EZREAL BUILD GUIDE: Stoning's AP Ezreal by Stoning

Introduction

Hi, I'm Stoning, I'm 2103 elo and this is my second guide.

AP Ezreal is a unique champion with many pros and cons. He has superb poke in lane and unbelievable burst. Capable of KO'ing an enemy champion in literally one second, Ezreal can chip away at any champion then finish them off with ease. Ezreal excels mid-game with strong poke and a strong AOE from [skills/ezreal/r.png]

. On the other hand, it is essential that you land your spells such as [skills/ezreal/w.png]

and

or else you are almost worthless until it comes back up. Also, Ezreal lacks the ability to farm and push his lane. Because of this, Ezreal is unable to roam, limiting his control over the game. Using [skills/ezreal/r.png]

to clear waves can be beneficial, but it is important to realize the potential damage given up when doing so.

Pros

Long range
Amazing lane poke
AOE damage and AS debuff
Safe in lane with
Fun!

Cons

High risk/high reward
Exclusively skill shots
Bad pusher

Masteries

I run 21/0/9 masteries. These masteries are pretty standard for most AP mids. 21/0/9 gives you the most damage possible while also providing you with mana regen, and a much needed Runic Affinity for longer blue buff durations.I choose improved recall over 1 point in Swiftness because .5% MS bonus is not that important because of [skills/ezreal/e.png]

. Most importantly, you gain 10% magic pen. and deal 6% more damage to targets under 40% health.

[http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/5627/mastery.jpg]

If you choose, to help last hit, you can spec into Butcher over Mental Force
[http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3422/mastery2.jpg]

Runes

Marks: Magic Penetration
Hands down, there are no better marks than magic penetration. The 8.5 magic pen. allows us to achieve the full damage potential that we are trying to achieve.
Seals:Flat Mana Regen OR Mana Regen/lvl
Flat mana regen runes give you a large boost in mana regen from levels 1-6. You want these runes if you use your [skills/ezreal/w.png]

alot to harass early game. For me, I prefer the Mana Regen/lvl because I play very passively early on.
Glyphs: Ability Power/lvl OR Flat Ability Power OR Flat Magic Resist
I recommend AP/lvl glyphs because you want to reach full damage potential starting at level 6. Laning should be passive and just occasionally harassing with your godlike [skills/ezreal/w.png]

. Flat AP glyphs allow you to harass harder early game if you so desire. Flat magic resist runes allow you to take less damage early game. This will leave you at a higher hp in lane, less vulnerable to ganks.
Quints:Flat Ability Power
Flat AP quints are essential because it provides the most damage out of all the quints.
[http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9382/masteryreal.jpg]

[http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9382/masteryreal.jpg]

Summoner Spells

Flash and Ignite should be used every time. They provide the most utility for Ezreal.

Explanation:

Flash allows you to escape jungle ganks or when top or jungler is on you in a team fight. Often, AD bruisers have gap closers such as [champ/leesin.png]

. Flash allows you to create the gap once again, keeping you safe. Sometimes [skills/ezreal/e.png]

will be used for burst, leaving Ezreal defenseless, having flash acts as an extra safety net. Keep in mind that if you are running away and want to hop a ledge to dragon/baron, it is better to flash so that your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

doesn't pull aggro on neutral mobs.
[summoners/ignite.png]

Ignite is great for Ezreal. Ezreal's [skills/ezreal/e.png]

burst alone is not capable of fully killing an enemy. Ignite is great to secure the kill, as you will find often that the enemy will have a few hp remaining. It also reduces healing, preventing the enemy healer from keeping his teammate alive.

Optional:

[summoners/clairvoyance.png]

Useful when you want to snipe someone with your ultimate. However, I think that ignite is a much stronger pick of a summoner.

Skills

Passive: Rising Spell Force

Hitting a target with any of Ezreal's abilities increases his attack speed by 10% for 6 seconds (Max Stacks: 5).

