PREFACE:
I am going to start this out by addressing the AP vs AD Debate. The way I see most people play AD Ezreal, is that they build Chalice, Boots, Rageblade, and Trinity Force, feed all game, and then rant on the forums how AD is better than AP.
With Lich Bane and a little AP, Ezreal's Q will do more as AP than with Trinity Force, and so will all of his other abilities.
That said, AP Ezreal does terrible damage compared to AD Ezreal, because REAL AD Ezreal doesn't spend all of his money on useless items.
Yes, of Ezreal's activatable abilities, 3 of them have AP ratios while only one of them scales with damage, but that is at least as good as any other AD character... Tristana, Teemo, and Corki all have 3 AP abilities, but what many players, even most "Ad" ezreal players fail to realize is how powerful Ezreal's passive is. It is comparable to a tristana that has no cooldown on her rapid shot. Here is a guide on how to abuse his passive to carry teams.
I am going to go in-depth about how I play Ezreal, including Runes, Masteries, Items, and In-Game Tips, and hopefully show some ezreal players how to actually deal damage, and how to never die while doing it.
RUNES
My Runes are pretty simple, but very important to my build,
Marks - Armor Pen
Seals - Mp/5/Level
Glyphs - Mp/5/Level
Quints - Armor Pen
Totals: 29 Armor Pen, 29 Mp/5 at level 18.
Switching out the Seals to Flat Mana/5 is a decent move, but it means you will depend on golem more (making it unavailable to your team). Your Glyphs could be swapped for Cooldowns, but again you will need golem or a teammate with a mana ability. With this spec you are set on Mp regen, hitting about 10/second by level 18 with no regen items.
The only other change I could see would be to switch the Quints to flat hp, especially if you end up in a side lane.
MASTERIES + Summoner Spells
I run 9/0/21, as a pretty standard set, getting Crit, CDR and Spell pen in Offense, and Regen, Teleport, Exp, Mana, Creep Buffs, Move Speed, Flash, CDR, and SS Cdr
For my summoner spells, I run Teleport and Flash. The only other possible spells I could see working would be Ghost or Rally instead of flash, but the ability to avoid burst is key to his survivability, and the teleport plays a crucial role in his early farming.
Items/skills Overview
Here i will post my ending item build and skill build, I will post the specifics of when to buy alongside the ingame tips:
Banshee's Veil
Bloodthirster
Boots of Swiftness
Brutalizer
Black Cleaver
Infinity Edge/Bloodthirster/Sword of Occult
There it is, the heart of dominating with ezreal... none of that useless attack speed or pitiful burst damage of sheen. 100% Homebred destruction.
Skills:
Q - Mystic Shot
E - Arcane Shift
Q
W - Essence Flux
Q
R - Trueshot Barrage
Q
W
Q (max)
W
R
W
W (max)
E
E
R (max)
E
E (max)IN DEPTH: Part 1 Early/Pre Game
Starting Items:
Sapphire Crystal + 2 hp pots
Goal:
Catalyst the Protector
Before the game even starts, you should be talking to your team. You absolutely want to have a solo lane, while you are a great lanemate, there is an important reason that you want to be solo, that I will address later. From now on i am going to assume that you are playing as mid, or at least in a solo lane 2vs1.
In addition, make sure that your team has at least 1 viable tank, and at least one other non-tank. While this seems like obvious advice, an important part of this build is to become impossible to focus while putting out insane amounts of damage, so you need at least one initator/tank, but don't end up with 4 tanks or you will always be the target of focus fire.
Early game skills:
Mystic shot: Your Q is an insanely good move, it costs you almost no mana, and at level 1 hits as hard as a crit, from insane range and speed. If you are ever being harassed too hard, stand away from the creeps and only move forward to last-hit a minion every time Mystic Shot is up.
