3.5/5 Difficulty By herself, Kai'Sa isn't a big threat in lane. Her auto attack range is relatively low and is easy to poke as a result. The 3.5/5 difficulty comes from her mid-late game and when she is paired with a pick or engage support. Hard cc applies a stack of her passive on you and when you are at 5 stacks, her next auto or W will consume the stacks in order to do big damage. Her current popular build where she builds Crown allows her to upgrade all of her basic abilities meaning that her 1v1, teamfights, and poke are all decently strong. The drawback to this build means that she is a jack of all trades but master of none. Her DPS is lower than her straight up AD builds and her poke is worse than her full AP builds. Her AD build with Kraken Slayer or Galeforce is still pretty popular though, which makes her very strong late game. When she's trying to push, don't stand near the minion wave since you'll take free poke while she's pushing. In a skirmish or short trade, it's actually beneficial to stand next to the wave so that you don't take every single one of her Q missiles. Kai'Sa will usually be paired with engage/pick supports meaning her potential for burst is very high. Respect her support and do your best to poke from afar. Even if you're fed, be careful when trying to 1v1 her because her upgraded Q does massive damage to isolated targets. If Kai'Sa wastes her W trying to farm or poke, you can go for a short trade but don't commit too long to the point where it come back up. Her early game burst potential goes down significantly without her W. Don't be afraid to dodge her W with your E. When she hits 6, she can follow up extremely well on a jungle gank or support engage. Her ult allows her to reposition herself and catch up to you even after you've used your E to get out. Her winrate is lowest around the 15-20 minute mark, but steadily goes up until it spikes around 30-35 minutes. There's a recurring theme here, but you're strongest when she's weakest so use that to your advantage. Poke her and her team out at objective fights. You have to be a bit more wary of the enemy engage than normal, since she can easily and immediately follow up to kill you. If the game goes late she puts out a lot of damage and is very slippery, so it'll be hard to catch her. TL;DR: Stand in the wave if trading so her Q missiles have more targets to hit instead of just you. Don't stand near the wave if she's trying to push with Q. If possible, try to get her behind early before she can get her ability upgrades. Be wary of her all-in potential. Be prepared to turn around and fight back if they mess up their engage. Go for a short trade if she uses her W to farm. Your mid game spike is one of her weakest points, so try to force teamfights and end before she can scale. It's hard to 1v1 her at any point in the game.

3.5/5 Difficulty You won't see this champion too often, but you will always see her paired with an engage support. She's a lane bully who wants to get a lead and snowball that into a relatively early win. Her late game is pretty bad, so you'll outscale her. A good Kalista will try to stack some spears in both you and a minion, then use her E to damage and slow you while resetting the cooldown because she killed the minion with her E. Her Q also does decent damage while giving her a free dash as well. Don't stand near a minion that she has been stacking spears into because she can finish it off with Q which, if it hits you, will transfer all of those spears to you. It might be hard to hit Qs if she's jumping around, but poking her down is essential since you don't want her to be able to safely run you down. As mentioned, she'll often be with an engage support. Play around her support's cc abilities and don't give them an angle to engage on you. Easier said than done, but it's really important not to give her an early lead. If she doesn't get it, you can freely outscale her. TL;DR: She's a lane bully who can run you down with ease. Farm/poke from far back with Q and pay attention to her support's engage tools. Without a lead, you're way stronger than her once the mid and late game roll around. She's on a timer to end the game quickly while you aren't. Play it slow and intelligently and you'll outscale her.

4/5 Difficulty Laning against Kog'Maw is pretty straightforward; he has clear windows where he's strong and weak. When his W is available or when he is using it, do not fight him. Unless he makes some sort of egregious mistake, you will not outtrade him. When his W is on cooldown, that's when you can go in for a trade. I put 4/5 difficulty because playing against a Kog'Maw with a team around him can feel very oppressive. You have a window where you're stronger than him around 2-3 items, but it can be difficult to actually utilize it if he positions well. Late game, he will out DPS you and he can shred your team faster than you can hurt his. This oppressiveness only increases if he's paired with Lulu. Lulu not only enhances his strengths, but covers for his weaknesses. In lane you can try and trade when Kog W is down AND Lulu shield is down, but those opportunities might be few and far between. I did say that it's hard to play against a Kog with a team around him, but in solo queue that's not always going to be the case. If his support is not one that can easily peel for him, then there will be many opportunities for you and your team to pick him off since he has no mobility. Your team can also try to look for picks if you see him farming alone in a side lane. One misstep and Kog'maw can be taken out very easily in fights. If you can somehow manage to pick off his teammates before Kog can get to the fight or do a significant amount of damage, fights will be a lot easier. In general, front to back teamfights will be much easier for Kog'Maw's team so you'll have to look for other ways of fighting. TL;DR: Go for trades when his W is down. Don't trade if it's up or available. If his team plays correctly around him then it's really hard to kill him, but that won't always happen in solo queue. Look for opportunities to pick him off with your team since he has no escape tools outside of Flash. Front to back teamfights will be hard since he outputs more DPS, so trying to pick him off is probably your best bet. You have a small window mid game where you're stronger than him (2-3 items) so abuse it.

LUCIAN 3/5 Difficulty Lucian is very similar to Kalista in that he doesn't scale so he wants to get ahead early and end early. He'll do his best to keep your health low by taking short trades and then ultimately finishing you off when you're low enough. He'll constantly be using his Q on the wave in order to both gain priority and to try and hit you while he's at it. Watch his positioning and make sure that you're not in a spot where he can get a free Q off on you through the wave. When his Q is on cooldown, you can try to go for a short trade. But don't take it too far since he can quickly turn it around and punish you for playing too aggressive. His main way of getting you low will be by getting his double autos off on you and thus proccing Press the Attack. Lucian will often dash in and use all his abilities on you while weaving in his double autos between his ability uses. Anyone who's laned against this champion can tell you how much burst he has in his kit. If he's going for a full combo and dashes in on you, you can E away to avoid his Q and ensuing autos. Even if Lucian gets fed, it's not the end of the world. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a Lucian get fed and still not have a big impact on the game. His range is simply too short meaning he is forced to put himself in range of most key abilities. You will outscale him so there's nothing wrong with just farming safely without bleeding out too much gold in the form of cs/plates. You'll often see Lucian paired with Nami thanks to the crazy synergy her E has with Lucian's passive. This makes even his short trades VERY lethal. I wouldn't bother trading if you're against Lucian + Nami unless they waste key abilities, just farm and outscale. It's a very punishing matchup and they're on a timer while you're not. TL;DR: Lane bully who has to get ahead. Focus on farming and only trading when his Q or E are down. Don't use your E too aggressively. Nothing wrong with farming safely since you outscale him. Don't panic if he's fed; it's still easy to lock him down later since his range is so short.

