Ezreal Build Guide by IKai

Introduction

Hello all. This is '1caiser', and I bring to you my first guide on MOBAFire on Ezreal.

Ezreal is obviously one of the best hybrids in the game; actually more appropriately, the best RANGED Hybrid Carry in the game. As much as I want to plop everything down in the introduction, I would just bore everyone for not making a guide in the first place.

Ezreal was probably the fifth champion I bought, after Lux. After playing against an Ezreal did I notice how OP he was: An extremely long-range Physical Damaging skill ( Mystic Shot), a skill with a blink ( Arcane Shift), and THAT GLOBAL MASS DAMAGE ( Trueshot Barrage)!

Now, it's time for a true display of skill!

Lore

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Ezreal was born with the gift of magic flowing through his veins. Ezreal, however, was also born with a much stronger sense of wanderlust. Put into school to become a skilled techmaturgist, Ezreal quickly became bored with magical studies. By the time the boy genius was eight years old, he had fully mapped out the underground tunnels of Piltover. The quality of his work was so great that the government of Piltover purchased his maps and salaried his services as Piltover's Grandmaster Explorer. This sealed the deal on Ezreal's path in life - he would eschew the arcane arts in favor of archaeology. Since then, countless of Ezreal's adventures have been written about as romanticized stories. One of Ezreal's latest adventures, however, has brought him face-to-face with his other legacy - his latent magical power. While exploring the pyramids of Shurima Desert, Ezreal uncovered an amulet of incredible power. Aside from the sheer size of the amulet (it was made for a being easily twice Ezreal's size), it allows the wielder to control and shape magical energy - provided a source of magic is in the vicinity. This allowed Ezreal to tap into his natural talent for magic without having to put any serious effort into it - a big win for the Prodigal Explorer. The drawback is that for some unknown reason, the amulet is attuned with summoning magic. Without warning, Ezreal may find himself acting as a champion for, as he puts it, "a summoner hell-bent on resolving some irrelevant world-shattering League conflict." Still, Ezreal feels being summoned into a Field of Justice on occasion is a small price to pay. "There's little time to study musty tomes when you're busy crawling around where the musty tomes originally came from." Ezreal

Pros / Cons

Pros + Generally easy to learn + Lots of Ranged Harrass + Large amounts of burst damage + Built-in Flash skill + Global Range Ultimate !

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Pros / Cons

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Cons - Hard to master - Most skills are Skill-shots - Squishy without sustain items - CC practically melts him - Early-game advantage is a must

Runes

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Start with more damage, meaning more harass to dominate the lane, early game. Mystic Shot does damage plus your base damage, so you want to get as much damage as possible.
• Greater Seal of Armor: More armor = more survivability. Stay in lane against the autoattack harass you're receiving. "Survivability is the key to being to stay in the fight more, and dish out that damage."
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: The game goes on, and this ensures that you survive magic damage. "Survivability is the key to being to stay in the fight more, and dish out that damage."
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: See what I had written for " Greater Mark of Attack Damage."
  

• greater mark of desolation/ greater quintessence of desolation: A possible replacement for the Strength Marks you don't have, although Armor Penetration is in a way better in late game than early game. But, as I said: "Early-game domination..."
• Greater Mark of Attack Speed/ Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed: Yes, more Attack Speed is nice, you can get enough of that as the game progresses, or just land more abilities thanks to Rising Spell Force.
• greater seal of endurance: Health is a nice addition, and it will give more bonuses the more health-based items you get. Up to you on whether you want armor or plus health by max health point percentage.
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power: Give yourself a bit of Ability Power for a bit more damage! Not really recommended, as your skills don't scale Ability Power very high (save for 0.9 ratio Trueshot Barrage).
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: Not really recommended, you're better off having some Magic Resist than spamming your abilities (which are fairly low, anyways). Besides, you'll get enough of it in items.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Have a little movement speed to go around with. A nice alternative for Quintessences if you are short on Physical-effect runes and such.

Masteries

Take 26-4-0 in Masteries and you're set in becoming official Hybrid. Both Attack and Magic offensive milestones keep your Attack Damage up and allow your Essence Flux, Arcane Shift, and Trueshot Barrage to pierce your enemy's magic resistance, while Mystic Shot becomes all the more useful.

