So I'm disgusted at the range of Azir's soldiers.

Naomi CoffeeGoat·Aug 27, 2015·49 votes·5,467 views

Being down by about 30 cs and the jungler ignoring your lane despite constantly pinging for help didn't make it better, but holy fuck I'm huddled up next to my turret trying to CS at a distance, but this fucker is still auto attacking me without drawing aggro being an immobile champion in this game is fucking god awful. Yes I'm salty, and I hate going against someone with an "auto attack" range that long with his own form of mobility to escape any help I do get in lane.

64 Comments

FadedpfAug 27, 201517 votes

How to counter Azir: Spread your cheeks :^)

Ramza ParadiseAug 27, 20154 votes

{quoted}

How to counter Azir: Spread your cheeks :^)

and lift your sack

FadedpfAug 27, 20151 votes

Only if you are on your back for him :^)

Hellish ProphecyAug 27, 20152 votes

Upvoted for that possible Dave Chappelle reference.

Hayaishi2Aug 27, 201514 votes

Azir is too counterpick dependent, either pick something that utterly destroys him like Zed, Talon, Xerath Varus or have the most unfun game ever. I'm exaggerating a bit with the anti fun part but Azir is cancer and even though i like him, it has to be said.

One Bind MorganaAug 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Azir is too counterpick dependent, either pick something that utterly destroys him like Zed, Talon, Xerath Varus or have the most unfun game ever. I'm exaggerating a bit with the anti fun part but Azir is cancer and even though i like him, it has to be said.

agreed

Lady HammerlockAug 27, 20151 votes

azir is so weak to jumpy assassins heck even bruisers they bait out the wall so easily azir is mid range mage he gets destroyed at long range poke where he has a hard time reaching them or jumpy assassins where his wall doesn't do anything

Trash ADC BtwAug 28, 20151 votes

Most Assassins can't jump his wall. :\

Lady HammerlockAug 28, 20151 votes

i can give you a list that can Zed Talon Ekko a few more i didn't put but i can't exactly remember

Trash ADC BtwAug 28, 20151 votes

Ahri Khazix Rengar are all 100% blocked from pursuit.

Lady HammerlockAug 29, 20151 votes

i forgot to add katarina

Trash ADC BtwAug 29, 20151 votes

You also forgot Shaco and Fizz, but there are other examples of ones that ARE stopped too.

Ariel the CruelAug 27, 20151 votes

Azir counters Zed.

SlykerenMay 24, 20161 votes

Definitely not. Lol

Ariel the CruelMay 24, 20161 votes

Holy Necro, FatMan!

LuggAug 27, 201513 votes

The most toxic thing about Azir is the fact that he can poke you worry free under your own tower and there isn't crap you can do about it. So true.

I GANK LANESAug 27, 201513 votes

many champs can do this...

SquidblimpAug 27, 20155 votes

Most champs that can do this have skillshots blocked by minions, whereas Azir can poke through the minions. Also, his soldiers are like Lux's E, very hard to dodge.

I GANK LANESAug 27, 201516 votes

theres a few that can poke under turret, lol. not to mention his soldiers last half as long under enemy turrets. i don't even play him that much

LuggAug 27, 20152 votes

True, but the mana costs are higher and the range isn't as long for the majority of those champs. The range difference usually let's you counter poke.

The soldiers last for almost 5 seconds under tower, that's an eternity in League.

yay nibbersAug 27, 20152 votes

Azir has to cast two spells to poke under turret (Arise! and Conquering Sands). That's 110 mana. That's as much as the most expensive pokers in that list.

Edit: That's all ranks in both spells by the way (40 and 70 mana at all ranks respectively). Other champs don't have to spend nearly that (or even put more than one spell on cooldown) until rank 5 at least.

LuggAug 27, 20151 votes

He only needs to cast Arise! which is 40 mana.

KoddaAug 27, 20157 votes

If you're letting him get close enough to cast Arise! on you while under tower without punishing him? His Arise! has such a short range, that's why he needs to use his [Q] to position it..

Axis the DragonAug 27, 20151 votes

Right? Lol tf Arise has a 450 Cast Range. That's lower than like 90% of midlaners' autoattacks.

WalkingInACircleAug 27, 20151 votes

You're not counting the 325 range the soldiers themselves have.

Axis the DragonAug 27, 20151 votes

Hm, I kinda forgot about that.

Even if we consider the 450 Cast Range as roughly equivalent to only 350 Attack Range, it's still 675 total (roughly 25 units more than Caitlyn!)

I mean it's still ~200 units shorter than the average midlaner's spell, but with it only being 40 Mana, I can understand how it can feel abusive xD The cooldown is around 10 seconds at rank 3, though, and most of Azir's poke damage is from Auto-Q-Auto, anyway. Verdict is more or less that Arise by itself isn't too bad - but its annoyingness is not just added, but multiplied by Q's spammability (especially considering most Azir's run as much CDR as possible).