2/5 Difficulty She's a lane bully that you'll outscale (even if she goes crit) and has very predictable trading patterns. She's going to try to poke you with her Q. Her Q bounces off the first target it hits, and will look for a second target in a cone shape behind the first. If her Q kills the first unit, the second bounce will crit. In lane, you want to watch her positioning and make sure that you're not directly behind any minions and especially not behind any low health minions. If she can't reliably get Qs off on you, you should be fine. If she takes Press the Attack, she'll look to get an Auto + Q + Auto off on you and trade that way. As you can see, most of her damage comes from her Q and you should play around it as such. Like the Kog'Maw matchup, when her Q is down is when you want to trade with her. If she goes crit, you'll outscale her since she doesn't have the range to safely dish out damage like Cait or Kog. Her mid game will be pretty good. If she goes lethality, your mid game is still stronger than hers but don't underestimate her ult especially in narrow corridors. She can quickly shred you and your team even if not fed. You'll outscale even harder if she goes lethality, though. TL;DR: Watch your positioning in lane so you don't get hit by a critting Q. Main focus in lane is not getting hit by stray Qs. You can go for short trades if her Q is down. Your mid game is stronger than hers regardless of if she goes lethality or crit. You should still be wary of her damage if she's going lethality. You'll still be more useful than her if she goes crit. Play confidently once you hit your item spikes.

3/5 Difficulty I like to think of Samira as similar to Kai'Sa. She can capitalize on engages VERY well, but she can't be the primary engager. Her early game is good so long as her support hits their engage abilities. Play around this and don't hesitate to E in order to dodge a Nautilus hook for example. Poke her out level 1 and keep your distance after that since you outrange her by a lot. Your Q range is longer than hers by quite a bit so if she walks up to trade, you can walk back and still retaliate with Qs of your own. If they waste key abilities (Samira E or the support's cc), So long as she isn't giga-fed, you should win the mid game fights. Her mid game is laughably weak if not fed; her winrate over time graph is literally a V shape. Make sure not to use key abilities (like your R) until after you've seen her use her W since her W blocks projectiles. Her all-ins are quite strong so proper use of your E to disengage or dodge is pivotal. The key to this matchup is dodging their engage, farming up, and being more useful in mid game fights. Even if she's behind, she can pop off in a teamfight with her ult and bring herself back into the game. If you have a teammate with point and click or relatively easy-to-land cc, you can tell them to save it for Samira's ult if she's a problem. TL;DR: Play safely around her support's engage. You outrange her by quite a bit so try to poke her down so she cant easily all-in. Her W and E cooldowns are long, so you can go for trades when those are down. If not fed, you should be able to run over her in the mid game. Don't get engaged on and focus on farming until mid game.

1.5/5 Difficulty Senna's trading patterns are predictable, yet strong. She's going to look to constantly AA + Q + AA you for quick damage and a soul. This is even harder to deal with now that her Q applies a slow as of patch 12.2. ADC Senna was nerfed this patch (12.3) in that she's less likely to spawn a soul if she's the one killing the unit. You'll be more likely to see a support Senna which is harder to deal with. Generally, you're going to look to poke her from afar. Because she has 600 base AA range and gets movement speed after autoing, it's difficult to win trades against her. That said, if your support is one that can lock her down and bring her to you, she's pretty easy to kill. If the lane is a farm lane it's not too bad. Senna is much worse than you when it comes to front to back teamfights. She's more of a burst champ as opposed to DPS and you will do more damage to the enemy frontline than she can do to yours. She's a strong laner due to the reasons mentioned above and also a strong late game champ, but you're stronger than her between 15-30 minutes. Use this to your advantage and play aggressively during this time. Once you have your 2 item spike, you can burst her down quite well. You don't want the game to go late since she'll be able to dish out a lot of damage from farther away than your team can catch her from. TL;DR: Don't trade too much and give her free souls in lane. Poke her with Q from a distance. If your support is one that can bring her closer to you, then she's not too hard to kill. If not, farm up to your 2-3 item spike where you're strongest and win teamfights using this strength.

4/5 Difficulty Seraphine bot is another uncommon matchup, but a hard one. She's very much a scaling champion who will become very hard to deal with late game. The key to this matchup is shutting her down early. Her early game cooldowns are very long (like most mages) and use a lot of mana. If you see her use her abilities on the wave, try to play aggressive and punish her since it won't be up for a decent amount of time. Once she gets her mythic, it becomes very hard to punish her since she can double Q the wave and kill it with ease. Ideally, you want to have put her behind before she has her tear stacked up and before she has her mythic. Her W has a nearly 30 second cooldown at rank 1. If you can play aggressive and force it out, your cooldowns will be up before her W is up meaning you have a big window where she's lacking a key ability. Watch out for her double E since you don't want to get rooted and engaged on or have your engage stifled by the root. If you see her use her double abilities on the wave (such as using double Q to waveclear), play aggressively. If you're playing aggressively and she's holding her double E to try and stop you, you can dodge to the side using your E. Once she's 6, try to save your E to dodge her ult. This means that you absolutely must dodge her double E because if you get rooted by it, she'll land a near guaranteed ultimate on you. One of the many sacrifices of picking a bot lane mage is the lack of DPS. Mages are inherently bursty because they are gated by cooldowns and mana, and need stronger spells in order to compensate. Seraphine is no exception. If the enemy team doesn't have any DPS champions to make up for the Seraphine pick, feel free to play front to back. Just make sure not to clump up like penguins and let her get a multi-person ultimate off. Play safe, hit from a distance, and save your E to dodge her ult or other key abilities. TL;DR: Play aggressively early and shut her down before she can scale. Easier with an engage or pick support. If the game goes late, you can try to play front to back but she's generally stronger. Her mid game is not bad by any mean, although you are still a bit stronger.

3.5/5 Difficulty You won't see this champion too often, but people will sometimes pick her if they see you playing Ezreal. IF SHE'S GOING LETHALITY: Lethality Sivir is a tough matchup for Ezreal. She'll start Tear and start shoving you in from level 1. Try your best to match her push with your Q, but Ezreal's lack of waveclear is one of his main weaknesses so it might be hard. If she immediately starts using her Q on the wave at level 1, you can start playing aggressively since it'll be down and she doesn't have spellshield. Do not stand in the minion wave since you don't want her to be able to hit both the minions and you with a single Q. Dodging her boomerang is an essential skill to develop since it's going to be the vast majority of her damage when she's going lethality. Don't throw out your Qs willy nilly since she'll be able to recover quite a bit of mana thanks to her spellshield. The last thing you want to do is fuel her Q spam even more. If you can, wait until she's inevitably out of mana and try to put pressure on her. If you can bait out the spell shield without using your abilities, you'll have a significant temporary advantage where you can play aggressively. Her mid game is where she's strongest. She'll have completed Muramana, her mythic (usually Duskblade or Eclipse), and another lethality item or Serylda's. Pretty much all of her damage will be loaded into her Q, but it will hurt a LOT if you get hit by it. You'll outscale her eventually, so the pressure is on her to poke you out at major objective fights and snowball from there. IF SHE'S GOING CRIT: The lane plays similarly, but she won't spam her Q on the wave. Instead crit Sivir is a late game hyperscaler who excels in teamfights. Her W autos will bounce multiple times which will quickly burn down your team because they can crit. The lane will be easier since she won't have an early Manamune or lethality items. Many of the same rules apply: don't stand in the wave and match her waveclear if you can. Play for the mid game where you'll be significantly stronger than her. You want to try and end the game before she can get to 80% crit or higher. If the game goes late, don't play front to back and instead try and look for picks (team comp permitting). TL;DR Lethality: Pressure her when she's low on mana or spellshield is down. Try to bait it out without using abilities if you can. Try to match her waveclear and be careful of her mid game spike. It's imperative that you dodge her Q boomerangs. You'll outscale her so don't force too hard in the mid game, especially in tight corridors where she can Q your whole team for big damage. TL;DR Crit: The lane plays similarly. Try to bait out the spellshield and pressure her if you can. You're much stronger than her when you hit your 2-3 item spike, so don't be afraid to take fights. Your life will be very hard if the game goes late because she'll crit you and your whole team to death with her bouncing autos.

