Hi everyone, my name is senga.
You can watch me live on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/senga24

This guide will help you climb the ranks and perhaps get you thinking about the fundamentals of playing Ezreal. I personally climbed every season with Ezreal as a pocket pick.

Ezreal is easy, yet very complex. His Arcane Shift ("E" ability) gives him more room for error than a standard ADC, yet, his damage output is capped by how well you can land Mystic Shot ("Q" ability). I think this complexity is what makes him so fun to play.

Because the League of Legends scene is constantly evolving, I'll try my best to update this guide as often as possible (so that you have the most up to date info on how to climb with Ezreal).

Current patch: 10.18

Heal has been and will be a staple spell for ADCS. It's the best summoner spell to take unless there is a specific need to take a different summoner spell (high amounts of CC for example). Alternative spells will be discussed below.

Cleanse is more commonly taken on mid lane Ezreal, but the same rules apply when he's played bot lane. Laners often try to combo their CC with their jungler, so consider taking cleanse if the enemy team has a CC-chain that will lead to a sure kill if landed properly on you.

Some match ups that I would consider running cleanse:
- Annie
- Fiddlesticks
- LeBlanc
- Ryze
- Syndra
- Twisted Fate
- Zoe

Beyond these match ups, it is much more valuable to take one of the other listed summoner spells over cleanse.

Teleport is generally used in the top lane. With Ezreal, you can utilize teleport effectively in both mid and bot lane. Teleport is very useful if you expect to get heavily poked in lane. It gives you the flexibility to recall early to purchase items and get back to lane immediately.

Core Items
Ezreal heavily relies on Muramana to deal damage so it's crucial that you build a Manamune as early as possible. In most situations, you'll recall with around 900 gold. This is ideal as it'll allow you to buy a Tear of the Goddess and a potion.

There are situations when you won't have enough money to buy a Tear. When this is the case, you can either purchase a cull or triforce components such as ruby crystal or longsword. Afterwards, finish building a Manamune. You then want to complete a sheen, a phage, and ultimately a triforce.

Your third item should ideally be a Blade of the Ruined King, but if the enemy team has high burst damage, consider building a Death's Dance as it helps mitigate burst.

The build should almost always be the same up to the 3rd item. They are essential to making Ezreal as powerful as he can be. Ezreal reaches his peak at that point, and I like to think that his 5th and 6th items are merely supplements to his build.

5th and 6th Item Choices
Your 5th and 6th item will boil down to 2 types: defensive for survivability and an armor pen item for tank shred.

Update
Been testing out other item builds.
Manamune -> Ice Borne Guantlet -> Death's Dance seems like the way to go for patch 10.13.

It's no question that Mystic Shot (Q) is maxed first on Ezreal. The real question lies in which skill to max 2nd, W or E? I'm heavily in favor of maxing E 2nd for 2 reasons.

1. The overall scaling of E and W are very similar. At max level, W deals 300 damage with 60% AD scaling, and E deals 280 damage with 50% AD scaling. The difference is very marginal.

2. The cool down reduction gained from maxing E is SUBSTANTIAL. It goes from 25 seconds at level 1 to 13 seconds at max level. The cool down gets reduced by almost half!

Because the damage and scaling between the 2 abilities is similar, it seems like a no brainer to have a flash ability available more frequently.

To re-cap: Max Q first, E second, W last.

How to use Ezreal's abilities
Your play style on Ezreal should be relatively similar game to game. I'll go through each of the abilities.

Mystic Shot
Be precise but don't be afraid to throw Qs here and there. In my experience, landing Qs early on will help you establish confidence and rythm, allowing you to land more Qs later on.

It is important to note that Ezreal's Q can be used in succession with his auto attack, acting as somewhat of an animation cancel. USE THIS WELL as it drastically increases your DPS.

Essence Flux
Essence Flux can be used in conjunction with his auto attack as well as all of his abilities. When laning, W+AA or W+E is the combo of choice. Similarly to his Q ability, you should use W whenever it's off cool down. As I say, every W is an opportunity for you to chunk out your opponent.

Arcane Shift
Arcane shift is a skill that offers a balance between offensive and defensive capabilities. If used well, you can easily wipe out your opponent. If used badly, well, you just pulled a Zven. You do NOT want to use arcane shift unless you know it's safe. This means that you should only use arcane shift offensively once the enemy top laner, jungler, and bot laners have been accounted for on the map. Otherwise, it makes for an all around exceptional disengage ability, which you can hold on to until threatened.

Trueshot Barrage
This ability was once used to clear waves, but after its damage to minions got nerfed, it is used to chunk out opponents or steal objectives. Use it when you want to pressure the opponent to stop pushing your lane or to steal baron, dragon, and other objectives that may impact the game.

Rising Spell Force - Passive Ability
Ezreal's passive grants him 10% bonus attack speed for every spell he lands, stacking up to 5 times. It's very important that you use your Q and W on cool down to maintain a high attack speed %. It'll help keep you to out trade your opponents by merely having faster auto attacks.

Now that we know more about Ezreal's abilities and how to use them, we can talk about how to apply it in lane. I won't be going through every lane match up because it'd be redundant. Ezreal's match ups can be divided into 2 categories: winning lanes and losing lanes.

Winning Match Ups
Ezreal has an advantage against heavily skill shot reliant mages that have weak auto attacks. When the game begins, get an early ward on the enemy's Wraith camp. This will give you the vision necessary to go for aggressive early trades (which is where you will look to heighten your advantage). If the situation permits, you will want to look to position yourself between the enemy mid laner and the enemy creeps. Your goal is to land as many Qs and AAs as possible between level 1 and 2 so that once you hit level 2, you can E in for the kill. Once you secure an early lead, it's relatively easy to maintain dominance. Rinse and repeat!

Losing Match Ups
Ezreal has a disadvantage against melee-assassins as they generally have the ability to out trade him early on. Your goal is to farm, farm, farm, and land Qs from a distance. They generally won't get to a point where you can solo kill them, but if you're able to poke them out, an opportunity for your jungler to gank will arise. Keep in mind that Ezreal is a late-game scaling champion, so falling behind early on isn't something to worry about.

Have fun on the Rift!

10.12
No changes to Ezreal.

10.13
Death's Dance damage reduction nerfed for ranged champions (from 30% to 20%). Still a viable item on Ezreal and should be incorporated into his build. I've tested the Gauntlet + DD build in ranked and it is still a very strong build.

PRE SEASON
Build path changed. Build the following items now:
Manamune
Divine Surrenderer
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Ravenous Hydra
Defensive item - Death's Dance or Maw of Malmortious
Serylda's Grudge