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Summoner's Wrath : Give your Exhaust an additional ability: Decrease their defense! It is also viable for other Summoner Spells like Ghost ang Ignite. Brute Force : +3 to your Attack Damage. Great for Mystic Shot and later Trueshot Barrage. Alacrity : Here's a little bump for Attack Speed, and also opens up the path for Weapon Expertise . Sorcery : You're going to be casting a lot of abilities, so this helps a little in making cooldowns shorter, and opens up Arcane Knowledge . Deadliness : More Attack Damage anyone? Gives a nice addition of the stat as the game progesses. Weapon Expertise : Armor penetration! Since your Mystic Shot deals physical damage, this mastery point gives 10% Armor Penetration, as well as for your autoattacks. Arcane Knowledge : Magic penetration! Essence Flux, Arcane Shift, and Trueshot Barrage deal magic damage, so what's not to like into having 10% Magic Penetration? Lethality : With the Trinity Force and Infinity Edge you're getting later, you'll be doing 260% of your normal damages if you hit critically. Any AD Carry should have this. Vampirism : You don't get much out of the main starting build, but it seems to be more reliable in having than Havoc . Plus, it makes up for that Lifesteal nerf Riot did some few patches ago. Sunder : More armor penetration. Need I say more? Executioner : Now this definitely ensures kills with low health champions ready to be picked off with Trueshot Barrage, or just having them drown in the number of Mystic Shots you are firing at them.

Resistance : Have some magic resist. Hardiness : Have some armor too.

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Summoner Spells

• Exhaust will slow enemies and take away a majority of their damage to either allow you to escape or ensure a kill. An excellent example of a Spell used for Attack and Defense purposes.
• Flash carries you a distance away. It is just like your Arcane Shift, minus the mini-nuke (or the various item Attack Buff(s)). Make distance between you and your enemies by flashing through a wall, or get close enough to Mystic Shot them for a kill!

• Teleport Pretty useful Summoner, although you should only get it if others have Exhaust, Heal, etc. Teleport to wherever there is a friendly (non-champion) unit and jump into the team fight, steal an objective, or just go farming some minions.
• Ignite: The only Summoner used solely for offense. Nice way to finish people off, but you have your Ultimate, Trueshot Barrage, to do the trick. Use only if other Summoner Spells have been taken, or you're having trouble landing that Ult.
• Heal: Every AD Carry should have this. Gives you a boost in survivability, saving yourself from that last autoattack or spell, leaving you at around 50 or less HP...
• Ghost makes you run faster and faster. Along with the phase-effect, it's convenient to run through the minions and Mystic Shot kill your target.
• Cleanse: One of the most underlooked Summoner Spells, this Summoner can pull out out of really tight spots. Along with Ghost, you're pretty much unable to be caught... unless it's on cooldown.

Abilities

Mystic Shot The bread and butter of Ezreal; his main damage output, along with it's quick cooldown, bursty damage, and the ability to reduce cooldowns of his abilities by one second. Along with the Sorcery mastery, and at Rank 5, Mystic Shots can be fired every half-second (if it hits a target). Your ultimate will come off its cooldown if your mana can be sustained. Plus, it adds on-hit effects, such as the slow effect from Phage or Frozen Mallet. Essence Flux A skill-shot just like Mystic Shot, only a lesser yet wider range. It only hits champions, and passes over minions. There's also an additional effect that it slows/boosts enemy/allied champion(s') Attack Speeds by percentage based on Rank, but it doesn't affect yourself. Also a good scouting tool, since Rising Spell Force charges are accumulated to how many target are hit (so there are 3 people in a bush if Essence Flux hits all of them, and your Rising Spell Force charges are zero).

