A Better Approach to Using Runeglaive Ezreal w/ a Much Stronger Early Game!
Wrote up something I've played with and wanted to share it with the community. Take a look, try it, and discuss! I'll copy/paste it here for those who don't want to hit up reddit:
Hi!
I originally wanted to send this to the coaching staff of 1 or 2 of my favorite teams in hopes they'd do some super secret practice and surprise the heck out of everyone at the NA LCS this weekend, but lol as if they'd have the time to read much less consider an analysis like this from someone they don't know ._. So instead, I decided to discuss it here and hope to get it out before the possible gutting of Runeglaive being tested on PBE! At the very least, I hope this discussion can bring more understanding to the "how" and "why" for build paths instead of the typical "what" so many players are so accustomed to.
Let's begin: Introduction to Alternative Runeglaive Timings
Traditional build paths we've seen with Runeglaive Ezreal has been to rush the Runeglaive first. An alternative build path would be to simply skip this and pick Runeglaive up as a second, or even third item. This adjusts the power curves so the early game is more bearable while giving options into the mid game and ultimately maintaining the late game presence of Runeglaive Ezreal. The setback to this is not having a specialized smite in the early game, but in exchange you can spend that first 2.5-3k gold on an item that suits your needs, be it mana regen, cdr or combat stats.
The the idea is you can still manage some waveclear and even sustain without Trailblazer's smite through item components leading up to an alternative AP item while giving you some combat effectiveness and overall, a stronger first item power spike in the early game! You aren't left completely without a second summoner, and alternative uses in laning are brought up later on.
To go a little deeper into why Runeglaive should be completed as a second or later item, let's examine why one wants Runeglaive in their build path:
Ability to convert your Mystic Shot (Q) into magic damage. Compared to an AP Ezreal without Runeglaive, your Mystic Shot will synergize with your mpen stats and as a result, become more effective.
Gives you stronger wave clear with the mini-AOE from a spellblade proc.
Early Trailblazer allows you to wave clear and possibly go for a jungle camp every so often (the paradox here is you don't have the wave clear in the first place to have time to visit a camp in most scenarios).
Maxing Mystic Shot (Q) and grabbing Trailblazer's Smite has been the typical requirements in running Runeglaive Ezreal in hopes of accommodating AP Ezreal's non-existent wave clear. The argument I'm presenting is that this can be inefficient a lot of the times, as seen by dubbing the current Runeglaive Ezreal's early game as a default win to the enemy mid laner in at least gold/CS. Just imagine if you can wave clear decently with a level 1 Mystic Shot and max out your W and E first to get some kill pressure for some 1v1's or assistance from your jungler. It's possible by investing that first 2.5-3k gold into an item that can give you both the mana sustain for level 1 Q's while utilizing the strong AP ratio's on W (80%) and E (75%) that may allow you to shove out the enemy laner or even kill them!
Waveclear
Waveclear can be done without Runeglaive by spending the initial gold allocated to Runeglaive on an AP item to accomodate your wave clear preference, whether it be spamming Q's through a heavy mana build path such as tear into Archangel's, or something more specialized like Morello's or even utilizing masteries, starting items, and auto's through Ezreal's Rising Spellforce passive with Nashor's.
With the gold freed up from not getting Runeglaive as a first item, you can now waveclear without its unique passive through another AP item while also giving you a little more ability to kill or trade well with the enemy laner. The downside to finishing Runeglaive later would be not having a specialized smite for the early game, but this will be explained later on. Trades and standard mana regen methods
In most match up's, Nashor's Tooth gives the option of reserving mana for Essence Flux (W) harass and shifts some of your damage that could have come from stronger spells to your autos, allowing longer sustained fights in lane. Sustain wise, using auto's combined with the Butcher mastery clears minion waves while Doran Ring's passive + the Feast mastery covers sustain. If you manage to wave clear with minimal spell usage (Mystic Shot Q or Arcane Shift E), you'll get back 4 mana from Doran's ring + 1 from the Feast mastery per minion on top of the ring's 3 per 5 mana regen (you can double up on the stats with 2x rings as well). On top of that, this is a great item that lets you scale even harder into the mid and late game as your AP builds up and this utilizes the Rising Spellforce passive well where you can now deal damage with your autos with up to 20% of your AP (15% Nashor's, 5% Arcane Blade mastery) on each attack. Nashor's first works well when you need to utilize autos more in your exchanges rather than being fully dependent on your spells, or if you plan to stay in lane longer but don't want to get pushed in or fall behind. Scenarios that favor Nashor's well would include match ups with champions that start with a lot of sustain with their initial buy to outlast your mana pool/harass or laners skilled with disjointing abilities like Fizz's Playful Trickster (Yasuo match up fits in here too).
