Ever since I started playing Azir towards the end of season 4, I've never been able to go back. His ability to absolutely shred teams from the back line and cover of his ult (even the tanks) is amazing. If you don't feel like letting your team do all the initiating, some of he plays he can pull off can also change a game. Azir is an awesome champion to pick up and master. On top of his team fight benefits, hes also rather mobile with his combo, has a nearly impenetrable wall to help defend himself and make positioning easier and also has a strong early game once you have stinger as you are able to dish out tons of damage from ages away. As you can see below, as of the time of making this guide, I have over 162k mastery points and have basically climbed from Silver 3 after my placements to Plat 4 in about 2 months from almost exclusively playing Azir.

Just a short little section about why I chose these runes. I feel that getting scaling cooldown on Azir is quite self explanatory, so I won't go into any detail there, as with the magic pen marks. The armour glyphs are to help you against champs like yasuo and zed or any other AD mids as well as the other teams jungler and ADC. As was mentioned in the Runes section, having a second rune page for Azir is especially good because it allows you to start well against both AD and AP mid laners. If you can only afford a single rune page, however, its probably best to stick with the AD page and just build early MR items as it will help you more overall as it gives the little extra starting AP and allows you to delay your zhonyas a bit more. Both of the rune pages can be seen below.

This part is most likely pretty standard to anybody who has seen or played Azir before. Building Nashors into Rylais is absolutely the best build for Azir. Having Nashors helps with a bit of early game damage, especially if you can get it early off of a few kills, you'll be able to get back to lane and absolutely dominate the enemy. If you don't get ahead, however, your standard Nashors timing (around 13-15 minutes) doesn't make you a beast just yet. Once you pick up your Rylais (at around 20-24 minutes), your damage should spike enormously. It is at this point that the enemy squishys should start worrying, as you'll cut them down in a single combo. After Rylais, picking up the Deathcap only makes you even stronger. The exception to this is obviously if you need your tanky items. If the enemy team is very tanky and you are finding you aren't doing much damage to their front line, you can pick up Void Staff before Deathcap. This will help you cut the MR of the tanks and start doing some damage. The one exception to all of this is if you are against any sort of mega heal champ such as mundo. If you can, pick up a morellonomicon after Nashors or Rylais depending on how important it is, maybe even as a first item if you absolutely need to.

For Azir, I believe flash is 100% necessary all the time just like most champs. I'm not going to go into detail as to why, but the fact that almost every champ in the game uses it all the time should be reason enough to take it.


I personally believe that barrier is the most effective summoner spell to take besides flash. Because Azir has a relatively weak early game (as he lacks damage before Rylais) it means he can be the focus of a lot of ganks and early team fights. Barrier allows you to sustain through most of these, which helps with preventing them from getting fed and snowballing the game out of control.



Exhaust is another very good summoner spell to take, especially against an AD assassin such as zed, however it is much more focused on the laning phase and less on the late game team fights. It allows you to negate a lot of damage that the enemy mid will be able to output, however it is less effective late game as it requires you to get a bit closer than usual to use it. Despite this, it still allows you to fight an assassin if they dive past your team onto you. I believe this is interchangeable with Barrier.



Finally, I don't really recommend picking up ignite as Azir really needs the survivability for the early game. Ignite does allow you to do more true damage to the enemy mid, however most of the time it is just better to be able to Exhaust them or Barrier their damage. For late game, Azir definitely doesn't need ignite, and so it sort of becomes useless. Wouldn't really recommend picking ignite into any matchup besides something random like Mundo, but even then, its probably more suitable to rush Morellonomicon instead.

Pros

Long range (Good for farm and for team fights)
Decent mobility (short range)
Very good at pushing and sieging
Has massive damage late game
Makes you feel like a god when you get perfect combos with your ult

Cons

Can struggle against some champs early
Doesn't have a lot of damage before core items
Is very difficult to learn to play, and even harder to master
Quite slow and can't roam much
Relies heavily on getting an early Nashors and getting better items quickly

There are two main playstyles for Azir which rely quite heavily on your team. Azir can act as a backline carry, who uses his ult to defend himself and the ADC from harm, or he can act as a balls-deep initiator who dives into the enemy team and ults them into his. Honestly, both are quite effective, however you should definitely let your team know beforehand if you are planning to make some awesome plays.

For the first playstyle, its quite simple, sit behind the tanks and do damage. Obviously, this requires quite a tanky team to soak damage for you, so make sure you work with your team to optimize your positioning.

The second playstyle is more suited for a squishy team that has high damage. For example, having a Pantheon building full damage top and a Kindred jungle and Sona support. This team has almost no sustainability in team fights, and as such relies on being able to kill the enemy before dying. This is where Azir can thrive. Once you have a Zhonyas, you can W + E + Q into their team and ult them into yours, then Zhonya to stay alive. This gives your team time to destroy their carries and/or front line before moving on to the rest of their team. For this to work, however, a Zhonyas is essential, regardless of whether or not they have AD champs.

Lets start with Azir's passive. This skill is most useful when you are pushing say the other teams inhibitor turret. You simply put it down on their Tier 2 turret and watch as they helplessly attempt to push out of their base. This thing has some huge damage if they try to dive you, so don't be too afraid of going into 2v1's or slightly eneven fights. Saying that, however, don't overestimate its damage and keep an eye on its health. If it is low, watch out as they can just focus it down quickly and kill you.

Most of you probably already know this, but Azir can pull off some cool stuff with his W + Q + E combo to make his way around the rift. This video gives a nice idea of what I'm talking about. Play Video .
You should also know that this skill combo is a huge part of playing Azir properly, so it's worth practicing and getting good at it. Please note that this is not my video, so all credit to the original owner for his great little guide.

Fianlly, Azir's ult. One of the most important parts about Azir, is his ult. This skill can make or break team fights, especially if you are slightly behind their team. A well placed Azir ult can protect your entire team from their damage. Naturally, this makes Azir exceptional at fighting in the jungle. If you can, try to team fight in tight areas (like around wolves or red buff) as this allows your ult to completely zone the enemy team. As well as this, your ult starts slightly behind you, and as such you can make some cool plays where the enemy mid dives you and you throw them into your tower. This also prevents them from running back, and is basically a free kill.

Azir is one of the most versatile and destructive champions in the League at this point in time. If you take the time to learn how to play him properly (which, admittedly, make time quite some time) you can really learn to dominate at all levels. Some of the best players in the world play Azir, just look at SKT who have both their midlaners (Faker and Easyhoon) adpet with Azir. Players of this skill are able to manipulate teamfights to their will and control the game. With enough practice, you too can become the Emperor of the Rift.

Good Luck and Have Fun summoners, and always remember

"Eventually, the sands claim us all!"