Ezreal Build Guide by Avalonicous

Introduction

Hello, my name is Avalonicous and I've been playing Ezreal since season 1. I've been playing him when he had his heal, I've played him during the 'dark ages' of S2 when he was legitimately considered a troll pick and I'm still playing him today.

This guide is not here to tell you the optimal way to play Ezreal, if you want that go watch a professional player's stream or read one of their guides. This guide is give you unique insight on him and to tell you to how to play Ezreal at a Silver II tier level.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's breakdown everyone's favorite Prodigal Explorer.

Pros / Cons

Pros

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Cons

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Summoner Spells

is a must because it you gives the legendary DOUBLE FLASH TECHNIQUE

adds to your burst, increases your kill potential and counters rapidly regening champs that can give you trouble (Swain, Mundo). Good counter to Heal, gets countered by Barrier and Cleanse.

completely kills any burst you see coming, can be cast while CC'd and pretty much hard counters ignite due to a lower cd. Perfectly fine pick.

the OTHER hard counter to ignite, and makes you RIDICULOUSLY slippery. If the other ADC brought heal, you're pretty boned however.

Runes

Standard ADC runes.

Flat AD reds for maximum AA damage + ability scaling
Flat Armor yellows since the main source of damage you'll be facing early is physical
Scaling MR blues since you won't be facing large sources of magic damage until mid/lategame.
Flat AD quints for DAT DAMAGE.

Never leave base without your lucky Crit rune!

Masteries

Straightforward ADC offensive masteries.

You could make the argument that 9 points in the defensive tree is better than 9 in the Utility tree, but I find the buff duration increase to be KILLER.

*Ahem*

Moving on.

Items - Pokerific

One of my favorite things about Ezreal is that you can build him a TON of different ways.

+ x2 is pretty standard for offensive carries who excel at early trades.



+ As long as they never nerf lifesteal gained from minion damage, these are always going to built early; the health return is SUPERB.



+ I don't know why they're called Berserker's GREAVES when they're BOOTS but they're still great on ADC's everywhere. Never hesitate to get Merc Treads if the enemy is cc heavy.



+ Mystic Shot procs the lifesteal AND the % shred form BoRK so you can tank shred and heal from afar. The active on BoRK is flat out AWESOME, if you use it on a tank it's a punch to the kidney and if you tag a bruiser/assassin with it, it STEALS their movespeed turning kiting into EZ mode.

+ If you REALLY want to, you can build this before BoRK/BT; the 100 magic damage proc hits like a truck when everyone only has 1000 hp. Keep in mind that it pushes your lane though(which is not necessarily a bad thing).




40% Armor Pen PLUS more AD? Yummy.




or or


These are all great Sixth items, so it's down to you to decide what you want.

More raw damage on Auto Attacks?

More everything?

More overall damage + more ability usage?

Items - On-hiterific

+ Gotta get DAT EARLY DAMAGE and DAT SUSTAIN



You don't have to get boots until you feel like it, but I like to get mine early.




+ + Double dorans + vamp scepter is a double edged sword - once you finish them you get 20 - 25 hp back PER AUTO allowing you to stay in lane for the foreseeable future. On the flipside, it costs a whopping 1750g. You can delay these until after you finish tear, what's important is that you have sustain to stay in lane to charge up tear stacks.



+ + Core for this build, the earlier you get it the better. Keep an eye on the icon in your inventory, it has a visible cooldown until the next charge is ready to be stored, any spells cast before that and it's wasted mana. Fire random Mystic Shots in base/on the way to lane for free stacks. The new manamune is far more noob friendly than the old one, making it an actual viable choice for Ezreal players who want a forgiving mana pool. Upgrade to Manamune regardless of how far you are in your build as soon as you break 700 charges.



+ Mystic Shot procs on-hit effects, and Sheen complements the skill nicely. Upgrade to Triforce whenever you feel like.




+ Aw man, the enemy team is stacking hp and I want something to keep up with my on-hit pattern I've got going!
Oh, wait.



+ Attack speed, crit chance and more on-hit effects. The enemy team now flinches every time you cast Mystic Shot.



Mystic Shot gets 40% armor pen? QQQQQQQQQQQQ



or You'll probably want a massive HP item considering all the hate you've garnered with your build and warmog's armor is the optimal choice for such a need BUUUUUUUUUT if you want to keep up with the on-hit pattern we've established, Frozen Mallet is the clear choice.

Skill Sequence

Standard Ezreal leveling.

-You can get Essence Flux at Level 2 if you really want to, I just prefer not to since it since costs TWICE the mana of Mystic Shot for the damage of ONE.

-I prefer to max Essence Flux 2nd, since the damage increases significantly. The only benefit to maxing Arcane Shift is a shorter cooldown.

Spells

Great passive, works well with Ezreal's kit and is perfectly effective. Ult and W at the start of teamfights to instantly get 5 stacks.

Ezreal's bread and butter. Reduces all cooldowns by 1 second (including Mystic Shot ITSELF) everytime you tag someone with it. Great for charging Tear of the Goddess stacks, applying oh-hit effects and getting stacks of your passive ready for an engagement.



Once upon a time, this ability healed allies and reduced enemy attack speed, but alas now it just grants allies bonus attack speed. The base damage is VERY high for the cooldown it has, but so is the mana cost.


This is Flash 2-point-0. Higher range, fires a nice little UNRELIABLE homing beacon and gets you out of EVERYTHING if you time it right.


Best spell in the game. You are required to shout HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-AH! every time you cast it. This makes it hit harder 60% of the time, 100% of the time.

Farming

Farming is pretty straightforward, kill any creeps you'd miss early due to low attack speed with Mystic Shot.

Remember when farming under tower:

Who to push around

Low range + high mana costs = prime curbstomping target.




Nice hook you got there, too bad your current target is a little
SHIFTY



Watch out for her back-from-base crit + her ult and you are golden. You outdamage her at every point in the game.



Want to know what's better than short range burst? Long range burst.



His stun has a very low travel time. Couple that with the slight delay before Arcane Shift teleports you and you have some pretty bait-tastic situations.



100% of her CC is avoidable if you stay on your toes.

Who to run from

If he even looks your way with an axe spinning, just run. That axe is going nowhere pleasant.



Haha, I'll just Arcane Shift out of his pull-OH GOD IT DIDN'T WORK



When she ults you (not IF, WHEN) just bend over. Ain't no double flash gonna stop that from happening.



Know what's better than DOUBLE flash? Triple fl- yeah yeah we get it.



See ^ but with stealth.



After 500+ games I can count the number of times I've successfully shifted out of malphite ult on one hand.



When paranoia goes down, you have to wait EXACTLY until he jumps on you, before he hits you with Duskbringer but after he tethers you with Unspeakable Horror. Anything less than pulling this off flawlessly and you're already dead.



Zero windup snare makes Ezreal a sad panda.



I've never had a fun time fighting Vlad as Ez.

Walls

When versing champions that place walls such as:

Remember that Arcane Shift can get you over them and out of danger without a hitch.

When getting dove, KEEP CALM AND SHIFT.

Summary

Congratulations! You've managed to make it through my guide without killing yourself! Add a comment, vote; let me know what you thought!

See you on the Fields of Justice Fellow Summoner!