What Should Ezreal Have?
Welp, It's been Two Patches of Ezreal buffs, And while those have been nice, A good question remains, does he still need more buffs to bring him back the the Q/R Snipe Lord of Seasons past? I'm a Gold player so my expertise on pro and competitive is limited, but I also happen to play League. (And I've played Ezreal as a main for 186 rounds in Season 6)
TL:DR: I feel like Ezreal needs a bit of an Essence shift.
If you agree, disagree, like or dislike my ideas, comment below!
Most Pictures are a reference to their main Stat or use. Example: 
= Sheen Damage Proc
https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/ezreal/na (League of Graph's Ezreal Stats, With a Winrate of ~44.3% in gold, dropping for the last ~3 months) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSPaSzMTr0M (Phylol provides a good overview of how Ezreal plays into the meta, his winrate, and his strengths and weaknesses) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dGYt0Ibw94 Champion Spotlight
Part 1 -Here's what I think Ezreal's kit's flaws are.
Flaw 1 - His Passive - Rising Spell Force, This is arguably near useless, It has some strengths during the early game, Yet Ezreal's Q is much stronger than his Autoes, procs his on hits effects like Lifesteal and Manamune, and Has a much longer range. This extra range is usually where most would prefer to fight, whittling enemies down before going all in with the HP advantage.
Let's take a look at 
's Passive and it's interactions in the game, Examining the scenarios and my overall view
- When Kiting/Escaping an Enemy, Ez things.real can use his Q's to get his E ready for an Escape, he can auto, but this requires more time, An auto + Q > Move > Repeat. This is fine, I like this part of Ezreal, Kiting rewards him by both creating clear shots and allowing more DPS, and puts him at risk if he's not careful with his skill management.
- When Contesting Areas such as mid lane, it's best just to damage enemies with his Q, due to his extra range and the fact that an ADC poking is in range for a
. This means that until a fight actually begins, Ezreal's passive is negligible. - It just doesn't fit Ezreal! Ezreal is most commonly seen - and expected to be - using
while fighting with almost exclusively with his Q and R, While he can throw Auto's. His Build path focuses on 
, and 
, or 
. 
is strongest when combined with 
and On-hit, Ezreal's passive doesn't fit him well due to the way he's played.
Flaw 2 - His W - An ability really says something when you can win games in Gold consistently by not activating it until After lvl 9, 12, Etc. This Ability is effectively useless. Scaling off a Decent AP ratio while providing Attack Speed; while phasing through enemies for an AoE burst shot, This sounds like a perfect ability for Diana! Except it's on Ezreal, has no AD ratio while Ezreal's Role is an AD Botlaner (Occasional Midlaner). The importance of his Q and E having low cooldowns puts this on the backseat for way longer than it should, and the mana cost is annoying for the damage it brings early game.
Flaw 3 - His Build Paths and Stats - Ezreal was originally intended to be a "hybrid ranged carry and caster, adept at poking, mobility and burst damage/While Ezreal is able to be played a number of different ways, this spotlight will focus on building Ezreal with physical damage in mind." - Champion Spotlight 0:13 This set of words speaks volumes for what Ezreal Should be able to do. He SHOULD be able to build hybrid, with multiple playstyles, but is largely limited to the Blue Ezreal build, as Crit, AttackSpeed, Ability Power are all subpar on him.
- Crit Ezreal Cannot proc crit's off his Q's, hampering him for reasons discussed prior
- AttackSpeed is negligible on Ezreal for the same reasons discussed prior.
Ability Power, Which is surprisingly strong on Ezreal, is a strange case. Ezreal Has an AP ratio average of 71%, with Ratios being 40%-80%-75%-90%, However, The items he would use to power spike would be, as an example.
The costs of these puts him at a severe disadvantage, as he lacks the early power spikes he would obtain through the AD Path, Not only that, but until He obtains Lichbane, His Q, Where most of his damage is noticed and valued, Does Physical Damage with the Lowest AP ratio at 40%. This Puts him at odds with the rest of his kit, and AP is best left gained through Masteries and other stats.
More-so, because his Q does Physical Damage with a Low AP ratio while lacking on Spell effect proccing, this means.
- He cannot purchase (viably)
(Convieniently Blue) - He is still countered by Armor early game
- He cripples himself Early game with AP, a bad early can lead to a terrible mid. Ezreal is strongest during the mid.
Overall, for the guy named after a Game Designer, the guy has only received small grains of sugar after getting roasted by Lux, Urgot, Camille, and every Other champion so far. Kid needs some love, Self Love.
So how do we give him some love?
A really balling skin.
