The Most In-Depth Azir Guide Ever

Beginner

Strengths

Playstyle

Win Condition

Abilities

Combos

Intermediate

Matchups

Levels 1-5

Levels 6+

Mid-Game

Late-Game

Advanced

Breakpoints

Menu

Where to Start?

Final Notes

Summary

Welcome to Shurima! My name is Divine Azir (also known as "Professor"), and I have been playing this game on and off since season 4. Four years ago, I decided to take the game more seriously and find a champion that I resonate with (with the hope of mastering them). I determined Azir would be a great fit... and boy was I right! After picking up Azir, my enjoyment of the game skyrocketed, and I reached rank #14 NA Azir by the end of season 11. I became obsessed with Azir and dedicated much of my free time to fully comprehending his kit and analyzing pro + high-level play.

I have spent countless hours learning everything I can about , gaining over 1,300,000 mastery points and spending far more hours studying, theory crafting, reviewing, and troubleshooting than actually playing. I have gained an exceptional understanding of how this champion works, and as a result, you are not likely to find a more detailed Azir guide anywhere. So, with that being said, let's get started!

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

How to Use This Guide

is a complex champion, and I will be going INCREDIBLY deep into the details, but don't try to learn everything at once. In my opinion, the ideal approach to improvement is to focus on one aspect at a time until it becomes second nature, then slowly and consistently compound skills over many games. If you try to take on too much at once, you can overwhelm your mental stack and form bad habits.

To facilitate these learning goals, I have split this guide into 3 sections: a beginners' introduction to Azir (play style, win conditions, abilities, combos), an intermediate overview of gameplan (runes/items/summoners, laning phase, mid game, late game), and finally a catchall section for advanced tips (high-level micro and macro).

I advise learning one section at a time and then playing some games before moving to the next. If that is the approach you decide to take, it would be a good idea to bookmark this page or save it to your Mobafire account so you can return to it easily. I also recommend skimming over all sections before deciding to skip one. The ideas I present are highly detailed and build off of each other. Even if you know a lot about Azir, you may still find something helpful.

Lastly, I should add that Azir is less forgiving than most champions. Azir has a high skill floor and one of the highest (if not THE highest) skill ceilings in the game. If you take a substantial break from playing the game or the champion, it will take a little longer to relearn him. For that reason, I generally don't recommend this champion to casual players. On the other hand, if you are up for the challenge, the rewards of learning are limitless!

NOTE: For New Azir Players

NOTE: For Experienced Azir Players

Let's start at the basics of the basics, Azir's identity as a champion. What is he trying to accomplish, what does the ideal Azir game look like, and what can you do to make sure you realize these goals every game?

Why Play Azir?

Strengths

+ Versatile (does a lot)
+ Blindable
+ Divine zone control
+ Crazy late-game DPS
+ Great engage/setup
+ Good peel
+ High range
+ High mobility
+ Super fun!

Weaknessses

- Weak early game
- Low survivability
- Hard to play
- Even harder to master

There is a reason that Azir has consistently remained a staple pick in pro play since his inception (Faker's most-played champion by a landslide). can do it all. He can DPS, engage, peel, dive, and control. He is like an all-in-one kitchen gadget.

The problem is that he is incredibly difficult to play to his fullest potential. Yes, Azir's mechanics can take a long time to master, but more importantly, his role in a team's composition is not always clear. He wants to do different things depending on the game. Azir thrives in the professional scene, where communication is unmatched and great teams go in knowing how to work together. In solo queue, this is rarely the case. For these reasons, Azir has always struggled in ranked, maintaining a low win rate even in relatively high elos (currently 48% across all divisions, and that's much higher than usual).

However, I think the reason for this is that there simply aren't enough guides out there explaining how to play Azir in solo queue. I have found that people have a lot of misconceptions about how this champion actually works. But, with some help from this guide, you can learn to identify similarities between games and adapt your playstyle for the challenge at hand. You will quickly find that when played to his fullest potential, Azir is one of the most OP champions in the game, not only in pro play but in solo queue.

"Azir is a bit of a trailblazer . . . When you pick him, the things you do feel incredibly unique which is awesome, but when coupled with proficiency and high level skill it becomes very difficult to give him power in any way that isn’t absolutely oppressive when he’s played optimally."

Riot Asyrite

Making Azir Work in Solo Queue

I have mentioned that Azir is versatile, but what does that mean exactly? It means you can play him differently (through a different lens) based on what your team needs. Azir can be played like a Control Mage, a Marksman, and an Assassin, he can engage, disengage, zone, peel, and siege, but not all at once. When I first picked up Azir, I found it very confusing to know how I should be approaching each game, and there was hardly any information out there about it. He does so many things, so which "thing" should I do? This is what I most wanted to simplify for you.

I have identified three primary playstyles one can adopt when playing Azir. You can use all three in a game, but generally, you will be taking runes and items that bolster one playstyle above the rest, based on what your team comp is lacking. As a new Azir player, I suggest you only focus on one of the following (whichever fits your personal playstyle best) until you feel comfortable with the champion:

1. Front-to-Back Control Mage

This is the ideal playstyle where Azir is played to his full potential as an ADC/control mix. Outfarm your opponent by bullying in lane, reach your two-item spike, then group with your team around objectives. Your goal in team fights is to first control an area with your (and pressure from your ) to force the enemy team into choke points or similarly unfavorable positions. Once the battle starts, your focus shifts to dealing damage while controlling escape points. As soon as the advantage is confirmed, you can go in for the shuffle. Your general approach to fighting is reminiscent of a structured army assembling its ranks to maximize advantage before moving in on its opponent. This is the dominant Azir playstyle in the professional scene.

2. Primary Engage

AKA Direct Initiator. This style is most prominent in mid-elo solo queue. In solo queue, you cannot always count on your team to coordinate in team fights in a holistic way that favors Azir's area control playstyle, and so sometimes the most consistent thing you can do is to make sure YOU are the one creating favorable opportunities. Use your cunning and Azir's mobility to catch your opponents off guard and open a line of attack with a well-timed shuffle. If you intend to adopt this playstyle regularly, expect to be building in most games and sometimes dying for the benefit of the team, as you will be making high-risk, high-reward plays, using your mobility spells to engage rather than for escape or clean-up. This playstyle takes more mental strain, as vision and/or ability tracking is crucial. Also, if you cannot coordinate with/react to how your team plays, your engages will be useless. This playstyle works well with the Tank Azir build.

3. Mobile Duelist

This is the greediest playstyle and is most prominent in low-elo. Here, Azir is played very similarly to a mixed with an AP . If you count his soldiers as an extension, Azir technically has the largest base auto of any champion in the game. This playstyle takes advantage of Azir's range and mobility to lock onto a single target. Your general approach to team fights is to isolate a squishy target and keep a soldier on them at all times. Once they are primed for the kill, use your mobility to close the distance and execute them. When adopting this playstyle, you will primarily hold onto your as self-peel or to confirm a kill. The major downside to this playstyle is that you are relying on enemies' mispositioning and are not providing zone control, AoE, or utility for your team. Because of this, you might struggle to consistently adapt this playstyle above low Emerald.

How to Win with Azir

The key to winning a game as is one word: gold. Azir is extremely item-dependent, scaling better with items than most champions (this is one of the reasons I love him—smart macro and itemization matters). To understand why, think about the quintessential item scaling role: ADC.

Why do ADCs need gold? It is because most of their damage comes from s, meaning they have the most stats they can build that scale off of each other: , , (percent and lethality), + , and on hit effects. Each added stat is multiplicative of the other, giving exponential returns on gold investment.

Azir scales for the same reason, except instead of AD it's AP, instead of armor pen it's (percent and flat), instead of crit damage/chance it's *, and in addition to on-hit, there is on-ability.

However, there are a few things Azir has that most traditional ADCs lack, which ascends his scaling ability beyond theirs. That is a superior range, mobility, utility, and the fact that his auto attacks do area-of-effect damage (unlocking the potential to multiply his scalability by up to 5x)! These factors make Azir the absolute definition of a hyper-carry.

NOTE: Ability Haste on Azir

Unfortunately (for balancing reasons), this also means Azir has to have a much weaker early game, has lower survivability, and does not get access to items. You can deal out far more damage than any ADC can dream of in team fights, but you are extremely vulnerable if you mess up your spacing or soldier placements. You must master the art of controlling your opponents' movements to ensure they stay within your soldiers' range while also staying off of you (if you get led or isolated, you are dead). This skill is more difficult than regular kiting, but once you master it, you become a DPS machine ready to carry your team to victory from the safety of the backline.

Therefore, your general goal in any game is to farm safely and efficiently until you reach your power spikes, then group with your team to dish out unmatched damage.

Primary Win Condition - TEAM FIGHTS:

Azir is a master of team fighting. How you approach team fights depends on your playstyle, but generally, you will be the main damage carry for your team. You have great zone control and deal a ton of damage to stationary targets (monsters), meaning you want to be the first team at an objective. If the enemy team does not want you to burst down the objective quickly, they are forced to enter the area Azir controls, maximizing your advantage (More information on how to team fight is given in the intermeiate section, and I will go over how to control an area in the advanced tips).

Note: Team Fights + Playstyle

Alternate Win Condition - SIEGE:

is one of the best siege tools in the game. If your team struggles in team fights, you can abuse your range and attack speed to siege down towers. Place your turret and a soldier behind you for a quick escape. If the enemy tries to stop your siege and get on your team, they are at threat of being shuffled into your sun disk. Mastering the revenant shuffle is paramount to your success here if you have strong melee on your team. If you have other teammates adept at siege, and the enemy has low anti-siege, this is free LP. However, this strategy cannot be utilized in every game. Your teammates have to be on the same page. Also, this should go without saying, but this only works if you have a wave or .

Alternate Win Condition - SPLIT PUSHING:

Regardless of team comp, Azir is always a phenomenal split pusher. Because you will usually build attack speed runes and items, he can take towers very quickly. You also have fantastic wave clear, especially from levels 11 onward. You are squishy, and if an enemy gets close you are extremely vulnerable, but you have incredible escape tools with your , , and . As long as you keep vision of your primary threats, you are an unstoppable tower-killing machine in the side lane. If you are struggling to set up around objectives with your team or are otherwise falling behind in gold and levels, split pushing is a reliable strategy to get back into the game.