Explanation:

For AP Ezreal, his passive is not that useful. It helps early game because auto attacks contribute a large amount of damage, but as the game goes on you find that auto attacking puts you in unnecessary danger. Also, once you get [items/lich-bane.png]

, your

is able to proc. it.

Q: Mystic Shot

Ezreal fires a bolt of energy dealing 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 plus 110% of his attack damage and 20% of his ability power as physical damage (applies on-hit effects).

Ezreal's cooldowns are reduced by 1 second if Mystic Shot hits a target.

Cost 30
/ 35 / 40 / 45 / 50mana

Range 10000

Explanation:

You want to use this inbetween spells and auto attacks as it reduces Ezreal's cooldowns everytime it hits. Later on, it can also be used to proc your [items/lich-bane.png]

W: Essence Flux

Ezreal fires a wave of energy that damages all enemy champions it passes through for 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+60% of ability power). Affected ally and enemy champions have their attack speed respectively hasted or slowed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 5 seconds.

Cost 60/70/80/90/100 mana
Range 10000

Explanation:

This spell alone is what makes AP Ezreal so fun and viable. You can easily harass the enemy in lane, making Ezreal one of the most annoying champs to lane against. It also reduces attack speed, which is great when busting down the enemy AD carry.

E: Arcane Shift

Ezreal teleports to a target nearby location and fires a homing arrow at the nearest enemy unit dealing 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+75% of ability power) magic damage.

Cost 90mana
Range 10000

Explanation:

Arcane shift adds a lot of damage to your burst. You want to make sure that when you use this, it hits an enemy and not a minion. You can do so by waiting until the enemy runs out of the minions. Arcane shift also allows you to safely escape jungle ganks and catch people unexpectedly.

R: Trueshot Barrage

Ezreal channels for 1 second to fire a barrage of missiles dealing 350 / 500 / 650 (+90% of ability power and +1 per bonus attack damage) magic damage to each unit it passes through. However, it deals 8% less damage for each unit it hits (Minimum 30%).

Cooldown 80 seconds

Cost 150 mana

Range 20000

Explanation:

alone can win your team the team fight if used properly. Use it whenever you feel like it will successfully hit multiple targets. This can either be at the start or end of a fight. If it hits multiple enemies, it automatically stacks up your passive giving you an attack speed bonus. With blue buff the cooldown is extremely low, allowing you use this to farm creeps while also having it up for team fights.

Item Builds

Starting Items: boots-of-speed

Core Items: sorcerers-shoes

You want these items no matter what. You get mana regen, hp, and most importantly, pure AP.

Afterwards Items: lich-bane

I usually get Lich Bane after deathcap because you can easily proc it with your [skills/ezreal/q.png]

The void staff allows you to hit to your full potential giving you much needed magic pen.

[items/rylais-crystal-scepter.png]

provides great utility for your team. You gain health for survivability and the slow is great for kiting.

Final Items: quicksilver-sash

Choose a

if you feel like you are getting focused by way too much CC to handle. If not, a [items/will-of-the-ancients.png]

is great because you will find that the spell vamp is extremely noticible due to your wide array of spells.

Alternative Build: [items/philosophers-stone.png]

The gp10 build requires a different playstyle. Just passively farm/ lightly harass in lane until your deathcap. Getting 3 gp10 allows you to get your deathcap at around 20 minutes in an average game. I would say this build is easier to use than the previous one because you just have to play passive and wait it out.

Item Explanations

Items that work well with Ezreal

Two dorans rings most importantly give you the mana regen you need to harass with your [skills/ezreal/w.png]

. The fact that I take mana regen/lvl yellows strengthens the incentive to pick up two dorans rings for the much needed early-game mana regen. Dorans rings are great early game items because they are very cost effective for a low price.

I choose

over

because You should be getting every blue buff, which already gives you a large amount of cooldown reduction.

The deathcap is the most important item in your build. This item provides you with raw AP, making you a much bigger threat. Without deathcap, you will not be dealing much damage. It is very important to get your deathcap on time. If you lag behind in terms of items, you will be pretty much useless in terms of damage output. Keep farming and play safe.