I suppose decreasing Arise's cast range down to 410-425 might help it somewhat (with 425, it caps out at 650, which is Caitlyn auto range)

WalkingInACircleAug 27, 20159 votes

Yes he has very high DPS at a very long range with a lot of CC and a long dash, with low cooldowns and low mana costs. He's oppressive as hell at all points in the game. There is no effective counter option to him, in play or build or champion that I know of.

Zenthon PrimeAug 27, 20158 votes

He has zero true early-game counters, to my knowledge. Later on, though, Xerath starts to utterly destroy him because once Xer gets to the point where he doesn't care about mana Azir's screwed. Assassins that can just instakill him, like a fed Talon, also work well but struggle in the early-game.

His damage and range aren't the issues, the issue is that he's far too safe. There is nothing you can do vs Azir unless you instakill him or are playing one of the three champions in the game that can outrange him.

Shield VillainAug 27, 20154 votes

As a Talon main I can't say that's fully true. Early game you're pretty much going to famine, unless you're up against a bad Azir. In a match with a good Azir, you won't get any cs without using Rake or getting hit by an auto or two, maybe even a Q.

By Mid Game it's about the same. If you can't farm you can't 0-100 him fast enough to survive you're not going to win. So being starved of CS now you have to roam, and he'll probably push and take tower, or worse, follow you.

The only real way you win against Azir as Talon is if you're so skilled, and build purely around him, that you can dodge all his Q harass, and E Q W him as a harassing mechanism a few times before going all in. Trouble is, a good Azir will typically keep a sand soldier up just in case you get too froggy, and he'll easily out damage you since he can slow you. There really is no winning against Azir as Talon unless he does bad or you can get a good gank.

By lv. 6 his ult guarantees you won't kill him. The moment you E he'll probably Ult you, or if his twitch mechanics are on point, Q away, ult you under his tower, and kill you. It's really only a matter of if you can kill him faster than his Ult can go off, or he can react to you. And without a Silence anymore, this is pretty difficult.

Ariel the CruelAug 27, 20151 votes

or if his twitch mechanics are on point, Q away, ult you under his tower, and kill you.

I may or may not be guilty of this. But I can confirm it happens. (>_>)

MessaigaAug 27, 20151 votes

To beat Azir your best bet is poke/siege champions. Essentially most of the poke mages in the game (and the odd Varus). Stuff like Xerath, Varus, Lux, Vel'Koz, and Ziggs can deal with him well. They can farm safely enough, then get to the point where they poke Azir until he has to back (Varus, Xerath) or you unload a burst combo on him from safety (Lux, Vel'Koz, Ziggs).

BharhashAug 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

low cooldowns and low mana costs

Yeah... I wanna see what version of Azir YOU'RE lookin' at, cause the Azir I know has some pretty long cooldowns and god-awful mana cost.

You want long-range poke with low cooldown and next-to-no mana, you go play Vel'koz.

WalkingInACircleAug 27, 20151 votes

The Azir who doesn't build a mana item in his core build, but gets CDR anyway. The guy with his main offense on a 6 second base cooldown, and an 8 second cooldown with two charges. 40 mana to clear an entire wave, 70 more to do high damage. Better costs and cooldowns than 90% of the mages in the game.

Tannhäuser GateAug 27, 20151 votes

Maybe kass q will help him early, and his ult counters azir's

DarthSpectrumAug 27, 20155 votes

Who did you play against Azir?

Azir is great against melee immobile match ups, but his atrocious early game makes him susceptible to both mages and assassins early game. He doesn't have any good match ups except for Heimerdinger , because Azir never has to get within turret range to clear them.

Even champions who are supposedly at a disadvantage such as Yasuo or Katarina (according to LoLCounters) can destroy Azir in lane.

Unless he is played top lane, I doubt he should have any advantage. I find that long range casters such as Xerath , Ziggs , Ezreal , and Varus work well against him. They can poke him from outside of the soldier range and can out burst him in a fight. Assassins such as Zed or Leblanc can also easily 100-0 Azir.

MLDzXnRRRAug 27, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Who did you play against Azir?

Azir is great against melee immobile match ups, but his atrocious early game makes him susceptible to both mages and assassins early game. He doesn't have any good match ups except for , because Azir never has to get within turret range to clear them.

Even champions who are supposedly at a disadvantage such as or (according to LoLCounters) can destroy Azir in lane.

Unless he is played top lane, I doubt he should have any advantage. I find that long range casters such as , , , and work well against him. They can poke him from outside of the soldier range and can out burst him in a fight. Assassins such as or can also easily 100-0 Azir.

