So far I have outlined a Hybrid AD/AP Ezi Guide and a complete AD Ezi Guide. In this guide, I want to outline my AP Ezi and my builds for him.

An AP Ezi is alot scarier in late game and is a complete carry. He really dominates the map when he gets going, both in level and in gear. I find he is a lot of fun to play, if just for his sheer whoop-*** ability, but in general I like playing Hybrid. It really depends on your team and, with the right team, I believe that an AP Ezi is the most powerful in a coordinated team.

-- Change Log --
02-12-2011: Changed item build to better reflect my new understanding of an AP Ezreal. Been using this build more often, working VERY well!

My usual speech about Ezi and his pros and cons; I believe Ezi is one of the champions with the most balance between strengths and weaknesses. He can put up a good fight against anyone.

Pros:
-Very powerful against other champs,
-Unmatched sniping skills,
-Very hard to catch using Flash and Arcane Shift,
-Extremely fun to play!

Cons:
-Pretty squishy,
-Not as good of a farmer as AD or Hybrid Ezi's,
-Skill-shot based,
-Hard to learn/master,
-No CC,
-Did I mention squishy?

All in all, an AP Ezi is a very standoffish nuke. He is always hovering around and harassing enemies, but when he moves in for the kill he drops an A-Bomb and nukes the hell out of his target.

Conversely, if he doesn't pull off his kill like he plans, he is generally a dead man. I wears wet newspaper as armor and really has no defenses besides running and disengaging(which luckily he does well!).

My AP Ezi uses a larger mix of Runes than the others. Mana is very important in this build for multiple reasons; firstly, longevity in combat and laneing. Secondly, because Archangel's Staff yields AP from mana.

Greater Seal of Knowledgex9
Greater Mark of Knowledgex9
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reductionx9
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reductionx3

My skill sequence will probably net me quite a few -1's because of my lack of Mystic Shot. With an AP Ezi, it does not do that much damage, so I use it as a CD reducer and as a prober for bushes. It's not exceptional with my build, which is designed to nuke champs. If you feel you need it, get it, but note that your spells, the focus of the build, will falter.

An AP Ezi is a complete caster; as such, the skills have a greater import than on, say, an AD Ezi. Since his main attack is pretty weak, hence not very good at killing minions, maintaining a vigilant watch on cool-downs is very important!


Your passive is actually not that important on an AP Ezi. It is a boon, at best, for taking out towers which is something you don't excel at. Don't waste mana trying to keep it up!


This skills is not focused on in this build. I grab a rank around level 3 to use it, at low mana cost, to reduce my cool-downs and shoot into bushes. All in all, with a huge lack of AD that an AP Ezi specializes in, Mystic Shot is not that great.

Get a rank of it at lower levels and use it every time it is up to reduce your other abilities cool-downs by 1 second. Pretty neat stuff!


This is your bread and butter nuke and buff skill. It is semi-costly mana wise, so watch your pool carefully! At max rank, it deals around 500 magic damage with a 9 second cool-down, which will be reduced to around 5.5 seconds with max CD reduction. It is very powerful! It is alternately used as a buff for friendlies, boosting their attack speed by 40% for 5 seconds.

Use it liberally against enemy champs and remember this skill does go right over minions, so you can shoot champs hiding behind their minion lines!


This is another great nuke with Ezi. It deals comparable damage to Essence Flux but has a longer CD. It is also a fantastic flee ability, allowing you to port away, or towards, enemy champs. Try and keep it available in case you need to run, but using it to initiate a fight is a good idea.

You can port through walls without having to see. Go to a thin wall, activate, and click on the other side. You will blink through, but be careful of mobs at lower levels; the bolt you cast will aggro them!


Ah, Trueshot Barrage...is there anything you cannot do? This is you most potent spell, dealing over a thousand damage with good gear and max rank. You can use it to alternately blast through minions or massacre enemy champs.

You can snipe across the map with it, just take travel time into account. It's great for stealing kills!

The core of any Ezi build is your items and the order you get them in. Ezi is not very forgiving about this at all, so make sure you know your competition and purchase these items in the order you need to!


These are my preferred boots for Ezi. I love CD reduction; these 15% on top of your 10% from runes gets you on your way to max reduction. If you prefer, Mercury's Treads are a fine choice. Also, Boots of Swiftness aren't bad for kiting fast champs. Go with your personal preference, just try to get them somewhat early in the game.

A note on Sorcerer's Shoes: Some Ezi players swear by them. I say they are worthless and here is why; magic penetrations caps out at 49%! That's right, you can't get any higher than that. Since we have a point invested in Arcane Knowledge in the Offense tree, which gives us +15% magic penetration, combined with our Void Staff the penetration from Sorcerer's Shoes is a complete waste!

Core Item Build

These items are ones that you will usually be able to afford in any game and do reflect the order I suggest you purchase them in.

