For League of Legends players, building Muramana for Ezreal has become a familiar practice. However, since patch 11.3, the itemization for Ezreal has completely shifted as professional gamers prefer Soul Reaver over Muramana. So what is the reason behind this stylistic change? Let’s find out.
The first significant change is that Muramana was nerfed in patch 11.1. Although the bonus AD based on energy was increased, the damage from its passive was greatly reduced. As a result, Muramana does not provide as much damage as before for players, even if you consistently land your abilities.
When Soul Reaver was buffed (energy regeneration based on 40% of the passive damage), it became clear that this item is more suitable for Ezreal. Essentially, Ezreal always makes the most of items built from Ice Sword, including Soul Reaver. Furthermore, Ezreal’s Q – Mystic Shot has its AD scaling increased to 130% in patch 11.3. Therefore, items that provide direct AD like Soul Reaver are significantly stronger than Muramana.
This allows Ezreal to deal damage effectively right from the start after acquiring Soul Reaver. You will no longer need to wait until you stack up Muramana to deal consistent damage. In fact, the passive of this item interacts with the bonus AD, meaning that the more items you build, the stronger Ezreal’s energy regeneration and damage output become.
By using Soul Reaver, you will need to skip the Divine Sunderer to pursue another Mythic item. The choice from the masters is Draktharr’s Shadowcarver, for a very simple reason: it provides a lot of bonus AD and cooldown reduction. Ezreal does not utilize the stealth passive of Draktharr’s Shadowcarver too effectively, but the remaining stats are excellent for this champion.
We need to remember that Ezreal typically buys items with cooldown reduction stats. When combined with the Mythic passive of Draktharr’s Shadowcarver, you will have about 120 cooldown reduction (equivalent to 55% cooldown reduction). For a character that primarily deals damage through abilities like Ezreal, this stat will turn him into a real “monster” on the battlefield.
When building Ezreal with the Soul Reaver style, you should still use the Precision rune page as usual. In the secondary Sorcery tree, players should choose the Manaflow Band rune to ensure mana stats early in the game, when Soul Reaver has not yet been completed.
For the item build order, Soul Reaver is the first item you should acquire, followed by Draktharr’s Shadowcarver. Items like Serpent’s Fang and Serylda’s Grudge are still optimal choices for Ezreal in the later stages.
In conclusion, the new build with Soul Reaver and Draktharr’s Shadowcarver will make Ezreal stronger early on instead of waiting to stack up Muramana. If you’re looking for a powerful and fresh playstyle in the new year, Ezreal with Soul Reaver is an unbeatable choice.