Introduction
Ekko is one of the most popular champions in League of Legends. He is a versatile fighter who can fill almost any role on the team and is often described as one of the strongest mid laners in the game. His kit has a mixture of strong crowd control, mobility, and burst damage, making him a well-rounded character.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Ekko, as well as the different build paths that he can take in the game.
Overview of Ekko’s Abilities
In the game League of Legends, Ekko is a scrappy and resourceful champion who specializes in tricky plays and tricking his opponents. He has the unique ability to manipulate time and play with it in the battlefield to gain an advantage when fighting against his opponents. This ability combined with his other abilities make him a deadly combatant on the field.
Ekko’s abilities are as follows:
- Parallel Convergence: This is Ekko’s ultimate ability which allows him to create a time-warped zone of slowed time. All champions within this area will slow down while enemies outside of it will be unable to attack or move. While inside the zone, Ekko can damage enemies with his basic attacks or spells and gain bonus magic damage on each hit and movement speed after exiting the zone.
- Phase Dive: This allows Ekko to quickly dive in and out of combat by throwing out a wave of energy that damages enemies as well as knocking them back. After using it, Ekko gains increased movement speed for a short duration before he must refresh its cooldown by waiting for it to expire again before using it again in battle.
- Timewinder: As this active spell is cast, Ekko throws out an exploding disc of energy that will go in both directions before collapsing back into himself, dealing damage to all enemies hit along its path.
- Chronobreak: Using this active spell, Ekko rewinds himself back 1 second in time when he casts it which then causes him to heal up any lost health during that short period plus bonus shield health too, making him much harder to take down by enemies.
Early Game
Early game is an incredibly important part of winning in League of Legends and playing Ekko comes with an advantage in this stage. He has great poke potential with his Q ability as well as an escape with his W and ultimate. Ekko has a great laning phase thanks to his strong waveclear and reliable damage.
Let’s dive in and look at the specifics of what makes Ekko such a great champion to play in the early game:
Best Items to Purchase
Now that you’ve begun your journey with Ekko, it’s time to look into the best items for him. Purchasing the right items for this champion is essential for getting the most out of his kit and maximizing your chances of success. When shopping for Ekko-specific items, here are some of the choices you have and what makes them good:
Core Items:
- Rod of Ages: This item grants Ekko health, mana, and ability power. The passive also allows him to gain experience at a faster rate so he can start galvnizing sooner than other mid laners.
- Luden’s Echo: This item offers Ekko nice extra burst damage when combined with other abilities. Its passive also gives a temporary movement speed boost when using abilities, giving Ekko extra mobility to stick close to his targets and deal maximum damage in team fights.
Attack Damage Items:
- Titanic Hydra: This is an all-around offensive item that provides good survivability due to its shield and large area damage. Additionally, it gives bonus attack range which allows Ekko more time to set up his combos from afar without taking much punishment in return.
- Infinity Edge: This powerful weapon is great for any champion that relies on heavy amounts of auto attacks or crit damage like Ekko does with his Temporal Sunder ultimate ability. With bonus AD and Crit Chance stats, this weapon will help you quickly eliminate enemies or escape sticky situations quickly.
For more information on selecting items for League of Legends champions check out our guide on League Itemization!
Best Runes to Use
For runes, Ekko players should prioritize Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction so they can maximize their damage output. Taking Fleet Footwork and Conqueror as your keystones for the Keystone slot is a great start. For Secondary Runes, taking Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace are all viable options. As for Tertiary Runes, Bestow is recommended to increase the effectiveness of their sustain.It’s also great to take Presence of Mind along with Final Hour as CDR bonuses and some additional survivability as well as attack speed bonuses.
For Quinary and Sextary runes, you may want to take additional scaling or cooldown reduction depending on your playstyle or team comps.
Overall, having a combination of Attack speed, Armor Penetration or Piercing Thoughts (against enemy tanks), Cooldown Reduction and Sustain will provide an optimal rune page for playing Ekko in early game.
