Ezreal Build Guide by Rude

Brief Note: Who am I and why a guide about Ezreal.

Greetings, summoners. Welcome to my guide about Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer.

My in-game summoner name is Wlyf, I'm currently Gold III but I don't usually play ranked, at all. That's because I don't really have much time, due to University duties, so I just rather enjoy some peaceful Normal games than stressful Ranked ones.

I'm aware that I'm not as experienced or as good as other players with Ezreal (Especially those who already made guides for this champion) but, nevertheless, I love this champion and I wanted to share my little knowledge and experience with him. He's one of my two favorite champions, the other being Thresh, The Chain Warden.

As a final note, I wanna apologize in advance for my bad english. I'm Portuguese, so English is not my main language. Feel free to help me improve either the guide or the grammar in it. Feedback is really important to me. Hope you enjoy this guide!

Pros / Cons: Strengths and Weaknesses of Ezreal.

Pros

+ Amazing passive. + Poke/Damage/Brush checking/Cooldown Reducing ability. + AS team steroid. + Best escape tool of any AD Carry. + Global Ultimate. + Works well with ANY team composition. + Fun to play. + Best skin in the game!

Ezreal is just the most versatile AD Carry, in my opinion. While he excels at kiting and poking, with Mystic Shot being his primary tool for such, he can also be an AA heavy champion, if you build him like I do in the first build, combining the early game poke with some more AA damage for late game. On top of all, he's fun to play, being primarily a skill shot champion. Oh, and... GLOBAL ULTIMATE FOR SNIPING. PEW PEW.

Cons

- Squishy. - You will be focused down, hard. - Damage can fall off late game, depending on how you build him. - All skill shots, needs skill and patience to learn them properly. - No CC. - No wave clearing abilities except for Trueshot Barrage. - If you're laning with Taric support, you know you'll hear jokes about it... Damn you LoL community!

Ezreal, being an AD Carry, needs a support. Period. He's too weak to be alone early game, so make sure you get a good support with you to help with CC and "Squishyness" problems. Take time to practice your skill shots, it's something you must do to be a good Ezreal. Mid game, try to get a red buff for a nice slow, ask your jungler for it, he will surely give you in most cases. Late game, always go with your team, they will protect you and do the most damage as you can while being safe in the back lines.

Ezreal's kit: The reason he's so fun to play.

Now it's time for us to look at Ezreal's kit, shall we.

Here and there I've been talking about his abilities in this guide, how versatile he's, how he excels at poking and kiting, etc. Well, now it's time for us to look in-depth to a huge part of why that's true. His abilities.

PASSIVE

Rising Spell Force
"Hitting a target with any of Ezreal's abilities increases his attack speed by 10% for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times."

Pretty simple and straightforward passive. More stacks, more attack speed. Early game this passive can really come handy, since you can stack it easily with your Mystic Shot due to the low mana cost at all ranks. I got some tips on how you can take the best advantage of this.

• In the laning phase, if your jungler is about to gank or your support is about to initiate try to have max stacks. Use your Mystic Shot to stack it. DON'T use Essence Flux or Arcane Shift. Too expensive in terms of mana, not worth using them for this purpose.
• If you don't have the stacks before the jungler/support engage and your enemy is CC'ed, use your Trueshot Barrage to instantly max your stacks so you can do full DPS possible.
• In team fights, use your Trueshot Barrage to get max stacks early in the fight, so you can keep them max'ed with Mystic Shot's or other abilities. If your Trueshot Barrage is not available, use your Essence Flux early trying to hit as much champions as possible to get most stacks.

Q Ability

Mystic Shot
"Active: Ezreal fires a bolt of energy in a line that will deal physical damage and apply on-hit effects to the first enemy it hits. If it strikes an enemy unit, all of Ezreal's cooldowns will be reduced by 1 second. Physical Damage: 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+ 110% AD) (+ 40% AP)."

My favorite ability in the game, hands down. The low mana cost on this ability allows you to spam it at all ranks, especially if you take Runes & Masteries that include mana regen. Your primary tool for damage early to mid game. Also comes with a great asset: Each time Mystic Shot hits a target reduces all Ezreal's abilities. Max it first, for obvious reasons.