3/5 Difficulty I like to think of Samira as similar to Kai'Sa. She can capitalize on engages VERY well, but she can't be the primary engager. Her early game is good so long as her support hits their engage abilities. Play around this and don't hesitate to E in order to dodge a Nautilus hook for example. Poke her out level 1 and keep your distance after that since you outrange her by a lot. Your Q range is longer than hers by quite a bit so if she walks up to trade, you can walk back and still retaliate with Qs of your own. If they waste key abilities (Samira E or the support's cc), So long as she isn't giga-fed, you should win the mid game fights. Her mid game is laughably weak if not fed; her winrate over time graph is literally a V shape. Make sure not to use key abilities (like your R) until after you've seen her use her W since her W blocks projectiles. Her all-ins are quite strong so proper use of your E to disengage or dodge is pivotal. The key to this matchup is dodging their engage, farming up, and being more useful in mid game fights. Even if she's behind, she can pop off in a teamfight with her ult and bring herself back into the game. If you have a teammate with point and click or relatively easy-to-land cc, you can tell them to save it for Samira's ult if she's a problem.

3/5 Difficulty Many people think of Tristana as purely a late game champion. While she's not bad late at all late game due to her scaling range, her all-in potential during the laning phase is very good. Tristana's mid game is just straight up bad. So she's going to look to smash you in lane early. Her support will often be a pick or an all-in support. Her level 1 isn't great as long as you stay back and Q her. Level 2 is when she can get her W and start jumping on you and your support. In this lane you want to focus on staying back and poking with Q. You don't want to give her an early lead. She has a very hard time freezing the wave due to her E passive. So you'll likely be shoved into tower. Try your best to match her push. You can call for jungle ganks if she's constantly pushing which will happen often. Her cooldowns are long. If she uses her E on a tower or the wave, you can try to play aggressively. If she ever uses E on you, back off. Respect her support if it's an engage support. She follows up extremely well on cc. As long as she's not too ahead, the mid game should be a breeze. Sure, she's pretty safe with her long range jump, but she doesn't have consistent DPS or burst in fights. You're MUCH stronger than her at this stage of the game, and you should play accordingly. Just don't let her get a stacked E on you and you're good. Like in other matchups, use your mid game spike to win objective fights and eventually the game. Don't let the game go late (6+ items). She'll have good DPS from long range and front to back fights will be in her favor. Without an early lead, she'll be starved of her items and therefore her hopes and dreams. TL;DR: Don't give her an early lead. Respect how good her all-in is. Poke from afar. Destroy her and her team in the mid game and don't let the game go late.

4/5 Difficulty Twitch is a hard matchup for Ezreal no matter which build he is going. It's incredibly hard to win all-ins against him. Poking from afar is the name of the game. If Twitch dips out of vision, you HAVE to respect that he could be invisible. A good Twitch will save his W and throw it where you are about to E away to. This means that you'll have to flash in addition to using your E or else you're probably dead. AP Twitch is all about bursting you down in the early to mid game. You really have to watch out for his W because the slow scales very well with AP. He'll pop out of invis, slow you for a lot, and then press E and burst you once you're at full stacks of his passive. If you and your team can survive the burst, you'll outscale him. AD Twitch is a scaling hypercarry. You'll be a lot stronger than him in the mid game, but you still need to be very vigilant regarding his stealth. If you're not careful and he's patient, he can wait until you guys have used big cooldowns and then go for the kills. His slow isn't as strong as an AP Twitch's, but if he's smart and throws it where you're going to E then you'll still have a bad time. His all-ins are better than AP Twitch once he gets his items going. You'll have a bit more of an easier time early game but you absolutely cannot fight front to back late game. Unless he gets cocky and you guys can pick him off. Buy lots of control wards in this lane (which you should be doing already). Putting them in the middle lane bush covers a lot of space if you're worried that Twitch might come out of invis. In teamfights, you and your team need to play them around key areas so that you can see Twitch if he's planning on going invis. TL;DR: He wins all-ins so make sure to do your best to keep him poked out so he can't trade. Play heavily around his invisibility; if you don't see him on the map then you need to have an escape plan ready in case he's near you. Don't be afraid to E or flash if you need to. Against AP Twitch play vigilantly, don't let him surprise you, and outscale him. Against AD Twitch play around your mid game spike and end before he can scale. Buy control wards and use them liberally.

1.5/5 Difficulty Varus is a lane bully, but he's also just kind of in a bad spot right now. Before he's leveled his W, you can take trades if he uses his Q or E since they have long cooldowns. Once he has his W though, don't try to instigate trades. Just poke him from afar. Hail of Blades combined with his W means that you'll take a LOT of damage from him in a very short amount of time. The main build is lethality, although you'll see crit from time to time as well. I usually take Cleanse in this lane because he can lock you down easily with his ult and set up ganks for his jungler. If you feel confident you can dodge it with your E, feel free to take another summoner spell. Lethality Varus spikes around a similar time as you and functions similarly. You guys both want to poke the enemy team out. You spike a bit earlier though, especially since you can stack up your Tear way faster than him. Varus also has no mobility and is really easy to kill if you can get on top of him. Forcing him to use his ult defensively instead of offensively greatly reduces the enemy team's kill pressure. You'll have an easier time in front to back teamfights than Varus. Crit Varus scales and can have a lot of burst potential if he takes Galeforce. His mid game is trash, though, so you shouldn't have too much of a problem with him unless he's somehow fed. His late game is also quite worse than other typical hypercarries. TL;DR: Varus kinda sucks right now. His only real strength is in the lane phase where he had good trades and can catch you off guard with his R if you're not careful. Early levels you can play aggressive if he wastes an ability, but after that just stay back and poke. Once you have 2-3 items, you're stronger than him no matter what build he's going. Just continue to watch out for his R.

5/5 Difficulty Vayne is my current permaban. Not only has she been in a good spot all of Season 11 and currently as of Season 12, but it's harder for Ezreal to punish her weak lane phase compared to other champs. If Vayne is smart, she'll stand behind the minions so it's hard for you to poke her. Unfortunately, she can trade really well through a wave while you can't. Vayne's all-in is very good and post-6 she can run you down super easily if you overstep your boundaries. If you have an engage support, you can try to shut her down early game when she's weakest. But be careful about using your E to go in because if you fudge the engage, she can turn around and auto you to death without you being able to do anything about it. At no point in the game do you want to 1v1 her. You'll have to really pay attention to your positioning and make sure that you're not standing next to any walls. You can E right before her E hits you, but it'll still push you back after you blink to your new location. Her winrate is lowest between 15-20 minutes, and only goes up from there until it peaks at around 30-35 minutes. If the game goes on long enough, you'll probably just lose because of how infamously insane her late game is. It's incredibly hard to hit skilllshots on her due to her invisibility and mobility. As usual, once you hit your 2-3 item spike you should try to fight. You cannot wait to outscale her. Do your best to set up at objectives before her team can, and poke her out before the fight starts. TL;DR: Try to abuse her in lane if possible, but only with your support. Don't take trades in lane unless they're very short and she can't proc her silver bolts. Otherwise, farm and poke and play around your mid game spike. Do your best not to let the game go on for too long. Probably best to ban her because not only is she one of your hardest overall matchups (if not your hardest matchup), but she's a very popular pick as well.

