Anone else feel like Ezreal is sort of losing his place in the game
I want to start by saying that I have a high win rate with him, and he's one of my favorite champions. That said, I feel like he doesn't really fulfill the roles that the meta demands. He is by no means a weak champion, but there are too many champions that can do the things he does just as well or even better; and he's sort of becoming a jack of all trades master of none. There really isn't any place for him in a well rounded tournament level team.
This holds true for both AP carry and AD carry.
When built AD, he is really strong early game; but he falls off simply because he can't do the ADC job. The ADC is supposed to be sustained damage from afar. Ezreal on the other hand has a really short range auto and has to get in your face to attack. Not only this, but he has no CC. He only has 1 AD ability besides his ult, and he lacks a real damage steroid.
What used to make him unique was his massive kiting and poke potential. However, now we have Kalista who can kite better than he can and has what is essentially mystic shot that can go through monsters. She can even increase her support's damage (a lot more consistently than Ezreal's w (most supports are non-auto attackers anyways), and has a 2nd AD scaling ability.
You also have Lucian who out ranges him, has almost as much mobility, and a passive which does the job of Ezreal's rising spell force better in every way (both burst and consistency). He doesn't even sacrifice a long range poke to have these things. Ezreal has his sniping ult, but it's not as powerful when built AD as it is when built AP. Once the tank is down, Lucians ult will break up the enemy team much better than AD trueshot barrage (trueshot barrage is still a hell of a lot more fun to use though).
Also, his poke and harass has nothing on Jinx, who does it so well she doesn't even need mobility. She can even snipe just like he can.
Really the only thing Ezreal has is a good gap closer, but lets face it. An ADC doesn't really need a gap closer. The gap closer just makes him an early game AD assassin that scales into something resembling an ADC. Not to mention Tristana can do it to, and she has a self peel (plus it resets on kills) so she doesn't have to worry about saving it for escapes.
Now lets look at his AP potential (I prefer AP to AD, but I play both). AP wise, he's something of a cross between assassin and a mobile missile mage. The closest champion to him is Ahri. The main difference between them used to be his; more consistant kiting potential, his longer range spells, and his shorter cool downs. Otherwise she out damages him hard. Now they have changed ahri's passive into a built in furor, which means she has better kiting potential than he does; so he's basically a weaker ahri who can spam longer ranged spells and can't cc anyone.
Again, he's not weak per say. I just feel like they are coming out with too many champions that usurp the combat roles you would choose him for.
Also his lore is shit. There's like, nothing there. I like the whole explorer/cartographer theme but he doesn't seem to be involved in anything important whatsoever.
Anyways, I propose some changes. For AD Ezreal, I think his W should auto apply the buff to himself. When combine with a fully stacked passive he would reach a total of 90% attack speed increase. It's still weaker and less consistant than Tristana's Q which has 110% for 5 seconds, but I think it he makes up for it with his long range poke. It would be stronger than Grave's steroid, but Ezreal is a lot more close ranged and has no CC. (not that graves couldn't use some changes as well)
AP Ezreal obviously doesn't care about attack speed. For AP Ezreal, I think maxing stacks on his passive should cause his next auto attack to explode dealing a small percentage of his AP as magic or physical damage (it gives him some slight farm ability, and a slight extra burst. AD ezreal is gonna have a about 30 AP at most, so this passive won't help him much)
