Hello, welcome to my guide. For some credibility, I was plat 3 with this build, but that was last season. The build is a little weaker than it was then due to shifts in the meta, but it is still very powerful and I will go on record and say it is flat out better than standard AP. It does not work bot, only mid(and top at lower elo).

This is not an easy build to play. If you are new to Ez, do not try to play this build and expect to see it's true potential(Not saying you can't play it). If you are an experienced AP or AD Ez players, then learning to play the other half will help in playing this build, it is not required, but you will need to learn as you play it. What this build does is artificially increase the skill cap of Ezreal mid.

The basic idea behind the build is that by stacking the Manamune and the Archangel's Staff you get a lot of power for not a lot of gold. The passives stack and each one gets the extra stats from the other one in addition to the mana from the iceborn. It takes about 21-25 mins to fill your manamune depending on when you get it, but once you do you will have a massive boost in power. This means you have just an ok early game, not bad at all, but not like a LB or anything, with a really good late game.

And a last note, I've been updating this from time to time but I've constantly innovating and trying new things, changing small parts here and there, and you should be too. Have suggestions? Comment, I love to hear new ideas.

I am also proud to say I came up with this build on my own.

weak early game: Before your first back you really are not any weaker than other mids. They don't have the mana to push you out like a lot of people think, and if they do they are gank bait. But mid game you are weaker. You invest your first back into a tear so you lack DMG. Now the mana helps a lot, and if you can keep their mid in lane your fine. The problem is them pushing and then ganking bot. You can counter this by pushing and poking with your ult.

Pen: You can't build pen well, so people with high resistances are hard on you. But they can still be killed. They don't normally deal as much DMG, and you have a lot of raw DMG. But high tankyess comps are not good for this build. This is the largest reason the build has lowered in power, people are playing more tankyness and less AD(worth pointing out the armor from Iceborn) assassins like last season.

Tanks: This build does not deal with tanks very well. It can't build pen effectively so tanks soak up a lot of DMG. The way you deal with this is get a Nashor's 2nd item instead of an Ice Born. It's harder to play and very much high risk high reward but when they have 3 tanks and a back line mage, it's what you have to do to keep up.

But a nice thing is the build does not have very many bad lanes, though like everyone it is does some(Kat is the big one).

The post 6 skills are the same, Ult>Flux>Shift>Q, but the pre 6 change from game to game. It all depends on the lane and your starting item. As a rule, if you start with a Doran's Ring, you want to start with Q(was flux before the LB ratio changes), Then take flux level 2 and 3, and shift level 4. Maxing flux then shift. If you have pushed up take shift level 3 and not 4, I can't tell you the number of times this has saved me or not doing it has killed me. That's a common gank time.

Your first item really depends on the lane you are against, and personal preference. A run down:

Doran's Ring: This is my personal go to. This extra 15 AP is very important in making your flux's hurt enough that you can zone with, else they just kind of tickle. The mana is also very useful. You may not want to take this against people with long range because it's hard to land flux on them, though you still can. People like Victor, Lux or Ori are good examples.

Doran's Blade: This one is a little more uncommon for me, but is very important when I do take it. If you are someone who likes AD more, then take this more commonly and not the ring. The difference is largely based on play style, and really the blade is easier to use if you have not played much AP Ez. I use it to get past people with MR or things like it such as Morg or Gallio. It's also good when you expect to be AAing someone a lot or when you need better push.

Boots: As I mentioned when talking with the ring long range champs are commonly hard to hit with flux's shorter cast range, and the extra pots are good for not getting poked to death. However you don't get the early DMG. If you trust your positioning then it's commonly better to get a DRing or Blade over boots.

