So.. I've reached that point where everyone uses revive, and I'm just not keeping up with my team. I know some basic items to get (situational and such) but PLAYSTYLE is where I have problems. Oh, I play as AD Ezreal. If AP is better let me know.

Any positioning advice? Does Ezreal do good bottom against most champions? Should I direct Essence Flux at my AD carries instead of theirs? When do I use Arcane Shift, when I'm chasing or defending? What are some popular summoner spell choices (Revive+?, or should I even use revive on Ezreal?)

Ideally I'd like to have someone spectate my game and tell me what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right, and where I can improve, but that's quite a lot to ask for..


Also unrelated but funny: My team was talking smack to me because I picked revive, in the load screen the entire enemy team had revive and proceed to own us and win while our Alistar kept saying I was a feeder with revive... Lol

But then why didn't the entire opposing team feed? Huh Alistair? HUH?
On the plus side, sounds like you've made it out of the range where you get yelled at for ganking bottom. Those were the darkest days of my time on Dominion. Gank bot successfully, take their node, then get yelled at by the other top laners that died in a long 3v4 siege over Windmill.

Sadly... that last bit still happens from time to time.
I'm still on the boarder of Elo Hell and fun games

"ez y u take thur bottom??? we nid u top"

I used to be good with him so here are my general tips:

Tips with Q:

You really just need to make sure you're hitting about 80% of possible hits on these. Any less accurate and you really shouldn't be playing him. This is why I shouldn't be playing him lmao.

Tips with W:

50/50 on who to use it on. Generally I always make sure I hit both the AAing foes and allies simultaneously, but if you can't it would be better to see who has the greater damage output and do it to them (Friend or foe). Xin before Jarvan, Fiora before Teemo etc.

Tips on E:

Never ever ever use it to do damage unless the encounter is already won and you are COMPLETELY certain E will be a nice finisher.

Again, save your E. It's your life line. Your savior. Love it, cherish it.

Another thing is you should use E to zip around the map when you are certain no enemies are near. Again, being certain is the key. It only has a ~8s CD with Lucidity and Brutilizer so its short enough to use as a movement ability.

Tips on R:

In team fights, focus more on hitting everyone than proper timing. Its better to use it pre-engagement and hit 80% than miss 1 or 2 if you wait for the fight to start.

If you interrupt a capture, and they get the point anyway, you used it incorrectly.

I don't really like to use it to pick up kills. Unless I know its their initiator and I can prevent team fights for the 20s.

Map awareness. Bottom will love you for great R's.


As far as positioning is concerned, Ezreal really needs to stay clear of the jungle. There aren't many walls to E over to save you and he isn't in a good place when caught out of position.

In a team fight, you just need to wait a bit to start AAing people in the enemy back lines. Try Qing the carries while AAing the tank to keep yourself safe until some CDs are blown.

Positioning is more of a function of who you're up against rather than a set of rules you can always follow.

The best way to fight anyone at any time is to Q them and kite all the time. When they get into your face you shift away, preferably over a wall. Never stop using Q.

Unlike other kite heavy champions your main damage (Q) has a very long range. Ez is very good at defending a point because of this (unless you build him pure glass cannon).
His q range is enough to stop an enemy capturing from behind the wall at windmill or behind the rocks at the other points no matter where they capture.
Even 2v1 it is possible to hold a point for a while that way (you force them to do nothing or walk to the back, from where you can shift away to the point again).

A problem for Ez are creeps. If the enemy pushes you can't quickly kill a stacked creep wave with enemies around. (That and mana problems are what makes him a poor bot. Ez can't deal with pushers very well)
It often is worthwhile to wipe a stacked creepwave with your ult before it reaches the point.

I think that most Ez's build too much damage. Sheen/trinity and later Last Whisper is all you need in most games. Don't play him like and AD carry, play him like a tanky bruiser with a bit less bruiser but very high mobility.

The ult can be used to interrupt captures on the whole map. However, that only is actually useful if your team can build on the 3 second interruption. Don't do it just to interrupt a far away enemy without any follow up.

Attack speed and crit are not very valuable to you. Cooldown reduction and tankyness are.

I do pretty **** well with Ezreal, and I got to 2150 before Jabebot died so hopefully my advice will help you too.


Positioning
As far as positioning is concerned, you want to stay back. Way back, always make sure one of your teammates is ahead of you leading the charge. Ezreal can be pretty fragile when caught, cc can make it really hard to kite (of which Ezreal excels at tremendously) so keep your head down and wait for your moment. This pretty much goes for all ranged carries, but with Ezreal this is much easier as you have Mystic Shot to poke with while you wait for your initiator to jump in to give you an opening.

How to use Arcane Shift
This is the most common issue I see new Ezreal players doing. You hardly ever want to blink in offensively, the only time you should ever do this is if you need to close that tiny bit of gap to certify a kill, and even then only do it if you know you will get out alive. I see too many people trying to use it to add more to his burst, but it's not a good idea because it's your only escape, and the damage on it isn't even reliable. Always, ALWAYS use this to further your kiting ability. Ezreal is amazing at kiting opponents, so make sure you always have this on hand to jump out of a fight if you need to, not to jump into one.

How to use Essence Flux
You typically want to use this on an enemy carry as the attack speed slow will benefit your team more than the attack speed bonus you give to your team. However, this goes into positioning. You can technically hit both at the same time, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way to hit both. It's gotten pretty subconscious after a while and you get used to placing yourself in positions where you can hit more than just one target.

