Dplus Kia entered the LCK 2024 Spring season on a rocky start, having made multiple roster changes, the most key one being the separation of their longtime jungle/mid duo, Canyon and Showmaker. Without the strong carry jungler around, Dplus Kia started looking lost in every game, eyes were on Showmaker to be the new carry that the team needed, to be the catalyst to push the new roster into playoffs.

It was the middle of week 4, the team was at the record of 3-5, having only beaten BRION, DRX and Nongshim RedForce, the three worst teams. The team was on an 8 game loss streak before taking down DRX, things needed to change, and that was when Showmaker pulled out a new trick on an old champ. Week 5 had started and their next opponent was FearX, another 3-5 team looking to make the playoff cut. The champ select went very standard, Showmaker locked in Azir as blue side pick 5 into Clozer’s Yone, it was when the game loaded that people noticed something different.

Grasp of the Undying, not a typical rune taken on Azir, paired with another atypical first item in Liandry’s Torment. He then went Frozen Heart second into Riftmaker third, a slight deviance as you will see later, capping off the build with an Abyssal Mask. The difference was not just in the items, but also his gameplay, Showmaker was a lot more aggressive, often seen dashing into the enemy and attempting to push multiple enemies back into his team with Emperor’s Divide. He singlehandedly carried his team into a winning position in an early Dragon fight, living long enough due to the tankiness from his rune choices and items, and then also starting off fights late game with his ultimate, winning his team the game. The following game, Showmaker picked Azir again, but this time into an Orianna. We see the exact same runes and the exact same first two items, Liandry’s into Frozen Heart, but this time with Abyssal Mask as the third item. Yet again, we see Showmaker survive situations where normal Azirs would die. He would engage fights knowing he had the tankiness to survive and bring his team another victory and the series win.

Showmaker would play Azir 3 more times after that, winning all 3 games. Dplus Kia was now 7-5, they have won their last 5 series in a row, on an upswing with the help of this unique Azir build. Unfortunately, that was the end to the reign of Showmaker’s Azir, on patch 14.4 and until the end of the season, Azir was disabled for pro play. With LCK entering playoffs, Azir is now re-enabled on patch 14.6, and so we await the potential of more tank Azir from Showmaker and other mid laners across the world.

Details of the Build

Let us now get into the details of this unique tank Azir build. To start off with, we have to look at the rune of choice, Grasp of the Undying. As an auto attack-based champion, it is very easy for Azir to proc Grasp, and with the changes to his soldiers applying on-hit effects, this meant Grasp can be proced by his soldiers. It is often that Azir would trade with W-Q-Auto in lane, and throughout the laning phase, this would accumulate multiple Grasp procs. We can see that in Showmaker’s first game, he gained 353 extra health from Grasp and Overgrowth by 20 minutes. With the new changes as well, some people have preferred to take Fleet Footwork for sustain in lane, and this is just another way of getting sustain while also stacking health. Demolish is also taken as the first row due to Azir’s nature to push into the opponent, allowing easy turret plates early. Second Wind and Conditioning are interchangeable in the second row, as they are more matchup dependent, with Conditioning being better against champions that are less likely to harass or trade autos. For example, against melee champions like Fizz or Yone, they are less likely to proc Second Wind as they focus more on short burst trades as opposed to champions like Orianna or Syndra who trade with autos and low cooldown abilities. The last row is always Overgrowth, as you get the most tankiness out of that slot.

The secondary runes are always Presence of Mind and Legend: Alacrity, ensuring you have mana in lane while also giving you the much needed Attack Speed missing from the build. The rune shard is Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, then scaling health or flat health depending on the matchup. Against aggressive junglers and laners, it would be better to take the flat health, but if you know you can survive the lane, then always take scaling health.

Now that we know the runes that are making Azir more tanky, let us go into the items. The most important item in this build is Liandry’s Torment. Liandry’s gives Azir the necessary damage to keep up with the enemy mid laner, while also giving some health as well. The most important aspect here, however, is the burn. By applying the burn to everything you hit with your abilities, you stay in combat, and that means your Grasp is always ticking. This way, the Grasp does not just expire, and you can ensure your Grasp autos are always active. Outside of this interaction, Liandry’s is one of the best items on Azir in general due to Azir thriving in extended fights, meaning he will always be attacking and also applying the burn to multiple targets.

