A simple way to make Ap Ezreal viable without any of the Runeglaive nonsense.

HappyHazard07·Jun 28, 2015·24 votes·3,268 views

So, with the whole cheese runeglaive build, it's clear that the moment his q is magic damage, he is viable full ap. So, why can't ezreal's q have a special feature where it does magic damage if ezreal has more bonus AP than AD. It would instantly make an intersting build viable due to all his abilities doing magic damage which is pre-requisite for a mage. And with all of Riot's hubbub about strategic diversity it would be cool to be able to pick mid ezreal in draft phase and decide whether to go AD or AP based on the damage needed.

48 Comments

ZirzonJun 28, 201513 votes

I'd prefer if they would just make item 3100 turn your next attack into magic damage like Runeglaive does.

ofartJun 28, 20157 votes

Yeah, that would be great. After all, no one who buys an item like LB which scales off AP is actually going to want their AA to do physical damage. It makes no sense.

Likewise, Luden's says it procs. on magic damage (not just spell damage) but it doesn't proc. on the magic damage of the LB when Ezreal uses Q. It's pretty inconsistent. Even stranger, Smite can activate Luden's but it will offer no charges for it.

7ha7guy777Jun 29, 20151 votes

Gunblade's active also activates Luden's

Shrek LuigiJun 29, 20151 votes

Lux Nidalee Diana what about these fellers here?

Shaco this guy is pretty good with Lich too dude u need to think outside the box

FastAsHeckJun 28, 20156 votes

i hate ap ez... his w deals 1/3 of your hp and his ult is also ridiculus. its not broken, but its like a less-evil teemo.

AspynnJun 28, 20155 votes

I don't really like the idea of switching ratios. It's a cool idea to improve diversity, but AP ezreal is an off build, and it should stay as such. I'm slightly biased here because I fucking HATE ezreal mid, on my team or the enemies. He has zero waveclear pre 6 and afterwards he can clear a full lane full of minions, and he has to choose between waveclear or having zero burst for 30-40 seconds. I think all midlaners should have decent waveclear and not be forced to use their ultimate to waveclear. I really don't give a shit about Ez smite mid with runeglaive, it really isn't very powerful. I think adding runeglaive and letting ez take it is a fine enough buff to AP ezreal, I really DON'T want to see any more of him. However, with the new poke midlaner meta shift in competitive, I wouldn't be super surprised if something changed in Ez's kit, whether that would be a nerf or a buff. However I do think the whole shift to ratios with more ap/ad would be cool, especially if it was on everyone with every skill. I know that would be weird but really it would be an interesting new game mode or something. Although having everyone go full ad and have insane turret taking power would be weird and op lol.

ofartJun 28, 20153 votes

He can remain an off-build but he should be strong enough so that players who want to master him can achieve similar success to other champions or to AD Ezreal.

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20152 votes

AP champs can destroy buildings pretty fast you know.

NorthernDruidJun 29, 20151 votes

Especially if they remember to get that item 2139

AspynnJun 29, 20151 votes

However that's hardly even comparable to how quickly a full ad champ can take a tower.

CindikleJun 28, 20154 votes

AP Ez's problem wasn't his Q doing physical damage. It was that he had no waveclear outside of his ulti. Not only does Smite help this, but the AoE on Runeglave helps a ton with this. Although the biggest factor is smite and it's upgrade. Giving him help killing minions and safety once upgraded.

He can also Q chickens and get mana back for cheep compared to most champions. So it also helps his mana issues. Although this only counts after he finishes the item. Which doesn't really have to be his first buy. So it's not overall that big of an issue in that sense.

Shield VillainJun 28, 20154 votes

Ap Ezreal is already good. He doesn't have a lot of wave clear, or any cc, sure. But he makes up for it in massive poke, burst, and of course a global ult he can use for execution and team fights.

item 1056 > item 3108 + item 3114 > item 3165 > item 1058 > item 3089 > item 3279 > item 3100 Is my typical Early to Mid game path. CDR Ezreal is pretty underrated. When you consider his Q already reduces cool downs by 1 second on all other abilities when they hit an enemy/monster, it makes for a very interesting play style.

Morello's keeps your Mana up pretty well. Lich Bane procs on almost literally every Q, which will already do around 300 Damage, + an additional 400 AP Damage, making it a hybrid move. Not to mention all the AP you'll build late game. And if the enemy is stupid enough to not build MR, allowing you to splurge on a item 3285 instead of a item 3135 Then you're doing even more damage on ridiculously low cool downs.

