay off with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Twin Shadows. 3 points into Meditation for your early game sustain (ya he's not MP hungry but when your'e making plays you will be surprised where it all goes in the end). 1 point into Strength of Spirit never thought I would use this mastery point in any build, but it is helpful in synergy with Seraph's Embrace. Alchemist obvious... don't need to explain as well as Culinary Master .

Point into Runic Affinity as well to unlock more tree skills and also for that 20% longer blue buff. 3 Points into Greed this is great for Azir since he is an itemized champion and can use any gold love. 3 points of Expanded Mind , this goes great with Strength of Spirit and makes cohesive trifecta of benefits with Seraph's Embrace of bonus health regen, bonus mana, bonus ap based on mana all good things. Now for one of the most key and beneficial masteries outside of Greed , Fleet of Foot, Expanded Mind and Meditation ; and that is of course Intelligence . This sweet trait gets all 3 points and is well deserved with its 5% CDR (which if you combined this with the 5% CDR we got from Sorcery you just got 10% CDR (And with Elixir of Brilliance you can achieve 20% CDR with no items or 30% CDR with just 1 item completed. Then if that wasn't bangin enough, Riot threw in a 10% Activated Item CDR which will make the shield active from Seraph's Embrace and slow active from Twin Shadows up just that much earlier.

Now since I covered what not to put points in the Offense Tree, here are somethings that actually do work great for Azir in the Offense Tree. Now I have recently changed my stance on Expose Weakness over Double-Edged Sword and now I use Double Edged Sword the reason is as I explained in the above, 4 points in Sorcery no brainer 5% CDR combined with Intelligence gives you 10% CDR and a sweet Attack Speed Bonus to Soldiers before items and with out nerfing vital runes for CDR. Mental Force and Arcane Mastery are straight forward, they give AP, we like AP, we get AP k? Finally Executioner put 2/3 points in it, I would love to put 3 points in it but there isn't a single point to spare for maxing this which is a sign that the masteries are being used effective rather than wasteful.

So with the Sand Titan Build, the defense tree will be the main focus, again mostly because for what points you have to get to the masteries like Devastating Strikes and Havoc you will waste for a top lane champ and that Azir really doesn't utilize most of the Offense Tree (which is why you only get CDR, AP, and Executioner to help secure kills, and Double-Edged Sword for 2% soldier melee damage). The Defense tree however is very beneficial in keeping him tanky and in the lane, Block , Enchanted Armor , Unyielding , and Juggernaut are no brainer obvious tanky masteries, and I won't go into these since they are standard. 2 into Hardiness since chances are you'll be against a AD top, and 1 into Resistance because it will help against AP. Swiftness will help keep you from getting tied down too much, which is one of the things that will get you killed as Azir (c.c., not our friend. Perseverance , Second Wind are great for keeping your health up, increasing your sustain, and keeping you in lane, just nothing wrong with that.

Vamp:
So this was basically the build I started out with on Azir, but since I feel he could be more efficient by breaking up my original build into this build and my new Tyrant build, I feel I can give a better experience and alternative to this champ. this build is basically in step with my former build except it removes Greed and replaces it with Runic Affinity and Culinary Master now these are nice and all giving you extended blue buff and biscuits for a safer lane, but the main reason for removing Greed was so that you could gain full points in Expanded Mind and buff that Strength of Spirit and Seraph's Embrace. Outside of those minor adjsutments the build is basically step for step what it was when I first started.

Mage:
The only reason why Butcher made the cut is because its the only thing that you somewhat use that will give you the ability to put a point into Havoc and I know "But you could put it into Arcane Blade for those ap damages!"... Ya ya guy, I already have to do that passive for Nashor's and at least that hurts structures, Arcane Blade would be way under used to be worth a point, at least Butcher I use in early game against minions for farm. Point is Butcher gets a reluctant point because I like Havoc damage and Arcane Blade is still useless on Azir. The same goes for the point in Dangerous Game its only there so I can get to the magic pen of Devastating Strikes and the damage bonus of Havoc outside of those two masteries, Dangerous Game is fairly pointless and useless, ya its great if you get a kill when you're low in health, but if you're high it really does nothing of significance. Personally I feel the offense tree is the least beneficial to Azir in that the only thing he benefits from is the AP, CDR, Executioner , Devastating Strikes , and Havoc . And is why I generally feel a straight mage build on Azir is rather weak and why I focus more on "The Sand Tyrant" Build. But I put this up because its not a bad build, just not my preference.

