Let's talk about Ezreal.

RainXBlade··2 votes·1,603 views

So with the meta all ringing on Lethality ADC's & assassins being terrifyingly strong, enchanting and healing supports being put aside for AP "supports" like Malzahar, Zyra, Brand and Ziggs replacing the ADC role at bot because standard ADC's are bad. I wanna talk about one of my mains, Ezreal, the explorer's strengths and weaknesses and his current state in this assassin meta.

For me, Ezreal was never considered a bad pick. He's not considered a standard ADC's since he's very skillshot-reliant, he doesn't utilize crit and uses CDR instead and often loses a lot of match ups if goes too head-on so basically, he's an artillery-DPS kind of ADC. On the other side however, he is much more mobile than most of the other ADC's because his E is very reliable in escaping bad situations and repositioning if you ever screw up. Coupled up with the fact that you can either go item 3078 for the extra burst and DPS or item 3025 if you wanna kite like a god and counter any AD divers like Zed or even Vi, this makes him a really versatile ADC if you don't know who to pick. Also since his kit contains a lot of mixed damage and relatively high scalings, he's very hard to itemize against later in the game if the Ezreal player knows what he's doing. Ezreal is also one of the few ADC's that can work with any support whether it be a tank support (Braum, Alistar and Leona), enchanting ones (Lulu and Janna), healers/poke supports (Soraka, Sona and Nami) and other AP supports (Lux, Malzahar, Morgana and Zyra)

I can't understand though why that in most of my games, he isn't picked that often despite his kit offering a lot of safety, range, reliability and good damage (guaranteed you can consistently hit Q at the enemy team). It seems that he is overshadowed by other lethality ADC's like Varus, MF and Jhin.

To anyone that reads this, I wanna know on what are your opinions on Ezreal and his current state in this Lethality and AP bot lane meta.

If anyone asks why I main Ezreal, it's because I like his character, his kit is relatively similar to my first main, Yasuo and that I have his Pulsefire skin ######God I wish Riot would address the issue that this skin is really old and that it needs an update.

29 Comments

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

I tried playing him for a while but felt that he was a Win More champ. By this I mean that he feels very team dependent. If your team is even or ahead and you are a good Ez, you secure the win but if your team is behind... it takes TOO MUCH effort and consistency to carry in those scenarios.

His laning is very SAFE but you don't snowball as hard as other ADCs even if you get kills. If the enemy knows to hide behind minions you can't really force plays with him.

I prefer MissFortune and Jhin. They bully harder in lane and in games where you come out of laning behind, you can crutch play your way back to victory if you are good with their OP abilities.

It takes too much effort to carry with Ezreal when your team is behind. He can't really burst down a target 100-0 very well and he offers on AOE Ultimate blast on the scale of MF or long range pick potential like Jhin.

I've had tons of games where I take Ez, come out of lane when the team is behind, and then go on this MASSIVE KILLING SPREE as I continually out-poke, out-kite, and auto attack people to death. But none of it will matter late game it seems because eventually they become too tank for me to deal with.

And then I can't make picks, I can't AOE nuke their whole team, and I can't DPS their whole team down unless I play PERFECTLY. Whereas if I had MissFortune Jhin or even Jinx, its much easier to kill several of them at once due to the heavy damage.

RainXBlade1 votes

Yeah, there's kind of the point that he's very peel reliant because his base defense is the second lowest among all the marksmen (first being Vayne). But Ezreal is really considered a traditional marksmen where he needs a team that's super good at peeling to ensure that he can do well where as this meta you can turn anything into a support and you can still carry w/o any peel with no problem at all.

But the fact that Ezreal is a unique marksmen where he's skillshot-oriented is what makes him special among all other bot lane marksmen and that yes, he's very safe but he doesn't snowball as hard as the other carries but that's a natural part of his kit.

I don't play ranked so I don't wanna delve on the side of playing Ezreal in ranked and how the meta plays out there. But yeah in the ranking of all the marksmen, I could give Ezreal an 8/10 because he's versatile, he's safe and he's very healthy to play as and against as his kit is fairly straightforward but requires a tremendous amount of ADC mechanics to utilize well. He may be not that snowbally, but he sure can hurt once he gets his items.

