Hi! I'm here to share you with my guide to the bird guy named Azir. I'm no high elo god, but I'm not exactly some pushover who has no clue what he's talking about either. I hope you enjoy the guide as it is my first! :D

Azir is a late game mage based hypercarry that relies on CDR and his soldiers to have his crazy sustained damage output that he has. He is great to pick into a high dive team (Zed, Akali, Diana, Lee Sin, etc.) as his ult is very good against a dive based team since if someone dives onto him, he can just ult away them and they can't do much to get past it unless they have a Vi. On the other hand, he doesn't have much or anything in terms of sustain against an enemy with high amounts of poke like Jayce and Nidalee.

Pros
[*] Very high late game damage
[*] Sustained damage as well as burst
[*] Can go from a poke champion to a huge initiation/dive champion
[*] Great pick and zoning potential
[*] Good in teamfights
[*] Potential to InSec someone
[*] Easy to gank for
Cons
[*] Very difficult to play properly
[*] Decently mana hungry early game if not played properly
[*] Very nerfed
[*] Relatively weak laning
[*] No natural health sustain.
[*] Mana issues if played improperly.

The reasons i use the runes and masteries that i use are because i find that Azir as a laner is pretty safe and is not easy to gank post level 3, so AP/lvl glyphs i find are very effective since he scales so well anyways and isn't all that cooldown reliant. And i personally just feel safer against a possibly aggressive laner taking the 9 in defense. 9 in utility is also very good as you make good use from move speed as well as early mana regen and even picking up the biscuits if you really are feeling it. This is also very highly up to preference and comfort with the champion. On an off note, with the masteries i run, since i take the 4 points in fury instead, I end up with a decently high auto attack speed, and it ends up being just slightly faster with the itemization bringing you to 40% CDR as opposed to the one where i take the 4 points in sorcery.

NOTE: DO NOT TAKE CDR QUINTS. I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE DO THIS. AP QUINTS ARE BY FAR AND AWAY THE BEST QUINT ON HIM

"Why the heck are you using 2 morellonomicons?" "Nashors Tooth is way better on him then a second morello!" I can hear you saying this from my side of the computer. The Nashors Tooth item isn't a bad item on him per se, but i find 2 morellonomicons to be a far more effective choice on him. If you bought a Morello then a Nashors tooth on Azir, then yeah, you have higher attack speed while still maintaining the 40% CDR. What are you losing out on though? Morellonomicon is an extremely effective mana regeneration item have a 100% base mana regen. While mana regen is a decent thing to mention, morellonomicon is more effective in terms of AP as well sporting 20 more AP for a lower cost. This means you lose a bit more burst with a nashors, but gain just a bit more teamfight effectiveness since everyone will be standing in your soldiers anyways. In terms of a poke team or the likes though, the second morellonomicon would work very well for you since you constantly have to make more sand soldiers and throw them at the enemy and that second morello would give better burst as well as better mana sustain. The last big thing is that Azir's soldiers do not apply on hit effects, so Nashors Tooth as well as lich bane wouldn't go off with the soldiers using auto attacks. But of course, this is entirely based on preference and whichever item you use should be situational and up to preference!

Besides Nashors tooth, there are a few other items i see on Azir that i really don't like.
Not good in my opinion since it doesn't grant ANY CDR of any kind. And if you build a morello later in the build, it's just gonna turn out badly as you wasted a slot on an item that gives you a power spike 10 minutes after it's built. I'd take nashors over this item. I dislike it that much.

Better then RoA by far, but still. You really don't need this. This item has a good build path, but not enough AP to justify. The items in this build are made for insane quick, high power spikes, and i just don't think this gives enough of one to be worth.

Too risky. Simple as that. Only takes one assassin or one dumb mistake to ruin everything.

Yes, this is in my items that you could buy. No, i don't recommend it 9 times out of 10. Only get this if you REALLY need the passive and flat pen.

Other then the argument I'm attempting to make with morellonomicon vs Nashors Tooth, his items are fairly generic in terms of a mage other then the lack of a real defensive item. I do not think he is really a champion that requires a defensive item as his kit gives a great deal of safety in the long run anyways.