Note: Splitpushing Below Master

Commanding Your Army

As you read through the abilities, it is useful to think of Azir's soldiers as an extension of himself. is the vulnerable heart, and his soldiers are the arms and legs. Use your appendages to both deal damage and protect your heart.

I will be giving the general uses for each ability, as well as useful tips, and bits of information not shown on the in-game info card. I will not go over specifics such as range, damage, cooldowns, expiration timers, etcetera. You can hover over (or click on) each ability icon for those numbers, or look them up in the Mobafire Wiki, LoL Wiki, or LoL client.

I think Azir has the most interesting kit in the game, and there are a lot of intricacies to his abilities. To streamline things, I have ordered the tips section of each ability by usefulness, from most important (practical) to least important (niche).

"When playing Azir, you are the emperor. You make your own army and everything you do commands them, even your right-clicks. Azir doesn’t have to attack you; he just points in your direction, then his sand soldiers stab you to death"

Riot Bananaband1t

Basic Attack

A regular auto attack (not made through a soldier).

Tips for Using Basic Attacks

Because he mostly autos through soldiers, it can be easy to forget about Azir's basic attack. However, it costs no mana and can be used to deal extra damage when needed.

1. Azir's basic attack animation speed is shorter than soldier AA animation speed. Therefore, it is often easier to last hit minions with basic attacks levels 1-2 than with soldiers. It is advantageous not to place soldiers inside the enemy wave during these levels; instead, use W only for area control or poke.

2. Azir's basic attack travels with instant speed and is not a projectile, so it is not blocked by things such as .

(P) "Shurima's Legacy"

Azir can resurrect the Sun Disc from the ruins of fallen turrets. The Sun Disc can not be resurrected over enemy inhibitor or nexus turrets. The Sun Disc behaves like a regular turret but does scaling magic damage, is easier to destroy, and grants kill credit (champion and mobs) to Azir. The Sun Disc degrades over 45 seconds and loses a significant amount of armor and magic resistance if Azir dies or gets too far away. The Sun Disc grants 50 gold when destroyed.

Tips for Using Passive

You can think of Azir's Sun Disc as adding a number advantage to a fight. Use it whenever it would be useful to have an extra team member (e.g. when under threat of gank, getting ready to team fight, or defending a siege). It is useful but not game-breaking; don't worry about holding onto it.

1. You are not as safe under Sun Disc as you are under a regular tower. At first glance, Azir's Sun Disk does more damage than regular towers. However, it deals magic damage and, unlike regular towers, it does not deal bonus true damage or have base penetration (it has your penetration). In practice, your Sun Disc usually does less post-mitigation damage than regular turrets until you have around 4 items (or Rabadon's Deathcap). It also is very easy to destroy. However, the damage does scale with AP and applies spell effects (e.g. , ). In the late game, the damage can be significant. This can be disorienting for the enemy as usually towers do little damage in the late game.

2. Your Sun Disc can be used to clear one wave on its own if you have minions to block for it. If you have to leave lane with Sun Disk up and your wave is pushing (i.e. it is in your collection zone, the ally minions are significantly buffed (∼13% or more), or you have a super minion wave) try pulling the enemy wave first to "freeze" it within sun disk range for free farm. If the enemy wave is pushing, let it destroy your tower to deny the enemy its gold and ensure the wave continues pushing.

3. If you are defending base with inhib turrets down, you can spawn Sun Disc to defend one lane while you take the other, as you won't be far enough for it to lose resistances. This works best against minion waves without s.

4. The base damage of your sun disk is locked into your current AP value when you spawn it, meaning stacking conqueror or buying items after it spawns will not increase its damage. However, the tower always applies your current magic penetration and ability effects. You can take advantage of this by buying penetration while an enemy is under fire (for example, if they dove under the Sun Disc and killed you).

5. Be careful when buying items while your turret is on the map. If it shoots something, it will void your ability to refund an item you just bought.

(Q) "Conquering Sands"

This is Azir's main harass tool, an essential part of his combos, and his only method of repositioning his soldiers. When cast, all soldiers (no matter how far) will dash to the target location, damaging and slowing all enemies they pass through. The damage will not stack if multiple soldiers hit an enemy, but the slow will. Soldiers can pass through terrain on their way to the target. If the target location is in the middle of terrain, the soldiers will instead charge to the nearest edge of the wall that lies along their trajectory. If you Q with multiple soldiers, they will not land at one point but instead fan out around the target AND go slightly further than if you had only one (this is to give extra zone control, Azir's biggest strength). The extra travel distance and spacing between changes based on the number of soldiers.

Tips for Using Q

Q usage is important because it is Azir's only method of repositioning his soldiers. For this reason, you should seldom use it for damage or to start a fight. Instead, use it to kite an enemy who walks out of soldier range; or hold it for a combo.

1. Soldiers land at the target, but the damaging missile (stab) extends beyond that by a decent amount (250 units), so you can hit people further away than you think.

2. Soldiers will dash to the target no matter how far away they are from it, but their speed is fixed. The further a soldier is from a champion, the more difficult it will be to hit them.

3. Q counts as a projectile and will get stopped by , , and . The soldier(s) will not be destroyed, just pushed to the edge of the ability. However, Q is not reflected by .

4. You can use terrain to extend the distance of a Q. This is especially helpful when drifting.

5. If you Q with an EVEN number of soldiers, none of them will actually hit the target location, only to the sides. In that case, make sure to Q slightly to the side of your target. If you have an ODD number of soldiers, the soldier in the middle will hit the target location. This will take some getting used to, as the distance between each soldier and the added travel distance both change based on how many soldiers you Q with. Personally, I like to think of the spread as mimicking the behavior of an observed interference pattern between two identical wavefronts, with increasing soldiers taking the analog of source separation and even soldiers giving the negative image... I realize this is probably not relevant for most people reading this, but I thought I'd share anyway.

6. E + Q will take you to the charge location even if the soldiers fan out around it. This means you do less damage drifting into an enemy if you have an even number of soldiers (as the enemy won't get hit by Q).

7. It is technically possible to root an enemy in place with slows if you hit them with 4+ soldiers, but it is very difficult in practice. This is because of tip 2, tip 5, and cooldowns. The most you can usually get is a 50% slow, which is not worth the negative of having to Q beyond their actual location.

(W) "Arise!"

Azir's W spawns a soldier. It is the basis of his whole kit and is the only ability the game will let you take at level 1. You can hold two charges of at a time. The cooldown between each cast is short, but the recharge time is longer (similar to ). If is cast on terrain, the soldier will spawn at the nearest edge of the wall (similar to a ward). Soldiers have their own range and sight radius (indicated to the user with a circle) and tether radius. When Azir clicks on a target that is within the range of any of his ready soldiers, he instead orders them to attack. If Azir walks too far from a soldier, they will enter an idle state (stance changes to standing upright) where they still give vision, can be commanded by , dashed to with (if within range), but are unable to attack. When Azir walks even further away from a soldier, they despawn. Soldiers do AoE damage to ALL targets in a line, dealing less damage to targets beyond the primary (clicked), based on level (more about this in the advanced section). Soldiers also apply on-hit effects at 50% effectiveness, but only to the primary target. Soldiers cannot target enemy wards, traps, or structures.

Tips for Using W

W is Azir's most important ability. Use it to damage, zone, set up a combo, or get vision. This section will only cover the most practical W tips. More tips can be found in the advanced section.

1. If an enemy has vision of one of your soldiers, they are also granted vision of you! Be careful when using W from a bush or fog of war, especially if the enemy has point-and-click CC or dashes. Also, do not try to recall while a soldier is in lane (you will get canceled).

2. Anything that parries auto attacks also parries soldiers. That means blind (), block (), dodge (), and disarm ().

3. Try not to spam W in lane. Each additional soldier on a target only does 25% extra damage. In most cases, it is best to always keep one charge of to kite the enemy, or in case you need it for one of his other combos. This is not an immutable rule and I will go over the nuance in great detail in the advanced section, but for now, this is a great habit to form.

4. Just like Azir's basic attack, soldier autos are not projectiles. They are not blocked by or similar.

5. Soldiers placed within the range of an enemy turret degrade twice as fast. However, that doesn't mean it should never be placed there. It is very important to conserve mana and cooldowns in the early game, but the later it gets, the quicker your W comes up, and the faster towers go down. In the late game, do not worry about this reduced timer.

6. Attacks from soldiers are NOT counted as auto attacks for most beneficial reasons (e.g. for hitting 's ghouls). When dealing with a champion's minions, it is usually better to use basic attacks.

7. Attacks from soldiers ARE counted as auto attacks for most detrimental reasons (e.g., you take thorn damage from and ). This is somewhat inconsistent between items (e.g. mitigates but doesn't). Also, sometimes it stacks with additional soldiers, other times not, and sometimes it only applies to the on-hit from Nashor's Tooth. As this is a somewhat recent change, more adjustments are likely.

8. You can use terrain to extend the range of W. This is especially helpful for setting up a drift. However, it is tricky to get the hang of and takes mouse precision, as you have to know exactly where the soldier will spawn.

9. Soldiers' stab damage goes slightly beyond their targeting radius, so you can sometimes catch an enemy off guard by hitting a minion in front of them. This will not apply on-hit and does reduced damage based on level (see "break points").

10. Soldiers can target jungle plants. You can take advantage of this to hit scryer's blooms, blast cones, or blood roses on the other side of a wall.

(E) "Shifting Sands"

This is Azir's main mobility tool and is very important for his combos. When cast, Azir will dash toward the in-range soldier that is nearest the cursor. Azir also grants himself a small shield for the duration and will damage all enemies he passes through. If Azir hits an enemy champion, he stops and gains a charge of (not exceeding 2). Azir can cast abilities while dashing (just not AA). If is cast on the soldier he is dashing to, Azir will follow the soldier to their new destination.

Tips for Using E

Outside of flash, this is your only source of mobility, and that is its primary use (specifically, through a W E Q combo). However, it is sometimes beneficial to use it just for damage, the shield, or to spawn an extra soldier.

1. E has a long cooldown and can usually only be used once in a fight. This means you have to choose whether to use it to engage, disengage, or chase. This largely comes down to playstyle.

2. E is different from any other dash in the game in that Azir counts as a projectile while dashing. This means he will get stopped by , , and . This can completely ruin your drifts, so be careful.

3. Remember that E requires a soldier to be used. Unless you are going all-in, it is useful to always keep a charge of in case you need to move.

4. E does not have a cast time, but Arise! does. If you are in a dangerous situation (i.e. pushed up in lane), you can keep a soldier behind you for a faster escape.