Lich bane works great with [skills/ezreal/q.png]

. It makes your [skills/ezreal/q.png]

into a 1.2 ap scaling skill which is a huge boost in damage. The extra movement speed is also pretty nice, allowing you to get to ledges faster or catching someone offguard with [skills/ezreal/e.png]

After your Lich Bane, now is the time to get that void staff because it's shifting towards late game, and enemies generally get more MR by now. In addition, the tanks will generally become more tankier, allowing them to stick on you easier. With that said, you might be forced to use spells on them, and the void staff definitely helps you deal more damage.

Rylais is great because of it's amazing utility. You can kite and chase extremely well, and you gain a good amount of health. The health is important because often, you will use your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

as a source of damage. This leaves you exposed with no escape except for flash. The extra bit of health can determine whether you live or die.

At a cheap price, this item allows you to escape a stun or slow that could kill you. However, you should be in the back of your team, safe from CC. I would buy this item if the enemy had a champion that can CC you unexpectedly.

WOTA is great because it synergizes well with Ezreal's kit. You can use your [skills/ezreal/r.png]

to spellvamp alot of health at the beggining of a fight. Ezreal also has relatively low cooldowns, allowing him to take full advantage of the spell vamp. WOTA also helps out your teammates and in general is a great item to have.

The active on [items/zhonyas-hourglass.png]

is invaluable. Again, because [skills/ezreal/e.png]

is used as damage, often you can be caught in a bad situation. [items/zhonyas-hourglass.png]

acts as a get-out-of-jail-free card. You can use it to stall for your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

cooldown, or use it to hopefully drag the fight out so your teammates can get a few extra hits in.

Items that don't work well with Ezreal

Unless you are playing dominion, blue buff should provide you with all the CDR you need. It's a waste of gold to spend it on CDR.

You rarely run out of mana as ezreal. Although the +AP is good, I don't think that it is worth the massive amount of gold needed.

Rod of Ages provides good stats, but not the ones that Ezreal needs. Ezreals really needs pure AP in order to do anything. The early waste of gold on health and mana will cause you to be a burden to your team.

I have mixed opinions about this item. The item alone is great for Ezreal, however it depends on how and when you build a DFG. If your build is boots>DFG>...you will be incredibly squishy without 2 dorans. Unlike veigar you do not have a stun to get away. You will find that you will die a lot, since you are using [skills/ezreal/e.png]

for damage to try and burst someone down. This item may work if bought later, but definitely not as a core item.

Early Game

Focus on staying back and farming. Poke with [skills/ezreal/w.png]

whenever you can. You can use your auto attacks as extra harass but do so with caution. The thing is, Ezreal has amazing poke with [skills/ezreal/w.png]

, but if you choose to full on engage, you will most likely lose. After a rotation of [skills/ezreal/w.png]

and

you will start to lose the trade. So once you unleash your combo, back off. Your goal is to CS well and chip away at the enemy's health with [skills/ezreal/w.png]

. You want to get the enemy low enough so that he is forced to back. Early game, it is a high risk to try and finish off your opponent because of how your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

works. Your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

does NOT prioritize champions, so you need to be clear of minions in order to use it. You can do so but auto attacking your opponent out of lane once he is low enough. If you are at a healthy amount and he is low, you can [skills/ezreal/w.png]

and auto attack him until he starts running. Then, use [skills/ezreal/q.png]

if you can land it and [skills/ezreal/e.png]

when you are sure that it will hit. However, you are extremely overextended once you commit to this, even more so because of the fact that you have no more [skills/ezreal/e.png]

. Sometimes its better to just farm well and give the opponent a hard time with your [skills/ezreal/w.png]

Mid Game

Ezreal has trouble with being able to farm. You can CS well, but it is hard to push a lane or clear your wave. Because of this, you will be stuck in mid lane, rather than being a champion that roams and ganks. If you are against a champion that pushes really well, try to harass them with [skills/ezreal/w.png]

as much as you can.Luckily your [skills/ezreal/r.png]

can help occasionally, but make sure you don't use it only for farming.

