Azir Counters: Who Beats Azir

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Azir counters are champions who reach the Emperor himself instead of trading with his soldiers, or who simply out-range the whole sand setup. He’s a 525-range mage who fights through Sand Soldiers, and his only escape, Shifting Sands, has to travel to one of them.

The five picks below were matched against his patch 26.21 ability text, kit against kit. No win-rate numbers went into the list.

What makes Azir hard to lane against?

• Shurima’s Legacy (passive): he can summon the Disc of the Sun from the ruins of an allied or enemy turret.
• Conquering Sands (Q): sends every Sand Soldier toward a location; they deal magic damage to enemies they pass through and slow for 1 second. Cooldown 14/12/10/8/6.
• Arise! (W): summons a Sand Soldier that attacks for him, replacing his basic attack on targets within the soldier’s range, hitting enemies in a line. Cooldown 1.5.
• Shifting Sands (E): a brief shield and a dash to one of his soldiers; if he hits an enemy champion, he halts and readies a new soldier at once. Cooldown 22/20.5/19/17.5/16.
• Emperor’s Divide (R): a wall of soldiers charges forward, knocking enemies back and damaging them. Cooldown 120/105/90.

The soldiers are the problem (well, mostly). Azir stands behind them and pokes in lines, so walking up to trade usually means eating soldier hits while he stays safe at the back, and the knockback wall from Emperor’s Divide sends anyone who dives him straight back where they came from. But look at where his mobility comes from. Shifting Sands only goes to a soldier, which means if there’s no soldier in the right spot, there’s no escape at all (and a 22 second wait at rank 1 if he already spent it). Counters exploit that gap: they get on top of him with dashes he can’t predict, they burst him in one rotation, or they hit him from farther away than his soldiers reach.

Who are the best Azir counters in mid?

LeBlanc

Distortion (W) dashes LeBlanc to a spot, damages enemies near where she lands, and for 4 seconds lets her snap back to her starting point. That’s an all-in with a built-in exit, which is exactly what Azir’s soldier wall struggles with. Sigil of Malice (Q) marks him, the next ability detonates the mark for extra damage, and Ethereal Chains (E) roots him if he stays shackled for 1.5 seconds. Can he dash out of the chain? Only toward a soldier, and the chain leash is short. Mimic (R) copies one of her basic spells, so the combo hits twice, and Mirror Image (passive) turns her invisible for 1 second and drops a decoy once her Health runs low, which wastes Conquering Sands on the wrong target (the decoy deals no damage, but he can’t always tell).

Fizz

Playful / Trickster (E) makes Fizz untargetable on his spear, and that’s the cleanest answer to Emperor’s Divide in this list: time the hop and the wall walks right past him. From there it’s simple: Urchin Strike (Q) carries him straight through the Emperor, the trident bleed from W keeps ticking, and the shark from Chum the Waters (R) lifts Azir off his feet after a short slow. Funny enough, the knock-up matters more than the damage. A knocked-up Azir can’t cast Shifting Sands, so his one escape stays on the shelf. Nimble Fighter (passive) lets Fizz move through units and shaves a flat amount from every hit, which adds up against soldier attacks that land many small hits instead of one big one.

Talon

Assassin’s Path (E) vaults Talon over any terrain or structure, so he roams around the mid lane walls and shows up next to Azir from an angle the soldiers aren’t covering. Noxian Diplomacy (Q) leaps to a target out of melee range and stabs, Rake (W) sends daggers out and back for physical damage plus a slow on the return, and Blade’s End (passive) stacks Wounds from his spells, then makes the next attack on a three-stack target bleed hard. Shadow Assault (R) turns him invisible with extra Move Speed, and the blades converge wherever he reappears. Real talk, Talon kills Azir in the time it takes him to find a soldier to dash to.

