League of Legends: AP Ezreal Guide

Another month, another League of Legends guide for Scan Pro Gaming. This time, we’re back on that unconventional track we’ve started a journey on. I’ve been playing this specific champion for a while now, preferably as I’m about to explain to you over other methods of playing him. His potential is unlike others in the League, and because of that, he’s hardly ever played as a mage. His gender is undefined, he knows his environment and doesn’t need a map. I speak of course of Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer.

What first drew me to him, was pure and simple the amount of damage he puts out. Looking at his abilities – which are incidentally all skillshots – it’s illogical that he should be predominantly played as a marksman, since they all have AP ratios and ¾th of them deal magic damage. Let’s take a quick look at his abilities:

Ezreal’s Q is Mystic Shot, a line skillshot with a low cooldown, an equally low mana cost, dealing physical damage, that has two things going for it. For one, it lowers all basic ability cooldowns by 1 second if it hits a target (damage or no damage), and two, it applies on-hit effects such as Lich Bane, making it a valuable poking tool.
Ezreal’s W is Essence Flux, a line skillshot that increases the attack speed of all allied champions it hits (including himself), as well as damaging enemy champions it collides with. Best poking tool, and it hits like a truck.
Ezreal’s E is Arcane Shift, his primary repositioning tool, that serves as half his damage combo, as it fires a bolt at the then nearest target to deal magic damage. It’s difficult to actually get the right target with it, but when you do, that’s a truckload of damage coming their way.
And last but not least, his ultimate known as Trueshot Barrage. Ezreal charges for a second, then fires a globally traveling barrage that deals magic damage to all targets it hits, with a 10% damage fall-off per target, down to 30% minimum damage. Granted that’s a big fall-off, the base damage and ratio are high enough so that even at the 30% minimum cap, it still deals a hefty chunk of damage.
For runes, I go with a more standard mage page. Magic Pen Marks, Armor Seals (+1 AP/Lv seal), a mix of Flat Magic Resist and Scaling Magic Resist that gives me 5 Flat MR and 15 scaling MR, and Flat AP Quints. If you feel reckless and unchallenged, you can swap this page for something that contains only Scaling AP, making you deal increasing damage to your lane opponent as the game progresses.

Masteries are a standard rune page with one mastery in particular I wish to highlight: Arcane Blade. Not only does it seem especially fitting on a champion that has something magical in about every ability name, but it also makes his Mystic Shot hit just that tad harder than it normally would. What’s worse, is that with a Lich Bane, it starts hitting with a 95% AP ratio, which is unheard of on an ability with that low a cooldown.
Let’s talk numbers for a moment. Ezreal’s spells all have relatively low mana costs, especially early game. And while the climb in mana cost for his Essence Flux is pretty steep (50 to 90 mana), this does come with a strong base damage at lower ranks, as well as a really strong ratio which is only going to get better as the game progresses. This does mean that unless you heavily invest in AP during the earlier stages of the game, you’ll lose some of your power as the base damage of Essence Flux doesn’t increase as significantly as one would have hoped (70 to 250 damage).
On the same token, Arcane Shift is a monstrous onslaught on your mana bar early game (90 mana), and using it poorly means you miss out on a big hit of damage and are set back a lot of mana, which will take a lot of time to recuperate during the earlier stages of the laning phase. The flip side of the coin shows that should you hit it, that’s another 100 damage coming their way, which is a big hit.
Kill pressure early game is achieved through continuous hits with Essence Flux. Its particle is not the same as the actual range, meaning you can sometimes trick opponents into feeling as if they’re safe, and then smack them across the mouth. Additionally, between levels 1 and 3 is where you need to figure out when and how you can hit your opponent. Juking is an art, and so is dodging, and everyone has a preferred direction or fashion of doing so. Some walk back, some walk towards you, and some (me for example) walk perpendicular to the projectile. Its low mana cost makes it so you can poke and prod a bit and see what’s what. In difficult lanes, it’s best to sit back and farm the melee creeps with Mystic Shots as best you can (or basic attacks if your lane opponent lets you). LeBlancs for example like to exert their pressure by zoning you with a readied Sigil of Malice mark. This allows you to Arcane Shift to the side (dodging their Distortion and Sigil proc simultaneously), and retaliate with either an instant or a significantly delayed Essence Flux, depending on how they use the return option on Distortion. It’s all about knowing the playstyle of your lane opponent and adapting accordingly.
Ezreal really has four item slots taken – one because it makes his kit that much better, the other three because those three items form the holy trinity of mage itemization. Lich Bane, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff and a Zhonya’s Hourglass makes up those four item slots. Boots are a matter of preference, needs and demands, but that last item is dependant on what kind of Ezreal you’re planning on playing. One that pokes for prolonged amounts of time independent of the Crest of Insight (Blue Buff) builds a Seraph’s Embrace, while one that does rely on the same builds a Morellonomicon. Both have something going for them. The Morellonomicon provides more mana regeneration and CDR, but at the cost of ability power. The Seraph’s Embrace gives about 120AP and more mana than you can blow through, but at the cost of CDR (which hurts the rest of Ezreal’s kit because of his mobility), but does provide a nifty shield that doesn’t lower his AP.

AP Ezreal is a fun way of trying a champion in a different fashion than he was designed for. You have to like his playstyle in order to make it work, because it’s slightly different from anything else. Give it a go!