Intro

Ezreal has been a popular champ since his release many years ago. For years, his build has been relatively the same and saw little change. However, there has been a bit of experimentation going on with Ezreal that has been occurring at the Mid Season Invitation. Currently, Ezreal players are building both Tear items, Manamune and Archangel's Staff, and running the Teleport Summoner Spell rather than the conventional Heal Summoner Spell most ADCs play with. Both of these new innovations are unique and have not been seen very many times before. Now, let’s talk about why Ezreal players are doing this, and how good it can be in the right hands.

FeelsSadMan?

Double tear is apparently not trolling as long as the pro players are doing it. The new Ezreal build will look crazy to anyone who hasn’t seen it before, but there is meaning in the madness. The current build involves building Manamune first, then Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet, and finally building Archangel's Staff. So why are some of the best ADCs in the world such as Pray running this build on Ezreal? Well firstly, Ezreal needs a lot of mana. Your Q ability is essentially a second auto attack, and you should be absolutely spamming your Q key as much as humanly possible in a team fight. This means that mana is going to be a problem and running low on mana is not uncommon on Ezreal despite building both a Tear item and the extra mana from Sheen. So, instead of running out of mana, why not just build a second Tear of the Goddess? What might have been a sarcastic question a month ago is now something people are experimenting with and finding great success on. But surprisingly, the extra mana is one of the least important reasons why people are building the two Tear items.

One of the main reasons why the double Tear build is so effective is because of the Awe passive effect that is shared on both of the items. It is a unique passive that, on Muramana, grants bonus AD equal to 2% of your maximum mana and refunds 15% of your mana spent. Seraph's Embrace grants you bonus AP equal to 3% of your maximum mana, and refunds 25% of your mana spent. Because the passive is unique on both of these items, only the best parts of the passive end up getting applied, which means in total the Awe passive grants you the 2% bonus AD from Muramana, as well as the 3% bonus AP and a 25% mana refund on all abilities from Seraph's Embrace. The extra AD and AP gained from both of these items is very useful, and synergizes very well together because of all of the mana that Ezreal ends up building. Overall, the Awe passive granting so much bonus damage, as well as granting the user a large mana refund, is a big reason why Ezreal players are choosing to go down this double Tear of the Goddess route instead of the conventional Ezreal builds.

Not only is building a second Tear of the Goddess very good for Ezreal because of the mana and damage given, Seraph’s Embrace is a very good item on Ezreal. Ezreal gets access to the giant Mana Shield passive which gives him unexpected safety. Additionally, Ezreal has some AP scalings on all of his abilities, so the AP gifted by the Lost Chapter does not go to waste. Additionally, Seraph’s Embrace grants 20% cooldown reduction because of the Haste passive on Lost Chapter, and Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet will grant you the other 20% needed to give you the maximum 40% CD. This means that Ezreal no longer needs to build Boots of Lucidity or take the Transcendence Rune in the Sorcery Tree. This means Ezreal gains even more bonuses that aren’t as easily seen, because he can now build more effective boots like Berserker's Greaves or Ninja Tabi, and can also take something like Gathering Storm in the Sorcery Tree instead of Transcendence which will help him scale better into the late game as well.

Teleport Too?

So double Tear seems to be pretty effective for Ezreal, but why are some Ezreal players beginning to run Teleport as well? Running Teleport means that the Ezreal player is able to be much more greedy, and rotate very quickly around the map. Base timings are very crucial for ADCs so that they do not fall too far behind in XP and gold. By running Teleport, you can get greedier base timings, and basically miss nothing because Teleporting back to lane is much faster than running all the way back. Additionally, it allows Ezreal to more easily farm a side lane, and still be able to make it to a Baron or Dragon teamfight if they are on the opposite side of the map, similar to what many Top laners do. This allows Ezreal to farm much more at ease, and not have to give up farm to be in position for a teamfight.

Downsides?

The major reason why people can be fearful of the double Tear build is that it is ridiculously slow. Tears do not stack side by side, which means that you must finish stacking the first Tear of the Goddess before the second one can gain any stacks. Fortunately, Ezreal is very quick at stacking Tear, but stacking another Tear sets Ezreal behind the curve until both Tears are finished. Additionally, until the two Tears are stacked, Ezreal does not get as much combat stats as compared to building Blade of the Ruined King third like he usually does. This means the Ezreal player is usually going to need to play much safer and realize that the damage output is much lower until the second Tear is finished.

Teleport also has its downsides as well. Taking Teleport means that Ezreal can no longer take Heal because Flash is essential. This means that Ezreal loses access to a combat Summoner Spell, and is considerably weaker in early all-ins, when the enemy ADC will have access to Heal. Taking Teleport generally means that Ezreal just wants to farm up to get his double Tear of the Goddess items, and not take any fights in fear of losing because of Heal disadvantage. If you’re fighting against the Teleport Ezreal, all-ins are generally a good idea because you’ll have access to Heal when the Ezreal will not.