Let me just start out by saying that, as of the time this article was written, I do not play ranked games. I do not consider myself a good enough player for all that. However, I do play a lot of draft pick. Whenever I am fortunate enough to get mid, I always pick Ezreal, much to the chagrin of my teammates.
"Ezreal is an ADC, why would you take him mid?"
When I tell them I am going to build him AP they say things like;
"Are you trolling? That doesn't work on Ezreal"
"You'll do no damage, you'll be useless"
"Mid-lane lost guys, someone dodge"
Etcetera etcetera.
I almost never get a chance to play AP Ez mid without getting bullied for it. But what people don't realize is that just because something isn't in the meta, doesn't mean it is useless.
Yes, Ezreal scales off of AD. Yes, Ezreal is listed as a marksman, a role traditionally considered an ADC, yes Ezreal is almost never seen mid.
So what?
If he is useless as an AP mid, how is it that i usually end up with more farm than the adc and rarely get fewer than 8 kills and almost never die more than once or twice?
Let's explore that, shall we?

AP Ezreal
Con's
Rising Spell Force Passive is much less useful than on AD Ezreal
Ezreal's Q, Mystic Shot, scales much better off of AD (110%) vs AP(40%)
AP Ezreal's basic attacks and Q are almost useless without Lich Bane
Ezreal in general is a squishy, but without the blue build of AD Ezreal, AP Ezreal is much squishier
AP Ezreal cannot do much damage to minions, creeps, pets (such as tibbers), and epic monsters since his main ability only damaged champions (AKA his waveclear is terrible)
Pro's
All of Ezreal's Abilities scale somewhat off of AP, rather than just 3 of the 4 that scale off of AD
AP Ezreal's W shoots through minions and does an insane amount of damage for a normal attack
AP Ezreal does more damage with his abilities overall, allowing him to perform burst combo's very efficiently
Ezreal has a built in escape- at 45 percent CD it has a 7 second cooldown, allowing Ezreal to use his combo and still escape
Ezreal has a Global ult that does a huge amount of damage compared to other such global ults
AP Ezreal has the element of surprise. Many people assume that Ezreal only scales off of AD. When they see an Ezreal building AP they think that they are trolling, or just stupid. Also, usually in normal games, opponents don't change their builds to match the game, so oftentimes you will find opponents building armor against you, while you just melt their healthbars and laugh at their stupidity.

Lets take a look at Ezreal's Abilities.

Ezreal's Passive is Rising Spell Force, with which Ezreal gains increasing Attack Speed each time he successfully hits a spell, stacking up to 5 times. This is proc'd by hitting enemies, enemy minions, Jungle monsters, and allied champions with his abilities.
Oftentimes, people who actually play Ezreal complain about how AP Ezreal wastes his passive. This is true. Rising Spell Force is a passive that is better used on an AD Ezreal. That is not to say it is useless on AP Ezreal. AP Ezreal does not have a good early phase, and his success in the early game lies in his ability to trade effectively. Other midlaners simply lack the attack speed that Ezreal gets naturally at lvl 1, allowing him to have a slight advantage in early trades, especially if he starts with a Doran's Blade, rather than the ring.

Let's look at Ezreal's Q;
Mystic Shot
Cost: 28/31/34/37/40 Mana
Range: 1150
Ezreal fires a damaging bolt of energy which reduces all of his cooldowns by 1.5 seconds if it strikes an enemy unit.
Ezreal fires a bolt of energy, dealing 35/55/75/95/115 (+110% Attack Damage) (+40% Ability Power) physical damage (applies on-hit effects). Ezreal's cooldowns are reduced by 1.5 seconds if Mystic Shot hits a target.

For AD Ezreal, Mystic Shot is his bread and butter. Not only does it scale 110 percent with AD, but it proc's on-hit-effects, like sheen, plus it reduces all of his cooldowns. But what does Q offer to the AP Ezreal's out there?
For AP Ezreal, Mystic Shot is not as important. It is mainly used for last hitting minions, or getting just a bit of DPS off during an all-in attack, especially in the early game. Whereas it is AD Ezreal's Bread and Butter, AP Ezreal relies more on his W for his attacks.
Usually you would start with this first, and use it to last hit minions and for early trades, because it will do the most damage available to you at lvl 1 as well as allow you to farm effectively, one of AP Ezreal's biggest weaknesses.

