Hello everyone, My name is WG Fanderman [EUW], I'm D1 currently and I'm member of high elo team Wyrm Gnosis Alpha, together we play go4lol tournaments on weekly basis. We also plan to reach challenger in s5. I'm playing Azir since his release and this build was created based on my calculations and experience. Right now I'm rated as the best Azir player in the world according to lolskill. You are guaranteed of efficiency and viability of this guide as my statistics and winrate are very high. Lolskill link here.


I recommend checking out my team's Youtube page, because it's of full valuable LoL contest (montages, guides, high elo matches with commentary and more).

Team Youtube: here
Team Website: here

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First I have to say, Azir is not an easy champion to learn. You need to get used to his mechanics and attacking with soldiers. Also You must understand that your main damage comes from the soldiers (W auto attacks) and the other abilities are just addition to that. Unfortunately your base attack speed and base damage on abilities are really low. However with every item you get, your damage will increase significantly. Combining it with your immense range, your soldier allow you to wave clear easily, poke your opponents down, zone them and destroy in teamfights. These attributes make him worth to play even in solo queue. Remember that you first need mana, cdr and damage to do this. Do not pick Azir if you think that your team wont be able to survive till like 15 minute of the game, because you simply wont be able to sustain your damage in fights before you get your first powerspike.

I created a tutorial video for Azir to explain better the gameplay part. I recommend watching this video and reading the guide.
Play Video

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To show you what Azir can achieve, I created this compilation, enjoy! Play Video

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I also made a second Azir montage, I think it's even better than the previous, hope you will enjoy it!
Play Video

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Well, here's one more compilation: Play Video

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Play Video

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This compilation summaries season 5, its longer than all montages I made before :) Play Video

Amazing Pros Long range Extreme late game damage Able to carry games alone Has good mobility and cc Kills monsters very fast Can push hard all game

Immense Cons Extremely item dependent Not good in all ins early Your soldiers can bug Hard to learn & master Not that high early map presence People may whine about you being 'op'

As you could have noticed there are 3 builds to choose from when you decide what to get during the match. Each of them has their uses and is better against certain opponents/team comps. All of these builds use the same runes and masteries.

In the match up section (at the beginning of the guide when you choose build 1) you can see my descriptions of match ups against certain lane opponents. For each of them I have also written which build is preferable against them.

Here's also a short description of each build that you can choose:

Build 1 (the Morellonomicon build):
- We choose to get Morellonomicon as our first item, in comparison to getting Nashor's Tooth first we trade attack speed for a bit more ap, a lot of mana, and grievous wounds passive
- Lost Chapter is an excellent early game option for laning phase, probably one of the strongest possible, it lets us never run out of mana and also gives us a good bit of ap.
- Morellonomicon is easier to get than Nashor's Tooth, because we don't have to get additional Doran's Rings to not run out of mana. It's also 300 gold cheaper.
- Additionally we get Nashor's Tooth after getting Morellonomicon which means that we don't need to get any cdr from runes, which means that we can get ap on quints, giving us better early game.
- However in this build we are locking away our options of getting cost effective defensive magic resistance items like Mercury's Treads or Abyssal Mask. That means that if we want to get any magic resistance in this build we will have to wait till late game because we can't delay our core damage items like that or we will have to only buy basic items during mid game like Negatron Cloak and later upgrade them or replace them.
- Overall this build is very good for balanced early game with good transition into mid game and late game. With Morellonomicon we deal a lot of damage (100 ap is a lot) despite having a bit delayed attack speed boost. We also fix all mana problems we could ever have.
We are however a bit squishy so take it over build 2 only if you don't need the bonus hp/slow.

Build 2 (the Nashor's Tooth build):
- We get Nashor's Tooth as our first item in order to instantly get the best possible dps. However we have a bit less ap compared to Morellonomicon and we might have trouble with running out of mana so with this build you might find yourself oom in extended fights and recalling back to base quite often.
- If you need to get your dps as high as possible in order to deal with your opponent this is the way to go, it's also good if you want to take objectives as soon as possible because of the bonus attack speed.
- It's the best build to go with if the enemy team has a lot of tanks that you have to deal with.