Azir zones LB and Zed. Probably you have played vs really bad Azir. If they go in, they will lose at least half their hp bars. Later they can kill him 1v1, if he doesn't go Zhonya / Abyssal

GalewingsAug 27, 20155 votes

Azir is in all honestly an incredibly toxic and overloaded champion that gets a free pass for how broken he is because he's "hard to play".

I'm serious. This guy is an asshole. I mean look at him Azir He's a lane bully with a respectable mid game that transitions into a hypercarry. I mean really? Does anyone remember who the last mid lane early game bully who turned into a hypercarry late game was? Let me refresh you if you don't recall Cassiopeia And what happened to her? Yeah she was nerfed to oblivion and then thrown into the trashcan by riot so that they can "focus on other projects before revisiting soon TM."

It's just ridiculous how many things Azir has in his kit. Very long range poke, Turret building, free attack speed, mobility, Zoning, initiation, disengage, soft cc, hard cc, shielding, free harass because his soldier attacks count as auto attacks which scale with a stat he loves to build. The only things he lacks (which azir mains love to point out) are "natural tankiness and sustain". Because so many other mages in the game have that.

Ariel the CruelAug 27, 20151 votes

free attack speed

Azir gets the attack speed because all the attack speed items are inefficient on him. Tooth and wit's end are the only ones that aren't entirely useless, and they're still terribly cost inefficient.

mobility, ... initiation, disengage,...

These come from the same skill combo. It's like saying a champion is good at running away and chasing because they have a speed buff.

Zoning

He's supposed to be a zone control mage. With that in mind, this (and the turrets) are probably to most important parts of his kit.

hard cc

Unless I'm mistaken, they removed his collision knock-up which is actually a pretty big deal. Though he still has that ult, I supposed. Part of that initiation and disengage.

because his soldier attacks count as auto attacks which scale with a stat he loves to build.

His Soldiers count as spell damage and proc on-spell effects (AoE). They replace his auto attacks.

EDIT: I'm not here to defend him, I prefer to stay neutral. But some of the things you listed do exist for a reason. (whether or not they could be implemented better or not at all is a different topic.)

BhagswagAug 27, 20153 votes

No.

Leave him alone.

4ManVotedAgainstAug 27, 20152 votes

The only answer I have for Azir is Galio with a item 2041 + item 2003 + + item 2004 start OR a start of + + + depending on the likelihood of the Azir spamming harass on you or not (the first for cases of getting spammed by harass). Then I proceed to AA as many minions as possible at the beginning (i.e.: the MOMENT that ANY minions arrive in lane start auto-attacking them), also making sure to last-hit everything, and farm ONLY with Q (bonuses if the Azir can be simultaneously hit by your Galio Q).

I also usually pack a summoner 12 so that as soon as I have 900g I B to grab a item 3028 then return to lane immediately, and build item 3174 as first major item, usually able to win lane/turret by the time said item has been completed. The rest of Galio 's build should be self-explanatory except I often make a item 3512 right after my item 3111 .

Ariel the CruelAug 27, 20151 votes

I've played this match-up before! item 3060 is your friend.

FeathermaneAug 27, 20151 votes

I'm typically more disgusted at their damage. You actually can't afford getting hit more than once before popping a health potion.

ShénzhìAug 27, 20152 votes

sounds like Riven

VelgamAug 27, 20151 votes

easiest counter to azir, surprised no1 mentioned her as yet Karma

Lady HammerlockAug 27, 20154 votes

ahhhh karma its fun to delete 75% of a squishy targets health with a simple R+Q not to mention she is a buff hammer target

SyndrarellaAug 27, 20151 votes

[deleted]

Ariel the CruelAug 27, 20151 votes

Just be glad the bullshit knock up/knock back stun lock is gone.

Q) What did riot say was most problematic about Azir? A) His Q poke. Q) How did Riot resolve this problem? A) The buffed his Q poke and removed the knock-up.

Result: Azir became more mobile and was more dependent on his Q poke. Ironically, his Bruiser build which was dependent on the knock-up was deleted even though it relied on his DPS and played him the way he was intended.

Logic.

AltricadAug 27, 20151 votes

Honestly, they should just let the range at which he can control his soldiers( or the range at which they can exist before disappearing) scale with level

BOOM! Azir is no longer a lane bully, but scales up to late game Instead, they keep axing other parts of his kit over and over Rito pls

iltAug 27, 20151 votes

yeah... I have to trade half my hp for 2 minions

Yuri By MailAug 28, 20151 votes

Have you ever tried Morgana against him, and leveling w first? It gets easy farm if you're pushed under turret, and/or can put him in the same Catch-22 he's putting you in. Black shield also blocks the poke damage (because the wiki says it's magic anyways) and you have a great all-in at level 6 as well.