I have been playing lol for just under a year but in that time I have played over 280 ranked games with Ezreal, + 250 games as Ezreal in normals. In terms of world statistics, in terms of number of games played as Ezreal, I have accumulated the 34th most number of games played in season 3 of any summoner world wide (see spoilers for proof). The reason I tell you this isn't to say I am the 34th best player as Ezreal world wide, I have no way of testing that concept, it is simply to demonstrate I am one of the most experienced players in the world at playing Ezreal, and thus I may have knowledge to share you might not know about, or worth listening to.

Play Video

Now the first thing I want to say is I do not rage. Consider this the part where I start teaching you how to carry; like how Brock likely carried your Charmander into oblivion with his rock types the first time you fought him.

I am very calm player.

Being nice to people makes them happy.
A happy person is more likely to play well.

A person who is getting flamed by their team will troll or deliberately not save you, along with a million other things that will screw your games up. If you see someone flaming tell them to stop. Even if it is a valid compliant, defend the person who is being flamed. Calmly say something like "Don't worry. Everyone had a bad game occasionally." This will make that person like you. Therefore it makes them more receptive to what you say or suggest.

Essentially it will mean your team will be better coordinated when you call an action. It also means when you tell them how to fix their mistake they are more likely to do so.

Hell, I say "Hey everyone. Everyone having a good morning" or words to that effect in the queue before the game even starts.

Why? Because it is so abnormal for people to do so.

Simply put, it is a very human and normal thing to hear, that is polite. It reminds the others there this is a game and you are all human, that you should be in that queue and on your laptops to have fun. It starts to forge a connection with your team mates. And if one of them says "Stop being so nice", make a joke. Say "Damn. Sorry. Forgot this is LOL, where we all have to pretend to hate each other. YOU NOOBS! DON'T FEED!", then add "Better?" this should make them smile, and like I said above, like you more. Which in turn is already boosting your win chance.

So the moral of this section is be nice, polite; learn to ignore the flamers, take the heat and remain level headed at the same time.

You will become a beacon of balance around which your team can rally.

Because after all. The game is never over till the 'Fat Nexus Sings'.

A good tip is that if you lose three games in a row, stop playing. Not for the day (unless you feel you are done for the day) but take a break, go for a walk or anything but be on LOL, it will do you good, and put you in the correct mind set of a cool, calm, calculating ADC.

If the ADC sucks, then you as the good support have to spoon feed them. They may fail to get the kills or do nothing with their kills. I.e. you are unlikely to carry the game.

The same goes for the ADC. If your support sucks then chances are if you are lucky, you suicide trade off kills with the other ADC, but at worst get out-zoned in lane (denied minion farm) + both get screwed.

I am a smart person. Most of my readers are too. But sometimes things are obvious only after being stated.

Forcing the Jungler to babysit bot basically means your top lane has a Jungler to help him + so does mid, with little to no fear of people ganking them, unless they are going to let you steamroller bot - and we all know where that should lead if your a good ADC.

This change, in what their Jungler has to do to keep bot from collapsing, has major implications. As maybe your other lane's summoners are idiots, or just worse/less skilled than those who they are laneing against. This does happen and I have made friends on lol with people I have fought against, as much as fought with.

The point is potentially neutralising the jungler is a major factor in carrying the game to victory, as your jungler may be able to help other lanes beat opponents that they otherwise couldn't 1v1.

First blood also motivates your team as it makes them think you are not an idiot and more likely to only focus on their own lane + problems. It will also undermine the enemy team's opinion of their ADC + Support - making them likely to flame and hamper their own odds of winning.

It can even mean players will not let teammates take kills because they assume that player cannot do anything with them - rather than their opponent is just better or even luckier.

On the other hand losing first blood and failing to trade kills can be a disaster for moral, but not a total defeat on bot lane.

Look at your team compositions. Some teams need to grind to the late game to dominate, or just the team fighting stage, as you may focus better as a team.

Additionally, even weak teams can finish the enemy base in a minute if they manage to ACE the enemy and the enemy is waiting to respawn.