Build 3 (the Abyssal Mask build):
- We get Abyssal Mask as our first item in order to be able to fight with our midlane opponent. It's very good for close range combat because of the aura. It's also really good against heavy ap opponents that otherwise would be able to defeat us without any problems by simply oneshoting us.
- This build isn't very good for maximizing your dps because in teamfights you should be trying to be as far as possible from your opponents, meaning that your target might very often be outside of Abyssal Mask's aura range. However it's much better to get defensive items and not die than to get better dps-wise items and die.
- After getting Abyssal Mask we try to get as much damage as possible with Berserker's Greaves + Fiendish Codex so we can cap our cooldown reduction.

My runes for Azir:


Let me explain this setting of runes:


Greater Mark of Attack Speed x9 - I've done some math and it looks like Greater Mark of Magic Penetration gives more damage than Greater Mark of Attack Speed on Azir IF we are counting after like minute 20 and late game. However attack speed on marks lets us push our lane waaaaaay faster early which is VERY important and lets us control the lane way easier. On top of that attack speed is better for taking objectives because magic pen doesn't increase your damage against minions.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health x9 - Because we don't get any hp from our core items (at least in build 1 and 3/4) those seals will give us nice boost to survivablity, they are now better than armor seals because of nerfs to lethality.

FOR BUILD 1:
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x9 - Unfortunately in this build you also wont get much magic resist other than Mercury's Treads and you need to survive magic damage through the entire game. The +9 MR can help you greatly in mitigating some magic penetration of your opponents just so you wont actually be hit as if you had 0 MR.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x3 - I recently started running some early ap on Azir and found out that it can be really great on him. I like to compare those quints to Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage. The mentioned quint gives 2.25 boost to AD while this quint gives roughly 5 AP which after scaling means bonus 3 damage for our soldiers AND also all other abilities, making it very beneficial. Great for early trades, pushing. Recommended.

FOR BUILD 2/3/4:
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x6 - The main point of those is to allow us to build other boots than Ionian Boots of Lucidity and still get 45% cdr. Since patch 5.14 having maxed out cdr isn't so important anymore on Azir but having 30% cdr or more is very useful anyway. I decided that it is not worth to get x9 scaling MR glyphs because, after all, getting some early game damage (quints) on Azir can be very beneficial. I really recommend running cdr runes in the mentioned builds (2/3/4) as it is a very good stat to max on Azir.

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x2 - Just to hit 45% cdr, same reasoning as for Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x1 - I recently started running some early ap on Azir and found out that it can be really great on him. I like to compare those quints to Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage. The mentioned quint gives 2.25 boost to AD while this quint gives roughly 5 ap which after scaling means bonus 3 damage for our soldiers AND also all other abilities, making it very beneficial. Great for early trades, pushing. Recommended.

We get scaling runes instead of instant effect runes on builds 2/3/4 because Azir's early game isn't that great and we want to play passively and constantly push the lane or freeze it rather than duel our opponent. Having said that it doesn't mean that you shouldn't poke your opponent when you have occasion to do so, nothing like that. I encourage you to try to use every GOOD chance you have to harass your enemy. You just shouldn't prioritize it over getting farm. Also for example don't try to attack your opponent in early game if they could retaliate easily or if you would have aggro'ed a lot of minions which would make the trade not beneficial for you.

One more note: If you are facing an AD opponent on your lane against which you doubt you could survive easily before level 6, feel free to get Greater Seal of Armor instead of Greater Seal of Scaling Health.

I've done some math and I've come to a interesting conclusion. Assuming that we have capped 40% cdr:
- Precision is superior to Intelligence if we have level 18 and our target has 32 base magic resistance or less.
-However, Intelligence is far more superior to Precision if our target has more than 36 magic resistance. Most likely by level 18 most players will have more than 40 magic resistance, making Intelligence a better mastery. It also theoretically allows us to have 4 soldiers at once on the battlefield.
- Piercing Thoughts is inferior to both of masteries listed above, as it will never give us more damage than additional 5% cdr, even if our target has over 500 magic resistance.
- Feast is an extremely good mastery right now and unlike Double Edged Sword it will never backfire us, making it a better choice on Azir imo.
- Summing this up, I think it will be best to go for 12/18/0 masteries setting with Intelligence over Precision and Thunderlord's Decree .