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, there's kind of the point that he's very peel reliant because his base defense is the second lowest among all the marksmen (first being Vayne). But Ezreal is really considered a traditional marksmen where he needs a team that's super good at peeling to ensure that he can do well where as this meta you can turn anything into a support and you can still carry w/o any peel with no problem at all.

But the fact that Ezreal is a unique marksmen where he's skillshot-oriented is what makes him special among all other bot lane marksmen and that yes, he's very safe but he doesn't snowball as hard as the other carries but that's a natural part of his kit.

I don't play ranked so I don't wanna delve on the side of playing Ezreal in ranked and how the meta plays out there. But yeah in the ranking of all the marksmen, I could give Ezreal an 8/10 because he's versatile, he's safe and he's very healthy to play as and against as his kit is fairly straightforward but requires a tremendous amount of ADC mechanics to utilize well. He may be not that snowbally, but he sure can hurt once he gets his items.

If I only wanted to auto-attack and deal sustained damage, I feel like Ezreal is actually a good go to. I prefer him compared to Ashe Caitlyn and Jinx. Even though they hurt more, Ezreal's E allows him to not only escape from fights but also to get into the fights at the right time. The mobility and re-positioning is a huge advantage.

His DPS also feels quite strong even if you miss a few Qs (you can often proc the passive by W-ing your allies). I mean, not hitting the Qs means less damage but I find that he does good sustained damage even if you miss a bit more than you should. He still HURTS at 2 or 3 items even if you miss the occasional Q if you can auto attack with your passive up.

Theoretically, he can keep kiting and dealing damage assuming the rest of your team's not dead.

The problem though, is that I prefer ADCs that bring something other than sustained damage to the table. For example, MissFortune has an on-demand AOE nuke ability and Jhin has long range pick off/CC.

If your team is even of ahead, the great and safe kiting machine of Ezreal is more than enough to lock down the win but when your team is behind... Ezreal will do tons of really cool plays and get a great KDA and probably top the damage chart but you'll find that you probably lose anyways.

Whereas Jhin and MissFortune feel like they have more come-back potential. And despite having some positional issues, can usually close out a win too.

RainXBlade1 votes

I/We could perhaps say that League of Lethality is still considered League of Mobility because mobility overall is much better than having a lot of damage but missing all of it because you didn't have the mobility you needed to get that damage into place on your own.

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

Yeah I like how Ezreal can easily get to fights very fast (and enter at the right place with his E). Its one of the frustrations with playing someone like Ashe and Jinx. They feel slow and often join a fight too late (or enter it at a less than ideal position).

God Raijin1 votes

Idk, he's really safe, he can farm with Q if the lane isn't going well, but a big issue with him is that he doesn't snowball very hard and on top of that item 3070 sets his power spike far behind other champions who can get a item 1038 or a item 3134 on their first back. With shorter game times getting ahead early is pretty big

RainXBlade1 votes

The meta's been very snowbally with all these Lethality users running amok. But Ezreal isn't surely shut off by the meta. He has his place in the game but he's certainly isn't a bad pick.

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

He's a safe pick (super safe laning, theoretically safe in team fights).

The hard part though is dealing good damage, to the right targets, when your team is not ahead... while still keeping most of the safety.

I don't think he's shut off but I think only his true mains can really play him in a way that makes him more valuable than the average MissFortune Jhin Varus. Like if you KNEW you could hit almost all Qs, know you can X% to 0% someone by going all in, and you KNEW/can sense at any time when your next E is (ex make mental calculations super fast... "Oh I hit a Q, I know my E is going to be up in X seconds so I can go in and out"). Like your playing him at THAT LEVEL, then he can be good.

But in the average players hand? He'll either operate as a super safe poke bot from long range (not enough damage and mostly just using Qs) or die a bit too much. Either that or he sort of kites and autos but cannot turn around losing games.

But you know him inside out, then he's good. It just takes too much effort. The average ADC player (even one who right clicks and has decent skill shot accuracy) probably can't use him to a level that's useful/viable enough.

llIllIllIllIll1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Vlad Maine ,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TAE6AiIk,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2017-03-05T01:54:44.310+0000)

He's a safe pick (super safe laning, theoretically safe in team fights).