Best Lane Partners
Ekko‘s best lane partners are ranged champions like Ashe or Jinx who can give him the space he needs to farm, play safe and set up plays with his ultimate. He benefits greatly from having a partner that can stay away from any potential danger and poke enemies in order to make it easier for him to get his lane priority.
Champions like Kog’Maw, Sivir and Tristana have good synergy with Ekko due to their long-ranged basic attacks which enable them to keep pressure on the enemy team while Ekko farms in safety. Other ranged champions like Ezreal, Corki and Varus have high poke damage which helps them take trades more easily than if by themselves.
Additionally, having a tank champion with crowd control such as Malphidie or Nautilus allows Ekko to stick close and use his own cc in combination with theirs for better gank setups or followups. Even healers such as Soraka or Janna are strong lane partners since they’ll be able to provide health regeneration during hard matchups, in addition to being able to turn around any bad situation by healing or shielding Ekko.
Mid Game
Mid game is the most important stage for Ekko in League of Legends (LoL). The decisions you make in the mid game can greatly influence the outcome of the game. Ekko has a few great options for the mid game, all of which can be used to gain an advantage. This section will discuss the pros and cons of each option and how to use them to your advantage in the mid game.
Teamfight Tactics
Teamfight Tactics is an intense and strategic part of the game when playing as Ekko. In most team compositions, Ekko can take on a variety of roles depending on his items and builds – such as initiating fights, splitting damage, providing crowd control, and providing utility to the team.
In order to maximize his effectiveness in a teamfight situation he should build around strong champions that have high area-of-effect damage, such as Aurelion Sol or Brand. Ekko also has several active abilities which can make him more effective in teamfights – such as Parallel Convergence (which creates a powerful burst area of effect), Phase Dive (which creates an extra layer of mobility), and Chronobreak (which gives Ekko some extra survivability).
When playing as Ekko, it is important to think about positioning in relation to both your allies and enemies. His Parallel Convergence ability can provide a strong area-of-effect stun if placed properly in between enemies and allies. Meanwhile, Phase Dive allows for extra mobility for him should he find himself being forced out of position by enemy spellcasts. Another way that could be used is to create vision – also known as “warding” – to keep track on the movements of enemies while fighting over objectives or capturing points on the map.
In short, Teamfight Tactics plays an important role when playing League Of Legends’ own “Dark Child“, Ekko. Knowing which roles he best fits into your composition will increase your chances of winning a spectacular and hard fought Team Fight! By understanding his abilities; being aware of positioning; creating vision; building around other champions with high AOE damage capabilities; you will effectively take control over the Rift one victory at a time!
Best Items to Purchase
When it comes to mid game and Ekko, there are a few important items to consider purchasing. The most important of all is a legendary item, Zeke’s Convergence. This item turns his W into an absolute powerhouse, allowing it to slow enemies massively and deal area of effect damage around him. Not only that, it makes him much easier to engage fights with and stay in them for longer periods of time.
Furthermore, additional magic penetration items like Void Staff and Abyssal Mask provide Ekko with a lot of poke power and safety in team fights. It is also important to purchase defensive items such as Guardian Angel or Adaptive Helm as even if enemy mid laners are doing well such as Kassadin or LeBlanc they still won’t be able to burst you down if you have enough health/armor/magic resist stats.
Lastly, boots should be prioritized so that Ekko can roam around the map quickly and keep up with his adversaries in combat situations when needed.
Best Team Compositions
In general, any team composition is good for Ekko in the mid lane. If you enjoying playing it defensively, then a tanky Jungler and Top laner with a Support that can provide good crowd control should work well. On the other side of things, if you’re playing Ekko aggressively or as an assassin-style mid laner, aim to pair him up with champions that can provide heavy burst damage or have global presence such as Syndra or Azir.
