Hey, my name is Merlux and im here to teach you the basics of Ezreal. This guide will teach you some tips to Ezreal and how much he can do to carry a game to success. I personally play AD all the time and have played AP before, but honestly... AP was too.. skill dependent. Everyone thinks Ezreal is a squishy target and easy to kill, but with the right set up and the proper amount of skill you will have success on a regular basis.

(I play alot of normal Queue, and try to avoid ranked because the teams when starting ranked are as bad starting normal solo queue, so your experience may change in ranked games)

(This guide will be updated with pictures at one point... please please please don't downvote because I dont have sufficient tags or pictures.)

Alright, as you may have noticed above, the build has a strange look to it, some things seem... weird... For example some of you may have noticed how I have the Summoner spells set up and the item build set up. Well.. let me explain.

This hold true for many a champion and is extremely true on Ezreal, Ezreal does not follow a specific build, I know the pros tell people that alot and it gets old, but there's a reason alot of us explain this to people. I am a firm believer that cookie cutting does not lead to successful games.

Ok, gear is VERY VERY VERY VERYVERYVERY dependent on the other team, but the rune above are perfect vs tanks and vs squishies due to the fact in normal solo queue you don't know who you will be going against since alot of people pick who they want and tanks are not common.

Summoner spells are set up that way for the reason that flash on ezreal is nice, but most of the time a double flash is unnecessary, but if you prefer flash, just change that one mastery and switch it out. Normally your E and hitting ghost RIGHT AFTER you use E will help you escape or juke properly, Flashing into bushes then ghosting out the other side is a very effective maneuver.

MANAMUNE/SHEEN

This is an Ezreal combo that works like a charm, this allows your Q to hit for 200 constantly. I put the points into the maximum mana in your utility so your manamune does some extra damage early.

GHOST/TELEPORT

These are my usual summoner spells, but if you go with the runspeed quints above you might want to grab ignite instead just in case of Mundo. Or Exaust for chasing or in case of that pesky Yi or Tryndamere. Keep an eye on who's free because most likely you will go up against one of these champions on a regular basis if they are.

Skill Order, I personally like to Max my Q first because well, if your not an idiot, you will realize this is what does the most damage for AD Ezreal other than your auto attacks. You might want to look at what does the best for you next, some people like to play more offensive and defensive as others. This is why some people are just better at Alistar than you are or how that Eve never dies that one game.

Maxing your E first is more defensive as your cooldown is down more often and your out of the way.

Maxing your W first is so that you can spam them skills so that when you use your ulti from your base and you teleport to make it seem like you are just returning, you can finish them with no problem.

(NEVER, I MEAN NEVER USE YOUR E TO DPS UNLESS YOU SEE THAT TOPLANE AND BOTTOM LANE BOTH HAVE TWO CHAMPIONS IN IT ON THEIR TEAM!! IF YOU DO YOU ARE LEFT IN AN EXTREMELY VULNERABLE POSITION AND YOU WILL HAVE A HARD TIME ESCAPING A WARWICK GANK UDYR GANK OR HELL, VLAD GANK.

HIS GEAR (Finally)
Ezreal is not a cookie cutter, his runes are set up to where if you go with any of those quints and your preferable glyphs you will have even success based on what you prefer, here are some builds that work versus teams.

TANKY TEAMS (Morde, Shen, Alistar, Xin, Amumu)
These are champions that got quite a bit of health and they hit pretty hard in bursts and have ridiculous CC)
I suggest:
1.Manamune
2.Sheen
Mercury treads
(If getting fed)
3/4.Trinity Force
(If not getting fed and having trouble escaping)
3/4.Frozen Mallet
5. Ghostblade or Madreds Bloodrazors as both have good tank killing bonuses and razors work with your Q.
6. (People always have a disagreement with this one but this is my personal preference)
Infinity Edge (BUT WHY MERLUX?! It does not work with Q!!! I like it because Ezreal uses a significant amount of auto attacks if played right and is not there to spam his Q and W, AD Ezreal is a pusher and a heavy harasser)
If you are totally against infinity edge then grab some more utility.