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Arcane Shift Your blink ability, and main way to get away from the carnage, or enter and start sniping. It also fires a small bolt at the CLOSEST target with in your teleport range, so be careful on who your target is. Also, when running into the jungle or Baron Nashor/Drake lairs, the monsters WILL attack you, so be careful. Trueshot Barrage Your finisher, or your lane pusher, or your objective stealer; whatever the task is that involves killing something, your Ultimate Trueshot Barrage is there to help you out. It has a nice global range, so be sure that you can hit Baron Nashor/Drake/Red Buff/Blue Buff/Pushing Minions from the other side of the map. About Champions... be sure to time your long-range skill shot correctly, or otherwise you'll be late and raging, or early... and raging.

Items

If I'm laning, I usually find myself using this build ALL THE TIME. It is very versatile, allowing you to build into anything you want, according to your situation. You could be owning, or you could be in a death-streak, but I will get to that later.

• Sheen or Hextech Revolver path: Maybe you're going for a Sheen rush. I personally don't go down this path since I will have farmed enough with the Boots of Speed build, but if you're really hell-bent on dishing out damage with Essence Flux, be my guest.

• Sheen path #2: Get for more mana, and you're thinking on harassing more. It also confuses people on you getting Tear of the Goddess, but that doesn't do much for Ezreal, unless you're going AP Ezreal (but that's a different guide entirely).

• Sustain Path: Doran's Blade is a usual item to carry if you or your laning partner don't have Summoner Heal or a healing ability. It gives an addition in Attack Damage, has health to give, and a small amount of Lifesteal (You'll get 6% with the mastery Vampirism too). Nice addition if you have Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed in the Rune Page you are using, only that it doesn't build into anything.

• Avarice Blade path: If you're thinking of doing crit damage early in the game, take this build. Later, build into Avarice Blade for the extra passive gold income. Sell it for something else, or build it into Youmuu's Ghostblade, your choice.
  
  

• Early Lifesteal path: Not very recommended unless you'll be actually pushing the lane or going for a hard sustain with autoattacks and Mystic Shots. Be wary of being mana deprived, as this could keep you from using Arcane Shift to get away.
  

These items are essential to you being an Ezreal player.

• Mercury's Treads: By far the best boots in the game, and every build should at least mention it. With it's tenacity stat, you have crowd control effects last only 65% of the duration than if you would not have the tenacity stat. It is a life-saver in tight situations, allowing you to Flash/ Arcane Shift away to safety.
  
• Sheen: Okay, maybe you haven't gotten this into a Trinity Force yet, but this item alone is what makes Ezreal bursty. Mystic Shot will apply the Sheen effect automatically, and easily do about double your Attack Damage at a long range. Plus, it gives a little boost in mana sustain.
  
• Infinity Edge: Your largest source of damage bonus, plus a lot of critical chance and damage. Every AD Carry should have this item in their inventory, since the damage stacks it gives are just too hard to ignore. Also, if you farmed up 1650 gold without going back to base yet, you might as well pick up the B. F. Sword first to build it into the "AD Carry's best friend." But sometimes, this isn't much of a big deal for me, and I sometimes stall this item off if I am not dominating the game, if I'm not at least 7 Kills and 1 Death.

If you got this build, that means you are playing Ezreal correctly. You have health/mana sustain from your support (I will get to "friends" and their Pros later), and you are dominating our lane (and possibly a couple kills). Definitely buy the B. F. Sword, but save the Infinity Edge for later, and buy your Sheen, then a Mercury's Treads. This way, you can balance out your stats, instead of just going early AD Glass Cannon, you have mobility and utility to escape with just a few points of Attack Damage missing.


This build is viable only if you have a tolerable support which helps you with your first kill, or allows you to farm leisurely. If you don't have any kind of mana or health sustain (after using your three health potions), and have more than 1300 gold farmed, go down the Sheen path and build into your Tier Two Boots before starting the core build, or building another item.


So, you've died three times without getting any kills. Your support is doing poorly to save you, and leaves you to die. Or it could be that you are just having a bad time keeping up with sustain. That's okay, but it's going to get worse if you don't start getting some personal sustain. To prevent yourself from dying so much, buy a few more Health Potions, and cut down on the harass a bit. It will help you out a lot.

• Trinity Force: By far the best item on any Attack Damage dealer, this item gives all enhanced stats of Zeal, Sheen, and Phage all in one item, along with a boost in their Unique Passives as well. It is the most expensive item in the game, but it is a must have for Ezreal especially.
  