The hard part though is dealing good damage, to the right targets, when your team is not ahead... while still keeping most of the safety.

I don't think he's shut off but I think only his true mains can really play him in a way that makes him more valuable than the average MissFortune Jhin Varus. Like if you KNEW you could hit almost all Qs, know you can X% to 0% someone by going all in, and you KNEW/can sense at any time when your next E is (ex make mental calculations super fast... "Oh I hit a Q, I know my E is going to be up in X seconds so I can go in and out"). Like your playing him at THAT LEVEL, then he can be good.

But in the average players hand? He'll either operate as a super safe poke bot from long range (not enough damage and mostly just using Qs) or die a bit too much. Either that or he sort of kites and autos but cannot turn around losing games.

But you know him inside out, then he's good. It just takes too much effort. The average ADC player (even one who right clicks and has decent skill shot accuracy) probably can't use him to a level that's useful/viable enough.

I disagree that's hes more valuable than those 3 as those three heros counter him and generally outclass him, while getting their powerspikes far earlier. However versus a dive comp Ezreal would be the only one out of those 4 that survive past 5 seconds - but again you have to get through the point where you have a tear+sheen and the mf/varus/jhin have a BF+2nd fragment


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RainXBlade1 votes

If anyone didn't notice, there's a very small message on the bottom of my post and I think you guys should read it. Had to make it small because this is gameplay boards, not a discussion for other things.

LankPants1 votes

I can't understand though why that in most of my games, he isn't picked that often despite his kit offering a lot of safety, range, reliability and good damage (guaranteed you can consistently hit Q at the enemy team). It seems that he is overshadowed by other lethality ADC's like Varus, MF and Jhin.

Because he doesn't offer one of those things.

Ez's damage, specifically sustained damage relative to other ADCs is pathetic. He's a very low kill pressure champ, he can't deal with tanks at all. He just lacks the damage to down a dedicated tank, he can poke at them with his Q but if a full teamfight breaks out he'd better hope he has another option to hit because even the squishiest of tanks can tank out Ez for over 10 seconds.

RainXBlade1 votes

Yeah that's kind of true. It's kind of sad Ezreal is just lackluster at best. He's a very safe pick, but lacks any on-demand damage that the most Lethality ADCs possess. He's also one of the squishiest marksmen, next to Vayne.

The good part about Ezreal is his unparalleled kiting potential with Iceborn because imagine this: When have you ever tried to chase a Blue Build Ezreal w/o eating up his Q w/ Iceborn proc at least once? Yeah, that's really annoying to deal with. He does have a reasonable amount of damage though against tanks once he gets his Ruined King and Muramana because eating up one Q with those 2 items actually hurts. Since he also deals a fair amount of mixed damage, he's kind of hard to itemize against if he's actually fed. Also since he's not a crit or autoattack-based ADC, he can partially negate any tank that can build Randuin's or Thornmail.

LankPants1 votes

The good part about Ezreal is his unparalleled kiting potential with Iceborn because imagine this: When have you ever tried to chase a Blue Build Ezreal w/o eating up his Q w/ Iceborn proc at least once?

Blue Ez is piss weak though, that's not even how people play Ez currently. He's played with Tri because Blue Ez's damage is so pathetic he struggles to even kill squishies.

He does have a reasonable amount of damage though against tanks once he gets his Ruined King and Muramana because eating up one Q with those 2 items actually hurts.

People seem to have this misconception that those items deal the damage they say to tanks. BotRK and Muramana don't do that much damage, they just don't have the damage potential of IE/Zeal upgrade or Ghostblade/EoN. Tanks with a little bit of armour can mostly ignore the effect.

It's also worth noting that Ez's damage drops off as a fight continues, BotRK does less damage to low HP enemies and Muramana drains though his mana and cripples its own damage.

Since he also deals a fair amount of mixed damage, he's kind of hard to itemize against if he's actually fed.

Q: physical, W&E: low damage, BotRK: Physical, Muramana: Physical, R: Magical. Ez's damage is mostly phys, you can easily just stack armour into him and ignore him.

Also since he's not a crit or autoattack-based ADC, he can partially negate any tank that can build Randuin's or Thornmail.