So do not get disheartened if you give up a kill or even two at bot. Your jungler can be called in to baby sit you and save your game, just as much as theirs, as well you being to play your way back into a strong position vs. their Bot.

Do not just give up. After losing a few games in S3 with Ezreal I looked for advice online, that and due to playing with certain people and all the things mentioned in this guide, I can carry games consistently and with minimal feeding.

Apart from accurately remembering when they used it (good luck trying), a simple pro tip is, click on the champion in questions, to see if they have +5 bonus AP (e.g. On an ADC) to see if ignite is on cooldown.

The reason this works is that the Ignite mastery, which many players take, when taking ignite, gives bonus AP when on cooldown. It also grants bonus damage when on cooldown, helping with last hitting. (Consider that a not so subtle hint that you should have this mastery).

Stand in Tri-bush by the enterance of your jungle in case of invades. It is important to stress that you need to run if you see even just 3 of them about to facecheck the bush, as you will lose this fights 2 for nothing or only slightly worse, 2 deaths for one kill (if you are very lucky). You stand here to make your team aware of enemy movements, not go 2v5.

The Purple team Blitzcrank factor - when you are not doing a 5 man defence of Blue-buff.

When the game starts, at 1:40 Golems spawn for Blue team, these can be taken to give extra gold, along with experience. Taking these when you are blue team can give you a strong edge, as you will hit level 2 before the enemy, meaning for a small opening, you + your support have 4 abilities to their 2, meaning an engagement then will likely be strongly in your favor. Start with small golem when it spawns. An auto attack, q then auto attack should basically kill it before it can hit anything (as you stand back from it, making the most of being ranged).The support should take most of the starting damage, but when the big golem goes to 1/2 HP or 1/3rd HP, the ADC should be taking the damage as killing the big golem grants a small heal bonus.

An alternative is to stand in the 'bush of death' (missing out on golems), the brush closest to bot lane, sitting in the river.

You stand in here together with your support, and at low ELO they will often be dumb enough to come alone (usually the support), or together from their blue, via river, into lane. Often they face check it.

Simply put, you hit them the moment they enter the bush (not before), you get damage off first, so they will be at a disadvantage if this fight is drawn out. You or your support has exhaust as well, and probably a stun, so the combination of; auto-attacks, ignite, exhaust, some slow/stun usually means bye bye to one of them + an easy first blood. Worst case, I suppose is your deaths (although I wash my hands of you, if you lose, if you pull off the ambush). More likely, they burn flash over the wall to their jungle, after taking tons of damage.
Note: It is very important to state you must never flash over that wall to kill them. It is just stupidly risky.

If the jungler starts blue, you should be standing at the jungle entrance to your blue, thus acting as a human ward in case the enemy tries to rush invade from that direction (it does happen). I recommend one of you stand in the river itself (as it grants a greater vision radius). Obviously if 5 of them come running at you and your support via this route, don't pull some legendary grand stand, you are likely only helping reduce the number of kills an enemy needs for the announcer to call them legendary. Your main job here is to alert your team to their presense. Often when you see someone it is just them poking about.

What to do if they commit to invading via this route:


If you are purple team + they are blue they may go for bottom Golems for gold + exp. Infact this is so common that you should assume it to be the case. In this situation there are four possible options/routes you can take to counter this (other then just entering lane as normal + farming saftely from a distance).

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

Smart casting is a must on Ezreal for Q, W, E, + R. Because if you get that attack off first you will kill them first.

For those who do not know what smart casting is:


With Ezreal I start the game saying half my mama is expendable.

This mana is to be used on last hitting or enemy champions, leaving me enough mana to use abilities for a duel if and when it happens in bot lane.

If you hit q on the enemy ADC, then your ability goes off cooldown, and if the enemy fails to heal all the damage and then both bots try to kill each other's ADCs, assuming your runes are appropriate, you will likely walk with first blood, especially as Ezreal, as e can be used to disengage (as it is probably cooled down after the fight).