• Hextech Gunblade: Your Essence Flux, Arcane Shift, and Trueshot Barrage finally give you some health upon dealing damage! Great for teamfights, and easily regain over 200 health by firing a Trueshot Barrage down a pushing minion wave with spell vamp. It also has a nice active which can be used as an additional slow for Ezreal, as his only form of Crowd Control is an Attack Speed slow. Plus, it has a nice 15% Lifesteal, a little better than the 12% when the bloodthirster can give is just bought, and that doesn't even count the 3% Vampirism Lifesteal either.
  
• The Bloodthirster: Really, any Attack Damage dealer should have this. For every kill (including minion and monster kills) you gain one Attack Damage and a little Lifesteal, totalling to a cap of +40 Attack and +8% Lifesteal, including the item's own +60 Attack and 12% Lifesteal... +100 Attack and 20% Lifesteal in just this (fully charged) item alone.
  
• Hexdrinker: This little item has gotten more useful with its later build-item, Maw of Malmortius, but still provides the magic shield at your low health. Pretty useful against that Karthus Requiem Ultimate, and Magic Damage in general.

• Frozen Mallet: A bootload of health, a little Attack Damage, and a passive slow! What could not be liked about this item; the extra sustain will keep you up and at it, while extra kiting can help you stick to your enemy.
  
• Youmuu's Ghostblade: A solid item in itself, giving Cooldown Reduction, + Critical Chance, and a nice sum of Attack Damage. It also builds from the Avarice Blade path, so you would have benefited a lot from the Gold/5-Second Passive. Its active is even better, making you move and attack faster; chase down that champion, but beware of chasing Singed.
  
• Maw of Malmortius: Branches off from Hexdrinker, this item gives an enhanced spell shield (just more points) and a nice passive that gives you 1 Attack Damage for every 2% of health missing. Doing the calculations, it gives you a bonus 48 Attack Damage at 2% health remaining... a little boost in finishing that team fight.
  
• The Bloodthirster: If you can't think of anything else, you might as well just get more Attack Damage and Lifesteal with another The Bloodthirster. And since it's not a Unique Passive, the bonuses add up!

• Berserker's Greaves: These pair of boots are one of my personal favorites upon starting the game, but Mercury's Treads is a better boot to have. I suggest getting these if you are dominating the game; kill a lot, farm a lot, and evade five people whom are trying to kill you. More Attack Speed, and the team can't catch you? More minion farm and damage dealing for you, my friends.
• Ninja Tabi: Is the opposing AD Carry too much to handle? With this item, damage becomes reduced by 10%, and allows you to reduce the physical damage you take. A great way to deny that Caitlyn her kill.
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity: This is mainly for champions whom have to do a lot of casting, and Ezreal is, more or less, one of them. This item let's you cast more and more, but I don't get these unless I'm definitely staying behind everyone else and not One-verses-One'ing people.

• Elixir of Fortitude: Get this whenever you can afford it after your build pathing, as the health will allow you to survive, while the bonus Attack Damage helps out both your Mystic Shot and Trueshot Barrage. I can recall a time where using an Elixir of Fortitude saved me from a Karthus Requiem.
• Elixir of Agility: Attack much faster, and a little boost in your critical chance. I don't really recommend this unless you are sure you can take down an enemy champion with no additional ability ratio boost.
• Elixir of Brilliance: Ability Power and Cooldown Reduction on a Hybrid is too good to ignore. Enough said.
• Oracle's Elixir: Yes, very strange for anyone but the carry or the stealth assassin to have this, but having map control is essential to winning the game. Destroying the enemy's overall map sight forces them to play carefully, unless they want to get ganked. Also proved useful in locating Shaco, Twitch, Evelynn, Talon, Akali, Vayne, Teemo, and Wukong, and their stealthed skills, if applicable.
• Vision Ward: Place these in key locations, like Baron Nashor or Dragon to get rid of the Sight Ward/ Vision Ward placed there. Also proved useful against Shaco, Twitch, Evelynn, Talon, Akali, Vayne, Teemo, and Wukong ganks.
• Sight Ward: "Will it be 75 gold (3-4 minion kills) or 3 minutes of near-gank immunity?" This item in itself can save games, and if the whole team helps the support place wards all over the map, one can control the game with well-placed and well-timed ganks. In the enemy jungle, it would be child's play in stealing Red and Blue buffs. In truth, if you aren't buying these, you aren't playing the game correctly.
  