Think again, Q counts as an AA. Tabi dick Ezreal to an extreme extent. They also reduce the damage of the whole attack, including BotRK and Muramana.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here, I main a tank and I love seeing Ez on the enemy team. I know he's the only ADC in the game who actually struggles to kill a tank.

RainXBlade1 votes

It's a pretty sad time for us Ezreal mains out there. :(

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

{quoted}

It's a pretty sad time for us Ezreal mains out there. :(

To be honest they should just rework him into a mid lane Mage (with a reliable escape and reasonable wave clear). Just make him a mage... I mean, it fits the lore better anyways. He should be a Q caster (make Q scale with AP), replace W with a wave clear ability and your good to go.

Forget about the whole auto attack gimmick (its so counter intuitive anyways... you land Q to make you auto faster, but if you keep Q-ing past a certain point you lose DPS because your not auto-ing as fast).

He should just stand around like a boss, Q people for MASSIVE magic damage and have a reliable escape. Just balance the exact numbers around the fact that he has a safe E escape (less damage than Vik, Xerath etc). Why's he have to ADC?

RainXBlade1 votes

Well his kit does enforce the fact that his Q is a form of reliable DPS and that he can kite relatively well. He's also one of the few champs that's perfectly balanced because his numbers aren't really that crazy, he synergizes well with the items he gets w/o making him too crazy and OP and that his only escape and initiation skill (his E) is on a long cooldown early so he has an easy weakness to capitalize on, but it still is pretty reliable if the player can manage it. His kit isn't also Camille or Yasuo-level overloaded to where he can do a lot of fancy stuff with the safety of just 1-2 items and be hated upon on for that.

But overall yeah, he's a pretty niche pick. Too niche to where people don't use him because of that. He either needs a rework, or his numbers should be adjusted a little. We won't forget how much of a terror he was though when Spirit of the Elder Lizard and Runeglaive still existed.

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

{quoted}

Well his kit does enforce the fact that his Q is a form of reliable DPS and that he can kite relatively well. He's also one of the few champs that's perfectly balanced because his numbers aren't really that crazy, he synergizes well with the items he gets w/o making him too crazy and OP and that his only escape and initiation skill (his E) is on a long cooldown early so he has an easy weakness to capitalize on, but it still is pretty reliable if the player can manage it. His kit isn't also Camille or Yasuo-level overloaded to where he can do a lot of fancy stuff with the safety of just 1-2 items and be hated upon on for that

But overall yeah, he's a pretty niche pick. Too niche to where people don't use him because of that. He either needs a rework, or his numbers should be adjusted a little. We won't forget how much of a terror he was though when Spirit of the Elder Lizard and Runeglaive still existed.

To be honest I've just realised that my proposed rework of Ezreal would basically make him Ziggs 2.0 (the poke Mage).

I mean Ziggs is basically an AP poke master/spammer with an Ezreal E (except its a Satchel but its close enough). Except his skill can go over minions.

Hmmm....

RainXBlade1 votes

Riot wants diversity in their champs. Ezreal by nature, is a mage but with better DPS than most of the mages out there but he's probably next to Azir when it comes to having DPS as a caster.

To be honest, there's no legitimate way Riot can rework Ezreal w/o losing the essence of the character himself by lore & play style and that if they rework him, he's not gonna be an exact copy of another champion but with different numbers and mechanics. But I'm sure Riot will find a way on how to tweak Ezreal in the future. I'm hopeful on that btw.

Hige1 votes

Ezreal's damage is... oddly unrealiable, when you manage to stack your passive up, your attack speed is super high but at that point, since Q has a casting time, you'll lose dps if you cast it even though you NEED to be casting it as much as possible in order to keep the passive proc... An ezreal who plays only with his skills is a bad one but the character itself kind of pushes you towards that playstyle

I love ezreal as a champion but I'm very very bad with him if I'm not constantly reminding myself to autoattack as much as possible... there's also the issue that during early game you literally hit cotton balls and keeping your passive up will leave you oom in no time... they say Vayne has a tough early but in all honesty I think the worst early goes to ezreal, at least until you get both a Sheen and a Tear and even then... if you built IBG or trinity first you'll be lacking so much damage that by when you manage to build either of those you'll be SO behind that it won't even matter :S

RainXBlade1 votes

The first part about Ezreal's damage is partially true imo.

