Counter Guide
How to Beat Azir
Azir hits you with soldiers you can't target, and the one time you get close, a wall of them throws you back where you came from.
Laning against him is a slow bleed. His soldiers stab you from range while he stands behind them, and walking up to trade means walking into the spears. Most of his threat runs through those soldiers, though. He can't dash without one on the map, and a soldier only lives for ten seconds (less near your turret). Catch him in the gap between them and he has no way out. Whether he's worth banning is a question for our solo queue tier list, which gets rebuilt every patch.
Galio- Magic resistance or a magic shield, since nearly everything he does is magic damage
- A way onto him when his soldiers are down or out of place
Who Beats Azir on Patch 26.18
Best Picks Into Azir
- Galio424 games57.6%
Xerath661 games57.5%
Viktor1,107 games57.1%
LeBlanc672 games56.9%
Sylas863 games55.7%
Picks Azir Beats
Orianna559 games46.7%
Win rates are for the champion listed, in the mid lane against Azir. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 22,238 Azir games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.
Azir Overview
Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous
- His soldiers are untargetable. A soldier from Arise! [W] can't be attacked or killed. You can only wait out its ten seconds, and he keeps up to two stocked (they recharge on their own).
- Emperor's Divide [R] sends you the wrong way. A line of soldiers charges out, knocks you back in the direction he aimed it (usually toward his own team) and then stays put as a wall for five seconds. His team walks through it and yours can't.
- He moves the whole army at once. Conquering Sands [Q] sends every soldier he has to one spot, slowing whatever they pass through, so a fight that looked out of his range usually isn't.
- Your lost turrets become his. Once one of your turrets outside the base falls, he can raise a Sun Disc from its ruins that works like an inner turret on his side.
Weaknesses: Where You Get In
- No soldier, no escape. Shifting Sands [E] dashes him to a soldier and Conquering Sands [Q] moves them. Neither one can be cast with no soldier on the map.
- Soldiers die fast near your turret. They expire twice as quickly inside enemy turret range, so he can't siege a tower the way he pokes in the middle of the lane.
- Magic resist works on all of it. His soldiers, his dash and his ultimate all deal magic damage.
- The ultimate is slow to come back (two minutes, and ranking it up doesn't shorten that), and without it he has no way to peel a diver off himself.
Countering Azir
You only need one of these:
- Stack magic resistance early. Every spear is magic damage, and a trade he used to win by a bar of health turns into an even one.
- Go in when the soldiers are gone. He shoves hard with them. Once both have run out and he has no stock left to place, Shifting Sands [E] has nowhere to take him and he's stuck walking.
- Fight near your own turret. His soldiers crumble twice as fast there, and his whole kit gets shorter.
Already locked in without a counter? The lane is still playable.
Playing Into Azir Without a Counter
Don't stand behind the minions he's stabbing. Each spear carries on through its target in a line, so a soldier farming the wave hits you too.
Count his soldiers before you step up. With one out or a stock ready, he can drop a soldier and dash to it. With none, he can't use his escape at all.
Hold Flash until you see where Emperor's Divide [R] is aimed. It throws you wherever he aims it (usually into his team), and Flash is how you get back out.
Best Azir Counters
These three beat him in different ways. Take whichever suits how you already play.
Galio Eats the Magic Damage
Galio carries a magic shield worth a slice of his maximum health (it comes back once he stops taking damage for a while). Azir's poke hits that shield first. When Galio charges Shield of Durand [W], he also cuts magic damage by a quarter or more, so a soldier fight at close range goes badly for Azir.
Justice Punch [E] dashes 650 units and knocks up the first champion it meets (Galio stops there, right on top of him). Aim it when Azir has no soldier out. He has no dash to answer with, and the taunt from Shield of Durand [W] makes him walk straight at Galio.
Xerath Hits From Past the Soldiers
Azir can only place a soldier 525 units from himself, and the spear adds a few hundred more. A fully charged Arcanopulse [Q] reaches 1450. Xerath pokes from outside the whole formation, and Azir either walks into range or loses the lane slowly. Shocking Orb [E] stuns for longer the farther it travels (up to 2.25 seconds from max range), so an Azir who steps up to place a soldier gets punished for it.
LeBlanc Gets In and Out
Distortion [W] dashes her 600 units onto Azir and lets her blink back to where she started any time in the next four seconds (from any distance). She can land a combo and be gone before his soldiers turn around.
Ethereal Chains [E] tethers him, and if it's still attached after a second and a half he's rooted (for another second and a half). Walking or dashing out of range breaks the tether. With no soldier out, he can't dash, and he usually can't walk far enough in time.
Itemizing Against Azir
Mercury's Treads give you magic resist from the boots slot, and the tenacity doesn't hurt either. Force of Nature suits him better than most mages, because it wants eight hits of magic damage before it switches on and his soldiers deliver those quickly. Kaenic Rookern puts up a magic shield after fifteen seconds without taking magic damage, which is the gap between his pokes if you stand back. On a mage, Banshee's Veil blocks the next ability that hits you, and that's often Emperor's Divide [R].
Where Azir Sits Right Now
Counter picks move with the patch, so check the current numbers before you trust a matchup:
- League of Legends Solo Queue Tier List, updated every patch
- Tier List Changelog, for what moved and why
- How to Beat Every Champion, for every other matchup guide
