Ezreal was able to abuse specific item builds in past seasons and the item overhaul from Season 11 has opened the door to multiple unique build paths. It is important to know what each build can do and when it is best to use it.
Season 11 in League of Legends has given us a wide range of items to choose from that enables flexible build paths for various champions. Each item allows us to respond to different champions and team compositions in ways that were not possible with the old items. This guide will break down 5 unique Ezreal builds that are playable in Season 11 that can help suit your teams needs or play well against specific champions.
These items are seen in all variations of Ezreal builds. The first item is Sheen which has the passive Spellblade. Spellblade enhances your next basic attack by 100% of your base attack damage after you use a spell. Next, Ionian Boots of Lucidity give 20 ability haste, 45 move speed, and 12 summoner spell haste. The final core item is Manamune which gives 35 attack damage, 500 mana, and 15 ability haste. The item also has 2 passives, Awe and Mana Charge. Awe grants bonus attack damage based on 2.5% of your max mana. Mana Charge grants 3 bonus mana whenever you strike an enemy with a basic attack or spell. The item can grant up to 360 bonus mana and once it does the item will transform into Muramana. Muramana gives 860 bonus mana, the 500 from Manamune and the 360 from the Mana Charge passive. It also gives the same 35 attack damage and 15 ability haste as Manamune. Muramana changes out the Mana Charge passive for Shock. Shock deals on-hit physical damage on basic attacks against champions based on 1.5% of your max mana. Shock also deals bonus physical damage on abilities based on max mana. The bonus damage on abilities changes if you are playing a melee or ranged champion. Shock deals damage based on 3.5% of your max mana for melee champions, and 2.7% of your max mana for ranged champions.
Sheen can proc on Ezreal’s Mystic Shot which makes it a staple in his core build since he is constantly spamming this ability during fights or in lane. Ionian Boots of Lucidity gives a large amount of ability haste which allows Ezreal to spam his abilities more and gives him lower cooldowns on his summoner spells allowing him to use them more aggressively or be more slippery to catch. Manamune and Muramana gives Ezreal the mana he needs to continue to use his abilities in fights, while also dealing out high damage from the Shock passive. Now that we have examined the core parts of Ezreal’s build, let us examine his first build.
The first completed build we will be looking at is a physical damage build based on Duskblade of Draktharr. The core items of this build consist of Manamune, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Essence Reaver, Serylda’s Grudge, and Duskblade of Draktharr. Items that are unique to this build compared to the core items are Essence Reaver, Serylda’s Grudge, and Duskblade of Draktharr. First is Essence Reaver which grants 45 attack damage, 20% critical strike chance, and 20 ability haste. This item's passive is Spellblade, after using a spell your next basic attack is enhanced to deal 100% of your base attack damage plus 40% of your bonus attack damage and restores mana based on 40% of the damage from the Spellblade. The second item is Serylda’s Grudge, and it gives 45 attack damage, 30% armor penetration, 20 ability haste, and has the passive Bitter Cold. Bitter Cold causes damaging abilities to slow enemies by 30% of their move speed for 1 second. Finally, the Mythic item in this build is Duskblade of Draktharr which gives 60 attack damage, 18 lethality, and 20 ability haste. The Mythic passive of Duskblade of Draktharr gives 5 ability haste for each legendary item in your inventory. Duskblade of Draktharr comes with the passive Nightstalker, which enhances your next basic attack on an enemy champion by 65 plus 25% of your bonus attack damage, and if you are a melee champion this enhanced basic slows for 99% for 0.25 seconds. Nightstalker has a 15 second cooldown, however it also grants invisibility for 1.5 seconds if a champion you damaged within the last 3 seconds dies.