You want to get a Tear of the Goddess on your first back, and you will be filling it the whole game as fast as you can, you need to fill 2 of them. The few exceptions are when you need to get MR, like against LB, Syndra or Fizz. What you try to do is go back with enough gold to to get a Negatron Cloak and a tear on your fist back. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't, its not worth getting killed waiting for it or falling behind from being zoned. This costs 1420 gold to do. Then you have a few options. The standard is to rush an Iceborn Gauntlet and then get the Manamune with Boots mixed in and Ionian Boots of Lucidity after the Iceborn. Other options are rushing the manamune and then the Iceborn, or getting a Sheen and then the manamune and back to the Iceborn. If you don't have enough for a sheen on your 2nd back, a common play is to get the Long Sword for the manamune and the Amplifying Tome for the sheen. After that it's an Arch staff, if everything is going well you should have you manamune fill when you are about half way though building your Arch staff, give or take a bit, but you must fill your manamune before you buy the Arch staff. This may mean getting the parts for the staff and moving on to your next item and then coming back(Your very fed if this happens). After that you can get a lot of things, but commonly I get a Rabadon's Deathcap. With the Arch staff and a Hat you will have about 430AP. After that I end with Nashors and sell my CDR boots for magic pen or attack speed.

Your last item can change quite a bit.
If you need to deal with a mundo, get a Blade of the Ruined King. If you need to deal with a Taric with 300 Armor, get a Last Whisper. If you need to deal with a Leblanc? get a Banshee's Veil. If you need to slow people off you, get a Randuin's Omen(rare). If you need more AP, get a Zhonya's Hourglass Need to kill a Vayne? Get a Deathfire Grasp. Need some peal and want more DMG? Get a Hextech Gunblade. Need more peel but the gunblade is not the fit? Get a Trinity Force, You can pick up a GA or even a Warmogs. Ez can use just about every stat in the game, so the options are endless.

There is the option to get a nashors or a gunblade instead of an Iceborn. If you are new to the build just stick with IceBorn, it is very rare that you do this. The time that is worth mentioning is against a Ziggs always get a gunblade, you have to have the life steal.

And a last note, only about 50% of games do you fill the Arch staff. But you don't need to. It does not give any extra DMG from upgrading, just the active. And with the manamune already charged, you get the same DMG from it the second you buy it as others get when they have filled it, more with the Iceborn and the base mana it gives already. The mana you get from filling it and the active are just extras in a way.

Temp Edit: This update was made right as the Essence Reaver came out, I have some math about it at the very bottom and it is currently in testing. Will update the guide with my findings at some point.

The hardest part of this build is being able to use both the AD and AP parts, if you only use one then you should just be playing full AP or AD. The most important place this comes into play is in lane. The details on how to do this are very complex, but the basic idea is learn to make trades as full AP and full AD, then just do both types of trades with the understanding that they are not as powerful alone as the pure build version. And you have to change your play style on the fly to adapt to what items you have. I play much different if I get a sheen first or a manamun first. Or when you have 1500 gold with an Iceborn about to go back and get that 60AD from Manamun, even though your about to get it you can't play like you already have it.

Quick Edit: I need to update this, I have known what I'm doing in game but never found the words to explain tell not to long ago, but have not updated this yet. Don't have time to do it now sadly.

In team fights you want to open with your ult for massive AOE DMG and stacks on your passive. Your goal then is to live and burst people down. People will likly dive you. It's a lot more like being an ADC, but your doing hybrid things. Depending on the person, let them use their gap closer(and poke them if they don't use it, and again, really depends on the person) then shift back and Q flux them and start AAing them. This will deal a lot of DMG and slow them. You then kite them while your spells are on CD and then take a 2nd pass at them when you can. Your goal is to take people down one at a time. Take down who ever you can, it's more important to be dealing DMG to someone than the right person, but clearly if you can kill their ADC do it. It's a lot like Blue Ez.

In a team fight I just know what to do, but it's really hard to explain what I'm doing to someone else without them say watching a game. This is a base line, but frankly the complex juggling of AP and AD is something your going to have to just learn the in's and out's of your self if you want to be good at this build.

-Shift cost a lot of mana and is an important CD, don't wast it. However you can use it to shift to a new position and land a flux and/or Q. This does cost a lot of mana so be aware of the mana investment and the use of your escape. I don't do this before I get a tear, but do it more after that.

-When pushing mid tower, Q Wraths. It gives you some stacks of your passive. You can also Q your own Wraths.

-You can use your ult to harass. Move into the fog of war and cast it. You commonly also want to have it hit minions too but the DMG fall off is very potent, try to have them be the first one hit. Then use Q to get it off CD. You can also use it to help other lanes, even if you don't get a kill, you can set one up for a someone else or just help with a little DMG on a behind lane.

