I figure that I might as well put some stuff about myself here, I'm not that impressive, don't have a tonne of games under my belt compared to others, but I do specialize in strategy to a degree. I main top lane, but have a high % win rate with Ezreal and Graves in bottom lane. You can look up my lolking if you want, it'll just show you that same information.

I am however also pretty blunt, so this guide will be to the point and pretty frontwards. Also not terribly pretty since I don't have great photoshop skill or anything, but it will be detailed where it counts. Just post a comment if you think I should elaborate more on a specific thing. Also I don't care much for BB code, don't complain about the lack of it's use.

Your runes should typically always be the same. However if you really want an alternative, you can go full AD quints.

Or on the other hand, if you're against Graves who will out trade you 90% of the time so long as his passive is up you can take armor pen marks. They may or may not help a lot.

There isn't much detail on this for the reason that I don't see a reason to put much detail on here.

Other options are Greater mark of Hybrid penetration or for marks.

Other options for seals are , or even if you're really ballsy.

Other options for Glyphs are honestly I think this is pretty good. if they have a strong harass AP support like Zyra or Leona who will give you a huge chunk of magic damage early.

Options available for Quint's are for all three, Greater quintessence of Hybrid penetration Greater quintessence of armor penetration greater quintessence of lifesteal for some more early sustain, armor pen, or stronger Essence Flux harass if that's your style.

Options for

Masteries should more often than not stay in the 21/0/9 configuration(you should be asking for red buff as well from time to time, and blue buff if you get it is a godsend.) but if you have a tough lane, take 21/9/0 and be a bit more passive. Make sure you always have some mana for an arcane shift, just in case. This is pretty typical though, so I don't think I need to elaborate on it much.

Short and sweet, go 21/0/9 if you'll have a easy or unchallenging time in lane, 21/9/0 if you need those extra defensive masteries to live.

Pros:
- Huge range poke with sniping potential in Trueshot Barrage.
- Tremendous first blood potential while staying safe in lane.
- Hard to gank and very mobile.
- More mobile than Corki for a Trinity Force master character.
- Can push lanes without actually being there.

Cons:
- Hard to master.
- Very squishy, extremely susceptible to dives if you aren't careful.
- Skill shot based, unless you're good you can miss and screw up entirely.
- Ultimate doesn't do a huge amount of damage at rank one.

Items, this is the first one I can actually put some detail into.

First off, you may or may not have immediately thought "This guy doesn't build Muramana!" and pictured me as an idiot, however unless you're ******ed you shouldn't have many mana issues. And if you do, just ask your support to build a mana manipulator. It's all of 300 gold and unless you're like "HURDURR ACRANE SHEEFT EVERUNWHRRR" you should not be running out of mana. Meaning a tear, even manamune is completely unnecessary.

vs

Regardless, to start with. I suppose I should elaborate this more. Sheen adds a good chunk of early damage to Ez's Q compared to a Phage , they are both incredibly good items however I typically prefer early kill potential on my snipe Q's over some more move speed, but often times I just get both on my first back. Ezreal is a slow bastard early. This lets you position better in lane, trade and chase better. the early boost this gets you is better than boots, so properly managing your orb walk will be more important. The early chunk from sheen is also very nice, Ezreal's Q does around 300 damage early on if you grab that. After you have these two trinity force is a must, if you really want to you can grab zeal instead of phage but imo zeal is less useful seeing as it doesn't grant AD. It has a nice crit bonus which might help you win trades from time to time too, however.

Once you have trinity completed, you have a few options. To assess which ones you can take, look at the situation.

Typical options are:

Under this situation you should not be fed, maybe a little behind in lane. Your opponents have dive out the arse, a-la Aatrox, Akali, Pantheon and so forth. The cdr lets you get out more Q's and W's in teamfights, giving your team a damage advantage even though you can't auto attack very effectively. The attack speed boost on W helps if you have other auto attackers on your team immensely, the boost from this is actually huge(And with the odd trend of vayne mid lane there's been as of late, massive.). Basically it just gives you more spam, which if you can't auto attack and do damage is very important because Ez' spells do a lot.


