Talk:Ezreal/@comment-216.55.112.130-20120321163216/@comment-2124153-20120324132026

"You need a poking team"

Obviously you need a poking team to poke. But this is something that Ezreal is good at, and it's one of the things that makes him a great pair with Janna on a team. They have a dominating laning phase against a lot of match-ups, and during poking standoffs she's contributing AD + shield, strong CC, and an instant initiation reset. AP Nidalee also a good member of a poking team with Ezreal. Poking doesn't "fall off", the strategy is always sound when it works, because you're dealing unanswered damage. if you can out-poke the other team, you whittle them down or force them into unfavorable initiations.

"It is nice. But utility extends to far more than just countering a specific character archetype."

"Nice" my ass. It completely shuts down any champion that relies on AS. Here's a list of other ranged carries that can debuff AS like Ezreal can:

If you don't see anything up there, it's because they don't exist. Give me a break. Ezreal doesn't even need to hard commit to land a W, since it has good range and isn't blocked by anything short of a spell shield.

"The same can be said of every viable champion in the game; not just Ezreal, not just carries."

This is a cop-out. The thread here is about Ezreal's lategame viability. His kit is fine for lategame, you just need to play him properly. That means paying attention to team comp, and it also might mean not playing him as an AD caster (otherwise he falls off like Mantheon).