Let me explain my choice of spells:

Exhaust

You may be wondering why would you take Exhaust over Ignite and the reasoning is quite simple. Azir's early game is weak and your chances of getting early kills by yourself are at least low. Exhaust allows you to win duels easily after you get your items. Also remember that Exhaust makes it much easier to survive burst from assassins like Talon or Zed and even makes it easier for you to chase down escaping targets. A tremendous spell all around for Azir with much more uses late game than Ignite.

Flash

Not a lot to speak about here, Flash is simply the best available summoner spell in the game. It allows you to escape, chase, kite, dodge. Huge play maker and brings great mobility to any champion. There is no reason to not pick it on Azir as your Shifting Sands has long cd and can sometimes be not enough to escape using only it.

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So first, what does Azir need to be effective?

He's an ap carry with great ap scaling on soldier's damage, needs some cdr to cast soldiers as often as possible, magic pen, attack speed for soldiers, some sort of mana sustain (if you play correctly Azir isn't very mana hungry) and hp, armor, magic resist for defense.

So what is actually worth building first and how much of what to get?

Now let's move to the explanation of items:

Let's cover mana sustain first. There are few options worth considering:

So this item grants us a good amount of mana, 20% cdr and 100 ap + sometimes useful passive. And it costs only 2900 gold. So the stats for the money are actually quite good and while it's replaceable with Nashor's Tooth in late game, it's definitely worth getting early in the game as it gives us almost everything we could want. It's core item for build 1.

Strong item, grants pretty much infinite mana and a lot of ap on top of a useful active. So why not get it on Azir? The cost is good but we would need to spend a lot of time stacking this item and again we don't need that much mana on Azir.

This item grants us just as much mana as we need, large amount of hp and reasonable 100 ap. Don't forget about the passive which gives quite a bit of extra sustain during laning phase and also later in the game. With it we can farm all day till we get other items and fight our opponents effectively. Also we will we able to resist attacks much easier because fully stacked 480 bonus hp is really a lot. We don't get this item because Azir doesn't make a great use of the passive of this item. Also if we got this item we would have hard time getting enough cdr to function. Because of recent Stinger nerfs, it's hard to make this item work like before, so we are not building it anymore. Morellonomicon gives us the same amount of ap but without waiting which actually is quite a big deal.

This small, cheap item provides us much more stats than one would think. If you get 2 Doran's Ring you actually have 100% mana regen + 8 mana for every unit killed. That's actually more mana sustain than if you have picked a pre-reworked Morellonomicon instead. The difference is that for dorans you paid 800 gold and for morello over 2500 gold. Of course the main problem is that Doran's Ring can't be build into any other item so you will eventually have to sell them to make place for stronger items. Nevertheless it's incredibly good to buy 2 or 3 Doran's Ring for extra mana sustain early in the game (before or even after early core items).

We must also consider attack speed in our Azir build.

This is the most popular item that Azir players get right now and for a good reason. It provides us with maximum dps increase. If you really need to get the dps as soon as possible, this is the way to go, however you should get some Doran's Rings to deal with any mana problems you could have. You could ask, "but why don't we just go for max dps all the time?". The answer is simple, we just don't always need it. Very often it's enough that you hit your opponents with q + 2 auto attacks to significantly lower their hp. Against a lot of mid lane opponents you simply wont have enough time to simply auto attack them. You might have to dodge their abilities, reposition, run, very often its the best to go for quick bursts of damage rather than consistent damage with a lot of attack speed. In theory Nashor's tooth is the best damage item for Azir but in practice it's often good enough to just stick with Morellonomicon.

With the recent buffs to this item it actually became an incredibly good way of increasing your attack speed in a cost efficient way. We pay only 800 gold to upgrade our boots to this and we get 35% attack speed + even more movement speed. Let's compare it to Stinger, it gives us the same attack speed (35%), it gives us 10% cdr but costs 1100 gold instead of 800 gold and doesn't give us any movement speed. Berserker's greaves are the best boots for increasing Azir's dps right now. However it doesn't mean that you should always build those boots instead of Sorcerer's Shoes. increasing your soldier's dps works the best against tanks but against squishy targets it's better to opt for magic penetration, because it increases our burst damage with q + 1 or 2 auto attacks.