Essense Flux: While this is a decent altenative for harassment, it is FAR more expensive, has a higher cooldown, doesn't hurt minions, and does less damage. In most cases, I ignore this until level 4, and put it off til midgame. The only time I would use it is if you get into a fight with your opponent 1vs1, as it will put out some good damage and shut down his attack speed. Because of this advantage you can generally kill any dps hero mid, although you are fine if you just focus on farming.
Arcane Shift: Insanely Powered Escape Mechanism!!! This skill is far too good, and is one of the biggest problems with AP ezreal, you shouldn't be using this for the damage, it is all for escape (or chasing/repositioning). If you do not like where your enemy is in relation to you, then POOF you are no longer there. STILL don't like where you are? Pop flash, and watch your chatlog as they complain.
In general, what you are trying to do, as you always should be, is out-farm your opponent. I try to only harass enough to limit the enemy farming ability... if they are sloppy/careless i will get a kill out of it, but for levels 1-6 you get to play extra careful, focusing on lasthitting minions. Use your hp pots to stay near full health, and keep an eye on the minimap. Your Q is great for farming, and even moreso your passive is. Between 75% attack speed, and the ability to get a crit's worth of damage to any minion lets you last hit like a BEAST, I can generally last hit all or most of the first few waves, my record being 25 minions before the creeps/tower got a single last hit. You should be wary though because there is no advantage to pushing to the enemy tower. You are a great farmer when you just sit back and last-hit with Q, only push as hard as the enemy does.
The exception to this is at level 6... by level 6 or maybe 7, you will have 925 gold. Wait for your enemy to get by his minions, and then ult him, taking out the entire wave. This should take a dent out of the enemy hp, causing him to back up (expecting a followup). With the minion wave gone, your minions die to his tower while you back up and Blue-Pill. Quickly buy catalyst and teleport to the next wave, leaving your enemy at the hp and mana disadvantage, and without you missing a single experience point or gold.
In Depth Part 2: Secondary laning/ganking Phase
Current Items:
Catalyst the Protector
Goal:
Bf sword
Boots of Speed
Vampiric Scepter
After level 6, you will continue playing generally the same way for a bit, farming entire waves, but you are now a harassing force to be reckoned with. Whereas before you were squishy with only a potions to keep you in hp, now you will be healing a large amount every time you level up. Because of this you are able to spam your Q all that you could want, and even throw some harrasing W's in there as well. If your opponent has to back, you can put up some heavy turret damage or gank another lane, but either way continue farming up. Your target number here is 1850, for a BF Sword. It should coincide with the time that your teleport comes off cooldown rather nicely. Ult-push again if it is off cooldown, grab your sword and get ready for murder. (If you make another trip back, grab Boots then Scepter, but I will mostly lump them into your next big trip back)
Early/Mid Game skills:
Mystic Shot: Now this will be hitting for a significant amount of the enemy hp, letting you harass and kill very easily.
***IMPORTANT*** A note when harassing with Mystic shot - if the enemy is dedicated to dodging your mystic shot (which they should be, otherwise they will soon die) then try to aim in such a way that if the enemy moves, it will still hit one of their creeps. this way, you do not lose the stacks of your passive and can continue dominating the lane ***
Trueshot Barrage: it can be a tricky skill to know how to target at first, but if you are aiming to kill someone at low hp with it, aim for places that you know they are likely to stand - directly under and behind a tower, for example, or in the bushes near the lizard-side middle. These are common places for someone running away at low hp to stop and try to bluepill. This is probably the best way for you to be using your ultimate early/early-mid game.
In Depth Part 3: Endding Ganking/Beginning Push Phase
Current Items:
Catalyst the Protector
B.F. Sword
Goal:
Bloodthirster
Boots of Swiftness
Brutalizer
By this time you should have teammed up with another lane to gank some enemies and push the tower (both things you are great at). Once you have the B.F. sword, you can easily dominate golem, and should if available because ganking and taking towers costs far more mana than just farming with Q. Lizard is also invaluable because few enemies can escape such a long-ranged slow at this level. If you have gotten bloodthirster, or at least a teammate, go and take dragon for your team (if noone else has).