The mana replenishing passive on Essence Reaver allows Ezreal to use his abilities and apply Shock from Muramana while not needing to worry about running low on mana. Serylda’s Grudge gives percent armor penetration that helps Ezreal take down tanks while also slowing them, making it easier for Ezreal to kite champions that are trying to get to him. Duskblade of Draktharr gives flat armor penetration for squishier champions and the Nightstalker passive combined with the Spellblade damage from Essence Reaver and Shock damage from Muramana makes Ezreal’s Mystic Shot deal out damage quickly. An important thing to notice about this build is the amount of ability haste you get when you have these 5 items. When combined with the Mythic passive of Duskblade of Draktharr, Ezreal gains 115 ability haste which reduces the cooldowns of Ezreal’s abilities by around 53%.
This build deals high physical damage and allows Ezreal to spam his abilities from a safe distance. This build can work best when your team needs physical damage or you are playing against long range champions that you can reach with your abilities such as Xerath, Varus, Caitlyn, and Zoe. The build is also fine into short range champions such as Olaf and Gwen. However, if they do get in range of you, your basic attacks will not be doing as much damage as your spells since this build highlights ability haste. There is one more item slot available for situational items which will be addressed in a later section. This build is the most popular build as of patch 11.8 and it also appears frequently in professional play.
The second build is like the first build, but there is an interesting change in Mythic items. The attack damage Mythic Duskblade of Draktharr has been swapped out for the magic damage mage Mythic, Liandry’s Anguish. Liandry’s Anguish grants 80 ability power, 600 mana, 20 ability haste, and the same Mythic passive as Duskblade of Draktharr which gives 5 ability haste for each legendary item in your inventory. Liandry’s Anguish also comes with 2 passives, Agony and Torment. Agony deals up to 12% bonus magic damage to champions based on the target’s bonus health, up to 1250 bonus health. Torment causes damage dealing abilities to apply a burn which deals 15 plus 1.5% ability power plus 1% of enemies bonus health as magic damage per second over 4 seconds.
After understanding what Liandry’s Anguish does, let us compare this Mythic to Duskblade of Draktharr. The one similarity between the 2 Mythics is high ability haste you gain from them. The key difference is exchanging an attack damage Mythic for a mage Mythic on a champion that is traditionally built with attack damage. However, in Season 8 double Tear of the Goddess Ezreal was a very dominant build. While the build has been removed since then, the idea was to reach incredibly high amounts of mana to enhance the Awe passive from Manamune and Seraph’s Embrace. This means that even though it seems like Ezreal is building ability power, he still gains attack damage from the Awe passive and enhances the damage on the Shock passive. It is also important to note that Ezreal still benefits from ability power since all his abilities come with ability power scalings. This build allowed Ezreal to deal more magic damage then he usually would and allowed him to buy other ability power items when needed. The mix of physical and magic damage that Ezreal does with this build made it very tricky to itemize against Ezreal.
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This comes back to Liandry’s Anguish which allows Ezreal to build this hybrid style again. Liandry’s Anguish gives Ezreal the highest amount of mana out of the 5 builds discussed in this guide and deals the most magic damage. The build also comes with one situational item slot and which can be used for either ability power or attack damage, depending on the game. This build deals a decent amount of damage to tanks due to the passives from Liandry’s, Agony and Torment. This build plays like the Duskblade of Draktharr build meaning it does fine into the same long-range style of champions. It would be best to build this over the Duskblade of Draktharr version when your team has high physical damage and needs some magic damage to round out the composition. However, since the build is more magic damage oriented, your auto attacks will be doing even lower damage compared to the Duskblade of Draktharr build. This build has also been slowly appearing in pro play and it could make an appearance at the Mid-Season Invitational.
This image was taken from Games of Legends
The third build removes Essence Reaver and brings a new Spellblade passive with the Mythic Trinity Force. Trinity Force provides 30 attack damage, 30% attack speed, 200 health, and 20 ability haste. The Mythic passive for Trinity Force gives 3 attack damage, 3 ability haste, and 3 move speed per legendary item in your inventory. Trinity Force also has 2 passives, Threefold Strike and Spellblade. Threefold Strike causes attacks to give 25 move speed for 3 seconds. If the target is an enemy champion or structure, the attacks will also increase your base attack damage 6% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 5 times for a max 30% increase. Spellblade enhances your next attack to deal additional physical damage based on 200% of your base attack damage.