So with our early core items we will get mana sustain (build 1: hp, attack speed), good amount of cdr and on top of that around 100 ap which isn't bad really. So it's time to really start hitting your enemies hard with our real damage core:

Arise! has truly marvelous scaling with ap and Rabadon's Deathcap will make us hit like a truck with around 400 ap and already a lot of attack speed. Because if we are getting Rabadon's Deathcap as a third core item, we will already benefit some nice bonus ap from it's passive. Because of how marvelous Arise! ap scaling is, this item boosts our offense more than a Luden's Tempest or Zhonya's Hourglass, making it a must have in our damage core.

Every time I see a full build ap carry without Void Staff I cry. This item is very cost effective and brings A LOT of damage no matter if we are hitting a tank or squishy carry. Even if their adc has only like 45 MR, we still reduce around 15 MR thanks to void staff. That's the same as if we had Sorcerer's Shoes. And this value gets even better if we are hitting a more tanky enemy. Just remember, Void Staff is very cost effective item and is still very effective even if your opponents have no mr items at all. Just must have, if you don't really understand this, just believe me, always get Void Staff on ap carry. More Void Staff Awesomeness

Now it's time to talk about boots that you could get if you don't buy Berserker's Greaves:

So as it was stated before this build doesn't grant you much magic resist and as long as they hit you at all with it you will need some. Also tenacity from this item is just pure greatness, it will make you survive stuff like Dark Binding. It's always more important to get some more VALUABLE defense than some not that much changing damage when you already have it.

Classic ap carry boots, it is better to get those than Berserker's Greaves as magic penetration will still grant you more damage. If you don't need more magic resist and tenacity then go for those.

Let's discuss other great items that we can get after damage core:

This item is just extremely good. It grants A LOT of ap, tons of armor and very useful active. Both our damage and ability to survive will be much greater with this item. I would even say that it's core in late game if you are being focused really hard AND your team is still able to do any damage while you are in the stasis.

Since patch 5.13 this item became really great on Azir because your soldiers will slow your enemies by 40% on each hit for 1 second. That's really a lot and this item also gives us a great amount of HP and AP. Core item in the build 2 because we don't have other items with HP there. Still very strong item to get in the Rod of Ages build because of the mentioned stats and passive.

If you are dying a lot then you are probably doing something wrong but it can happen that you are just constantly focused by whole enemy team. In this case Guardian Angel will do it's job by letting you survive while granting some time to your team.

If they have super hard game changing cc and a lot of magic damage and Mercury's Treads are not enough then this item should fix the problem. Great for blocking spells like Unstoppable Force, Dark Binding and Event Horizon.

If you didn't buy Luden's Tempest as early core item and you want to have even more damage in late game and you feel rather safe during teamfights, you can sell your boots and replace them with Luden's Tempest. This item grants you some movement speed partially making up for the lack of boots and gives really nice ap and passive. This item is only worth getting early because of the passive which can give you a lot of instant damage early in the game. However it doesn't scale well with ap making it not very remarkable after early core. The bonus movement speed is also great for roaming and getting around the pack quickly which is very important early in the game.

This item is one of the most cost efficient early ap item you can get. Not only does it increase your damage by quite a lot with 60 ap and magic pen aura for so little cost BUT it also increases your magic resistance by insane 60 mr. That's just disgusting amount of value. 60 mr against ap enemies will boost your survivabilty by a lot. The only real reason for why you wouldn't just always run this item on Azir is because the magic pen aura has actually really small radius. So small that you need to enter close combat to make it take effect. Needless to say, as an Azir player you want to be at your maximum range of attack as often as it's possible and that doesn't work very well with Abyssal Mask's mechanic. It's good for dueling and when your opponents' will very likely engage you in close combat (think of Akali, LeBlanc, Diana). Don't buy it later in the game if you didn't buy it as an early core item.

To get knowledge about specific match ups look at the start of the guide.

As I stated before Azir has not very great early game. Just guard your jungle and scout with soldiers before minions come to lane. In lane it's true that you have good range with your soldiers but they don't deal a lot of damage yet and spamming Conquering Sands will just end up with you having 0 mana. Instead it's better to play passively and farm as much as you can while constantly pushing your enemy. It's viable because you can strike multiple minions with your soldiers for low mana cost. If your jungler comes to gank make sure to catch your opponent with Shifting Sands and Exhaust him if necessary.