I usually try to hit three Qs on my enemy ADC to burn a pot or two, then engage in with my support leading the charge, taking care to put myself behind my support so any abilities like my own q that do not pass though multiple foes, doesn't hit me and hits my support. 7

Because chances are if I kill their ADC and then my support dies, their support is going to leg it or die.

Another point to consider is that if you kill the enemy ADC + can make the support get the kill on you or your support, because you cannot escape, this is a more than acceptable trade off.

A more advanced tactic is to also consider your minions' positions as they will auto target the enemy champions if they aggro you and they are close to the enemy. This can be very powerful in early game and still give you a worthwhile advantage mid game.

This again comes back to smart casting as a must. Personally I have Q, W, E on smart cast, R as it is normally set up, but setting my ultimate's smart cast to space bar to fire it if I need to - especially if the enemy is in my face (And note: I use space bar for everything, as it also means it is hard to miss-click your R).

Other big reasons smart casting is the way to go:

By smart casting your e, you basically have a skill functioning like flash. Instant flash, which is what makes flash the favourite summoner spell of most of the lol community.

Now it is also important to last hit.

Random tip on face-checking brushes:

Play Video

Supports. The role everyone, who knows nothing about real competative lol games, assumes is; boring, unimportant, and easy. Supporting is easy. Supporting well is very very hard.

ADC have egos, I have one myself. ADCs are usually the most mechanically skilled players on Pro teams, because they are the squishiest and have to juggle the most information on the fly to ensure they are the last ones standings. However, if you think that contributes to more than 30% of what wins bot lane you are just wrong.

The SUPPORT: sets up the kill, ensures the kill, keeps both of you alive, allows you to farm, stops them farming, acts as your eyes on the map whilst the ADC play whack a minion.

The ADC: the trained chimp, the sidekick, the blundering assistant, who follows up when the support makes the big plays, often undeservedly getting the credit for securing the kill (from the perspective of a non 5 man premade team).

I would say as an ADC you need to learn how to support.
Why? So that you know what your support can do.

Duo bot as the ADC cannot be thought of in terms of just your 4 abilities and passive. You must consider the supports abilities to.

Why? Because you need to have faith in them backing you up and you're not getting that kill alone, especially that first kill if you're playing against a bot pair with a brain.

It also means you know roughly how much damage you can both do in x amount of time. As well as importantly how much your opposition can do to you with their duo bot combination.

So learn to play most/all of the supports, so in a fight you can act appropriately based on what they do and who they are.

One of the best combinations with Ezreal is Leona because Ezreal can appear to be miles away from Leona, for Leona to only land her root + stuns, with you then flashing in guns blazing. As a side point, (which will be revisited) I recommend taking ignite to ensure first blood, or to force them out of lane because aggression is what wins bot lane 9/10 games.

Consider this fact. 16-18 minions kills, roughly two-three minion waves (spawned over 1 minute and 30 seconds), depending on how far you are into the game, is equal to the same gold from a basic champion kill.

This should help to remind you it is worth it to go after minions. You know where they will be. You know you can kill them if left unmolested. You cannot say the same for enemy champions.

Even if you are ahead in kills of the opposition, you want to widen that gold and item gap as fast as possible.

Do not get so hung up on roaming for kills or getting locked into the team fighting stage. You as the ADC need to think about victory. Do everything you can to get the gold for the items YOU feel are needed to win the game or ace the enemy safetly so you can win the game.

