Let’s put it straight, you’re reading this guide ideally to improve at Ezreal, one of League’s oldest Champions where thousands of Ezreal guides have been written in the time he’s been released. For the most part, his kit has largely remained unchanged outside of an early season rework, and his visual gameplay update changed his W into a mark activated by hits/abilities. However, there are always ways to improve at one of the fan favourites of the League of Legends roster, especially when it comes down to game knowledge and being up to date with how to optimize your play. With Frank “Tomo” Lam, we’ll get you up to speed on how to pilot our favourite explorer at a high level.

A Very Brief History

Under normal circumstances, we usually cover a history of the Champion pick, including older popular builds, reworks, pro play history, and whatnot, but Ezreal is one of those Champions where we could probably write a dissertation on the whole thing. Instead, we’ll sum up some particularly interesting tidbits that lean into what kinds of items are strong on Ezreal. Ezreal has always been known as the Champion that breaks items from across classes and roles.

At one point, he ran Spirit of the Elder Lizard, a jungler item that gave a true damage burn. A classic build ran Iceborn Gauntlet and Muramana, dubbed ‘Blue Ezreal’ because, well, it’s blue and it was unique from his typical Triforce build, giving him a slow on hit which worked well with his Q – Mystic Shot. Perhaps some fans may remember the Runeglaive Ezreal, which gave him the ability to waveclear with Q while building ability power, enabling an extremely powerful burst playstyle. Divine Sunderer, a mostly bruiser-dominated item, became a safety item for Ezreal that traded damage for sustain/bulk. Navori Quickblades Ezreal let him constantly fire off Qs at near zero cooldown. Even deeper into the lore is the time when Ezreal was a normal jungler, where some might remember a particular Samsung Galaxy Ezreal skin that was in fact for their jungler, Haru.

Needless to say, Ezreal has gone through a lot of items due to his kit having a large amount of versatility and safety. A lot of items typically tend to solve Ezreal’s waveclear or kiting issues, but also simply ends up giving him some kind of unfair advantage because of how his kit interacts with certain effects. These days (at least, as of 25.17), Ezreal has mostly been kept under control with his item builds.

Items

Tomo: After your core (Manamune/Trinity Force), Shojin is a pretty good default item slot, it gives him more inherent tankiness that makes him harder to kill, but obviously Shojin's passives work really well with Ezreal's kit. If you need armour pen, Serylda's Grudge. You pretty much have to build those items in every single game, the order swaps depending on how many tanks the enemy team has. Bloodthirster is a good slot if the enemy team has a lot of poke.

Manamune/Trinity Force need no explanation, Ezreal players have built this for generations of ADC players, and the items themselves have mostly remained unchanged outside of stats. Ezreal spams abilities and bleeds through his mana, but also wants CDR and his Q - Mystic Shot to have the maximum amount of damage. Outside of some extreme builds, AD Ezreal rarely deviates from the two item core. Good Ezreal players are also weaving autos between their abilities, which maximizes the value of the evolved Manamune (Muramana)’s onhit damage, as well as consistently refreshes the spellblade effect of Trinity Force.

The general main items for Ezreal. In particular, Muramana, across many seasons of League of Legends. The moment you hit Muramana and Triforce is the moment you’re one of the strongest Champions in the game. (Image Source: Shyv.net)

At the third item point, Tomo suggests Spear of Shojin, Serylda’s, and Bloodthirster. Spear of Shojin is simply a big cooldown reduction and AD stick with some health attached, that amplifies his ability damage. Bloodthirster is a big AD stick with lifesteal, where in the late game it helps mitigate a lot of poke damage, especially in the back and forth teamfights where neither team commits and throws abilities at one another until someone throws their body into a fight. A potential sidegrade to Bloodthirster is Blade of the Ruined King, but keep in mind that the value of the Blade of the Ruined King goes down as you buy it later into the game slightly due to it applying the damage after other item slot effects.

Serylda’s Grudge? But what about Mortal Reminder & Lord Dominik’s Regards?

We’ve separated a discussion about Serylda’s Grudge and the other armor pen items because there will be situations where you may consider the other over Serylda’s. We asked Tomo about the other options, in which he responded.