5. Remember that your E does damage and charges Arise! when hitting an enemy champion. In the early game, the extra soldier and damage can make the difference in an all-in. The damage can also be helpful for last-hitting minions under turret. Do not underestimate the importance of slamming your body into someone.

6. You are targettable in your dash and are especially vulnerable to CC. Pay attention to these cooldowns.

7. All abilities can be cast while in your E, including flash, smite, and activated item abilities. This allows you to do some clever things to catch your opponent off guard (more about this in combos).

(R) "Emperor's Divide"

Azir's most ubiquitous ability and the key component of his famous "shuffle" combos (responsible for countless flashy game-winning plays). Because of its importance, I am going to break my rule on specific numbers. Azir summons a wall of 6-8 soldiers (based on skill level) 175 units behind him to charge forward 575 units in the target direction, dealing massive damage and knocking back all enemies in their path (over 1 second) to a fixed line, 650 units in front of Azir. Enemies that are within 150 units behind their spawn location also get knocked back but are not damaged by the charge. Once they reach the end of their charge, the soldiers remain as impassable terrain for your enemies for 5 seconds and grant vision, while remaining ghosted for your allies.

Tips for Using R

Your most valuable ability and one of the most impactful in the game. Correct R usage depends on your playstyle, but typically, you want to hold onto it whenever possible. If you do not need your ultimate to win a fight, then don't use it. The self-peel and playmaking potentials are too strong to let go to waste.

1. Your knock-up range in front of you is double what it is from behind. It can be a bad habit to always want to ult an enemy the opposite direction they're running in, but if it's not necessary for the kill, try to ult toward them to ensure it both connects and does damage.

2. R soldiers counts as projectiles and are blocked by terrain. This means they are stopped by abilities such as , , and (but not reflected by ). The additional knock-back (150 units behind where the soldiers spawn) is governed by a separate set of invisible projectiles that work the same way.

3. You can push enemies through terrain, depending on the thickness of and your proximity to it. This is most useful to separate targets from a fight, or to push enemies into/out of baron/dragon pits. Whether or not you will push through a wall is based on the knock-up bar shown on the range indicator (bar going at least half way in means it will push them through), but getting a feel for this will take some time.

4. If you attempt to push an enemy through terrain that is too thick, they will instead be knocked toward you. This can be useful in some very niche cases where you want the enemy to land on your soliers to execute them. Outside of that case, it is extremely dangerous, so be careful when ulting an enemy near terrain (especially the edge of the rift)

5. R does not count as terrain until it stops, meaning enemies immune to knock-up will not be affected. Some notable examples of abilities that mitigate your ult are , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and (just to name a few...). It can also be buffer canceled by abilities with uninterruptible cast times, such as and .

6. R can be blinked over if timed right. Pay attention to , as well as abilities such as , and .

7. The wall from R counts as terrain for enemies, but not for allies. This means enemy abilities that interact with terrain (e.g. , , ) can be used on it. Allies can also interact with the wall if they have abilities that rely on the ENEMY hitting terrain (e.g. , ). This does not work in reverse (e.g. enemy Poppys and ally Ornns can not use your wall).

8. The width of the wall goes up by one soldier per skill point. This allows for incredible reach later in the game with an angled R. It is also one of the trickiest things to get used to. To make sure you know the range, pay attention to your level (6 vs 11 vs 16) or get in the habit of looking at your range indicator before a fight.

9. R is governed by 18-24 missiles. With all these missiles, things can get buggy. Usually, R will pick up enemies as expected, but sometimes not (specifically with the extra 150 pickup missiles). Additionally, R is supposed to work even if you die during the cast, but sometimes it won't. These are bugs as old as Azir. Things have gotten better over the years, but occasionally, they still cause problems with new patches.

7 Deadly Combos

It's time for the fun stuff: combos! This is usually the most challenging part for new Azir players (depending on how you learn). It will take practice, and (usually) a lot of it. The combos themselves aren't too difficult to execute once you get a feel for the timing; the hard part is knowing when to use them. Luckily, I can explain each combo's uses, give tips on how to perfect and extend it (usually shown in parentheses), and present some real game examples of when it can be used.

There are plenty of advanced combos that you'll use in 0.01% of your games, but for the most part, they all build off of these seven. The following are combos you MUST learn (at least the first 4) to play to a competent level. I have sorted them in order of importance. Feel free to open your practice tool and try them out as we go along.

"Balancing Azir has always been a struggle because the problem lies within his kit. We completely underestimated how hard he would be to play. . . . For a while, if you could hit all the right buttons, Azir was OP, but if not, he was basically garbage."
Riot ZenonTheStoic

Basic Trade [EASY]

W → Q → AA

Your primary harass "combo". Spawn a soldier near your opponent, immediately Q, then follow up with an auto.

Basic Trade Tips

1. Q is extremely mana-costly during the early game and does very little damage. Therefore, I only recommend using this trade to proc manaflow, cheap shot, hail of blades, stop a recall, or get a little extra poke before a TP reset or cheater recall. Only use it as your primary trade against high-threat squishy champions where you are forced to play from max range (e.g. ).

2. Soldier target radius slightly outranges the Q missile (by about 100 units) so it is possible to still hit someone with AA even if they are outside of Q range.

Extended Trade [EASY]

W → AA → Q → AA → AA (→ W → AA)

Your main trading combo. Place a soldier and immediately auto your opponent. As they start to walk away, Q them to extend the trade. If you position the Q right, the slow will usually allow you to get two more autos off before they can walk away.

Extended Trade Tips

1. The natural follow-up to this combo is to kite forward and add another W + AA. This is okay to do, but remember that if you use the second charge of W you will no longer have an escape tool (W + E).

2. Tip 1 brings up the importance of mouse precision on Azir. He plays similarly to an ADC in that he must always be kiting, but is less forgiving; if he misses a Q or misplaces a soldier, he can no longer auto the enemy, and therefore does no damage. Playing Azir to even a moderate level requires quick, precise mouse movements.

Sand Drift [EASY]

W → E → Q (→ AA → W → AA)

Your main combo for engage, disengage, and map movement. Place a soldier with W, then immediately E to them. Before you reach the soldier, press Q to extend the drift.

VARIANT 1: Delayed Q

VARIANT 2: Q → E

Sand Drift Tips

1. Make sure you wait to press Q until the last possible moment before reaching your soldier to get the maximum range.

2. After level 6, if you know you are not at threat of being ganked, it is very useful to drift at your opponent to bait out their flash (they will expect you to shuffle them).

3. Both W and Q can be extended by terrain. Use this knowledge to get around faster or to find creative gank angles in the jungle.

4. After you Q, Azir will continue to dash to wherever the soldier currently is (like a homing missile). This usually isn't an issue when you E then Q. However, If you are trying to escape from a fight with Q then E, wait to E until the line from you to your soldier is relatively clear.

5. If using this combo to engage an opponent, it is advisable to form the habit of immediately following with an AA+W+AA, as you will be charging an extra soldier (that you can no longer use for escape).

Shuriman Shuffle [MODERATE]

W → E → Q → R → W → AA → AA

Also known as the Azir-sec, this is the most famous Azir combo. Close the distance with a sand drift, then ult your opponent(s) into your frontline, turret, Sun Disc, or similarly favorable position. While they are in the air, place a soldier at their landing spot, then quickly auto twice. Assuming their dashes are on cooldown, you are usually guaranteed two autos (one while they are knocked up and another as they walk around your wall).

Shuriman Shuffle Tips

1. As I said, the Shuriman Shuffle is famous, so your enemies are usually expecting it. Always make sure your targets either do not have point-and-click CC, blinks, or immunity off cooldown, or will be caught off guard. Remember, you are targetable in your E.

2. Most players know that Azir's soldiers change stance when he is outside of range to issue an attack command, but many fail to realize that your E range goes beyond that. Because of this, you can often bait your opponents by walking back from a placed W, waiting for your soldier to change stances, and then going in for the shuffle as soon as the enemy walks forward.

3. If you ult before the end of your dash, you will not charge a soldier and can even put yourself out of range to use W+AA+AA. Always try to hit a champion. If you can't (shuffling from the max range or between two champions), make sure you have two stacks of first.

Blink Shuffle [HARD]

W → E → Q → F → R → (AA) → W → AA → AA

This combo is great for catching your enemies off guard, predicting flash, covering more distance, or repositioning yourself. Go in for a normal shuffle, but flash at the last moment before using your ultimate. If you time/aim it correctly, this shuffle allows you to get in an extra AA on your opponents while they are in the air, using the soldier you drifted in with.

VARIANT 1: Early Flash

If you know one of your opponents has an ability up that can stop your drift, you can flash before the end of your E to catch them off guard and/or dodge the ability.

Blink Shuffle Tips

1. As you will not be hitting an enemy champion in your E with the Blink Shuffle, it is imperative you only use it when you have two charges of Arise!.

2. You can flash at any point during your E. Experienced opponents will often hold on to mobility/cc/wind wall (etc) until you reach the end of your Q, to get you as close as possible for their follow-up. You can take advantage of this by flashing BEFORE you reach the end of your Q to catch them off guard. Just keep in mind that your range is reduced, and you will not get the extra auto.

3. The Blink Shuffle is very powerful, but try not to get into the habit of defaulting to it. Flash CD is a lot longer than R CD.

4. The extra auto attack is nearly impossible to hit if you don't use attack move. It is already advisable to have attack move bound to an accessible key when playing Azir, but this combo will be a huge headache if your bound key is not on your mouse.

Revenant Shuffle [EXTREME]

W → E → Q → R → R → AA → AA

The most difficult Azir combo to pull off and the one with the most variations. Start with a W+E toward your opponent(s). While in your E, reverse the direction of your Q mid-drift. This will ensure your target(s) land within the range of the soldier(s) you used for the drift, giving more damage, while also keeping yourself away from danger.

VARIANT 1: Revenant Dive

VARIANT 2: Short Revenant

VARIANT 3: Revenant Ambush

Revenant Shuffle Tips

1. Prediction is everything when it comes to the Revenant Shuffle. Opponents can interrupt your drift by walking or dashing into you. For this reason, I only recommend attempting the Revenant when the enemy is zoned, running from a spell, or is rooted in place.

2. You may have to press R more than once for the client to register the input. Back in the day, it was normal to have to mash R 4+ times before it would go off. Many patches later, the game is more responsive, and now you usually only have to press it twice for it to work.

