Hello and welcome to Embracing's fifth guide on MOBAFire. This will be a brief but concise guide on Ezreal. Hopefully my guide will contain my valued experiences and help you all improve as an Ezreal or ADC player.

First off, before I get into the details, we must first understand Ezreal as a champion and why we would pick him.

In comparison to other AD carries, Ezreal serves as an all-around versatile ADC that excels in many areas. He has a safe early game due to his long harass from his Q and his escape with E. He also can situationally outtrade enemies with his Mystic Shot and all-in with his Arcane Shift to reposition for his Mystic Shots. However, he has a distinct weakness in trading with autoattacks, so generally speaking Ezreal cannot outtrade enemies when minions are blocking.
This early game then transitions to a stronger mid game, where he has insane poke damage, mobility, and damage in teamfights. Later, however, his damage falls off (in comparison to other crit-scaling AD's) and all that remains for him is his strong kiting abilities.

Ezreal focuses on more of his abilities than flat-out autoattacks for his damage output. His Q is his primary tool for damage. Essentially, his Q is used for kiting the enemy (along with damage), and his autoattacks are used to follow-up with damage. This, however, does gimp his damage late game, because he will have to use his abilities to come into full effect, which limits potential crits, while other carries can simply autoattack and crit. Furthermore, his small range forces him to act like an AD caster to poke from a distance. Also, do note that Ezreal does poorly against tanks because of his AD caster style. Whenever tank metas come Ezreal is rarely seen or picked, while hypercarries or utility carries shine more.

Also, Ezreal has an extremely high skill cap. It's not hard to play Ezreal well, but to maximize his damage in fights and skirmishes while also living is what's truly difficult. The key to success as an Ezreal player is the ability to recognize one's maximum damage potential. Ezreal has the ability to outplay many other AD carries due to his ability to easily reposition, which can mitigate a lot of damage from skillshots if played well. Decent players, in teamfights, will choose to simply Arcane Shift away from the fight. Better players, however, will find the optimal damage zones that keep him safe from damage threats while also being able to maintain damage output.

Masteries

The 21 points in offense provide the damage output a carry needs. The above masteries maximizes damage output from the tree.
The 9 points can be placed into utility, defense, or both. If opting for utility your ability to trade will be gimped but your lane sustainability will be much stronger. If opting for defense you will have more problems with mana but you will be much stronger in trades. Generally speaking, as of now, placing the 9 points into defense is ideal because of the buff to supports and nerf to ADs.

Runes

9 AD marks allow for strong last-hitting and lane control. ArPen is weak on minions because they have extremely low armor values which pose ArPen as unnecessary. Armor is essential for tanking minions and enemy auto attack harass. 9 MR glyphs, 5 MR + 4 Mana Gen, 5 MR/lvl + 4 MR, and 5 MR + 4 AS are all good. The MR mitigates damage from magic damage in the lane, mostly damage from supports, and the Mana Gen helps greatly with mana in lane. The AS helps greatly with trading in lane and became a much more valued stat since the nerfs to AD, armor, and LS runes. Scaling MR also gives you that small extra boost mid game when enemies have lower magic damage in lane. 1 AS quint is great for lane presence for the same reasons as the AS glyphs, and the 2 AD quints help with last hitting as well as Mystic Shot poke in lane.

Summoner Spells

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Always choose to take Flash and another spell. Flash is essential for almost all champions, and even though Ezreal has a built-in blink, Flash is still best on him because of the double-blink potential ability to go all-in in more dangerous situations. For the second summoner spell, Heal and Cleanse are bothsuperb. Heal is the FOTM summoner spell for ADs because it helps greatly in skirmishes. Cleanse is also strong against strong CC enemies and allows for quick re-positioning.

