Ezreal is one of the most fun champions that I have gotten to play in the league & I use him primarily as an AD carry. I'll show you the things I try to do with Ez and how I try to play with him. Ezreal is an entirely skill shot based champion and being able to fire all his skill shots is what makes him so fun to play. So here goes my build on Ezreal.

Here are some of my results:



And here is what my item build and stats were for a ranked game where I went 11/3/13:

Pros
- Great harrassment in lane
- Effective farmer when you are capable of spamming skills
- Very strong damage throughout the game
- Effective AD Carry
- Ult now scales with AD as well!!

Cons
- Squishy, will be blown up if focused
- All spells are still shots so you become ineffective if you miss
- Long cooldown on Arcane Shift can betray you

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation - standard marks for physical carries and ArmPen is great.
Greater Seal of Clarity - You can be mana starved at times so having regen per level is always nice
Greater Glyph of Warding - Keeps you protected from early damage from mages, and always helpful to have extra MR since Ez's MR doesn't scale while his Armor does
Greater Quintessence of Fortitude - Ezreal is squishy so I choose to go for the extra health with my Quintessence.

Total stats from Runes:
+ 78 HP
+ 15 Armor Penetration
+ 11 Mana Regen/5 at Level 18
+ 13 Magic Resist

Flash - Helps in escaping & to get that much closer to fleeing enemies when your Arcane Shift is on cooldown and there is nothing like a double flash to piss off would be gankers.


Ghost - Ezreal needs to be able to escape so taking Ghost helps him to get away from any attackers. Arcane Shift and Ghost and no one can get you.

Other useful Spells

Ignite - Always helps when you get any champ close to death & he manages to make it to his tower and helps getting first blood but I'd rather use my summoner spells for escaping/chasing. Plus Ezreal puts out enough damage throughout the game not to need the extra damamge. Could take it against a team with Mundo or Tryn though.


Exhaust - Great vs physical carries on the other team or for slowing a fleeing enemy, and Ezreal can usually 1v1 most people so Ezreal with an Exhaust 1v1 is aweesome.

With Ezreal you have two options for a mastery build, 9/0/21 taking upgraded Flash and Ghost as well as things like additional time on buffs and mana regen or a 21/0/9 build taking things like Armor Pen, Cooldown Reduction, and additional damage down the offensive tree.

I prefer a 9/0/21 Mastery Tree because it is the one that has brought me more success. Having my summoner spells refresh more often is very helpful in a pinch.

Passive - Rising Spell Force
Hitting a target with any of Ezreal's abilities increases his attack speed by 10% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.

Ezreal's passive is a temporary increase in speed every time that he lands one of his attacks. With Mystic Shot's low cool down you can always keep your passive procs up when you have the mana to continually fire off abilities. It also procs when you hit allies with your Essence Flux and you can use both Mystic Shot and Essence Flux to check brush for enemies. Simply shoot into the brush and see if your passive procs.



Q - Mystic Shot
(Active): Ezreal fires a bolt of energy. If it strikes an enemy unit it reduces all of Ezreal's cooldowns by 1 second. Applies on-hit effects.
Cooldown: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds.
Range: 1,000.
Cost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 mana.
Physical Damage: 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+1 per attack damage).


Since I build Ezreal as an AD carry, this is the skill that I max first and it will serve as your primary source of damage. It has a short cool down, which makes it spammable when you have the mana available, especially when you have the Golem buff. There are two great things that make this ability work so well with Ezreal going AD. Whenever it hits the cool down of all of Ezreal's abilities make very useful in a fight because spamming it will bring down the cool down of all the rest of your abilities. It also applies on-hit effects, which means things like Lizard Buff and Frozen Mallet would proc not only with Ezreal's basic attacks but also with his Mystic Shot.



W - Essence Flux
(Active): Ezreal fires a wave of energy at a targeted area. Any enemy champions it passes through are damaged and have their attack speed slowed for 5 seconds, while any allied champions it passes through have their attack speed increased for 5 seconds.
Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 mana.
Cooldown: 9 seconds.
Magic Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+0.7 per ability power).
Range: 900
Attack Speed Bonus/Debuff: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 %.

Essence Flux scales with AP, so with my build it is not a huge damage spell but it has plenty of uses. First off, it is very helpful during tower pushes because of the attack speed bonus that it provides your allies, by procing another stack on your passive and increasing your allies attack speed will lead to a faster push. When fired against enemies it slows their attack speed by the same amount that your allies get boosted, so ideally you would want to hit your teammates as well as enemies with it to get the full effect. I've only done this a handful of times though but the good thing about Essence Flux is that it ignores minions and only hits champions so when minions are in your way and Mystic Shot is not an option Essence Flux is always great.