3. If you move your mouse too slowly, you can accidentally cut the Q distance short. I find it easiest to circumvent this by making it a habit to always move my mouse a little further than I need to. If I do want to cut the distance (see variant 2), I simply Q earlier than normal (right after starting to move my mouse).

4. Although rare, it is possible to overshoot your targets' landing position by moving your mouse too far and Qing too early into your E dash, resulting in your soldiers being too far away to follow up). This usually isn't an issue, but on the off chance it becomes one, just try slowing down a bit.

Stasis Shuffle [HARD]

W → E → Q → R → Z

This shuffle is mostly used for diving the enemy backline in team fights and is a staple of the primary engage playstyle. Shuffle in like normal, but this time activate while ulting. This allows your team to deal with the shuffled enemies while keeping the enemy frontline off of you long enough for you to re-enter the fight.

VARIANT 1: Emperor's Shuffle

Stasis Shuffle Tips

1. Because you will usually be coming in from a flank, it is extremely important to make sure that your team is on the same page. If you see an angle, spam ping on my way before shuffling. If you mess this one up, you will be wasting ultimate, Zhonya's, and your life.

2. In an even fight, activating Zhonya's Hourglass temporarily puts your team at a numbers disadvantage. Make sure your team is in range to kill the shuffled targets, or else the enemy may turn it around.

3. The Emperor's Shuffle is very expensive, and I would only really recommend it for shutting down a team already weakened by Baron Nashor or Elder Dragon. If done correctly, it can completely turn around a game. If done incorrectly, it will ensure your defeat.

In-Game Shuffle Examples

In real games, people do not stand still in lane like target dummies. So, as a new Azir player, how are you supposed to know when to use each shuffle? What does an ideal "shuffle angle" look like?

Luckily, I frequently take recordings of my own games for review purposes and sometimes forget to review and delete them (hurray for procrastination). So, I have gone through some of these and taken clips of some good uses for each shuffle type. I have yet to get a Stasis/Emperor's Shuffle clip (as I typically build glass cannon) or the Short Revenant variant (because it's very niche). I will update this section the next time I see one of them in a review).

These plays are not perfect (none of my plays are), and you will see me make some pretty big mechanical misplays. This section is to show educational examples of when these shuffles can be used in-game and to highlight specific points that I brought up throughout the guide, not to boast unrealistic outplays.

Shuriman Shuffle Example

Things to Note

Knowledge Check

Blink Shuffle Example

Things to note

Knowledge Check

Revenant Shuffle Example

Things to note

Knowledge Check

Revenant Dive Example

Things to note

Knowledge Check

Revenant Ambush Example

Things to note

Knowledge Check

These are some examples of when a shuffle can be used, but that's only part of the picture. Arguably, the more important skill is knowing when NOT to use a shuffle. The answer to this, sadly, is most of the time. Shuffles are powerful, but can also be very risky. They can turn around a team fight but can also throw them.

Knowing when, where, and how to use your ultimate is one of the most important skills on Azir, but will also take the most time to learn. There is no shortcut to learning this, you will have to play and review many, many games. The best advice I can give here for learning (not necessarily winning) is to go for every shuffle opportunity you see, even if you think there is a low chance of success. The more failures (and successes) you get under your belt, the faster you will be able to recognize ideal situations in the future. In general, the most important things to keep track of are vision, body language (enemy and ally), and ability usage. Remember that your opponents, as well as your team, are aware of the power of your .

YOU'VE REACHED THE END OF PART 1!

Thank you for finishing the beginner's section!

You now know everything you need to start playing and having success on Azir! If you are brand new to Azir, at this point, I suggest you take him for a quick spin in the practice tool, testing his abilities, combos, kiting (use the crabs), and last hitting. Then, hop into some unranked, swift play, or bot games. Once you feel like you can control Azir well and you are comfortable with all his playstyles and win conditions, come back and read the Intermediate section.

Before you go, I want to say that this is my first Mobafire guide, and I worked very hard on it. If you found this guide helpful, please upvote it or leave a comment so I know what I'm doing well and/or what I can improve. I will continue updating this guide regularly, expanding sections and adding a LOT of advanced tips. Your feedback will help me determine what I can do to continuously improve this guide.

is an incredible champion, and I hope you have fun playing and learning him!

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

- Divine Azir

You know Azir. You understand his strengths and weaknesses, you can identify his win condition in every game, you have mastered all 3 of his plasytyles, you've learned all the tricks to using his abilities, and you are experienced (and mechanically consistent) enough to execute his most important combos. You are completely comfortable playing Azir. The only place you sometimes struggle is with game strategy. What runes should you take? How do you win lane? How do you close out games? Generally speaking, what should you do to translate your skills into wins? If this sounds like you, then you're ready for part 2!

Choosing Your Runes, Items, and Summoners

Choosing runes and summoner spells can be overwhelming, but ultimately there are only two things you have to consider: Team matchup, and lane matchup. Team matchup will decide your primary playstyle (therefore, your main rune page and item build path). Lane matchup will decide your game plan (therefore, your summoner spells and situational runes + starting items). The second depends entirely on the first, so that's where we'll start.

Team Matchups

Team composition can be incredibly complex, but in solo queue, you really only need to worry about 4 situations. Go through each item in the following list until you reach the one that describes your game (this will usually be situation #4):

1. Ally team has a weak frontline

2. Allies have strong frontline, enemies have weak frontline

3. Both teams have strong frontline, but low engage

4. Both teams have strong frontline, one or both have engage

Once you have your main rune page decided, your next decision in champ select is summoner spells and secondary (situational) runes. This will depend entirely on your 1v1 and 2v2 matchups (MID + JNG, TOP + JNG, or BOT + SUP). I will be releasing a detailed guide on every matchup once I have completed the rest of the guide (see Mel, Hwei, and Lux above for examples), but in the meantime, I will summarize the general situations to take each option.

Lane Matchups

Situational Runes

can be taken instead of in situations where you need a better early/mid game. Use it to help zone lane opponents with weak early games (e.g. ), go even in trades vs. medium threat laners (e.g ), or to help win skirmishes with your jungler (pairs well with AD melee junglers such as ).

If you have a difficult lane, you swap for . This is helpful vs. poke champions (e.g. ) especially when paired with high-threat ganking junglers (e.g. ). Getting rid of PoM will significantly reduce your mana sustain, especially in the late game, so it is a good idea to pair this with and/or swap for which can be built into if they have high burst (e.g. Mel and Evelynn). This rune pairs best with the keystone, allowing you to push and heal faster.

You can swap out for to help execute slippery squishy targets (e.g. ), champions that thrive on low health (e.g. ), or champions that like to build shield items (e.g. ). Keep in mind that this will weaken your front-to-back team fighting, so it is most useful when playing mobile duelist, or vs. teams with a lot of dive options.

When going the domination page, you can exchange for for extra sustain in lane. This will reduce your poke early, so it is most useful vs. squishy champions that trade from safety (e.g. ).

Secondary Runes

Precision is taken as a secondary rune page when you need more damage. If you won't be building mana items (i.e. when this secondary is taken instead of Sorcery), you can exchange for .

Sorcery is your most common secondary tree and is taken when you need more mana sustain. can be swapped out as needed. If you need extra early-game damage, take . If they have a lot of champions good at stalling out the game (e.g. tanks paired with control mages with high wave clear such as ), take .

Resolve is taken when you need more sustain in fights or are vs. a high-threat lane. is good against level 3 all-in champs (e.g. ) and is good against burst (e.g. ).

Combat Summoners (Teleport Replacements)

can be taken to secure a kill or force an enemy to leave lane when paired with an early ganking jungler. Only take this MID.

is a defensive summoner that can help keep you alive against a gap-closing ADC in MID or BOT (e.g. ). If playing BOT, ask your SUP to take Exhaust instead, then you can take . If you have a strong engage support (e.g. ), you can ask them to take instead to bait the enemy ADC into over-commiting, then turn the fight with Exhaust + Ignite.

can be taken MID to give yourself the edge in the 1v1 vs. squishy champions who like to full-commit (e.g. ).

is your lifeline summoner pick vs high-threat MID+JNG and BOT+SUP matchups who can easily burst you if you are under CC (e.g. +, +).

Creating a Gameplan

There are four main things to consider when deciding your gameplan:

1. Where do you want the wave to be when your enemy reaches level 3?
2. Where do you want the wave to be during the first gank window (~3:20-4:00)?
3. Where do you want the wave to be when you reach level 6?
4. How much pressure can you exert levels 6+?

Notice the only considerations I listed are about wave management, no vision, trading, or roaming/skirmishes. Jungle tracking is very important on Azir MID, but vision is a universal concept that applies to in the same way as any other champion. The only note I have on it is that when in TOP or BOT lane, you do not usually need to ward the side brush or alcoves as Azir's soldiers give vision when needed. As for trading, your patterns are straightforward and explained in combos, but generally, you will not be focusing on it heavily. Your number 1 priority is staying alive and getting as much farm as possible through wave management and map awareness.

Of course, this does not mean you should never trade with or poke your opponent. Poking is an essential part of setting up for jungler ganks when you have the range advantage. However, this will happen naturally and is not something you will have to think about. The important part is setting up the wave for the gank. Initiating trades is perfectly acceptable when you have an item advantage, resource advantage, or can shuffle your opponent into your tower/jungler, but this is based on your ability to push at the right time to get those advantages or freeze the wave in the right spot for those shuffles. At the end of the day, everything depends on wave management.

Finally, early roaming and skirmishes are simply not very important to Azir. Azir is a scaling champion who NEEDS to farm to stay relevant, and his early roams/skirmishes aren't that powerful (especially pre-6). If your jungler is going to die, you can of course try to peel for them, but I only suggest it if you can crash the wave first and it won't interfere with your game plan for the lane. My general rule for roaming is to only do it if there is absolutely nothing else to use a turn on (i.e. you don't need to recall, have no wards to place, and can't take raptors).

