Item Science: A Closer Look at Azir Itemisation

Nashor’s Tooth. Morellonomicon. Luden’s Echo.

Nowadays seeing a Nashor’s Tooth Azir would be considered “troll” but there is still controversy over which of Azir's builds does more damage – especially now that Luden’s Echo has been released. For example, EULCS stars such as Roccat’s nukeduck facoured a Luden’s Echo second build in his game against Gambit that gave him a stronger immediate burst on his Q-auto poke.

Elsewhere in Korea players like SKT’s Easyhoon who is known for his Azir and Cassiopeia play prefer a build closer to the classic Orianna build of Rabadon’s Deathcap and Void Staff after his mana item. This build allows for the largest possible damage from Azir’s Q, E, and R. There are situations where the Void Staff could precede the Deathcap so both builds will be checked out.

Travelling this time to China and looking at Vici Gaming’s He Tong who prefers to throw a Stinger into his build you could be forgiven for assuming he was falling for the Nashor’s Tooth trap. However, the Stinger is never upgraded and bought purely for a midgame power spike then sold lategame for a better scaling AP item.

So which of these builds actually does the most damage?

Method

Four different builds were tested against level 13 targets; one squishy and one tanky. The squishy target was LeBlanc with 30MR. The tanky target was Shen with 135MR. The Azir was allowed to "free hit" the target and the damage was measured. Azir was also level 13 and maxed Q and E. All of Azir's skills were used in the combo as soon as they came off cooldown including his Ultimate.

The rune setup.

The mastery setup.

The Azir builds were as follows:

- Morellonomicon, Sorceror’s Shoes, Stinger, Needlessly Large Rod – 6,250G
- Morellonomicon, Sorceror’s Shoes, Luden's Echo, 6500G
- Morellonomicon, Sorceror’s Shoes, Rabadon's Deathcap, 6700G
- Morellonomicon, Sorceror’s Shoes, Void Staff, Blasting Wand – 6555G

 

Results

Squishy target:

Stinger
450dps x gold factor = 450dps

Luden’s
436dps x gold factor = 419dps

Deathcap
515dps x gold factor = 480dps

Void
457dps x gold factor = 457dps

 

Tanky target:

Stinger
228dps x gold factor = 228dps

Luden’s
285dps x gold factor = 273dps

Deathcap
241dps x gold factor = 224dps

Void
293dps x gold factor = 278dps

Conclusion

These results only really reveal which build does the highest damage in an extended fight. For burst in one spell like a Q-Auto in lane Luden’s would most likely be the best choice. Stinger also has other benefits to offer compared to other builds such as pushing waves using less mana. In dps terms the stinger results were disappointing but probably would improve around the 9000G mark when combined with a Deathcap or similar. The Luden's results were surprising that it did more damage in the tanky scenario, assumably this is because the "echo" proc occured multiple times against the tankier target.

However, as teamfighting is such a huge part of pro play, and to a lesser extent solo queue, it can be concluded that the “Orianna build” of Deathcap and Void Staff directly after Azir’s mana item produces the highest dps. Void Staff can even be built before the Deathcap if Azir has to dps Champions with some amount of Magic Resist over squishier targets.