  
  
  Caution!
  
  Different teams call for different items, you do not use this build for every game! There are items depending on the team you are up against such as magic resist items, etc. which will greatly attribute to you and your team.

Gameplay

• Get up to your target with Arcane Shift and fire a Mystic Shot is they are out of range for an autoattack. With a Phage/ Frozen Mallet/ Trinity Force, this combo will let you catch up to him/her and begin dishing out damage.
• If you are close enough, fire an Essence Flux and another autoattack.
• Keep kiting toward your opponent between casts and autoattacks. Mystic Shot whenever the skill is off cooldown to deal more damage at a time.
• Stick Essence Fluxes and Arcane Shifts whenever they come off cooldown; mobility and more damage, the better. The faster you get the job done, the less time you spend running away from four other enemy champions.
• However, if your target manages to get away (behind a tower or his/her team) fire a Trueshot Barrage depending on how much health your target has left to pick up the kill. Arcane Shift away if possible, or just start running in the other direction.

Warding

Don't ever hesitate to buy Sight Wards or Vision Wards as they can save your life or even take one. It also benefits your team by giving them map awareness, and who doesn't love that?

First Priority: Keeps track of important buff objectives and a vital jungle middle-to-side-lane route.

• Baron Nashor
• Dragon
• With Vision Wards so you can destroy the enemies Sight Ward/ Vision Ward that is also there.

Second Priority: Keeps track of enemy jungle information (also a vital jungle route).

• Red (Lizard) Buff(s)
  
• Blue (Golem) Buff(s)

Third Priority: Keeps track of enemy traffic along the river.

• Bushes along middle lane.
• Bushes along the river.

Fourth Priority: Keeps track of enemy traffic through the jungle(s).

• The exit/entrance tri-bushes from the jungle on top & bottom lane.
• The bush next to the Wraith Camp(s).
• The tri-path opening from the jungle towards the middle lane.

Fifth Priority: Purely optional, provides sight of common Recall locations for lane pushers/counter-junglers.

• The 2 bushes in top & bottom lane.
• The bush near the 2nd turret in the jungle.

General Jungle Knowledge

The Jungle provides a large variety of objectives that can, and will, help you and your team win the game. Everyone should have a general knowledge of the Jungle so that the times of each neutral camp are kept track of.

Baron is the most important buff in the game, although he takes a while to kill, it is entirely worth it to take down, providing the extra gold (global 300g), experience, and stats. Your team will have a major advantage against the other team, solely with this buff. So keeping track on this is a major priority by timing the death of Baron all the way to its re-spawn, so the enemy team doesn't get it at all, or get it again.
Dragon/Drake is the next important thing you should keep track of, giving an amount of global 190 gold, and experience to those who are near it can determine who wins games. You may think that 190 gold is not much, but in competitive matches any gold you have over your enemy is worth it. You often see team fights at Dragon/Drake solely for that purpose.
Red Buff is important for your jungler, it enable him to gank more efficiently in early levels due to the slow, deals true damage and creates a type of mini-ignite towards the selected opponent. After that it usually goes to an AD range carry such as Caitlyn, Vayne, Corki, etc. (and yourself!). This helps tremendously in game-play overall, with a slow from just auto-attacking, a mini-ignite, and true damage, your team will be at a slight advantage if you control both red buffs.
Blue buff is another buff for a caster and sustaining jungle. Blue buff reduces your cooldown timer, and increases mana regeneration. Usually given to a caster after the jungler can sustain in the jungle with ease, with this buff on the caster, it becomes much more of a hassle in lane and overall. Spamming abilities with ease, placing this on your own caster (and yourself!), and denying it from your enemies can win games.
Nothing to really worry about, just might as well place it in. These give no buffs or major advantage in the game, but simply denying a jungler of this early game can cripple them hard, so make sure to protect these camps at level 1, in case of counter-jungling.



