Azad: Lancer Hero Guide

Generation 1 · Epic · Lancer
Azad portrait: Lancer, Epic, Gen 1
Azad
Lancer
Click card for details on back
Azad splash artEpic rarity
Gen 1Farmable
Build him for his unique joiner hero ability for PvP which keeps him relevant in later generations.
The enemy never noticed him, but the math did.
Azad portrait: Lancer, Epic, Gen 1
Azad
Lancer
  • Unique joiner skill code for PvP rally situations which is his primary use in game
  • Some limited utility in speeding up Thora marches for better cycle time of stamina saving skill
  • Skill kit not competitive for Conquest and Arena, even during early days of the game
Bear Rally Lead
Bear Joiner
PvP Rally Lead
PvP Garrison Lead
PvP Joiner
Solo March Combat
Arena/Conquest
Click to see front

Strat Game Sloth Strategic Summary

Azad is underwhelming in Lordrush's Expedition mode overall, but comes with a saving grace. His first position skill, Desert Eclipse, provides a guaranteed 20% reduction to enemy damage dealt. While this is statistically inferior to the 25% stat-boosting benefits provided by Flint due to how the combat formula works, this is a very uncommon skill code which increases its likelihood of having a multiplicative relationship with other skills in a large rally, thus increasing the overall effective multiplier for alliances that coordinate joiners well. His Pathfinder skill, which increases march speed strictly for solo wilderness marches, has limited utility. There are very few uses for this beyond minor quality of life improvements for free-to-play players who are not buying the monthly card with auto-march bonuses. Frequently, this ability will be used when coupled with Thora in the archer slot of the march in order for her to return quicker for subsequent use of her stamina saving ability. This has some practical use cases when trying to score points quickly in events that reward efficient beast combat cycle time, but it is not enough to make him a priority to build before other early-game heroes. For Conquest and Arena mode, Azad is a relatively weak choice among the purple rarity roster. His signature ability, Sandstorm, attempts to debuff the entire enemy field by reducing attack, but its effectiveness is crippled by a mere 2-second uptime and a slow 7-second initial cast delay, which falls after most enemies have launched their initial signature abilities. While his second ability offers a significant 35% area attack buff, most of your damage dealers will have already cycled their signature moves before it triggers and they might not be in the effect range anyway. Furthermore, his third skill provides a personal attack speed increase that clashes with his intended role as a team-wide support character and limited attack stat. Governors are advised to avoid including Azad in tactical formations in favor of heroes with higher uptime and more consistent impact, only investing in his Conquest skills for completionist purposes once all other primary purple heroes are maxed.

Optimize Azad's gear

In-Game Skills

Conquest Skills (base)

Sandstorm
The blinding sandstorm reduces all Enemy Squads' Attack by 5% for 2s.
L11%L22%L33%L44%L55%
Eagle Wings
After unleashing the "Sandstorm", Azad's eagle directs allies' attack, increasing his and nearby friendly Squads' Attack by 35% for 2s.
L115%L220%L325%L430%L535%
Dune General
The harsh desert has given Azad a strong sense for when to pounce, increasing his Attack Speed by 30%.
L110%L215%L320%L425%L530%

Expedition Skills (passive / proc)

Desert Eclipse
A rising cloud of sand is terrible for visibility, reducing all Enemy Squads' Damage Dealt by 20%.
L14%L28%L312%L416%L520%
passive
Pathfinder
Azad has always been a pathfinder for his warriors, increasing Solo Hunting March Speed by 100%.
L120%L240%L360%L480%L5100%
passive

Stats at 5-Star Max

Conquest

Hero Attack
1,776
Hero Defense
2,220
Hero Health
17,760

Expedition

Lancer Attack
+140.11%
Lancer Defense
+140.11%

Hero Story

Story I
Azad's golden pauldrons are not vanity—they are a beacon for lost travelers under the blazing sun. No longer hiding on horseback from the wind and sand, he stands proudly before the oasis monument, carving the first law of the land: "All who enter this city are brothers." Through deep gaze, he perceives every restless heart, dissipating hidden hatred with just justice.
Story II
When the town bell tolls, Azad removes his gauntlets and lifts kneeling strangers with calloused hands. He refuses lavish gifts, asking merchants instead to carry a bag of drought-resistant seeds named "Hope," promising to plant them in distant lands. His glory lies not in conquest, but in the compassionate heartbeat beneath the emerald velvet robe. In this wasteland, he is the only man hailed as a "sage" without claiming dominion through force.
Story III
Azad tells no fairy tales, only sharing wisdom of stars, water, and peace. In quiet libraries, he teaches young successors, reconstructing techniques buried by war. He believes words should cut sharper than arrows, and ideas outlast the charge of horses. Reverence for knowledge transforms the oasis into not just a refuge, but the final cultural repository of the continent.
Story IV
Azad's double-edged blade, adorned with intricate patterns, has never drawn a drop of human blood in ten long years. Not from weakness, but because he sees force as the final safeguard: his hand on the hilt calms rage; sheathing the sword grants chance for redemption. During sandstorm ambushes, he foregoes retreat, standing alone at the storm's edge, using armor and spine to uphold the crumbling windbreak. Surviving such perils is perhaps fate's reward for his unwavering purity of conviction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I invest in Azad?

The decision about whether or not to invest in a given hero is a personal one based on a variety of factors, including:

  • How effectively the hero plays certain roles (like Bear Hunt rally lead, Castle/Garrison defender, etc.)
  • What alternative heroes you already have access to which can play those roles
  • The amount of other resources you have like general (“orange”) hero shards, widgets, and skill books, and your budget or willingness to acquire additional resources through packs.