For the second part, to solve that issue, you always get Manamune first b4 getting Iceborn or Tri-force first. The AD you get from the bonus mana is not that special, but it helps a lot for CS'ing and upping the damage of your Q and Sheen procs.

Hige1 votes

oh I know :P I rush manamune as soon as possible, lately even foregoing Sheen for a Pickaxe! although Sheen forces you to auto to proc it so you kinda get more value out of it but considering the prices you're better off with the pickaxe and manamune rush, plus you get to stack it faster so yeah...

What I think I do wrong with Ezreal is my runes, for some reason at some point I started going full Attack speed on him, this doesn't help much because even if you attack like a mad man, you do barely no damage, specially on the current patch where damage from masteries was nerfed! So I have to ask you, what runes do you use?

RainXBlade1 votes

I often use the runes I use for Yasuo for Ezreal as well which is pretty much standard AD carry runes but the reds have 3 AD marks and 6 Attack Speed Marks. Yeah sure that's not a lot of AD you're getting but if you're running fervor, this can benefit you a lot. Attack Speed is often underwhelming for Ezreal, but some extra from your runes will allow you to win even by small margins if you're using them right. Sometimes, your passive may not be enough attack speed for you to work with (especially if you aren't good with skillshots), but I think you get the point of what I'm trying to say.

Sir Fuzzi1 votes

The word you want for Ezreal is "AD caster." Similar champions include the likes of Urgot. It's a sparse demographic.

Pulsefire update would have been 10/10. Elementalist Lux is shit, and a clear sign of Riot's waning ability and interest regarding their game's upkeep.

Ezreal's problem is no CC and no reason to basic. He gets nothing off his basics except AS off his passive, and he's fairly low-range to begin with.

They should just change up his passive to reflect a caster, more than a marksman. Other than that, his kit is pretty tickety-boo; if we flipped him to a full AP kit, he'd probably feel overloaded. He, like many others, just suffer the design mentality of an age that's passed for League.

RainXBlade1 votes

I could probably suggest some ideas on how to tweak his kit. I dunno if these will work though:

Innate: No longer grants attack speed but instead, it grants 10%/20%/30% bonus AD and AP for every target hit with your spells and still stacks up to 5 times. (Numbers can be tweaked)

Q: No longer deals full physical damage but instead, 50% of the damage is physical while the other 50% is magic. Can apply both on-hit and on-spell effects. The cooldown reduction part of this spell still stays.

W: Can now damage minions but the damage can be adjusted to the right levels because this can give Ezreal an insane amount of waveclear.

E: Only changes would be lowering it's cooldown and same with his idea for his Q: half-physical and half-magic damage. Now applies a slow on the nearest target hit.

R: Not that much changes.

For all of his spells, CDR will scale much lower on him, but his skills will have much lower base cooldowns (think of Yasuo-level cooldowns on his Q, E and R at late game) but of course this will make his skills too spammable, so the mana costs and numbers can be adjusted to a balanced level.

I think that can be a fair way to tweak Ezreal. Right now he's a bit too stale considering he's been around for 4-5 seasons with the same kit.

TL: DR: This will probably turn Ezreal into a ranged version of a mix between Yasuo and Fizz with good mixed damage.

Also, why the hate on Elementalist Lux?

Sir Fuzzi1 votes

Ezreal suffers a lot from his passive which could be a discussion on its own. But, I'm not good at Ezreal and not really a great opinion.

ElemLux is a boring cop out of a skin, an unnecessary expenditure of the potential Ultimates have, a complete waste since they just spent all that time hyping up the Star Guardian line with whatever that song was... There are tons of champions in need of that attention. They gave Udyr an Ultimate to bring him into the limelight which, to me, was an amazing use of an Ultimate and displayed creativity where they hadn't really done before.

Elementalist Lux would be a great 1820. At Ultimate level, it's just sort of a weak excuse to cash grab on Lux fandom. Which is a fine way to make scratch, don't get me wrong. But Lux didn't need it, and she didn't need Star Guardian: Friends of Nature edition. How about one that pulls a little more creativity?

Or how about Elementalist Karthus? Or someone who needed a skin?

