Lol Ezreal Build Guide - How To Master Prodigious Spellcraft

Introduction

"Its all skill." ~ Ezreal, The Prodigial Explorer

Hello and welcome to this guide, How To Master Prodigious Spellcraft! In this guide you will learn how to use the Master of Prodigious Spellcraft himself, the League of Legends champion,  Ezreal. Ezreal is a very difficult champion to play. But, with practice, Ezreal is one of the strongest champions in the game.

This guide will accentuate Ezreal's incredible Early Game and Middle Game damage output, allowing you to get yourself fed and carry your team mates to victory! But, be warned, this takes even more skill than the average Ezreal playstyle. However! If you can execute it, you will reap even larger rewards than you ever could before!

Are you ready to delve into the workings of this aggressive playstyle? Then, please proceed to keep reading down below.

Runes

         

MARKS:  Greater Mark of Desolation is the only mark you want for  Ezreal.



SEALS:  Greater Seal of Resilience is the seal that helps you deal with damned Attack Damage opponents.
Alternatively...
 Greater Seal of Clarity can be used instead if you are not worried about the enemy physical damage, & would want tocounteract Ezreal's mana issues.
 Greater Seal of Vitality can also be used instead if you'd prefer straight HP late game instead of armor early game.



GLYPHS:  Greater Glyph of Warding is the glyph that helps you deal with pesky Ability Power opponents.
Alternatively...
 Greater Glyph of Clarity is the glyph for you if you aren't worried about the enemy magic damage and want to counteract Ezreal's mana issues.
 Greater Glyph of Focus is the glyph for you if you aren't worried about the enemy magic damage and and want to spam more skills.
 Greater Glyph of Shielding is the glyph for you if you are against physical damage in lane to counter enemy magic damage late game.

QUINTESSENCES:  Greater Quintessence of Desolation is a great quintessence to deal high amounts of early game damage.

Masteries

With this  Ezreal playstyle, which focuses on early and mid game dominance, its most beneficial to take 21 points into theoffense tree, getting  Sunder,  Archaic Knowledge, and  Havoc. This helps us reach our full potential for the most damage in the laning phase.

From there, the remaining 9 points are your choice.

If you are new to  Ezreal, take the remaining 9 points into the defense tree, taking  Strength of Spirit and  Hardiness. This allows for mistakes in the lane to be lessened, because any harassment deals less damage and is healed faster.

If you have experience with  Ezreal, take the remaining 9 points into the utility tree, taking  Awareness. It rewards higher skill for higher reward.

Remember to put mastery points into the improved versions of your summoner spells if at all possible!

Summoner Spells

Because we are using an aggressive  Ezreal playstyle, look no further than the two best offensive summoner spells in the game for your chosen pair.

 Exhaust gives  Ezreal something he lacks, crowd control...and boy is this some HARD CC. A crippling slow and reduced damage for 3 and 1/2 seconds......some of the best crowd control you could ever want.
 Ignite gives  Ezreal some additional strong burst TRUE damage and makes healing near-useless......another perfect addition to your summoner's kit.

However, you can also use some of the more utility-based summoner spells, if that is what you prefer.

 Flash is deemed overpowered by the majority of the League of Legends community, and for very good reason. It can get people out of sticky situations, and with Ezreal's  Arcane Shift, you can combine the two for a DOUBLE flash to get you out of the stickiest.
 Ghost is also a great summoner spell. While  Flash blinks over short distances,  Ghost is better for closing or creating long distances. With  Arcane Shift its a sure escape!

Because this is an aggressive playstyle, I recommend taking both of the offensive summoner spells, or at least one if you prefer one of the more utilitarian summoner spells.

Skills

 

 Rising Spell Force is Ezreal's passive. This is one of his finer points, and keeping this buff at 5 stacks allows you to haveA LOT of FREE attack speed, so the need to itemize for attack speed is avoided. With this passive, itemization can be centered around attack damage, which Ezreal scales stronger with anyway as a carry.


 

 Mystic Shot is Ezreal's Q. This mighty skill is the key to your middle lane domination with  Ezreal. It has a very long range, and deals exceptional damage, especially with its (+1) Attack Damage ratio. Its also quite spammable, but be careful with the spam! Unwise usage will quickly drain your mana pool. Missed Mystic Shots are wasted Mystic Shots!