By switching out Essence Reaver for Trinity Force, your damage is a lot higher from the Threefold Strike and new Spellblade. Due to Threefold Strike applying to turrets, this build takes turrets the fastest compared to the other Ezreal builds. However, there are some trade-offs by doing this build. There is slightly less ability haste since the Mythic passive of Trinity Force only gives 3 ability haste per legendary item compared to Liandry’s Anguish and Duskblade of Draktharr which give 5 haste. However, you do gain 12 attack damage and 12 move speed in exchange for the 8 lost ability haste. Trinity Force also does not have the mana recovery on Spellblade that Essence Reaver has which can make it difficult to manage mana during fights or when clearing minions.
Trinity Force requires Ezreal weave basic attacks in between spell casts to stack Threefold Strike and keep it refreshing. The previous two builds do not need to auto attack as much and can be fine with focusing on using spells. This build is more flexible compared to the other two since it has two free item slots that can be used for situational items. This build is more difficult to play compared to the two above due being more focused on using basic attack in between spells and having less mana to work with in fights. This build is strong into short range champions that run into you such as Hecarim, Udyr, Leona, and Renekton since you can kite them easily with the move speed from Threefold Strike and slows from Serylda’s Grudge. Since this build takes turrets the fastest, it synergizes with other sieging champions such as Morgana, Tristana, and Ziggs.
The fourth build is built around Divine Sunderer, another new Mythic that comes with a new Spellblade passive. Divine Sunderer grants 40 attack damage, 400 health, 20 ability haste, and the Mythic passive which gives 5% armor and magic penetration for each legendary item in your inventory. The Spellblade for Divine Sunderer enhances your next basic attack after using a spell equal to 10% of the enemy’s max health. The minimum damage dealt is equal to 150% of your base attack damage but caps out at 250% of your base attack damage only against monsters. If the target is an enemy champion, you will be healed by 50% of the damage dealt for melee users and 30% for ranged users.
The stats of Divine Sunderer is like Trinity Force, however you are trading 200 extra health on Divine Sunderer for the 30% attack speed that Trinity Force gives. Another big comparison between the 2 Mythics is the difference in Spellblades. Trinity Force deals the most upfront damage, and it can go higher from Threefold Strike, while Divine Sunderer’s damage depends on the target's max health. This means that Trinity Force can be better into bruisers where Ezreal can stack up Threefold Strike, while Divine Sunderer is better into tanks since they will have higher health and increase the damage of the Divine Sunderer Spellblade.
The Divine Sunderer build also has low ability haste since the Mythic passive does not give any, compared to the three other Mythics that do give ability haste in the Mythic passive. The ability haste is not being lost for nothing, Divine Sunderer deals even more damage into tankier champions with the percent armor and magic penetration from the Mythic passive. Ezreal’s Q, Mystic Shot, and basic attacks benefit from the armor penetration, while Ezreal’s other three abilities deal magic damage and benefit from the magic penetration.
This build will not be doing as much magic damage as the Liandry’s Anguish build, but it is still higher compared to the Duskblade of Draktharr build and Trinity Force build. Even with the hybrid penetration, the build mainly does physical damage, and it plays best at long range with your spells being your primary damage source. The build does well into champions that build health or are relatively tanky such as Sion, Vladimir, Volibear, and Cassiopeia. This build was played more at the beginning of Season 11 but has lost popularity as the season has progressed.
