Gaming

Ultimate Ezreal guide: Best league of legends, builds, runes, tips and tricks

Liam Ho
ezreal splash art league of legendsRiot Games

Ezreal is one of the most unique AD carries in League of Legends, with his bursty mage-like playstyle, he’s a champion that heavily rewards smart and skilled players. That being said, here’s everything you need to know about Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer.

Being one of League of Legends’ earlier champions, Ezreal has been through many versions, as well as seen and survived the countless metas the game has gone through.

One thing about Ezreal that has maintained consistently is his popularity as a champion, players love Ezreal for his skill-expressive kit which allows good players to carry.

Contents

Who is Ezreal?

Born in Piltover, Ezreal was the son of two renowned archaeologists. During his time as a child, he always had a knack for exploring, and wanted to go on adventures for himself.

When his parents both mysteriously disappeared one day and didn’t return from adventuring, Ezreal took it upon himself to find them. Whilst doing so, he stumbled across a gleaming bronze gauntlet, which when he put it on aligned with him.

From then on out Ezreal would go on adventures, with his magical gauntlet in hand.

On Summoner’s Rift, Ezreal is a slippery burst/ poke attack damage carry, with his magic gauntlet in hand, he blasts everything and anything he needs in his path of adventure.

ezreal legends of runeterra artRiot Games
Ezreal seeks adventure with his trusty gauntlet.

Ezreal Abilities and Gameplay

Ezreal is known for two things in League of Legends. Burst and mobility. With his gauntlet equipped, he’s able to fire off abilities at a long-range, whilst combining them together for devastating damage that can catch enemies off guard.

While in lane, Ezreal’s main focus is to farm while poking down his enemies. His laning phase isn’t anything too incredible, and he often relies on a support or jungler to help lock down enemies for takedowns.

Ezreal really starts to shine once he’s gotten a sheen item, attack damage, and ability haste. From there he’s able to fire his abilities off in rapid succession, making his damage output pretty formidable.

Often in teamfights Ezreal wants to be playing in the backline, firing off skill shots to slowly break down the frontline. That being said, skilled Ezreal players will know their combo and damage well enough to dive in and finish off enemies, scoring vital takedowns for his team.

  • Passive: Rising Spell Force – Ezreal gains increasing Attack Speed each time he successfully hits a spell, stacking up to 5 times.
  • Q: Mystic Shot – Ezreal fires a damaging bolt of energy which reduces all of his cooldowns slightly if it strikes an enemy unit.
  • W: Essence Flux – Ezreal fires an orb that sticks to the first champion or objective hit. If Ezreal hits an enemy with the orb, it detonates and deals damage.
  • E: Arcane Shift – Ezreal teleports to a target nearby location and fires a honing bolt which strikes the nearest enemy unit. Prioritizes enemies stuck with Essence Flux.
  • R: Trueshot Barrage – Ezreal winds up before firing a powerful barrage of energy that deals massive damage to each unit it passes through (damage is reduced for minions and non-epic monsters).

Best Builds for Ezreal

At the moment, Ezreal can go three different builds depending on the style you want to play him.

Burst Ezreal

You can optimize for a heavier burst build, which works well against squishier targets allowing you to deal ridiculously high damage, this often involves going items like Duskblade of Draktharr and Essence Reaver to frontload your damage.

Burst Ezreal Build:

  • Starting Item: Tear or Doran’s Blade
  • Boots: Ionian Boots of Lucidity
  • Essence Reaver
  • Duskblade of Draktharr
  • Muramana
  • Serylda’s Grudge
  • Ravenous Hydra

Essence Reaver, Duskblade, and Muramana are your key items here, they allow for your combo to deal immense damage in a short span of time.

Kite Ezreal

Going for a Kite Ezreal build revolves around using his Q to slowly kite back his enemies, this is a pretty consistent damage build and involves needing to consistently land Qs to lower your cooldowns. Your burst is much lower in this build, but you can keep the damage continuously pumping.