Ezreal's W;
Essence Flux
Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 Mana
Range: 1000
Ezreal fires a fluctuating wave of energy, dealing magic damage to enemy champions, while increasing the Attack Speed of allied champions.
Ezreal fires a wave of energy that damages all enemy champions it passes through for 70/115/160/205/250 (+80% Ability Power) magic damage. If Ezreal or his Allied champions are hit by the wave, their Attack Speed is increased by 20/25/30/35/40% for 5 seconds.

This is where it gets interesting. Whereas AD Ezreal uses Mystic shot, almost exclusively, for damage, AP Ezreal does the same with Essence Flux. Essence Flux uses more mana than Mystic shot, but scales EXCLUSIVELY off AP. There is absolutely no AD scaling on this ability, which makes it almost useless on an AD Ezreal. When I first started playing Ezreal, I played him AD because it was the meta. I never used Essence Flux because it did almost no damage compared to Mystic shot, which used less mana. It's only winning attribute for AD Ezreal is the ability to shoot through minions, but my auto attacks did more damage than Essence Flux and could also shoot through minions.
On an AP Ezreal, however, this ability will simply melt an enemies health bar, leaving them wondering what the hell happened. With it dealing a whopping 80 percent of AP damage, it will deal a lot more damage than Mystic Shot will at almost every level, with just a mere 100 AP. On average, I usually get between 600-750 AP on Ezreal by the end game. This means that a maxed Essence Flux plus 750 AP would do about 850 damage, with a very short cooldown.
In addition, it gives allies a buffed attack speed for 5 seconds. If cast on allies in the middle of a team fight, it is an easy way to rack up assists. Also, it passes through allies and will still hit enemies, so you can buff allies and still possibly kill enemies in one shot. High Damage and a bit of utility, what a great combo!

Let's talk about Ezreal's most unique ability- his E;

Arcane Shift
Cost: 90 Mana
Range: 475
Ezreal teleports to a target nearby location and fires a homing bolt which strikes the nearest enemy unit.
Ezreal teleports to a nearby location and fires a bolt at the nearest enemy, dealing 75/125/175/225/275 (+50% bonus Attack Damage) (+75% Ability Power) magic damage.

As you can see, this scales so much better off of AP than AD, but it almost doesn't matter. Arcane shift is used almost primarily as an escape or a gap closer that it almost doesn't need to do ANY damage. However, when used as part of a burst combo, it is so much better with AP Ezreal than AD Ezreal. It also will attack the closest enemy within range, even if they are invisible, which makes it even more useful, especially against that pesky teemo that thinks he is hidden in Baron pit...hehehehe.

Ezreal's final ability is his ultimate;
Trueshot Barrage
Cost: 100 Mana
Range: 20000
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).
Ezreal winds up for 1 second to fire a long range missile that deals 350/500/650 (+100% bonus Attack Damage) (+90% Ability Power) magic damage to each enemy it passes through. Deals 10% less damage for each enemy hit (minimum 30%).

