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Why is AP ezreal not viable?

AIM4THEHEADx··2 votes·1,476 views

Ezreal Hey guys , i played about a month ago with Ez and are whole comp was AD so i went AP . It was fun as hell. 21/4/25

Now i know 1 match isnt a good way to to judge a champs viablity that is why i am asking more expereienced EZ players. What makes AP ez not viable? , he has insane AP ratios on 3 of his 4 abilities and his ult scales much better off AP. The only thing i can see that hold him back mid is lack of wave clear. (if only his W did damage to minions) . But even then why not build hybrid Exreal bot lane? why put almost all the power in your Q which is a skillshot and can be hard to land against good opponents with good micros. Again i am no expert which is why i ask questions. I just think the fun factor of bursty ezreal is much higher and IT SEEMS hes not weak 1v1 he can duel and outplay hard when his E actually does alot of damage.

So my 2 questions are, what makes AP ez not vible in most peoples eyes, and his hybrid Exreal bot viable at all? It was just too fun i would love to play him this way more often but i understand people want to win. I dont want to troll and hold back my team.

18 Comments

Worgslarg4 votes

Lack of waveclear imo.

AIM4THEHEADx1 votes

yeah , if his W did damage to minions i think he'd be a very fun and somewhat effective mid laner. As it stands now youd have to be a god at last hitting under turret to keep up with CS or just be so good you can harass the crap out of the enemy midlaner.

Phoneixflare2 votes

if his w did damage to minions, they'd have to nerf the damage it does total. because hitting minions and champions for that much damage is crazy. the base damage at level 1 is...kinda crazy.

ChaosThief2 votes

Reduced damage to minions is a simple solution.

Phoneixflare1 votes

right, but I doubt it is Riot's intention to make Ezreal a champion that can farm in that way with that sort of wave clear, even with reduced damage to minions. If they do, then great, I'm okay with it.

Thryale1 votes

actually, the reason riot hasn't given ez wave clear on his W is because they were afraid of it overly impacting(note buff) ad ez in the bot lane.

Phoneixflare1 votes

which is what i was saying....i doubt that was their intention.

TEAM of ZOMBIES2 votes

I dunno man, I'm only in silver and I wouldn't complain if an Ezreal was doing really well and he was (i don't care ap/ad). If someone is doing well and they're working with the team, what's to complain about? Now, if you have an AP jungler, Top, and Mid, and you choose to AP Ez bottom, expect some issues. :) (However, I doubt you'd do that to your team, you seem reasonable.)

Hyrum Graff2 votes

A couple things:

  • A lot of damage still comes from lichbane Q, which is still just as hard to hit.
  • Waveclear (duh)
  • E damage is unreliable. If you want damage, you just used up your escape :(
  • Slower at taking objectives.
  • No lifesteal -> harder to seige, less useful if you get poked before a fight.
Khodexus2 votes

I like to use an AP focused Hybrid build with Ezreal, but I still play him bot lane. As mentioned, while he can be quite bursty, he lacks wave clearing area attacks (outside of his ultimate) that are practically a must in mid lane.

I usually build an early Tear and Vamp stick, then I rush Lichbane, finish Archangel's, and then grab Nashor's Tooth for that little extra boost to auto-attacks. I finish up with Deathcap, and then build my Vamp into a Hextech Gunblade, the only real AD in the entire build. I've gone 20+/0 with this build, not too long back, and even when I don't have a perfect game I usually do pretty well. It takes a bit to really build up power though, so I have to play cautiously in the early game.

I've also been considering trying to work in an Essence Reaver into the build, but I'm not sure what I'd replace.

Phoneixflare2 votes

He doesn't have very good wave clear, that's why. He's almost entirely skillshot reliant without any wave clear so it's hard to farm as him.

Phoneixflare1 votes

I have however seen AP Support ezreal...that can actually work because his base values are so high that it becomes a kill lane essentially...and poking with q when you have frost queen line built means you get gold and deal more damage. your ultimate scales well with ap as well and that means during fights you can burst pretty well...it's just still really squishy lol

I2enegacIe1 votes

AP ezreal was never meant to be a use for ezreal. He has been nerfed a couple times in AP ratios because it makes his ADC too strong early game. Also he's constant damage not burst like most mids.

Thryale2 votes

How long have you been playin? Cuz I don't -ever- remember ez's ap ratios taking a huge hit. In fact, riot actually gave his q an ap ration and then -buffed- it when they nerfed lich bane. Also, riot buffed his ult's ap ration from .8 to .9 at one point in time.