Squishy teams that deal AP (Veigar, Kassadin, Sona, Teemo, etc.)
Manamune (There is a reason he grabs this first every time)
Sheen
Mercury Treads or Boots of Speed
Blood Thirster
Phantom Dancer
Infinity Edge
(Try to grab this last unless your getting fed really really well, if your at 20 minutes and you got 9-11 kills and hardly any deaths, grab this not long after Blood thirster)
Trinity Force

AD Teams (Twitch, Xin, Olaf, Udyr)
Manamune
Warmogs (Unless they are really really bad and your team is rolling them pretty hard)
Atma's Impaler
Blood Thirster
Trinity Force

Balanced Teams (Ok this is where your build can get extremely difficult, because this is where if you versing a balanced team, well... It depends what your going to build based on your team, Im not going to tell you what to build here because if your thinking of playing Ezreal and your versing a sturdy balanced team you should be able to make Judgement calls... but I WILL give you an example of what I would do.

(SITUATION)
Opponents:
Udyr
Morde
Eve
Xin
Katrina

"Ok, wow, this team is tough and your team is unbalanced. What do I build? How will I carry versus a team like this?"
"Well, let me tell you Johnny boyBalanced Teams (Ok this is where your build can get extremely difficult, because this is where if you versing a balanced team, well... It depends what your going to build based on your team, Im not going to tell you what to build here because if your thinking of playing Ezreal and your versing a sturdy balanced team you should be able to make Judgement calls... but I WILL give you an example of what I would do.

(SITUATION)
Opponents:Udyr
Morde
Eve
Xin
Katrina

"Ok, wow, this team is tough and your team is unbalanced. What do I build? How will I carry versus a team like this?"
"Well, let me tell you Johnny boy!"

This is a heavy team, it has great burst potential, it has tankage, good chase, AoE, and a little CC. I cant tell you who your going to have on your team because unless it is very balanced like theirs.

Ok, I build versus the guy who is the most threat, and thats usually the person who is getting the most fed, or if your team is competent and they have one good person on their team who is getting fed and the rest of their team sucks hard then I build to kill the rest of their team so that my team can all destroy the stronger one, well lets say in this situation Morde is solo laning and he is destroying top and middle is laying enough pressure on you and you can't find the time to help them, Morde leaves the lane to gank you often and his shield is up ALOT.

Alright, so Morde is fed, Udyr is jungling your laning against Kat, top tower just dropped and Morde is 5/2. This team is TOO BALANCED! GG WTF THIS GAME IS FALLING APART MY TEAMMATES SUCK WHY DOES MY CAT POOP ON THE FLOOR WHEN HES GOT A PERFECTLY CLEAN LITTER BOX? MY LIFE IS FALLING APART!!!

Johnny! STAY CALM! YOU GOT THIS! Remember, your Ezreal, king of skill shots!

You have two situations, either kat has not died at all, or shes average, and she maybe got a lucky kill on you or you got a kill on her.
Take advantage of your money. This will sound strange and may feel ineffective, saying GG, noob team in all chat won't help you so you might as well make the best of your situation and get yourself as fed as morde and push, because this is what the game is about, just because you 0/1. or 1/1, or 0/2, and the overall score is 0/6 does not mean its gg.

Alright, here we go.
Grab a Manamune, then a wriggles lantern.
Both of the items are extremely cost effective and allow you to farm and last hit minions from a distance, the wriggles allots you to grab your red and blue buffs effectively and early, and allows you to melt minion waves early because your having trouble getting kills. Do the math, Minions give an average of 20g with the big one giving 32, meaning 1 regular wave if you last hit all those minions is worth 20x6= 120g. Thats a third of a champ kill. So say by end of lane phase you got 70 minion kills, or if your very well timed you got about 100. 70x20 is 1400, and 100x20 is 2000. Thats minus every third wave the extra 32 gold that comes from last hitting the big minion.

So all of a sudden you got this income coming in with the help of your wriggles and you can build your AD without getting kills. Now your calm, but your team is still spooked, Rally them together with some pings because that seems to attract peoples attention and these sheep walk towards it. You are Shepherd Ezreal. Your Bow can keep the wolves off the flock, now you must arm your team with some morale, start harassing with Q while last hitting minions who come close to your tower with your basic attack.

Hopefully your team is not a bunch of troll and are intentionally feeding, start slapping morde when his shield runs low inbetween minion waves and make sure not to initiate because your ezreal.

Try to bide your time till you can sell wriggles for madreds blood razors, it works with Q, helpful against this tanky team, and grab sight wards for eve and farm her is shes not too fed either.