-Stay closer to minions - as being closer means your ranged attack animation spends less time transitioning in air before it connects with the target minion.
-Consider type of minion - casters take less damage to kill but deal more + melee minions take less damage + deal less - I recommend paying the most attention to caster minion attacks, as their attacks are the main culprits responsible for stealing your last hits.
-Move side to side to avoid shots - not away, as you want to zone enemies around the minions and improve last hitting (by sticking close).
-Watch number of incoming attacks whilst watching minion health to time attacks.
-Consider what is the delay between attacks (The minions + your own)
-Learn how long it takes from different ranges for your attacks to connect (auto-attacks + your Q).
-Get used to your attack animation in custom games + real ones (comes with time)
-Skill shot minions being overwhelmed by minion attacks rather than timing it, as you are more likely to get the last hit.
-S to stop attack? So you can stand around then attack who you want.
-Push lane before recalling to deny farm as their tower eats your minions
-Push lane after a kill - when appropriate - again to deny minions before you recall to use your gold to widen the gap power
-Bully opposition in lanes away from minions occasionally - best time to do this is when there are not lots of minions you need to focus on LHing
-When not close to a last hit harass the enemy, that is the best time to do it
--Watching the minions your enemy will go for will also help you predict where they will be. Also when they are locked into their attack animation they cannot respond.
-Do not forget to farm the jungles occasionally if they are free to farm when not in lane - particuarly on Ezreal with Spirit of the Elder Lizard - it grants a bonus to shreding Jungle creeps HP - the gold you get it similar to 4 creeps, so once you have Elder Lizard, go take small golems on the way back to lane - most of the time the jungler will not be taking them reguarly
-When farming under a tower. Provided you buy a long sword at the start, you will be able to kill with you aa, melee minions who take two tower hits, or a caster who takes one hit.
-Use skill shots to last hit minions after you LH a minion with your AA. Makes for more efficient farming.

(This section will be expanded upon)
-Push lane before recalling to deny farm as their tower eats your minions
-Push lane after a kill - when appropriate - again to deny minions before you recall to use your gold to widen the gap power
-Bully opposition in lane away from minions occasionally - best time to do this is when there are not lots of minions you need to focus on LHing
-When not close to a last hit harass the enemy, that is the best time to do it
--Watching the minions your enemy will go for will also help you predict where they will be. Also when they are locked into their attack animation they cannot respond.

Smart casting can be set up in game by pressing escape then going to options. There is a long and cumbersome list of hotkeys. As a default smart casting a spell/ability is set so you hold shift then press one of your q, w, e or r to fire an ability without having to click. Instead the shot is fired at the direction your mouse is pointed.

Note that between champions you have to swap your smart casting settings potentially, as the keys will keep the settings from the last game, and RIOT being the ever loving god of not giving us really obvious features like saved builds in the shop etc, has not set it so you can have set key setups for different champions.

Smart casting takes a while to get used to but is a hugely useful tool. As I said: if you attack first you will most likely kill them first!

Other big reasons smart casting is the way to go:

Many people I talk to say they don't agree with smart casting but on most champions; I would say your instinctive aiming of the enemy is better than most peoples' aimed shots.

Because most players have their mouse over whoever they are attacking, spamming right click even though it is an auto attack, as though it will do more damage.

So I would say smart casting not only will make you more accurate eventually, it will also mean you win duels as you get that damage off first or when you need to damage someone for a kill before they try to disengage.

Which links in later with why I disagree with trinity force for sustain on Ezreal (My opinion is if you position yourself well you well live, if you are getting focused, chances are it will make no difference - but more on that later).

Q is your early game core damage ability. It grants additional attack speed (meaning more damage output) on hit, reduced the cooldown on all other of your abilities by 1 second and late game allows you to poke respectively. Part of what makes Ezreal's Q a monster late game is the fact it applies on-hit-effects when hitting an enemy. Meaning it can crit + apply slow effects like Iceborn gauntle's passive.

Ezreal's E is why in my opinion he will always be king of the ADC world. It allows you to re-positioning out of trouble or into a better position from which to fight. And all experienced ADCs will agree that positioning is a major factor in winning team fights.

By smart casting your e, you basically have a skill functioning like flash. Instant flash, which is what makes flash the favourite summoner spell of most of the lol community.

A nice effect of your E is it also casts a small ability shot which will home in on the closest enemy, even those hiding in a brush or cloaked (e.g. Eveylnn + Shaco). Meaning you can kill enemies trying to run away by cloaking by casting your E or react when they come for you.

Using it as a farming tool is viable, although it's high mana cost, and high CD time at low levels make it in my opinion not something to help you farm frequently.

Remembering to use w on allies is hard.

You're dealing with a lot of stuff in team fights, but this ability can turn fights. +20% attack speed is simply the most ridiculous ability to have on an ADC because it basically lets you buff your team's damage for 6 seconds.