• Mystic Shot has a 1100 range. This is a great range for a single target ability, abuse this fact for your poking.
• Use Mystic Shot to check the fog of war, instead of face checking yourself. This can really save you from hard situations.
• After you get Sheen your Mystic Shot damage gets a huge boost. So, even if you don't wanna build Trinity Force early, get Sheen. It's a good item to have, nevertheless.
• Mystic Shot does not go through minions.
• Sometimes, in lane, you have two minions about to die at same time. No problem, use your Mystic Shot for it. It's low mana cost, low cooldown.
• Mystic Shot does proc Life Steal , since it's a physical damage spell. Other Ezreal's abilities don't, keep this in mind.
• This is a personal thing I've noticed, can help you clean minion waves kinda faster. After you get a Trinity Force your Mystic Shot can kill a Caster minion by itself, no AA needed. For Melee minion you'll need a Mystic Shot and a AA.

W Ability

Essence Flux
"Active: Ezreal fires a wave of energy in a line. Any enemy champions it passes through are dealt magic damage, while any allied champions it travels through have their attack speed increased for 5 seconds. Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 80% AP)."

This ability used to be OP as heck, from what I read about. But, as usual, RIOT nerfed it and nowadays pretty much isn't half as important as it was before. That's why we max it last, it simply don't bring too much to the table.

• Essence Flux goes through minions and champions. You can hit multiple champions with it, causing equal damage to all. You can only damage champions with this ability.
• When doing objectives like Towers, Dragon , Baron Nashor try to align your Essence Flux to hit as much allied champions as possible to give general team buff. It does help A LOT.
• Essence Flux does not immediately proc the Trinity Force passive, but you can use it and then AA to take advantage of the passive. Use this trick when your Mystic Shot is in cooldown and you can't use it to make the most DPS you can.
• As off Patch 4.12 this ability now works on Ezreal as well if you get hit by it. You can proc this by casting Essence Flux and cast Arcane Shift right after in the same direction. You'll get hit by Essence Flux and receive the AS buff.

E Ability

Arcane Shift
"Active: Ezreal instantly teleports to a nearby target location and fires a homing arrow at the nearest enemy unit within 750 range, dealing magic damage to it. Magic Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+ 75% AP)."

Oh, this ability. God, I love Arcane Shift. This is a better version of flash, if we may refer it as such. Easier to go through walls with smooth casting, deals damage to the closest enemy (Trust me, this does hurt a lot) and it's in a low cooldown compared to flash. Can be even lower, if you use constant Mystic Shot's on targets. Max it second.

• Similar to Essence Flux, Arcane Shift does not immediately proc the Trinity Force passive, but will empower the next AA with some extra damage.
• You can use this to re-position and use your skill shots in a more effective way.
• DO NOT INITIATE TEAM FIGHTS WITH THIS ABILITY! I see some Ezreal's make this mistake, and when they do, it's pretty much a free kill to my team.
• This ability costs 90 mana at all ranks. Try, in the laning phase, to keep your mana always over 90. So, if you get a surprise gank you'll have the escape mechanism. This is important for lane safety.

Here's a map that I found online with all the walls Ezreal can use Arcane Shift to get over. (I found it by Google, if someone knows from where it is, tell me, please.)

R Ability

Trueshot Barrage
"Active: Ezreal charges for 1 second to fire a powerful broad energy missile that travels in a line across the whole map, dealing magic damage to each enemy unit it passes through. It will deal 10% less damage for each subsequent target hit, down to a minimum of 30% damage dealt. Magic Damage: 350 / 500 / 650 (+ 100% Bonus AD) (+ 90% AP)."

This is a daaaaaaaarn good ultimate. It's global, deals Tons of Damage (Get it, guys? Guys?), it makes your Rising Spell Force stacks get max'ed with ease and it's great for either finishing close range kills, or just snipe low level champions across the map. It's an ultimate so, take it whenever you can. (Levels 6, 11 and 16)

• First tip is the most important one to me. This ability can not be interrupted by any CC type after you cast it. Even if you get, per example, Rocket Grab'ed by Blitzcrank or Death Sentence'd by Thresh your ultimate will work from the spot you casted it.
• When casting Trueshot Barrage, to max out your damage output, try to not hit any minion or monster in the way. That will decrease your damage and can be the difference between a kill and a low hp escape from your enemy.
• Try to cast your Trueshot Barrage where your enemies can not see you. That will create the element of surprise and might help you hit them before they can even react to it.
• Needless is to say that you can try to snipe objectives like Buffs , Dragon and Baron Nashor .
• Psst, little secret. Are you going back to base and still have Trueshot Barrage and 100 mana left? Cast it on the wave and clean it up. I see some Ezreal players forgetting this and it's pretty simple but can give you an extra gold and pushes the lane to your opponents Tower, allowing you to lose less minions before you get back to lane.

Summoner Spells: My picks and alternatives for them.

