Boards›Gameplay

@Riot: Is Ezreal Part of the "Marksman Update"? (+Analysis/Discussion)

Norr1N·9/23/2015, 1:24:55 PM·10 votes·8,474 views
Essence Flux WIP

If so, I would really like to provide some input/feedback if that be k. I've thought about what i'd change about Ez since I bought him a few years prior (edit: actually he was the very first champion I bought and mained AND got a penta with o 3o, just realised), and after hundreds of games both as AD and AP throughout the seasons, i've come to the following conclusion (which has stayed true for at least the past year or so):

Ezreal has three main issues imo. Basic waveclear, weak late-game scaling, and almost no real utility. His kit in general is fine though imo, with it's defining weakness being low waveclear outside of his ultimate which I think they should keep since removing every weakness on a champion is a pretty dumb idea. Now the other two issues can be touched on somewhat to help him out a little -

//=====The Late-Game=========================================//

His early and mid-game is decent enough with TF/LB power-spike occuring during that period, it's just that later on in the game he drops off HARD mainly due to not really having much kit-based scaling like other marksmen (his passive aids a little, so I wouldn't want that changed tbh even as AP it helps shred turrets). What I mean by this is that other ADCs usually have something for the late-game that keeps their kits relevant throughout the length of a match. Examples (not exhaustive) -

  • more spammable magic damage AOE poke, like Kog and Corki, making their actual kit/abilities harder to mitigate while building AD, which despite Ez having a hybrid kit - it's confined to a burst pattern hence AP Ez with higher R ratios making sense
  • %HP/true damage - like Vayne/Varus/Kog/etc.
  • better on-hit scaling/on-demand steroids - like Lucian/Draaaven/Trist
  • utility/CC/resets/other defensive - Trist/Cait/Ashe/MF/Sivir/Kalista/Urgot
  • easier waveclear - Graves, and probably 2/3rds of the above mentioned ADCs

Some ADCs have several of these aspects (Jinx), all which keep their kits relevant into the late-game in conjunction with their expected crit-based DPS via items. And yes, they still have weaknesses which are exploitable but much clearer and tangible strengths too. Meanwhile, Ez has a global magic damage ult with a huge drop-off which can't clear a single wave without leaving stragglers unless you go full AP, and physical damage poke which is easier to mitigate, and ok escape/cooldowns (more dashes/resets since his release doesn't make him as the go to "safe" pick as he used to be - but safe!=relevant if he has no presence late and his entire team is dead whilst he pokes from behind nexus pointlessly as is very common for a losing Ez). If his Q did magic (but remain on-hit like Nid), I think he would be better off - could be an interesting experiment to swap out damage types. However, despite all this I think Ez is still fine early-mid, he just needs a little help for that late game relevance.

//=====So What To Change?=====================================//

Only skill that needs an update (and not by much either) would be his W, which has been stripped down a lot mechanically already so may as well replace one of it's functions without altering the playstyle just supplementing it. How? Well, retain everything about it stat-wise from cooldown/mana/magic damage/champion only, but play on the actual Essence Flux aspect. I.e. remove the AS buff to allies (since that's pretty much the remains of an older ability) and replace it with another shifting variable. Something that would effect only his late-game but leave his early-mid game relatively untouched. In other words, W either -

A. Shift allies/enemies percent (not flat which helps early) Armor/MR values OR B. Mark the targets to reveal them and deal a % of their HP on-hit for the duration of the mark

These changes would provide a tiny bit of utility and have little effect to his early game but a lot more to his late game where he currently drops off thus evening out his power-curve and keeping it up to par with other marksmen.

It's a pretty logical solution tbh that would help out Ez without overdoing it or really changing the way he currently plays/is built. The other option, is to try out the damage type swap mentioned earlier - which coincidentally aligns with what happened with Runeglaive but without the waveclear effect which could make this option more balanced. There's also the potential to reduce Q's base damage but allow it to crit in exchange, however that idea seems to generate a kneejerk negative reaction and one I don't favor much either since it would require offsetting his already reliable early game with unnecessary changes even if it is more late-game oriented it would be too disruptive and much harder to balance fairly. Yup, lots of time to think about this. xP

Thoughts?

TL;DR - If you could change one thing about Ezreal (but keeping him within power-budget), what would it be? Do you think he's overdue for a Power-Up⇧?

Image by catmushrooms, thought it looked cool. Worth checking out his other artwork imo.

41 Comments

RiotRiotRepertoir9/23/2015, 5:03:57 PM14 votes

Ezreal is unlikely to be a key recipient of changes in the marksman update. We threw some ideas around for him but never really settled on something we liked enough.

It's quite possible he benefits from other pre-season changes quite well, though.

Nahara9/23/2015, 7:07:11 PM2 votes

One of the things I remember reading about a while ago when some people were asking for some updates to Ezreal's kit was the fact that he's the Prodigal Explorer.... and yet his kit has nothing to do with his actual job. Sure, you can scout bushes with his abilities, but that's only really doable with Mystic Shot because of it's range.

Having Essence Flux reveal hit targets sounds like an interesting step in that direction.

Wînter Fox9/23/2015, 4:38:10 PM2 votes

I LOVE the idea of W marking targets. They could make it like "Targets marked by essence flux have their armor and MR reduced by x% for y seconds". They could even make the percentage stack from Q hits which fits very well with his playstyle. The Armor/MR pen will help Ezreal's hybrid kit be much better late game and not need both LW and VS

ComannderShepard9/23/2015, 7:41:41 PM2 votes

I think it'd be neat if they found a way for him to work differently depending on how you built him maybe bonus effects via an ad build/ap build. I gotta head to work but as a frequent ezreal player id love to read through this thread when I get back tonight

Skripter9/28/2015, 12:35:56 AM2 votes

I think it would help Ezreal's frustration with dueling in a minion wave if W marked all minions. Every minion marked will allow his Q to pass through it. That was if you are dueling a champion in a creep wave, you can shoot your W at them, and that will create a "path" that you can aim your Q through.