Kite Ezreal Build:

  • Starting Item: Doran’s Sword
  • Essence Reaver
  • Kraken Slayer
  • Navori Quickblades
  • Serylda’s Grudge
  • Ravenous Hydra or Frozen Heart

This build spikes when you have 3 items, instead of building a Muramana for mana sustain you’ll be relying on Essence Reaver’s mana generation for spamming out skills. Once at 60% critical strike, you’ll be able to use Navori Quickblades, which like Ezreal’s Q will lower the cooldown of other abilities. This synergy is what this entire build is based upon, and you’ll notice a substantial difference when the items work together.

pulsefire ezreal skin splash artRiot Games
Pulsefire Ezreal is his most expensive skin at 3250RP.

Poke Ezreal

Poke Ezreal is a bit of both worlds, it grants a decent chunk of burst whilst still allowing you to deal decent damage while you kite back. This build is probably considered the most traditional of builds and has been Ezreal’s most utilized build in the past.

Poke Ezreal Build:

  • Starting Item: Tear of the Goddess or Doran’s Sword
  • Trinity Force or Divine Sunderer
  • Muramana
  • Serylda’s Grudge
  • Ravenous Hydra
  • Maw of Malmortius or Frozen Heart

Poke Ezreal relies on the sheen procs of either Trinity Force or Divine Sunderer to chip away at enemies. Generally speaking, this will come from your Q hitting enemies, but may also come from an auto attack if you’re diving in for a bigger combo. This is the most flexible of Ezreal builds, and definitely makes Ezreal feel the most mage-like.

Best Runes for Ezreal

Like before, Ezreal’s runes can go in 3 different ways. These rune builds should work in conjunction with your item builds for maximum effectiveness.

Burst Ezreal Runes

Burst Ezreal requires a more specific rune set than the other ones, as First Strike as a keystone is necessary to grant Ezreal that extra bit of damage as well as farm him so gold too. The burst Ezreal rune set looks as such:

First strike ezreal rune pageFirst Strike grants both gold and damage.

Press the Attack Runes

Both Kite and Poke Ezreal can run Press The Attack well, and therefore is a matter of personal preference and situation.

Press the Attack Runes for Ezreal to allow his laning phase to be a bit stronger, whilst also giving him some nice additional damage after he’s able to auto-attack/ Q the same enemy 3 times. Press the Attack is generally better for short trades, but can faller off later in the game. The Press the Attack runes set looks as such:

press the attack ezreal runesPress the Attack is good for short trades and lane.

Conqueror Runes

Like before, Kite and Poke Ezreal can run Conqueror as an alternative to Press the Attack.

Conqueror gives Ezreal more attack damage, and also healing through a fight. Needing to stack up to 12 times before fully activating, Conqueror is for longer extended trades, and is therefore a bit harder to pull off in lane. Conqueror however is great in long team fights, where Ezreal is able to proc it earlier on into the fight and keep the buff going. The Conqueror runes set looks as such:

conqueror ezreal rune pageConqueror is ideal for longer fights.

Ezreal Skins in League of Legends

General Ezreal Tips and Tricks

Essence Flux Usage

Whilst playing Ezreal, ensure you utilize your W: Essence Flux well. As Essence Flux sticks to a champion and doesn’t deal damage, it means you can proc it with another ability for a big burst. This is particularly important in Burst Ezreal.

Tear of the Goddess Stacking

If you currently have a Tear of the Goddess, ensure that you continuously stack it throughout the match. Landing skills like Q: Mystic Shot and W: Essence Flux on champions will grant the most charges. Ensure you’re consistently doing so throughout the match, as having a fully stacked Muramana is a massive spike for Ezreal.

Mystic Shot Usage

Use your Q well and often, Ezreal’s Q is incredibly strong due to it reducing the cooldown of other abilities. Landing Mystic Shots is important, as a lot of your damage output depends on it. You can almost think of it as if it is Ezreal’s auto attack in some ways.

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