-Ezreal can be extended more than most because of shift, but it depends a lot on their jungler. With people like Vi or Hec you can't be out far because they will come behind you. People like Udyr you can kite for days, though the behind you gank is still scary.

-If you see someone moving to take blue, you can use your ult to steal blue. It's kind of funny how often it works. More often than not a jungler will have blue nearly dead waiting for a mid so you want to use your ult right as they leave instead of waiting a bit.

-A common way to get a kill is to move into the fog of war, ult clearing out the minions(important so they don't block your spells) and then flash shift to them and burst them. This works very well at 6, poke them the whole lane then with your ult, that does a lot of DMG, finish them off.

-Against skill shot champs, a common out play is to shift out of the way of a skill shot and then follow up with your own attacks.

-Once you get your Manamune filled don't wast it. It eats mana like a hog, turn it off when attacking minions, and even Baron at times, you deal no DMG when your oom.

-Seeing as Ez does not have any CC he does not gank well. Most of the time I don't gank, however, that does not mean you should not help bot if they need it, but it can be very risky, there are a lot of mids that if Ez gets stuck in a 1v1 in the river he will die to. Even more so if the ambush him from a bush, so take care in going to bot.

A lot of people look at this build and say it has the "hybrid problem", your stacking tears nub, your bad and move on. So here is some math to explain why this works.

The 2 core items are Arch staff and muramana, so lets do some math to find out how gold efficient these 2 items are.

You play 4800 gold for both items. But how much gold worth of power do you really get? Lets find out. The gold value of 1 AD is 35 + or - one. The value of AP is about 21 again + or - a bit. Mana is 2 gold for everyone one mana and mana regin is 60. I am going to factor the muraman's toggle DMG as the same as AD. It cost mana yes but it can also be used on shift and Q, so this is a middle ground. And for all total mana calcs I'm adding in the 500 from Iceborn, Iceborn is a different beast to calc it's self but the mana still is in effect at no extra cost. The value of mana decreases, at some point you really don't need 3000 mana instead of 2000 for casting spells, so I'm only going to calc in the value of the mana for one of them.

situation Zero, a filled muramana without the champ base mana and without the toggle is 3860 (gotten from the wiki), 183% GE(Gold efficiently)

First situation, just got Arch with a filled Mura, champ level 14 max mana is 2615
865 + 1000 + 500 + 250

stat mana gold value is 2600
(1000 * 2) + (10 * 60)

AD value is 2530
(20 + "52"(2615 *.02)) * 35

AP value is 2898 -> 2900
(60 + "78"(2615 * .03)) * 21

Max Toggle value is 5495
"157"(2615 * .06) * 35

Cost: 4800g, values:
zero mana is 8030g 167%GE
half mana is 10777 224%GE
full mana is 13525 281%GE

Now lets recall, this is as soon as you get your arch staff, without a single charge in it and only level 14. Average of 224% gold efficiency is not bad. But we can do better.
What about late game, both of them stacked, and before we get into this, worth pointing out this is not even including the active on arch.

Second situation, filled both, level 18, max mana is 3545
1045 + 1000 + 1000 + 500

stat mana is 2600, same as before

AD Value is 3185
(20 + "71"(3545 * .02)) * 35

AP Value is 3468
(60 + "106"(3545 * .03)) * 21

Max Togle Value is 7455
"213"(3545 * .06) * 35

Cost: Still 4800, Values:
zero mana is 9253 192%GE
half mana is "13000"(12980) 270%GE
full mana is 16708" 348%GE

Nice touch, you also get 11.8 HP Regin per 5 from the strength of spirit mat.

As you can see the gold efficiency of this is massive. These numbers are to prove a point, this is why the build works. But here is the catch. Yes you can get up to 350%GE, but that's only if you can use it. As I said before, what this build does is artificially increase the skill cap of Ezreal. It's very hard to use both the AP and the AD at the same time, and you still have less AP than an AP mid and less AD than an ADC. There is a lot more that goes into the build. I'm not trying to throw around these numbers yelling OP, but rather keep you from yelling troll.