User blog comment:Gen Nakazora/Meta, Wolves, and Flash/@comment-4131177-20130417081321

Basically what the others said, but one more thing about Flash. Imagine you're Ezreal. You got this cool E spell to get away, it has shorter CD and even deals damage, much more awesome. So you decide not to take flash. Now, Flash has many uses. You can use it offensively or defensively. If you now decide not to take flash, you are forced to use Ezreal's E ONLY defensively. Because, a smart enemy, jungler or ganker (you will encounter those as soon as you start playing ranked) will just wait for you until you use your E, and then attack you, while you have no chance for escape. You could solve that by saying "I only use my E when i would use flash." This would mean that your champion basically just has 3 abilities instead of 4 to lane (gotta save your E, dont you). Which sucks, cuz your enemy has 4 abilities. + Flash. This means that your second summoner spell would have to compensate for a "laning- skill" - and none of the summoner spells can do that, since ALL their cooldowns are too high. Another thing is that having a flash at hand will simply save you, even when you have another spell that does the job. Same scenario, you are ez. The enemy Vayne (you can insert any AD carry here, i just like to pick specific examples cuz it makes thinks easier to picture) gets aggressive on you, you were out of position and unfortunately got stunned (happens to the best). Now you think "Fuck, gotta escape! Good thing i have my E spell for that!" So you press E and jump away. Guess what happens. Vayne will just use HER flash, and she'll be right behind you, hit you with some more autoattacks, you're dead. Flash wouldn't have saved you there. Thats why. Flash is very strong, and having it is always better than not having it. There ARE exceptions for champs that can be flashless (Mundo, Olaf, Shyvana), but those are mostly junglers or champions with very unique abilities to truly compensate for that.