The final build in this guide is built around Kraken Slayer. This build has the return of Essence Reaver and introduces 3 new items that allow Ezreal to play in a way that is vastly different from the other builds. The 3 new items are Kraken Slayer, Lord Dominik’s Regard, and Guinsoo’s Rageblade. Kraken Slayer grants 65 attack damage, 25% attack speed, and 20% critical strike chance. The Mythic passive for Kraken Slayer gives 10% attack speed for each legendary item in your inventory. Kraken Slayer also comes with the passive, Bring It Down. Bring It Down causes basic attacks to grant a stack for 3 seconds and holds up to 2 stacks. After 2 stacks, the next basic attack consumes all stacks to deal 60 plus 45% of Ezreal’s bonus attack damage as true damage on-hit.
The next item is Lord Dominik’s Regard which provides 30 attack damage, 20% critical strike chance, and 35% armor penetration. The passive for this item is Giant Slayer which causes you to deal 0% to 15% bonus physical damage based on the enemy’s maximum health compared to yours. The final item is Guinsoo’s Rageblade and it gives 45% attack speed and 20% critical strike chance. Guinsoo’s Rageblade has 2 passives, Wrath and Seething Strike. Wrath converts every 1% critical strike chance into 2 bonus on-hit physical damage, capping out at 100% critical strike chance for a max of 200 bonus on-hit physical damage. Seething Strike causes basic attacks to grant a stack for 6 seconds, holding up to 2 stacks. After reaching 2 stacks, your next basic attack consumes all stacks and triggers Phantom Hit which applies on-hit effects to the target.
This build is quite different from all the builds discussed for various reasons. This build only has 55 ability haste compared to the other builds which can reach over 100 ability haste. However, the build trades the ability haste for high attack speed from Kraken Slayer and Guinsoo’s Rageblade. This build also has extremely low flexibility since only Lord Dominik’s Regard can be swapped out for Serylda’s Grudge in situations where you want the slow to kite enemy champions. If you must have one of the other situational items, most likely Lord Dominik’s Regard would be swapped out, but it may be better to use a different build that would allow more flexibility.
This build is the hardest out of all the other builds due to the importance of weaving basic attacks at a high attack speed in between spells to stack Bring It Down and Seething Strike. Seething Strike is very key to this build since it allows the on-hit physical damage Wrath from Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Shock from Muramana to apply twice whenever Seething Strike is activated. Even though the Spellblade passive are labeled as on-hit effects, it does not work with Seething Strike. Mystic Shot applying stacks of Bring It Down and Seething Strike allows Ezreal to apply the passive on-hit effects very quickly, which can shred through tanks. This does make the build short range since you need to be constantly basic attacking in teamfights compared to the other builds where you can play from a longer range. This build also has the highest physical damage and highest damage per second from the high attack speed and constant attacking. This build works best against champions that are very tanky and are not very mobile such as Sion, Ornn, Sejuani, Tahm Kench, and Nunu & Willump.
The final section of this guide will be discussing situational items that can be used to round out your build. These are used for the first 4 builds since those have free item slots, however if you feel you need one the situational items for the Kraken Slayer build you can swap one of the items out depending on the game.
The first section of the situational items is focused on armor items. The first item is Frozen Heart which gives 80 armor, 400 mana, and 20 ability haste. Frozen Heart comes with the passive Rock Solid and the aura Winter’s Caress. Rock Solid causes incoming basic attacks to deal 5 reduced damage per 1000 max health, at a max of 40% reduced damage. Winter’s Caress makes enemies within 700 units of you to have their attack speed reduced by 15%. This item seems very strange at first since it is typically bought on tanks, however against assassins this item can work great on Ezreal. Frozen Heart is tied with Ranuin’s Omen for the most armor in the game which can shut out physical damage champions. The high armor combined with the passive and aura make it difficult for assassins and close-range bruisers to kill you. The 400 mana and 20 ability haste allow Ezreal to use his abilities more frequently and the 400 mana adds to Ezreal's damage due to Muramana.