• Void Staff: Even without a huge quantity, Ezreal has a large damage capacity. The only thing keeping him from applying it all is the magic resist of his target. Starting the game, you will start with 15% magic penetration, but getting your Void Staff early will both boost your damage with the AP and cap out your magic penetration at 49%. You will slaughter magic tanks with this item!
• Archangel's Staff: This next item does two things; firstly, it improves your mana pool and secondly it gives you more AP based on that mana pool. It really is a cornerstone for AP Ezi. The thing that is really nice about thsi item is that it can be built in very managable, usable chunks; rather than having to drop a huge amount of cash on the item to purchase it in it's complete form, you can easily use the pieces by themselves. One of it's components, the Tear of the Goddess is a fantastic item to get early in the game to start increasing your mana pool early.
• Deathfire Grasp: This is a great rounder to the core item build. It finishes off our cooldown reduction, capping us at 40%. It also adds some great AP and MP/5. It also has an amazing active ability that works very well with Ezi's other abilities. Ezreal really is a magic assassin; he deals unreasonable amounts of damage very quickly. The active on this item all but guarantees a kill. Use the active as much as you can! It is on a short cooldown, use it every time it is available! Make sure to put it in the #1 slot for easy access to the hotkey.

Beyond our core items, it really depends on the game as to whether or not you will be able to buy the next few items. If you can, it will really boost your game and hitting power, but they are far from necessary to make you effective.


An incredible item, will multiply your hitting power significantly! It is extraordinarily expensive, however, so you usually will not be able to get it until very late game, if at all. I'd suggest getting is sooner than later after your core items, if you can afford it!


Our final item, this is extremely powerful for multiple reasons. The basic stats are good and useful, but one of it's other extremely powerful use is it's passive. It works like this; when you use an ability(any champion ability), your next physical attack will deal regular damage + 100% of your ability power.

I'd like to recount a little story from a 3v3 I had a few days ago; It was a tight game, all turrets in the entire map were down. We were tug-o-warring back and forth, trying to get an edge on eathother. After we finally killed our enemies final tower, my teammate, playing Xin Zhao, and I hatched a sinister plan. We would draw them out by letting them kill two of our team members, save me. This gave them a bunch of confidence and they rushed to destroy our nexus. I was waiting right behind the wall;

When all the enemy champs rushed in for the kill, I Arcane Shifteded through the wall. My first hit dealt 1011 damage to the Nexus, the rest quickly taking it out the rest of the way.

I don't think we would have won that game without Lich Bane. Consider it!

AP Ezi's are almost dedicated Gankers and Defenders; they excel at killing champs, but are not particularly gifted at killing minions. Keep this in mind!

Beginning Game
I usually start off with a Amplifying Tome for the extra gank against enemy champs. Grab it and try to get setup in the mid lane. This will give you latitude to run through the jungle to gank in the other lanes.

When you get 900 gold, port back and buy your Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Get them as early as possible. If you are comfortable, buy your Boots instead of Amplifying Tome to get them faster, but this is all preference.

As always, play cautiously and don't get killed; it's better to run and not score a kill, then get killed and take one of them with you!

Mid Game
Armed with your Hextech Revolver, you should have much better sustainability in your lane. Farm as needed and remember only Trueshot Barrage and Arcane Shift are the only spells that can hit minions to return health. Mystic Shot does not return it because it's not spell damage and Essence Flux shoots through minions.

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, try and get over to friendly lanes and gank if possible. Using your ultimate works too if you're a good shot. Just be careful about any enemy junglers that may be bumming around and farming buffs!

End Game
At your strongest, you will be able to really turn out the pain on the enemy. Let your team deal with most the minions and tower, while you use your Teleport to drop in and gank where needed. Watch for counter ganks at all times!

You won't be much of a lane pusher, but you will kill champs to free up those lanes for pushing by better farming champs. Use your Essence Flux to speed up the attack speed of melee champs when taking towers.

Ezreal is capable of several special tactics that work exceptionally well for harassing. His natural ability Arcane Shift in addition to Flash and Teleport make him exceptionally mobile.

Wall Harassing
Ezreal can harass, or strait up kill, enemy champions by sneaking above and behind them, then using Arcane Shift or Flash to go through a wall and land a killing blow. Here is a map of all the places you can teleport through on the 3v3 map.

I am not going to add the 5v5 map as you can get used to the distance you can make it through and apply that knowledge to the 5v5 map. In general, you need to make it ~60% through the wall to get placed on the other side.

Even through Arcane Shift won't get show the blue circle as making it through the walls, you will make it. Just make sure you are hugged up against the wall!

A note: Be very careful early game with Arcane Shifting through walls that have mobs behind them; they will be aggroed by the bolt it fires!

Sniping
Ezreal is the best sniping champion in the game. Your ultimate skill, Trueshot Barrage, has unlimited range; it will go all the way across the map if you need it to! All you need to do is calculate the distance, travel time, and compensate for movement speed if needbe.

In a coordinated team, I believe that an AP Ezi is the absolutely most powerful mage out there; he deals unreasonable damage when left alone, but he is prone to ganks and counter-attacks. Make sure your team knows what they are doing!

As always, play conservatively and watch your back; you are squishy enough to be taken is just a few hits, so pay attention and Flash and Arcane Shift away in a blink!

Cheers and good hunting!