Ezreal's ult is global, which is a wonderful thing. Also, it does AOE damage rather than single target damage. One thing to be wary of is its decreasing damage based off of the amount of units it has passed through. If ulting from far across the map, one need to be wary of minion waves and jungle creeps when casting, as they might decrease the damage down to a mere 30 percent of its former glory.
While this ability has a higher AD scaling than AP scaling, one should keep in mind that it is quite easy to get 700 AP or more by late game, while AD usually hovers at around 200-300. When I see AD Ezreal ult, I laugh at how little damage it actually does.
One thing I hear constantly is that Ezreal's ult is meant to be a final hit snipe, and indeed that is pretty much all that AD Ezreal's ult is good for, and sometimes its not even powerful enough to final hit. AP Ezreal's ult is generally good at many different things.
Firstly, AP Ezreal's ult almost NEVER fails to final hit a target, whereas AD Ezreal might not be able to pull off the damage.
AP Ezreal can use his ult to clear waves. At 45% CD, Ezreal's Ult only has about a 30 second CD. After the laning phase, top and bot lane are usually abandoned to minions and both teams go mid to push the shorter lane. However, this means that if Ezreal ults down these lanes, he can kill a large portion of the enemy minions and severely weaken the rest, allowing his teams minions to push harder, and still have his ult back up by the time he reaches a fight or very soon after. It's a bit like split-pushing, without having to be there. On top of that, it gives Ezreal an instant 5 stacks on his passive should he need it. During the laning phase, ulting a minion wave from base can save turrets. Let's say Ezreal has been pushed out of lane by an opposing Zed, and Zed is now under his turret pummeling it. Ezreal can then send an ult down mid, eliminating most (or all) of the minion wave, damaging Zed, and forcing him to back off of the turret until Ezreal can get there. Another instance where this could be used is if say, bot lane had a losing trade with their opponents, and are either dead or forced to recall. Ezreal can shoot an ultimate down to bot and help clear out the minions to dissuade the other lane opponents from attacking the turret. All of these serve the purpose of helping push out lanes, and make up for AP Ezreal's terrible waveclear. Throw in a ludens echo and you have an amazing split-push potential. Waveclear Ulting on AD Ezreal is hardly worth the CD. It just doesn't do enough damage.
AP Ezreal is more likely to be able to snipe an objective than AD Ezreal, simply because his damage is much higher and he therefore doesn't have as narrow a window of time to snipe it. Don't get me wrong, it is still hard af.
AP Ezreal has a much higher burst potential. I have seen AD Ezreals attempt to use their Ult as part of a burst combo or an initiator and it simply isn't very effective. AP Ezreal, however, can use his ult much more effectively in a burst combo. The usual burst combo one would use on AP Ezreal would be R-E-Q-W-Q and the E away. R will probably take about half their health, then E to get close and do quite a bit of damage, Q to proc sheen, W for more damage, Q for sheen again, and E to get away. This combo is almost a guaranteed kill on even the tankiest of targets.

Start with Q and max it second- highest damage pre-items with the least mana cost, farthest range, and the ability to hit minions.

Take W second and max it first- staple ability of AP Ezreal

Take a point in E at lvl 3, and max it last- used mostly for escapes, not damage so lvl last

Always take a point in R at lvl 6, 11, and 16.

Build Guide on AP Ez
There are two main things you want to worry about when building AP Ezreal.
1) Ability Power (duh)
2) Cooldown Reduction
-This simply makes Ezreal more of a force to be reckoned with- getting a 7 sec flash, an ability that does almost 900 damage every 3 seconds, and a 30 second ult that does almost 1000 or more dmg. CDR is A-MAY-ZING on Ezreal.


Essential Items
Lich Bane
This item will be your staple item on AP Ezreal and, once built, will result in a pretty important power spike. It gives you mana, a very decent amount of AP, 10 percent CDR, and a bit of extra movement speed (always useful), but the most important reason to build Lich Bane is for the passive Spellblade.
UNIQUE – SPELLBLADE: After using an ability, your next basic attack (on-hit) deals 75% base AD (+ 50% AP) as bonus magic damage. (1.5 second cooldown)
What does this mean? It means that Ezreal's Q, which applies on-hit effects, does an additional 50% AP damage. That means that Q then does 90% AP on hit, in addition to its base damage. This makes the Q on AP Ezreal scale quite nicely alongside the other abilities.
Lich Bane is one of the things that makes AP Ezreal so powerful compared to AD Ezreal.
Sheen Items increase Ezreal's auto attacks and his Q, the only two abilities that Ezreal has that scale well off of AD. As AD Ezreal, you are almost limited to one damaging ability.
With AP Ezreal, it is the opposite. You have three abilities that scale much better off of AP, leaving only your Q and auto attacks lacking. But with Lich Bane, you now have the ability to use a Q that scales marvelously off of AP as well, making up for your disadvantage. It's quite an amazing item.