Summoner Spells

"Teleports your Champion to target nearby location." - Flash.
This item is necessary to any AD Carry. I understand that Ezreal already has a good escape with Arcane Shift, but with flash you'll have an extra escape that will make you really hard to gank or catch. A must have, in my opinion.


"Restores 95-475 Health (depending on champion level) and grants 30% Movement Speed for 1 second to you and target allied champion. This healing is halved for units recently affected by Summoner Heal." - Heal.
This summoner spell got buffed! Yes, it's true. This season the summoner spell Heal got a bit of love from RITO and they decided to add a movement speed buff for 1 second plus the healing effect. It's the best option, right now, for the secondary spell for an AD Carry.

• Try to use it only in situations you are sure you can make it out alive, don't waste it when you're certain you'll most likely die.
• When possible, try to save your teammates from tough spots with the movement speed buff it now gives to the most wounded ally nearby your cursor.
• Care for the part where the healing effect it's diminished when other summoner spell heal was recently used. If you and your support wanna both take Heal, it's better you take Barrier in this case. The healing effect will not be reduced, and you'll get a bigger shield.

"Shields your champion for 115-455 (depending on champion level) for 2 seconds." - Barrier.
This is a great summoner spell for AD Carries. Gives a small shield that scales with level, having many good uses for it. It's the most common pick along with Flash and Heal, due to the extra safety it gives to the AD Carry.

• Gives you a bit more durability in fights, can be crucial in winning or losing a 1vs1.
• Can protect you for many spells that, without Barrier, would most definitely kill you. Per example: Karthus Requiem, Zed Death Mark, etc.
• Can work as a bait if correctly timed.
• Heal right now is a better option due to the movement speed, but barrier it's better in the early game as we see from the bigger shield that it offers. Despite that, I still recommend Heal over Barrier.

"Removes all disables and summoner spell debuffs affecting your champion and lowers the duration of incoming disables by 65% for 3 seconds." - Cleanse.
This is an EXCELLENT spell against Heavy CC teams. Removes all the debuffs from you and reduces the duration of the following ones. This can really save you from tricky situations where you get attacked by heavy CC. I'll list a few things that you may or may not know about this spell:

• It does remove the Ignite true damage effect.
• Removes every form of cc except: "Suppression, knock-ups, knock-backs, grabs and flings".
• Finally, if you don't wanna take this item but you're aware that, somewhere in the game, you'll need this type of spell, buy a Quicksilver Sash. Has a similar effect, lower cooldown but the bad thing is that takes an item spot and does not reduce the effects from the following disables or debuffs. You can later upgrade it to a Mercurial Scimitar, which I had put previously in item alternatives for our build.

"Ignites target enemy champion, dealing 70-410 true damage (depending on champion level) over 5 seconds, grants you vision of the target, and reduces healing effects on them for the duration." - Ignite.
Ezreal is actually one of a few AD Carries that can make good use of Ignite. He has a great burst even at early game stage, this can get you some early kills if you go really aggressive. When I recommend this to be used:

• Easy lanes, that you're sure you'll win it and get a lot of kills.
• When you need to counter strong heals from the support. Per example, Soraka or Nami.
• Only after you get really experienced with Ezreal. If you're new with him, think of using Heal, Barrier or Cleanse.

The Supports: Synergy with Ezreal

Well, this sector of the guide was pretty easy for me to do since... I'm a support main myself. I've played these match-ups a lot, so I kinda know the other side of the coin. However, all of them are based on my knowledge and opinion. If you disagree and have an opinion why it's not how I say it is, I respect that, and would consider a change if I agree with it as well. But enough talk, let's go to the important stuff.

Sona - Maven of the Strings Poke/Sustain Support Synergy: Godlike. Weaknesses: Squishy; Mana hungry. Strengths: Poke; Sustain; AoE stun. Explanation: Ezreal and Sona go together like "Bread & Butter". Together they make one of the strongest botlanes in terms of poke and all-in potential at level 6. Despite those strengths they are one of the squishiest botlanes and can really be punished by strong all-in botlanes or jungle ganks. Sona's the best support for Ezreal in my opinion, despite not being a top priority pick anymore.

Janna - The Storm's Fury Disengage/Defensive Support Synergy: Great. Weaknesses: Squishy; No sustain. Strengths: AD Steroid: Safe support; Great disengage. Explanation: Janna is a great support for Ezreal for numerous reasons. She can give him an AD steroid which he benefits greatly; She can keep him safe with her strong disengage kit; And she can heal the team with her ultimate. Despite those great parts of her kit, she has some flaws: Doesn't have an easy way to engage teamfights, since her Howling Gale is a bit hard to land and Zephyr is not the best engage tool; Brings no damage to the table whatsoever; Hard to carry with in Solo Q, but that will be your job as the ADC anyway.