Skillset

Passive

This passive allows for extremely strong dueling for 1 on 1s and also greatly improves your DPS in extended teamfights or skirmishes. It also allows you to push relatively quickly as well. This passive combined with Mystic Shot allows for extremely strong combos. Your ultimate, Trueshot Barrage also procs this for every enemy hit, so hitting 5+ will instantly max this out. This passive is very effective throughout the game.

Q

This ability is Ezreal's most important ability. Earlier on in lane phase it can be used to farm and last hit from a distance, poke enemies, counter-harass, and refresh cooldowns, while later on it can be used to kite people around ( Iceborn Gauntlet), and even outduel others.

W

Earlier on this ability doesn't come into play as often because it has a large mana cost, but later on it's a great utility tool for pushing down towers as a team and taking down objectives. The AS buff you throw on allies greatly increases efficiency. This ability can also be used to poke through minions earlier on. Note that you can Arcane Shift in the direction that you use your Essence Flux in to give yourself te attack speed buff as well.

E

This can be used offensively in situations where you want to catch up with the enemy or re-position yourself in teamfights or skirmishes, or defensively when escaping. This ability allows for Ezreal to position more aggressively because it allows instant escape. Note that this ability is a blink, which means it can be used to dodge Blitzcrank grabs even if hooked.

R

This ability is extremely strong in skirmishes. Later on however, it is used as more of a clearing and poke tool. When you're pushing a lane and another lane of yours is getting pushed, you can use Trueshot Barrage to clear it instead of being forced to go back. This ability can also be used to snipe low health champions that you have vision of. Note that the ability does take time to travel and can be relatively difficult to aim.

Sequence

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Take Mystic Shot at level one before minions spawn to help scout / poke the enemies. Also, it's most effective for helping a teammate deal damage to red buff or counter-harassing an enemy if they're stupid enough to engage at level one. After that take Arcane Shift at level two for the escape and gap-closer and another point in Mystic Shot at level three because Essence Flux accomplishes little early game. Always add Trueshot Barrage whenever you can because its your ultimate. Aside from that get Mystic Shot whenever you can because it's Ezreal's most effective damage output from early to mid game. After that Arcane Shift becomes the priority because the lower cooldowns help during skirmishes, engages, and teamfights. Finally max Essence Flux last because the damage is minimal and the attack speed buff is seldom necessary. Of course, when playing in competitive if you're going for a heavy push comp that isn't as reliant on damage output / skirmishes maxing Essence Flux would be better over Arcane Shift.

Starting with Doran's Blade gives you lane presence and sustain. No other item can assure you a safe and strong laning phase. Getting an early Tear of the Goddess sets you behind in lane by 700g if the enemy is able to purchase more AD, but it allows for a stronger mid game power spike. Getting an early Sheen helps with stronger poke in lane, as it allows for strong short trades. Phage is also great due to the fact that the movement speed and health helps a lot with manipulating damage control. You'll be forced to play passive most of the time, even if you get an advantage early on, until you're able to get Trinity Force components Trinity Force is the first primary item as the buffs made it an all around great item. Normally at this point, when the game is even, upgrading your boots is a good option. Ezreal is pretty versatile when it comes to boots. You can go Ionian Boots of Lucidity for more poke with your Mystic Shot, Mercury's Treads when you're behind and the enemy has a lot of fatal magic damage / CC, or you can go Berserker's Greaves, which helps you in duels and consistent damage output in teamfights via autos. Then aim to finish your Manamune for faster stacking and a Muramana that's available once you hit 750 stacks. Next, aim for Last Whisper third. Note that even if enemies don't have any armor items in their inventory you must consider their potential gold amounts because they may buy armor on a recall, so aiming for a Last Whisper will always be good. After that your build is more lenient, and purchasing Blade of the Ruined King or Bloodthirster is better for more damage. If you want consistent damage get the former, and if you want more burst damage to carries get the latter..

