Welcome to League of Legends, where Ryze gets a rework every week and the lanes don’t matter—at least, not for everyone.
During the last preseason, Ezreal was at the top of the meta as a jungler. Yes, not as a marksman or even a mid laner, but as a jungler. He was the flavor for people who love playing ADC but hate playing in a lane alongside another player. And that’s what League is all about, right? Doing everything in our power to avoid teamwork?
You likely won’t see Ezreal in the jungle nowadays, but that’s not to say the pick isn’t played since there are still a few hundred players rocking it. Some nerfs made him fall out of the meta, but Ezreal jungle is back to being a viable pick. If you like having fun and experimenting on Summoner’s Rift, this might be just what you’re looking for. But how do you start on this journey?
Look no further, because we’ve thrown together a guide so you can copy your favorite pros. You’ll probably piss some people off as you learn how to play it, and some people will probably tell you to uninstall the game and insult your mother while you do, but at the end of the road, you’ll be a proud Ezreal jungle player. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Runes
The optimal rune paths for Ezreal jungle are Domination and Precision. Dark Harvest will make ganking lanes more efficient with easier takedowns. You’ll also stack damage, healing, and attack speed from other recommended runes from both paths. Sudden Impact is a great rune for Ezreal due to the teleport on his E, which again helps with burst once you’ve blinked on the lane to take down the enemy. Sorcery and Inspiration paths are a good secondary pick, but Precision is the standard.
Items
Jungle Ezreal’s core items are the Warrior enchantment and Trinity Force. This gives him a lot of early power, and the Challenging Smite allows him to win duels fairly easily. After you have these, things get a little more complicated.
For boots, Jungle Ezreal has a ton of options. If you’re ahead, and you want more fighting power, you could opt into Berzerker’s Greaves. But typically, you’ll want to run Ionian Boots of Lucidity for that precious cooldown reduction and movement speed. Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi can also be a good option, depending on the prominent damage on the enemy team.
For your next damage item, you’ll always want to either build Blade of the Ruined King or Duskblade of Draktharr. The Duskblade works better if the enemy team only has one tank or you’re really ahead, but BorK works well against tanky teams or if you’re playing from behind. Close the build out with Iceborn Gauntlet.
Clearing Camps
Ezreal doesn’t have any AoE abilities, but his single target damage is very high, so stick to as many single target or small mob camps that you can. The major buffs, Gromp, and the Wolves are Ezreal’s camps of choice, so focus on them before moving to clear your other camps.
The name of the game for clearing camps as Ezreal is kiting. Ezreal is a squishy ADC with no tools to shield or heal him, besides the gain from runes. With no sustain, he can’t take many hits from big camps, so you want to constantly move around them so they only hit you a few times. It’s easiest to do on Gromp and Blue Buff, but the Red and Wolves move a bit faster, and are more difficult. Just keep moving around, don’t stand still and basic attack them.
Ganking lanes
Ezreal’s early damage is surprisingly high for a jungle ADC, so you want to gank early and often. He can also come in from weird angles thanks to his Arcane Shift by hopping over large walls to avoid wards.
Even though he deals a lot of damage in early ganks thanks to the Red Buff, he’s still an ADC, meaning he’s remarkably squishy. He’ll scale up into the late game like any ADC would, but on the flip side, when he gets behind in the early game, just like an ADC, he becomes remarkably useless. Unlike normal ADCs, though, he can’t sit in a lane and farm until he’s caught up—he has to keep ganking, making it much more challenging.
To avoid setting yourself behind and dooming the rest of your game, you need to be cautious when ganking early on. Even though you need to gank often, you can’t gank recklessly. The trick? Don’t die.
It’s easier than it sounds, don’t worry. When you gank, you should be able to deal enough damage very quickly to force a Flash, get a kill, or at least scare the hell out of them. When they try to run away, as soon as they get past you, give up on the fight. Don’t chase them at all, because if you overextend and they turn on you, they’ll have enough damage to seriously trip you up. Even worse, if you overextend and the enemy jungler shows up, almost every jungler in the game can duel an Ezreal in the early levels, so you’re setting yourself up to fail there as well.
Gank often, but gank safe, and don’t get greedy. If you keep these simple rules in mind, you’ll have jungle Ezreal down pat in no time.