Of course using your w to hit multiple enemies is useful but you are not building AP, you do not want to get the most kills in a team fight that your team loses, you want your team to win the damn engagement.

It is important to remember late game, that your w is actually nurfing your (solo) damage output as it takes longer to cast than you can put out two auto attacks.

So use it when your team is no longer buffed by it's effects in a team fight. Not when you are intent on dealing as much damage as possible to a single foe you want to kill as fast as possible.(I know right. Like we need to be paying attention to the clock in our heads for when it cools down, on top of all the other **** we have to remember and keep in mind as ADC. Are you certain you really should be reading this? Go away. Have a nice life. Play easy roles. What? Still here? Fine...Then carry on. BUT I WARNED YOU!).

Sniping:

Other good times to fire your ultimate:

This is an Ezreal ultimate. It is a flying bannana of doom, that has global map range and a 12% reduction on each consecuative enemy hit. It has been known to kill many a hero & steal many a Nasor. The question is do you feel lucky?

Knowing when the shot is worth it:

"An outside context problem. When suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called taxes and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests."

Changing your ultimate's fireing direction after you start channeling:

Important! All other guides say "here is your ability combo sequence to attack/engage", this I believe is a huge flaw and is nurfing your damage without most people realising.

With Ezreal be sure to time your abilities between your auto attacks as otherwise you are missing out on free damage, or killing minions when you can basic attack one + ability shot another (getting to Last hits).

Using an ability resets your attack animation. This holds true for aiming champions down.

Yes spamming seems like a good idea, but lets us say the enemy ADC has a Dorans blade on a hero and you do not (Saying this now, never buy one. It is money down the drain. Get a long sword if you want Damage - will talk more about this later).

They then spam their combos, over their auto attacks (interrupting them essentially), whilst you do not, so timing your abilities between your auto attacks, you will be appalled to find you will do more damage!!! despite their apparent item advantage!!!

This is very hard to master. But it holds true for all ADCs - but most strongly for Ezreal who has all skill shots.

Mastering this skill is the sort of thing that allows you to turn bot around if they are a kill up at the start - or otherwise in a race to kill the other guy before they kill you.

It has greatest impact early game and mid game when your attack speed is still low.

This simple tactic allows me to carry games, early on and therefore snowball, at ELO where I am otherwise usually being out farmed by my opponent (although not by that much) who potentially goes for early extra damage (e.g. Dorans), a level up on me or has some other minor item advantage.

I want to preface this section by saying this is a rough section. No guide can full proof tell/teach you the best way to position yourself in a team fight as basically every fight is different. I also want to say this section has less focus than the others here. This section is more of some of my musings + discussion about positioning which may contain something that might help you or hopefully help you view the team fights in a different way that changes the dynamics of how you act as well as how the fight ends.

So with my *** comfortably covered I shall get on with my advice on position.

Firstly. Paranoia as the ADC really is a comfortable state of mind. The moment you drop your guard you bring disgrace to yourself, me, and all other ADCs.

One of my friends who has trouble as ADC says his main problem is reminding himself to always stay two steps behind/back from the enemy. This isn't exactly the case.

It is more important to convince yourself + understand you are the ranged ADC.

Firstly you need to know how strong whoever you, a pair of you or your whole team are compared to who they are fighting and roughly the escape options open to those you are about to attack.

This can be roughly guided by glancing at how fed heroes are on the enemy team, what items they have + their summoner spells, compared to your own.

The idea is to identify the enemy team's weak links; e.g. Malphite is scary because of his sustain, but doesn't do a lot of damage. Therefore aiming him down is a terrible idea. Even if he isn't that fed or fed at all, the tank is not the person you want dead first.

The person you want dead is the one who is dealing the most damage. Chances are this will be the enemy's jungler, ADC or APC.

Now it is important to remember most junglers are quite tanky and are likely to each scale nice health or armor +/or Magic resist. So even if they are fed up the *** and lethal, due to their likely move sets they are unlucky to be able to kill everyone on your team in 5 seconds. At max they are likely able to aim down one of you rapidly + a second fairly reliably.