E - Arcane Shift
(Active): Ezreal teleports to a nearby target location and fires a homing arrow at the nearest enemy unit, dealing damage to it.
Range: 475
Cost: 90 mana.
Cooldown: 19 / 17 / 15 / 13 / 11 seconds.
Area of Effect: 750
Magic Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+0.75 per ability power).


Yes, this ability also scales with AP but man it can be a life saver but also can be your demise. Never, ever, ever use this skill to initiate a battle. Arcane Shift should be used in two way: to get yourself away from danger or to catch up to a fleeing enemy to unleash your spell combo. Enemy teams are going to focus you during team fights so if you use your Arcane Shift too early they will just focus you knowing that you have no way to escape while Shift is on cooldown (save if you happen to have Flash/Ghost available). Early use this ability to line up easy Mystic Shots and finish off fleeing enemies, and later it becomes more of a way to jump into fights over walls or to escape the same way.




R - Trueshot Barrage (Ultimate)
(Active): Ezreal channels for 1 second to fire a powerful barrage of energy missiles, which deal damage to each enemy unit they pass through. However, it deals 8% less damage for each unit it hits with a limit of 30% less damage for any hit after the first 4.
Cost: 150 mana.
Range: Global
Cooldown: 100 seconds.
Damage: 350 / 500 / 650 plus the greater of (+0.9 per ability power) OR (+1.0 per bonus attack damage)


A global ultimate, and man is it fun when you hit someone from across the map for the kill. Ezreal's ult is a fantastic weapon and can be used in several ways. The first obviously is to finish off fleeing enemies and a lot of the time it helps me get the kill if I can't get it before my enemy makes it back to his tower. I also like using my ult as an initiator for a gank, making sure that I get the most effect from it and then jump on them with my full spell combo. One great thing to look for is enemies that are hugging their tower trying to port back to base, line up your ult with them and it is usually a free kill. I was recently playing mid when a fight broke out in the bottom lane, I had just ported back so I was on my way back to mid when after the fight Katarina was less then a bar of health. Before the fog of war disappeared I saw her porting back next to her tower, that's a sin when an Ezreal is on the other team and I lined up my ult and got an easy kill while returning to my lane. You can also use your ult to initiate a team fight. I don't mean that by using it and then jumping in on the fray, but instead if the opposing team stacks up together where your ult can hit them all by all means shoot it off to give your team an early advantage in the fight to come.


Order of importance when leveling skills: R > Q > E > W

Starting Items


Vampiric Scepter
My starting item is a Vampiric Sceptor, and believe me I have gotten plenty of teammates complaining to me when I first buy it but it is fantastic to have when you are solo mid, which you should try to take as often as possible. It will keep you in the lane for a long time, enough so that you get enough gold to buy a Wriggle's Latern and Boots on your first trip back.

Core Items


Wriggle's Lantern
So why do I get Wriggles? Two reasons, the life steal and passive chance to deal 500 damage to minions lets you get Blue Golem immediately once you buy this item and makes all your spells spammable back in lane, and there is nothing better than a free ward to place around the map. Map awareness saves lives.


Berserker's Greaves
I usually go for these boots when the opposing team does not have a lot of CC because AD Ezreal is all about attack speed and being able to hit your enemies often throughout any fight that breaks out. Mercury Treads are indeed a viable replacement if you are worried about any CC that the enemy team has and extra MR is always a plus.


Sheen
This is the priority item on your way to a Trinity Force. Since you spam your spells during any fight the passive 80% boost to your attack power will constantly be procing and it increases your damage output by an exorbitant amount.


Trinity Force
Now your passive boost to attack power is at 150% for your next attack,and that is only the beginning of the greatness this item provides you with. It gives you AD, AP, Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Crit chance, and HP/MP. I usually build Phage before Zeal for the chance of slowing my enemies and the extra HP for survability.


The Bloodthirster
Attack damage and life steal with the chance of obtaining bonuses in both categories is fantastic. This makes you a very potent 1v1 champion and I have been able to solo 1v1 against the likes of Nocturne, Sivir, and Ashe with ease.


Banshee's Veil
Gives you MR, health and mana and a free spell shield that refreshes every 45 seconds. It is a must late game when spells are constantly being thrown around and there are constant team fights breaking out.

Other Items


From here on the build becomes completely based on your enemy team, which is why both Thornmail and Force of Nature appear. Ezreal is very squishy and capable of being focused down into the ground so survability is great to have. Guinsoo's Rageblade is an item that I like to go for if I am able to survive in team fights with my my build up to this point. The passive additions to AD, AP, and AS along with your passive procs makes you attack at rapid speeds and absolutely shread through opposing teams.