CDR Ezreal also has a wait time of 36 seconds on his ult - How many Q's you can land. In other worlds. Ult before a team fight, land a few q's, and your ult is typically back up as the team fight has begun to end.

If you ask me, Ezreal as a Mage is already pretty viable. If they increased the range on his W a little it would certainly help him out more, but he's not in a particularly bad spot.

TheMoonManJun 28, 20153 votes

i thought ap ez was always viable

LittleBlastJun 28, 20153 votes

Please no, I know its not meta, but AP ez is cancer to face, expecially if you have ~130-150ping regularly.

Mandang0Jun 29, 20153 votes

Isn't runeglaive supposed to help junglers? I've never heard anything about it being designed to make AP Ezreal more viable.

ShuffledPancakeJun 28, 20152 votes

Ap ezreal was viable before, this just made him super op.

atomicwitJun 28, 20156 votes

{quoted}

Ap ezreal was viable before, this just made him super op.

He's not OP in the slightest and just saying that because of his late game burst (which is actually weaker than LB unless you're facing someone stacking MR) is ignorant. Don't you realize he has a weak early, almost no pushing/roaming power and is probably the only champion with no CC? There are so many ways to abuse this and that becomes even more evident when you lack a SS and need a JG item to make the playstyle viable. His winrate in Plat+ and Diamond+ for Flash/Smite mid is also between 47-48% despite being used mostly by Ezreal mains.

As far as the OP, I think that's a really cool idea that would help him out while not making him overbearing in any way. Part of the attraction of Runeglaive isn't just that Q is magic damage though. It's also that it helps out with waveclear a bit once you get some AP and that it can apply spell effects like Luden's. Your change would probably leave him weaker late game but improve his early-mid game.

BTW: 42% winrate even for people very experienced with him is not under "viable" for AP Ezreal. Riot didn't care about him.

DJ KahyledJun 28, 20152 votes

Sivir fiora master Yi and mordekaiser don't have CC

Akali MIA CareJun 28, 20153 votes

"BTW: 42% winrate even for people very experienced with him is not under "viable" for AP Ezreal. Riot didn't care about him."

That statistic is for MID ezreal, both AD and AP included. So saying that AP Ezreal is non-viable based on that statistic isn't accurate. And according to Champion.gg, the majority of the masteries used are AD. So it's not AP ezreal. It's AD/AP/Hybrid ezreal midlane. This includes blue build ez btw.

BTW: He is viable. Very much so. tbh, most champs are. When played correctly.

ofartJun 28, 20151 votes

Actually, AD Mid Ezreal scored much better than AP. champion.gg is not the only data site for LoL and isn't particularly detailed.

KrfinJun 28, 20151 votes

{quoted}

He's not OP in the slightest and just saying that because of his late game burst (which is actually weaker than LB unless you're facing someone stacking MR) is ignorant. Don't you realize he has a weak early, almost no pushing/roaming power and is **probably the only champion with no CC? **

There are PLENTY of champions with no CC by the way. (Corki, Ezreal, Fiora, Katarina, Master Yi, Mordekaiser, Nidalee, Sivir, etc..) The reason why they don't have any CC is due to the fact that they can burst champions hard. If they build MR/AR get LW or Void staff. Simple. He makes up for his early game pushing by being able to get kills early due to his enormous poke/burst potential. He also gets a free wave clear at level 6 that replenishes fast if he spams Q. A good Ezreal would be able to snipe other lanes, dealing massive amounts of damage which would help your team easily.

There are so many ways to abuse this and that becomes even more evident when you lack a SS and need a JG item to make the playstyle viable. His winrate in Plat+ and Diamond+ for Flash/Smite mid is also between 47-48% despite being used mostly by Ezreal mains.

Then again, %winrate on a champion doesn't really matter much. You can easily be within that 48% range that carries the team.