If you are going for build 2 and you feel like you need some extra sustain in lane consider buying some Health Potions.

• Passive close range champions

  Some melee champions like Katarina or Yasuo may decide to play passive in lane and simply focus on farming. In such case it's the best to simply focus on farming by yourself but not pushing the lane. Simply just let your own minions bring the enemy minions to low hp and you will last hit them by yourself. It's very effective to keep harassing your opponent when they try to last hit by themselves. If you don't push the lane and keep on harassing your opponent with soldiers you will easily deny their farm as they wont be able to take all of your harass in the middle of the lane. Just make sure to not overextend and don't go in with your Shifting Sands unless you are sure that you can kill your opponent by doing so. Remember that if your opponent backs to base make sure to push the lane and make them lose a lot of farm and experience as the minions will be executed by the turret.

• Passive mid-long range champions

  If your opponent has range then you usually wont be able to harass them with your soldiers unless they are really stupid. Don't spam Conquering Sands on them as you will just make your mana drop very quickly. Focus on farming by yourself and constantly push the lane with your soldiers. This way you are flexible to walk around the midlane, assist your jungler if it's necessary and go to place down wards. You may also make your enemy lose some cs and mana if they aren't amazing in last hitting under turret.

• Aggressive close range champions

  Some melee champions like Talon and Fizz may decide to poke and go in for you hoping for getting a kill and/or getting lane advantage and so denying you farm and experience. In such case Azir has hard time dueling such champions early and you wont be able to trade with them effectively. It's the best to keep on hard pushing them at the start (level 1-5) and then either freeze the lane if you can't duel them or continue pushing and denying their presence on the map. If your opponent keeps on going in on you effectively during early game then remember to buy more Health Potions. Also remember to call your jungler if you need him.

• Aggressive mid-long range champions

  Many midlane champions like Syndra and Xerath can poke you effectively during laning phase trying to force you back to base or even get a kill. In such case the only viable and reliable strategy is dodging their skillshots. Try to push the lane fast so the enemy wont have time to harass you and you will be able to hide behind your minions (WARNING: It many not work on LeBlanc, against champion like her you may prefer to freeze your lane instead of pushing.). Farming is most important, if you have hard time but your opponent keeps on overextending in lane by pushing you and harassing constantly then call your jungler for help. If your opponent is someone like LeBlanc then even junglers wont help you much as your opponent will simply escape most of the ganks. Just try to not die and farm with soldiers as they give you a lot of range.

Warding is very important part of playing Azir as you wont put much pressure by yourself and wards will let you know when enemy team is going to gank you or other lanes. Remember to not overextend too much when you are pushing or enemy if you don't have wards. Knowledge of the positions of your enemies will very often deny enemy team the kill or even let your team counter gank and/or catch them off-guard.


Warding for midlaner:

• Yellow circles are positions where you should ward during laning phase to not get ganked and to prevent roam from opposing midlaner.
• Blue circles are positions which should be warded by you when you want to take blue buff (respectively for each side).
• Purple circles are positions which should be warded since mid game.
• Red Circles are positions commonly used for ambushes after mid game and have great strategical value as wards in those positions can prevent flanks from enemy team.

Note that you can ward all these spots with trinkets and Vision Wards.

Remember to always have dragon and baron warded during mid and late game as they give huge advantage to the team which kills them. Remember to keep on farming as much as you can but once you got your core items you can participate in fights effectively. In general you can simply push lanes quickly with your soldiers. Defending turrets with Azir is very easy, you just need to put down 2-3 soldiers and then waveclear with them and harass sieging opponents. Just make sure to not get caught in the process and you should be fine. Also buy pink wards if you have some free money to spend as they are even more important as the game progresses.

Finally we reached late game, the part when Azir shines most. You should always stay with your team and check bushes only with soldiers. Death of one ally can cost you the game especially if you die. Basically your team should siege enemy towers and you should be constantly poking enemy team with soldiers. Use your Arise! on turrets if you want to push fast. Remember that Azir performs especially well in taking baron and dragon down as his DPS is just too much for these creatures. Denying enemy team baron can also be easy with Azir as you can get your enemies down quickly by hitting them with soldiers while you are on the second side of the wall outside of baron pit.