Credit goes to Bryun for the information (in his Akali: The Epitome of an Assassin guide), and through him, Hahano - Jungling 202: Beyond The Basics.

Support "Buddies"

Soraka is one of my personal favorite supporters, as she is both a healer and mana supplier: a portable Summoner Platform! She can heal you to keep you in lane more, thus allowing you to farm creeps; she can heal your mana to let you keep harassing, thus denying the other team minion kills: gold and experience! A must-have support, and the one of the main reasons you can get that early B. F. Sword.


Even though you don't see many Leona supports, it turns out that she is a very nice disabler. The Zenith Blade/ Shield of Daybreak combo is effective enough to completely shut down a target, while you arcane flash/ mystic shot/[[essence flux combo in for the kill, with a few autoattacks in between. The Leona I laned with stated that these two had nice synergy as they "both have flash-related skills."


Stunner, healer, and armor reducer; Taric is a good support partner to have. He can keep you sustained in lane with Imbue, while Dazzle is used for killing a champion or getting away from one. Shatter aids in dealing more damage. Radiance will help you in your Attack Damage and Ability Power bonuses once he gets the skill up at Level 6.


Knockup, slow, shield, and a boost in Attack Damage are all treats for both the AD Carry in the laning phase and team-fights in the late-game phase. Janna also provides an additional 8% movespeed with Tailwind, which is a boost with your Boots of Speed. Plus, all AD Carries love to have Eye Of The Storm on them so they can deal much more damage, and also proves useful in a boosted effect in tower aggression too.


This little mummy really loves to keep them in place. Bandage Toss is a great way to set for Curse of the Sad Mummy in a team fight, or just the Bandage Toss alone will shut down a Champion for a couple seconds; more than enough time to melt the target effectively. He's also a tank, so you'll be able to tower dive once Amumu builds up his armor and sustain.


Nunu and his two useful utilities, Blood Boil and Ice Blast are great additions to any AD Carry. With Blood Boil, you move faster in general, while Ice Blast allows you to keep them close to you. In the later Ultimate, Absolute Zero, the whole enemy team should be crippled enough, and would be on the verge of dying (if not already dead) from your Trueshot Barrage.


The OP Cow-man! Knockback/knockup combo with Headbutt/ Pulverize combo is quite effective, and with Pulverize being and AoE Ability, Alistar is one of the perfect examples into setting up for a kill.


By far the most versatile support there is out there, Sona gives an Attack Damage and Ability Power aura ( Hymn of Valor); a heal, armor, and magic resist ( Aria of Perseverance); a movement speed boost ( Song of Celerity), and an AoE stun with Crescendo! Also, her Power Chord effect has multiple effects depending on the "stance ability" Sona is in, which can be useful depending on the situation.

Achievements

The full team scoresheets are coming soon, so I'll just post a few match histories up here. Feel free to contribute!

Special Thanks

Bryun

• His Akali: The Epitome of an Assassin guide for a basic layout of how a professional guide looks like.
• Jungle and warding information which I have also implemented into this guide. Credit goes to you, my friend!

jhoijhoi

• The Making a Guide guide has been extremely useful in terms of creating guides in general. Typing BB Coding has never been easier.
• Line separators/dividers to separate sub-chapters within topics.
• Thank you so much, jhoijhoi, for being such a great helper within the MOBAFire community.

Conclusion

I hoped this guide has helped you become a better Ezreal!
If you are not doing too well with her first starting out, all I can say is "Try try again!"
Practicing is the best way you can learn. Play accordingly, and not just item after item after item. There is no "one way" for anything, and every League of Legends match is different. Completely different.


If you see any mistakes, or have anything you would like to say to me please comment below. Also, please state why you have up-voted or down-voted, I would like to know what I did well and what I have done wrong.

Change Log

May 23, 2012:

• Guide written!

May 24, 2012:

• Added Change Log.
• 75% Guide rating, 7 votes. Thanks!