Hello to everyone who is reading this guide. This guide is about Ezreal, who he is, how to play him, and counters, tips, and tricks about him. This is my first guide here on Mobafire, and I hope that by reading this guide you will learn some new things about Ezreal or enhance your playing with him. Please upvote this guide if you think it was helpful, and downvote it if it was bad, but please leave a comment saying why it was bad.

Ezreal is a skill-shot oriented champion who excels at carrying in both AP and AD. AP Ezreal functions because of his AP scalings in all 4 of his spells, which brings an enormous amount of poke and AOE damage for his team. AD Ezreal relies on his Mystic Shot for poking and damage mixed in with his auto attacks, Arcane Shift for safety in fights, and Rising Spell Force for a steroid.

Pros

+ Reliable poke in the form of Mystic Shot + Safety from his Arcane Shift + Massive AOE damage from his ultimate, Trueshot Barrage, and if you are building ap, his Essence Flux + Has the most expensive skin around(tied with Udyr) that looks awesome

AP Ezreal does a lot of things other champions can do better, but he can do all of them which makes him very versatile in mid. He has strong poke from his Mystic Shot and Essence Flux, he has decent single target burst from all 4 of his attacking spells, he has AOE damage in teamfights, and he can snipe people from afar(with a lot of skill and luck) with Trueshot Barrage. AD Ezreal, on the other hand, has a short cooldown flash that gives him more safety and room to make mistakes then most other attack carries, has reliable poking, and has more AOE damage then most other ADC's.

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Cons

- Falls off late - Ultimate takes time to charge up and is hard to land from a distance - Doesn't have an instant steroid to his damage like most ADCs - No AOE skill other than ultimate to farm with

Ezreal is designed to be an AD caster, which means he will fall off late-game. If you choose to build him with some attack speed, he is generally inferior because of his lack of an instant steroid or CC. He is extremely cooldown reliant, meaning you will have to itemize to grant as much CDR as possible. Finally, his ultimate is frustrating to use sometimes as the damage decreases with each minion hit, making it harder to snipe low-health enemies.

Before I start this guide, I will state that both AP and AD Ezreal are viable, with AD being the more popular one, but BOTH are viable. Over the course of this guide, things related to AD Ezreal will be put in red, things to do with AP in blue, and other general things in a regular color.

For AD, maxing Q( Mystic Shot first will give you the most consistent damage without wasting too much mana. Maxing E( Arcane Shift) next will give you the most single target nuking potential and give you a lower cooldown for your escape. I max W( Essence Flux) last because it is generally useless for AD Ezreal except for the AS steroid, which will be more useful late-game. As always, max R( Trueshot Barrage) whenever you can for the most damage.


For AP, I take 3 points of Q early for the early poke without wasting too much mana and then alternate between W and E. The reason I don't take W as my early-middle game poke is because it wastes too much mana, doesn't help with farming, and has a shorter range.

Mystic Shot is a short cooldown, long ranged poke that stops when it hits an enemy unit. It applies on hit effects such as those from Iceborn Gauntlet and Blade of the Ruined King. It reduces the cooldown of all Ezreal's other abilities by 1 second when hit.
Mystic Shot is Ezreal's main tool for poking and dealing damage. It stacks his passive easily. Mid-Late game, you should use this as a long range autoattack, but remember, it cannot crit.
Early game this functions like it functions for AD Ezreal. However, once you get Lich Bane, since this procs the effect, it essentially has a 1.2 AP ratio. Use it to poke and add to your burst.

Tricks:

When you see a minion between you and your enemy about to die, auto attack it and quickly fire your Mystic Shot inside the gap.
Early game, spam this as much as you can while leaving enough mana for your E.
This can be used to check bushes without getting into danger
When passing by a wraith camp on your way mid or any other jungle minion, shooting this at it will help reduce the cooldown of any skills you have on cooldown. Every second counts.

The damage it does early game is huge if you can land it.
This picture is of a Nunu at full health at lvl 1 being hit by 1 Q:

This is of the mystic shot travelling:

After poking Nunu a bit, I bursted him down with E, Q, and Ignite:

is a medium cooldown, medium range skillshot that damages all enemies hit and buffs the attack speed of any allies hit.
This is your most useless spell. Do not take any points into it until you have to, because the damage is small and the mana cost huge. However, during teamfights, this can serve as a great team steroid.
Even though this is one of your main AP nukes, do not get many levels of this early, because it will drain your mana. After your 3 points in Q, leveling this gives you high burst together with your Arcane Shift. Also, during teamfights, try to hit your ADC with this to give him/her more damage.

Tricks:

You can use this as a more dangerous method of checking bushes, but only if you have your sound on. Whenever this spell hits an enemy, it makes a small wooshing sound. By listening to how many times the wooshing sound occurs, you can determine how many enemies are in the bush. If you don't play with your sound on, another trick is to look at your passive stacks to see how many enemies are in the bush

is a wonderful ability. It gives you room to make mistakes and a relative safety. It also comes with a small nuke that prioritizes the closest enemy. It can jump over giant walls.
This is your escape ability, which is on a shorter cooldown then most ADC's abilities. During teamfights, don't be afraid to use this to reposition yourself or flee from a gapclosing enemy. When escaping over a wall at low health, be careful not to go near any jungle monsters that might kill you, as you will take aggro because of your mini-nuke.
This is part of your burst and your escape ability. It can be used offensively or defensively.