Support:
Pretty much the same except you don't put points into Executioner and instead of Double-Edged Sword you will put it into Expose Weakness since its more about your ally getting kills than you, put a point into Scout instead of Meditation since wards matter more. Max Expanded Mind because more MP means less you'll need to rely on MP regenerative items. Scavenger yes because now you're sharing lane and Azir loves gold for items, but still no to Inspiration since really that implies that you are bad and your carry is pretty ahead of you; if you are equal or better than your carry Inspiration is useless.

Jungle:
An offensive Jungler, better be a carry jungler, which Azir is not. You are not a burst champion, so what you're better off going with is the typical tanky/utility champ. The basic Offense masteries of CDR and AP (since again I can't say this enough, the rest of the tree really doesn't do much for you as Azir). Than we get into the Defense tree which is very similar to the top build, except you replace Enchanted Armor for Tough Skin . THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Your soldiers DO NOT TANK jungle creeps, so you'll need something to keep you safe in those early levels which is Jungle Azir's weakest point in the game and makes him highly easy to counter. A point into Swiftness is always good because a slow jungler is a dead one, you don't want to get slowed entering a gank and be totally wrecked. Finally the difference between this and top is 4 points into Legendary Guardian instead of Executioner this is important since you are more utility in jungle for team fights, but also for bot lane ganks to get that extra defense. Also for what I have just mentioned and like the support build you will put a point into Expose Weakness instead of Double-Edged Sword because its about the team with Jungler not yourself and AGAIN YOU ARE NOT A CARRY JUNGLER (sorry wanna-be Yi/Reng-o Junglers, but homie don't burst damage on Azir you sustain!), YOU ARE A UTILITY SUPPORT JUNGLER!

I'll tell you exactly why you build Nashor's as a key item, and it will make sense when I describe it and I won't use crazy numbers and calculations. This is why: What happens before a soldier does his AA? He typically winds back and thrusts forward yes, but also, your character points. Now while your soldiers are NOT AT ALL effected by your AS, the motion in which your character points IS. So if you ever stopped to look at your soldiers you would notice that when you point, there is a very slight time delay in which your soldier AA's, its not some instantaneous event as some would like to believe when the build a Morello.

So if you test this and build a 40% CDR build with Nashor's and a 40% CDR with out, you will notice the obvious difference in your character pointing faster thus making your soldier's AA initiate faster making it over all a faster AA for YOUR SOLDIER AND YOU as 1 UNIT.

Now lets say you don't like the idea of hitting an enemy champion faster with your AA (why you would want that on a sustain damage champ such as Azir and is by no means a burst champion, I simply don't know but devil's advocate here) And you say "Envy! Outside of that you still don't benefit from the AS!" Well, the other reason why this makes him so beast, is because he can split push and hard with it. And since you can't use soldier's to AA down towers, you get a 50% increase to your AS making you a staff wipping fiend! On top of that you can cast W nukes on tower to burn it down. This makes you a champ that an enemy team doesn't want to leave alone on a turret thats for sure.

Doran's Ring

Always start with this, its got MP, its got damage, health and a nice early game passive, over all good item for Azir. And a no brainer to go with 2 health pots.

Elixir of Brilliance

This item is amazing and should be utilized every build of every game! With my Sand Tyrant Build you can accomplish 20% CDR in such a fast time given that this item is fairly cheap (can get by first back) and you already have starting mastery CDR of 10%! If you go with any other build, this item will still give you 15% CDR which is fantastic buff for so early in the game and with the AP it gives, this is an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE! There is no reason you should not have this consumeable in your Inventory unless you've already capped out your CDR, than this item lacks a bit of use on Azir.

