Welcome to my Ezreal guide! I'm Yeager, a high elo player since season 5, currently chilling in grandmaster. Ezreal has been a go-to pick of mine whenever i get ADC, so i've played him a lot the couple of years. The purpose of this guide is to teach you how to play and think like a high elo Ezreal player.

Ezreal is a caster ADC which has been a comfort pick for many pro's and high elo players for years. He's very safe to play at all stages of the game due to his "tanky" itemization, and mobile kit that allows him to do well into all match ups. Even though he's a safe pick, he's still a mechanical intensive champion that if played wrong, will render you useless the entire game. I will show you how to play him properly like high elo players, so you can improve your Ezreal gameplay and climb the ladder!

This guide was originally made for the lategame double tear build but it has been patched so unfortunately it no longer works. i updated the guide and added a new build which is now the new meta for Ezreal.

Pros + Extremely fun to play + Safe pick + Strong poke + Hybrid damage + Very rewarding when mastered Ezreal has been one of the strongest and safest picks in the botlane for a long time. Mastery of his kit allows him to dominate easier matchups, and stay safe in hard ones by farming from afar Mystic Shot. He is a very versatile marksman with multiple build paths. When ahead it can be really difficult shutting down Ezreal because of his ability to easily reposition himself with Arcane Shift.

Cons - Hard to master - Needs to stack tear - Not very useful when behind - Skillshot reliant Ezreal is a skillshot reliant champion, which of course makes him hard to master. Your basic attacks will hurt but the majority of the damage comes from your abilities, so missing those will leave you useless in fights. Ezreal is not too good when behind because you do need to rush the the tear of goddess, and then you start building damage pretty slowly, so it's going to be rough in the early game.

NOTE: Use the rune setup i have provided at the top of the build with conqueror, which is the season 10 meta build for Ezreal. I haven't added the new rune-setup image yet

keystone Conqueror: This keystone is now the go-to for Ezreal since the removal of Kleptomancy. It doesn't have true damage anymore, but it stacks incredibly fast on caster champions because abilities gives 2 stacks each. At max stacks you get a bunch of free AD and a percentage healing. lesser rune Presence of Mind: This rune is just not balanced at all. You can get up to 500 mana from this rune alone, and then it restores mana as well. I expect this to get nerfed in the near future, but until that, there is absolutely no reason to ever use the other 2 runes on Ezreal or any other champion that can make use of the bonus energy or mana. lesser rune Legend: Alacrity: More attack speed for the midgame where Ezreal starts shining. lesser rune Cut Down: We are in a tank meta in season 10, so this rune is the obvious choice since you deal more damage to high hp targets. lesser rune Manaflow Band: This is the obvious choice for a mana-focused build. With Muramana, a percentage of our mana will be converted to damage, so the more mana, the better. The regen is also quite nice later in the game. lesser rune Gathering Storm: Weak early but slowly ramps up. From minute 20 it becomes super strong.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Is a must-grab on a ADC because you're really squishy and require solid positioning. Although you do already have Arcane Shift to reposition yourself, Flash is still something you must have. It's the BEST summoner in the game. HEAL: The reason we always take Heal over Barrier is because you are laning with a support. It's much stronger in 2v2 fights since it also heals your teammate, if he/she is within the proximity.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Rising Spell Force (Passive): Ezreal gains increasing Attack Speed each time he successfully hits a spell, stacking up to 5 times.

Q

Mystic Shot (Q): Ezreal fires a damaging bolt of energy which reduces all of his cooldowns by 1.5 seconds if it strikes an enemy unit.

W

Essence Flux (W): Ezreal fires an orb that sticks to the first champion or objective hit. If Ezreal hits an enemy with the orb, it detonates and deals damage. Ezreal fires an orb that sticks to the first champion or objective hit for {{ detonationtimeout }} seconds.Hitting the orb with an ability or attack detonates it dealing {{ damage }} magic damage. Detonating with an ability refunds the cost of that ability +{{ manareturn }} mana.

E

Arcane Shift (E): Ezreal teleports to a target nearby location and fires a homing bolt which strikes the nearest enemy unit.

R

Trueshot Barrage (R): Ezreal winds up for 1 second to fire a powerful barrage of energy missiles which do massive damage to each unit they pass through (deals 10% less damage to each unit it passes through).

Mystic Shot is maxed first because it's our bread and butter ability. We use it to poke/farm and when we hit a target, it reduces the cooldown of all other spells by 1.5 seconds. This is also the reason we get items like Sheen because Mystic Shot applies on-hit effects.