If you're going blue build, you'll probably try to finish Manamune and then aim for Iceborn Gauntlet. Until you get Sheen or Iceborn Gauntlet your engaging and trading options are extremely limited. After you get Sheen you can start trading with Mystic Shot pokes. After Iceborn Gauntlet you can fully start to kite enemies around. After this aim to get a large damage item like Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King. Both are potent items, though Bloodthirster does more burst damage but does less damage after the tanks get more armor. Blade of the Ruined King is good when enemies start to build up their health and armor. If you farm well, normally Muramana will finish sometime in between your completion of the damage item, else it'll normally finish after Iceborn Gauntlet. Note that with blue build you reach full build a lot quicker than most other champions. Generally, if wanting to purchase a defensive item, it will be best near fifth or sixth purchase. Each has its own purpose. Banshee's Veil is great against burst because of the resistances + passive and also helps dealing with unmanageable AP poke. However most of the time you'll be wanting Mercurial Scimitar, as it provides a decent amount of damage along with an instant Cleanse which helps greatly for re-positioning and escaping against hard stuns that you can cleanse out of.

Lane Phase

Ezreal has an extremely safe early game though not an extremely strong one. Earlier on Mystic Shot and an auto-attack gives decent harass only if given the opportunity to do so. Ezreal is extremely strong at poking from afar so most supports will choose to stay relatively far from you. Keep in mind to not go too far as enemies can easily counter-harass you. Generally a good marker is where the minions are at. In most situations you will always aim to stay behind large waves of minions when harassing or going all-in. Minion block really messes up Ezreal's trade, however.
If pressured heavily (from jungler or ADC/ support) you can also choose to play defensively, last hitting with your Mystic Shot from a distance. Once you hit level 6 your all-in potential increases by a great deal. Trueshot Barrage is a great damage tool for cleaning up enemies or initiating a skirmish.

Supports

Ezreal is extremely versatile and meshes along with all types of supports, as he doesn't shine early game. With passive supports, Ezreal can choose to farm at ease with the occasional trades that you can sustain. With aggressive supports, Ezreal can also get kills by gapclosing with his Arcane Shift to then get damage done with his Mystic Shot and autoattacks.

Lane Control

Lane control is very important as an ADC. Your prime objective is to push to their tower so they'll lose cs, experience, and vision of what you're doing. However, when enemies try to freeze the minion wave outside their tower range, continuing to farm will only leave you susceptible to enemy ganks. As such, pretending to leave lane will leave the enemy to push the wave because they will have thought you went back to base. When enemies leave the lane it's best to push to their tower so that you can force them to lose CS. Also, when pushing heavily reminding the support to ward further away will help you get better vision of enemies incoming to gank. Always aim to push the enemy tower down, and when you do so, you can choose to roam mid lane to gank or push the mid lane turret down, or farm the jungle (potentially red buff). Pushing the tower down will give you a lot of leniency because you will not be forced to stay at bot lane. However do go back down when the wave is pushed to your tower because you don't want to miss out on the experience and farm.

Teamfights

As an ADC, you will always want to stay in a position that you can easily avoid danger during teamfights. Prior to fighting, whenever you can, without leaving your safe zone too far, aim to poke enemies down with Mystic Shot. This is especially important if you're going blue build, as the slow that gets proc'd with your Mystic Shot can greatly help in poke damage, disengaging, and picking enemies off. When enemies are obviously wanting to engage on you, back out, unless you're sure you can survive the onslaught and still be present to deal damage / poke. Positioning is relatively easier on Ezreal because once enemies dive you you can just use Arcane Shift and start kiting again.
You will want to be near your team while attacking anything you can. Often times your main focus will be the tanks and bruisers because to focus carries you will need to leave your safe zone and get in range of enemy tanks and bruiser who could easily CC you down. Use your Trueshot Barrage either before a teamfight you know would be tough so your passive will be proc'd or after a teamfight to snipe down running enemies.











That's it for the Ezreal guide. Special thanks to astrolia for the banners and dividers.
Hopefully this guide has opened your eyes to something new or reaffirmed some of your previous thoughts on Ezreal!

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