2/5 Difficulty Another mage, Veigar isn't too difficult. Take Teleport so that you can match his back timers and you won't miss out on precious gold/xp. He'll mostly try to use his Q to farm, so if he does that you have a ~6 second window to play aggressively. His E shouldn't be too much of a problem for you since you can easily E out of the cage. His W is very easy to dodge unless you're stunned. Try to abuse him a lot before he is able to get his Lost Chapter spike. As far as mages go, Veigar is pretty short range. In fact, his hardest matchups all have long range. Do your best to poke him out and then zone him from the wave. If you can freeze it near your turret and he can't safely walk up, he's kinda screwed. Of course, don't get cocky and make sure you're playing around his ult. If you get too close, and you're low enough, he can just press R and erase you from this plane of existence. You're MUCH stronger than him mid game, especially in front to back fights. You should be dishing out damage from far away enough that you shouldn't have to worry too much about his cage. Regardless, you can try to save your E to escape from a potential cage. There is currently a bug where sometimes if he cages in a wall or other terrain, the part of the cage that sticks out is invisible. Not something that will happen often, but it's something to keep in mind. If they picked Veigar without any other form of DPS on the enemy team, front to back teamfights are your friend since you'll out DPS him by a lot. If they have a lot of magic damage dealers, Maw is quite good now as of patch 12.3. Don't be afraid to build it maybe as a 4th item unless you really need it earlier. TL;DR: Easy lane, pressure him when he uses Q to farm. Save E to get out of his cage. Long ranged champs are his weakness, stay back and poke him in the mid game. You'll probably get good Serylda's value since good Veigars will build tank later on. Don't get cocky and make sure to not put yourself in range of his burst.

1/5 Difficulty Xayah's early game isn't the best so her laning phase isn't great. Watch out for her Q + AA + E combo that can root you. Be aware of her feather placement and make sure you're not taking any unnecessary poke. Against Crit Xayah: Easy laning phase. Poke her out and hard pressure her if she ever wastes her E. Her mid game is pretty bad, so you should have no problem winning fights against her. Save your E for her E so you don't get rooted. It's also the majority of her damage since crit Xayah maxes E. She wants to kite so be careful of her R + E in tight corridors. Late game she's a DPS threat so try to end before then. Against Lethality/Poke Xayah: Laning phase isn't too bad but when she gets her Muramana and Eclipse her Q + E poke combo is VERY strong. You'll need to be even more wary of your positioning so you don't lose all your health before a big fight. Her poke is stronger than yours until about 3 items. You'll outscale her very hard, so you don't need to force fights unnecessarily. If against Xayah/Rakan: Beware their level 1. They can both start W and threaten to kill you if you get hit by the knockup or take too long to flash away. Respect Rakan's engage since he can all-in and then escape very easily due to the increased range on his E if he's with Xayah. Their all-in is also a lot stronger because of Xayah's W synergy with Rakan. Essentially, poke and make sure you don't get hit by the Xayah root or Rakan knockup. Save your E for those key abilities. If her support is Rakan, Xayah will typically go crit since it synergizes better. TL;DR: Laning is easy, poke and pressure her if she wastes her abilities. Especially her W and E. Pay attention to your positioning around feathers. If crit, you'll have a very easy time mid game so use that to your advantage. If lethality, stay away from her Q + E combo since that's basically where all of her damage is. You'll outscale her eventually.

4/5 Difficulty (Before 12.4 nerfs) She got nerfed this patch, but it wasn't enough. She's receiving more nerfs next patch (12.4) so hopefully they make her an easier matchup. Zeri's biggest weakness is her laning phase. Unfortunately, Ezreal is not a traditional lane bully so it can be hard to punish her if she spaces and positions well. She's not too long ranged, so you can poke her out if she's out of position. If she's going her TriForce build, avoid her around the 15-25 minute mark since that's when she's strongest. After that, you should output more damage than her. The issue with Zeri comes from her mobility. It can be very hard to lock her down since she's so fast and her E goes over walls. If she's going crit, you're going to be stronger mid game since she'll basically be a scaling hypercarry. Play the matchup out like if you're against other hypercarry and use your 2-3 item spikes to win fights and end the game. You'll have to do your best to poke her out in fights before she ults. She's not a bad ban target this patch. TL;DR: Hard matchup, don't be afraid to ban her if she's too much of a nuisance and you're seeing her often. Do your best to punish her and get her behind in the laning phase when she's weakest. If she's going Triforce, don't fight her around 15-25 minutes. After that, she's a lot weaker; that build doesn't scale well. If she's going crit, you're stronger than her up until the late game so play confidently and end early.

2/5 Difficulty Laning should be pretty uneventful. Start Tear and take Teleport so you can match his back timings. Like with other matchups, don't stand in the minion wave and make him choose whether to use his Q on the wave or on you. If he uses his Q on you, it should be pretty easy to dodge. You basically just want to poke him out from far away while dodging his poke. If he ever misses his W, he'll have no escape so you can attempt to go in if you have a good support for that. His W and E cooldowns are quite long early game, so make sure to punish him for that. Otherwise, no shame in farming for mid game. You guys both spike in the mid game, but you outscale him in terms of damage in my experience. Once he gets his mythic or Lost Chapter, he can clear the wave quickly and punish your lack of waveclear, so be wary of that and alert your team if it looks like he's going to roam. Ziggs' main strength is being able to have crazy objective control due to the long duration of his E and his constant Q spam. It's important to reach and set up at objectives before he and his team can. Like with other mages, it's common for teams with a mage bot to be lacking in the DPS department. If this is the case, know that their Baron/dragon take is a lot slower and don't be afraid to play front to back. TL;DR: Take TP and start Tear. Don't stand in the wave. Use Q from afar to poke him out in lane. Try to punish him if he wastes his W and/or E. His strength is objective control, so try to set up before his team can. Play front to back if his team is lacking DPS as a side effect of the mage pick. You'll outscale him in my experience.

2/5 Synergy 1.5/5 Difficulty against WITH ALISTAR Alistar isn't the greatest duo with Ezreal. While Ezreal's all-in isn't terrible, it's nowhere near as good as a Draven's for example. You generally just want to poke the enemy bot lane out and then Alistar can go in. Alistar's level 1 is pretty bad, so don't play too aggressively. Levels 2-3 are around when you can look to go in. Alistar has amazing dive potential at level 6 if you can coordinate one with your jungler. Other than that, Alistar isn't a great laner in general and doesn't have any amazing synergies with Ezreal. Due to not being great in lane, it's not uncommon for Alistar to roam and skirmish alongside your jungler. AGAINST ALISTAR Don't start automatically pushing in the wave. Alistar's level 1 is bad, so abuse this as much as you can. Hold your E for his W-Q combo. You can consistently dodge his combo with your E, and then turn and fight since his cooldowns are so long. You just have to E at the moment he starts dashing towards you with his W. You should be able to constantly poke him out. The 1.5 difficulty pretty much only comes from the fact that his dive potential is good post-6 and Ezreal doesn't have the greatest wave clear to stave off a dive. But if you poke well enough, he should hopefully be too low to safely dive. Make sure to let your team know if Alistar starts roaming, as a good Alistar will ditch lane once they get their Mobi boots since they know they're more impactful elsewhere.