Now your team is gaining confidence because your a ward of excellence and you inspire your team to play smart, be sure to keep your teammates in range of you and have one of your teammates initiate so that their skills are on CD when you strike and harass. This is after all a tower pushing game, not a champion killing game, Start pounding on their towers with you Basic attack and hit minions around the tower with Q and speed your teammates attacks up with W, finally some organization.

See what happens when you keep your head on straight and you don't troll or give or or, blame teammates for whats going on? This is a video game, not real life, one disappointing loss is not worth the time to cry about teammates or how frustrating and bad they are.

Ezreal's Q is an amazing ability. Imagine a more spammable version of Gangplank's gun, can do better damage versus tanks, and you dont have to worry about those pesky thornmail tanks with the right building.

Here are some tips and things not to do with this amazing ability.

1. Dont just throw Q out there. Even though its spammable does not mean its (Lay Wasteable <--Bad joke) His Q is not just for doing damage, it's for lowering the cooldowns of all your other spells including your ultimate.

2. Wraiths. This guide is for mid. So hopefully you are there. Throwing your Q at wratihs is an exceptional idea. This will allow you to build your attack speed and lower cooldowns of your other moves, and when you start to grab a little lifesteal you can keep your life up. (I don't suggest you do this if you got a jungler, a warwick that comes out of the jungle at level 3 instead of 4 is a big gank changer.)

3. Pushing, Unfortunately you cant push towers with your Q directly. But what about indirectly. Keep hitting the tower and toss your Q at minions to build attack speed so those towers drop faster.

4. Items like Madreds, Black Cleaver, and Wriggles all work with Q. Mixing Q in with your autoattacks will help bring health and armor down faster or just harassing from the back to lower peoples stats with these auto attacks can be a game changer. Dont be afraid to grab an early Wits end vs that pesky Ryze that you cant seem to keep from nuking you. You hit him with your Q all of a sudden hes missing 40 some mana.

5. Don't build a bunch of random oh hit effect items. Take it from someone who thought this was the best idea in the universe. Just DON'T, You want the utility from the items, not just the damages. Only fighting with Q and some on hit items is a good way to ruin your game. Dont grab wits end if they got an Akali and Garen. Dont grab Bloodrazors if they got nobody on their team stacking hp, Hit that TAB key and keep an eye on their gear. You start seeing Thornmail, Grab a Bloodrazors and Wits end to take down that mean ol Cho'Gath.

Alright, here are some tips. Sorry I dont have video for it, I might or might not post it, it all depends on when I can get a new laptop so that I can record some.


The Teleport/Ult Strategy
This is an awesome trick that works constantly and with the right aim and enough damage you can get an easy kill and good push.
Most of you have seen this before with Ashe as well, Since your ult travels a whole map, when you base you want to grab your gear quickly. Then Ult right down the middle of the lane at your target, then as quickly as you can, TELEPORT to either a ward in middle behind the opponent pushing your tower, or to a minion near or around them so that when it hits them you can either jump all the minions with your E then harass him in that empty lane with Q and W till he dies.

The escape juke.
OH ****! Johnny! Vlad and Udyr are ganking from the top brush and they are too fast! You wont make it to your tower with just a ghost or flash, pool and stun are just TOO MUCH!

This is what you do!
Your at the tower attacking it and Vlad and udyr are coming at you from the top brush and they are coming in fast and behind you. Don't panic, you got this. Run down! Not back to your tower, You know that mini wall between you and the brush? Use E to hop it then Smack ghost, or smack ghost then do it, It depends on how fast they are, Now shoot toward blue buff like lightning. and pass blue buff and circle around back to your tower, or if your low hp, base then tele or walk back to your tower. EASY AS 1,2, threE and Ghost. (Horrible joke)

Dont forget that your teleport at level 18 is actually up pretty often with the right cooldown. Hopping jungle walls then ghosting or pull a shaco and hop champions with your Flash then ghost in the other direction. Ezreal is very versatile and an asset to a team I think a little less so than ashe because he has less utility but hes a tower melter with teams. So have some fun and I really hope this guide helped. Please give advice on my build, this is all very fluid and requires good judgment.

Last but not least... Ezreal is a skill shotter, this build wont help you in the least if you can't aim, please don't mistake my build for being bad, if your just bad at Ezreal, hes not for everybody.