Arcane Shift is maxed second because it's our main way of repositioning, and therefore is a great escape tool. It has AD and AP ratios so it can also be used as a bonus damage source(only if it's safe for you). Whenever we put points into this ability, the cooldown gets reduced by 1.5 seconds. These are the main reasons we max Arcane Shift over Essence Flux.


Trueshot Barrage is maxed third because it's an insane global ultimate that scales off 100% AD and 90% AP. It can be used to snipe champions or steal objectives like baron and dragons. Sometimes you can even use it to kill a huge minion wave so your tower doesn't fall.


Essence Flux is maxed fourth. The rework made it quite the strong ability. It can be used to empower your autos or Mystic Shot damage. We still prefer the mobility over this, so this will be maxed last.

Doran's Blade

Doran's Blade: Will be our standard starting item. Gives AD, HP and lifesteal. It makes it easier to farm creeps and the lifesteal also works with your Mystic Shot.

Doran's Shield

Doran's Shield: Gives flat HP, HP regen and bonus damage to minions. Ideal in lanes where you are guaranteed to get harassed a lot. For example Jhin + Sona or Miss Fortune + Nami.

Control Ward

Control Ward: It's SO important to always have wards on the map so you can track enemy movement. If you can protect the ward, you can have an insane amount of vision control combined with Stealth Ward or Farsight Alteration. I ALWAYS buy 1 every time i base - Yes, even if i have a control ward placed on map already. If you find yourself in a scenario, where you already have 6 items, sell your Doran's Blade so you can stack wards.

Core items - Manamune: When stacked it will transform into Muramana and make Ezreal hit like a truck. Since we are stacking a lot of mana with this build, Manamune is a must because it gets and deals bonus damage based on mana. Trinity Force: Super powerful mid-game item that synergizes very well with Ezreals kit. Every hit of Mystic Shot procs the spellblade passive and makes him more mobile with temporary MS boost. The CDR it gives is so important on Ezreal because he's a spellcaster that wants to spam abilities as much as possible. luden's echo: This is the new core item since removal of the double Tear of the Goddess. Everything it offers has great synergy with his build and kit, and also makes your all-ins and poke that much stronger with it's passive. Ezreal has insane ap scaling on all his abilities, so that extra bit of AP you get actually makes a huge difference in fights.

Sorcerer's Shoes: The new meta build with Luden's Tempest and Hextech Gunblade has a lot of magic damage because of Ezreal's insane scaling with AP, so these boots are a big help as the flat magic pen shreds champions with low MR.

Ninja Tabi: Is the standard buy into AD heavy teams. It offers armor and 12% damage reduction on autoattacks(Yes it counts magic damage from autos too). If you face a full AD team, just get this and Iceborn Gauntlet.

Mercury's Treads: Buy this against CC heavy teams. If you ever get CC'ed for the full duration as an ADC in the lategame, it usually means death so get these for the tenacity, and get out alive.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: My favorite boots on Ezreal. As a spellcaster, he needs all the CDR he can get, so you can spam your abilities in fights. I buy these in 90% of my games.

Berserker's Greaves: A lot of people might find it wierd that this is a good purchase on Ezreal. If you choose the Iceborn Gauntlet route, it can be really awkward weaving in auto attacks because you have no attackspeed items until the 4th item Blade of the Ruined King. Basically, Berserker's Greaves makes playing Ezreal overall more smooth while also increasing his DPS in combination with his passive Rising Spell Force.

Void Staff: Buy this if you're playing the hybrid Ezreal build with Sorcerer's Shoes + Luden's Tempest + Hextech Gunblade as a big part of your damage is magic, so it's countered by enemies buying magic resistance.

Iceborn Gauntlet: If you want more utility, then you should buy this instead of Trinity Force. You want this item when you are against heavy AD comps or vs AD-assassins like for example Talon, Zed and Kha'Zix, because it counters their lethality build. It let's you kite better with the slow and it also costs 1033 gold less than Trinity Force. Basically, you lose damage for more utility.

Blade of the Ruined King: For normal ADC's it's best against tanks but for Ezreal it can be bought every single game because of the on-hit effect, and synergy with Manamune. It has a on-hit passive that deals 8% of the targets current health as bonus physical damage, so every single Mystic Shot you use will proc this effect. It can be a little awkward to weave in autos if you buy Iceborn Gauntlet because you won't have any attack speed with 0 stacks on Rising Spell Force. Blade of the Ruined King fixes that as well!

Guardian Angel: Buy this if you struggle a lot against fed assassins. It's rarely bought on Ezreal because we already have Iceborn Gauntlet + Ninja Tabis which should be more than enough.

