Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Azir, the Emperor of the Sands.
Azir is the ascended leader of the ancient empire of Shurima. Now that he’s back, he won’t rest until
he’s returned his kingdom, his people - and himself - to glory.
Azir’s a mid-lane mage who summons and controls an army of sand soldiers. The soldiers are an extension
of their Emperor’s will, literally attacking for Azir and controlling areas of the map with their
lethal spears.
Azir has two passives. The first, Will of the Emperor grants Azir bonus attack speed based on his cooldown
reduction. This goes for cooldown reduction granted by items as well as runes, masteries and buffs.
Azir’s second passive, actually an active, is Disc
of the Sun, which builds a Shuriman Sun Disc at the base of a destroyed turret.
The Sun Disc targets enemies just like other turrets and lasts for a
minute before returning to sand, but it can be
brought down faster by enemies, awarding gold when destroyed.
The Sun Disc’s kills and assists rack
up gold and experience for Azir.
If Azir strays too far from the Sun Disc, it loses tons of armor and will fall,
even to minions, quite quickly.
Note that Azir can build the Sun Disc on any destroyed turret,
except for enemy inhibitor and nexus turrets.
Azir’s a conqueror, and that means he takes your turrets...literally. Disc of the Sun is great for
protecting your team as you push into enemy territory.
Let’s start with Azir’s W, Arise! because it’s
the only ability he can actually learn at Level 1 and crucial to the rest of his kit.
Arise! summons the untargettable memory of a Shuriman soldier
that grants vision and waits for commands.
If a Sand Soldier’s in range to attack an enemy,
Azir’s auto attack will order his soldiers to attack instead.
There’s no need to get your hands dirty. You’re the emperor.
Arise! operates on an ammo system that maxes out at two charges. While there’s no hard limit on
the number of soldiers Azir can have in play, they do time out after a few seconds. If more than one
soldier is attacking the same target, the damage of extra soldiers is significantly reduced.
Sand Soldiers benefit from Azir’s attack speed bonuses and their damage scales with his ability power.
Note that soldier’s attacks pierce through their
initial target, extending their attack range beyond the circle you see.
Soldier’s attacks make up Azir’s primary source of magic damage and apply on-spell-hit effects.
Meaning they’ll pop spell shields, apply Rylai’s, Liandry’s and spellvamp,
but not Red buff, Nashor’s Tooth, or Lich Bane.
Using soldiers extends Azir’s basic attack range, but only up to a point. When he moves a certain
distance away, the soldier becomes inactive and if Azir moves much farther, it disappears altogether.
Sand soldiers are afraid of enemy turrets.
They refuse to attack them and disappear much faster when one’s around. Buncha wimps. However, Azir
can cast Arise directly on an enemy turret to immediately deal damage
instead of spawning a cowardly soldier.
In lane, Soldier attacks are Azir’s primary tool
for farming up large groups of minions and harassing lane opponents.
Now that Azir’s remembered some soldiers, it’s time to learn about his Q, Conquering Sands.
When Azir casts Conquering Sands, every soldier charges to the target location, no matter how far
they are from the emperor.
When charging, soldiers slow and damage each target they pass through.
If multiple soldiers hit the same target, the slow stacks but each strike after the first deals reduced damage.
Use Conquering Sands to slow your opponent, allowing your soldiers to squeeze in an extra stab or two.
Azir’s E, Shifting Sands is how the emperor gets in or out of trouble.
On cast, Azir dashes to a target soldier, damaging and knocking up enemies along the way.
If Azir collides with an enemy champion he also gains a temporary shield and stops in place.
Remember that Azir can dash to any active soldier,
even if they’re on the other side of a wall. Additionally, Azir can cast spells mid-dash to reposition his
soldiers without affecting his destination.
Shifting Sands is especially useful for escaping ganks and dodging dangerous enemy spells.