Optional Substitutes

If the opposing team has lots of CC then you might want to grab Mercury's Treads instead of Berserker's Greaves to help cut down the durations, like I said before. If you want to get a Guardian Angel so you can have both some MR and AR as well as being able to revive you can substitute it in it but I prefer to go without it because most times you revive the other team is waiting over you and kills you again. Nashor's Tooth would be great for the cooldown reduction and attack speed and it would give your Essence Flux a little more bite then where it is at this time. The only situation I'd get a Madred's Bloodrazor is if the team has 3 tanky champs so that I could rip through them faster. If I were to buy any of my optional or substitute items I would most likely sell my Wriggle's Latern to buy a Guinsoo's Rageblade, Nashor's Tooth, or Bloorazor.

Since I play Ezreal as an AD carry I always try to get solo mid that way I can both get ahead level wise, get items faster, and have chances to gank.

Early Game
When I start the game I grab my Vampiric Scepter and either head to my lane or protect the jungler on my team. Once the minions spawn I head to middle lane. The way that I play Ezreal is aggressive, by that I don't mean overextending and opening yourself up for a gank but harassing your enemy with your Mystic Shot as much as possible. Try not to burn all your mana simply trying to hit you opponent with Essence Flux because it avoids minions, save that mana for Mystic Shot and using Arcane Shift to line up a sure to hit Mystic Shot. My usual spell combo is E, Q, W. Shifting into range for a easy Mystic Shot, then firing an Essence Flux if I have the mana. Always defer to saving mana that would be used for Essence Flux during a spell combo in which you are concerned about mana consumption.

The reason that most people don't get first blood with Ezreal or die during a 1v1 fight is that they don't trust his damage, believe me with his Mystic Shot dealing true damage and his attack speed constantly increasing coupled with his life steal from Vampiric Scepter you will most likely be whittling away your opposing mid's HP while yours stay high from normal attacks. I have been less than 3/4's health last hitting minions when a Twitch popped up next to me, most people would have run but I just started spamming Mystic Shot and my passive was already at 5 stacks from attacking minions I was able not only to force him to retreat but I saved my Arcane Shift for the final blow getting first blood. Knowing that Ezreal has the ability to survive with Life Steal is important, be fearless but always know when you should retreat. When you have 1400 gold go on and port back to buy your Wriggle's and Boots.


After Initial Lane Phase
Once I have my Wriggle's Latern, if we don't have a jungler I immediately go to our Blue Golem camp and take it down, because being able to spam my spells is crucial to constant damage output with Ezreal. If my lane is doing alright I look for gank opportunities, either leading off with my ult for a guaranteed hit or saving it for catching fleeing enemies. When I get the chance I like to drop my ward either in front of Dragon or in the opposing teams Blue Golem camp so that I can gank junglers trying to get the buff or simply steal it from them when it spawns. Positioning yourself correctly in any fight is the key to excelling with Ezreal, let them focus your tank and constantly kite them with Mystic Shot when they sit under their tower. The true damage from the spell is devastating if they linger there too long.

After the Laning Phase
A tower or two are down and the laning phase is officially over, you now have the priority to the Red Lizard buff for your team if you are the AD Carry and should get it as often as possible when it is available. Blue Golem buff is fantastic to have as well but if a mage needs it more let them have it, the important one for you to have is Lizard buff. Remember never to use your Arcane Shift as an initiator for any type of fight that you are out numbered in. This is always subject to exceptions like two low HP enemies, if that's the case by all means Shift in and unleash your spell combo. During team fights you have to stay behind your team for the most part, because if you are left out by yourself you will be focused and you will die. When you are fleeing or chasing also remember that your Arcane Shift can travel across walls that aren't technically within the range of you spell. If you walk up close to a wall that is out of your Shift's range and try to Shift to the other side you will make it there and I will post a video soon of such walls that I am describing.

Here is a video of me playing as Ezreal, I will be adding commentary later:

Part 1
Play Video
Part 2
Play Video
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my build for Ezreal. Please leave comments for feedback as I am always looking for ways to improve my play. I will be adding to this build a video or highlights from a match of me playing Ezreal as well as the jumps across walls that look to large to pass through that I described in my last paragraph.

04/06/11 - Added video of game play in a normal game with AD Ezreal, commentary on that video to come. Also added results to another recent ranked game (11/3/13).

04/05/11 - Added Black Cleaver to the Other Items section in the Items.