I've had a discussion with a friend earlier today on how to use the full potential of Azir's abilities and passive.
Some people play him full Attack Damage + CDR to profit from his passive 2% Attack Speed for every 1% CDR whereas others just want to play him as classic mage capitalizing on magic damage burst.
Am I wrong when I suggest to build AD and CDR on Azir? I'm thinking about a build similar to this:
Essence Reaver, The Black Cleaver, Zeke's Herald(or Zephyr – situational ), infinite edge, Trinity Force and Mercury's Treads boots.
Best Answer
The build you've mentioned isn't really that viable on Azir. Mainly due to the fact that he scales purely with AP and not with AD. While you could still attack with your basic attacks, his full potential lies in his Soldiers which scale only with AP.
So you're better off buying Abilitypower, Cooldownreduction and maybe even Attackspeed (Nashors tooth is a great item on him) since you will not only deal more damage in teamfights but you will also be safer while using your sand soldiers to attack.
Now if you build AD + Cooldown Reduction + Attackspeed (like the build you suggested), you will attack slightly faster with your soldiers but your soldiers won't deal any damage (simply 170 Damage at lvl 18). If you build AP + Cooldown Reduction + Attackspeed your soldiers will attack fast and they will also deal a huge amount of damage (170 + 70% of your AP at lvl 18).