Norr1N9/23/2015, 3:05:50 PM2 votes

Anyone got any feedback? Good? Bad? Who cares he's too pretty? :c

Pokeprof9/23/2015, 9:52:40 PM1 votes

Here's the thing though that I got to say. I don't think Ez needs a change all that much, if at all. You go on the fact that he's got weak end game and no real utility, but then you've got to think... That's not why you're choosing Ezreal. As you yourself have stated, not all champion need to be rid of all their weaknesses and Ez's has always been that he just doesn't work as well in the late game as other ADCs. You chose Ez because he's got a great early game, is among one of the safer ADC's to play thanks to his kit, and has is one of the few marksmen who isn't locked down into any one build that can be effective.

Buffing his late game or giving him too much utility would push him close to this 'I can do anything' homogenization that Riot has taken painful strides to move away from. Especially recently, the idea is to have a very set focus on what a character can do well and what they can't with making it so that when those situations arise, these characters can shine. An perfect example of this is Ashe. During the assassin meta, she wasn't all that desired, because most Assassins can catch her and burst her down with little effort and theres little she could do otherwise to stop it. Come the Cinderhulk tank era, though, and she's much more desired, capable of slowing down, stopping, and working against the tanks much better then some of the other adcs around. There are simply times and games that call for a more CC heavy ADC who works better late game like Ashe and others that call for someone who's more about early game and mid game as well as more reliable, like Ez.

This isn't to say that he should be useless come Late game, espeically if he's been feed hard throughout the game, but there's a steady balance between what is enough and what isn't. ATM, Ezreal is in a pretty solid spot and I'd rather not see the ADC meta shift back to where it was just him, Corki, and Lucian again.

WingsofGulgazor9/24/2015, 11:47:21 PM1 votes

maybe you can add something like cassiopiea where she gains stacks from hitting enemies with her abilities. You can make it where ezreal gains differnt or more abilities depending on how many Q's he's landed or how much damage in total he's done with those Q's, Riot can even take away ezreal's current passive and make it where all his abilities can be buffed over the course of the game through these stacks.

So ezreal might gain some true damage on his Q's or auto attacks when he gets enough stacks, he might gain aoe on his Q or a mutiple of different things he can gain. Since ezreal seems to generally be an early game marksmen you can make taking towers give a lot of stacks and then ezreal will have a strong early game but might fall off or be less useful then other adc's if he ezreal's team doesn't take towers and objectives early. Riot can also make ezreal kills and assists give stacks but deaths lose stacks. Or make ezreal sort of like the old Blood thirster where unit kills gives some base stats but he loses some of those stacks on death. I just feel there's a lot of things ezreal can gain that are interesting in a system like this.

Another way is to make ezreal do more damage against people who buy lots of armor so hitting Q's on tanks isn't completely useless. I don't know about now but in the past first picking ezreal was asking the enemy team to pick 4 tanks and this was before tanks and bruisers got buffed. So something like 20% extra armor pene and some true damage gained around ezreals triforce/muramana power spike might be a good thing.

I just feel like there needs to be a way to make ezreal really strong in the mid game but also where he still falls of hard if you don't do anything with ezreals power spike. Like a passive that can't be used until the twenty minute mark but is amazing but over the course of the rest of the game the passive will deteriorate. This can give ezreal the opposite power spike the old tristinia had when she was strong early then weak mid game then strong late game.

Cloud Potato9/26/2015, 3:20:30 AM1 votes

The issue with Ezreal is that he has long range, strong poke with a great escape. If you make him too strong in a direct fight he becomes an unassailable wall that beats you both up close and at a distance. If he gets any buffs, it needs to be something that doesn't help him win a fight.

Bastilean9/27/2015, 5:47:28 AM1 votes

I really like where Ez's W is at, but you could add 10% to the attack speed and add another second to the buff so it matches his passive buff duration. Ez can get +90% attack speed if he E's into his W and already has 4 stacks on his passive. That is some serious burst attack speed and fast tower clear.

ennear11/8/2015, 9:32:33 PM1 votes

Hmm, browsing through the other comments here and the ideas I'm getting from them is perhaps his W could become a resistance shred/buff? Another idea on that is making it so it marks targets it passes through so Q can pierce through them. Tho that second idea could break Ez since one of his bigger weakness is lack of waveclear.

SUPPORTS U9/23/2015, 3:07:45 PM1 votes

Ezreal in this pic be like "I CAME"

AdanChristo9/23/2015, 3:41:42 PM1 votes

ez's problem is that he sucks but if you buff him he will be GOD, ever since they nerfed runeglave EZ still trash

Smefanye9/23/2015, 3:44:47 PM1 votes

Right now Riot has said that Ezreal is in a decent place with the exception of his W. They've said most marksmen will be receiving a change to one or two of their abilities so Ezreal's W will likely be redesigned when the marksman update starts. The W was great when it stole attack speed and healed allies but now it just feels pointless except to maybe push towers with allies slightly faster.

insaiyanbacca9/23/2015, 3:48:21 PM1 votes

well im not arguing anything here but varus and kog do not have %hp true dmg, kog has flat true damage on his passive and only vayne out of adc's has %hp true dmg

Shroom Junkie9/23/2015, 7:16:18 PM1 votes

[deleted]