This is my first guide so please forgive me if there are any coding or spelling/grammar errors I may have missed. Any and all feedback is appreciated, thank you in advance for taking the time to read this guide ^_^ This is a guide on how I feel AP Ezreal should be played. I plan on constantly updating it and trying my best to make it be as in-depth and helpful as I can make it. Thanks to Searz for the awesome guide format! You can find it here. Also thanks to JhoiJhoi for her amazing guide on how to use BBCode, among many other things. Her great guide can be found here.

Mouse-over any abilities or spells to see their tooltip

I feel that the terms I use are fairly common and most players should/would know what they mean, but I'll put this here in case there are any new players.

AP: Ability Power
AD: Attack Damage
AoE: Area of Effect
APC: AP/Ability Power Carry
CDR: Cooldown Reduction
Mpen/Magic Pen: Magic Penetration
AA/AA'ing: Auto Attack/Auto Attacking
Quint(s): Quintessence(s)

---

• Arcane Blade : This mastery has amazing synergy with Lich Bane and is great overall for pushing turrets and last hitting minions
• Spell Weaving : This mastery has good synergy with this build for the same reason Arcane Blade is a good choice as well. As such, it is a better choice than the alternative of Double-Edged Sword or Dangerous Game

The secret behind the success of a good AP Ezreal is being able to burst/combo your abilities in a short period of time to burst the enemy down and deal massive damage. The order that you do the abilities in makes all the difference, especially in actually landing them on the enemy's face rather than missing. You will want to initiate with Arcane Shift (Now remember, this is only for single target, I am NOT telling you to inititate a team fight), then follow up immediately with Essence Flux, then lastly your Mystic Shot. The order of these spells each have a longer range than the one before it, meaning, that if the target is fleeing, there is still a great chance of the spells hitting your retreating opponent. If the enemy has low enough health after you burst them down with your combo, you should immediately start charging your Trueshot Barrage to finish them off and get the easy kill.

Essence Flux is your main source of damage, and so it should be maxed first to maximize your damage in both early and late game.

Arcane Shift is your second main source of damage and is also great for escaping, it should be maxed second.

Mystic Shot should be maxed last, as it does very minimal damage is only really used to kill minions, finish off your combo, and to keep your stacks of Rising Spell Force at 5.

Trueshot Barrage should be upgraded at the earliest levels possible, those being, 6, 11, and 16.

---

There are a few items that were not listed in the build and should be used only under certain circumstances.

Abyssal Mask : This is an alternative item for Void Staff if the enemy team doesn't realize the threat you may be to their safety or simply do not know when or how to build magic resist. The way to find out if you should get an Abyssal Mask on Ezreal over a Void Staff is this. Check the magic resistance on each enemy champion to see what it is, once you find this number you need to subtract the magic pen from your boots and runes, and then 8% magic pen from your masteries. If the magic resistance left on the enemy is roughly 55 or less on all (58 to be exact), or at least the majority of the enemy team, then you should get an Abyssal Mask. The reason for doing this math to find out their resistances after your masteries is because Void Staff gives you 35% magic pen, meaning that if you were to focus on lowering a single champion's resistance, the tipping point of when to buy a Void Staff would be if they have 57 magic resist. Abyssal Mask only removes 20 magic resist, and the point where the 35% penetration from Void Staff is more than 20, is when an enemy champion has 57 or more magic resist. If they have more than 57 magic resistance, then Void Staff will give you more than 20 magic pen, making it the superior choice and why you should only get Abyssal Mask under specific circumstances. Another set of circumstances that I have had pointed out to me is when you are faced with an enemy in mid who is superior in some way. It could be LeBlanc or Veigar's burst, or it could be a pesky Kassadin that's giving you trouble and not letting you farm. Buying a Negatron Cloak early in the match which you can then build into an Abyssal Mask after your Rabadon's Deathcap is always a great way to try and deny the enemy APC from bursting down your health before you get more sustain from a Rylai's Crystal Scepter or any other source you may choose. You can always replace Abyssal Mask later in the game for a Void Staff if the enemy team has more magic resist than an Abyssal Mask can reduce, as I stated above. Thanks to Chu_Chu_Jelly for the tip on how to better this section of my guide.