I'm mostly bitter about how all their big tiddy poster girls keep getting skins, but Karthus, Cassio, Evelynn etc. are lucky to get something worth 750. Karthus Lightbane was weak as hell and a complete waste. It's just Karthus base, but purple-er. And with some letters. ElemLux itself is actually a good idea... I just wish it weren't spent on a champion who spends most of her time in the spotlight.

WitchQueen Annie1 votes

{quoted}

I could probably suggest some ideas on how to tweak his kit. I dunno if these will work though:

Innate: No longer grants attack speed but instead, it grants 10%/20%/30% bonus AD and AP for every target hit with your spells and still stacks up to 5 times. (Numbers can be tweaked)

Q: No longer deals full physical damage but instead, 50% of the damage is physical while the other 50% is magic. Can apply both on-hit and on-spell effects. The cooldown reduction part of this spell still stays.

W: Can now damage minions but the damage can be adjusted to the right levels because this can give Ezreal an insane amount of waveclear.

E: Only changes would be lowering it's cooldown and same with his idea for his Q: half-physical and half-magic damage. Now applies a slow on the nearest target hit.

R: Not that much changes.

For all of his spells, CDR will scale much lower on him, but his skills will have much lower base cooldowns (think of Yasuo-level cooldowns on his Q, E and R at late game) but of course this will make his skills too spammable, so the mana costs and numbers can be adjusted to a balanced level.

I think that can be a fair way to tweak Ezreal. Right now he's a bit too stale considering he's been around for 4-5 seasons with the same kit.

TL: DR: This will probably turn Ezreal into a ranged version of a mix between Yasuo and Fizz with good mixed damage.

Also, why the hate on Elementalist Lux?

I'd rather all of his damage was either Physical or Magic because it would make itemisation on him a lot more straightforward. With the way he is now, I really hate how there's always certain ratios you can't be building for.

RainXBlade1 votes

I think that's the point for Ezreal. He's an AD Caster that's reliant on his Q for most of his damage while the rest can supply him a reasonable amount of mixed damage. But with mixed damage being either really busted and hard to itemize against (Sated Devourer Kayle) or being really hard to itemize around that for the player with the mixed damage.

Overall, Ezreal is in a weak and weird spot for the most part. He's safe, but not a pressure-based kind of safe. His damage isn't good against tanks for the most part and he's reliant on the mid game spike with his Manamune and Sheen deriative. I think Riot should've addressed this by now instead of focusing on the other parts of the game like the assassins and lethality being really too strong, tanks are still disgusting despite Lethality being around.

TL; DR Ezreal is not in the best spot in the game right now. He's an AD Caster but with relatively low AD and mixed damage overall (vs most ADC's and against tanks) and Riot should at least make some tweaks or even a rework to make him overall much better and consistent to play as.

Edit: I don't really mind if you don't play Ezreal a lot or you aren't good with him. I just really want your opinions on his position in the meta.

FooDang1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sir Fuzzi,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TAE6AiIk,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2017-03-06T05:11:03.806+0000)

Ezreal's problem... no reason to basic. He gets nothing off his basics except AS off his passive

His auto attacks do damage. Damage is very important in killing things. If you are not auto attacking as AD Ezreal then you're playing him wrong.

Sir Fuzzi1 votes

For sure, but damage is all he gets. If that won't cut it (as it won't against much of the high mobility and cc we see nowadays), then he's not really encouraged to attack as much as kite or juke his enemies with strategic skill use.

If there were either more reward for his basics or more incentive to be in such dangerous range for most of his opponents, it might not feel as bad; as it is, it's just not optimal for Ezreal's design as a whole, as necessary as it is.

Of course he's supposed to auto, but it's not a super conducive thing for him; Urgot, as a relative AD caster comparison, procs damage down on his basics. For Ez, even his Spellblade procs are on his Q.

The point is, that damage would probably be better elsewhere for the struggling Ezreal game (or struggling according to opinions in this thread). To move emphasis away from his autos, or to place more reward on them, would feel more conducive than what he currently has.

Edit: the AS only equates to damage that he'd basically be dealing anyway. If he's comfortable enough to get that close he's probably fine with or without the AS. That's what I was after in my first post

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