In this situation you'll be fed as hell, you've got your trinity by 10 minutes in, your opponents haven't had the time to build armor yet and you'll be getting boots of lucidity after this just to wreck face. You'll be able to instantly eat all their ap carries, chew on their front line and harass their back line dead with awesome snipe Q's. But if they have a Rammus jungle or something like that, possibly even a Taric support or Malphite top you should grab last whisper first anyhow. The point being, this is the single highest non snowballing AD item in the game(and still technically is a snowball, just incredibly easy to stack.) and will do a lot of damage while upping your sustain.


In this situation you won't be fed, but it's probably around 18-20 minutes into the game at this point, your enemies have some armor(unless you have an AP top lane and mid lane, in which case those laners should be itemizing MR not armor.) meaning THIS IS MORE VALUABLE THAN A BLOODTHIRSTER since more of your damage will be getting through. Say your enemy top laner is a Renekton who will have a good 150 armor by the 18-20 minute point, he's laning against a Kha'Zix and your Kha is having a real rough time, he's up a few kills and has a Tiamat as well. This guy is going to dive you to all hell and zone you out of the fight by tanking your whole team since he has a good 60% or so damage reduction on all AD and your huge AD snowball isn't snowballing. But wait! You have your trusty Last Whisper and he only has a 30% or so damage reduction or so instead! That means you have 30 ad coming through from the last whisper alone, and your trinity force procs to a LOT more damage. In addition it's cheap, and a good item. You SHOULD in theory be trying to end the game before you even finish your thirster, since just trinity and this do a whole lot of damage. However even with this thing I tend to build a Vampiric Scepter just to have some more lifesteal, it's totally up to you.

Even when countered Ezreal is still relevant. Even though it's going to be nerfed, all the ideas in this guide covering phage/trinity are relevant even after. Phage will still grant great early stats for any lane who can effectively build it, will be more valuable than tier 1 boots, help you position better and kite stronger. His main strength is his Q, I've said it over and over this whole time but that skill is godlike. It stings early, hurts mid and pounds late game. It procs your phage movespeed buff, and furor on your boots even. Meaning you have better positioning than almost any other carry out there! And move faster than Corki, that's important. Very important in the current meta where he's so powerful.

Boots:
You have all of two options that make sense for this. Maybe a third from time to time.
Your main option which should be in most of your games is Ionian Boots of Lucidity , these things are great since with sorcery you have 18% cdr. Get a blue buff, you have nearly max and can throw out your Q incredibly often.

Your second option is Berserker's grieves , which are half decent but most of the time I'd prefer the boots of lucidity. They are cheaper though, so if you really want early boots they aren't bad.

Your third half-option is Mercury's Treads which I'd only say get them if they have a cripplesticks or a Rammus.

Your fourth quarter-option is completely stupid and only works if you're so behind you can't live through two auto attacks, and that is Ninja Tabi

Late game you have a few options. Want more damage on your Q instead of critical hits? Grab a second Bloodthirster , are you positioning a lot but don't get too many aa's out and your enemies have a lot of armor so even your last whisper is useless? grab a Statikk Shiv for some extra magic damage every few seconds or so. I personally prefer the Infinity Edge Statikk Shiv combo, which is why that's in my guide there. It gives you around 50% critical chance, meaning you can chunk when chasing someone or they get too close in team fights while still giving you loads of damage on your Q, something Phantom Dancer doesn't grant. But the passive of moving through units on PD might be useful, most of the time you should have your E up if you need to move around quickly anyways. The Statikk Shiv also helps when pushing.

Other item options:

This is honestly a rather good item even when you're basing off your Q. Typically it's not a good thing to rush, however if they have a dr. Mundo or something it's invaluable.


In most situations this makes no sense, but it is actually a good item. If your enemy laner has a Soraka you might want to just grab this early after Phage and Sheen since this halves her heal. I would only really suggest this if they had a Soraka support(which isn't common) and a high sustain setup. Dr. Mundo jungle, Shen top(yes he counts, his vorpal blade gives a lot of healing late and even mid game after he has a few HP items.) and some spell vamp based mid laner. Vladimir maybe? He's not that common in mid lane honestly so this is just an example. Either way, this is cheap so you can afford to just slap it in your build if the need arises.