The next item is Guardian Angel which grants 40 attack damage and 40 armor. Guardian Angel’s passive is Rebirth which causes you to enter stasis for 4 seconds upon taking lethal damage. After the 4 seconds, you resurrect at 50% base health and 30% max mana. The attack damage is good in any of the builds and the armor is good into physical damage champions. The passive is best when you are getting attacked by divers such as Rengar and Wukong, while having champions that can support you when you are resurrecting such as Tahm Kench, Ivern, and Lulu. The third item is Zhonya’s Hourglass which gives 65 ability power, 10 ability haste, and 45 armor. Zhonya’s Hourglass comes with the active Stasis. Stasis causes you to put yourself in a stasis for 2.5 seconds, making you invulnerable and untargetable, but also unable to move, use champion spells, use summoner spells, auto attack, or activate items.
The big difference between Zhonya’s Hourglass and the other 2 armor items is the ability power and active. The ability power works with all Ezreal’s abilities since they scale with ability power and it would synergize with the Liandry’s Anguish build since you are already building some ability power. The active is incredibly strong since it gives you the choice of when to use it and protect yourself, compared to Guardian Angel where you must die first to activate it. Zhonya’s Hourglass can shield you from champions that take some time to do their full damage or to wait for cooldowns to be used up. Some champions that have key spells to wait out are Fizz ultimate, Zed ultimate, Talon ultimate, and Mordekaiser ultimate. Frozen Heart is the most consistent item out of the 3 since it does not have any requirements to make it useful, it gives the most armor, and contributes to your Awe passive. Guardian Angel and Zhonya’s are more specific since they are better into specific champions and scenarios.
The next section will focus on two magic resist items, Maw of Malmortius and Quicksilver Sash. Maw of Malmortius gives 50 attack damage, 15 ability haste, and 50 magic resist. The passive on Maw of Malmortius is Lifeline, which causes you to gain a magic damage shield for 5 seconds that shields you for 200 plus 20% of your max health, if you take magic damage that would reduce you below 30% of your max health. This item is best into magic damage champions that can execute you such as Karthus, Zoe, and Syndra. The second magic resist item is Quicksilver Sash which grants 30 magic resist and the active Quicksilver. Quicksilver allows you to remove all crowd control debuffs except for airborne from your champion. This item is a must have for champions with suppression such as Malzahar and Skarner since Quicksilver Sash is the only way to remove suppression. It is also strong into champions that can easily apply crowd control such as Twisted Fate, Leona, Ashe, and Varus. You typically would sit on the Quicksilver Sash since you usually just want it for the active, however you eventually may need to finish the item.
Quicksilver Sash can be built into Silvermere Dawn or Mercurial Scimitar. Silvermere Dawn gives 40 attack damage, 300 health, and 35 magic resist. The active for Silvermere Dawn is Quicksilver, which removes all crowd control debuffs except for airborne from your champion and grants 40% tenacity, 40% slow resist, and allows you to ignore unit collision for 3 seconds. Mercurial Scimitar gives 40 attack damage, 20% critical strike chance, and 30 magic resist. Mercurial Scimitar comes with the active Quicksilver which also removes all crowd control debuffs except for airborne from your champion and grants 50% move speed for 1 second. Silvermere Dawn is a much tankier option since it comes with health and a bit more magic resist, whereas Mercurial Scimitar does more damage with the extra critical strike chance. The more important difference between the two items is the active since Silvermere Dawn gives extra tenacity and Mercurial Scimitar gives a short burst of move speed. This makes Silvermere Dawn better into champions that have multiple forms of crowd control in their kit such as Leona, Rell, and Skarner. Mercurial Scimitar is better into champions with one hard crowd control that can place you tricky situations such as Malzahar, Ashe, Twisted Fate, and Varus.
The final section of situational items is on anti-healing and healing items. The first three items are the anti-heal items you can buy which are Executioner’s Calling, Mortal Reminder, and Chempunk Chainsword. Executioner’s Calling gives 15 attack damage and has the passive Rend, which applies Grievous Wounds to enemy champions for 3 seconds whenever you deal physical damage to them. This item is quite common for champions who have a lot of healing in their kit or end up buying items that give them lots of healing. For bot lane, it is usually purchased into champions such as Soraka, Samira, and Yuumi, However, you may need to purchase Executioner’s Calling later in the game if there are other champions that have healing such as Aatrox, Kayn, Olaf, and Gwen.
