I was lucky enough to pick up a Test Realm account in the giveaway so I’ve been spending a little time getting to know Ezreal and the new Twisted Fate. Both characters seem like they’ll be pretty powerful, though I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some changes to Ezreal before he goes live.

At first I thought Ezreal was extremely weak. From looking at his skills he can really go either AP or damage. From what I’ve been able to tell, though, his real power lies with a damage build. As with most carries, Ezreal is squishy. Insanely squishy. Twitch level squishy. He doesn’t hit as hard as a lot of carries, though, instead relying on skills and attack speed for damage output.

I’m a big fan of skill shots, especially because the heroes that have them tend to have great range. There’s also something extremely satisfying about landing that perfect snare or arrow to get a kill. Ezreal does get great range from his skills, though I think Arcane Shift needs about 20% more range. It doesn’t feel particularly effective and the cooldown is long enough that you’ll get one, maybe two casts off. Even then, you might unwittingly land next to a creep and lose the damage on whoever you’re chasing. While his Essence Flux is good for fighting physical damage dealers toe to toe, it has more limited range and doesn’t pack the punch I’d like to see. It would be really great if he got a slow from it, but more on that later.

Ezreal’s big problem is farming. Because he deals such low damage you have to be extremely attentive for last hits. I see him as a solo toon in almost every situation, both because his ult deals heavy damage and because he can’t afford to get behind. Luckily Mystic Shot is cheap – 30 mana at rank one – so you can spam it to pick up creep kills pretty easily.

As far as build goes, I think your best bet is to take one rank of Mystic Shot and then main Arcane Shift, alternating for Essence Flux when you can. Flux cannot be used to self heal so it’s pretty worthless as a solo and Mystic Shot’s damage doesn’t improve enough per rank to be worth the extra mana cost in the early game. From there you need to farm everything you can to get to a decent item loadout. I’m a firm believer in the trinity force on this guy. Sheen procs off your Mystic Shot in the same way Parrrley does, delivering the extra damage right when the shot hits. Phage gives you the slow you’ll need to catch runners and the extra health is always nice. From there, get to a big damage item like a Black Cleaver or an Infinity if you can. Your Mystical will be hitting quite hard and with a lucky slow you should be able to rip right through most players.

As with most carries, you should be waiting for the fight to start before getting in the mix. Supporting your team from the back is a perfect spot for Ezreal, using range to your advantage to pick up some kills. If anything, I’d like to see him get a little move speed buff and a range buff to Arcane Shift. Beyond that, I think he performs well in a lot of situations so long as you’ve taken the time to farm what he needs.