BTW: 42% winrate even for people very experienced with him is not under "viable" for AP Ezreal. **Riot didn't care about him. **

Ezreal doesn't care if riot doesn't care about him. He has Taric after all Taric <3 Ezreal

atomicwitJun 29, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Adolf Swiftler,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=WU85E7Ue,comment-id=000100000002,timestamp=2015-06-28T19:41:32.512+0000)

There are PLENTY of champions with no CC by the way. (Corki, Ezreal, Fiora, Katarina, Master Yi, Mordekaiser, Nidalee, Sivir, etc..) The reason why they don't have any CC is due to the fact that they can burst champions hard. If they build MR/AR get LW or Void staff. Simple. He makes up for his early game pushing by being able to get kills early due to his enormous poke/burst potential. He also gets a free wave clear at level 6 that replenishes fast if he spams Q. A good Ezreal would be able to snipe other lanes, dealing massive amounts of damage which would help your team easily.

Then again, %winrate on a champion doesn't really matter much. You can easily be within that 48% range that carries the team. **

Ezreal doesn't care if riot doesn't care about him. He has Taric after all <3

Ok fair enough, but any champion without CC mid is countered even harder by MR. This is because once MR mitigates much of the damage, you don't do anything. An Orianna, Lissandra etc. would still contribute a lot even if the damage was heavily gimped.

DrCyanideJun 28, 20151 votes

http://champion.gg/champion/Ezreal/Middle

His win rate with Flash/Smite mid is 51.32%. Compared to the 44.47% win rate for Flash/Ignite. His win rate starting Doran's Ring is 48.38%. Compared to the 43.64% win rate for Doran's Blade.

Even before this patch, if you watched champion.gg closely, you'd notice that the highest win rate builds, masteries, start items, or skill order would occasionally be for the AP path, and would almost always be about 5% higher than the AD counterparts. The reason it's not there more often is the play rate is low.

I'd call a build path with a 5% higher win rate "viable", wouldn't you?

CrettJun 28, 20152 votes

I don't like the way people build AP Ezreal. They buy item 3100 and they think that's the key to unlocking his Q's full power. YOU NEED ARCANE BLADE MASTERY AND NASHOR'S TOOTH TOO

50% + 15% + 5% + 40% = 110% AP ratio on Q on 4 second cooldown

more CDR, and even gives his passive a use for decent sustained damage between cooldowns BADA BING BADA BOOM.

item 3089 item 3285 item 3100 item 3115 item 3040 item 3135

ofartJun 28, 20152 votes

Nashor's tooth is a lot of wasted AS though and improves his Q at the expense of his other abilities since the AP is low. Your build has no boots and I don't know what I'd really be willing to give up for Nashor's.

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20151 votes

So I'm not the only one who builds nashors on AP ez huh?

Also, ludens isn't as useful as it could be on ezreal because his Q doesn't proc it. Usually I go a CDR item (nomicon or athene's) to make it a rapid fire health chunker.

Also I'm pretty sure every mid laner gets the mastery for 5% on hit.

Its All SkillzzJun 29, 20151 votes

{quoted}

So I'm not the only one who builds nashors on AP ez huh?

Also, ludens isn't as useful as it could be on ezreal because his Q doesn't proc it. Usually I go a CDR item (nomicon or athene's) to make it a rapid fire health chunker.

Also I'm pretty sure every mid laner gets the mastery for 5% on hit.

rune glaive makes your Q proc ludens lol.

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20151 votes

The build he had didn't include runeglaive though.

DrCyanideJun 29, 20151 votes

Luden's is OK on Ezreal, just because you have complete control on what you hit with it.

Want to clear the wave? Use an E or an Ult to proc it on the minions. Want to hit the champion? Use W to avoid wasting it on minions. Want to just farm slowly? Use Q on the minions and save the proc.

I'm not aware of any other mage that can control Luden's like Ezreal can.

FatesDefilerJun 29, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I don't like the way people build AP Ezreal. They buy and they think that's the key to unlocking his Q's full power. YOU NEED ARCANE BLADE MASTERY AND NASHOR'S TOOTH TOO

50% + 15% + 5% + 40% = 110% AP ratio on Q on 4 second cooldown

more CDR, and even gives his passive a use for decent sustained damage between cooldowns BADA BING BADA BOOM.

you don't know wtf you're talking about. ap ez without morellonomicon, lol! and statik shiv is better than nashors, we just need an ap item with crit.

Its All SkillzzJun 28, 20152 votes

Ap ez was strong before rune glaive, his lack of wave clear kept him weak i mean without R i might have gotten 200 cs by 50 mins, now i can easly hit 200 cs by 23-24 mins with my purple smite rune glaive + ludens for clear, now cause of rune glaive you can proc ludens with Q as before you had to use E or R and they both cost fuck ton of damage. now you can R an entire wave then purple smite in middle to miss no cs. you can also spam Q for luden procs. he is good spot now and i like it.