Now the ADC + APC are a different story.

The ADC in theory just shreds everyone + the APC uses spells to nuke everyone.

An APC is more likely to do AoE damage to the team compared to the ADC. This makes their damage spread out.

This is a good + bad thing as it means everyone they hit is easier to kill but it also means the team fight stays a 5v5 for longer or on an equal footing.

Even with APCs that nuke people like Veigar or LeBlanc, once they have killed someone they will back off if possible to await cool downs to finish - before coming back for more. This means that they are neutralised from dealing super damage for a brief period. This time will usually be sufficient for the remaining people on your team to kill someone.

The person you want to kill is probably their ADC, because they are usually dealing continuous auto attack damage.

Having items like quick sliver sash or cleanse as a summoner spell are useful if you are the ADC to stop you being trapped + focused. Particularly on a hero like Ezreal where you can reposition with your e (although I don't personally think cleanse is a good idea on Ezreal unless every hero in the enemy team has a stun...and even then).

With the ADC dead and you hopefully alive it is time to hit the next threat. This, in the ideal world, is probably their APC. However you will need to judge who to go after next - it is best to then go after who you judge can kill the most people on your remaining team or turn the fight in the enemies' team - it is also important to have your team know the plan of who to kill in what order.

But you must consider how long it takes it kill someone.

Someone who can kill two allies but takes 6 seconds to aim down means someone/multiple people on their team has 6 seconds to kill you or your allies.

The right person to kill is someone who can be killed fast enough; that the time their death buys from you not attacking other people, is not enough time for those people to decrease your team number by a similar size or neutralise their key targets.

This is a very hard thing to master and something that is more important at higher ranked ELOs - as it requires the whole team to have good awareness.

Regarding the order of who to focus - this is something that should be clear - I.e. order of enemies to focus down - to the entire team prior to an engagement.


With a hero like Ezreal, after the first target is dead, it is tempting to reposition to kill their APC. This is a good idea provided you are fairly certain your team can protect you whilst you do so, but trading off yourself for the APC or target number two can be a disaster as you may be the only one fed on your team - so the only person doing damage, you may be the only person with a brain and a hundred other reasons.

The point is that if people are dying on both sides during the team fights, and it isn't a one sided slaughter, you ideally want the fight to devolve into you (the ADC), a tank and a jungler/support, whilst the opposition has lost all its damage dealers. Ok what is left are Tankier heroes, who are hard to take to zero health but they are unlikely to be able to do enough damage to kill what you have left - or match the damage you will output.

At this point it is ok for you to back off a bit to secure your safety, usually standing behind your Tankier allies. Even if your allies will take damage as a result without you trading damage to their attackers it is you who is meant to carry this game, you who can kill them by doing the most damage.

Also it is impotent to identify if you are on acceptable health or mana to stay in the engagement.

Sure winning the fight is nice but this shouldn't be done at the expense of potentially feeding enemy heroes unless this is the final showdown + you're three cm from their de-towered nexus and average respawn time is over 40 seconds - so no one can stop you winning.

It is also important to then, if you feel you are at serious risk of being a risk of jeopardising game outcome by sticking about to evaluate your allies situations.

Are their deaths with you running assured? If so, is you living going to really help? Can they get away if you act in a certain way to help them get away - if that is the best outcome from this fight?

I will not give you any advice here because there is none.

What needs to be done + what you do will be up to you there and then and again will be different basically every game. I talk about all this to make you aware of some of the things you should be considering.

The best advice I can give you is that when a team fight starts you shouldn't necessarily be joining the other four members immediately. It is better to let the fight start - view the situation and then position yourself where you can contribute whilst remaining safe.

This serves several purposes.

The most obvious one is keeping your squishy ADC self safe. It will make it hard to aim you down as most ultimate's get blown in fights early on, have limited range and most stuns will be used by a team to engage the opposition. Another obvious reason is being able to get the lay of the land to figure out how you will want to move in the fight - I.e. go from one prime target to another and go after people who may be killable in a second or so by you alone - if their deaths will help your team win the fight or if their team cannot stop you killing them.

