Ezreal

Overview

Ezreal is a bot lane marksman known best for his arsenal of skill shots. The mobile adventurer plays best in the hands of those who can properly leverage his survivability to dish out the damage needed to carry games. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more. 

Top 3 Things to Remember About Ezreal

1. Ezreal is very difficult to kill early on as long as you are not overly reckless with your Arcane Shift. Keep note of enemy cooldowns and jungle position to know when you can aggressively gain a decisive trade advantage.

2. You can always press Q more mid game. The low mana cost and ability to shift out of danger means he can poke very aggressively before fights begin.

3. Thanks to its global range and relatively low cooldown, Trueshot Barrage can be used cross-map, especially on caster minions, to help your side waves maintain a pushing advantage.

Strengths

Being able to spam his Mystic Shot, even early in the game, means you have the ability to dominate lane by harassing opposition. It also helps you CS safely if you are forced to play more defensively. You can also use his ultimate to help you out of bad spots when you just need to clear a wave of minions. All of the above is further enabled by his Arcane Shift, which effectively means you can have a second Flash at hand at all times. Even if you get caught by an enemy, you can buffer your Arcane Shift to gain space ahead of time -- again, it can be very difficult to kill him early. 

Weaknesses

Because his abilities are so heavily reliant on Skill Shots, that means if you have a bad game and get into your own head, you might end up missing a lot and being relatively unimpactful in the game. He’s also naturally a very squishy champion, so if you misjudge the timing on your Arcane Shift and find yourself caught without it, you will go down very quickly. He can struggle against opponents who excel at closing gaps and forcing a fight right in his face. The safety built into his kit can also bait some newer players into play too safe -- just remember that ultimately his role is to deal damage!

Game Plan 

1. Early Game: Your main goal is to stack your Tear as soon as possible, so be sure to use Mystic Shot liberally. You can use it aggressively to gain tempo in the lane or defensively on minions if you just need to play safe.

2. Mid Game: Ezreal is very good at getting good chunk damage with a quick Arcane Shift and Mystic Shot combo if you see an enemy overstep. Poking them out can give your team the space they need to make plays on key objectives. 

3. Late Game: While your Arcane Shift is a great “get out of jail” card, players can also be too conservative with it and miss out on key opportunities to deal damage. Your pattern of poking and poking until you can go in to finish them off doesn’t change throughout the game, but like all Marksmen, you will be very powerful at this stage, especially against out of place squishy targets.