Its also quite important to note Mystic Shot's special effect of reducing all of your skill cooldowns by 1 second, but only if it hits something!

Max this skill first.


 

 Essence Flux is Ezreal's W. Since we are going AD  Ezreal, this skill is pretty weak. (Not that going AP necessarily makes it good though.) Get one level of it at level 4 if you are against a champion in lane who relies on auto-attacks.Otherwise, skip it until team-fights start. It doesn't deal very much damage in the lane, doesn't buff your own attack speed, and it costs a lot of mana for what it is does. Its far better for team-fights due to the AoE buffing/de-buffing.

Max this skill last.


 

 Arcane Shift is Ezreal's E. This is basically a built-in  Flash, which is how this build is viable with the two offensive summoner spells,  Exhaust &  Ignite. Be smart with your use of this skill, as being caught with it on-cooldown can spell death. The nuke is unreliable, which is another reason AD  Ezreal is stronger than AP  Ezreal.

 Mystic Shot &  Arcane Shift have a special synergy. If you get caught off-guard with  Arcane Shift's cooldown almost up, you can kite with  Mystic Shot! The inherent cooldown reduction on  Mystic Shot, is, in fact, quite capable of saving your life!

Max this skill second.


 

 Trueshot Barrage is Ezreal's ultimate. This is a GLOBAL nuke skillshot, which can net kills, double kills, triple kills, quadra kills, and so on. It does ALOT of damage with its attack damage ratio of (+1). Knowing when and how to use this skill is key to mastering prodigious spellcraft.

Important things to note:
-You can use  Mystic Shot's inherent cooldown reduction to bring this ultimate back off-cooldown quicker.
-You can use it to clear a minion wave hacking at a tower.
-You can use it to farm that small sum of gold you need for an item.
-Try to avoid being seen while channeling this ultimate. If enemies see you, they'll be all the more ready to dodge it.
-It never hurts to get close up to snipe enemies with more accuracy with this ultimate.
-The channel time can not be interrupted.

Level this skill up whenever you can.

Items

 Boots of Speed and 3  Health Potion are your starting items. This will make you be able to stay in the lane long enough for you to kill your target, should they attempt to harass you. The boots also help to zone your enemy effectively.

 Sheen is next, which will cause  Mystic Shot's damage will skyrocket. The AP also helps your spells and the mana will feed the hunger for the blue stuff.

For Tier 2 boots, there are a few options.

 Ionian Boots of Lucidity will allow you to spam more of your spells, increasing your DPS. However, unless you are good with Ezreal, you might overspam even easier, and drain your precious mana pool. Careful!

 Berserker's Greaves increase your DPS by letting your auto-attack more. Take these if you can't manage  Ezreal's mana.

 Mercury's Treads are a must against CC-heavy teams, especially due to  Ezreal's vulnerability to CC.

 Vampiric Scepter is the next item. The 12% Life-Steal helps so much early in the game.

Turn  Vampiric Scepter into one of these:

 The Bloodthirster is the item I usually get at this point. It gives 100 Attack Damage and 25% Life-Steal fully stacked, and that is a LARGE amount of each. Your attacks will hit with the force of stampeding automobiles with this item fully stacked.

 Hextech Gunblade is an expensive item indeed, but each stat benefits Ezreal. The attack damage, ability power, life-steal, & spell-vamp are all very strong stats on him. The active is especially strong, with Ezreal having no crowd control of his own.

 Trinity Force is the next item, starting with  Zeal for offense or  Phage for defense.

At this point, team-fights will be rolling around, and anyone with any kind of grey matter in their heads will be focusing you. A strong defensive item will help to counter this focus!

 Banshee's Veil is a very strong item to counter tanks and initiators taking you out of the fight with their crowd control. It is a very valuable choice not to be underestimated! My personal favorite.

 Guardian Angel is the item to counter sheer damage, when the problem isn't being caught by stray CC, but by stray damage. Very strong anti-damage, especially with the revive effect.

If the game is still going, you'll need to keep your damage strong. Thus, more offensive items!

 Hextech Gunblade is still a very valuable option if you chose  The Bloodthirster. I personally prefer to get this item at this point in the build. DO NOT GET MULTIPLE GUNBLADES.

 The Bloodthirster is a perfectly grand choice if you chose  Hextech Gunblade. I would not double up on The Bloodthirster.