NOTE: Overcomplicating Things

LANING - Before Ultimate

Summary of Levels 1-5

is very weak before he gets ultimate. Therefore, the primary objective of your levels 1-5 is to survive early ganks and all-ins, while setting up the wave to be in an ideal location when you reach your level 6 powerspike. That's right, your levels 1-5 are mostly about level 6! The strategies you utilize to achieve this goal are based on your matchup. I will go over those strategies in the next panel. To know when to use them, you have to answer the first three questions I mentioned earlier:

1. Where do you want the wave at enemy level 3?

Assassins and some ADCs are notorious for strong level 3 all-ins. Melee assassins (e.g. ) will typically concede pressure for the first few waves to save health and mana/energy for their level 3. If this is the case, you will want to use the 2nd wave rebound. Ranged assassins (e.g. ) and ADCs (e.g. ) are harder to deal with as they can play more aggressively the first 2 waves. In these matchups, your only solution (if you can't significantly outplay) is to let them push. As long as you stay alive during the first 5 levels, you can always re-establish priority levels 6+.

2. Where do you want the wave at first gank?

The first gank window usually happens around the 5th to 6th wave. If you have or are against a strong ganking jungler (e.g. ) but a low-threat lane, use the 3rd wave rebound. If you are vs. a strong ganking jungler and a high-threat lane use the cheater recall if possible, otherwise go for the 4th wave rebound then hug the side with vision as the lane pushes back. If playing TOP, you will have to use the 3rd wave rebound instead due to the longer lane and slower pushes.

3. Where do you want the wave at your level 6?

Level 6 happens on the 8th wave. Typically you want to get it when the wave is on your side of the lane. This means you will want to go for a strategy that gives a lot of control over the enemy cannon wave (4th wave rebound or cheater recall), so that you can hold the wave before it crashes into your tower (remember, you only have control of what to do with the wave when it is pushing into you). However, if you are vs. a squishy lane that you can easily kill with a level 6 all-in, it can be best to let the enemy push the 6th wave so that you have the push when their 8th wave arrives and therefore reach level 6 first. This can be very difficult to do in MID lane as there isn't a lot of room left to shuffle (without going under their turret) but is pretty easy to set up in TOP and BOT.

This should pretty much cover your first 5 levels for every type of matchup. The only variables I haven't covered are champions with strong level 1-2, level 2 ganking junglers, and leashing. Against the first, you will usually just have to let them push, but aside from that, the rest of the lane is pretty easy. For the second, you can avoid a gank with a 1:15 raptor (MID) or sentinel (TOP/BOT) ward before the lane starts. As for leashing, just simply never do it. Wave control is too important and you don't deal damage anyway.

Lvl 1-5 Strategies

2nd wave rebound - This is usually the soonest you can crash into the enemy tower, and is what will happen naturally in MID if you are zoning your opponent off the wave and only last hitting. This is useful for avoiding an all-in level 3, or denying CS to weak lane opponents. If zoning a weak opponent, it is best to slow push the first wave, then quickly push the second. This puts more minions under tower, forcing your opponent to lose CS and use abilities on the wave, while you are free to poke them with your lvl 2. If the opponent is not interacting with the wave (from them waiting to level 3 you), it is best to push as slowly as possible so the rebounding wave is as big as possible. This will help ensure the rebound pushes quickly and you can play safely when they reach level 3.

3rd wave rebound - If playing with or against a ganking jungler, you should use W to quickly crash the 3rd wave. This will result in a rebound that puts the 5th wave close to your tower for the first ganking timer. In TOP, this can also help thin the enemy's matching slow push, to help keep them from zoning you off the entire wave, and will help you avoid the first gank.

Cheater recall - If you have a range advantage and the enemy has low wave clear, you can go for an early recall on the first canon wave (wave 4), then come back to lane with an item advantage in time to collect the returning wave. This is known as a cheater recall, as it gives you an unfair advantage for the rest of the early lane (before their first back).

4th wave rebound - If not cheater recalling, rebounding the 4th wave will build up a large return wave. This will give you control over how you want to play the next 3 waves, allowing you to avoid ganks (waves 5-6) and set up your level 6 (wave 7). Usually, it is best to use 2 charges of to do this quickly. Just be aware that you will be vulnerable without your extra soldier and mana. Make sure you play from max range and don't get baited into poking or trading during the rebound. Use your next W only to thin the returning wave.

Let push - If versus a high-threat laner, it can be best to let the enemy push early so that they aren't able to freeze. Just make sure you don't let the 4th wave crash into your tower. Try to freeze just outside of your turret. This is also the ideal strategy vs. melee assassin MIDs, though it is rare that a melee champion will push into you level 1. If they do, poke them and let them push. You will be able to freeze easily, and the lane will be won. In TOP, this is useful versus low-threat matchups, as it can help you build a return slow push that crashes on the 6th wave setting you up for the kill near your tower when you reach level 6.

Contest - This one isn't really a strategy, but your default. Azir can usually gain control of the wave in most matchups despite dealing low damage, thanks to his range and zone control. However, against laners with higher range and low cooldowns (e.g. , ), it can be extremely difficult to implement any of the strategies above, and if they get the push on you, you are at threat of being poked under turret. Your only option left in these types of matchups is to contest for priority and look for good recall timings. The lane is a natural stalemate.

LANING - With Ultimate

Summary of Levels 6+

Level 6 is an extremely important power spike for . It significantly boosts your wave clear (see breakpoints) and unlocks one of the most impactful ultimates in the game, . This creates many new opportunities in lane: You can set up ganks whenever you want, all-in overstaying opponents, hard shove and take plates without fear of instant deletion, or even go for revenant dives with your jungler/support under tower. However, you are still relatively weak until you get your first item, and generally cannot solo-kill anyone yet. You will still have to implement some strategies, but there is much less variance, as you only have to ask one question:

4. How much pressure can you exert?

Because you have extra wave clear and a reliable peel tool with , you can start to get really aggressive after level 6. In general, you will want to exert as much pressure as possible, but knowing how far you can go with this comes down to matchup and how the lane has progressed so far. If you were able to successfully implement the first half of your game plan from levels 1-5, you should have a large enough lead where you can perma pressure your opponent (given you have vision of any high-threat enemies). Of course, you will not always be successful with a strategy. Sometimes you will get caught off guard, mess up the execution, or simply get outplayed. It happens. In those situations, you have few different options.

If you are relatively even or vs. a low-threat lane, you can go for a 10th wave rebound or freeze. This will let you set up for a shuffle into your turret, securing the lead. If you are behind already you can either freeze or hold. If you are vs. a scaling champion with low early map threat (e.g. , , most ADCs), you can look to freeze the wave on your side of the lane. If, however, your opponent is a dangerous (non-melee-assassin) snowballer (e.g. , , , you should try to hold the wave in the middle of the lane. The hardest situation to recover from is losing lane early to a melee assassin. If this happens, you are forced to concede pressure as they will simply kill with one combo if you try to hold. Luckily, it is difficult to lose lane against a melee assassin as Azir, as they can do little to keep you from following through on your strategies. But if it ever happens, your team will suffer for it and the game will be difficult to recover.

Lvl 6+ Strategies

10th wave rebound - The 10th wave is the first cannon wave after getting level 6, and is a great wave to recall on. By rebounding the 10th wave, you give yourself time to come back to lane with full mana and shuffle threat. If you have TP up and your opponent doesn't, you can perform a lane-winning maneuver by teleporting back to lane before the return wave crashes. This will force your enemy to make a decision: let you freeze the huge wave, or overstay and risk being shuffled into your tower.

10th wave freeze - If you do not need to reset, you can quickly crash the 9th wave instead. This will make it so that the enemy wave does not push back into you as quickly, making it easier to set up a freeze on the 10th wave. This is especially helpful when playing TOP, as, even with your increased wave clear, it can be difficult to fight into a massive wave against a lane opponent who has ultimate ready.

Perma pressure - If you are already winning lane, it is best to abuse your advantage to permanently pressure. If the enemy has a lot of wave clear from range, opt to fast push to keep them tied to lane. Otherwise, build up slow pushes around early objective timers to take plates and maintain priority for your jungler.

Perma freeze - If you are going even or behind but your lane opponent has poor roams and is not particularly great in early skirmishes (e.g. ), you can permanently freeze the lane near your tower to set up for a shuffle into turret at the first opportunity. This will either result in a kill for you, or will force your opponent to blow flash and waste tempo, allowing you to get back into the game.

Hold - If you are behind vs. a good roaming/skirmishing champion, your last option is to try to hold the wave close to the middle of the lane. This leaves open the option to quickly push the wave if your opponent(s) leave for any reason. If they go for a roam, you can quickly push and follow, or take plates (if you have no vision). If they recall, you can push and take the turn to do whatever you want.

To me, Azir's mid-game starts when he gets his first item—usually
Nashor's Tooth—and typically happens around the 13-to-15-minute mark (which is also about when the laning phase ends). This is when Azir finally feels like (if that makes sense). You have damage, attack speed, ability haste, has its full AP scaling, and you are finally a threat in team fights and duels.

Playing to Your Win Condition

If you haven't done so already, the mid-game is where you have to start determining your primary win condition and start playing around it. Your main objective is to stay ahead in gold and experience, but where and how you do this changes based on how your team is playing. Just like the early-game, things will not always go according to plan (solo queue is nothing if not chaotic) but as long as you know your win condition and play with intention while remaining adaptable, you will see positive results.

Win Condition = Team Fights

If your team is ahead or even in items/experience and team fighting looks like a reliable wincon, you will want to create as much pressure as you can before objectives spawn (without over-extending) to ensure you are the first team on the site. If playing Azir MID or TOP, this means going to a side lane and slow pushing. If you have TP up, try to crash a big wave on the opposite side of the objective about a minute before the objective spawns. This will give you time to recall, buy items, and then TP to the objective to set up with your team. If TP is on cooldown, go to the same side as the objective, crash once to set up vision, then again when you see your opportunity to move. If playing Azir BOT, group up with your support in mid and keep up mid priority and vision around the objective until you see your window to rotate.

Throughout the rest of the mid-game (when an objective is not spawning), whenever you crash a wave you can use your free turns to take enemy jungle camps or to get picks on overextended enemies. If neither of these is an option, you can use the turn to get a good recall timing. If you don't need to recall for any reason, your last option is to hit the enemy tower.

As you implement these strategies, you may find that your team loses fights despite being tied or ahead. Perhaps your support is getting caught out when they go to get vision, or maybe your team struggles into their composition or your jungler consistently loses smite fights. It is also very common for your team to be unorganized, positioning all over the place, or simply not utilizing your pressure to rotate when they should. If any of these are the case, you should change strategies, at least until you get a larger lead.

