Azzen’ka Item Builds

Core Items
These items are necessary in order to play Azzen’ka optimally. Only diverge from a core item if you are a very experienced player or you have a very good reason for doing so.

Orb of the Magi provides excellent amounts of ability power and HP. It also offers cooldown reduction and sustains him during the laning phase with its restorative passive.
A cautious Azzen’ka can use it to stay out in the lane nearly indefinitely without worrying about mana or health.

Frosty’s Revenge gives Azzen’Ka’s abilities an additional slow effect. This makes it much easier to land his spells and affect enemies with Sand Trap. This can be especially deadly during team fights, as Azzen’ka will have a much higher ability to disable the enemy team.

Hecate’s Diadem is necessary on practically every damage centric mage due to the extreme amounts of ability power. It will do more to buff up ability strength than nearly any other item Azzen’ka could buy due to how it amplifies the amount of ability power that every other item Azzen’ka builds.

Sample Item Builds

This build focuses on building Azzen’ka up into a heavy damage dealer. His long range harass will allow the sandman to tear away large parts of the enemy’s health with each successful hit. While squishy, the mage won’t be completely defenseless either. Orb of the Magi, Holy of Holies, and Frosty’s Revenge all provide him with some defensive stats to keep him from being immediately slain. He will still have to keep his distance from enemies to stay alive long, however, since the defensive stats are not enough to stave off most attackers for too long.

Here Azzen’ka is built more like a support than as a damaging mage. Frosty’s Revenge gives his abilities some additional stopping power in between petrifications while also making it easier to hit enemies with his mighty sand fist. We made sure to hit 40% cooldown reduction in this build so that Azzen’ka could spam his abilities and subsequently petrify enemies as much as possible.

A bit of an experimental build, this gives Azzen’ka a different approach to fights while also compensating for his main weakness: mobility. Both Zweihander and Frosty’s Revenge give him a nice bit of additional movement speed, bringing his speed up near 600 when paired with shoes. Azzen’ka will be less of a pure caster here, though, and will have to rely a bit on his normal attacks. His cooldowns are low enough-especially with the 30% cooldown reduction this build sports, that he will be able to cast abilities fairly regularly and thereby frequently benefit from Apocalypse’s on-hit bonus. This will pair with Zweihander to offer what is effectively a 4th damaging spell after an ability cast. Zweihander will also work along with his already impressive clear speed to allow him to rip through minion waves as he pushes or moves between lanes to gank.