Mid Game Skills:
Q - Stays pretty much the same, hits like a truck.
E- Getting to be more useful now, if given the option, use the heal/buff rather than the damage, because the heal will not be reduced my magic resist. If used offensively, take the time to hit their DPS, even if it will hurt less people simply because of the power of the debuff. Another tip, if you are pushing with a teammate, use the buff on them near a tower, it will increase your attack speed and theirs.
R - If you are pushing a tower and want to finish it quickly, especially if you do not have an ally nearby to essense flux, fire your ult down the lane, it will stop any minions from ending your push, and it will keep you stacked in passive long enough to finish the tower.
Mid Game Items:
Bloodthirster is a huge amount of damage once you get it stacked up (which you should not hesitate to do, teleport to clear a wave pushing a tower if you need) It also gives ezreal a way to heal (including on his mystic shot) which he does not otherwise have, now that you will not be healing from catalyst much anymore. Brutalizer is a mid-tier damage item that gives ezreal damage, armpen (aka damage) and CDR, which helps him keep his passive stacked and get Q's out there. For boots I take swiftness to be able to kite most effectively and stay out of range of being focused. Concerning Sword of the Occult - Yes, this is a very powerful weapon that increases your damage by a lot (especially with his AoE damage) but the passives on brutalizer/bloodthirster/blackcleaver are useful, and most of all, sword of occult is a big sign on ezreal's head that says "I am the one dealing all of the damage, you should kill me." I find that it is a useful buy if you are comfortable with it, but I rarely buy it unless I know that I will have to be carrying a failing team or if the game goes past 45 minutes and I need more items.
In Depth FINAL PART: Endgame/Teamfights
Current Items:
catalyst
Bloodthirster
Boots of switftness
Brutalizer
Goals:
Banshee's Veil
Black Cleaver
Elixers
More Damage (Bloodthirster, Infinity Edge, or Sword of Occult)
Late Game Items: More damage of course, but first BANSHEE'S VEIL!!! You should be around 16-18 by now, so the catalyst has run its course and it is time for the star of the show - banshee's veil. Not only will this increase your hp and mana even further and give you badly needed magic resist, it will also give you this magic bubble that makes enemies ignore you! While it is great against teams with a lot of CC, it is actually even better against teams/fights with only a few. Say that you and mundo are traveling through jungle and run into an enemy teemo and kayle. Even though mundo is a tank, I can guarantee that he will be recieving both teemo's blind and kayle's nuke, simply because neither is willing to waste the ability on a banshee's veil, so you tear them both to pieces while keeping you mundo-meatwall alive with heals. The same goes for teamfights, if there are 4 wounded enemies breathing down your neck, who is going to run past all of them to attack a full character in a bashee's veil who flashes whenever you get close? After that, blackcleaver lets you take down even the tankiest enemy, and applies on your mystic shot (unlike crits). If the game goes past this (and it has for me, to the point where I have had all three of those More damage items by selling brutalizer + boots) the IE will become useful because you are regular attacking more often and for harder than your Q. Basically, buy elixers and anythign else that gives you damage.
As far as late game strategy, don't go off by yourself, and definetely don't die (if you do, try to hit jungle creeps/pushed lanes to refarm your bloodthirster to max), try to hit as many people as you can with your ult and essense flux during teamfights, and just maintain good positioning so you can put out max DPS without getting focused. You Arcane shift is great for this - if you were too far forward focusing one of their carries and see your banshee's veil drop, quickly flash behind your team before the CC ****storm arrives, and use your lifedrain to heal back up.
Final Thoughts
Well, thats about it, I hope that this guide is useful to some people as a different (and powerful) way to play ezreal, and I hope that you could make it through my textwalls
Also, before the flamewar starts between AP and AD, I would like AP users to think if they have seen Chalice/Trinity builds, or if they have seen an Ezreal like this that actually builds AD.
