Welcome members of MobaFire, it's your beloved GMD again with a new piece of writing; and surprise! It's on Ezreal! To start I want to state clearly that this is more of a theorycraft rather than a guide. It's a setup I've been using for a while and I find it to be very effective and since I think I'm on to something, I thought I'd share it. However, you might wonder, why isn't this a guide? One reason is that MobaFire doesn't need a bazillion Ezreal guides with a Blue Build and the second reason is that I am not 100% sure this is as effective or even more effective than the, well, shall we say more 'accepted' version. Ok so let's Arcane Shift into the details of this idea. Now the classic blue build (listed right) is built around kiting and survivability through a low cool down Arcane Shift. However, as you might have experienced yourself. The Blue Build has various shortcomings. First, it heavily operates by a "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" philosophy. That means that the build becomes strong one you've assembled it but is rather weak until you do so. Second, it snowballs poorly. There are no items in the build which can make you snowball properly and that is quite the weakness to have. Third, Spirit of the Elder Lizard is a key item in the build due to its heavily needed 10% CDR but it doesn't scale into late-game. The true damage falls off and the 35 AD loses its significance. Bloodthirster and Black Cleaver make decent replacements but BT doesn't provide CDR and BC doesn't synergise too well with Ezreal's kit. Additionally, the build offers no room for flexibility since it holds 5 core items: Spirit of the Elder Lizard, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Muramana, Last Whisper and Iceborn Gauntlet. This offers little room to adapt to the enemy team and/or your own situation. You could get a Mercurial Scimitar or Guardian Angel if necessary but then there would be no room for a Blade of the Ruined King if your opponents end up stacking a ton of health.

My goal is to overcome these shortcomings without compromising the original idea of the build and I think I have done that quite effectively. Alright, so let's get started with the rune setup I use. It's not very complicated or fancy but it is a key aspect to making this work. Click to Enlarge The 6 cool down reduction glyphs provide about 5% CDR, which is exactly what we need to get 40% CDR with the complete setup. The life steal quints are there to sustain during the laning phase but take 1 AD quint so you can last-hit under the tower. Farming is of utmost importance with this kind of build since it needs to be completed in order for it to work properly. That still applies to this build, though it's less important than with the original build but we get to that later. Attack damage marks are added for last-hit purposes and we make little use of armour penetration anyway. Since the remaining 3 glyphs aren't very important, I've chosen to use attack damage, it helps last-hitting early-game and combined with the single quint it makes up for not having Brute Force . Now it's time to fix up the masteries, which is the core of the build. We use a utility-oriented setup to gain 10% CDR from the total setup. Click to Enlarge Now the actual setup shouldn't be very surprising. Awareness , Runic Affinity and Vampirism are straightforward. Pickpocket and Nimble are nice bonuses. You can take Wanderer over Meditation if you like.

This, plus the 5% we gain from our runes, puts us at already 15% CDR at level 1. Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Iceborn Gauntlet will yield 40%. This is the major advantage of the build; granting 40% CDR with only 2 items. This means we don't even have to build Muramana if we don't want to, proving that this setup doesn't just support a full Blue Build Ezreal but multiple build paths.

Though the major question might be "don't you, like, deal no damage whatsoever?". I guess that's only fair to ask. I mean, after all, we are avoiding most of the offence tree. However, let's look at what we don't take, shall we?

• Havoc : Most consider this a poor mastery to begin with, and they are right. 2% damage increase isn't a lot, especially when we're not using crit. Above all else, it's not an early-game mastery so we don't do anything to that by not taking this.
• Brute Force : Ya important, 3 AD is a lot early-game so you will notice that. Then again, you could solve it by replacing 1 life steal quint with an AD quint if you like to play more aggressive.
• Lethality / Frenzy : Normally you won't be getting crit on Ezreal. If you do, yeah then it's a loss but not a major one. Then again, it's a late-game thing, so not much to worry about.
• Sunder : Pretty pointless if you don't get armour pen from other sources, which is the case.
• Executioner : Overrated mastery. 5% increase and it's conditional. Again, doesn't affect our early-game.

Well, without doing the actual math, though you're free to do so yourself, we can conclude that this mastery setup won't really hurt the early- and mid-game. During late-game, you might notice that 7% of damage but instead you do get to enjoy 40% of CDR at all times! Additionally, I'm pretty sure that a Build with BT and Scimitar does more damage than the classic Blue Build.

Itemization

Usually you start up with a Doran's Blade and simply farm. Harass where possible and go in if an opportunity presents itself. Personally I open up with an early B. F. Sword and a Tear of the Goddess for some nice damage and mana sustain. Quickly turn these into a Manamune and Bloodthirster for huge amount of attack damage. Continue by completing Ionian Boots of Lucidity once the laning phase ends. Then go Iceborn Gauntlet if you're doing well or Last Whisper if you're behind. Afterwards, complete the other. Complete the build by either Blade of the Ruined King, Mercurial Scimitar, Guardian Angel or a Banshee's Veil. You can also build a Zephyr if you're desperately need movement and/or attack speed but I rarely do this myself.

Enough talk! What exactly is my point with all this? Well, I'd like your opinion on this; do you like the idea or do you not think it's strong enough? Post your suggestions, thoughts and ideas regarding this theorycraft in the comments. Last thing, I don't want to sound like the average MobaFire guide writer but please test this. It's not about the rating, really I couldn't care less but I just want to see if you guys experience the same as I do. My games have overall been a great success hence I'm writing this though now it's time for the build's trial.