Tomo: I don't think Lord Dominik’s or Mortal is particularly good on Ezreal, because Serylda's also gives ability haste. You don't really want to build crit on Ezreal generally, but if you ever need heal cut, it's not ideal if you have to build it.

Aside from the critical chance, cooldown reduction is really important on Ezreal, especially at higher amounts where it pushes his Q – Mystic Shot to a super low cooldown, which lets him continually chain autos and Mystic Shots for maximum damage. Ezreal’s cooldown reduction is also his safety net, as the lower your E cooldown is, the faster it’ll come up, especially if you’re hitting consistently with super low cooldown Mystic Shots.

10% more armor pen from Lord Dominik’s Regards is not worth losing your cooldown reduction. You’re even getting a slow when they’re at half health. Mortal Reminder is situational, although you can consider Chempunk Chainsword replacing Spear of Shojin if you really need the anti-heal, as they have fairly similar stat profiles although you would be losing a bit of cooldown.

When is Ezreal strong to play/pick?

Tomo: I think Ezreal... honestly, you can pick Ezreal into any champ, because he has a lot of inherent safety with his kit, so say they play like lane bully matchups, like maybe Varus or Draven or Caitlyn, you are able to farm very easily using Qs, so I think Ezreal in general is a pretty safe blind.

Ezreal has become somewhat synonymous with both a really confident player, or an auto-filled non-ADC player, due to Ezreal’s kit being really fun but also really safe. Ezreal’s bad matchups are often mitigated by his max range farming with his Q, which oftentimes is difficult for the opponent to punish outside of keeping the wave frozen at their tower and zoning extensively.

Lane Pairings

Tomo: If your support is a ranged champ player, Karma is pretty good, Bard is pretty good, and melee champs... you can pair with any melee champs, anything that can engage. I think Ezreal really likes playing against Champions that are really weak lvl 1, [like] maybe Aphelios, something like not really too strong level 1 like Xayah [without Rakan]. But Ezreal doesn't really have like super winning matchups unless you play really well, but he can do well into most champs.

Ezreal’s versatility extends to who he can pair with. He can play a poke lane fairly effectively, utilizing lane bully supports to pressure the lane. He can work with engage-supports well, as following up as Ezreal is fairly easy, and he gets a fairly big chunk of attack speed to help win all ins with his passive. Here are some Champions that have fairly solid synergy.

Braum – Ezreal’s Q counts for a stack of Braum’s Passive – Concussive Blows. Braum plays well with protecting his carry from a lot of harassment, especially if you get into later fights where it comes down to poking to harass targets. More aggressive Ezreals can even E forward, with Braum easily following up with his W – Stand Behind Me!.

Karma – One of Tomo’s suggestions, Karma plays more into a poke-style of lane, where both Ezreal and Karma harass the opponent out with long ranged missiles that tend to hurt quite a bit in the early game. Karma ends up being much more useful in the later parts of the game with big shields.

Bard – While I did not ask Tomo himself, we can kind of make assumptions with Bard. Bard of course can be a fairly decent laner, with good pressure from a potential two man stun, as well as leaving heals for his teammate. However, a key factor of Bard is roaming especially for chimes, where the allure of free XP and running around at supersonic speed baits every Bard player into the depths of the jungle, leaving their carries alone. Ezreal is one of the safest farmers in the game with his long-range Q, and more or less is fairly safe even when tower dove due to his access to a blink.

What does the average Ezreal player not do?

Tomo: The average player doesn't abuse his range well enough. Ezreal is not a traditional AD carry in a sense where he's gated by his attack range, but his Q has something like a 700 range, where most ADCs hit from 550-575. Ezreal has a lot of skillshots, so you can play with range that a lot of ADCs aren't allowed to.

It’s really simple advice that seems fairly obvious at first, but keep in mind that range as a concept is not simply that you’re hitting someone from a distance, but abusing the distance so that your opponent can’t do anything about it. It doesn’t really matter if Ezreal Qs someone if he’s being bombarded by the same range auto attacks, where more often than not Ezreal is not winning a straight up fight where both carries can continually hit at their range.

Tomo: I think good Ezreals look for like angles where the enemy doesn't see you from fog, and you can chuck an ultimate before the fight starts. Good Ezreals look for opportunities where they can E in, basically max range poke, so say E from fog, E unexpectedly, auto, and Q.