Tear of the Goddess

make this early to start those 750 Mana stacks to get Seraph's Embrace, but do not complete this item to Archangel's Staff until you are very close or have achieved 750 mana Stacks for it to transform into a Seraph's Embrace, many other important items need to be completed, and this item really benefits you most when its finished rather than sitting on Archangel's Staff

Giant's Belt

Great HP item to give you some tankyness, boost your 'E' shield, and make you harder to kill so your spell vamp sustain can keep you alive longer, always get this item after you have completed 40% CDR and build it into a Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Sorcerer's Shoes (Alacrity)

This is usually the 4TH ITEM I build, but can be the 2nd or 3rd depending on when you want those boots. Great for Magic Pen since you don't want to stack just AP, Alacrity will give you the move speed to keep a step ahead of enemy and position those soldiers to wreck your enemy. This also will synergize amazingly with our over all AP build at the end, and in particular the Void Staff Magic Pen. A misconception is that if you stack JUST AP you'll do huge damage due to Soldier scaling, but Riot did not design this champ to be an AP burst champ rather a sustain damage champ. This is why if you stack a bunch of AP you'll notice that after a while it really doesn't increase over all damage performance, and is why Sorc. Boots + Void Staff make that AP damage hurt and can basically 2-3 shot a squishy. This is definitely Core.

Twin Shadows

This is the 1ST ITEM in my arsenal and a very underrated one when people discuss CDR items, vary rarely was this one mentioned, which is a shame considering that it gives an active slow (great for early game when ganking, or slowing to secure kills), a sweet 80 AP (the only other item to give this high of AP and offer CDR is the Will of the Ancients which I like more for a vamp build, the ever costly Deathfire Grasp, or the Morellonomicon and either you can get that un-needed mana regen after we already have a Seraph's Embrace for that reason, or you can get an active slow with Twin Shadows that is up 10% earlier due to our masteries, I'll take the slow thank you), and! Most importantly 10% CDR which if you're keeping up with that math 20% from Nashor's Tooth + 10% from Masteries + 10% from Twin Shadows you just hit cap at 40% CDR. Grats.

Void Staff

This is always my 2ND ITEM to complete. This is an absolute core instrument of death, while most builds and people for that matter will suggest that it "isn't that great," this item takes your AP and magnifies it immensely and takes you from 5-6 hits to kill to 2-3. AP stacking only does not benefit soldier damage because as I mentioned earlier it will fall off with out the proper amount of Magic Pen, and with runes, sorc. boots, and void staff, you got all the pen you need to be a 1 man army of death. Not to mention this does also add sweet amount of AP damage as well. I prefer this over the Abyssal Mask namely because you will be mostly attacking and casting from range and reluctantly going in, so really the magic pen from that item isn't used as much as Void Staff, and the AP isn't as good either as this item, only trade off is the M.R. but again you shouldn't be close enough to really get hit.

Nashor's Tooth

I now build Nashor's as my 3RD ITEM this is because you want a bit more AP for damage early on so your mid-game doesn't stall-out, it is core for just about every build (which doesn't much apply to Support Azir). Right off the top you get a sweet 50% Attack Speed, 20% CDR (which with the mastery set up at 10% already this 1 item just gave you 30% CDR and a sweet Attack Speed Bonus!); it has 60AP, which Azir loves his AP for making those soldier pokes really hurt. And while the passive doesn't help with champion damagemuch since you primarily use Soldier AA, the bare stats are great for Azir and his AS make him a leathal split pusher with "W" Nuke. For why Nashor's Tooth passive and AS bonus is good on Azir, please read the topic I posted specifically describing its benefits and why it is core (even though personally I was hoping it wouldn't be, but it is).

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

This item is usually in contension with boots for 4TH ITEM but usually is 5TH OR 6TH ITEM in my build. Now that you've caped out your CDR, got your Vamp on, and have some sweet damage to go with it, how about we give you more damage to go with your damage; and better yet some HP to make you more sustainable? Sounds great right? Of course thats why you get this item, gives you some of the best AP and HP in one item (I argue is better than RoA and is immediately effective instead of taking time and requiring a rush sine we are already rushing a Seraph's Embrace with Tear of the Goddess), and it has a spell ability to slow, which works with soldiers and makes for a nasty way to keep your enemy in range of being poked by soldiers. This is why you want that + to movement speed, why you want the most bang for your buck in AS, why the vamp is sweet; because when you hold em down with this item, they can run and die, or they can engage you and either you kill them, or you hold em down for your team to group on you and murder the enemy. This is absolutely as core as the rest of his kit since Azir IS NOT a burst champion, and requires AA on enemies to kill.