Other times when more burst is favored in heavy exchanges or all-in's against the enemy laner, components towards a Morello's works well, where you get a combination of mana sustain, cdr, and AP. The ring's passive along with the Totem component's mana regen opens up more spell rotations for effective trades against the enemy mid-laner rather than a longer more sustained laning phase trade. Thanks to Morello's smaller individual component costs from the AP item set rework, you can now trade/all in well and make shorter trips back to the fountain. This is a great build path if you can outplay a mid laner like Leblanc or Zed. Items that don't address the conditions for waveclear on AP Ezreal shouldn't be rushed as a first item before Runeglaive. Examples would be Rylai's, Deathcap, Abyssal (aura range is too small anyways), Haunting Guise/Liandry's, or Zhonya's. With the exception of being corner solutions to rare match ups, the enemy mid laner can punish for poor build paths, much like for any other mid-laner. Utilize AP Ezreal's kit while meeting conditions for its shortfalls!
What won't happen is keeping up with an enemy mid laner with insane wave clear like Cass or Anivia, and this case holds true even with Runeglaive first (if anything, makes it worse for you). In match-ups like these, it's best to avoid them all together or focus on calculated trades with a lot of assistance from your jungler who's too busy farming up beyond the 30 stack cap on Devourer (ugh).
Uses for normal smite in the early game over non-specialized smites a combat summoner from non-runeglaive builds Aside from smiting a minion you may miss or smiting to shove, with good timing you can head over to your jungler's blue or red buff and smite it for some mana or health (don't have to take it), or any other camp for its unique buff (though you'll seldom have time to head as far back as Wolves, Kruggs, or Gromp). If done when your jungler is coming around, this also helps your jungler move along faster on their second buff run if they're not giving you second blue. Communication can become key to avoiding conflicts, so give them a heads up as you're walking over!
Having Options for the Mid and Late game with a different smite!
Another perk of not rushing Runeglaive first is being able to pick up another special smite, such as Chilling or Challenging smite! If you're already wave clearing decently through your first item buy, trailblazer becomes redundant unless you want a REALLY fast wave clear. The point here is you now have options, whether it be carrying a chilling or challenging smite into mid-game ganks, or simply picking up Trailblazer for super fast wave clear to spend even more time around the map counter jungling or ganking.
Skill rank order
Now for maxing Q last... this may seem awkward at first but it's one of the things I learned to do by playing AP Ezreal before Runeglaive was introduced to the game. Your Q scales off of both AD (1.1 AD) and AP (.4 AP), and has smaller base stat gains than W and E (+20 damage / -0.5 sec CD per rank) while increasing in mana cost per rank (+3 mana cost per rank). The thing with AP Ezreal is, the only AD you'll have is your base AD and it's a low AP ratio compared to your other abilities. If you're at the point where you really want to spam Q's, then that's pretty much a corner solution for a certain weird match up or scenario, but then now you're looking into needing heavy mana sustain, most likely through a tear build (and by doing so, losing the strong gains from your W and E ranks for trades).
So the question presented to Runeglaive first item buys is, why prioritize an ability with the lowest scaling potential in the AP Ezreal kit while increasing your mana upkeep for relatively small gains? Sure, the CDR per rank is nice, but a similar effect can be achieved through the 20% CDR in your first item buy while keeping your mana manageable. Your end game threat is still there since you'll level it eventually, but as stated earlier, the point of skipping Runeglaive first is to normalize your power curve to open other options for early and mid game decisions.
Final Thoughts What I hope for us to gain from this thread is to inspire a different way to approach understanding a champion's kit and item builds. A lot of the times, very vague terms are used without proper explanation or context in regards to champion or game analysis, or even worse, there's a "one build for all scenarios" mentality that transpires questions like "PD or Shiv", "BT or Botrk", "why rush X first" that imply a lack of understanding and ultimately holds a player back from pushing themselves to their limits.
It took me a while to learn how to play AP Ezreal confidently enough mid before Runglaive as I explored the kit and possible build paths. My experimentation and learning even cost me a lot of games, but I was able to learn so much from it and got to exercise a healthy framework approach applicable to other parts of the game (coming from AD Ezreal, I saw value in CDR and actually started off building Frozen Gauntlet/First into an AP build for the CDR and utility from Q, before later refining laning without a priority on Q).
Lastly, just try this out in a normal game or pull out a paper and pencil/pen and do the math with common scenarios in the mid lane! It'll take some adjusting, and you still have to land your skill shots, but you'll ultimately find that you have more options in the early and mid game through higher damage output and higher CS numbers!
Gl hf!
