League of Legends Champion Spotlight: Ekko

Learn to wreak havoc among your enemies’ ranks, and beat a hasty escape – all within the blink of an eye – with Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time in League of Legends.

Released in May of 2015, Ekko has been one of the most impactful characters League of Legends has seen in both casual and competitive play. His dynamic kit, featuring a dazzling array of stuns, dashes, shields, slows, and the introduction of a time-reversal mechanic has earned him the rightful reputation of being a jack-of-all-trades.

Ekko’s utility as a top-notch skirmisher, slippery assassin, and occasional off-tank, make him an incredible champion. Earning your stripes on Ekko will not only help with utilizing his kit to its full potential but will be a gratifying experience each and every time you leave your opponents in a daze – if not dead – as you tumble and time-travel your way across Summoner’s Rift.

Passive: Z-Drive Resonance

This passive is what allows Ekko to weave his way in and out of control without the necessary use of his ultimate, as well as allow him to trigger his signature explosive burst damage. Triggering three hits of his passive (delineated by the number of rings around an opponent) will grant Ekko a considerable speed boost (in upwards of 80% at level 16) for a few seconds. His passive damage also scales with 80 percent of ability power, making the ability incredibly lethal combined with a primarily assassin build. Ekko’s auto attacks and abilities trigger his passive, so the key to fully exploiting his passive is to find creative ways – often entailing some sort of risk – to proc all three rings in order to deal maximum damage and gain the movement speed needed to gain distance from any encroaching enemies.

Q: Timewinder

This is Ekko’s bread-and-butter skill in lane, primarily for harass and wave clear. With its low mana cost and cooldown, you can afford to throw out timewinders generously for those hard-to-reach creeps. When you’re looking to get aggressive, you can toss this in the direction of your opponent for a slow that will help you gain distance. Conversely, when making a getaway, this ability serves as an excellent gap-creator for slowing chasing foes. Keep in mind that this ability will always come back to your character – whether you’re on the move or even dead – so finding a way to land the ability on its way back is just as important than the initial trip, especially considering the higher damage on timewinder’s return trip.

W: Parallel Convergence

Proper use of this parallel convergence can easily distinguish the difference between a proficient Ekko player, and a great one. Timing, location, and commitment are all vital factors into maximizing the capabilities of this ability, which grants Ekko the power to stun all enemies in the blast radius for 1.75 seconds and gain a massive shield scaling with AP if he steps into the blast diameter. Otherwise, the ability will slow enemies when detonated. As with timewinder, you can drop parallel convergence in your opponents’ path in order to dissuade them from chasing.

Otherwise, the ability will slow enemies when detonated. As with timewinder, you can drop parallel convergence in your opponents’ path in order to dissuade them from chasing.

The range to cast this ability is considerable, enabling Ekko to create plays for himself or his team from afar. Predicting an enemy’s movements, aiming the sphere of impact three seconds before detonation, and judging whether to commit are acquired skills that, if mastered, will make Ekko’s playstyle more feasible and satisfying. Stunning groups of enemies with an ambush parallel convergence always has the chance of being the decisive factor in a team fight.

A neat trick sure to befuddle your enemies and bedazzle your team: parallel convergence can be triggered even while Ekko is invulnerable, meaning that luring enemies with a perfectly timed Zhonya’s is more than a viable option. As of his last patch update, Ekko can also chronobreak across a primed parallel convergence to trigger the stun and shield effect.

E: Phase Dive

Phase Dive is at the crux of Ekko’s mobility, giving him the means of advancement as well as escape. The dash has a moderate range, which can be used to jump over most walls on Summoner’s Rift, including the river wall next to the brush in the mid lane. This is particularly useful for catching enemies off-guard, as a well-executed phase dive-timewinder combo can easily take an enemy carry from 100-0. Phase dive is at its most effective when used to trigger a third proc on an enemy; for example, landing both sides of timewinder on an enemy squishy and dashing in for the passive proc will inflict heavy damage, if not outright kill them.