Zephyr size=55]

Karma - The Enlightened One Poke/Safety Support Synergy: Great. Weaknesses: No hard CC; There are better picks currently. Strengths: Big damage early game; Movement Speed + Shield is great to make you even harder to catch. Explanation: As a support main myself, I love to play Karma whenever I feel like playing poke champions. She has a great kit for that, and synergies greatly with Ezreal because of it. However her CC is based on slows and a delayed root similar to LeBlanc's Ethereal Chains. In the current meta, there are better picks I believe, but a Karma main can easily carry you out of the lane with some kills.

Nami - The Tidecaller Sustain/Poke Support Synergy: Good. Weaknesses: Squishy; If she fails to land Aqua Prison, that's a lot of CC and utility gone. Strengths: Sustain; Disengage. Explanation: I'm gonna be honest and say that I hate Nami as a champion. However, with Ezreal, she does work for me. Her heal is nice in the laning phase to sustain tough lanes; Her Tidecaller's Blessing damage can be proc'ed by your Mystic Shot so overall the synergy is actually quite good. However I feel that her disengage kit is inferior to Janna's and I would pick Janna over Nami without even thinking much about it. But, nevertheless, she does synergy well with Ezreal.

Vel'Koz - The Eye of the Void High Damage/Poke Support Synergy: Good. Weaknesses: Squishy; Will be highly focused in laning phase. Strong Points: Amazing damage; Amazing CC; Scales into a secondary AP champion lategame. Explanation: This guy is a monster in terms of damage. His poke damage in the lane is insane and his ult even at lvl 6 does massive damage. The reason why I think he's a good support for Ezreal comes down to the fact that their ultimates have a great synergy, and on top of the poke he also brings amazing cc to the table. The counterpart to this, people still haven't fully accepted the tentacle thingy as a support but I think that it's where he shines the most, and hopefully he gets competitive use as well.

Deadly Bloom

Zyra - Rise of the Thorns High Damage/Poke Support Synergy: Good. Weaknesses: Squishy; Will be highly focused in laning phase. Strong Points: Amazing damage; Decent CC; Scales into a secondary AP champion lategame. Explanation: Zyra does amazing damage even at early game, so she can easily chunk the enemy AD Carry to half health with her poke. Makes your job to kill them easier, much easier. Late game, her ultimate is amazing in teamfights. Overall, she helps you in the damage department like no other support. However, she's one of the easiest ones to kill since she's squishy and focused due to the known fact of her high damage. Despite that, a good Zyra knows how to position herself safely and win the lane with you.

Deadly Bloom

Soraka - The Starchild Poke/Sustain Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: Squishy; No hard CC; Hard poke to land. Strong Points: Godlike sustain; AoE silence. Explanation: Before Soraka's rework the synergy between Ezreal and Soraka was a bit better, in my opinion, simply because she could provide him with mana and solve her mana hungriness problems during the whole game. Now, even though she's better as a support overall, I feel that she doesn't synergy the best with Ezreal anymore. However, she can keep you safe, healthy and make sure you die even less, since Ezreal is a super safe AD Carry.

Lulu – The Fae Sorceress Poke/Safety support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: Squishy; Works better if built full AP. Strong Points: Great lvl 1,2 and 3; Decent slow; Amazing ultimate to save someone. Explanation: Lulu is a strange case. If built full AP, she's incredibly good. If built support, she's a bit lackluster. In competitive play is common to see her in the Top or Mid lane simply because in the early game her damage will be amazing and later on, her peel for the ADC will be amazing. If you play her support, your gold income will be much less, so you can't build that much AP making her a bit weaker compared to other supports in that sense. However, even as support, her lane presense will be high and that helps Ezreal get through the laning.

Taric – The Gem Knight Tank Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: Lackluster CC; Not the strongest heal; There are better picks. Strong Points: Amazing armor buff; Ultimate gives fantastic buffs to the whole team; Armor shred with Shatter. Explanation: Taric in theory is not a bad support. But his kit should probably use some modifications, in my opinion. He can heal, buff the adc, stun and be a tank but all of that is a bit lackluster in general. However he does provide what Ezreal needs: Tankyness, Buffs in damage and most importantly ARMOR SHRED which is the bane of Ezreal as we all know.

Morgana - The Fallen Angel Safety/Peeler Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: No sustain; Weak poke; Better with all-in ADC's. Strong Points: 3 second binding; Black Shield makes you even more untouchable; Great teamfight presence. Explanation: Whenever I'm against a single target cc heavy team, I pick Morgana without thinking twice. Her kit is made to make sure the ADC doesn't get touched at all with Black Shield and that whoever jumps on him will get dc'ed for afking after getting hit by Dark Binding. However, her laning does not synergy that much with Ezreal because she simply isn't a poke champion. Still, it's not a bad pick if you love to get a really good peel.

