Exploring Ezreal

Exploring Ezreal 

Ezreal is a very popular attack damage carry when it comes to 5v5 on Summoner's Rift. Odds are if you go into a blind pick normal game you will probably see an Ezreal played in almost every game you are in. Why is this? What makes Ezreal such a popular champion? I will discuss some things, that I think, make Ezreal a top tier ad carry in almost every game situation.

Lets take a look at Ezreal's kit. His kit is all about mobility and skill of the player. Ezreal is one of the few AD carries that primarily use abilities for damage output aside from auto attacks (Corki coming to mind). This made builds for Ezreal in Season 2 to be much different than other AD carries, however with the new Season 3 Ezreal builds mostly similar. That's not to say that some experimenting can go on. Now, lets breakdown what makes the Prodigal Explorer who he is.

Rising Spell Force (Passive):

Ezreal's passive is another reason why he is a very strong AD carry. As I said above he does not rely as heavily on auto attacks as most other AD carries do. His passive makes this enhance that fact, and not cripple it. Whenever Ezreal hits a target with any of his abilities he gains 10% attack speed for 6 seconds, up to a stack of 5. This means that after every successful ability hit, he gains attack speed which benefits him in the sense that he will attack faster while waiting for an ability to come off of cooldown, thus increasing his damage out put.

This stack of attack speed is applied on his Essence Flux when it is used on allies as well. Essence Flux and Trueshot Barrage go through targets, thus being able to hit multiple ones in a single cast, because of this every time it passes through a champion he gains a passive stack. Example, if he hits 3 targets with Essence Flux, he gets 3 stacks. He also does not gain any stacks from summoner spells, just his innate kit abilities. Also, he does not need to damage a target, only touch a target. If an opponent has some sort of spell shield and receives no damage because of it, Ezreal will still get a stack of his passive.

Mystic Shot (Q):

Mystic shot is Ezreal's bread and butter ability. Mystic Shot is a straight line skill shot ability. It is usually leveled first (unless you go AP Ezreal, and that is a different story entirely) in favor of the nerfs he received in a previous patch to his Essence Flux that I will talk about next. Mystic shot scales both off of AP and AD, however, it scales harder with AD(1.0 per attack damage vs .2 per ability power) so it is the best ability to level first when going AD carry.

This is a skill shot that also applies on hit effects, meaning that this applies: lifesteal, crit, slows (including red buff), item on hits (Black Cleaver, Blade of the Ruined King, etc.). Mystic Shot still counts as an ability, though, so it will not damage Morgana's Black shield, but it will pop spell shields (Banshee's Veil). On top of all the on-hit effects that Mystic Shot applies, it also is a great utility tool for the rest of Ezreal's abilities. If a target is hit by Ezreal's mystic shot it reduces the cooldown on all of his abilities, including Mystic Shot. At max level Mystic Shot has a cooldown of 4 seconds, so it is almost spammable if you hit something on every shot.

Essence Flux (W):

Essence flux is a straight line skill shot that does ability power damage to all enemies that it passes through. This used to be a skill that was leveled first, due to the attack speed debuff that it would apply to an enemy champion that it hit. However, after a nerf at the end of Season 2, it no longer applies that debuff. It does apply an attack speed buff to allied champions that it passes through. This is a great ability to use when taking objectives, use on allies to increase their attack speed as well as your own due to your passive. Unlike Mystic shot though, Essence Flux does not proc on hit effects. Essence flux scales strictly off of ability power (.8 per ability power) which makes it a great skill to level first if you're AP Ezreal. Otherwise, level this skill second as it is a good skill for harass in lane and damage overall.

Arcane Shift (E):

Arcane shift is an ability that instantly teleports Ezreal to a nearby location. After landing at the location Ezreal fires a homing shot that attacks the nearest target (shot does .75 per ability power damage scaling) to Ezreal's landing point. This is a skill that I think defines Ezreal as a champion. This gives Ezreal a ton of mobility over other AD carries. This is essentially a second flash, about the same range but on a way shorter cooldown.

This can allow Ezreal to reposition in fights to a safer distance away from the meat of the fight, allowing him to continue applying damage and stay virtually untouched. It can also be used to escape other champion abilities. For example, if Blitzcrank goes to land his pull on you, if you arcane shift at the same time it hits you it will cause to land right where you were before the pull. This can save you from a very hairy situation, ones that many of us know Blitzcrank can cause on a regular basis.

Like flash, Arcane Shift allows you to go over walls and other barriers. It can also allow you to go through thicker walls than what the range on Arcane Shift allows, provided that you can go atleast halfway through the wall with the range. It is usually leveled last in all situations, as its damage output isn't great enough to constitute leveling it before Mystic Shot or Essence Flux.

Trueshot Barrage (R):

This is Ezreal's ultimate ability. Trusehot Barrage is a skill shot nuke that goes through targets, damaging all in its path. The ability has an infinite range and will go all the way across the map, considered a “global ultimate”. It does not apply on-hit effects just like Essence Flux. It also deals 8% less damage to each subsequent target hit, down to a cap of 30%. It has a 1 second channel time on his ultimate, but it does not get broken by CC effects (Alistar Headbutt, Janna Howling Gale, etc).

If Ezreal has started casting his ult and has been moved from the location of the initial cast, the barrage will fire from the initial cast point, not where Ezreal ends up. This ability scales really well with both AD and AP (1.0 per attack damage and .9 per ability power) which is why Ezreal can really go either AP or AD. This ultimate is great for scouting areas and clearing waves from other lanes since it is on a relatively short cooldown of 70-80 seconds.

As you can see, Ezreal's kit is very different from most other AD Carries. He has abilities that provide most of his damage that also enhance Ezreal's auto attacks once they have been used. His mobility allows him to stay a slippery target and to be in the best possible position when team fights come around.

Some builds you can see on Ezreal have really changed from what they were in Season 2. In Season 2 it would always be Trinity Force into a Blood Thirster or Infinity Edge. Last Whisper coming after one of those. Sometimes you would see a BT into TF but that was usually only when the Ezreal was behind in the laning phase. Now, however, the possibility for builds is numerous. TF start is still good on Ezreal but has not been as popular of late.

I personally build an IE into PD rush, topping off with a LW or Black Cleaver. Also, another interesting path is to get Iceborn Gaunlet as it builds from Sheen which is what made TF Ezreal so powerful in Season 2. Now with Iceborn Gauntlet Ezreal gets tanky, has an AoE (area of effect) slow, and still gets the Sheen bonus of making his next auto attack after an ability do increased damage. Another build path could even be IE/BT into Static Shiv, or IE/BT into Zephyr as both can be situational builds that could be effective.

Ezreal is one of my favorite champions, if not THE favorite, and I love to play him in all types of situations. Since his kit makes him so slippery and able to reposition himself better, I have played him to success top, mid, and of course bottom. If you have not tried out the Prodigal Explorer yet I highly recommend you pick him up as he is one of the most fun champions in the League of Legends.