I say we should rework and retool Ezreal, Ironing out the flaws in his kit and bringing him to Vayne levels of Hatred. Guy isn't just a skill-shot champ, he is THE Skill-shot champ, We should define him as the guy who rains 1000 Bolts, rather than being somewhere in between Vayne and Lucian in Mobility and weak to minion waves.
So what would I suggest?
I've thought about 2 Solutions. The 1st one is the average one, just continue buffing him until he's patched up.
The 2nd however, is an entire rework of Ezreal, I think it'll play nicely into Season 8, It'd make him a bit of a poster boy for the new Adaptive Masteries.
My Take on an Ezreal Rework
Visual: Ezreal's Light Bow (the one that appears on his Q) is permanently equipped, only dissipating upon taunts and idle animations (Like how Yasuo keeps his sword sheathed pre-auto.), How he'll be played: An Adaptive AD-AP Sniping Bot lane carry. How much will change: A little more than Aatrox, but close to his rework scale. How he plays is the same, but how he works is different.
Passive: Rising Spell Force > Rising Spellflux New: Ezreal's Abilities will deal Physical, Magical, or Hybrid damage, If Ezreal's AD is X More than his AP, All damage dealt by Ezreal's Spells will be Physical, If Ezreal's AP is X More than his AD, All damage dealt by Ezreal's Spells Will be Magical. If Ezreal's AD and AP are within X of each other, Ezreal will do mixed damaged, with the percentages proportional to his stats (40 AD and 60 AP = 100 Total Damage, You do 40 Physical and 60 Magical)
-
Ezreal Will have his original AD stat and growth rate cut in half, and will receive a base AP stat and growth rate of the same amount That's 22.35 AD + 1.205n and 22.35 AP + 1.205n. to give him the choice of starting AD or AP
-
Ezreal's Gauntlet Light will glow Red when Full AD, Purple when Full AP, and White when Hybrid.
-
True Damage Will apply as normal, If you do True Mixed Damage, the conversion affects only the Physical/Magical damage. Not sure if this should apply to Items and lifesteal aswell, It'd be an interesting interaction, but potentially broken, would be nice to see how it works. Numbers are tentative of course.
Part 2: Ezreal now has a stack counter, granting him AD and AP for an X amount of stacks. These stacks can only be gained through landing Skillshots on enemy champions. 2 Q/W/Es grant 1 stack, Takedowns grant double stacks, Ults will provide 1 stack per champion, and ~1+(nx2) stacks per champion hit within 1 second. Score a penta wave. Get 20 AD-AP. The Stacks should or should not have a cap to balance.
Stacks have a delay to adding stats at a rate of X stack/s (Like 
's Passive ticking down, instead of damage taken, it's damage up. This means the shots you land won't immediately bring you the power buff, unlike veigar and nasus. This is to balance his role as a Botlane Carry, Having more targets and more poke.
Part 3: Ezreal Auto-attacks have long range, but will stop on the first enemy hit. Was thinking about this, it was a bit too many passives though.
Q: Mystic Shot New: Red: Ezreal's Q will deal Physical Damage and proc crit for X% Bonus damage White: Ezreal's Q will count as an On Attack Effect, Proccing Guinsoo's. Purple: Ezreal's Q will deal Magical Damage and apply spell effects.
W: Essence Flux Reworked: Ezreal's W will Red: will scale off AD, slowing enemy Attack Speed by X% White: will scale off AD and AP, Slowing the enemy by Y%/2 and Slowing enemy attack Speed by X%/2 Purple: will scale off AP, slowing the Enemy by Y% Removed: You can no longer buff teamates's or Ezreal's attack speed with W.
E: Arcane Shift. Stays the same, Now Prioritizes champions for the damage portion of the attack Red: Will Deal Physical Damage White: Hybrid
R: Trueshot Barrage. Stays the Same, Stack with it. Red: Turns Orange, Deals Physical White: Turns White, Deals Mixed based on Percentages Purple: Turns Peach, Stays the same.
What does this achieve: I think this idea, though probably really crude and ready to burn by 1000 people, Will...
- Give Ezreal a Fair yet fighting chance against other ADC's and Supports, strengthening his late game through player skill.
- Iron out Ezreal's flaws of not being able to use AS, Crit or Lifesteal by turning his kit into a gradient of abilities
- Enable Ezreal's itemization to expand by changing his kit from Hybrid to Adaptive,
- Emphasize Adaptive as the new mechanic they're working with by having a champion actually integrating adaptive mechanics into his kit.
- Keep the core of Ezreal intact as the Prodigal Explorer.
- Rewards Ezreal for his skill
- Removes unnecessary Attack Speed buffs,
What does this Fail in:
- Some Ideas may be too overpowered
- Might be Hard to balance
- Might just be a flat terrible Idea.