So it's finally time to discuss your specialization, TEAMFIGHTS:

As Azir you are supposed to be the carry of the team and with core items that's exactly who you are. If enemy team engages on you turn the back with Emperor's Divide and attack with your soldiers effectively so you are never autoattacking by yourself. If there's such need remember use your Shifting Sands to escape or chase, just make sure to not waste it on something stupid as such mistake can be fatal for you. Basically if you keep on attacking with soldiers your enemies hp will very soon drop to 0. Make good usage of your range and above everything make sure to not die. In general it's better for you to teamfight in jungle because your ultimate can block entire paths there and it's easier to hit multiple targets with soldiers. Making dangerous plays like diving in center of enemy team in order to Emperor's Divide someone can be rewarding but if you die in the process it's very bad for your team so always think about such attempts cautiously. In case your team is engaging on the opponents again use Emperor's Divide to peel for you and your other carries.

Azir works wonderful with characters who can tank a lot during teamfights and/or peel for him.

Great junglers:
Maokai, Nautilus, Rammus, Jarvan IV, Volibear, Amumu, Hecarim, Nunu & Willump

Great toplaners:
Dr. Mundo, Aatrox, Malphite, Nasus, Cho'Gath, Renekton, Olaf, Sion, Singed, Trundle, Zac, Wukong

Great supports:
Braum, Janna, Leona, Lulu, Nami, Soraka, Sona, Thresh, Zilean, Morgana

I'm also recording some of my team ranked matches and putting them on youtube. I will constantly add here new videos as I record them. They can give you an idea of how to play Azir in general and also in detail. I'm always using pretty much the same build as described in this guide, enjoy!
#1 match: 2014-12-23
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#2 match: 2015-01-17
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I must admit that I'm a bit lazy person and I rarely record my entire matches commentated, usually I just record small bits that I find especially interesting (like teamfights and outplays). However recently I found a website that allows me to share my matches so everyone can watch them from spectator view.
The website's name is: Replay.gg.

How to watch the replays I post here:
1. Make sure that you have your LoL client open.
2. Open your Command Prompt as administrator (if you don't know what that is just google it).
3. Paste in the Command Prompt the text you can find in the spoilers bellow (in each spoiler there is text allowing you to watch one match).
4. Click enter and enjoy!

2016-12-21:

Replay: 15/2/10, what happens when the team plays around the hyper carry.


2016-11-03:

Replay: 16/5/10


Replay: 14/5/7

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Replay 1: 9/1/7, my team was losing very hard but we managed to win with my damage carrying hard, the key to victory is not dying!



Replay 2: 16/1/11, in this match I was doing a great work for my team and even managed to get a pentakill around 38 minute, a really great match to watch.

Looks like change log will be a great feature for making notes about updates to this guide. I will also write here about meta changes to the game and about viability of Azir.

06.04.2017 (patch 7.7)


11.11.2016 (patch 6.22)


17.08.2016 (patch 6.16):


17.06.2016 (patch 6.12):


02.04.2016 (patch 6.6):


16.03.2016 (patch 6.5):


03.01.2016 (patch 5.24):


11.11.2015 (patch 5.22):


15.10.2015 (patch 5.20):


17.09.2015 (patch 5.18):


02.09.2015 (patch 5.17):


06.08.2015 (patch 5.15):


23.07.2015 (patch 5.14):


25.06.2015 (patch 5.12):


14.06.2015 (patch 5.11):


23.05.2015 (patch 5.9):


29.04.2015 (patch 5.8):


22.04.2015 (patch 5.7):

Thanks for reading my guide, I hope you enjoyed it ^^
I would greatly appreciate if you could leave feedback down below.

I hope that you have learned a lot about playing Azir as the late game carry and that it will help you in future games :)

I know that there was a lot to read here and I know that many of you didn't read all of it.

Didn't read the whole guide, huh?
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Also, if you want you can also check the other montages from our youtube page, here they are:

Vayne montage:
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Lee Sin montage:
Play Video