14 DAY TRIAL // Riot Games has just revealed a series of comprehensive gameplay tips for Azir, the next big champion coming to League of Legends, its massively popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) experience.
League of Legends is set to see quite a lot of big tournaments in the upcoming months, but this doesn't mean that developer Riot Games is unwilling to make experiments or add new champions to the ever-increasing roster of characters in the popular game.
After overhauling the League of Legends client last week, Riot announces that the next champion coming to the game is Azir, the Emperor of the Sands.
After detailing his abilities that revolve around summoning and manipulating soldiers made of sand, Riot has offered a few gameplay tips and tricks on its website, concerning Azir, so that new players can make the most out of the imposing champion.
As you can imagine, the biggest ability, Arise, which summons a sand soldier, is quite important in ensuring that Azir is a force to be reckoned with.
"Azir is a mage who summons Shuriman soldiers to control the battlefield and basic attack for him. The soldier’s piercing basic attacks furnish most of Azir’s damage potential, making him an outlier amongst mages as a right-click-focused champion. Azir’s spells, on the other hand, manipulate his and his soldiers’ positions to keep him safe and establish dangerous no-go zones for his enemies."
Further manipulating the soldiers through abilities like Conquering Sands, which orders them to rush a target position, Shifting Sands, which allows Azir to rush to a target soldier, or Emperor's Divide, which creates a phalanx of soldiers that move to a target location, sweeping everything in their way and transforming into a solid wall.
In teamfights, these abilities can make or break the battle, dividing enemies from one another or sealing off their exits from the jungle.
"If teamfights take a roadtrip, Azir must be judicious with Arise and Conquering Sands, moving his zone of control along with the combatants. Post-initiation, Azir’s an expert at punishing uncoordinated enemies. Shifting Sands—combined with Azir’s ultimate—separates enemy front-liners from their damage dealing dependents, dividing the enemy team for methodical conquering," Riot explained.
"With the baddies split, Azir charges his soldiers in for the kill, pumping out marksman-level sustained damage until none challenge his rule."
Disc of the Sun, the special ability that allows Azir to summon a temporary turret on the base of a fallen one can work wonders in generating a siege on the enemy base but also to push back foes from attacking your own base.
Look forward to hearing more about Azir in the following weeks, as we get closer to his release first in the Public Beta Environment for League of Legends.