Make sure you buy wards for both sides of your lane. A trick you can do to potentially kill your opponent is to walk out of the lane often. What I mean is that when you are sure you won't be missing a lot of CS, you can run towards bottom and wait for your opponent to follow. If he does so, you can [skills/ezreal/r.png]

and take away a good chunk of his health, or kill him.

Ezreal works well in dragon fights because of his [skills/ezreal/r.png]

. Most of the time, enemies are clumped up during dragon fights, allowing you to [skills/ezreal/r.png]

. You can also quickly catch someone offguard with [skills/ezreal/e.png]

and

Late Game

Ezreal is great late game because of your high ap ratios. Also, your Lich Bane is a addition to your damage. There is never a specific combo or order you should use your spells in. It is all situational. Use your [skills/ezreal/r.png]

when you feel like you will hit a lot of enemies. Sometimes, its better to save it than to initiate with it and only hit 1 person. The same goes for [skills/ezreal/e.png]

and

. Knowing when to use what spell only comes from experience. Whenever you use your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

make sure to know what it will do, and if its worth it. You want to stay behind your front line and wait for the fight to start rolling. The enemy's top and jungler will be tankier by now and able to pressure you. But your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

and kit is great for kiting. Although you are squishy, you should be relatively safe from danger if you play cautiously(using your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

properly). If you feel like the enemy team can instakill you, save your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

for escapes only, and don't use it as part of your burst if you think you will die.
Although you want to be passive in team fights, Ezreal can also start a team fight by landing a great [skills/ezreal/r.png]

. In addition, because of your high mobility, you may be able to catch someone and burst them down before they can do anything. Make sure you are safe when you do this. It IS NOT worth it if you end up getting caught and dying.

Your [skills/ezreal/r.png]

will have an extremely low cooldown now, allowing you to use it very often to farm or just chip away at their health before a fight.

Team Fights

In team fights, the way you play is very situational. If there is a high threat of dying, you want to play like Twisted Fate. Occasionally come up to the enemy to [skills/ezreal/w.png]

and

then backing away until it's back up again. If you feel like there is a small threat of dying, you can use your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

more leniently. If you think that your team is starting to win the fight, then maybe you want to [skills/ezreal/e.png]

for extra damage and start auto attacking to push them back.

Correctly using your [skills/ezreal/e.png]

is the most important factor. I can't stress enough knowing when to use it offensively or defensively. Again, this only comes with experience, so if you use it offensively and end up dying, take it as a lesson. Analyze what champions the enemy team has and how it relates to you. What would the enemy team exactly do if you were to offensively [skills/ezreal/e.png]

in for damage? Take this into account, and see if it's worth it.

In terms of positioning, you want to stay behind your front line and chip away at your enemy.If you get dived, don't hesistate to flash or [skills/ezreal/e.png]

away or over a ledge. If you think that you see a good opportunity to catch a squishy off guard, go for it. One of Ezreal's strengths is his ability to unleash his damage in under a second. Analyze what happens in team fights and build accordingly. Ezreal has a mid-range on his spells so he is required to get a bit closer than other APs. If you are getting zerged because of this, go for a [items/quicksilver-sash.png]

. If you arn't and feel safe, theres no reason to waste gold on a [items/quicksilver-sash.png]

if you think that you don't need it at all.

All in all, analyze and act accordingly. Play smart and think ahead. Be flexible with your item build and spells.