4/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH BARD Bard and Ezreal have pretty good skirmish potential. It pretty much hinges on Bard landing a stun, but if he does, especially a 2-man stun, you pretty much win the trade by default. You can also take pretty aggressive trades since he can heal you guys with his W. Poke, farm, and then trade aggressively once he lands a stun. If he lands an ult, make sure to time your ult correctly so that the enemies can't dodge it. Everyone knows how much Bard roams. Luckily, Ezreal can farm from pretty far away and is relatively safe with his E. When Bard starts roaming, farm from far away and play around potential enemy dives. You can try to look to impact fights from bot lane using your ult. TL;DR: Farm and poke until Bard lands a stun, then trade aggressively. When he starts to roam, safely farm with Q and let him impact the map. AGAINST BARD Similarly to playing with Bard, bot lane trades will revolve around his Q. Your main goal should be to watch your positioning so you don't get stunned against a minion, wall, or your support. Punish him when he walks up to hit you with his meeps, or if he misses a Q. Don't be afraid to use your E if you think you'll take too much damage from a potential stun. He can also set up ganks or all-ins using his ult, so use your E to dodge that as well. Overall, Bard isn't too bad of a support matchup, just spam ping your team when he goes to roam. TL;DR: Be conscious of your positioning to avoid getting stunned. Punish him when he misses a Q or when he walks up to auto you. You can use your E to dodge his Q or his ult. It's up to you to make sure your team knows when he's roaming; don't expect them to pay attention.

4/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH BLITZCRANK This lane is pretty straightforward. If Blitz hits a hook, you go all in and maximize your damage before the enemy can retaliate. If he misses, you wait until it's up. You don't want to shove in the wave too hard. If you do, it's harder for Blitz to hit his hooks. It's also less dangerous for the enemy if they do get hooked, and it makes you vulnerable to ganks. Ideally, you want to keep the wave in front of your turret, but not within the turret's range. This makes it so that the if Blitz lands a hook, then the enemy is under or near your tower. And it creates an easy lane state for your jungler to gank. The enemy bot lane is forced to put themself in danger if they want to cs or trade. TL;DR: Poke until Blitz lands a hook at which point you want to do as much damage as possible. Don't shove the wave. Freeze the wave in front of your tower without putting it in range of the tower. This will create a dangerous scenario and Blitz can zone them with just the threat of his hook. AGAINST BLITZCRANK: If you E right as his hook hits you, it won't actually pull you. This makes Ezreal a hard counter to Blitz as long as you can consistently time it right. Ezreal has a lot of room for error when it comes to timing his E. If your E isn't available, stand behind minions and try to hit your Q to lower your E cd. You need to watch out for Blitz's Flash-E combo, especially if the enemy jungler is there. If you try to E after that, he'll just hook you and you'll be forced to Flash or die.

3/5 Synergy 2.5/5 Difficulty against WITH BRAND You guys both have decent poke, so make that your primary focus. However, Brand also has decent all-in potential if he can land his stun. If Brand walks up, walk up with him and be prepared to go for an all-in combo if the stun lands. You guys will make them blow key abilities/summs, or at the very least force them in a very uncomfortable spot health-wise. That said, short trades are key here and you should play around Brand's cooldowns. Brand's has very high base damage on his abilities, so take advantage of that. AGAINST BRAND Dodging Brand's W will be one of the main things you do in this lane. If you see him walk up, make sure to walk back and try to juke or bait out his W. You can try to save your E for his stun if you're afraid of dying to an all-in. Punish him hard if he misses key abilities, ESPECIALLY his Q since his kill potential goes down significantly without it. As long as he's not fed, he shouldn't be a problem outside of lane. Just make sure not to clump together with your team in case he ults.

3.5/5 Synergy 1/5 Difficulty against WITH BRAUM Braum is a warden champion meaning he's really good at protecting his allies. The goal of this lane isn't to win lane; your goal should be to safely farm up towards your mid game spike. That said, your all-in is decent if you can get a Braum passive stun off. Your Q applies stacks of his passive in addition to your autos, so you can get it off super quickly. If Braum lands a Q, try to get the stun off but don't force it too hard. No problem in simply scaling safely. AGAINST BRAUM: Braum is very easy to lane against. You shouldn't need to, but you can always E his Q or ult if you're afraid of dying. Poking him out should also be pretty easy. That said, if you're low for some reason, watch out for the fact that he can dash to a minion and then land an easy Q. If you're not careful, he can catch you off guard which could result in your death. Don't stand too close to enemy minions. If his E is ever on cooldown, you can go for an easy punish on him or the enemy ADC. You should also make sure his E is down before you ult, or else he can nullify it completely.

4.5/5 Synergy 1.5/5 Difficulty against WITH JANNA In a recent patch, Riot made Janna more of an actual enchanter rather than a spam W poke bot. Her synergy with Glacial Augment is crazy and her Q is much easier to land now. Her poke is weaker, so the lane now plays less like a poke lane and more like a lane where you want to take short trades. When Janna starts charging up a tornado or walks up to land a quick one, walk up with her and be ready to capitalize on the fact that enemies will be cc'd and will do less damage to you thanks to Glacial. She also has amazing peel which synergizes well with Ezreal's natural safety. She'll roam a lot, so just farm safely when she does. TL;DR: Take trades whenever Janna lands a tornado. Glacial Augment means that you should automatically win trades if she hits the ADC. Play around her tornado and be ready to back her up if/when she lands one. If she leaves lane to roam, just farm. AGAINST JANNA Janna can be a nuisance for the reasons mentioned above, but Ezreal's ability to farm and poke from long range generally means that you shouldn't be letting Janna walk up to hit a short range tornado. If she does, hit her with a W-Q combo. It's probably best not to fight if she hits a tornado since Glacial Augment will reduce your damage. If she misses a tornado, capitalize on that since it's her only way to consistently proc Glacial. You can try baiting out tornados/shields and then going for trades when it's down. She'll likely roam quite a bit, so you should have a free lane to farm in or you can try to all-in the lone ADC. TL;DR: Ezreal should have an easy time avoiding tornados. If she ever misses one, go for trades since she won't be able to proc her Glacial without being forced to use her ult. If she hits one, and is taking Glacial, it's best not to fight. Look to all-in the enemy ADC when she starts roaming or just farm if your support wants to match her roams.

