Ezreal takes just as much skill as Draven

Cloud273·Feb 5, 2015·1 votes·1,273 views

If not more. At least he has skillshots (a lot more of them) and actual mana costs ('q' cost refunded just for catching an axe). He requires good positioning just like Draven. Ezreal requires no less skill than Draven, but for some reason he is MUCH less rewarding to play. He doesn't scale nearly as well. ( Why this is I will never know. You can use the argument that Draven is squishy, but guess what? Ezreal is squishier for some reason. Ezreal doesn't get free gold just for using his skills and getting kills. It takes him too long to get his passive maxed out in fights.

Ezreal takes just as much skill as some of the other 'skill' champions out there (Lee Sin), but for some reason is less rewarding. Please explain this to me GD.

14 Comments

SookoFeb 5, 20153 votes

Draven has a boomerang global ult (only one in the game), Draven literally tells everyone on the enemy team where he wants to go to, Draven's mobility sucks, even if he picks up an axe (MS means nothing in the League of Blinks and Dashes), while Ezreal can blink on a low CD and reduce its cooldown as well and Draven becomes worthless if he can't get ahead with his passive during the early game, while an Ez can make a comeback after failing in lane.

Look, I am not saying Ez isn't hard to play (Full Skill-shot reliant champion, I can respect that), but Draven is the hardest champion in LoL, if not him, then Anivia. And this is from a person who hates most ADCs very deeply. Draven's mechanics are so, so on point compared to most AA to win champions of his role (Looking at you, Vayne, she's not that hard), there is simply no way anyone can feel more skilled than juggling with two axes in the middle of a teamfight while everyone is trying to get your ass. Truth spoken.

NOHRIAN SKUMFeb 5, 20153 votes

Uh, no. I feel that Draven is more complicated than Ezreal

Why? Well, we can argue that Ezreal takes more skills because hurr durr skillshots. But what takes skill on Draven?

Believe it or not, catching that axe once does not get the cost refunded. We're talking about several axe catching. About 50s worth of axe catching if he uses both axes and catches them all. At that point, he breaks even and gains mana. It's more commitment to keep those axes going, and you'll definitely be dropping them if it means that to catch it is to eat hard CC or take a lot of damage. (The other scenario where he drops his axe is if he's slowed and can't reach it.)
On top of that, micromanaging. With Ezreal, you shoot a Q and predict where the enemy is going to move. Draven, you gotta micromanage your movements so your axes go into a certain direction. (Stutterstepping while your axe is mid-flight to the target enemy.) If you don't, then you're out of luck; it's going to put the axe landing zone into a bad position where you're going to drop it, out of your way to catch it, or eat harass.
Your damage source is on your Q. If you drop your axes, it's going to hurt your damage output. A lot. You can drop a lot of Ezreal Qs; the mana cost is cheap enough that you can do so and miss a couple of times. But when your axe is dropped, then you're going to be missing out on a lot of damage until it's off cooldown. The amount of time spent juggling axes and not dropping them is what defines good Draven players. Even greater so if you master the very difficult skill of juggling three.
Bloodrush cannot get you through walls. Less escape potential from Draven.
Bloodrush movement speed decays. Just enough to move you out of there, or to catch that axe. But there are small windows of slowdown to stop him.
Bloodrush is not a blink like Arcane Shift; he's affected by slows.
Common use of E is to knock enemies to slow them. Advance use can be predicting where that Corki or Trist is going to move away with Valkyrie or Rocket Jump. The angle that you toss your E so that it knocks an enemy champion back into an ally's skillshot path.
Possesses same skill with ultimate; prediction on where the enemy will be to shoot your ultimate, with the added thought of how early you have to hit the ultimate button again so it gives the least amount of time for them to dodge the axes coming back.

The above are reasons why I think that Draven is more complicated than Ezreal. Definitely, they have their own niches, and reasons to pick one over the other. But to be a consistently good Draven player over getting good with Ezreal? And that Draven and Ezreal take the same amount of skill? Ehhh, less so.

insaiyanbaccaFeb 5, 20152 votes

first off he does not get mana back for catching an axe, and second draven does not get gold for using skills he gets stacks for catching axes and killing minions and when he gets a kill he gets bonus gold based on the stacks and then they reset.

Cloud273Feb 5, 20151 votes

{quoted}

first off he does not get mana back for catching an axe, and second draven does not get gold for using skills he gets stacks for catching axes and killing minions and when he gets a kill he gets bonus gold based on the stacks and then they reset.

First off I never said he gets mana back. I said he gets the cost refunded. Which he essentially does. All you have to do is catch the axe and you get to use your 'q' again free.

insaiyanbaccaFeb 5, 20151 votes

actually you did say he got the cost refunded

and actual mana costs ('q' cost refunded just for catching an axe).

The Bardic GayFeb 5, 20152 votes

He doesn't get the cost back at all.

It's a one time attack buff that you can refresh by using the catching mechanic. You still need to juggle an axe on it's own for a while until you can build up your second, or third.

The reason why ezreal is not as rewarding as draven is that he has a stupendous amount of safety, while draven has to telegraph where he's going at all times to the enemy team if he wants to deal damage.

Because Ezreal is safer, he doesn't deal as much damage, and likewise, because draven puts himself at a larger risk, he does his damage quickly and viciously.

Leblancs BoobFeb 5, 20152 votes

Ezreal requires positioning? What? He's a kiting monster with a built in flash

AetherKingdomFeb 5, 20151 votes

Ezreal can also itemize mana and have it complement his kit. Ezreal also has a blink that doesn't give a fuck about CC.

Cloud273Feb 5, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Ezreal can also itemize mana and have it complement his kit. Ezreal also has a blink that doesn't give a fuck about CC.

Ezreal is the only ADC FORCED to build mana. If you don't believe me, just watch the pros p lay. They literally ALWAYS build tear and they usually get Gauntlet (or Triforce) as well. Draven presses 'w' and gains 60% MS. Draven has just as much safety (if not more) as Ezreal.

AetherKingdomFeb 5, 20151 votes

He isn't FORCED to build mana. Ezreal can get trinity force and then a traditional ADC build and not run out of mana. Draven's speed boost rapidly decays, and can be stopped with CC. If you have the slightest amount of timing on Ezreal you can get hit by CC and still E away because riot balance.

TsundayFeb 5, 20151 votes

Ez gets free CDR instead of free gold, what this means is that Dreven snowballs easier with kills, but he also starves out without kills. He needs that first kill to get him going and after that if he stops getting kills and starts dying he essentially has no passive. Ezreal always has a passive, no matter what. Not to mention Ez has a lot more mobility than Draven and positioning with Ez in teamfights is easier than with Draven. All of Draven's damage comes from his Q, if he doesn't catch his Q he loses a good deal of his damage. In temfights it is a lot harder to catch his axes than it is to position yourself as any other adc because Ez can stand in 10 different spots and AA something, Draven has to move to 1 telegraphed location.

Mayor StubbsFeb 5, 20151 votes

Ez is easier to play than draven because his positioning is much more forgiving by having flash on an ability.

ccseancc143Feb 5, 20151 votes

Ezreal really doesn't have any damage in my opinion. I lose everygame my adc desides to play Ezreal because he lacks the damage late game unlike the more popular adc's. Draven can be played by an idiot against idiots and still work due to his massive damage with is axes. Even if you only land 2 against the enemy adc thats usually enough to kill half their health bar.