My take on: Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer

Alright my friends, its Tuesday, and starting every Tuesday i'm going to be putting up my personal take on one of the 10 free champions in LoL. So without any delay, lets jump right into a personal favorite of mine: Ezreal.



Ezreal is a Ranged DPS character, and quite a weird one to boot. He's the only character in the game that has to physically aim ALL of his moves (called a "skill shot"). As you could imagine, this isn't an easy task for some people. There's definitely a HUGE gap between bad, good, and great Ezreal players. I'll discuss the difference as I go through his skill list.

First lets cover Ezreal's Passive skill. Rising Spell Force is a buff that Ezreal receives after he lands an ability. for every stack of the passive he has on, it gives him +15% attack speed, up to 5 stacks, so do the math, that's 75% attack speed from a buff alone! It doesn't take a mathematician  to see that its good, but its not something you should spend to much time worrying about. It's only ever really recognized when hes pushing a tower. But its not something you should ignore either. Overall, id give it about a 4/10, useful at times, but not incredibly useful.

Next up is Ezreal's Q ability, Mystic Shot. Mystic Shot is a straight shot that hits the first target in its path. DAMN is this a good spell! early game, this is your main source of damage. Late game, AD Ezreal's live off of this ability, because it stacks with your attack damage (but it also stacks with AP now to, so don't feel bad)   . The main selling point of this skill, however, is that it applies on-hit effects, like Black Cleaver and Sheen. So grabbing a sheen makes this one of your most damaging skills, people are gonna ALWAYS keep minions between you and them, and with that much pain at your side, who can blame them? I give Mystic Shot a 9/10, because its THAT good.

This next ability is neglected by alot of Ezreal players, few people see the real shine in this move. Ezreal's W skill is Essence Flux, a straight skill shot that hits all champions it passes through, ally and enemy alike. Now i know what your thinking, "BUT TRAP-KUN, I DON'T WANNA HURT MY ALLIES!". Relax, it applies a buff to your team that increases the attack speed of everyone it hits, and it also proc's your Passive, so you get attack speed too! It also applies a Debuff to your enemies that slows their attack speed, meaning they hurt less, which you like. Alot. This is AP Ezreal's Bread and Butter move, Especially since it hits sooo hard with a little AP behind it, and it hits more then one person. Essence Flux gets a 7.5/10, really good if used right.

Now lets cover Ezreal's escape move. Ezreal's E skill is Arcane Shift, a point-and-click move that teleports Ezreal to your cursor's location, and fires a tracking missile that deals AP damage to the closes enemy. This skill is your "oh shit" button, it gets you out of almost any fight. However, used offensively with your Essence Flux, talk about some serious burst damage! Because of good utility AND good damage, Arcane Shift gets a 8/10.

AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! (i've always wanted to say that)
Ezreal's Ultimate skill, his R, is Trueshot Barrage. After a one second channel time, Ezreal fires a HUGE arc-shaped missile in front of him, dealing damage to everyone it hits (but dealing less damage after each target hit, down to 30% max damage). On paper, that doesn't sound TO impressive, but then i tell you its got GLOBAL range, and then you nut yourselves. Yup, this bad boy can fire across the ENTIRE MAP, no matter HOW big it is. fountain to fountain everytime, i "garen-tee" it... corny jokes aside, it also stacks off of both AP or AD, whichever is higher. This is the spell that will dictate whether your a bad, good, or great Ezreal. Based on the damage, range, and sheer sense of satisfaction of killing someone in a different lane, Trueshot Barrage gets a 9.5/10

I'll let your imagination figure out the rest about the character, but I WILL say he can be built with AD, AP, or as a hybrid. I personally build him as an AP/Hybrid, but you are free to build him however you want. i'll also say Ezreal is not for the newer players in the game, so you want a few games under your belt before taking this champion by the horns (more corny LoL jokes). I hope you enjoyed my take on Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer, and I hope you enjoy my future posts to come. Now go out there, and tell your enemies "its alllll skill"!