Thresh - The Chain Warden Madlife Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: No sustain; Works better with all-in champions; Lackluster poke. Strong Points: Really hard CC; Amazing peel; Best support in the game for every situation. Explanation: Thresh, to me, is the best support in the game. His kit is perfect to make sure that the ADC is safe and on top of that it's perfect for playmaking. We all know what Madlife, MatA, GorillA and even Bunnyfufuu can do on this champion right? However, with Ezreal, isn't the best combo. Ezreal is a poke champion, and even though Thresh has some poke with his passive on Flay is simply not the best poke you can get and you're better matching him with burst champions like Graves, Varus, etc.

Braum - The Heart of the Freljord Tank Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: No sustain; Lackluster poke. Strong Points: Tons of CC; Amazing peeling ability with Unbreakable; All around safe and good support. Explanation: I remember when Braum was released he was completely broken. On top of being tanky, he could be a lane bully with Winter's Bite doing tons of damage. His poke was pretty decent, for a tank support. However, the nerfs did hit him and his poke isn't as strong as before. Despite that, Braum has a bit of poke and can peel better than most supports. It's a solid pick with Ezreal, if played correctly.

Lux - The Lady of Luminosity Poke Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: No sustain; Focused hard in the laning phase; Not a common support. Strong Points: Great poke; Decent CC; Underrated shield; Ultimates have amazing synergy. Explanation: Well, the typical "I don't wanna support so... Imma just pick Lux and pretend that I'm one." However, with Ezreal it's actually a pretty good pick. She has amazing poke and when you both hit 6, if you combo the ultimates on a target, he's dead. He simply is, there's just too much damage from both of you. Not a top pick, but works great with Ezreal.

Veigar - The Tiny Master of Evil Zone control/Stun provider Support Synergy: Decent. Weaknesses: No sustain; WTF VEIGAR? Strong Points: 2,5 seconds stun; Ability to zone and entire team; Ultimate chunks the enemy AP carries even without building damage. Explanation: Okay... I'm going to be honest, even before this was a pick in Korea and other regions I tried it for myself and I actually thought it was pretty strong. The reason for that is that you provide a zoning that excels with a POKE team. If you get your stun down, it's pretty much a sure thing that your team skillshots will hit, right? That's what makes Veigar support strong. He has to be used primarily with poke compositions, but can work with others. Try it, it's pretty fun.

Alistar - The Minotaur Tank Cow Synergy: Bad. Weaknesses: No poke; Works better with all-in champions. Strong Points: Uber tanky; Ok sustain in laning; Good peeler. Explanation: Even though Alistar is a champion that I love to play, I just don't think he suits Ezreal's style of play. One's a pretty poke based, other is a all-in champion. Not the best combo.

Leona del Rey - The Radiant Dawn Who cares, she looks like Lana de Rey Synergy: Bad. Weaknesses: No poke; Works better with all-in champions. Strong Points: One of the best tank supports; Great CC and initiation; Can dominate the lane if ahead. Explanation: Similar to Alistar, she works better with all-in champions. However, Leona and Ezreal have kill potential at level 6 with the combination of abilities going down on the ADC. However, it's not really the best combo... She probably would do the same, but better, with Graves, per example.

Annie - The Dark Child Initiation support Synergy: Bad. Weaknesses: Works better in all-ins; Focused in the laning phase. Strong Points: Can stun the whole enemy team with one ability; Has a decent poke in laning. Explanation: Annie has actually a nice poke, with her AA range being really high and her Disintegrate but if she abuses that she will be out of mana in no time. She's not really a poke champion, she's an all-in champion similar to Leona. For that reason, I don't think she's a great pick for Ezreal.

Blitzcrank Swiggity Swooty, comin' for dat booty Synergy: Bad. Weaknesses: Hit or miss champion. Strong Points: Dominates if his skillshots hit; Great at picking someone off position. Explanation: Ezreal and Blitzcrank don't match in playstyle, at all. It's really not a good combo, in my opinion. On top of that, it's necessary that Blitzcrank hits his skillshots so... It's a bit of a hit or miss champion.

Final Note: Last thoughts, considerations.

This was my guide for Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer. I hope it was helpful to you this little bit of knowledge that I just shared, and hopefully wins you games!
I'll try to keep this guide as updated as possible, and I'm always open for suggestions.

Thank you, once more!