Win Condition = Siege

If your team is around even in items/experience and team fighting around objectives is not a reliable wincon, you can group with your team to siege down towers for extra pressure or objective bounties. Mid lane is the best place to do this because it is close to everything (making it easier for your team to rotate, secure vision, or take free camps/objectives), but it can be done in other lanes as long as your team is nearby. Just keep in mind that the side lanes are more dangerous the further you push, as your opponents can group much faster than your allies. To do this in the mid-game, you usually will have had to have won the early game for jungle, as you either need , 5-6 stacks of , or at least strong sieging champions. In mid lane, it is usually best to use behind you before sieging, so that you can go for a shuffle if the enemy team tries to engage your team. In top or bot, hold onto it so you can make your escape when needed, or possibly turn a fight.

Sieges end either with a team fight in lane or by reaching the enemy inhibitor. Siges can also end prematurely if you secure an objective bounty and need to reset, or someone on your team gets picked. If the siege ends in a fight, you will have the upper hand most of the time because of your sun disc. This will usually allow you to win the fight. Afterward, you can use your temporary numbers advantage to force an objective. If none of them are up (or your team refuses to follow you), you can finish off the tower and then go for a tempo reset or take camps. Generally speaking, you should never continue a mid-game siege after a fight! Respawn timers are short and your team will have used up a lot of resources. In the mid-game, the objective of sieging is to create pressure and gain tempo. If you overstay, you will waste those advantages and likely die, giving your enemies the freedom to do whatever they want.

If you are failing to pressure before team fights or your sieges aren't going well, it's a good sign that you are significantly behind. When playing from this far behind, you really only have one win condition left: split pushing.

Win Condition = Split Push

Split pushing is Azir's most reliable strategy for staying relevant in the mid-to-late game. Whether you are struggling because you are behind, or because you can't coordinate with your team, split pushing can be your "get out of jail free" card. It also requires the least amount of thought, as you only need to consider two things: which side lane to push and when to recall. In general, you always want to push the lane that is on the opposite side of the next objective. This will force someone to match your push, creating a numbers advantage somewhere else on the map. If nobody answers your push, or it is someone who can't stop you (immobile melee, support, or a weak enemy) just keep pushing and getting yourself free solo tower and minion gold.

Once your push is stopped, you have a few options: If you have TP and the person who matched your push doesn't, you can TP to a fight on the other side of the map where the objective is. If nothing is being fought over, you can roam mid for a pick (just make sure you have vision of the enemy jungler). If a gank seems unlikely to work or you don't have vision of the enemy jungler, you can either recall to spend your gold, or grab some camps out of vision until the enemy leaves, then restart the process all over again.

Be advised that vision and threat assessment are extremely important when split pushing. Azir has a lot of escape tools, but if a high-threat enemy manages to sneak up on you, you are done for. The further you push, the more pressure you create, and the more your life is at risk, so make sure you become increasingly vigilant as you get closer to the enemy nexus.

No matter what your win condition is, you will still have to pay attention to the fundamentals. This means catching waves in your collection zone, quality warding, choosing good fights and recall timings, etcetera. I am not going to touch on these things as they are not specific to , but if you do struggle with them, I put some links in the special thanks section to some quality League of Legends guides that can help you fill in the gaps.

The late-game is all about team fighting, and is where Azir thrives! The late game is loosely defined as the period when teams start focusing on closing out the game, generally from the 25-minute mark (when Baron spawns) to end. While "win conditions" are the conditions you have to meet to maximize your advantage (they're a bit of a misnomer in that way), there is only one true way to win a game: destroy the enemy nexus! Likewise, there are only a few routes to that objective: Kill the enemy team, fight over /Dragon Soul so you can use the buff to kill the enemy team, or fight over so you can use it to build an unstoppable push (and kill the enemy team). You can also backdoor, but that is 0.1% of games. As for the others, they all depend on winning a team fight. If only we knew somebody who could carry late-game team fights... Oh wait!

Team Fighting in The Late Game

For the most part, the late-game is played identically to the mid-game with team fight wincon, except that it is less forgiving. People will spend most of the late-game grouped up, and vision will be highly contested. You have to be extremely careful about how you move around the map. As the main damage carry for your team, if you are caught out and killed, you are basically handing the win to your opponents. Likewise, if you put yourself too far from an objective, your team won't be able to contest it, and once again you hand the win to your opponents. You can still side lane, but you have to make sure you have vision and only push the same side as the objective unless you have TP. Matching recalls with your team is also very important as you don't want to be left alone on the map. Lastly, tensions are very high and a fight could start at any time in solo queue. If it looks like a fight could happen, stop what you are doing and group with your team. Don't let a late-game fight happen without you being there!

Now that you know what not to do, let's talk about what you SHOULD do. More specifically, I'll discuss the common stages of a late-game team fight and how they apply to Azir. Note that these stages happen very quickly, and sometimes do not happen at all. Solo-queue is very messy, especially at lower ranks, and you can't expect fights to be played by-the-book. The most important thing is to understand how your champion interacts with your allies and enemies so that you can adapt quickly when something inevitably goes wrong/weird (like an ally jumping haphazardly into the enemy jungle or an enemy flanking your support). Use these stages as a general guideline for how you should approach a team fight up until the point you have to make a quick decision. Note that these stages are for playing front-to-back. Although Azir has many playstyles throughout the rest of the game, during the late-game, most champions tend to want to play front-to-back. Playing an out-of-position mobile duelist or diving the enemy backline becomes extremely dangerous as your death could throw the game for your team. However, if you find that one of the other playstyles works consistently for you in all stages of the game for your elo, feel free to play late-game fights as you would any other. Just note that it will become more difficult the higher you climb.

Step 0 - Poke

I have labeled this step "0" as it doesn't always happen and is not part of the fight itself. Rather, before a team fight is about to start, you should look to get as much free poke as possible on mispositioned low-range enemies (tanks/bruisers) using W and Q. This will give you the upper hand before the fight even starts.

Step 1 - Initial Engage

The direct initiation is the starting gun of a team fight. It happens when a champion on one side (ideally a frontline) engages one from the other, often using a lower cooldown CC ability (e.g. ). Your general goal as Azir is to be near your frontline so that you can follow up after the direct initiation, but far enough away that you are not at threat of being engaged on yourself.

If you are building Tank Azir, it likely means that your team lacks a proper frontline and the direct initiation will involve you. Note that you should NOT use as the initial engage tool in a late-game team fight except for in extremely niche cases where you can catch the enemy backline in a bad position! For the most part, you will start fights with W, holding on to Q, E, and R for the following stages.

Step 2 - Followup

The follow-up to an initiation is to hit the engagee/engager to try to force out their important cooldowns. As Azir, this usually means standing behind your frontline, attacking with one soldier at a time from a safe distance, keeping a stack of ready at all times. The exception is if your initiator CCd a squishy champion, in which case you can try to burst them down.

Step 3 - Hit Frontline

Once the main threat cooldowns have been used by the enemy's primary initiator, you can get in closer and go all out with damage, hitting the enemy frontline and using Q as necessary to reposition. The most important part of this stage is to space correctly and be careful with your Q usage. It can be tempting to Q a backline champion who gets too close, but remember that once you Q you are extremely vulnerable for the next few seconds. You no longer have a zoning tool to keep the enemy from getting on top of you.

Step 4 - Kill backline

Shuffle time! [Persona anyone?] Once the frontline is out of the picture, the next stage is to kill the backline. Sometimes, if the opportunity presents itself, this can mean going in for a huge shuffle. Other times, it means simply walking at them with your team, using W and Q to damage and slow. If you do opt to shuffle the backline, make sure you have paid attention to their key CC abilities. Backline champions usually hold onto these for self-peel, so if you don't know, assume they have it ready. Remember, if they have CC, your only real option is to use a blink shuffle, as you have already lost your element of surprise.

If there are no ideal shuffle angles to catch the majority of the backline threat, you will have to play more cautiously as they can burst you quickly. The exception is if you are playing Tank Azir, or are going for a stasis shuffle, in which case you can be more aggressive. Otherwise, hold onto your E and R for cleanup.

Step 5 - Cleanup

Everybody everywhere. This part is pretty self-explanatory: chase down fleeing opponents and execute them. If you still have your E, this is the time to use it.

Step 6 - Win the game

If you were able to clean up the entire enemy team, congrats, you have won the game! If not, congrats you have won the objective that will win you the game! If you won but your team is too low to push, congrats you have won the objective which will win you the next objective which will win you the game!

YOU'VE REACHED THE END OF PART 2!

Thank you for finishing the intermediate section!

You now know everything you realistically will ever need to play Azir anywhere from Iron to Grandmaster! Work on mastering everything taught, and you'll be at or above the same level as 99% of Azir mains.

If you are looking for a real challenge, I will be continuously releasing advanced tips on highly specific micro and macro concepts that will let you contest with the very best of the best. See these as extra bits, not worth paying attention to until you have truly mastered every other part of Azir gameplay. I guarantee you though that some of them you will never have heard before (i.e. Azir's breakpoints), or have never seen explained in such detail (i.e. itemization for every situation).

Before you go and conquer the rift, I want to say that this is my first Mobafire guide, and I worked very hard on it. If you found this guide helpful, please upvote it or leave a comment so I know what I'm doing well and what I can improve. I will continue updating this guide regularly, expanding sections and adding a LOT of advanced tips. Your feedback will help me determine what I can do to continuously improve this guide.

Now go forth and return summoner's rift to its former Shurmiman glory!

"Believe in our future."

- Azir

So, you're ready for the advanced section? Consider me impressed. Mastering is no simple task. Keep in mind that this section is geared toward those playing at a Grandmaster or above level, or Azir mains/one-tricks who want to learn absolutely everything about the champion and do not mind sacrificing their rank and/or mental health to do so. Proceed at your own risk.

WARNING

This section should be considered separate and distinct from the rest of the guide. The Beginner and Intermediate sections focus on the general knowledge needed to master every part of Azir's gameplay along with extra details to min-max them, whereas this section will go into highly detailed, unique, and often-overlooked concepts that require a high level of Azir mastery to implement correctly. If not careful, leaning too heavily into these concepts can distract from the more important aspects of the game.