Syndra

Syndra wins on range. Her 550 basic attack range edges past Azir’s 525, and Dark Sphere (Q) lands magic damage on him from behind his own soldiers. Scatter the Weak (E) knocks enemies and spheres back and stuns anyone a sphere hits, so a sphere in front of Azir becomes a stun on him. Force of Will (W) can grab a minion or a sphere and toss it to slow him, and her R fires every sphere she’s holding at a single champion. Transcendent (passive) upgrades each ability with Splinters of Wrath; the ultimate’s upgrade executes low Health targets. Honestly, the stun is the whole matchup.

Xerath

Arcanopulse (Q) is a long-range beam, Eye of Destruction (W) calls down a barrage that slows and hits harder in the center, and Shocking Orb (E) stuns. None of these care about soldiers, since Xerath aims at the Emperor from a distance Azir’s sand never reaches. Rite of the Arcane (R) roots Xerath in place for a stack of long-range barrages (the trade-off is that he can’t move while casting it). Mana Surge (passive) restores Mana on basic attacks, which keeps the poke going through a long lane. The catch? Xerath has no dash, sure, so a good Shifting Sands into Emperor’s Divide lands on him hard. Keep your distance and it rarely gets that far.

How should Azir counters play the lane?

• Track the soldiers, not Azir. Shifting Sands only dashes to a soldier, so his escape path is wherever his last soldier stands.
• Stand outside soldier reach. Arise! replaces his basic attack only on targets near a soldier, and each soldier hits in a line.
• Trade after Shifting Sands. Once he spends it, he waits 22 seconds at rank 1 with no way to move except walking.
• Don’t dive him under his own turret at level 6. Emperor’s Divide knocks you back toward his side.
• Watch for the Disc of the Sun. Shurima’s Legacy lets him summon it from a destroyed turret, allied or enemy.

Which items help Azir counters?

Magic Resist, and a tool for the knockback. All of his damage comes through soldiers as magic damage, so Mercury’s Treads give 20 Magic Resist plus Tenacity, and Banshee’s Veil blocks one enemy ability; pop it before you walk in and Emperor’s Divide may be the spell it eats. Zhonya’s Hourglass puts you in stasis for 2.5 seconds, which buys time while his soldiers expire. Fighters can take Wit’s End for magic resist with attack speed. For what it’s worth, every one of these is listed with full stats, build paths included, in our item catalog.

When is Azir weakest?

Early. Before Conquering Sands has the ranks to come back every few seconds, Azir counters get their cleanest windows. At 14 seconds on rank 1 it’s a long wait, and his soldier poke runs on Arise!’s 1.5 second cooldown, which is cheap to cast but still needs him close enough to place soldiers near you. Thing is, LeBlanc and Talon do their best work right here, in the first few levels, before the soldiers start coming back faster than anyone can punish them.

And after he burns Shifting Sands. Is there a second escape? No: once the dash is gone, a single stun from Syndra or Xerath leaves him standing in the open with only the shield he already spent. To be fair, a strong Azir knows this and holds the dash; your job is to make him use it on offense first.

New to the mid role? Our rundown of LoL roles covers the basics. Other champions we’ve written up live in the full guide list, his cosmetics sit on the Azir skins page, and his one-lane version has an Azir ARAM guide. In short, Azir counters go around the soldiers and catch him without his dash.

FAQ

Who counters Azir the best?

Champions who burst him through his soldiers or out-range them: LeBlanc, Fizz, Talon, Syndra and Xerath.

Can Azir dash without a soldier?

No. Shifting Sands dashes him to one of his Sand Soldiers, so it needs a soldier on the field.

How do you dodge Emperor’s Divide?

Fizz’s Playful / Trickster makes him untargetable, and Banshee’s Veil blocks the next enemy ability. Otherwise, stay out of the soldier wall’s path.

What is the cooldown of Shifting Sands?

Shifting Sands has a cooldown of 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 seconds.

How were these Azir counters chosen?

Each champion was chosen for reaching Azir past his soldiers, stunning him without his dash, or out-ranging the sand, judged from patch 26.21 ability text. Win rates were not used.