Most of the time I don't need this, but it is a extremely good item. It's mostly self explanatory, gives a good chunk of armor and MR while granting what is basically a Zilean ultimate every five minutes. Normally you'll grab this late game in place of some random damage item because you can't escape their dive, and it grants some extra time for your team to peel or mop up with. A lot of people sell this when it's used and just replace it with a cheap damage item after, I might as well briefly cover why.
Guardian Angel has a passive timer that doesn't show on your status bar at all, meaning you can't just sell and re buy it to get the effect again. It's sometimes a good idea to just buy this before a big team fight, you're going for Baron etc, and sell it afterwards keeping an eye on the timer for when you can use it again, telling your team, then making a huge push with your two lives.


It's not a bad item, but it doesn't grant a lot of useful stats. Your Phage and Trinity Force will grant enough move speed that it goes into the harsh return area on it's movespeed buff, Arcane Shift gives you enough mobility you shouldn't need to ignore unit collision, attack speed is money better spent elsewhere when you're playing Ezreal since his passive gives a massive amount, and critical chance is certainly useful but in my opinion for a critical chance item Statikk Shiv is better on Ezreal just because it grants a passive he can make use of even with all the redundancies being shared.


This item is currently extremely popular in high level games because it gives a massive amount of MR while granting a great amount of damage and an amazing active effect. It really saves you from those long cc's like Rammus taunts and Fiddlesticks , or as I call him cripplesticks. Galio ultimates and Zed death marks actually are both removed from this as well, that's very very handy to know since a good Zed will come into the fight from the side, blow you up and even if you arcane shift away the death mark will usually kill you.


will end your team if you don't have this. It's a spectacular item against him.


It's not a bad item at all, but it is however pretty hard to stack even with your spam now. It's very cost efficient and scales well, but it doesn't really give too much to your build until late game. And typically you'll be trying to end it before then, but it's more a matter of personal preference if you want to grab an early tear. Just make sure this is one of the first items you complete, since it will take you a long time to stack up.


Again not a bad item, but the gold is most of the time better spent elsewhere. The only reason I would get this is for the tenacity if you don't want mercury treads and some extra cooldown reduction. It isn't a cheap item, not viable for early rushing, and doesn't grant much to your build so mos of the time I wouldn't take this.

That about covers it for items, just remember to vary your build from game to game, like droping shiv or even IE for a Quicksilver Sash if your opponents pick malzahar. Stuff like that will help you win games, even if in retrospect it looks stupid. Like a thornmail, trinity force, bloodthirster, merc treads ezreal might win you the game. Even though that looks outright ridiculous, it will work in a situation where he can't out trade an enemy ADC and has so much focus CC wise he can't arcane shift out.

And on the Statikk shiv I pick this for multiple reason, the foremost being Ezreal doesn't have the siege potential of say COrki who can just clear minion waves from stupid range. The secondmost being it gives you critical chance without granting useless stats like Phantom Dancer does, mind you they aren't entirely useless however Shiv is more useful than dancer since Ezreal doesn't really need attack speed due to his passive. The thirdmost being that if you're able to position well you don't need a Guardian Angel since if you get blobbed on you're just going to blow up before you can do anything AGAIN. Sure it doesn't give much damage, sure it doesn't give a lot of critical chance and does give attack speed but it's shock is more what you buy it for anyways, it adds another big chunk of damage to your Q when you land it and gives some AOE since we aren't exactly going blue ezreal.

This was mostly covered in the snippet way up there, but Mystic Shot is always first, Arcane Shift if you're getting ganked a lot second, and Essence Flux second if you're really ahead in lane with your opponents hiding behind creeps most of the time so you can't hit a Mystic Shot effectively. It also helps in trades since it debuffs your opponents attack speed.

I'm going to elaborate more on this. And explain why I tend to take ignite.


