Behold Azir, the ancient Emperor of the Sands, commander of the Shuriman armies, and the latest Champion to fall under the League of Legends Champion Spotlight.
As revealed in August , Azir is a summoner who calls forth Shuriman soldiers to do his bidding, backed by powerful spells that make life difficult for his opponents. "An emperor does not act; he commands," Riot's ZenonTheStoic , aka Champion Designer Daniel Klein, wrote in the Champion Insights section of the Azir reveal. "Internally, we call these champs 'minion-mancers.' Once we knew Azir would take on this kind of kit, we knew it was time to look at what does and doesn't work for these often-problematic designs."
Taking stock of previous "minion-mancer" characters like Heimerdinger, Elise, Malzahar and Yorick allowed Riot to "introduce appropriate trade-offs to Azir's kit," Klein explained. "With these weaknesses in place, we could make the soldiers very strong indeed; imagine if I told you that, given the right setup, your basic attack has 1200 range and hits units in an AOE."
The full low-down on Azir, the Emperor of the Sands, can be read at LeagueOfLegends.com .