I am going to start this out by addressing the AP vs AD Debate. The way I see most people play AD Ezreal, is that they build Chalice, Boots, Rageblade, and Trinity Force, feed all game, and then rant on the forums how AD is better than AP.
With Lich Bane and a little AP, Ezreal's Q will do more as AP than with Trinity Force, and so will all of his other abilities.
That said, AP Ezreal does terrible damage compared to AD Ezreal, because REAL AD Ezreal doesn't spend all of his money on useless items.
Yes, of Ezreal's activatable abilities, 3 of them have AP ratios while only one of them scales with damage, but that is at least as good as any other AD character... Tristana, Teemo, and Corki all have 3 AP abilities, but what many players, even most "Ad" ezreal players fail to realize is how powerful Ezreal's passive is. It is comparable to a tristana that has no cooldown on her rapid shot. Here is a guide on how to abuse his passive to carry teams.
I am going to go in-depth about how I play Ezreal, including Runes, Masteries, Items, and In-Game Tips, and hopefully show some ezreal players how to actually deal damage, and how to never die while doing it.
RUNES
My Runes are pretty simple, but very important to my build,
Marks - Armor Pen
Seals - Mp/5/Level
Glyphs - Mp/5/Level
Quints - Armor Pen
Totals: 29 Armor Pen, 29 Mp/5 at level 18.
Switching out the Seals to Flat Mana/5 is a decent move, but it means you will depend on golem more (making it unavailable to your team). Your Glyphs could be swapped for Cooldowns, but again you will need golem or a teammate with a mana ability. With this spec you are set on Mp regen, hitting about 10/second by level 18 with no regen items.
The only other change I could see would be to switch the Quints to flat hp, especially if you end up in a side lane.
MASTERIES + Summoner Spells
I run 9/0/21, as a pretty standard set, getting Crit, CDR and Spell pen in Offense, and Regen, Teleport, Exp, Mana, Creep Buffs, Move Speed, Flash, CDR, and SS Cdr
For my summoner spells, I run Teleport and Flash. The only other possible spells I could see working would be Ghost or Rally instead of flash, but the ability to avoid burst is key to his survivability, and the teleport plays a crucial role in his early farming.
Items/skills Overview
Here i will post my ending item build and skill build, I will post the specifics of when to buy alongside the ingame tips:
Banshee's Veil
Bloodthirster
Boots of Swiftness
Brutalizer
Black Cleaver
Infinity Edge/Bloodthirster/Sword of Occult
There it is, the heart of dominating with ezreal... none of that useless attack speed or pitiful burst damage of sheen. 100% Homebred destruction.
Skills:
Q - Mystic Shot
E - Arcane Shift
Q
W - Essence Flux
Q
R - Trueshot Barrage
Q
W
Q (max)
W
R
W
W (max)
E
E
R (max)
E
E (max)IN DEPTH: Part 1 Early/Pre Game
Starting Items:
Sapphire Crystal + 2 hp pots
Goal:
Catalyst the Protector
Before the game even starts, you should be talking to your team. You absolutely want to have a solo lane, while you are a great lanemate, there is an important reason that you want to be solo, that I will address later. From now on i am going to assume that you are playing as mid, or at least in a solo lane 2vs1.
In addition, make sure that your team has at least 1 viable tank, and at least one other non-tank. While this seems like obvious advice, an important part of this build is to become impossible to focus while putting out insane amounts of damage, so you need at least one initator/tank, but don't end up with 4 tanks or you will always be the target of focus fire.
Early game skills:
Mystic shot: Your Q is an insanely good move, it costs you almost no mana, and at level 1 hits as hard as a crit, from insane range and speed. If you are ever being harassed too hard, stand away from the creeps and only move forward to last-hit a minion every time Mystic Shot is up.