This is my personal bread and butter. It grants an early 5 ad and 5 ap, which is a good chunk of damage, when you take the Summoner's Wrath mastery. I'm an EXTREMELY aggressive adc however, I poke my laner down constantly and try and force him out of lane or get killed. And kite them if they use barrier then pop this and kill them afterwards with a well placed Arcane Shift and Mystic Shot, normally the damage from this and the boost it gives will be enough to kill them. Or if they don't have barrier either and have a lot of lifesteal already I just pop this since it halves their sustain immediately, meaning I win and they don't.


A huge amount of the time this is an incredibly good item to get, be it for tower dive juking or just winning a trade easier. It's more valuable late game than Ignite is, since 5 ad and 5 ap is mostly useless at that point, and is preferred by a lot of high level players. If you find you do better with this, feel free to go for it. It's actually a counter to Ignite too and might save you from teemo poison.


This is basically a Quicksilver Sash that doesn't cancel Zed ultimates. I personally think this slot is better allocated, but if you think just a sash won't be enough feel free to take it.


Personally I just take this because I have a bad habit of arcane shifting aggressively, but a flash-shift combo in the jungle makes it almost impossible to follow you meaning it gives a great double getaway in the end. I always take this, however since Ezreal has a built in one you have the option to take Barrier Ignite or something instead.


This ends all assassins, enough said. Shuts down lots of people, its' valuable but 90% of the time your support will have it so you don't need to take it.

This is extremely critical. Any ADC should know at least the basic ideas I'm going to cover here.
First and foremost, beware the dive! If you misposition the entire enemy team is going to be right on top of you and you'll be dead before you can do anything. If this happens at least try and take someone with you, on the enemy team of course.

Second most, STAY WITH YOUR DAMN TEAM!!!!! If you're out on your own, you can be collapsed on. You will be obliterated, you cannot do anything. You aren't a Vayne who can just Condemn Final Hour Tumble cloak and run away, you aren't zed-proof or anything. Split push with your ultimate since with your Q spam it'll be up very often.

Third most, ignore your team. Yes, ignore them. A lot of the time people will be like "You should be focusing xxx!" just ignore that, but if they're being helpful don't be a prick. Snipe their back line with Q's, whail on their tanks with your auto attacks if that's all you can hit. Putting damage out is more important than putting damage on their adc if that will get you killed. If a Fizz zones you out, kill him then go back and put out more damage. Don't just stand there and hope your team will peel, since often times they'll be more occupied with keeping you and your ap carry safe from their front line. Positioning is absolutely critical, don't leave yourself open to be dived. As someone who mains top lane, I would pounce on an Ezreal the moment they moved to hit ours because I play anticarries like Pantheon, Irelia and Renekton who all get rather tanky late/mid game and can one hit an adc before you can say Aunt Jemima Karma save me!

is an incredibly good adc, but doesn't fit well in every team. He is almost a must for any poke based composition though, due to his mobility.

Pick if:
- Your team has moderate poke/harass already to add to it, making you a combination type comp. This sort of one will have some disengage ( Janna) and a decent engage or all in like Malphite or Galio.
- Your team is entirely poke based, Mundo cleavers, Brand or Lux mid. Those kinds of things.
- Your team has absolutely no poke but not a lot of all in potential. You are singlehandedly a poke god.
- You have another auto attacking based champion on your team you can use Essence Flux to buff.

Do not pick if:
- The enemy team has a massive all in that will entirely lock you down and make it impossible for you to do anything.
- Your team already has a lot of poke but no all in potential, you'll be better off with a balls to the walls ADC like Graves in these kinds of situations since you can just rip into the enemy team while being fairly mobile. These kinds of ADC's also do more constant damage, you're based around your Q while these guys can auto attack a bit more effectively. If you have no all in potential, the enemy team will just rip into you when they engage and you can't do anything to stop or deter them.

But all in all, Ezreal is a great adc. His abilities mesh well with all kinds of team comps, and a skilled Ezreal can easily singlehandedly win a game.

In summary, Ezreal is one of the most mobile ADC's in the game, positions easily, has a huge range on his poke, does a lot of damage and has an attack speed buff. Build according to what your enemy team has, try and get ahead in lane as fast as you can, and last and foremost BE AGGRESSIVE with him. He has huge ability to force his enemy into making mistakes without being punished because of his arcane shift.