Morellonomicon
This item is simply MARVELOUS on AP Ezreal. It gives 100 AP, which will give pretty hefty Damage to his abilities, as well as brings with it a whopping 20 percent CD. The additional 400 mana is quite nice (especially if you build Seraph's Embrace), and the Grievous wounds passive is a nice add-on as well, since it will proc with ALL of Ezreal's abilities, since they all do magic dmg.
Zhonya's Hourglass
This item gives a decent amount of AP, CDR, and Armor. If you find yourself up against a midlaner like Zed, or Katarina, who has an ult that is difficult to dodge using your Arcane Shift, I would most definitely get Zhonya's over Luden's Echo. The CDR is also very important because it will max your CDR, allowing you to do more dmg overall.
Luden's Echo
Luden's Echo has a few uses on Ezreal. Firstly, it does a pretty immense amount of extra burst damage at full stacks, as well as gives a flat 100 AP. With its 3 lesser bolts, it also helps Ezreal clear waves, whether with his ult or with just his basic abilities. However, if you build this instead of Zhonya's, you trade a pretty epic Active for a bit more burst dmg that may be completely unneeded. Also, you won't get max CDR.

Rabadon's Deathcap
This one is self-explanatory. It simply gives the best AP increase in game, and is a staple amongst midlane mages. If you do build a Mejai's and sucessfully manage to stack it, the hat synchronizes very well with it in terms of damage output.

Boots
I usually build the boots of mobility, purely because it is a lot of fun to be able to Arcane shift away and by the time they flash after you, you are already speeding away and laughing as they eat your dust. But then again, I play for fun and i only play norms. I guess if you wanted to buy more useful boots, I would go with the Sorceror's shoes. The Magic Pen is probably the best option on AP Ezreal. Don't buy the Ionian boots of lucidity. It is just not as good an item, even if it does give CDR.

Now for your final item, you have some choice. If the enemy isnt building MR (which by this point if they aren't, they are pretty damn stupid) then you don't need a Magic Pen item. If you want to upgrade your Tear into the Seraph's Embrace, now would be a good time. If you still have your Mejai's, I would sell it and get the Seraph's embrace instead. It gives you 110 AP on its own, as well as an additional 3 percent of your mana pool before the 1000 mana added by the item, and is a much safer item to have than the Mejai's as it wont become useless after dying.

If they are building MR, you can build either Liandry's Torment or Void Staff.
If you build Liandry's Torment, It synchronizes very well with the Morellonomicon's Grievous Wounds, and deals damage based on percent health. However, if the enemy team has finally gotten their act together, realized that AP Ezreal is ACTUALLY a threat, and has begun stacking serious MR you will want to get the Void staff over Liandry's purely for the extra Magic Pen.

I usually take heal on Ezreal when I go mid, because I play fairly passively.
I prefer to farm over fight, and do just enough trading to let the enemy know I am not an easy feed. AP Ezreal does not have a good early game, and is constantly pushed back under his turret so I find that keeping heal and farming from a distance, while occasionally casting a W at the enemy laner to be the most effective way to survive and not get too far behind your lane opponent. Against an opponent like Zed, heal might be the difference between life and death on many occasions.

If you play draft, however, and can determine who your lane opponent is beforehand, you can more confidently take ignite over heal if you know you can handle the opponent. Because i often play norms and I am against terrors like Zed often, Heal made the most sense to me. But when you can see who your opponent is going to be, and you believe you can burst them and survive then by all means, go for ignite.

Flash is usually a staple summoner's spell, however since Ezreal has a built in flash it is possible to take something else. Maybe heal AND Ignite, although if you were going to skip out on flash I would personally take Teleport in order to return to lane faster to get more cs and EXP than my opponent, or to catch up if I am behind.