A small mechanic tip: when committing to a skirmish, activating timewinder in the direction of your intended target before making the leap with phase dive will guarantee that your timewinder will instantaneously spawn in front of your target the moment you make your leap, reducing room for error.

R: Chronobreak

Ekko’s ultimate, Chronobreak, is a one-of-a-kind mechanic in League, notable for both offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as its reputation as the highest AP-ratio ability – a whopping 1.5 – that inflicts damage in a blast zone surrounding the area he was four seconds prior to pulling the trigger. Utilizing Ekko’s ult for offensive purposes whenever possible will be pivotal toward realizing the full potential of his kit. That being said, there is enough damage in his kit to go around, so as long as other parts of his kit are being realized to their full potential, there is no shame in using his ultimate as a defensive measure. In fact, most of the time, your objective should be to dart in, dump your load of damage on a target, preferably an enemy carry, and get out of there before the enemy has the chance to crowd control or burst you down.

Other times, where enemies might be on your tail, or when you can position your ultimate in the vicinity of several chasing squishies, using your ultimate to inflict serious damage on the enemy backline might be the best usage of your ultimate. In any case, you want to use your ultimate in a way that enables you to dish out damage with other parts of your kit, or as an all-in approach that while eliminating your means of escape, will allow you to deal some hefty collateral damage. The worst way to play Ekko is not leveraging the liberty that his “do-over” ultimate grants to get in as much damage as possible.

Don’t be stingy with your ult, but also be tactical and committed to your plan of attack.

Laning

Ekko is inherently handicapped by his melee status in a lane dominated by ranged mages, but an efficient usage of his timewinder to collect backline creeps that would otherwise be risky to last hit can help him get through tougher matchups. Try to use your timewinder whenever possible to collect creeps and harass your lane opponent collectively. If you end up snagging an enemy with your timewinder, and they end up walking up too close, don’t be afraid to go on the offensive and get your passive proc off for some serious damage. If you’re trying to set up a trap, for a gank or otherwise, try to go into the fog of war and set up your parallel convergence for a surprise stun. If you’re level 6, and your lane opponent is within kill range, don’t be afraid to drop a quick combo even if they are under turret and ult back to safety.

Build

With recent nerfs to his base values, AP assassin Ekko is the most preferable build in terms of game impactfulness. Protobelt is more or less a necessary first purchase for its gap-closing and burst potential synergizing well with Ekko’s kit. Depending on lane matchup, Zhonya’s, Lich Bane, and Abyssal, would be excellent second or three-item purchases. Rounding out the build with Void Staff and Rabadon’s – the order should be determined by enemy team composition and amount of MR, e.g. more MR should compel an earlier void staff purchase – helps Ekko retain some late game relevance.

Against all-AD compositions, I like to utilize an AP off-tank build – Protobelt, iceborn gauntlet, ninja tabi, and zhonyas as core items. This empowers Ekko to be much more durable against AD threats without trading off too much of his burst damage.

Teamfights

It is not often advisable to play Ekko primarily as a team-fight initiator, although at times when there is a pick to be made, exceptions can be made. As Crowd Control can be debilitating to Ekko’s ability to “snap back” and save himself from sticky situations, waiting out crowd control or letting front line initiators draw attention away from yourself will enable you to optimize damage and odds of survival. Ekko doesn’t necessarily stack up well against tanks, so forgoing detection is in your best interest. It’s important to re-emphasize that if something goes awry, or if a squishy escapes to safety and you’re suddenly stuck in enemy territory, don’t be afraid to ult backward to save yourself.

Next: How to effectively mid lane in League

If you haven’t given Ekko a go yet, I highly recommend picking him up as a go-to mid laner, or even occasional top. With his slipperiness, versatility, high skill cap, and predilection for making big plays, Ekko is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding champions out there to play in League.

Home/Editorials

League Champion Spotlight: Ekko

By Albert Cao | Jan 2, 2017