5/5 Synergy 3.5/5 Difficulty against WITH KARMA A classic poke lane that you'll often see even in pro play. When it comes to enchanters, Karma is far and away the one with the most damage in lane. This is a lane where you guys want to poke hard and often in order to make the enemy bot lane's lives a living hell. If she walks up to land a Mantra Q, go for a trade since they'll be slowed meaning it'll be easier to land your skillshots. This is also the case if she lands her W root. You can save your E for when they're low and you think you can get a kill. This is a lane where you generally want to and are expected to win lane. Karma does not scale and eventually just becomes a Mantra E bot. You want to use your lead in lane to get your item spikes faster than normal and pressure the map hard. TL;DR: Win lane hard through constant poke and harass. Make sure you're ready to follow up when Karma lands a Mantra Q or a root. You need to win lane and then end early since Karma doesn't scale as well as other enchanters. You should have an accelerated mid game spike which you can use to win objective fights or skirmishes. AGAINST KARMA Karma doesn't need to be paired with Ezreal to be annoying. You need to focus on dodging her Mantra Q or at minimum have minions to block any potential poke. It shouldn't be too hard thanks to Ezreal's ability to farm/poke from long range, but she can still zone you from the wave thanks to the threat of her Q. If she ever misses her Mantra Q, that's when you should turn and throw some damage back at her or her ADC. Without that huge damage threat, you have a much better chance at winning trades. If you can survive lane, without letting her get too ahead, she'll generally fall off. She'll still be useful thanks to her team-wide shield + movement speed, but she doesn't scale nearly as well as other enchanters. TL;DR: Avoiding getting hit by Mantra Qs is your primary goal. If she misses one, you can take trades since that's pretty much all of her damage gone for ~9-5 seconds. You can try to fake walking up to the wave in order to bait it out. She pressure is on her to win lane through her poke so it's usually fine to farm safely and then have your support be more useful outside of lane. Save your E for her W in lane.

4/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH LEONA Once Leona hits level 2, you guys have a lot of kill pressure. Try to hit level 2 first without shoving in the wave too hard. You want the enemy bot lane to be outside of their turret to make it easier for Leona to engage. If she goes in, you can land a W-E or W-R combo since they enemy will likely be unable to move making it easy to land your skillshots. Post 6, you guys have a lot of burst if Leona can lock them down. Thanks to his E, Ezreal can follow up really well on Leona's engages. Once you have 2-3 items, you and Leona are VERY strong in teamfights/skirmishes, so make sure to pressure the enemy while you're still relevant. AGAINST LEONA If Leona is paired with an Ashe, Jhin, or other hard cc ADC, you can take Cleanse. Leona will generally have a hard time engaging on you so long as you're utilizing your long range and E. Just watch out for her R since it's pretty long range and for any potential Hexflash plays. Similarly to Blitzcrank, you can buffer your E while you're getting hit by her Q, E, or R. However, you're still cc'd even after you arrive at your new location. This can make it so that she can still catch up to you even after you've used E. If she hits you with her E while you buffer yours, she'll follow you to your new location. You can use this to your advantage by placing her too far from her ADC/team and then targeting her, or placing her under your turret. Overall, she'll most likely be more useful in teamfights rather than in lane against an Ezreal. TL;DR: Your long range makes it hard for her to go in. You can input buffer your E when she uses her abilities, but her abilities will still go off and you'll be cc'd at your new location. Her E will follow you if you buffer it while she uses it. Watch out for her using her ult from long range or from out of vision. If paired with an ADC who can follow up on her cc with cc of their own, you can take Cleanse.

1.5/5 Synergy 2.5/5 Difficulty against WITH LULU Not the greatest synergy. As of 12.3, Lulu sits at the very bottom of Ezreal's duos when sorting by winrate. She has decent poke with her Q, but has to use both E and Q if she wants to poke from far away. Ezreal isn't as auto attack focused as other ADCs, so the extra damage from her shield isn't amazing. Her W is great and can insta-win you trades, though. Generally, you want to farm, poke, and play for mid game teamfights. Lulu is great at keeping you and your team alive in those types of fights. In lane, she doesn't do too much with Ezreal. As with most Ezreal + enchanter lanes, you can try to harass the enemy from afar and keep them under their tower. TL;DR: No amazing synergies with Ezreal. You guys can try to poke together using her Q. Basically farm up and play for mid game fights. The good thing about a Lulu/Ezreal lane is that you should pretty much never die in lane. Push the enemy bot lane under tower if possible. Play for teamfights. AGAINST LULU Be careful all-inning against a Lulu lane because she has so much protection available in her kit. However, she's pretty short range so you can poke her out pretty safely and easily. She's super weak against poke lanes because she has no sustain in her kit like other enchanters. If she's walking up to poke, you can punish her. If she uses her E on a minion to try and Q you from far away, take trades since that's 2 of her abilities gone just to poke. If all-inning, be aware that getting polymorphed can make you instantly lose any advantage you had in that fight. TL;DR: Don't force unnecessary all-ins since that's what she wants. Poke from afar and hard punish her if her E is ever on cooldown. If she walks up to throw a Q, punish her. Try not to all-in unless you're 100% sure you guys can kill. Abuse her lack of range and sustain.

4/5 Synergy 3/5 Difficulty against WITH LUX You guys have pretty good poke together and great trades if Lux can land her Q. You're both heavy hitters from long range so abuse that as much as you can. After level 6, you'll both blow up anyone who gets caught by Lux's Q. Don't try to force big fights, just poke and then all-in when you think you can kill. Play around Lux's Q cooldown if you want to all-in. Ezreal/Lux is a very annoying lane to go against and you should play as such. AGAINST LUX Her Es are pretty easy to dodge as long as you're watching her animations. It's important to constantly move around in lane so that she has a hard time predicting where you're going to move. If she misses a Q, you can take a trade and punish her hard for that. If you guys can catch her out, she's usually dead so long as her Q is down. Play around your minions so that she can't land a free Q on you. Lux support falls off heavily after laning phase, so don't be afraid to farm up a storm.

3/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH MORGANA Morgana is similar to Lux with worse poke and burst but better cc. You pretty much just poke by yourself and then follow up with big damage when she lands a Q. Her root lasts so long that you should be able to easily land a W-E-Q or W-R combo on her target. If she ever uses her ult, that's the signal to go hard or go home. She'll generally force a Flash but if she gets the stun off, you'll have no trouble landing your ult or other abilities. Her Black Shield is useful for playing aggressively or disengaging. Basically just poke and play around her cooldowns. AGAINST MORGANA The lane pretty much hinges on how good you are at dodging her Q. There's a pretty clear animation she does when she begins casting her Q, so you can watch for that. You can also stand behind minions so that she can't land it. If she ever misses her Q, that's when you want to trade since it's her only real damage ability early game. You can always just E her binding as well. The lane gets harder when she's paired with an ADC like Jhin who can extend her cc with their own. If that's the case, you can take Cleanse.

4/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH NAMI Nami's a jack of all trades but master of none. However, she pairs really well with Ezreal. You can trade pretty aggressively and take bad trades since Nami can heal you up while poking the enemy. This only becomes a problem for you if the enemy has a Soraka or someone who can heal better than Nami can. Her E synergizes really well with your Q (or any of your combos honestly). If Nami lands a bubble, you can go for big combos. Her ult also slows which makes it easier for you to land your skillshots and her bubble. AGAINST NAMI: Nami isn't too bad to lane against. You have pretty long range so she shouldn't be able to poke you easily. Trades are generally in her favor unless you have a healing support of your own. Make sure you're constantly moving in this lane so that it's harder for her to land a bubble. If she misses a bubble, you can try to go for all-ins since it's her main disengage tool. You can always use your E to dodge her bubble or ult.

3.5/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH NAUTILUS Like Leona, you can follow up on his cc really well. He has more cc than Leona but has a tradeoff in terms of damage. Level 3 is when you can really follow up well since you'll have you can trade for essentially free thanks to your W. Post-6, you can burst anyone down if he catches someone out. While he does have decent peel, he mainly wants to go in so be prepared and play around his cooldowns. AGAINST NAUTILUS Just like with Blitzcrank or Leona, you can buffer your E for when his Q is about to hit you. Just make sure to play very safe once your E is down since his Q comes up faster. You can stand behind minions since his Q doesn't go through minions. If he ever misses a Q, you can turn and deal some damage since he won't be able to do anything else. Just don't walk up too far where you're in range of his R or Flash-auto. You'll often see him paired with other cc ADCs or lane bullies, so your main goal is to poke, dodge his Q, and farm up for your mid game spike.

