A guide to playing/building Azir.

i'm going to explain in depth how to build, and how to play him.

I'll start with the build/runes.

9xflat cdr glyphs 9x magic pen marks 9x scaling health per level seals 2x flat cdr quints 1x magic pen quint

EXPLANATION- The point of these runes is to get as CLOSE to 20% flat cdr at level 1 as you can. the reason i choose flat runes instead of scaling runes is because as soon as i hit my first item built, i want to have as close to max CDR as i can for the bonus attack speed. that's where azir's damage lies. auto attacks with his soldiers. The scaling health runes are used because in general since armor runes got nerfed, i've much preferred 216 bonus health at level 18 over 9 flat armor at level 1. i tend to avoid fighting until level 3-4 when i can safely control the lane with my soldiers. magic pen runes because magic pen is always good.

ITEMS - people can say what they want. azir was MADE for this item. if you're running the runes above, this item maxes out your cdr when built(which also converts into extra attack speed), gives 40% additional attack speed, 80 ability power, and a neat little passive that makes last hitting and mana restoration via much quicker and easier. This usually brings me to about 1.2 or 1.3 AS along with 80 ap to tack onto my soldier's attacks. makes harassing a hell of a lot more mana efficient, and all around makes laning easier.

- Why berserker's greaves you say? why not ? I'll tell you why. no matter how you cut it, a measly 15 magic penetration with no other stats is not NEARLY as useful to azir as 20% bonus attack speed will be. you'll land more attacks. 2 attacks without 15 magic pen adds up to more damage than one attack with 15 magic pen. and you want to land as many attacks as you can in the shortest amount of time possible.

the next three items im listing should be built according to matchup. if they're rushing mr, go with option 1. if they're rushing damage are are a high burst champion, go with option 2. and if you feel like you're just ahead of CS/kills/gold in general, rush option 3. onto the items.

- Void staff is amazing for azir. azir is the ONLY champion who can make void staff essentially work like , only better. it gives 70 AP, which will tack onto your soldier's aa's and your q's damage even more, while also giving you even more damage via its passive of ignoring 35% of your enemy's current mr. it's nothing but a good idea to have this for azir.

- i shouldn't have to explain why this is a good item for ANY mid lane mage. it's 120 AP, 50 armor, and an active that can negate burst damage and buy you time for you to escape using r+w+e. Nuff' said.

- Another item i shouldn't have to explain much. 120 AP. 30% bonus AP. Azir loves AP. In conjunction with Nashor's it makes you hit like a truck regardless of whether or not someone has an MR item.

- this is usually the last item i build. it gives 50 bonus AP, makes up for the magic pen sacrificed by not getting sorcerer's shoes, gives you some health, and has a very useful %heath magic damage per second passive that synergizes well with azir's high sustained dps. with this item even the tankiest of mr tanks are jokes to you as you chunk them out for 5-10% of their HP per soldier AA.

Now we're onto how to actually play Azir.

LANING PHASE For levels 1-3, you should be last hitting without your soldiers as much as possible so as to conserve mana. play safe, avoid skillshots, and maybe occasionally harass the enemy laner(without wasting all of your mana) just to show him/her you mean business and give them something to worry about. Another thing to keep in mind, is for in lane harass, you NEVER want to have two soldiers out when you throw a Q at your enemy unless you're absolutely POSITIVE you're going to get the kill and no one else is coming. you want to save that extra soldier for the w+e if something goes south and you have a jungler, or the enemy mid AND the jungle rushing into your face. this rule applies for all levels.

For levels 4-9 start laying the harass down. you should have at least a piece to your nashor's tooth(i usually take stinger first just for the faster soldier aa's/easier csing what with the q nerfs). What you should plan to do is grab 3-4 cs via regular AA's, and then when your laner comes in closer drop a soldier+q on them. either they will decide to stay and try to farm, leaving them open to soldier aa's/chunked out of anywhere between 10-30% of their hp, or they'll back off a bit, leaving you free to regain some mana via doran's ring. the third option is that they decide to rush you. where you're forced with the decision to either E to them, or E away from them. use common sense. if you can't win definitively, don't e to them. rinse and repeat until you either force them to leave lane, or until you have enough gold to finish your nashor's. Roaming is kind of iffy just because azir doesn't have particularly insane mobility, or the damage early to compensate for said lack of mobility. it's very possible to roam and gank successfully, but it's a high risk high reward situation you should not go into unless you're absolutely sure you can.

at level 10+ you should have nashor's, boots, and at least part of your second damage item(remember the build order depends on matchup/enemy builds/your farm. if you have these, you can start roaming. the key to playing azir is to treat him like an assassin. by that i mean, try to get your teammates to initiate fights, wait an appropriate amount of time into the fight, and then blindside them with your q slow+e knockup and r displacement/damage. by the time you get through with this combo your q will almost be back up again to launch your soldiers into them again and aa them until they're dead. you should NEVER be leading the charge of your team. you're putting a bullseye on your forehead and asking to get focused.

remember, the main focus of azir is to farm and split push, and to assassinate squishies in teamfights. unless you get a big gold advantage early, you probably won't even be absolutely demolishing/facerolling the enemy. you'll just be the tipping point in teamfights that secures the win.

inb4-unranked. just because i don't have a rank doesn't mean i can't spend a large amount of time learning and experimenting with a champion to find what is the most effective build.