Azir’s ultimate, Emperor’s Divide, summons a wall of shield-bearing Soldiers that charge in a target
direction, damaging and knocking back enemies.
These soldiers don’t take orders, but they do stick
around, blocking enemy movement while allowing allies to pass through, and providing a nifty movement
speed boost in the process.
Even if an enemy tries to dash through or jump over the wall, the soldiers still knock ‘em back.
Get bopped!
Some exceptions apply. Flash, and flash-like abilities allow you to pass the wall unbopped.
And the unstoppable force of some abilities can still pass through Emperor’s Divide.
Azir and his allies can pass through the wall multiple times to refresh the speed boost.
Use Emperor’s Divide in teamfights to split the enemy team and protect your backline.
Mastering Azir means mastering his sand soldiers. These essential tactics will help your army win
control of the Rift.
In lane, CS and zone out your enemy by keeping a soldier behind the back line of caster minions.
When your opponent comes in to last hit, attack them then slow them with Q to get a few more hits in.
It’s definitely Darude-st way to deny minion gold from your opponent.
In duels, keep your distance, placing sand soldiers ahead of Azir and leading your opponent through them.
Move and attack. Move and attack. Your soldiers will do the dirty work while you kite around for safety.
If your opponent gets in close, use Q to slow 'em down and get the troops together for DPS.
This will either turn the fight around, or ensure you don’t go down without dealing some serious damage.
In situations where you’re feeling gutsy or maybe just have backup from your allies, create a sand
soldier and send it behind your enemy with Q. Approaching at a slight angle, E to your soldier and ult
back in the direction you came from, splitting up the enemy team or picking off an out of position enemy
champion. Keep in mind this is a very risky play, so choose your moment carefully.
Even when you have the upper hand, keep in mind that Shifting Sands is your only way in or out
of a fight, so take care not to go on offense without checking your surroundings first. Here, Azir dashes in
without vision, wasting his escape tool just as the enemy jungler rolls into the lane. #punsofdamage.
Azir’s at home in newly conquered territory because
of the Sun Disc’s tower-like strength. Here, Twitch doesn’t respect its TrueSight and gets rekt, while
his allies make the smarter play, making sure not to pull aggro by attacking Azir and patiently knocking
down the Disc before advancing on the Emperor.
Azir has to stay close to his soldiers to keep
pumping out damage. Here, Azir misses his Q>E combo on a fishing trip, but keeps chasing, using Conquering
Sands to apply a slow and deal damage as Nami flees.
When her allies come in to help, he slows them
with his Q, but his escape is still on cooldown, forcing him to burn Emperor’s Divide defensively.
Shifting Sands comes off cooldown in the nick of time to save Azir from Ahri’s Flash-Charm combo,
allowing Azir to W>E escape and secure his original target. Afterward, Azir kites and slows Darius
with Conquering Sands, letting his team swoop in for the last kill.
Azir is capable of changing the landscape of a fight. With Emperor’s Divide and a deft Q>E Azir
blocks off Sejuani while escaping, neutralizing her chase. Now joining his team, Azir does three
things with Disc of the Sun: he protects his flank, traps Ziggs between turrets and deals some extra
damage. Azir dodges what skillshots he can, and prioritizes kiting over damage, staying alive and
allowing his team to secure the kill.
Let’s put it all together in this teamfight. First, Azir needs to land soldier basic attacks to be
useful. Here, he puts down soldiers and takes Annie out of the fight quickly.
Next, Azir identifies that he can push the enemy squishies into his own allies.
Shifting Sands and Flash get Azir behind the enemy team for
the Emperor’s Divide Insec into his waiting allies.
Azir understands he can beat Skarner
with the knockup and shield from Shifting Sands.
After winning the duel and Skarner retreating,
Azir closes distance with a slick W, E, Q combo allowing him to basic attack and skewer the scorpion.
Thanks for tuning into the Azir Champion Spotlight.
Please subscribe to the Riot Games YouTube channel and leave us your comments just below the video.