2.5/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH PYKE As with other engage supports, don't hard shove the lane because Pyke can't easily go in if the enemies are under tower. This lane is pretty straightforward in that you want to poke them down and then Pyke can finish them off. You can also follow up really well when he hooks/stuns someone. Burst is the name of the game here. If it's hard for Pyke to find kills bot, he'll often roam so just farm safely when he does. Pyke excels at roaming so be prepared to be lonely down there. AGAINST PYKE As with Blitz, Leona, etc., you can buffer your E for his hook but you'll still get hit by the cc. If he starts channeling his hook, walk into or around the minion wave so that he can't hit you. It's important to try and stack up a big wave since Pyke hates big waves. Spam ping and alert your team if he starts roaming. Don't expect them to pay attention to your lane and know when Pyke is roaming. Pyke is very snowbally, and it's your job not to let him get ahead whether that's off of you or your team. You can dodge any of his abilities with your E.

1.5/5 Synergy 1/5 Difficulty against WITH RAKAN Rakan isn't great with Ezreal since his poke is nonexistent, and his all-in during lane is decidedly worse than other champs. That said, he's very mobile and is quite safe as a result. This lane is not necessarily one where you win lane. It's one where you farm it out and play for big fights. Rakan excels in these fights where he can charm 3-5 people and knock them all up, setting you up for an easy multi-person ult. In lane, if Rakan goes in, don't engage too hard because he can just dash right back out to you if things go badly. Just take short trades. AGAINST RAKAN Punish him hard if he ever misses his W or wastes his E. His cooldowns are quite long. His W isn't too long range of an ability, so it should be pretty easy to dodge. What you really want to watch out for is his Flash + R combo because you'll probably be charmed and end up dying before you can react. Don't be afraid to E preemptively if you feel he's about to all-in you with his ADC and jungler. Otherwise, you can pretty easily poke him outin lane. In teamfights, be sure not to clump together and have vision of him at all times. If he's paired with Xayah, beware their very strong level 1 and Rakan's potential engage from very far away.

2/5 Synergy 1/5 Difficulty against WITH RELL Rell is champion who can play really aggressively from level 1. Be ready to follow up with your Q spam if she gets a knockup or a flip off. She also trades well at level 2 thanks to her E. The story of this lane is that she's going to go for all-ins quite frequently, so be ready at all times to follow up. Post-6, you're guaranteed to land your ult if she hits hers. The lane itself isn't too great and Rell gets punished very easily if she fucks up her engage. However, if she gets it off then you can follow up pretty easily. Teamfights are where she really excels so play for those. AGAINST RELL Her engage is extremely telegraphed and slow. That said, be careful for her Flash + flip combo since it's her hardest to react to cc combo. If she ever misses her knockup, she's REALLY slow so turn around and focus her or her ADC hard. It's really hard for her to hit her combos on an Ezreal since you have your E. Play around her W cooldown and make sure you're ready to punish her at all times. In teamfights, make sure not to clump like penguins so she doesn't get a multi-person ult off.

4/5 Synergy 3.5/5 Difficulty against WITH SENNA Senna has a lot of harass potential thanks to her long range and quick combos. This is great for Ezreal since he loves poking people down. Now that her Q applies a slow, it makes it really easy for you to land your skillshots. This lane is all about harassing and poking. Know your range limits and play to them. Be careful about getting all-inned or ganked. Despite Senna's amazing scaling, Senna support spikes hard in the mid game similarly to Ezreal so use that to your advantage. AGAINST SENNA Senna can be difficult if your support isn't a pick/engage one since she can almost freely walk up and harass you while also healing herself. If possible, try to stay back and avoid giving her free souls. You need to work with your support and trade/punish her at the same time when she walks up. Pick supports are great because Senna is still an ADC at her core and can't retaliate super well if hit by cc. Her cooldowns are also quite long so you can take advantage of that by playing a bit more aggressively when you know her abilities are down. Often having 2 ADCs isn't great for a team comp, so their team will likely be lacking peel/cc/engage. She's very squishy and easy to kill if she gets hit by cc.

2/5 Synergy 1.5/5 Difficulty against WITH SERAPHINE Seraphine herself isn't in the greatest spot right now and is probably in need of buffs. She's very much a scaling champion whether she's going full AP or support. Her poke is sorta okay and her W, while a very strong ability, has an extremely long cooldown to compensate. Her E is decent cc but she has to use her passive for that. If she does land a root though, that's when you want to go for a short trade. But generally, you want to poke and let Seraphine scale in this lane. She shines in later teamfights where she can get a multi-person ult off which means you're guaranteed to hit everyone with your ult. AGAINST SERAPHINE She won't really be a big threat in lane. Pretty much anytime she wastes an ability, you can go for a punish since her cooldowns are quite long especially when it comes to her W. Just watch out when she has her passive up since she can get decent damage off with a double Q or double E. Don't let her scale and try to abuse her in lane as much as possible. She's weakest around the 15-25 minute mark after which she gets a lot stronger, so play around these timings. In teamfights, make sure not to clump since a 5-man Seraphine ult can straight up win the game for her team.

3.5/5 Synergy 1/5 Difficulty against WITH SONA Sona, like Seraphine, is a hard scaling champion. She's in a good spot right now and very underrated. You have decent poke together, but you need to accept that you're most likely not going to have a lot of kill pressure or lane priority. That said, Ezreal is fine with this since he wants to farm up to his mid game spike anyway. Her gank setup isn't bad if she can get an ult off. If she does, your ult should be a guaranteed hit. This lane is about farming and minimizing the bleeding. If you can get out of the lane phase without being too behind, you'll reap the rewards later when Sona is buffing up your team constantly and providing a ton of unseen pressure on the enemy team. AGAINST SONA Sona is very weak in lane so you want to kill her/her ADC over and over. Her cooldowns are pretty long so play aggressively when she uses/misses them. Avoid getting hit by her Q + empowered auto. Pick/all-in supports are great since she takes damage if you even breathe on her. Don't let her scale and try to end early.

5/5 Synergy 3/5 Difficulty against WITH SORAKA Soraka is in a very good spot right now strength-wise. Soraka and Ezreal have great poke together and you can play really aggressively since Soraka can cover for any bad trades. She's the ultimate healing support so you most likely won't get outhealed by an enemy Nami or Yuumi. Play to your limits without wasting your E. Despite having great trading prowess, you're still both weak to all-ins so it's important to play aggressively without using E. Soraka will often take Barrier since she gets focused so often. AGAINST SORAKA Dodging her Q is imperative in this lane since her and her ADC's trades are much weaker if she can't hit her Qs. Poke her down when she walks up while simultaneously dodging her Qs. Easier said than done, but with enough practice it becomes manageable. In skirmishes and teamfights, try your best to focus her down because she will inevitably become the backbone of her team.