Essense Flux: While this is a decent altenative for harassment, it is FAR more expensive, has a higher cooldown, doesn't hurt minions, and does less damage. In most cases, I ignore this until level 4, and put it off til midgame. The only time I would use it is if you get into a fight with your opponent 1vs1, as it will put out some good damage and shut down his attack speed. Because of this advantage you can generally kill any dps hero mid, although you are fine if you just focus on farming.
Arcane Shift: Insanely Powered Escape Mechanism!!! This skill is far too good, and is one of the biggest problems with AP ezreal, you shouldn't be using this for the damage, it is all for escape (or chasing/repositioning). If you do not like where your enemy is in relation to you, then POOF you are no longer there. STILL don't like where you are? Pop flash, and watch your chatlog as they complain.
In general, what you are trying to do, as you always should be, is out-farm your opponent. I try to only harass enough to limit the enemy farming ability... if they are sloppy/careless i will get a kill out of it, but for levels 1-6 you get to play extra careful, focusing on lasthitting minions. Use your hp pots to stay near full health, and keep an eye on the minimap. Your Q is great for farming, and even moreso your passive is. Between 75% attack speed, and the ability to get a crit's worth of damage to any minion lets you last hit like a BEAST, I can generally last hit all or most of the first few waves, my record being 25 minions before the creeps/tower got a single last hit. You should be wary though because there is no advantage to pushing to the enemy tower. You are a great farmer when you just sit back and last-hit with Q, only push as hard as the enemy does.
The exception to this is at level 6... by level 6 or maybe 7, you will have 925 gold. Wait for your enemy to get by his minions, and then ult him, taking out the entire wave. This should take a dent out of the enemy hp, causing him to back up (expecting a followup). With the minion wave gone, your minions die to his tower while you back up and Blue-Pill. Quickly buy catalyst and teleport to the next wave, leaving your enemy at the hp and mana disadvantage, and without you missing a single experience point or gold.
In Depth Part 2: Secondary laning/ganking Phase
Current Items:
Catalyst the Protector
Goal:
Bf sword
Boots of Speed
Vampiric Scepter
After level 6, you will continue playing generally the same way for a bit, farming entire waves, but you are now a harassing force to be reckoned with. Whereas before you were squishy with only a potions to keep you in hp, now you will be healing a large amount every time you level up. Because of this you are able to spam your Q all that you could want, and even throw some harrasing W's in there as well. If your opponent has to back, you can put up some heavy turret damage or gank another lane, but either way continue farming up. Your target number here is 1850, for a BF Sword. It should coincide with the time that your teleport comes off cooldown rather nicely. Ult-push again if it is off cooldown, grab your sword and get ready for murder. (If you make another trip back, grab Boots then Scepter, but I will mostly lump them into your next big trip back)
Early/Mid Game skills:
Mystic Shot: Now this will be hitting for a significant amount of the enemy hp, letting you harass and kill very easily.
***IMPORTANT*** A note when harassing with Mystic shot - if the enemy is dedicated to dodging your mystic shot (which they should be, otherwise they will soon die) then try to aim in such a way that if the enemy moves, it will still hit one of their creeps. this way, you do not lose the stacks of your passive and can continue dominating the lane ***
Trueshot Barrage: it can be a tricky skill to know how to target at first, but if you are aiming to kill someone at low hp with it, aim for places that you know they are likely to stand - directly under and behind a tower, for example, or in the bushes near the lizard-side middle. These are common places for someone running away at low hp to stop and try to bluepill. This is probably the best way for you to be using your ultimate early/early-mid game.
In Depth Part 3: Endding Ganking/Beginning Push Phase
Current Items:
Catalyst the Protector
B.F. Sword
Goal:
Bloodthirster
Boots of Swiftness
Brutalizer
By this time you should have teammed up with another lane to gank some enemies and push the tower (both things you are great at). Once you have the B.F. sword, you can easily dominate golem, and should if available because ganking and taking towers costs far more mana than just farming with Q. Lizard is also invaluable because few enemies can escape such a long-ranged slow at this level. If you have gotten bloodthirster, or at least a teammate, go and take dragon for your team (if noone else has).