Seraph's Embrace AKA Archangel's Staff

This item I always start Tear of the Goddess as my 1ST ITEM AFTER STARTING ITEMS, but I do not finish til my 5TH ITEM OR 6TH ITEM. This is because Azir is super item dependent and there are many other items that can be effective immediately and necissary, so its best to complete this item when you have the 750 stacks of MP. The reason this is key and why you get it is simple, it gives you great mana regeneration to aid to your sustain, it synergizes well with the trifecta of perks that is Strength of Spirit , Expanded Mind , and Meditation . It gives you bonus MP so you won't need anything but this for mana regeneration. And best thing about it is that it also amplifies all the MP we've been accruing with Tear of the Goddess/Archangel's Staff and gives us even more AP (63 to be exact with this build which is 123 AP over all, and is almost he equivilant of buying a Death cap with 120 AP but replacing the Death cap passive with a shield which I like more for sustain purposes)! And if that wasn't reason enough, We also get another shield (one from active the other from our E when colliding with an ENEMY CHAMPION emphasized because it doesn't work on jungle creeps or minions) in our arsenal from the active on this item which is reduced by 10% from Intelligence mastery and buffed in strength by Expanded Mind . This item is fantastic in synergy with our Spell Vamp item/mastery and the tankyness of the Rylai's. Basically every piece of this item is amazing for Azir and is another Core Item for this build in particular since the masteries and over all item set cater to its success.

Now while most people willy-nilly place soldiers to kill-kill-kill, but this is a tactical champion we play therefore everything he does should be thought out and strategic. Now the reason I placed my soldiers beside me was for more example sake but the general idea is that you want to place your soldiers always opposite of each other but also on opposite sides of the lane. You still want them to be close enough to where their AA intersect each other, but you want it wide enough to increase the range of their conical damage. You can see this displayed in the image that by placing the soldiers opposite, the AA intersects and not only hits the Trist, but also 4 minions and increases minion clear efficiency.

Now this is a tactic I like to do sine its utilizing Azir's poke kit in a safe way. Often times you'll run into that player that is going to just sit under turret, camp it and get his CS back up to be a contender. This is a tactic to shut that down and make it costly for a champion to camp turrets. Now while you're soldier won't last forever, it will still get some good licks in before it evaporates. Things to be worried about is ganks from behind from bot lane and river but are remedied by ward placement which you or your team should be doing anyway. This tactic can be used in various ways and over various walls through out the game, but it is one that I do enjoy.

Now this is a risky tactic but! It can be effective if you're team is winning and is a good team fight team, if you're not any of these than don't do this unless it can be done safely in the jungle and split damage from tank peels. So as you can see I set a soldier next to me, and shoot it under the turret, now unfortunately I went on the one marked in red, but the better option was the one marked blue (I'm taking pics while playing). The reason for this is explained in the 2nd part of this picture that shows the directionality of the Ulti is affected by my placement. Had I gone on the blue square I would have created the blue wall rather than the current wall I made marked in red. As you can see Zilean and Trist are camping turret (which can happen in stalemate games where a team is clearly losing but can at least lock down turrets, drag out teams, and cripple a winning team's momentum to turn the tide). Now usually its a waiting game for who slips up first, but Azir is perfect for this situation in that he can force the fight! By diving in with a W>Q>E combo I set Azir behind Trist and Zilean, and use my ult to push them into a safe attack range for my team with out them needing to take turret hits.

If placed as the blue icon indicates, it also shuts down their escape forcing them to have to walk around it to get through and gives my team time to get kills (if done on a whole team this could be down right devastating). Now I know what you're going to say "But Envy! the whole reason these stalemates happen, is because 1 person has to initiate and take the damage of the turret!" Well this is the awesome part of the build either you will collide with 1 champion on E and get shield which will block a turret shot, and utilizing the Ulti Wall Movement Speed Utility, you can run right out before you even take that 2nd shot, at worse you'll get hit once which is worth a multi kill assist and game winning play. Now if you didn't hit a champion, this is why you also build a Seraph's Embrace, you can pop the active, and get a shield to protect yourself making this a strong play.

Another perk is champs like Trist and Kha'zix will be utterly screwed in this if they try to panic run away right into the Azir wall block.