Hello, I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and am a former mid LCS player from last year!

Ezreal has been a long time favorite champion of mine. He is arguably the safest adc in the game and he has /so/ much versatility. He has amazing poke, burst, pick potential, sustained damage. The only bad thing about him is that his late game damage is weaker than those who prominently stack critical strike and attack speed.

Pros

1. Safe laning.
2. High burst.
3. Strong pick potential.
4. Overall extremely slippery.
5. Consistent poke.

Cons

1. Lane pressure is inconsistent.
2. Late game damage lower than some other ad-carries.

Due to Ezreal's diverse kit he works well in a lot of compositions. The compositions he works best with are those with very high burst throughout the team. The composition that I have laid about above has a ton of displacement and burst. An ideal engagement would consist of Leona landing her Solar Flare, followed up Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage and then Gragas' wombo combo of Barrel Roll and Explosive Cask. Lee Sin can also catch with the fashionable Insec and Renekton is just strong in general with decent burst/sustain damage while being tanky. After the combo lands on down then with Trinity Force, Ezreal can easily pick up kills on low-health targets.

Flash and Barrier are my summoners of choice on Ezreal because they allow for the highest versatility. Barrier in general is fantastic on ad-carries because it inflates their health pool for a small amount of time which allows them to gain back a lot of health through their high amount of lifesteal that they may not have otherwise been able to gain because the fact that they could may have well been dead. Ignite is seen sometimes on Ezreal because of his extremely strong all-in potential at level 2 but to be frank it is just a gimmick and I don't enjoy playing with that style.

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Life Steal Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

These are the standard runes that I run on every adc currently. It is the same that I ran towards the end of season 3 and I really see no reason to change it. The only thing that really needs explaining is as to why I take mana regeneration glyphs and I do this because I am not putting any points into utility. This allows me to cast a few more spells in lane at the cost of only 5 mr which typically doesn't play much of a part anyways.

The masteries that I run on Ezreal are pretty standard. I switch over the 2 points into at attack speed on the first tier of offense for cdr because of how well it synergizes with his kit (more Mystic Shots = even more cdr). I do, though, still get the point in Frenzy because of the amount of critical strike that you end up with at the end of the game synergizes well enough with the mastery that is worth its weight in gold for only one point.

Maxing out Mystic Shot and Arcane Shift first allows for the largest amount of burst, consistent damage, and lowest amount of cool-downs on his core spells. Essence Flux is, in my opinion, a luxury ability so I don't put a lot of weight on it early and just dump all of my remaining points into it later. It doesn't do a lot of damage early and costs a ton of mana so I see no reason to put a point into it.

Rising Spell Force(Passive) Rising spell force is an amazing passive. It gives a very large amount of attack speed and is also really easy to keep up with such an amazing low cool-down on Mystic Shot and the ability to get stacks from Essence Flux hitting allies as well. It is part of the reason why Ezreal has such an amazing mid-game because of the "free" stats he is gaining with his already amazing mid-game kit.

Mystic Shot Mystic shot is my favorite ability on Ezreal and is, in my opinion, the one that truly defines him. It is a spamming skill-shot ability that does really good damage and just makes him /so/ much fun to play. Throughout the game you will be using this ability to poke, last hit, and for burst. It makes him so diverse and his laning very safe because when he is getting zoned he can still use this ability to farm at a low mana cost. When using Mystic Shot during a fight where you are constantly auto-attacking, it is best to use it as an auto-attack cancel to get out the most damage possible. You do this by casting Mystic Shot directly after your auto-attack goes into the air. They will hit at pretty much the same time and you barely lose any auto-attack time.

Essence Flux Essence Flux is an ability that went from the most god-tier broken ability that your could imagine in beta, to what people perceived as useless, to god-tier broken ability in season 2, to pretty useless again. It's damage is terrible and the attack-speed buff it gives allies is pretty negligible because they typically can't make much use of it. It is so bad early game for the mana cost that I don't even put a point in it until level 13. Typically I use it on allies when doing objectives or killing towers and then during teamfights I just try and hit as many bodies (ally or enemy) with it as I can for my passive procs.

Arcane Shift Mmm Arcane Shift. God I love this ability. So smooth with a ton of damage and can also break certain abilities such as Rocket Grab. The largest suggestion I can use on this ability is /only/ use it aggressively when you are cleaning up a fight. I think of it similarly to Nidalee's Aspect Of The Cougar in a team-fight. You never really use it except to kite backwards or clean up fights. During laning phase be very wary of using it because it costs /so/ much damn mana at level 1 (90 mana!).

Trueshot Barrage Trueshot Barrage is amazing. It is one of the lowest cool-down abilities in the game with the cdr your gain from landing Mystic Shots and also does really insane damage. Also, a great thing about Trueshot Barrage is that it can be used to wave-clear from anywhere on the map. It helps keep extended sieges going on as well as objective control. Make sure the wave stagnates before shooting it off so you don't miss! In teamfights, you will only be using this to combo or burst a target. Because of the large wind-up time it is better to be casting other spells and auto-attacking when you can be for the most part.