The last point I want to explore is what your role can also be used for.

As the ADC and the likely person the other team wants to focus, your movements can be used more than any other team member to bait the enemy.

You can control the set up of the team fight as your team + you can reduce, and deduce the likely positions people will take when the fight starts if they are trying to reach you, or when they engage.

This can be used to get someone to preemptively engage or over extend, use an ability etc and basically position themselves poorly because they think you are about to be locked down.

As Ezreal with a large flash distance, you can bypass their attempts to lock you down, with either of your flashes (+ with good reflexes and eventually reaching the level where you like me can catch the micro animation actions of most enemy heroes that give me a split second bit of knowledge that they are about to use ability, x, y or Z). This requires lighting reflexes, very low ping and comes with experience of recognising the animations enemy champions make before they finish casting a skill shot or use/recognise the animations to know which ability is about to be fired. This comes from experience of playing other champions.

Note: Color coming to this section soon.

The decision to start with a long sword with two health pots is that the pots heal you and the sword helps with poke + last hitting. The plus 10 damage really helps with farming under the towers as you can kill a caster minion that is on full HP after it takes on tower hit, rather then basic attack it once, let the tower hit it and then last hit it - as is the case if you start with boots + three health pots. Taking no boots on Ezreal at the start is very viable due to his e providing him a repositional flash.

The decision to go for a BF sword instead of the classic boots + vampiric sceptre on the first recall is due in part to you having enough for a BF sword and probably not one of the other two on top of that (the first recall is likely after one of the ADCs gets a kill) with the person who killed the other likely staying in lane long enough to push the minion wave to the tower so the minions get eaten by the tower.

The main reason I go for a BF is not only does it make LHing a breeze early on, it means you are doing a serious amount of damage to the enemy. Your q's range mean you can poke very aggressively and zone the enemy from lane nicely. The BF sword also means that you in a protracted fight with the other bot pair will do more damage than what they heal with the classic vampiric scepter. The counter point many people will argue is that they will likely have boots and so can run in + poke as well as disengage more effectively that you, meaning they trade more often. But your q's range is enough to hold them at arm's reach. And as I said. You are trading harder than them now. So if they try this + you are half good, you should be able to q + auto attack them when they run in, again allowing you to trade harder. The only exception is Caitlyn who just ***** on all other ADCs pre level 6 as she can harass safer than any other ADC - with no mana cost. In the case of fighting Cait, I argue you start with boots + vampiric over BF, if things are going well as you want to be conscious of her strong ability to force many bot champions out of lane quickly due to her harras.

I choose BF because I play very aggressively at bot to force the gap in terms of our gold as wide as I can either by securing me another kill or harassing so hard they are too scared to farm properly because I have zoned the area around the minions.

Building onto a Blood Thirster is done on the basis of giving you strong sustain - to keep you in lane + therefore farming for longer, if + after you take damage.
The fact it stacks +1 damage + 0.2 life steal for every minion you killed is free damage in the bag.

Now you buy boots. Although depending on how far into the game you are, you may wish to prioritise buying basic boot (Because you buy a boot. Not boots) over completing your BF (for 850 gold) first.

The decision to go with a Phantom danger is to stack Crit Chance, attack speed and in my opinion to get one of the best passives an ADC can have (walking through minions) - keeping you safe and providing you mobility in many situations that will serve to keep you alive. Many argue a valid second buy is Stattik Shiv, as it does AoE damage and on hit effects like with your Q and this damage can Crit, meaning you do more total damage - plus it helps with farm. This is true however the Iceborn provides you with a better AoE effects (an AoE slow and damage to surrounding enemies) and the phantom dancer gives enough benefits that the time Shiv helps you shave off farming is around 3 seconds tops. Phantom dancer however is more consistent and better for killing single targets than spark (duo to consistent and total dmamage output on a single target rather than total damage output), which I argue is more important in terms of fulfilling the role of ADC and ties in with my style. Feel free to swap out the Phantom Dancer for a Shiv if you prefer it - it is all about what you are comfortable with. Also the farming difference between the two is almost negligible once you rock your Iceborn gauntlets.

