Azir

No champion attacks quite like Azir. Instead of shooting enemies himself, he summons Sand Soldiers with Arise! and they strike for him, dealing magic damage in a line to everything they hit. This soldier-based combat makes him a hybrid — tagged as both mage and marksman — who builds ability power yet plays like a scaling auto-attacker, drumming sustained damage into fights from behind his tireless troops.

His spells all orbit soldier management. Conquering Sands sends every active soldier marching to a new location, damaging and slowing enemies they pass through — his main poke and repositioning tool. Shifting Sands lets Azir shield himself and dash to one of his soldiers, and if he collides with an enemy champion the dash stops and instantly readies a fresh soldier, enabling the aggressive drift-in engages that define his highlight plays. Emperor’s Divide summons a charging wall of soldiers that knocks enemies back, usable as a peel to wall off divers or, in expert hands, as the second half of the infamous shuffle: dash forward, then ult enemies backward into your own team. Even destroyed turrets serve him — Shurima’s Legacy raises a temporary Disc of the Sun from their ruins to hold territory.

Azir is a mid-lane staple with occasional ADC flex potential, prized for late-game teamfight output, safe long-range DPS and one of the highest skill ceilings in the game at difficulty 9. He suits perfectionists who accept a demanding early game in exchange for a champion whose ceiling is essentially unbounded.