Mercurial Scimitar: This item is bought mainly for it's active that lets you cancel any CC, but the offensive/defensive stats it gives shouldn't be ignored. I always buy this when facing a Malzahar, Skarner and sometimes vs Warwick.

Maw of Malmortius: You get a big magic shield when you take magic damage that would put you below 30% HP. When the Lifeline passive triggers, you get 20 AD and 10% lifesteal. This is a must-buy into burst AP champions like LeBlanc, Katarina, Akali, Syndra and Fizz.

Lord Dominik's Regards: Buy this if you face tanks with lots of armor as it helps you killing them faster with the armorpen, and bonus damage vs high-hp targets.

Mortal Reminder: This should be bought when you face heavy healing opponents like Soraka, Vladimir, Swain and Dr. Mundo. If they don't have any armor, you can get away with just buying Executioner's Calling.

Hextech Gunblade: The hybrid stats it gives is really good on Ezreal because his abilities scales with AD and AP. The active can be used to quickly burst down squishy targets, while the sustain will keep you healthy in fights.

In the early game it's all about getting level 2 first so you can take control of the lane. Start with Mystic Shot and use it to stack your passive Rising Spell Force for the attack speed. If you do get level 2 first, you can go all-in and for some early kills, or at least take their summoners. Your level 2 is really strong with the attack speed buff you get from Rising Spell Force. If you think the enemy botlane will get level 2 before you, you should back off so you don't get engaged on. Except for the level 1-2, you mainly want to farm and base for the Tear of the Goddess. When you have enough gold for it, make sure to shove in OR freeze the wave, before you base. It's really important that you don't let it slowpush when basing, because it will give the opponent 2-3 free waves while you lose all the CS. From now on you should focus on stacking your Tear of the Goddess over fighting because you will be at a disadvantage since you didn't buy any damage items yet. Your goal here is to survive the laning phase and farm for your huge powerspike Manamune + Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet.

It's usually midgame when the outer turrets start falling. If you are on the winning side and got the first tower bot, you should swap with your toplaner and get the top tower. The reason we swap is so we can snowball the lead and get more objectives. More towers means more global gold for your team! If you are on the losing side, then you should match the rotation of the enemy botlane. If they rotate top, you should do the same so you can defend your towers, because your toplaner most likely won't be able to do that in a 1v2. At this point you should have Manamune, and either Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet. Powerspike: is a state where your champion becomes significantly more powerful. Ezreal is known for spiking in the midgame as soon as he reaches 3-4 stacked items. Basically, it means you get a huge spike when you have Muramana, Trinity Force and Luden's Tempest. You MUST take advantage of the powerspike because you out-DPS most champions at this stage of the game. Keep looking for ways to extend your lead! The best way to snowball in soloqueue is by focusing more on objectives and less on kills. Ezreal is really strong at sieging because he can easily poke out squishy champions with Mystic Shot and Essence Flux and force them to base.

Ezreal is known for falling off in the lategame DPS-wise because he can't keep up with the crit ADCs. This build is invented to cover that weakness, letting him stay relevant even though he doesn't build crit items. The lategame is all about fighting for major objectives like baron and elder dragon, and using them for the final push to break open the base. Teamfighting: You have 1 job in teamfights, and that is to pump out as much DPS as possible. Stay as far back as you can while dealing damage with Mystic Shot, Essence Flux and basic attacks. You should almost never use Arcane Shift for damage in the lategame. It's your only repositioning ability(excl. flash), so if you use it for damage, you will most likely be met with CC and die instantly. The general rule of thumb for ADCs is to attack whoever is closest to you, without getting caught in a bad position. Another important part of playing ADC is knowing what the enemy can do to you. Let's say you are facing an assassin like Fizz. It's safe to say that if you ever get in range of this guy, you will get blown up. In this case it's better for you to be patient, and wait until he used his ultimate - then you can start attacking him. Also don't forget to always time summoners so you don't get caught by unexpected combos and lose the game.

Mystic Shot applies on-hit effects like red buff, sheen items, duskblade and even on-hit buffs like ardent censer.

Essence Flux gives mana back if you proc it with an ability. It also ignores minions so you can easily hit someone hiding behind a minion wave. It can be used on towers so your next auto deals bonus damage which can be great for sieging.

Arcane Shift can be used to deny CC like Blitzcranks hook if timed well.

And that's all for my Ezreal guide. Thank you for reading it, i hope you learned something! If you still have any questions, you can comment here or find me on my stream.