Also, Ezreal(the creator of the champ ezreal) stated that ezreal was in fact originally created to be a hybrid champ that could go either ap or ad depending on the needs of his team.

And as far as huge nerfs go, only 2 come to mind. First, they removed the heal on his W because riot stated that skill shot heals on a dmg spell led to sub optimal use cases, causing the player to be torn between healing or dmging, and never being able to make full use of the spell. (imo I think that was a stupid excuse, and that the real reason was that the heal was just bonkers strong) Second being the removal of the atk spd slow on his W (riot really gutted his W over the years, haven't they?) but this nerf was aimed directly at ad ez, not ap ez.

Personally, I see ap ez as a super fun ranged assassin. If you can survive the laning phase, you have burst comparabel to most assassins, but better team fighting capabilities if you can't get to a target by poking or ulting during a team fight. AP ez's greatest flaw atm is struggling in the early game without enough late game compensation. He is not brokenly op late game, in fact he is just barely average as far as burst goes, so that is why he isn't played ap, is cuz his early game struggles doesn't have a big enough reward compared to, let's say, veigar, who becomes an insane monster late game.

I2enegacIe1 votes

I've been playing since Anivia came out lol so I've been playing a while. Because of this I don't remember all the patches over 3-4 years haha. The biggest deal to me with ez is this. The only reason he is good early game is because he has moderate AD, and auto damage poke is a big part of mid lane. I can name plenty of AP mids i'd much rather have due to utility and damage throughout the game (annie, orianna, syndra, ahri, fizz). Like i mean he is just outclassed everywhere. Also I would like to point out that many champs released that were meant as hybrids....have become a one trick pony. Jax/nid/kayle. Kayle is pretty much straight AP now days unless jungling (which is just meh). Nid is more AD than AP now (use to be AP but was useless in teamfights). Jax well he's jax.

Thryale2 votes

That's mostly due to the fact that all those champs were made back in the day when riot didn't overload kits like they do now.

Back around the time ez was release, and the year after, most ap mids were ken, akali, mord, kat, veig, annie and the like. Notice how most of these champs are rarely played mid atm? It's because they suffer from similar problems that ap ez does(not counting the wave clear) they are simply out performed by most of the newer ap mids and ad assassins.

So this is less of a problem with ap ez, and more of a problem with power creep. A lot of the newer champs have had a lot of mobility added, and riot has been trending towards full skill shot kits on their new champs. The problem with that is it is removing ezreal's identity as a champ. Back in the day, ez was the most mobile champ to date (did you know his E used to be able to pop projectiles? so was flash, but riot fixed both of those) and ez was the first champ to be a pure skill shot champ. But now look, we have lux, vel'koz, xerath, etc, that are now all skill shots.

Not to mention, ez paid for that great mobility with both his unreliable skill shots and his lack of any form of cc. But now his mobility is just barely better than most other champs and he brings no utility to his team, comparable burst, and comparable dps to other champs(his dps is actually rather weak, even as ad, compared to other champs) So, in short, ez and other S1 champs are merely victims of power creep, and are unable to keep up in the current game environment due to being out shone by the newer/updated champs.

I2enegacIe1 votes

I do agree that some season 1 champs need some updating. Kat, Veig, akali, and annie are still viable. But you are right, kennen and mord.....

There is a lot more mobility but to say ez is just average now is just not true. He has two flashes (assuming you take flash). Knowing when to use e to go in and when to get out is what separates good ez from bad ez. He is still the best kiting champion in the game due to frozen gauntlet.

Unreliable skill shot? It's a SKILL shot. You have to be able to use it. The lack of cc is one reason i just find him outclassed as an AP mid.

The whole point here is, AP EZ is just a POOR choice unless team comp can make up for his discrepencies. AD ez is starting to see a down tick too because he just doesn't transition to end game. Maybe he does need an update somewhere.

Sire Hippington1 votes

AP ez is a risky but viable pick if the teamcomp fits. The reason why he's a rather risky pick:

  • Needs a long time to farm up till really becomeing strong
  • no waveclear(makeing farming up rather hard)
  • no cc(usually midlane is a position u want cc from)
  • needs to use his escape as engage if he realy want's to burst.
  • Allot of his damage can be body-blocked by the enemy frontline.

What u gain from playing ap-ez

  • Massive damage aoe global-ult
  • Insane lategameburst(if u land all ur skills on)
  • Great poke
  • Extremly high dps as far as casters go

I think ap-ez is some what viable, but could use a small buff. If his W would deal damage to minions without granting passive stacks vs minions, it would help him alot without buffing ad-ez to much, as ad-ez usually maxes W last so he won't get a huge waveclear boost

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