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Comments: 61

Razhim
6 months ago
We need an updated guide :/
Pallyfun
7 months ago
Ocee, I main AP Ezreal and this is easily the best guide I've EVER seen for him. First, EF is taken first and maxed first because this is an AP guide, if you look at the runes and masteries your damage with EF will be higher than MS and you need to max your EF asap for that huge harass. Second, if you can't last hit without your MS you're a scrub, go play bot games and practise hitting 200 CS at 20 minutes. Third, yes, Ezreal does have a strong early game, but EF does more damage than MS with magic runes and masteries, you seem to forget that this is an AP guide not AD. Fourth, AS has higher damage than Ez's EF, the only reason it's maxed second instead of first is because it is un-aimable and auto targets the nearest enemy. Finally, you should be able to position Ez with just boots, it isn't hard when you know how to do it, and you shouldn't be as focused on stacking his passive as when you're AD when your AP because most of your damage is from EF, AS his ult and Lich Bane, not auto attacks.

Your second paragraph is redundant if you max EF first you have no harass issues because you get 2 Dolan's Rings for mana regen, this also means that almost 90% of your damage is going to be magic, therefore, magic penetration runes are better than hybrid or armor penetration runes. As for the second part of your paragraph, "what is this, I don't even.." doesn't cut it, I'll just pretend I never saw it :|.

The reason why Ezreal doesn't need mana is because you get Mana/Regen from items, masteries and runes, and blue buff which you can get 50% of the time if not more, should always be yours (unless you have a mana hungry jungler like Singed). Also, glass cannon Ezreal is only viable 5% of the time, when you're against a champion who has low range and no gap closers, to successfully hit your EF mid team fight on the carry is quite hard and you need to get close to do so, assuming their carry has a decent position, as for MS, unless you get a clear shot through minions and the enemy team you need to move out to the side and position well to hit it, generally getting closer than you would like to be, therefore, the tankier you are, the better you can team fight, QED. In regards to AA, Stoning said specifically he doesn't like it due to the cost of it, if you add up all the costs with and without AA (substituting in WoTA because it's the least situational of the 3 end items) it is with WoTA: 16,070g with AA: 16,425g. Yes it isn't much but it was his reasoning, and unless you rush your tear it's going to be useless until late game anyway, 2 Dolan's rings is much better imo. As to why you seem to think that MS is his main damaging move when he is AP, it isn't EF is, therefore Spell Vamp is better than Life steal, if you really want that much Life Steal and Spell Vamp get a Hextech Gunblade. Also, if you go the GP10 build the GP10 items make up for the lack of CS, that is the whole point of getting the items, it's for say when you lane with someone else who needs CS, with a scrub who steals all your CS or you get zoned hardcore by the opposing mid / bot laner(/s).

PS: The most AP build possible is 5 AAs with Rabadons taking full mana / level runes and going 21/0/9 AP masteries, you end up with 1595 AP.

PSS: Uninstall.
Ocee
8 months ago
This is probably one of the worst guides for ap ezreal I have ever seen.First off level 1 MS does more burst and has less cd than EF.On top of that almost every champion in the game has a better wave clear than Ezreal so it makes it incredibly easy for anyone to outfarm you if you max EF first.And I'm not talking about slightly outfarming you.I mean outfarming with 100-150 cs.Second by not getting MS till level 4 you miss the most important phase of the lane - levels 2 and 3 where ezreal is the strongest out of all mid laners.Zerging someone at level 2 or 3 and killing him or zoning him is what makes Ezreal viable.By not taking MS you make your self significantly weaker.Lastly about the spells you should NEVER max AShift.The times when you can use it offensively without paying a huge price for that are incredibly rare.On top of that MS gives more dps than AShift.Also MS helps Ez stack his passive, that is not as useless as you think, much faster which makes a huge portion of his dmg during laning.