Hextech Gunblade : This item was listed in one of the previous two builds that were removed but I feel that it is still worth mentioning as an alternate item. Ezreal is a burst champion and the healing received from the damage he does is more than enough to keep him alive after combat without having to return to base, which would leave your team vulnerable without one of their carry's. The argument I see the most around this item on APC's like Ezreal is whether to get Hextech Gunblade or Will of the Ancients. Personally I feel the choice between the two comes down mostly to how you play Ezreal. If you have Lich Bane in your build, then I feel Hextech Gunblade is the right item. Due to your AA's that you're doing to take advantage of the passive from your Lich Bane, it is a better option. Hextech Gunblade has the same amount of Spell vamp as Will of the Ancients, with extra AD for attacking turrets, and lifesteal for gaining back health in between fights when you're clearing minions or even clearing small jungle camps. If you choose to get Hextech Gunblade, I suggest replacing either your Deathfire Grasp, Athene's Unholy Grail, or Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Do not get Hextech Gunblade unless you have Lich Bane in your build as well.


Liandry's Torment : I feel this item has become a better option on champions like Malzahar, Teemo, or Singed. Liandry's Torment can still be used as a good item if you're laning against a champion with a large amount of magic resist or damage reduction, especially champions like Galio, who stack magic resist (Because of his passive Runic Skin), and Gragas (because of his ability Drunken Rage). Liandry's Torment has a fairly good synergy with Ezreal -if- you buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter because it causes his spells to slow, which in turn allows Liandry's Torment to deal twice it's usual damage. If you decide to build a Liandry's Torment, I suggest replacing either Athene's Unholy Grail, or Deathfire Grasp.


Zhonya's Hourglass : While this item is not part of the main build on most occasions, there would be some situations where it can be a nice replacement item for Deathfire Grasp. With incredibly high AP just like Deathfire Grasp, you can substitute this item for an item with more defense stats, equally large amounts of AP, and a live-saving active to replace a more offensive one. This would usually be a wise decision for a very AD-heavy team, perhaps against an AD mid like Zed, Talon, or the occasional Riven.


Enchantment: Homeguard : This is a good alternative to Enchantment: Alacrity. I feel that both upgrades are viable choices, seeing as how it comes down mostly to personal play-style. My own personal preference on these choices is I tend to get Enchantment: Alacrity if the game is going well, and Enchantment: Homeguard if I find myself more on my team's half of the playing field or while being on the defensive if the game isn't going as well. As I said, the choice between the two mostly comes down to personal preference/play-style.

AP Ezreal's main weakness is his early game/pre 6. The main thing you need to make AP Ezreal a real threat, is AP, which you're a bit short on until around level 6. You want to make sure to stay behind your minions and avoid skillshots from the enemy as best you can. Try not to spend your mana on minions, making sure that if you use a spell it will hit the enemy and not the empty space to their left or right. Your main priority in the laning phase, even above harassing, is to farm. Farming is Ezreal's other main weakness, as he has no AoE spells, making him one of the weaker farmers in the game, so you need to be sure to last hit minions every chance you can.

AP Ezreal's role in team fights is similar to any APC. You will want to stay as far back as you can while still making sure your abilities hit, making the enemy team have to get through the rest of your team if they want to try and kill you. Try and focus the enemy carry, whether it be AP or AD, and shut it down so their main source of damage is gone. If you have your Trueshot Barrage available, use it as soon as 3 or more of the enemies are stacked together, so you can do the most damage to them.

To those who may still be skeptical about the viability of this guide, here are a few screenshots of my match history. While they are old, they are still relevant to the guide and show some level of success. I hope and plan to do more testing to show here, but for now, here are just a couple of games as AP Ezreal from the early days of testing my guide.

Thank you for taking the time to read my guide. I hope I was able to give some insight on how I feel is one of the best ways to play Ezreal to his full potential. If you feel the urge to leave any feedback or tips on how you think I can make this guide any better, feel free to do so in the comments section. Thanks again for your time ^_^

12/3/12 - Guide Created
12/4/12 - Changelog added. Updated masteries for Preseason 3
12/5/12 - Added 12 more chapters and turned my build into a full-fledged guide.
12/7/12 - Altered the second build, rearranging the build order slightly.
12/8/12 - Changed the alternative items slightly, updating the description.
1/9/13 - Added Alternative Items section under main build in the cheat sheet area.
1/14/13 - Fixed some errors and did some general maintenance on the guide.
2/3/13 - Updated the Alternate Items section and did some more general maintenance.
3/5/13 - Fixed some wording issues and did some other general maintenance.
1/23/14 - Updated the guide after a long stretch of time where it was neglected. Changes were made for the new season, items were altered, coding was updated, as well as other general maintenance.