AD vs AP
Both are viable, but I wouldn't say one is superior to the other. Both playstyles are very strong in their own ways, and have their own downsides. But they are just too different to really say which one you should always go for over the other. Hybrid is even good too, if a bit more expensive than the other builds. Just please god don't fall into the common noob traps that so many Ezreals fall into (lucidity boots, starting sheen, etc.). Can they work? Well, Ezreal is a freaking monster on Dominion so I'm sure whatever you do CAN work to an extent. But the other options out there are just so much better in so many ways.

Pre-game Set-up
I go 21/0/9 masteries with arm.pen reds, health/lvl yellows, mres/lvl blues, and movement speed quints. Sounds weird, but it works really well for my ranged carries on Dominion, especially Ezreal as you are doing near true damage unless they spec into armor early when you open with Brutalizer, and it gives you a healthy amount of defense to keep yourself alive throughout the game. For spells, I typically take Ghost/Exhaust, but Revive is a good choice too. Flash is a good choice on him too, and I know that spell isn't very popular on Dominion but it will save your life a LOT if you use it efficiently.


For the record, Ezreal can bot but he'll lose to a lot of the more common match-ups. Champs like Malzahar and Yorick especially can be very difficult to deal with because their minions will constantly block your skillshots from taking down creeps. But really he's just way better top lane either way, there isn't a good enough reason to take him down from top where he does so well to put him bot where he is basically just mediocre.

I also recommend smartcasting. Takes a little bit to get used to, but my damage skyrocketed when I did it as I can weave my spells between auto-attacks way more efficiently and I am way more accurate overall with my spells. It's not for everyone, but I do recommend it.



If you want to add me in game, invite me and I'll play with you. I won't promise that I'll do amazingly as Ezreal as it's been a little bit since I've used him seriously but I'd be happy to play through a game with you.

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Ezreal does absolutely insane amounts of damage when you get things like Sanguine Blade or Black Cleaver, and as a ranged carry your team is relying on you to pump out the damage.

Ezreal is innately difficult to pin down and kill, he's very elusive. When played optimally, even champs like Talon can have a hard time grounding you. His absurd range along with his great mobility can make him a huge pain in the ass for champs without huge gap closers to get, and even if they do get him Ezreal most of the time can just out damage and out lifesteal them.

Sanguine Blade is such a good pick-up on him because Mystic Shot does proc lifesteal, and you get massive amounts of health back when you weave it properly between auto-attacks. At the same time, your damage goes through the roof.


I find that just relying on Trinity Force makes your damage really kinda laughable, and since damage is the only thing Ezreal contributes to a fight besides Essence flux you really aren't taking advantage of how effective Ezreal is as a damage dealer.

Triforce isn't a bad item on him (I hate rushing it though my damage feels so much weaker than going Brutalizer -> Sanguine Blade), but not building for damage can really hurt your team in the long haul, especially if they have a great skirmishing ranged carry themselves like Vayne or Graves as they will just rip your team to shreds.

Thanks for the advice so far guys (BigDaddyRelish, I sent you a request). So far I follow most of your advice. I use smart casting for one. Although I have been using my E for burst when defending top tower against one person then sit on the tower so they can't really jump me successfully then wait for my cooldowns again. I'll try to keep it for escaping more. Also, here's a little insight on to the items I _usually_ build.

I start with Prospector's Blade + Level 1 boots + Mana pot + HP pot (Mana pot gives insane mana regen in dominion)
Then depending what the other team has, I go into Beserker greaves/Merc Trends/Ninja Tabi, after that I usually build Phage, BF Sword + Vampiric Scepter (And build it into Sanguine Blade) and finish of Trinity Force. I did notice that Trinity Force doesn't do a lot of damage, which is why I get BF Sword first. Then again, the proc from Sheen changes to 2 seconds from 3, plus all the other stats make it hard to NOT buy. That's my USUAL item build when I start.
I find myself building Kindlegems after that for the added HP/Cooldown reduction (which can build into some nice items, or sell it off later)

I have put a LOT of thought about getting Manamune but I've never got the balls to try it out. Any thoughts?

Also this is how I level my skills. Start at level 3, so I get level 1 in everything Q->W-E>, then I max my Q first, and E second. One of my friends said I should max my E first, and Q second, but I love the damage I get from Q..

That's a solid build that I usually run with, like I said Triforce by itself doesn't do all that much damage when you rush it but when paired with a Sanguine Blade or a Black Cleaver it's pretty nasty.

Personally though, I like starting straight up with a Brutalizer. Prospector's Blade is definitely a nice choice, and this is more of a personal preference, but I find the additional armor pen along with my runes/masteries makes me hit like a truck in the early fight at windmill.


Don't go Manamune. Ezreal's greatest strength is that he's a freaking monster early while other carries like Vayne need time to scale, and Manamune doesn't take advantage of that. You don't really need all that much mana, as long as you have some good mana management you should be fine with the added regen you get on Dominion. Also, most games will end before you fully gear it up. It's not that bad of a buy on other champs, but I don't recommend it for Ezreal, on SR or Dominion.


As for leveling, did your friend think you were going ap? Essence Flux is what you max first on an ap build, but when you are ad you ALWAYS max Q first. Essence Flux is really hard on your mana pool and the cooldown is too long for a spell that you aren't speccing yourself into with arm.pen and ad to justify maxing it first over Mystic Shot. I personally max it second if I see that they have a strong auto-attacker on their team (Fiora/Vayne/Trist/Yi/you get it), as the debuff is really strong and you'll have it maxed when they are starting to really pick up speed. But any earlier than that and I think it's a bit of a waste.

E is his Arcane shift, not Essence Flux