Note: now is when you can start using your R to farm lanes for more than 1-2 minion kills which would be a waste.

Iceborn gauntlets seems to me the item Ezreal could only have dreamed of. Providing large amount of armor, enough mana to mean you have no worries for the rest of your days, it's our problem free philosop-...apologise. Childhood memories of the Lion King compelled me. It also gives you a slow that applies instantly with your Q + following your other abilities being used which applies on your next auto attack.
Simply put it allows you to catch enemies, stop people following you, ruin people's engage abilities, stop allies coming to each other's aid, control enemy movements in a team fight, farm due to the AoE damage, stop enemies following/catching your allies and more.

Iceborn gauntlets being bought on my game is a huge action for me - it basically marks when I stop dying for any reason as I have high levels of control over my environment - and a great way to keep myself alive. No matter how far behind I am in a game, once I have my first three damage items I feel confident I can turn a game around. It also marks the time my farming starts going through the rough in a fashion that makes even the most fed Talon's rake look bashful.

Now this is a personal thing. I buy level two boots of the berserker after my Iceborn gauntlet to maintain a gold advantage that is being pored into my damage output. However buying it before you start building sheen to go to Iceborn is totally up to you. Hell I see no issue buying it after I buy Sheen and before I complete Iceborn Gauntlets. I am just very confident in my positioning and flash response times to often not need level two boots till a bit later. Which brings me into a point. Boots level 2 are a waste before you have two major damage output items like Blood Thirster + Phantom Dancer as your damage output before then is still primary coming from your abilities. The other reason I buy Phantom dancer is to allow me to delay buying level 2 boots as it give a movement boost passive. This again makes for more efficient gold spending to damage output you can use to make kills. The idea is to always establish a damage advantage you can use to widen the gold gap as wide as you need to carry the game fully.

The other items thereafter are situational. The blade of the ruined king, Last whisper or Black Cleaver is what I recommend buying next to deal with enemies rocking armor. They way I see it Last Whisper is better for you killing enemies, whilst Black Cleaver is the more team friendly item to buy; as it lowers the armor for everyone for the duration of its effect.
When deciding between the two I would say use your score to guide you. If you are underfed compared to their ADC - go with the selfish route of Last Whisper, where as if you are fed, like Goku after eating lunch, you should help the team score kills and taking Black Cleaver is better for this. Going for blade of the ruined king provides great sustain and a way to deal with enemies with huge armor or health (I am looking at you Cho'gath).

The rest of the items you buy are up to your own ideas of what is needed that game. I have given some variations on final builds above.

x9 AD Marks & x6 ArmPen 3 AD are very viable on Ezreal.

ArmPen x3 AD allow vicious damage potential without penetration items, but will influence your early (20 minute game) farm a lot.

On the otherhand, the classic 9 AD marks allows for great last-hitting and the usual lane control.


ArmPen x6 is a joke vs. minions due to their extremely low armor, which laughably make ArPen unnecessary.

Having the classic 9 Armor seals are stock standard on all ADCs for a REASON, because they nullify/dampen damage from enemy ADCs, enemy supports (autoattacks/otherwise), minions, towers, and junglers. Unsurprising really that armor protects.

It is considered viable to have x9 MagRes glyphs and x5 MagRes x4 Mana Gen.
The idea here is that x9 MagRes mitigates damage from enemy carries and mostly damage from supports.

If you're bot laning against a weaker, magic damage dealing, support such as Janna, Nunu, Taric, Soraka, you could take Mana Gen/ lvl to aid mana problems later on in the game - however your Frozen Gauntlet should be keeping you nice and mana plentiful.

Many argue that 3 AD quints are necessary to control your lane and last hit under tower however I think it is just as viable to have these as armor penitration if you reduce your number of penetration runes and increase the number of AD runes. Alternatively Embracing in his Internet Explorer Ezreal guide makes that point that "you can also take one or two Lifesteal quints to help sustain in lane, but if you do so it's best to take 9 AD marks for the farming."