While this hero details page speaks in-depth about how effectively Azad plays each of the possible roles in game, it does not take into account the personal factors involved in the decision.

OK, but how do I tell how Azad compares to alternative heroes for the same role?

In addition to the detailed Azad analysis on this page, we also have other elements of the Hero Optimizer module that allow you to compare Lordrush heroes in multiple ways.

We have created hero tier lists for each role a hero can play (e.g. Bear Hunt rally leader). These tier lists are presented as a snapshot for each hero generation so you can eventually see the movement of heroes between tiers over time, such as Azad entering in Generation 1 to future hero generations. We also have filters so you can sort for e.g. only archers, infantry, or lancer heroes that play that role, making it easier to fill in gaps in your hero roster. You can find the tier list view of the module here: [link]

Additionally, we have a hero compare view that allows you to directly compare the stats, abilities, and other elements between two heroes. This can help you make more informed decisions about whether or not it is time to replace your Azad with a different hero. You can find the Hero Compare view of the Hero Optimizer module here: [link]

How should I think about building hero gear for Azad?

Unlike many other hero roster builder games, Lordrush does not really have a mechanism by which you are rewarded for building hero gear differently for specific heroes like Azad. Hero gear is fully portable from one hero to another when you replace that hero in your roster and there are no synergies between hero skills and specific gear investments.

While it does not make sense to think of hero gear in terms of what works best for Azad specifically, there are considerations you should make around prioritizing hero gear investment for all lancers like Azad. That is because different stats on different troop types have different values. For example, an extra point of health on infantry is much more valuable than an extra point of health on lancers due to differences in troop base stats, combat simulation targeting logic, and other factors.

The implication of all this is that your question of what hero gear to build can be safely decoupled from the choice of hero to invest in. However, hero gear is still a question of supreme importance in Lordrush. So if you want to step up your game on the hero gear front, then check out the Hero Gear Optimizer [link] today!

It will allow you to see which gear piece you should prioritize next, give advice on reforging to more efficiently use your accumulated gear experience, and let you know where your next hero gear bottleneck comes from, e.g. a shortage of forgehammers. It takes into account the relative value of different stat points on different troop types, not just aggregate stat gain overall.

How do you validate the claims about Azad’s skills made on this page?

Great question! You have a right to be skeptical given the amount of randomness of battles, the limited information available in battle reports, and the rampant rumors about heroes that spread throughout the Lordrush community.

All of our claims are made from our own direct testing of hero mechanics. We do not simply repeat rumors unless we can provably verify them ourselves, which sometimes leads to our analysis feeling out of sync with conventional wisdom of these heroes. But we see this as a key differentiator of our work compared to other guides out there!

Our protocol follows a unit testing logic whereby we will isolate one hero ability at a time and run battles in-game with only tier 6 non-Truegold troops. We do this to remove any randomness from the native troop abilities. Because we have reverse engineered the relevant combat formulas into a simulator, we can predict the outcome of battles down to exact damage on a Bear Hunt or exact troop loss figured in a PvP match.

We continue running battles in-game and updating the code in the simulator for that hero until we can predict the results to 99%+ accuracy. This is easier for skills that are flat damage increases (e.g. +25% to lethality) than it is for random chance-based skills. The latter requires us to run 40+ in-game battles to compare the distribution curve of outcomes to our combat’s simulator’s outcomes and expected values.

Once that ability is coded in and known, then we move on to unit testing the next ability. This is necessary when evaluating how skill 2 or skill 3 works on a mythic hero since they cannot be unlocked without having the prior skills present.

Then when all skills for a given hero have passed unit testing, we perform system testing for the whole hero on a variety of combat settings which again requires evaluating a range of battle outcomes. Again, we target 99%+ predictive accuracy before moving on to another hero.

We believe this approach gives much more certainty to any claims we make about Azad’s skills, or any given hero’s skills for that matter. The testing process is long and painstaking. It can take many months to “process” each new hero generation.

Do all heroes eventually become available with Gold Keys?

If Lordrush follows the same design pattern as Kingshot (and so far all indications are yes), then almost all heroes become available with Gold Keys, but there are some exceptions. In the Hero Hall (not to be confused with the “Hall of Heroes”), players can do an “Epic Recruitment” of heroes with the Gold Key item. At the start of the game, this only includes Isabelle and the starter purple and blue heroes (except for Thora, which has her own event to acquire).

When Generation 4 comes to your Empire, it is expected that the Mythic heroes of Generation 2 will be added to the Gold Key loot pool when selecting Epic Recruitment. Then, when you reach Generation 5, the Generation 3 heroes will be added to the Gold Key loot pool. This pattern continues where each new generation brings the heroes from two generations prior into the Gold Key loot pool.

The notable exceptions to this are the pay-to-win Generation 1 heroes Valky and Sebastian, and for some odd reason, Porter. While there are no ways besides pack purchases to get more Valky or Sebastian hero shards, we expect you will at least be able to continue building Porter by spending tickets (which can be purchased in limited quantities with gems) in the Hall of Heroes during future hero generations. This can be an alternative to using orange shards.

How do I support the work you are doing on the Lordrush Hub website?

Thank you for thinking of us! There are two main ways. First, if you have any feedback about how to improve the website, we would love to hear about it! This can be for the Azad details page, the Hero module overall, or even the Lordrush Hub website experience overall. You can do this by using our built-in bug reporter tool, joining our Discord, and other methods found here: https://lordrushhub.com/contact

We also offer a variety of ways to support us to help keep the lights on for our hosting, CPU, and other administrative costs while keeping the website free for all users. This can be as simple as turning off your ad blocker for our website to direct donations, or channeling your in-game spend through our creator codes from partners. For the most up-to-date list of ways to support, check out here: https://lordrushhub.com/support