Vegas DadJun 29, 20152 votes

Not sure AP ezreal needs to be better, i am kind of tired of people demanding everything and anything they want be viable, while you have so many champs int he fucking dumpster who are shit at everything.

TerffJun 28, 20151 votes

I don't see why he's any better with magic damage Q compared to physical damage Q. It makes him harder to build against if its physical and now he loses damage because he doesn't have lichbane which has a higher AP scaling than runeglaive.

Sightless66Jun 28, 20152 votes

Being harder to build against only matters early on. In the midgame and lategame, people will end up buying armor for someone on your team in almost every game, and then you're going to be in trouble because you can't use magic penetration. Magic penetration is a huge damage steroid.

LaughingStaplerJun 28, 20151 votes

That would be an awesome change! Hopefully Riot listens to AP Ezreal fans and bring more life and creativity back into the game.

ofartJun 28, 20151 votes

Not a bad idea and it's better than nothing but idk if it would be enough to make AP Ez viable. There's more to Runeglaive than that and even with Runeglaive, he doesn't bring as much to the table as most mids. His damage is pretty amazing though at full build.

Ahura Mazda PiJun 28, 20151 votes

AP Ez was not strong because of lack of wave clear.

LissamaJun 28, 20151 votes

Fuck AP Ez. With or without Runeglaive. Most toxic shit in whole game (except AP Shaco ofc).

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20151 votes

So are you ok with riven, lee sin, kalista, and ekko?

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20151 votes

I'm personally fine with AP ezreal as he is. When did this runeglaive mid ezreal become a thing though?

TheI3igDaddyJun 29, 20151 votes

Because the main flaw about AP Ez was that he had no push potential / wasn't a good farmer. He could burst, yes, but his W doesn't hit minions and his Q -was- physical damage, so it would take him a while to push the wave UNLESS he burned his ult.

Now, Runeglaive converts his Q into an AOE magic shot, so he can push a lot faster, removing that flaw.

ChaosThiefJun 29, 20151 votes

No I mean, when did people notice that this was a thing? I understand how it works, just wondering when it became a thing.

TheI3igDaddyJun 29, 20151 votes

Most likely Ez players

atomicwitJun 29, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Because the main flaw about AP Ez was that he had no push potential / wasn't a good farmer. He could burst, yes, but his W doesn't hit minions and his Q -was- physical damage, so it would take him a while to push the wave UNLESS he burned his ult.

Now, Runeglaive converts his Q into an AOE magic shot, so he can push a lot faster, removing that flaw.

It mitigates his waveclear problem but it is by no means removed unless we're talking about having 3+ items.

TheI3igDaddyJun 29, 20151 votes

I've only faced one Runeglaive Ez so far, but he built Tear. He also bought Luden's, I believe. So yeah, once he has a few items and a big mana pool, he can just spam ult all the time and annihilate waves.

The pure fact that it just mitigates it is a reason that people are picking this strat now, because that was the main reason he was outclassed by Leblanc.

atomicwitJun 29, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I've only faced one Runeglaive Ez so far, but he built Tear. He also bought Luden's, I believe. So yeah, once he has a few items and a big mana pool, he can just spam ult all the time and annihilate waves.

The pure fact that it just mitigates it is a reason that people are picking this strat now, because that was the main reason he was outclassed by Leblanc.

I'm nitpicking but it would be a pretty big deal if it completely eliminated the problem instead of just reducing it. He still needs items to waveclear well though and using the ult. for it isn't ideal even if the CD becomes fairly low. Now, if he had AP Kog or Ziggs level waveclear right after Runeglaive, that would be insanely broken.

Still, it's quite viable and Smite AP Ezreal is sitting at almost 48% in Plat+ now according to champion.gg.

MLDzXnRRRJun 29, 20151 votes

Runeglaive gives him AOE Q, this is great

DremiistJun 30, 20151 votes

INNATE: Hitting a target with any of Ezreal's abilities increases his own attack speed by 10%. This effect lasts for 6 seconds and stacks up to 5 times.

new: If ezreal has more AP than AD he lose his innate passive,essence flux damage minion and monsters. mystic shot deal magic damage and the AP and AD ratio are reversed.

p.s: ezreal should be marked as a Marksman but ALSO as a Mage.