Shurima's Legacy

STATIC COOLDOWN: 180 (starting after his Sun Disc perishes)

Will of the Emperor: Azir gains 1.25% bonus attack speed for every 1% of his cooldown reduction.

Disc of the Sun: Azir places a marker above the ruins of destroyed turrets (both allied and enemy). Once within 400 units of the ruins, Azir can click on the marker to conjure a Sun Disc, which functions like a standard turret but grants Azir any gold it earns. A Sun Disc's health decays over 1 minute and will lose its armor if Azir dies or moves too far away. Azir cannot conjure Sun Discs within the enemy base.

This passive makes building CDR on him extremely gold efficient as he will be gaining attack speed in fights as well as having the CDR be as effective since he wants as many soldiers in a big fight as possible. If there is ever a fight that happens near any non-base turrets on either side that are dead, this passive can single handedly turn a fight as it does do considerable damage. It works decently, but unreliably as a disengage.

Conquering Sands

RANGE: 875 COST: 70 mana COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6

Active: Azir orders all Sand Soldiers to rush toward the target location, dealing magic damage and Slow icon slowing all enemies they pass through by 25% for 1 second. Enemies can be hit by multiple soldiers, but each soldier beyond the first will deal only 25% damage. The slow stacks additively.

Magic Damage: 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 / 145 (+ 50% AP)

Additional Damage: 16.25 / 21.25 / 26.25 / 31.25 / 36.25 (+ 12.5% AP)

This is the primary burst ability and his only real soft CC as it is a slow. If you have an early aggression jungler, this ability will help a bit if they want to level 2-3 gank you as it provides a reliable slow that will make skillshots easier to hit for strong gank junglers that do not take the stalkers blade jungle item. This ability is your primary lane harass, but should not be too spammed, as you will run out of mana very quickly spamming any of his abilities. Come teamfight phase, you should always have 3 soldiers in the middle of the fray and be constantly mashing Q for maximum damage output from a safe range.

Arise!

RANGE: 450
COST: 40 mana
COOLDOWN: 1.5
Recharge Time: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8

Active: Azir summons an untargetable Sand Soldier for 9 seconds. When Azir attacks an enemy in a soldier's range, the soldier attacks instead of Azir - dealing 「 50 - 170 」 (+ 60% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a line. If multiple soldiers strike the same target, each soldier after the first deals 25% damage, and the soldiers can't attack structures.

Azir can store up to 2 Sand Soldiers at a time, but there is no hard limit on the number of Sand Soldiers that can be active on the field at once. Sand Soldiers expire twice as fast while within range of an enemy turret, and will expire instantly if Azir moves too far away.

If Azir summons a Sand Soldier directly on top of an enemy turret, the soldier will sacrifice itself to deal 「 60 - 230 」 (+ 40% AP) magic damage to the turret.

This is your primary damaging ability in the game, as the soldiers are spells who's damage scales from your AP and they auto attack for you, as you are the emperor. This ability is relatively straightforward as you summon a soldier press Q to land it on an enemy and right click them. The only different thing to note is that while the soldiers are auto attacking for you, they do not apply on hit effects, so the passives of items like Lich Bane, Nashors Tooth, etc. will not work with Azir's soldiers auto's, only with his base auto on a minion. As one other small thing, his soldiers will deactivate and become inactive taking a passive stance.

Shifting Sands

COST: 60 mana
COOLDOWN: 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15

Active: Azir dashes to one of his Sand Soldiers, damaging enemies he passes through and Airborne icon knocking them up for 0.5 seconds. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he will stop and gain a shield for 4 seconds.


Magic Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 40% AP)

Shield Strength: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 15% bonus health)

This is the ability that makes Azir a safe lane pick as well as a dangerous champion to play against. This ability can be used over almost every wall that can be flashed over. it provides a short knockup as well in case of jungler ganks, this makes you have great followup potential. On top of this (I will get more into this later) but if you use W>Q>E or use W>E>Q in quick succession, not only will the soldier dash and will you move, but you will move very far to where the soldier dashed in a very quick period of time.