Tricks:

This skill can flash over any wall that the indicator is over halfway in. The indicating circle doesn't have to go fully over the wall for you to be able to go over it.
In lane, when the enemy is about 1/2 dead, you can Arcane Shift in, making sure the missile hits the enemy, auto attack, ignite, and Q, and if the enemy gets away with a little bit of health left, take your time and snipe.

This is how to use Arcane Shift offensively:

This is it's range indicator:

This is an example of it going through a thick wall:

functions the same for AP and AD: an AOE nuke that can be used to snipe/farm. Remember to try to guess where the opponent is going to be when you launch it. It works better if you can see the opponent recalling or snared/stunned, but it can work just blind with proper practice. Also remember, after using this ability, try to hit your Q as much as possible to lower the cooldown. An important part of this is remembering that hitting other enemies before your target lowers the damage extremely. When you learn all this, you will become a global presence without even leaving your lane.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: For Ap Ezreal, this is essential for surviving poke in lane from the other APC. For AD, this negates strong AP pokes in lane such as Sona's Hymn of Valor or Corki's Phosphorus Bomb.
Other options:
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: This can be useful if you want a little bit more cdr, but I still think that the extra survivability is more useful.

greater mark of armor penetration and Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: They are obvious for increasing the damage output for each type of Ezreal.
Other options:
greater mark of hybrid penetration increases both parts of Ezreal's damage.
Also, the two penetration types of marks can be interchanged because Ezreal's spells are primarily magic.

Greater Seal of Armor: This gives you more survivability against auto attack poking. The reason I give AP Ez scaling armor is because AP Ezreal is slightly more vulnerable because he uses his E offensively.
Other options:
I really believe armor is the best option.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: They are good for the respective type because of the early game boost in damage. However, AP Ezreal can make good use of the AD Quints.
Other options:
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: This makes Ezreal faster, and is a viable option, but however I think Ezreal is mobile enough already. If you have trouble running away, this is a good choice still.

Sorcery is for the cooldown reduction.
Deadliness is for the extra AD which can make a difference.
Havoc is for more damage from you.
Weapon Expertise and Arcane Knowledge are for more damage from all of your damage sources.
All of the rest of the masteries in the offense tree are standard for more AD damage.
Summoner's Insight is for the reduced cooldown on flash, which will save your life often.
Meditation and Expanded Mind are for mana, which Ezreal is quite hungry in.
Mastermind for more flash cd reduction and also to get to runic affinity.
Runic Affinity because Ezreal will usually be getting either red or blue buff, as he works quite well with both.

For AD Ezreal, there are two main types of builds: Standard and Blue. Standard build is more overall DPS and crit damage because of attack speed and crit chance, while Blue build is geared towards using the Manamune and CDR for maximum spell damage. If you are using the standard build, it is best to start out with a doran's blade for the lane presence, farm up either a B. F. Sword or a Bilgewater Cutlass, and build it into either a Bloodthirster or a Blade of the Ruined King for your first big item. Then, build the other item, while getting boots on the way. Now, start working on your Phantom Dancer/ Infinity Edge core, while getting the Giant's Belt for health. Then, get frozen mallet for the slow, AD, and health.

For Blue Ezreal, starting with a Doran's is also a good idea. Rush your Tear of the Goddess early so it can charge up fast. Then, I usually get either my Spirit of the Elder Lizard done if I'm doing poorly-decent, or Blade of the Ruined King if I'm doing good. Then, Iceborn Gauntlet and the item that you didn't get from either spirit or bork. Finally, I upgrade my tear to a Manamune which should be a Muramana and get Last Whisper for more damage. Late game, the spirit is pretty weak, so I would advise swapping it out for another item.

On AP Ezreal, the main core is Rabadon's Deathcap, Sorcerer's Shoes, and Lich Bane. The other three items are able to be changed. Starting with a Doran's Ring works well for the regen, AP and health, and try to get either a Sheen or a Needlessly Large Rod as soon as possible, which builds respectively into lich bane and deathcap. Then, you can either go for more burst with DFG and void staff, or you can go for some defense with ROA and Rylais. Finally, get Zhonya's whenever you need the armor or the active.

AD:

Trinity Force: This item used to be core on Ezreal,

KEY TO THIS

Green means easy, Yellow means medium, Red means hard
Early means they are strong early, play with caution
Late means they are stronger than you late, try to shut them down early
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Thank you to jhoihoi for writing the guide on guides, Veng LMFAO for helping a lot on random things, Janitsu for making me an amazing signature, my friend Girtlgirt for helping me test out the different counters/strategies, and everyone who voted, both up and down, and gave some feedback on why. Thank you everyone!!