Mid Game Skills:
Q - Stays pretty much the same, hits like a truck.
E- Getting to be more useful now, if given the option, use the heal/buff rather than the damage, because the heal will not be reduced my magic resist. If used offensively, take the time to hit their DPS, even if it will hurt less people simply because of the power of the debuff. Another tip, if you are pushing with a teammate, use the buff on them near a tower, it will increase your attack speed and theirs.
R - If you are pushing a tower and want to finish it quickly, especially if you do not have an ally nearby to essense flux, fire your ult down the lane, it will stop any minions from ending your push, and it will keep you stacked in passive long enough to finish the tower.
Mid Game Items:
Bloodthirster is a huge amount of damage once you get it stacked up (which you should not hesitate to do, teleport to clear a wave pushing a tower if you need) It also gives ezreal a way to heal (including on his mystic shot) which he does not otherwise have, now that you will not be healing from catalyst much anymore. Brutalizer is a mid-tier damage item that gives ezreal damage, armpen (aka damage) and CDR, which helps him keep his passive stacked and get Q's out there. For boots I take swiftness to be able to kite most effectively and stay out of range of being focused. Concerning Sword of the Occult - Yes, this is a very powerful weapon that increases your damage by a lot (especially with his AoE damage) but the passives on brutalizer/bloodthirster/blackcleaver are useful, and most of all, sword of occult is a big sign on ezreal's head that says "I am the one dealing all of the damage, you should kill me." I find that it is a useful buy if you are comfortable with it, but I rarely buy it unless I know that I will have to be carrying a failing team or if the game goes past 45 minutes and I need more items.
In Depth FINAL PART: Endgame/Teamfights
Current Items:
catalyst
Bloodthirster
Boots of switftness
Brutalizer
Goals:
Banshee's Veil
Black Cleaver
Elixers
More Damage (Bloodthirster, Infinity Edge, or Sword of Occult)
Late Game Items: More damage of course, but first BANSHEE'S VEIL!!! You should be around 16-18 by now, so the catalyst has run its course and it is time for the star of the show - banshee's veil. Not only will this increase your hp and mana even further and give you badly needed magic resist, it will also give you this magic bubble that makes enemies ignore you! While it is great against teams with a lot of CC, it is actually even better against teams/fights with only a few. Say that you and mundo are traveling through jungle and run into an enemy teemo and kayle. Even though mundo is a tank, I can guarantee that he will be recieving both teemo's blind and kayle's nuke, simply because neither is willing to waste the ability on a banshee's veil, so you tear them both to pieces while keeping you mundo-meatwall alive with heals. The same goes for teamfights, if there are 4 wounded enemies breathing down your neck, who is going to run past all of them to attack a full character in a bashee's veil who flashes whenever you get close? After that, blackcleaver lets you take down even the tankiest enemy, and applies on your mystic shot (unlike crits). If the game goes past this (and it has for me, to the point where I have had all three of those More damage items by selling brutalizer + boots) the IE will become useful because you are regular attacking more often and for harder than your Q. Basically, buy elixers and anythign else that gives you damage.
As far as late game strategy, don't go off by yourself, and definetely don't die (if you do, try to hit jungle creeps/pushed lanes to refarm your bloodthirster to max), try to hit as many people as you can with your ult and essense flux during teamfights, and just maintain good positioning so you can put out max DPS without getting focused. You Arcane shift is great for this - if you were too far forward focusing one of their carries and see your banshee's veil drop, quickly flash behind your team before the CC ****storm arrives, and use your lifedrain to heal back up.
Final Thoughts
Well, thats about it, I hope that this guide is useful to some people as a different (and powerful) way to play ezreal, and I hope that you could make it through my textwalls
Also, before the flamewar starts between AP and AD, I would like AP users to think if they have seen Chalice/Trinity builds, or if they have seen an Ezreal like this that actually builds AD.