Now since skills are out of our way lets talk about runes and what Ezreal has that makes him better than others.For one Ezreal has split dmg between phys/magic , most of which early game is phys.Given the fact that in 99% of the matchups in mid you are going to have to max Q just to be able to counterpush as much as possible, Arpen or hybrid pen runes are going to be significantly stronger than Mpen can ever be.Also Flat AP does not give the maximum Dmg early game and is not used for the maximum dmg.Flat AP quints are used on champions where having that 15 bonus ap makes the difference between 1 shotting caster minions and not.If you are looking for the most dmg you should take hybrid/arpen quints.Also mana regen glyphs are useless since for Ezreal to win lane he has to force as much trades levels 1-5 and having armor or hp/level yellows will make you much more durable as well as provide you with a very easy way to establish lane control.Now all that is left are the glyphs.As I said before Ezreal scales with CDR multiplicatively.In other words the more cdr you have the more MS you will cast -> the more cdr you'll get.Do you get what this means?It means that once you get to 40% CDR you effectively have 70% cdr which gives you the ability to keep the brusier's AS permanently -40%.THIS IS A HUGE DEAL for AS reliant bruisers like noc/udyr/irelia.So no matter what you do you should always have 40% cdr on Ezreal.Also you shouldnt be relying on blue buff for anything.With your horrible build you will have so very little lane presence that you will get counterjungled all the time and chances are you will never get a blue.

Lastly lets talk about items.First off you say Ezreal doesn't need mana or anything else that is not pure ap.This is horribly wrong, but what really is stupid is the fact that you think you will be: quote "incredibly squishy if you go for Dfg after boots w/o 2 dorans". Your entire build is NOT about being tanky.YOUR BUILD IS GLASS CANNON.On top of that the 160 hp you get from 2 dorans have little to 0 effect after the laning phase.Now lets move on to AA staff.You say that Ezreal should be pure ap yet you dont like AA ?Whne you actually do get AA staff stacked with lichbane you are gonna around 2,7k mana which is around 80-85 bonus ap.Combined with the base 45 ap AA staff has the 2nd highest ap after Dcap.So again you contradict your statement.Moving on you suggest Rylai.Why?It doesnt proc with his Q and his W and R have 15% slow.Compared to RoA it gives the same amount of ap less hp and no mana for a shitty slow.Not to mention catalyst has a huge impact on the laning phase.There is absolutely no point in taking Rylai's on Ezreal.Since Rylai's out of the way here is where the hybrid pen and mostly arpen runes come in.Lich Bane is Phys dmg.When you have 0 arpen your Lich Bane dmg will lose 50% even on ad carries that have 100 armor with base armor and runes.I don't even want to imagine how much dmg you will do to someone with 200+ armor.I also want to add that when you have a lichbane it is a lot more effective to get a GB rather than WotA.The Lifesteal scales with lichbane and MS which will give you incredibly sustain as well as more overall dmg on MS and TBarrage.Lastly the gp10 route should not have a different playstyle.AP Ezreal has 1 playstyle.That is go hard or go home.There is no room for a champion w/o wave clear to play passively.As I already said if you play passively you will lose out of 100-150 cs.

Have a nice day!
-Ocee

PS: Just for the record the most ap item combination with LB is RoA/AA/LB/DCap/Void which will give you more than 800 ap with elexir.

PPS: Please delete this guide instead of tricking people into using something that doesn't work.
Sinko
8 months ago
Created an account to say this is a great guide. First time using it just now went 17-6-14 with a quadra kill. I didn't realize how devastating AP Ezreal was until now.
martinhp
8 months ago
Hi Stoning, i really like this build but the only thing i have problem with is that i'm too squishy, so i wanted to ask, can i rush rylai's right after the tier 2 boots and 2x Dorans?
NicoThePico
9 months ago
First game: 11/0/4
Second game: 17/4/7
2 triple kills, 1 quadra, almost penta, a sec to slow, ;D !
Lelouch R2
10 months ago
Quadra Killed alone with this build, love it. Has been working perfectly so far.
XxwinerxX
10 months ago
Hi stoning. I get harassed bad in lane.Can i use Bilgewater Cutlass to sustain and get Hextech Gunblade as 1 of the final item.
rusoX
10 months ago
Hi stoning. I like your guide, but could you also put who counters Ez? and who Ez can counter. Ty
Caarlcost
10 months ago
Hi Stoning dont you think its better to do sheen and then rush deathcap?

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	Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
	Rising Spell Force (Passive)
	Mystic Shot
	Essence Flux
	Arcane Shift
	Trueshot Barrage