Tomo gives us a few examples here of what you can do with the range advantage. The idea is that Ezreal may not be the strongest champion in a direct 5v5 teamfight, but he definitely can whittle down carries and tanks before the fight even begins. Abusing range is hitting those max-range Qs and randomly chunking people out of the fight.

You can also consider Ezreal's ultimate, Arcane Barrage, as both a tool of poke and as a way to control the map. A use case for Ezreal’s ultimate is hitting minion waves to push them up, giving your team priority on the map if the opponent has to answer a crashing wave into a tower.

Take Advantage of Level Powerspikes

Tomo: Level 1 Ezreal generally can push most matchups because if you're allowed to stack your passive up, you're pretty much able to statcheck most bot lanes, because it gives you up to 50% attack speed. If you go all in and statcheck, Ezreal tends to win, so in most matchups, if you want to push, you can generally push. I think another trick is once you hit level 6, you can fake to go ward, if you know where the enemy team doesn't have vision, and then you can chuck your ultimate, and people tend to forget that Ezreal can just ult you for free damage out of fog, so you can get free damage like that.

Pictured above: Level 1 Ezreal hitting 50% extra attack speed from Rising Spell Force by the second wave, letting him push faster and have a significant stat advantage above his lane opponents.

A key factor of abusing Ezreal’s level 1 advantage is the stacking of his attack speed from Rising Spell Force, where continually hitting his Q (a fairly straightforward thing against minions) will build up a sizable advantage of attack speed that your opponent will not easily match. Early stats, especially up to 50% attack speed, is not easily attained at this stage in the game, and is much stronger early on than later. Consider a crucial point, the second wave where both laners are about to hit Level 2. You can leverage your attack speed stacking, which more than likely you’ve stacked up 3-4 stacks of Rising Spell Force, and zone out your opponent and shove in the wave to hit level 2 first.

As for the level 6 poke with Ezreal’s ultimate, it often is one of the harder ultimates to hit in the game, especially if your opponent knows that you’re going to ult them. Abuse the fog of war, get a free hit in, and you can use that chunk of damage to control the lane and not have to hit the ultimate later on when you’re trying to finish them off.

The Key to Hitting Skillshots as Ezreal?

Tomo: I think Ezreal's Q is a straightforward skillshot. It's just a line. I play a lot of Ezreal, so I think just from getting games in, you'll develop more muscle memory as to how fast your Q is, the speed of the projectile, and you'll find more angles when you play the champ more. There really isn't a shortcut to it, you just have to play until you get mastery on the champ.

There really is no secret to it. Or perhaps, we could say, who needs a map? Hitting skillshots is something understood by learning how your opponent moves, taking advantage of situations where you’ll hit your skillshot more easily, and simply muscle memory of knowing that your skillshot will hit. As much as we’d love to share with you a shortcut to improve, all we can really suggest is that you watch how your opponent moves, and see if you can catch them in a pattern that lets you guess where you’ll likely hit your Q. Given you’re throwing probably hundreds of Mystic Shots per game, you’ll probably understand how your opponent tends to dodge if they aren’t literally prime Faker. Probably.

Angles are also important, as there are windows where your opponent will likely move into a position, or not expect a skillshot to come flying. Things like throwing your Mystic Shot right as the minion dies, or shooting Mystic Shots from the bushes, as well as positioning so that you can land a Mystic Shot as your opponent moves to farm is a key difference maker.

Conclusion

Tomo: I think what makes Ezreal fun to me is the Champion is all about skill shots, it's really skill expressive, if you're able to land all your spells, you'll be able to deal a lot of damage, the average Ezreal doesn't know how to do the maximum damage, but if you really minmax your kit, for example if you're like Ruler on Ezreal, you'll look super flashy and yeah, it's a cool Champion to play.

Ezreal is a fun pick, even for beginners. You have a lot of safety and range, you get to feel like a pro when you hit every skillshot and take over teamfights because you’re maximizing your damage with his kit. Yet at the same time, Ezreal has a good amount of nuances that let his skill expression shine through in a sea of autofilled Ezreal players.

While we can’t say that this guide will immediately get you up to par on Ezreal, we can guarantee that you’re building the right items, understanding key spikes in power, and knowing what you should be doing as Ezreal.

We thank Tomo for his time discussing Ezreal with us. Check out his socials here:

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