Sooo nothing to see here. Literally every AD player goes this start and I am no different.


So this is my core build on Ezreal. A little weird, huh? This build has been becoming a little bit more popular lately. I'll run it down step by step and why I get what. Typically the very first item I get on my first back is Sheen. I try and have at least 1200g on my first back for this because it gives you a lot of poke damage as well as burst. This makes you /very/ weak in full on engages so only go HAM when you are bursting someone. If you are against a strong harass lane such as Sona and Caitlyn then I will usually go Bilgewater Cutlass as my first item. It gives you great all-in potential, decent damage and life-steal to sustain through their harass.

Whichever I get first, Trinity Force is the first item I will complete. Best item on Ezreal hands down. Then, I go and finish my Blade of the Ruined King. The reason I go BotRK over Bloodthirster is because of the added burst and kite it gives me as well it being insanely strong in this tank meta. Last Whisper is fairly self explanatory. Good damage, armor pen, yummy :3


Alright, going into the late game now. Typically I pick up a defensive item here after I finish my core. Depending on which last item I am going for (see section below for more details) I will go either a Giant's Belt or Quicksilver Sash. Then I grab up Infinity Edge and upgrade my warding totem. Infinity Edge just has fantastic synergy with this build. You have a surprisingly high amount of attack-speed (which means more opportunities to crit) so it is really the best damage item you can finish on.


Depending on which one of these I go depends on the opposing team's composition. If they have a lot of cc and magic damage then I will go with Mercurial Scimitar to help reduce the magic damage I take as well as giving me a get out of jail free card. Randuin's Omen is better against a strong front-line (such as Shyvana and Dr. Mundo) and ad-assassins (such as Yasuo) to help me live through their damage, while having it reduced, and then also slow them and their attack-speed.

Due to Ezreal being so safe in lane, he doesn't really have many bad match-ups. The only one that is pretty bad at the highest level is Vayne. This is because she is hard to hit consistently with Mystic Shot because of her Tumble and once she gets in on you she out damages you extremely hard. You counter this by playing very safe and when she tries to play aggressive you typically trade autos and wait for her tumble to use your Mystic Shot. You will lose these trades so don't put yourself into a situation where you do them often but it seems to make you lose them the least. For the most part you are shooting out your mystic shots from afar and farming safely.

Ezreal's laning phase is pretty amazing. You should be able to go at least even in about every lane (maybe down a few cs in some) because of how safe and versatile he is. Mystic Shot allows you cs when you otherwise can't and and Arcane Shift helps you secure kills as well as escape scary ganks! Early on you are typically csing and poking with your Q and not really doing anything too aggressive for the most part until something is either setup by your support or jungler. Try and save up enough gold for either at least a sheen or vampiric scepter (depending on which early game route you are going) before your first back so you aren't forced to invest into another Doran's Blade.

Once you have your first back you can start to be a little bit more aggressive. Sheen makes your poke incredibly strong and you can start to widdle down your opponents to set your lane up for a strong all-in. If the enemy adc invested in an early vamp scepter, it can be hard to poke them down so try poking down the support instead. Just be careful, definitely in Vayne lanes on putting too much focus on killing the support in an all-in. If it takes too long, there is a good chance their adc will pick up a double kill and your lane will be ruined.

Once you finish Trinity Force to the time you finish your core is what I'd consider mid-game for the most part. This is where Ezreal is the strongest, in my opinion. He outshines critical chance heavy ad-carries during this time and should out-damage The Bloodthirster and Last Whisper rushing ad-carries as well. Try and force a lot with your team during this time. Your turret damage is incredibly high because of the trinity force procs and so is your poke. Keep forcing things as a team and you should be able to snowball your lead into a late-game victory.

During team-fights you want to be on the out-skirts. Poking with your Mystic Shot prior to the engage and then focusing whatever is closest to you once it does actually break out. Kite backwards and /do not/ use Arcane Shift immediately when a tank is on you. Don't be scared. It will all be okay. You can kite backwards and wait for the right time to use it. It isn't always right when they get close to you. If a Renekton is dashing at you with his stun, then by all means, get the hell out of there with your Arcane Shift. But if a Mundo starts running at you when you have teammates nearby. Who cares? Auto-attack him, Mystic Shot him and kite backwards. If you Arcane Shift immediately and he turns around to someone else then you have just ruined yourself. You wasted your only escape (besides Flash) as well as put yourself out of the fight for a few seconds which means you incredibly hurt your team's overall damage. Remember, as I said early, /only/ use Arcane Shift aggressively when it is completely safe to clean up the fight.


Late-Game isn't very different than mid-game except you are weaker than you were before. Your damage is still amazing but most other ad-carries have out-scaled you damage-wise by now. Hopefully your team has a lead going into late-game so your strength remains and you can snowball it into a finish before everyone reaches max items. I am slightly exaggerating about his late game being weaker but it /is/ weaker. It isn't weak overall because you're still doing incredible damage but compared to something like a Vayne, Sivir, or a Tristana then you are weaker than them.

Your team's goals remain the same as well as the tactics for before and after fights that I laid out in the "Mid-Game" section above.