1.5/5 Synergy 1/5 Difficulty against WITH TARIC Despite being the envy of every couple out there, Ezreal and Taric's in-lane relationship is a bit rocky. Taric's early-mid game isn't great and he really starts to shine post-30 minutes. His mana costs are very high, especially if he has to constantly use his Q to heal. That said, you two do have very strong trades until he runs out of mana. It's not uncommon to see Tarics purchase an early Tear to help with mana issues. You can do the thing that Tristana + Taric do where you E forward as Taric is channeling his E so that you get a guaranteed stun. However, this forces you to E into the enemy so only do this when you think you have lethal damage or you're not afraid of the enemy at all. Otherwise, focus on farming and letting Taric scale. His teamfights are game-changing with his ult. AGAINST TARIC His E is so telegraphed and short range that you really shouldn't be getting hit by it at all. His laning phase is really weak and if you're constantly poking him or his ADC, he'll run out of mana trying to keep their health bars topped up. Abuse him in lane, especially if he misses an E. Taric's ult is also really telegraphed so you can just back off (E if you have to) and wait it out. It's on a SUPER long cooldown so there'll be no threat of it for at least a couple of minutes. Make sure you and your team are prepared to back off if he's ulting in a teamfight.

4.5/5 Synergy 3.5/5 Difficulty against WITH THRESH Another straightforward lane. When Thresh walks up to Flay/Hook, you walk up to back him up. If he has Glacial Augment, his E REALLY fucks over whoever he just flayed, so definitely go for a trade. If Thresh misses a key ability, just play back and poke until it's back up. Post-6, your ult is really easy to land if he traps someone in his ult or if he slows someone with is. Thresh usually functions like a pick support, so play as such. AGAINST THRESH You might be used to input buffering your E against other hook champs, but you shouldn't against Thresh since he can still dash to you and bring his ADC with him. And then they're on top of you and you don't have your E. You really want to straight up dodge his hook or stand in the minions so it doesn't hit you. His E range is slightly lower than your auto attack range, so try your best to auto at max range. If he ever misses a Q or E, punish him hard. Thresh is squishier than other hook champs, especially if he's not taking Aftershock. If you don't trust yourself to dodge hooks or if he has an ADC like Jhin or Ashe, feel free to take Cleanse.

4/5 Synergy 3/5 Difficulty against WITH VEL'KOZ This lane is all about poking. Poke from long range and then all-in when you think you have lethal damage. This lane is very weak to all-ins so you'll both need to position carefully. You can go for longer trades if Vel'Koz hits his E. You can either shove the enemy bot lane in for lane priority, or you can freeze the wave in front of your tower and zone the enemy off with constant poke. This lane has a lot of damage and lane control, but one positioning mistake can undo all your progress. AGAINST VEL'KOZ Mindgames are important when it comes to dodging his Q. You can often walk towards him when he uses it which he won't be expecting. If he misses a Q or E, you have a short window to play a bit more aggressively. However, it's not uncommon to be pushed in due to his constant harassment. This makes it easy to gank him. Ranged sustain supports are great into mage supports since they can heal off a lot of their poke. He'll fall off so long as he's not super fed. It's okay to farm up for your mid game spike as long as you're not taking too much poke. Standing in the wave might help since he can't use his W to damage you without pushing the wave as well.

4/5 Synergy 3.5/5 Difficulty against WITH XERATH Similarly to Karma or Vel'Koz, your main goal is to poke. If he ever lands a stun, that's your cue to go for a big damage trade. Just like with Vel, you can either push them under tower for priority or freeze the wave and zone them away from it. Xerath has an easier time landing his abilities than Vel'Koz at the cost of some damage. Try to use your lane advantage to end the game early since Xerath and other poke supports fall off late game. AGAINST XERATH Xerath's W got buffed a while back, so it's something you really need to watch out for. This lane is annoying because you have to constantly be dodging all 3 of his basic abilities. Early boots are nice to have as is having a support who can heal off his poke. If he ever misses his E, you can try to all-in him since he'll have no disengage otherwise. He'll fall off so try to farm up and be more useful than him later.

2.5/5 Synergy 2.5/5 Difficulty against WITH YUUMI Ezreal/Yuumi is a pretty popular combo, but it's not as good in solo queue as it is in pro play. Yes, they're pretty safe, but you basically have 2 champs who are weak in lane and will probably never have priority against competent opponents. The name of the game here is scaling. You want to take short trades and only really all-in if your jungler is there or if you've managed to poke the enemy down into lethal range. Yuumi can heal you up from a bad trade, but it costs a lot of mana so she can't spam it. This lane also makes it so that there's only 1 target for your laners to consistently hit, so you need to be good at dodging abilities. It's sad to say, but you're essentially trying to farm up and not lose too hard so that Yuumi can eventually break up with you go attach to the fed bruiser/assassin. AGAINST YUUMI There are 2 ways to deal with an enemy Yuumi. The first way is to pick an all-in/pick support (Blitz, Naut, Leona, Zyra, etc) and kill her or her ADC over and over in lane. This method means you want to win lane and then transition your advantage over to the mid game where you'll win objective fights and end the game quickly. The other method is to pick a support who will scale alongside or better than Yuumi. Sona and Janna are good picks. You still want to harass her as much as you can, but it's nice to have a plan B in the form of a Sona. If she gets cc'd at all, her W goes on a 5-second cooldown. This is your window to burst her down before she can attach to her teammate again. If you see her get cc'd, spam ping her and try to get your whole team to kill her before she's safe again.

3/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH ZILEAN Zilean is another scaling champion. His early game is pretty bad comparatively, so don't force fights in lane. You want to annoy the enemy with Q poke from both of you. Once he's 6, you can try playing more aggressively since he can bring either of you back to life. But generally, you're going to be poking and letting the both of you scale. If the game goes late, Zilean becomes a huge nuisance that the enemy team is going to have a really hard time dealing with. Tell your support to buy the Groovy Zilean skin since he looks like a crackhead and your opponents won't want to trade against that. AGAINST ZILEAN The old man is really annoying late game, so don't let him scale. Bully him a lot pre-6 because he's really squishy and short ranged. Tr y to bait out his bombs if possible. Even if you get hit by 1, as long as you don't get hit by 2 then you should be good to trade. All-in him as much as you can and try to end before he becomes a threat. If you hate your support, you can step on a bomb and then E to your support to damage them (don't do this).

3.5/5 Synergy 2/5 Difficulty against WITH ZYRA For all intents and purposes, Zyra is a lane bully pick support so keep that in mind. If she lands a root, you want to get in as much damage as you can. Poke if she misses her E. You want to constantly poke/trade with them to the point that you can finish them off with a Zyra R + Ezreal R combo. Her mid and late game aren't terrible in terms of damage, but she's so squishy and immobile that she'll die if she gets caught out at all. Play to win lane through trades and then end the game before the enemy can scale. Zyra is really weak to all-ins so getting and keeping your enemies low is essential. AGAINST ZYRA Watch out for the seeds that spawn since she can turn them into plants. You shouldn't be too close to them unless you're planning on stepping on them to get rid of them. I believe your Q or any ability will instantly kill any plant she spawns. The key to this lane is avoiding getting rooted by her E since she's pretty weak otherwise. You have good range, so it shouldn't be too bad. Play aggressively when her E is down. It's good if you have an all-in or pick support since Zyra can't do much if she's locked down. If she can't root you, then the vast majority of her kill pressure goes away. Don't underestimate her damage, especially if she ults a plant since it'll make them grow stronger. Nothing wrong with playing safe and outscaling her if that's what you and your support want to do.