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Remembering Runeglaive AP Ezreal Mid with Smite

Whichever you are, a League of Legends veteran or a new casual player, it’s almost certain that you have... Fragster | 11. September 2021

Whichever you are, a League of Legends veteran or a new casual player, it’s almost certain that you have heard about Ezreal. He’s one of the most popular champions in the game, with a large community dedicated to playing him.

For such an iconic champion and a trademark to the game, he has managed, for the entirety of his existence, to always remain relevant in the meta, one way or another. Today we will be looking back at the 2015 summer when Ezreal abused the new AP jungle item Runeglaive and was being played in the mid lane.

About Ezreal

So even though Ezreal is classified as a marksman and has always been more popular in the bot lane rather than mid, he’s a lot different from the rest of the class in terms of gameplay. With his kit consisting of 4 skill shots, his gameplay has always been a lot closer to that of a mage caster rather than his right-click auto-attacking-based counterparts. When you factor in that all of his abilities have always had AP scalings, that means that AP Ezreal was never a bad pick in the first place. Even after his 2018 visual update, in which his W spell was changed, and even though over the years his AP scaling has been nerfed, he’s still viable as a for-fun pick- not the most optimal, but still manages to work.

So what made it so special?

Ever since his release, AP Ezreal was viable mostly for his utility. The ultimate still scales really well with AP to this day, but since his W rework, it’s not quite the same. Back then Ezreal W was a skill shot that traveled in a straight line, dealt damage to enemies, and gave bonus attack speed to all allies hit. If we go back further, to his release, his W also lowered the enemy’s attack speed and healed allies with a 1 to 1 ratio. This meant that if Ezreal W would do 500 damage to enemies, it also could be used to heal your teammates for 500 HP. Slowly but surely, this spell was watered down to its 2016 version and then reworked in 2018, but it’s always been a great part of AP Ezreal.

runeglaive

Runeglaive description (via MOBAFire)

How it became meta

So in 2015, Riot games introduced a new tank item in the game called Cinderhulk, that only junglers and players with smite could purchase. The item was so overpowered that for the next 10 months, only tanks were being played. And that wasn’t just in the jungle, but in other roles too. Players would take smite in a lane just for the opportunity to be able to purchase the best item in the game. After nerfing it with little results, Riot decided to buff the other jungle items, so they could compete better. A new AP jungle item called Runeglaive was introduced to the game on patch 5.12, and instead of fixing the problem of AP junglers being weak, it just made one champion overpowered. On the surface, the item was okay for the AP junglers, but nothing more special than the previous one. And that was because they couldn’t utilize the item’s unique passive.

How he used it

And that’s where Ezreal came into the mix. For the entirety of his existence, Ezreal has been one of the most famous abusers of the Spellblade proc, especially with his Q spell, which counts as an auto-attack. But that wasn’t the problem. Ezreal has always built items with the Spellblade passive. This item converted the next basic attack after an ability (Spellblade proc) into magic damage, rather than the usual physical damage. This meant that even Ezreal’s Q ability, which had the lowest AP scaling of them all(15%), was now doing magic damage instead of physical. At that point his entire kit, including his Q, benefited so much more from Magic Penetration items like Sorcerer Shoes and Void Staff. The item also gave him a small AOE damage buff beyond the first target hit, further increasing his waveclear and helping him farm jungle camps. So in total, he was purchasing one of the cheapest items in the game, one that was perfectly suited for him, and he did so in a way that enabled him to get it as fast as possible, while also providing him with waveclear.

dmg ratio

Ezreal damage graph (via League of Learning)

Ezreal became the center of attention in the game with one  single patch. He was being picked or banned in every game in Solo Queue, and during the Summer split, he was banned 46 times (for both roles) and picked 60 times mid-laneid lane. This only lasted for a month and two patches later, on patch 5.14, the conversion to magic damage on the Spellblade proc was removed and the AOE damage buff only applied to monsters. Since then, Ezreal has still had times where he’s been a dominant pick, but never oppressive to that extent. The closest he got to that point was the double Tear item meta, but with that gone, AP Ezreal is now a niche pick viable in fun game modes. His AD build remains the most optimal way to play him and ensures that he will forever be an iconic champion, loved and hated by many, but always relevant.