For this reason, I suggest you go back and read through the rest of the guide, focusing on anything you might have skipped. If you are a seasoned Azir player and have skipped the rest of the guide, I highly encourage you to still do so. Despite their naming, I still get heavily into the details. For example, do you know that your Sun Disc can stack , but can only benefit from the extra AP Conqueror gives if it was already fully stacked when it was summoned? This is explained in Abilities. Do you know that after using a blink shuffle, you can hit the shuffled targets in the air with the soldier you drifted in with, or how to cut your Q distance short during a revenant shuffle to make sure your opponent lands on the opposite side of your wall? These are explained in Combos. Do you know that if you crash the 9th wave, you can essentially make it impossible for your opponent to stop you from freezing the lane and essentially force them to take a bad reset, or end up shuffled into your tower for an extremely early kill? This is explained in Early-Game. This guide is highly in-depth, so don't hesitate to soak up everything I've provided (I especially suggest checking out the shuffle examples, as I break down specific plays to help showcase just how much you can get from your own micro-reviews. It is probably more than you think.

If you're still unphased, then have it! In the next panel, you can see everything I currently plan to add to the advanced section and what has been completed so far. The first section will be released on Feb. 24th, with more to come as I continue to update this guide. Check back as often as you like for more advanced tips. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send me a direct message. Happy Aziring!

Breakpoints

Soldier Placement

Trading Patterns

Champion Interactions

Gold Efficiency

Turns & Rounds

Mental Stacking

Using Azir's Breakpoints

One thing you've no doubt discovered while playing Azir is that last-hitting is surprisingly tough during the early game. Because his auto attacks deal AoE damage, it can be very hard to layer minions correctly. Likewise, because his wave clear relies on auto-attacking, he does not have traditional breakpoints where he can, for example, kill the backline in 2 shots of an ability. Azir's breakpoints are a little more complicated... If you want to play Azir at a high level, mastering farming is crucial, and for that, you will eventually need to understand breakpoints. That being said, this is quite advanced, and I have never seen it mentioned in any Azir guide I have ever found (I discovered this myself), so I will try to keep it simple, avoiding specific numbers for each item and level.

There are 5 main breakpoints on Azir (but the first 2 are the most important): 1 based on skill level, 3 based on champion level, and 1 based on items. The significance of the level breakpoints depends on your itemization, runes, and lane tempo. It is up to you each game to keep track of these breakpoints and determine how they will affect your lane. More on this later.

Firstly, you need to know that your W does reduced (AoE) damage to targets beyond the primary (targeted) based on champion level (same level structure as ultimate skill points and passive):

Levels 1+, W does only 25% of its damage as AoE
Levels 6+, 50% AoE
Levels 11+, 75% AoE
Levels 16+, 100% AoE

The key to farming effectively levels 1-10 is to focus down the s first, as fast as possible by spreading your damage evenly across them, while using basic attacks to layer the melees when necessary. If you burst down one minion too quickly and it dies, your subsequent attacks will no longer be hitting that minion (i.e. you are wasting AoE damage). Also, if you target a low-health minion that is otherwise within the kill threshold of your AoE damage, you are wasting your primary damage (you could have targeted another minion in the line and killed the low-health one with AoE). Therefore, it is imperative you *switch your primary target* with each attack, cycling through the caster minions. Of course, this is assuming that you've properly placed your soldier on one side of the caster minion line, so make sure you do that (for an example, see "Soldier Placement" in the next tip). Eventually, you will gain an intuition for how many times you can auto each caster before you need to switch to another. The reason you always want to focus casters first is that they stand predictably in a line—where you can hit all of them with one soldier—whereas melee minions move around unpredictably. After the level 11 breakpoint, layering becomes less important and you can start to burst down melees first with two soldiers, using Q to reposition onto the casters once the melees are dead.

When fast pushing, especially levels 6+, it is often advisable to attack with 2 soldiers instead of one. Keep in mind though that if you attack a target with more than one soldier, each additional soldier beyond the first only does 25% of their normal damage. This damage reduction is applied to all damage: primary, on-hit, and AoE. So, for example, if you find you are generally killing the caster minions in 5 auto attacks each time, adding a second soldier would reduce the auto attacks needed to 4. However, if you are already barely killing in 4 auto attacks, adding a second soldier will not reduce this further. This is a common situation you will find yourself in, so keep track of when it is or is not useful to add a second soldier, as that extra charge could end up saving your life.

W Level 2

Azir's first breakpoint is reached when he gets two skill points in , increasing damage by 15 + 5% AP. If you started and get your second skill point at level 3, this brings your auto damage (against minions) from 72 to 88; this is about a 23% increase in damage which is massive! This will knock off a few autos from your clear (of course, this also means your auto cycling will change, but when in doubt, just swap after every auto). For this reason, you always want to get a second point in W by level 3, saving your E for level 4. The exceptions for this are when you are vs a high-threat duo and need E for escape, or if you are in a position to all-in with your jungler level 3.

Levels 6, 11, and 16

Azir's most impactful breakpoint is level 6, as your AoE suddenly does twice as much damage as before (going from 25% to 50%). This equates to about a 35% total increase in clear speed but will also change your auto-cycling patterns. Pay attention to how much damage you now do to creeps and adjust your farming accordingly, making sure you are spreading damage as efficiently as possible. At this point, you can compete with most other champions' waveclear. Combine this with your usual zoning techniques, and you can force priority a lot of the time. By level 11, your wave clear is incredibly fast and you can heavily out-push most champions. When no enemies are present, you can start focusing the s first, then Q-ing to the casters. By level 16, you deal 100% AoE and no longer need to autocycle.

Nashor's Tooth

The last breakpoint I will mention (and Azir's first major power spike) is when you get . Aside from the exponential clear speed increase, there is an important interaction with farming under tower. Specifically, Azir (and most mages) typically take out caster minions with two basic attacks and one tower shot, regardless of level. However, the extra on-hit damage from Nashor's changes this to one basic attack. If you're not aware of this and try to prep the casters before the turret shot, you will lose them to tower.

MORE TO COME!

This guide is brand new. The first Advanced tip was released on Feb. 24th, 2025, and detailed matchups for the cheatsheet are still in development. I have an abundance of Azir knowledge to share, so as I continue to work on the guide, I will continuously add more advanced micro tips.

Check back as often as you like for advanced micro concepts, including soldier placement, trading/zoning patterns, champion interactions, and more!

If you'd like to track my progress as I update this guide, you can check out the change log.

Questions and Answers

There are some common questions one might have when first reading this guide. I would like to address as many as possible in this section. If you have a question that isn't listed, feel free to leave a comment or DM me, and I might add it here to help others after giving my answer.

Using This Guide

Azir/this guide seems so complex! Where do I even start?

How do I choose a playstyle? Do I really have to learn all 3?

Azir's combos look hard. Can I wait to learn them?

Clearing Up Misconceptions

The guide says Azir has a weak early game, but isn't he a lane bully?

Azir TOP and BOT? I thought Azir was only a mid laner?

When Azir was first released (and for several seasons after that), he saw a lot of play in the bot lane as an APC. This is because of his consistent DPS utilizing attack speed, his oppressive range, and strong team fighting. Over the years, Azir fell-off as a bot laner as he gradually lost more and more early damage and wasn't able to compete with most META ADCs during the early game. However, season 13 (2023) saw a lot of Azir changes, with Q being heavily nerfed, buffing early W damage in its stead. More importantly, the map changes in season 14 (2024) made mid lane a lot wider. The widening of the lane paired with the heavy nerfs to Q cooldown and mana cost, meant Azir struggled to maintain any semblance of control in mid. Opponents could simply walk around his soldiers. To compensate for this, Riot increased the target radius of his soldiers. This allowed him to keep up in the wider lane without having to rely on Q. The unintentional side effect to these changes is that Azir's bot laning got much more oppressive. While mid lane got wider, bot and top stayed about the same width. Azir made a resurgence in bot lane as his increased range and damage made it much easier to contest the enemy duo. While he still heavily struggles in raw early damage, he makes up for it by being super annoying and hard to push into.

As for top, the new focus on early W damage made Azir the perfect counter pick into immobile melee champions (the kind you see top), much better than any Yordle or run-of-the-mill ranged duelist. Today, I actually consider top to be Azir's easiest lane. Pair this with his strong split push win condition and ability to avoid ganks, and you have an extremely potent top lane counter pick. He has some really bad matchups, but in the ones he wins, he wins hard.

There is a case to be made for Azir SUP and JNG, with support actually seeing the occasional game in professional scrimmages. The idea is that Azir jungle allows him to always set up and control objectives, whereas Azir sup can setup shuffles for your ADC with R and proc with your Q. The problem with sup is that Azir is heavily reliant on gold to remain even slightly relevant in the later game. He essentially just becomes a shuffle bot who goes in and dies while providing little else for his team. As for jungle, Azir is so squishy that he always needs a leash, and even then he has an extremely slow clear speed before he gets . He is far too easy to punish early, and struggles to keep up in farm without a reliable tactic like side laning. There are some other one-tricks who will still play Azir jungle and even support from time to time, but to me, these lane assignments simply do not make sense on Azir and I never suggest going them.

The LoL Wiki says Azir isn't affected by block, blind, or dodge. What gives?

Miscellaneous Questions

Is Azir a good champion to one-trick?

Is Azir a good champion for new players?

Can I play Azir if I have bad mechanics?

Can I blind pick Azir?

FINAL NOTE

The hardest part of learning Azir is figuring out how to adapt your playstyle and strategies when your team is not on the same page. Teaching others how to do this (without needing to play thousands of games) was my main goal for this entire guide. I believe I have achieved this goal, but I may never know for sure if anything comes from it.

Azir takes a lot of dedication to play to a high level. If you read this far, I believe you have what it takes. Please keep this guide handy as a reference point whenever you are struggling. I will do my best to always keep it updated and to always improve it, so you never have to feel lost during your Azir journey.

If there is anything I can do to improve this guide, please let me know in the comments or through a DM. As an educator to my very core, my foremost goal is to always provide helpful, reliable, and judgment-free advice. Whether I am helping someone grasp the meaning of wave-particle duality or something as seemingly inconsequential as how to play a champion in LoL, my intent is the same. I never want to leave someone confused, or worse, lead them astray. If I discover I can change something to help reach this goal, I will.

Good luck out there, and I'll see you on the rift! ∼ Divine Azir

BEGINNER Concepts

Strengths and Weaknesses

Azir uses untargetable soldiers to control areas and deal consistent AP DPS. He has low survivability but high mobility, DPS, and range. Except for his ultimate, every one of Azir's active abilities (including auto attacks) requires a soldier to be placed ahead of time, meaning planning is essential. This unique kit of range, DPS, mobility, and zone control gives him high versatility, allowing him to work well in many team compositions and leaving him with few true counters. However, it also makes him one of the most difficult champions to master (widely considered the hardest champion in LoL).