 Last Whisper is another favorite item of mine for Ezreal. Because, opponents with any sense will get armor to counter your immense damage output. With this item, you'll cut through their armor like a cleaver through hot butter.

 Madred's Bloodrazor is a strong alternative to  Last Whisper if the enemies are taking the unconventional route of building defenses against you through health instead of armor.

 Infinity Edge pairs well with your  Trinity Force if you prefer a more auto-attack oriented Ezreal.

 Stark's Fervor is not everyone's cup of tea, but its hard to deny how strong it is on an AD carry like Ezreal. Take this if your team is more physical damage oriented...
{For more information: a fantastic piece on  Stark's Fervor by Jhoijhoi: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/why-why-not-runes-masteries-items-99827#chapter14 }

Example Builds

My Favorite Build
      

High Life-Steal "Life Thief" Build
      

High Magic Damage "Black Sheep" Build
      

High Physical Damage "Machine Gun" Build
      

Anti-Tank "War Machine" Build
      

Expensive "Money Man" Build
     

Solo Laning - 1v1

REMEMBER: Ezreal is, in my honest opinion, the strongest mid-laner in the game. You are  Ezreal. You can outlane ANY CHAMPION IN THE LEAGUE.

Take your  Boots of Speed and 3  Health Potion and head to the middle lane. Laning solo top 1v1 works as well, but the middle lane fits Ezreal better in my honest opinion.

Remember when I said "this takes even more skill than the average Ezreal playstyle"? The difficulty of this playstyle startshere. You will need to multitask, and be able to last-hit minions for gold and kill your opponent for even more gold. If you fail to last-hit, you will be gold-starved, but if you can not zone your opponent, then the whole point of your pre-game build is muted. If you can accomplish both however, you will, in fact "reap even larger rewards than you ever could before!"

Hit as many last hits as you can, and when you have a break, you need to harass your enemy laner with auto-attacking and your  Mystic Shot. Even at level 1,  Mystic Shot will take at least 20% of their health! By level 2 or 3, they should be low enough for the kill (generally around 50% health). Once you see your chance, try your best to hit them with the nuke from Arcane Shift (it usually misses however, its largely unreliable), then use your Exhaust and/or Ignite, and kill them with your auto-attacks and  Mystic Shot. Done correctly, they WILL DIE.

Now with dominance secured, kill some more minions, and recall for health, mana, and items. If you can, push to the enemy tower! Whittle down the tower if you can, but most important, the minions will be killed by the tower, and the experience/gold will be gone, and your enemy laner will be even poorer for it, and you richer in turn.

When the enemy laner returns, the 2nd kill should be even easier. Just whittle them down with auto-attacks and  Mystic Shot,  Arcane Shift at them when they are low, use your summoner spells (if they are up), and that will be kill #2. Kill #3 will be even easier, and so on. Your opponent will get weaker & weaker, and you will become stronger & STRONGER in turn.

Also: Try to attain the Ancient Golem Buff and the Lizard Elder Buff, as both are very strong on  Ezreal. Ask your jungler for one or counter-jungle one from your opponents once you have your  Vampiric Scepter!

Remember to make opportunities to gank other lanes, especially once you have  Trueshot Barrage!

Team-Fights

Before a team-fight begins, you should be using the long range of  Mystic Shot to harass. Harass and hit hard with this, preferably on squishy targets, but any opposition suffices.

Once the team fight starts, get into range to shoot out auto-attacks on the squishiest target you can safely reach. Aim your Essence Flux at the enemy right-clickers mainly as it will deal damage and lower their attack speed greatly, or at your allyauto-attackers if it is unsafe (as it will only somewhat increase their attack speed), or preferably all auto-attackers in the fight. It WILL make a huge difference if you can hit them all!

DO NOT USE ARCANE SHIFT TO INITIATE. Save it to re-position yourself!  Arcane Shift will let you change your positions in the team-fight fairly often, to escape out of bad positioning and into more favorable positioning.

Save your  Trueshot Barrage for valuable moments, such as when the entire enemy team is clustered up or in a line, or when low health opponents are trying to escape.

Also: Keep your  Rising Spell Force passive stacked up, as it will majorly increase your damage per second fully charged. It is 50% bonus attack speed at 5 stacks, almost as much as a  Phantom Dancer!