As an AP Ezreal Mid, make sure to ignore all the **** your team and the enemy team will no doubt give you early game. Be prepared to be pushed under your turret until you build an item and get a power spike. When trading early, pres Q and W at the same time. You can farm and Trade with a q and w stacked on top of each other, or double the damage if both hit. Because it is harder to see the W under the Q, you may even be able to trick your opponent into thinking that they can't get hit, mistaking the attack as only the Q while the W sails over the minions wave and deals sweet sweet damage. Make sure you ping your lane opponent missing and ward as much as possible. Keep a Pink ward up at all times. If you see your lane opponent going top or bottom, follow him. The last thing you want is to allow your lane opponent to get fed, or for your team to get too far behind. Once you reach lvl 6, constantly watch the map for low health opponents you can snipe. Keep an eye on your allies healthbars. If your ult is up and bot lane is trading, shoot your ult down bot and assist them, so long as you don't risk your turret or survival by using your ult in such a way. Also, mentioned before, use your ult for waveclear when it will save turrets, allies, or help split push. When taking turrets with an ally, cast your w over them to give them a fairly hefty Attack Speed boost. When teamfighting, position yourself towards the back and constantly be dealing damage. Just by casting W over your Allies, you are both increasing their DPS and causing damage of your own. Constantly be moving, if you stand still you are an easy kill. Never use your E to engage unless you are SURE that you will survive it.
If an ally does something stupid, and you can't help without dying, run. You are of more help to the team alive, rather than dying because some idiot thought they could 1v5.

I am sure many of you have noticed how hard it is to get an S on Ezreal, whether AP or AD. I once went 30/0/27 with 300 farm as apc Ezreal and got a B+. I almost cried.

Well after extensive research I discovered how to get the ever elusive S on AP Ezreal.

Lets start with how they calculate an S.

They look at the average for every game played in that role with that champion. They look at the average CS farm, the K/D/A, the gold gained per minute, and damage dealt to champions. They may also look at how many wards placed, damage done to epic monsters, turrets taken, etc etc. I'm not 100 percent sure on those fronts.

What I do know is that you can use this website to find out what the average CS, KDA, and Gold farmed is for a champion in a given role and use that as a way to base your average in order to get an S.

http://champions.pickban.com/l/21/Ezreal

For Ezreal, when I got my S, I had almost 400 farm. I got most of this from using my ult on minion waves, since it had such a short CD.
The CS is the most important part, other than not dying, and a lot of people don't understand that. They go 40/0/10 or whatever and complain they only got an A in the post game screen. But CS is important. If you want to get an S on AP Ezreal, use that ult for waveclear whenever possible, it doesn't matter what your team says.

Also, take turrets. If you see an enemy turret about to go down on your minimap,and you can safely get there on time without risking your own turret, go. Do as much damage to turrets as you possibly can. Do your best not to die, and do as much damage to dragon and baron as possible if your team decides to take those. You could even just occasionally hit baron with a q or two in passing whenever you want to add to the damage you dealt to epic monsters.

Do as much damage to enemies as you can. If you get ganked and you escape, throw a couple of spells towards the opponents, and do your best to hit them.

Ward as much as possible. If they record who wards the most, and who destroys the enemies wards the most, it probably goes into the players overall score.

It goes without saying that you should kill as many enemies as possible, without dying. If you die more than 6 times, your chances of getting an S are going to plummet. 6 times is the average amount of deaths an Ezreal gets mid, you want far fewer to get an S.


If you want to get an S on Ezreal, be prepared for tryhard mode.
When I got S on him, I farmed nonstop until the 9 minute mark, recalled and bought lich bane and tear outright. Then I returned to mid, farmed for another 5 minutes, sniped a kill with my ult top lane, followed my lane opponent (Vladimir), bot lane and picked up 2 kills, took down bot lane tower alone, took down mid tower, then roamed top and assisted in a kill, took down top tower. Then we all went mid for teamfight, i ulted down bot and top lane as much as possible, was present at every turret that went down, farmed my *** off whenever teams would recall to heal since with tear i had such high sustain in lane I could stay almost indefinitely, leaving only to buy my next item. I only died once in the entire game. I try harded for an hour and finally my hard work paid off xD.

It is possible it's just hard. Definitely check out that website for an idea of what to beat in order to get an S. It's very useful.