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Thoughts on Ezreal

Pars Fortuna·5/16/2016, 7:51:45 PM·1 votes·942 views

So, I've played as the ADC tons of times. And I've seen tons of enemy Ezreals. But I have to admit, there's something I don't understand about Ezreal, at all.

Bot lane is a very crowded lane. Talk about minions plus a grand total of four players, two of which are targetable. As, for example, Caitlyn, all I need to do is right click on the enemies, and here goes some damage. However, as an Ezreal who really wants to land Q's and W's, I must mind the position of the minions (so that my skillshots don't hit them instead of the enemies, at least in Q's case) and the position of the enemy bot lane (so that I don't end up hitting the support when I could have killed the ADC). And even when I shoot my Q and W, the enemies may simply avoid them and as such, no damage for Ez.

As Caitlyn, I pick a low-health enemy target who seems to be relatively unprotected, and fire my ult. As Ezreal, I can safely fire a damaging bolt from anywhere on the map, but I'll inevitably pray it hits unless I shoot it at point blank.

In a teamfight, all Caitlyn has to do is stay back and wait until it's green light for her to attack the enemies, and then she just Q's and right-clicks away, perhaps E if she gets attacked and needs to reposition. Ezreal, on the other hand, has to use his E to ensure he's in position to hit whoever he wants. Then he'll W to damage as many enemies as he can, then reposition/fire Q at the desired target and pray it hits, and then reposition.

I am aware that Ezreal builds in a way that emphasises CDR and CC (I have at least IG in mind) so that he can use lots of abilities on a target affected by CC and therefore unable to escape that easily. And if this works, then Ezreal can be very dangerous. As a side note, I know he has basic attacks he can still use, however most builds do not truly emphasise basic attacks and raw AD over Q and W.

Isn't all this a bit too much? I mean, at the end of the day, we have MF who just sits back and ults and decimates the enemy team, Ashe who ults and deletes an enemy from a teamfight, Sivir who can Q and W the entire enemy team and then chase with ult, Draven who has a high skill cap but can one-shot squishies with Q etc etc etc, but Ezreal has to reposition more so than most other ADC's, and his main damage comes from skillshot abilities that may miss and depend on** Ezreal's skill level** or the dodge skills of the enemy.

So, all in all, my question is, why is Ezreal a good ADC and a popular pick, when he might not ever land his skillshots? Ezreal's entire damage is rather precarious, why not prefer other ADC's who simply right-click and are guaranteed to deal damage over him?

3 Comments

Quepha5/16/2016, 7:55:30 PM3 votes

Because people still land his skillshots.

Although in the lane phase he pretty much just focuses on farming really safely, his Q being very long range and on a low cooldown combined with his E blink means there's really nothing the enemy can do to stop him from getting cs.

Purple Death5/16/2016, 7:59:20 PM1 votes

Safe, reliable slow from iceborne which means utility for the team, insane kiting, massive poke damage. He isn't a good dueler unless you can kite out and outrange your opponent. He has weak laning but if you can get past it he becomes a force to be reckoned with in the proper hands.

Pars Fortuna5/16/2016, 9:13:24 PM1 votes

In reply to the comments made by Quepha and Gamerzgodz.

Farming safely and weak dueling sounds like a rather passive lane, which I believe is not something that's encouraged in this meta, hence my concerns that Ezreal shouldn't actually be a popular pick. But yeah, I guess if you need more of a utility ADC that still has the potential to deal some damage, long range and perhaps good kiting only if he's getting chased by one or two enemies, then he fits nicely in a mild poke comp.