Emperor's Divide

RANGE: 250
COST: 100 mana
COOLDOWN: 140 / 120 / 100

Active: Azir calls forth a phalanx of shield-wielding soldiers who press forward, Airborne icon knocking back and damaging enemies.

Magic Damage: 150 / 225 / 300 (+ 60% AP)

When the soldiers finish their charge, they stand as a wall, blocking enemy champion movement and dashes. Allies can pass through the wall and gain 20% bonus movement speed when they do. These soldiers cannot be ordered to move or attack.

Wall Duration: 5 / 6 / 7

Width: 4 / 5 / 6 Soldiers

This is the big playmaking ability that allows you to disengage, or play for a pick, or InSec, or nuke someone. Really this ultimate is what brings him all together for his kit. he can use his ult offensively in a teamfight, for disengage, play around a pick, wall off drag and baron, wall off the jungle so that you can't be chased by someone. Really this ultimate is the big thing that pulls the kit into a nice, fluid, champion. I primatily use it as either an InSec tool to wall someone behind me for a gank, or as a hard disengage vs a champion like rengar, or amumu to stop from too much being done to us in damage.

Play Video There are a lot of things that give Azir insane mobility overall, and this video depicts one of those things perfectly. With his soldier on one side of the wall, he dashes to it with his E, and mid E dash he uses his Q to dash him over 2 walls at once, since as we know, your E will go to wherever your sand soldier is.

As a hypercarry, your early laning phase isn't exactly the strongest. Try to kill minions with your auto attacks as you can run out of mana very quickly if you mess up CS with your dorans ring. Thankfully the passive on dorans ring is so good for early laning. The big thing to learn about this champion is that you need o learn to kill minions with auto attacks and save your spells for either making sure you don't miss any CS OR use them for lane harass. Your early laning is pathetically weak until you get your first morello as your auto attack animation and the actual auto is incredibly difficult as it is so delayed before it actually does damage of any kind. You can lay down a bit of poke and harass here and there, but not much beyond that as you will run out of mana very quickly. Make your best attempts to not get too poked down that you have to back before getting a part of your first morello.

If you are against someone with high amounts of dive potential, then you simply have to play this like the laning phase and farm to get your items. if they take an aggressive stance against you, then simply go to your tower. DO NOT RISK DYING EARLY. It's really not worth it. If they actually attempt to dive you under turret, simply ult them into your turret or the wall beside it to try and trap them in the turret aggro. You have an incredibly high power spike at an early point of the game after you get your Morellonomicon(s). Be aware of how high your damage and mana regen are and you can even take a slightly aggressive stance. But, if you do not have your early game as strong or stronger then they are, it is not worth your while to jump into a fight unless you will 100% outdamage them.

As stated above, Azir has a very large spike in power after he gets his morellonomicon(s) and gets his Q (Conquering Sands) to max level as his burst and sustained damage have a great potential to 100-0 an opponent quite fast. He has decent roaming/counterganking potential due to his high mobility and very low cooldowns with his CDR items. However, if your enemy has a stronger mid game then you, especially an enemy mid laner, do not attempt to roam as a countergank from them could prove totally devestating on your overall performence. Azir is also very good at taking barons, dragons as well as jungle fight due to his great teamfighting ability and his ability to entirely wall off a whole area of the jungle and play for a pick. If you have all of your CDR items by this point you can also maintain 3 soldiers in a fight at any given time and Q through enemies and deal massive nuke damage. One more very important note is to NEVER use your E to get into a fight unless you have plans to disengage with your ultimate as you are very susceptible to being burst and CC'd down. You will usually want to use your E to escape ganks or to jump a wall for the mobility, but having it up for a fight is always useful.

Azir is great Late game due to him being auto attack reliant but not spell cooldown reliant. In these late teamfights you want to try to stay in the back line and take as little damage as possible and if necessary, dive into the fight and disengage with your ulti. He also works great in late game pick comps because he can wall off an enemy from escaping. Since you're so flexible, try to play to your teams strengths if you can.

I hope you enjoyed my Azir guide. It was my first one so please go easy on me. If you have any questions or comments I'll be glad to answer as many as i see that come at me, or if i said something dumb or left something out, feel free to say so. Have fun playing dat young bird man! qB^)