Executioner’s Calling builds into Mortal Reminder and Chempunk Chainsword. Mortal Reminder gives 25 attack damage, 25% attack speed, 20% critical strike chance, and 7% move speed. Mortal Reminder’s passive is Sepsis which applies Grievous Wounds to enemy champions for 3 seconds whenever you deal physical damage to them. If you basic attack an enemy champion 3 times while they are affected by Grievous Wounds, the Grievous Wounds will reduce healing by 60% instead of 40% and dealing physical damage to them will refresh the Grievous Wounds. The other Grievous Wound item is Chempunk Chainsword which grants 45 attack damage, 15 ability haste, and 250 health. The passive of Chempunk Chainsword is Hackshorn which applies Grievous Wounds to enemy champions for 3 seconds whenever you deal physical damage to them. If the enemy champion is below 50% max health, then the Grievous Wounds are increased to 60%. The passive of Mortal Reminder is much easier to apply compared to Chempunk Chainsword since it is not conditional and Mystic Shot counts as a basic attack. However, the stats of Chempunk Chainsword are much better since Ezreal does not prefer to buy critical strike chance and all the stats of Mortal Reminder are low. If you feel you cannot get the enemy champions low enough to apply the 60% Grievous Wounds from Chempunk Chainsword then Mortal Reminder is better. However, if you think your team has enough damage to get them low enough, then Chempunk Chainsword is the preferred option.
The final two items in the situational section are the healing items, Blade of the Ruined King and Ravenous Hydra. Blade of the Ruined King gives 40 attack damage, 25% attack speed, and 10% lifesteal. Blade of the Ruined King has 2 passives: Mist’s Edge and Siphon. Mist’s Edge causes basic attacks to deal bonus physical damage on-hit based on the target’s current health. Siphon makes basic attacks against enemy champions apply a stack for 6 seconds and up to 3 stacks. The third basic attack will consume all stacks and deal 40 to 150 on-hit magic damage, based on level, and slow the target by 25% for 2 seconds and grant you 25% bonus move speed; this effect has a 20 second cooldown. This item used to be a must buy item on Ezreal, however after the item rework there are other items that are seen as more core to Ezreal’s build. The item is strong into tankier champions due to Mist’s Edge, and it also allows Ezreal to kite better from Siphon. Mystic Shot works with Siphon making it easy to activate for chasing down enemies or escaping fights.
The second healing item is Ravenous Hydra which gives 65 attack damage, 20 ability haste, and 10% omnivamp. The passive of Ravenous Hydra is Cleave which causes basic attacks and abilities to deal 60% to 12% physical damage, based on distance, to other enemies near the target. The cleave can only hit each target per attack or ability, and only triggers once every 10 seconds per same cast. This item is great on Ezreal since it gives stats that synergize well with Ezreal and the Cleave passive makes his abilities deal area of effect damage. To compare the two healing items, Blade of the Ruined King is stronger for 1v1s and has better single target damage, while Ravenous Hydra makes Ezreal stronger and teamfights and can allow him to sustain longer. The other key difference is the lifesteal versus the omnivamp. Lifesteal will only apply on Ezreal’s Mystic Shot and basic attacks, whereas omnivamp works with all of Ezreal’s abilities since omnivamp works with magic damage. If you find yourself trying to kite out enemies that chase you such as Hecarim, Olaf, and Udyr, then Blade of the Ruined King is stronger. If the enemy is grouping up a lot or you feel you need to be able to sustain in teamfights then Ravenous Hydra is stronger.
Ezreal is an incredibly flexible champion with lots of build options. There will always be a strong build for each team you go against. These builds maximize Ezreal’s potential in varying playstyles and highlight his kit well. All these builds take some experience to get used to, so get out there and start playing!