The next item we look at is Frozen Heart, the mana item of choice here. While the normal Azir build currently does not have mana items, it is still a nice bonus to have in this build to stay in lane longer. The key aspect of Frozen Heart is this allows Azir to dash into the enemy team without being immediately burst. Not only that, but this is also a safety measure against enemy champions diving into your team. With the ADC being a high priority ult target, Frozen Heart also allows for Azir to reduce the damage output of the carry on top of any others around.

Oftentimes we will be facing champions with magic damage, this is where Abyssal Mask comes in, however this item can be skipped or built later if the threat is not significant enough. The point of Abyssal Mask is to get tank stats while also increasing you and your allies’ damage. As you will often be going in to push enemies into your team, you will reduce their magic resist as well, and do more damage yourself. With this and Frozen Heart, you will have armor, magic resist, a ton of health, and still have damage.

The last item to round out the build is Riftmaker, which can be built third if Abyssal Mask is not needed in that game. This item allows Azir to fully become a DPS threat, as you can survive fights, and still output considerable damage. Similar to Liandry’s, a great item in extended fights, and also giving health to make Azir even tankier. The additional health gained from the rest of the build will also mean Azir would gain a good chunk of AP from the Void Infusion passive.

To round out the build, the usual boots to go into are Sorcerer’s Shoes, but Mercury Treads can be built for easier laning phase against champions like Syndra or Ahri. The last item or any item substitution can include Zhonya’s Hourglass, Void Staff, Cryptbloom, Banshee’s Veil, Nashor’s Tooth, Rylai’s, or other defensive items. Morellonomicon can be built against champions with high healing, but should never be completed early, as Oblivion Orb is sufficient for the same purpose. Due to the difficulty to actually kill Azir with this build, Dark Seal can often be bought early and converted into Mejai’s Soulstealer if you do get a lot of kills and assists.

When to Go This Build

The key thing about this build is it is a situational build. The standard Azir build would do a lot more damage than the tank Azir build, but the difference is in playstyle and team composition. Ideally, you would want your teammates to have sufficient damage to make up for your lack of damage, this means a carry jungler, or a strong bruiser top. An AP jungler or top can also benefit from you building Abyssal Mask, and at the same time you can provide the engage for your team.

An AD bot is definitely preferred as a teammate, even someone like Yasuo, as they can definitely benefit from your ultimate. The build allows you to also turret dive with ease as you have the tankiness to tank the shots, and Zhonya’s makes it even easier. I do not recommend building tank Azir if you have multiple tanks on your team and you are one of the sole DPS threats. In those scenarios, you have a sufficient frontline to go standard while also having safety. It can also be detrimental if you fail to kill the enemy frontline because you have less damage, and so other sources of damage are essential. Another good time for this build is against heavy dive or assassins. It is always easier to get Grasp stacks against melee champions, not to mention the armor and health that comes with this build allows you to survive burst rotations.

The best part is sometimes you get to stand still and do damage, but when the enemy dives on you, you can survive as well. All you have to do is summon soldiers and right click. Azir also comes with many safety options built in, so it is already much harder to dive on Azir, and now that he can become a turret with massive health bars, he becomes an even bigger threat.

Conclusion

Be on the lookout for this build in pro play, outside of Showmaker, Jojopyun also made this build work in LCS. With Azir re-enabled across the world, we can definitely expect to see this build pop up, and I can only see tank Azir becoming better as more people pick it up and learn the intricacies.

For anyone who wants to play Azir, but finds themself often dying to enemy dives, or not knowing how to position properly, try this build out. It is a much easier Azir experience, and it allows you to limit test more since you can survive going in. If anyone enjoys Shurima Shufflling the entire team, then definitely try this build. You can often get away with diving into 5 people and surviving while setting up your entire team for success. So, what are you waiting for? Go into your next game and give it a try, you will definitely love it, and you get to see what it is like to be an unkillable Shuriman emperor.