Playstyles

Azir has three different playstyles: Control, Engage, and Duel. When taking runes and building items, you will prioritize one of these functions. Control Azir players use their soldiers to control areas, poke, and DPS the enemy frontline, hanging onto mobility to clean up fights, reposition, or escape, and hold ultimate for self-peel or to confirm kills. Engage Azir players use mobility and ultimate to dive and disrupt the enemy backline, setting up kills for their team. Dueling Azir players use their soldiers and ultimate to isolate individual opponents and quickly burst them down, using mobility to close distances or deny their escape. Control is the most holistic Azir playstyle, while Engage and Duel mainly only have a presence in mid-to-low elo solo-queue.

Win Conditions

Azir is a hyper-carry, meaning he relies on items to scale and deal damage. His biggest strength is in team fighting and taking objectives, particularly in the late-game. His secondary strengths are in sieging and split pushing. A win condition is a champion's method of getting a lead over the opposing team. Sieging becomes Azir's primary win condition when the rest of his team is bad at team fighting but good at siege. Split pushing becomes Azir's primary win condition when his team is bad at team fighting or is too far behind in items/experience to win team fights.

Abilities

Azir's most important ability is his W, which spawns a soldier, the basis of his kit. Azir can command a soldier to attack a target within their radius by right-clicking (or issuing an attack command) on them. He can attack with more than one soldier at once, but can only select one target. Azir's Q commands all soldiers to charge in a direction and is his only method of repositioning soldiers once they are placed. Pressing E gives Azir a small shield and causes him to dash to a soldier. If the soldier is repositioned with Q while he is dashing, Azir will follow them. R is an area-of-effect ability that knocks back nearby enemies in the target direction and then forms a temporary wall that allies can walk through but enemies cannot. Azir's passive allows him to summon a sun disc from a fallen turret (enemy or ally) which functions like a regular turret.

Combos

Azir has 4 essential combos: The basic trade, used to get poke damage on a single target from a distance, the extended trade, used to deal moderate damage to a single opponent in lane, the sand drift, used to travel a great distance, and the Shuriman shuffle, used to engage, immobilize, and heavily damage an enemy/group of enemies. There are 4 additional variants of the Shuriman shuffle that one should eventually learn: The blink shuffle, used to cover more ground or evade CC, the revenant shuffle used to limit escape options or dive under turret, the stasis shuffle, used to engage in more dangerous areas, and its variant, the Emperor's shuffle, used to catch enemies off guard while preventing retaliation.

INTERMEDIATE Concepts

Matchups (Runes/Items/Summoners)

The team matchups and lane matchups shown in champ select will guide your runes, summoners, and general build path. There is too much to summarize, but team matchups determine your playstyle which decides your rune page and build path. Lane matchups determine your combat summoners and secondary/situational rune picks. Team matchup is the most important.

Gameplan (Laning Phase)

Azir's landing phase is pretty straightforward if you already understand his abilities and matchups, as well as general MID/TOP/BOT lane principles. The part of the laning phase unique to Azir is that everything depends on wave management. Creating a gameplan relies on asking yourself these 4 questions: 1. Where do you want the wave to be when your enemy reaches level 3? 2. Where do you want the wave to be during the first gank window (~3:20-4:00)? 3. Where do you want the wave to be when you reach level 6? 4. How much pressure can you exert levels 6+? Your answer is based on matchup and summoners, and determines the strategies you should implement. The strategies are too in-depth to summarize, but in general, just know where you want the wave at those 4 moments.

Mid-game

Azir's midgame begins when he first gets Nashor's Tooth. This unlocks his skirmishing and dueling power, allowing you to play to your win condition. If team fighting is your win condition, you should push sidelines before objectives, then group with your team to set up before your enemy. If sieging is your win condition, you should aim to stay near your team and get vision around the lane you want to push. If split pushing is your win condition, you should push the lane on the opposite side of the map as the next objective, ducking out of vision whenever high-threat enemies are missing.

Late-game

The late-game is all about team fighting and is the most crucial stage of the game for Azir. You have to be extra careful to always stay alive so that you can carry team fights. If you die and the enemy can get a Baron, Elder, or Soul from it, it is game over. If it looks like a fight might break out, drop what you are doing immediately to group with your team. Try your best to always be the first on-site for an objective, but do not face check areas without vision. Late-game team fights should ideally always be played front-to-back, regardless of which playstyle you built for (the late-game is an entirely different game). Your general role in team fights is to stay alive while DPSing anything you can safely hit. As long as you stayed ahead in items and experience in the mid-game, you should have no problems winning objectives for your team that you can then use to kill the enemy team and destroy their nexus.

Changes and Special Thanks

Making this Guide

I would like to give a special thanks to some Mobafire users who indirectly helped me create this guide by providing useful resources for the community. If you're interested in creating your own guide, these are a great place to start:

BBCode:
• Katasandra - Katasandra is basically the G1thub of Mobafire. The page I referenced most often while coding this guide was their repository on responsive columns. Another useful resource I found later is this short post on icons + images. Give it a look before you open that photo editor (I could have saved some time if I did).
• Mowen - Their guide on mobile friendly formatting provided some helpful information for deciding how to code this guide (I ended up using primarily responsive rows/columns for everything).
• Mobafire Wiki - The wiki page on BBCode is a great source of basic syntax. It's not complete, but anything you can't find there can be found in one of Katasandra's guides.
• Jhoijhoi - I coded everything in this guide from scratch, but I have experience with CSS (the parent language of BBCode) which made the whole thing pretty intuitive. If you are new to coding (or even just markup languages), this guide has a lot of great templates that you can simply copy and paste to get started stress-free.

Design:
• Fruxo - Their Ahri guide, "How to Use Charm", is the most visually intriguing guide I've seen on Mobafire, and it was a major inspiration for many of the design techniques I chose when first deciding how to format this guide.
• Katasandra - Another Katasandra mention. Their guide titled "So You Want to Write a Guide?" provided a lot of helpful tips on guide structure.
• Sovereign Kitten - This video from their YouTube channel (Pawkt) was my jumping-off point and helped relieve some doubts I had about my own abilities.

I'd also like to give some of the most useful educational Azir and LoL videos. Most of these are sources I personally used when first learning Azir and/or the game in general. While none of them go anywhere near as in-depth into Azir as this guide, they do provide extra gameplay footage and cover a lot of the basic LoL concepts that I deemed unnecessary for this guide:

LoL
• League Fundamentals - To this day, one of the best LoL fundamentals series is Phroxzon's Leaguecraft 101. The League Fundamentals series is meant to be an updated and shorter version of it. I haven't watched it personally, but if it's anything like the original, it's definitely worth your time.
• League Macro 101 - Coach boc is a creator I recently came across with great teaching skills. This video series in particular, covers many high-level macro concepts that will change how you view the game. Great for high-elo players.
• Coach Curtis I have watched Coach Curtis for as long as I have been playing Azir. His more recent stuff is just about the most helpful modern solo-queue LoL content out there in my opinion. Great for mid-elo.
• Broken By Concept - Coach Curtis also co-hosts a podcast. The podcast tackles more out-of-game issues than his main channel.

More Azir Stuff
• TSM PowerOfEvil's Azir Guide - This is my favorite beginner Azir guide on YouTube. The runes, items, skill order, and laning phase are outdated (it's from the days of Q-max Azir), but everything else holds up. PowerOfEvil's comments on ultimate/combo usage are also very practical. There's nothing said here that isn't said in this guide, but if you learn better through video form, this is a great starter video (it's also very short).
• Shok's Reworked Azir Guide - Once again, this guide is outdated, but at least is a little more modern. I also think this video is far too long for the information it provides (really minimal), and there's nothing there you won't find here, but there is a decent amount of gameplay footage.
• YouTube - When I was learning Azir, my favorite source was LoL Esports Pro View. The tool let you filter games by champion, and then watch the perspective of that champion. Unfortunately, LoL Esports discontinued the feature. The next best thing you can do is to search pro and high-elo Azir matches on YouTube. This is especially helpful for learning how to play out matchups you are struggling with.
• Body Those Fools - Consistently active Azir one-trick streamer. Instead of telling him who sent you, just say you saw him in a Chik-fil-A ad (to confuse him for my entertainment).

Azir Stuff to AVOID
• Skill Capped - Skill Capped has several videos on Azir that are all misleading, inconsistent, or flat-out wrong. They are made for engagement and click-through, not honesty. Avoid any source that claims Azir is an easy champion, or that you can get fast results (especially if they're selling something).
• LoL/Fandom Wiki - While a great source for up-to-date numbers, the "more details" are almost always wrong or outdated. Think of it like Wikipedia: good for basic information, bad for complexities.
• Montages - While flashy, montages (or short clips) are full of cherry-picked outplays (usually from smurfs) and are not representative of what a usual game will look like. The most egregious offenders are shuffle compilations.
• Spamming games - When it comes to improvement, playing without intention is about as good as not playing at all. Make sure you have a learning objective before heading into a match. It is okay to play games for fun, but know that the more you do so, the more bad habits you will form, and the more your understanding of the champion will deteriorate.

Log of Changes Made

25.5

25.4

S25.1.3

The Most In-Depth Azir Guide Ever

The Most In-Depth Azir Guide Ever

Choose Champion Build:

Recommended Items

Runes: DPS

Spells:

Flash

Teleport

Flash

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

Barrier

Flash

Cleanse

Flash

Items

Ability Order Default

Shurima's Legacy (PASSIVE)

Conquering Sands (Q)

Arise! (W)

Shifting Sands (E)

Emperor's Divide (R)

Threats & Synergies

Azir

Mel

Hwei

Lux

Irelia

Nasus

Xerath

Vex

LeBlanc

Syndra

Qiyana

Talon

Yone

Malzahar

Fizz

Yasuo

Ahri

Akali

Anivia

Akshan

Annie

Aurelion Sol

Aurora

Brand

Cassiopeia

Corki

Diana

Ekko

Galio

Heimerdinger

Kassadin

Katarina

Lissandra

Lucian

Naafiri

Neeko

Orianna

Ryze

Pantheon

Sion

Smolder

Swain

Taliyah

Viktor

Tristana

Twisted Fate

Veigar

Vel'Koz

Vladimir

Zed

Zeri

Ziggs

Karthus

Seraphine

Zoe

Nocturne