No matter what team composition you go for, it’s important to make sure that the enemy team is not too focused on counter picking Ekko while your team takes its time picking other champions. Going up against strong hard counters such as Azir should be avoided at all costs if possible. If a strong counter is unavoidable, capitalize on their weaknesses (poor early game!) and try to get ahead before they become too powerful in later stages of the game.
Late Game
Late game, Ekko has the potential to be a game-changing champion with his ultimate, Chronobreak. With his ultimate, Ekko can power through any fight with increased survivability and mobility, while at the same time dealing a huge amount of damage. His kit is unique in that it allows him to be a viable threat at any stage of the game.
In this article, we will discuss the strengths that make Ekko a formidable opponent in the late game:
Best Items to Purchase
Understanding which items are best for your champion is essential in determining success. Each item should be carefully selected to compliment and improve your character, based on your strategies and the enemy team’s composition.
For Ekko, the best items for him will depend on the situation that you are in. Generally speaking, however, you should focus on obtaining items with survivability and mobility, such as Guardian Angel and Zhonya’s Hourglass. Other great purchases include Mercury’s Treads, Death’s Dance, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Hurricane Catalyst and Protobelt-01.
Remember to buy Adaptive Helm early in the game if you need additional protection against magic damage dealers – its shield ability can be a real lifesaver when placed correctly! Lastly, purchase Liandry’s Torment if you need additional damage dealing capabilities; it not only gives your spells more potency but its passive procs whenever someone gets hit by it multiple times.
In conclusion, make sure to keep tabs on what kind of enemy composition you’re facing so that you can customize your build accordingly – missing even one key item could cost you a game!
Best Team Compositions
When playing Ekko, it is important to think through what the best team compositions would be. Ideally, the team should have a tank that can soak up damage and a mage or marksman to provide the backline damage. As a champion that deals primarily magic damage, Ekko is best paired in the mid-lane with AP champions like Ahri, Syndra, Kassadin or Malzahar.
In addition to having an AP champion in the mid-lane who can burst down enemies quickly, it’s important to have ranged champions in your team composition who can provide poke and peel for Ekko – these include Caitlyn, Varus and Kog’Maw. These champions are great for locking down opponents and providing support for Ekko throughout late game skirmishes and team fights. Moreover, these other ADC’s allow you to split push which gives your team an added layer of pressure when taking objectives.
Finally large skirmishes always rely on tanky frontliners who can absorb lots of damage as well as initiating fights for their teammates. Great counters with enough tankiness whilst providing reliable CC include Maokai, Sejuani and Nautilus – all being great selections in kicking off large teamfights while giving Ekko time to initiate his ultimate along with bouncing around between targets at will. All of these frontline tanky comps provide coverfire while still giving enough space for Ekko’s initiation on key objectives.
Best Strategies to Win
While Ekko is a powerful champion with an incredibly versatile kit, he does require some particular strategies to fully win in the late game. Knowing these key strategies will empower players to successfully utilize this champion and define their plays in the future.
Firstly, Ekko excels at close range situations and can use his immense mobility to chase down targets and draw out fights. By taking advantage of his ultimates, players can easily maximize their survivability for extended periods of time. Additionally, by utilizing his passive Ekko can easily stack armor, magic resistances and even bonus health to put himself out of harm’s way. Lastly, Ekko can use his ultimate in combination with large amounts of crowd control effects like stuns or slows to discard targets from fights or even pursue running enemies upon expirement of his ultimates’ effects.
Secondarily, Ekko benefits tremendously from team compositions that work with champions that synergize well with:
- assault damage
- bonus damage taken from enemies caught in combat as a result of said bonus damage
- simple attack speed steroids for additional burst damage on enemy planes at specific moments throughout the game.
While having multiple crowd control champions does not guarantee an excellent teamfight presence by any means, it does offer diverse tools that allow the player more reliable access to critical target locations deep within enemy formations which spells inevitable doom when flanked by multiple teammates launching a full retardant combo assault on concentrate sections of weak spots throughout the fight’s’ duration ensuring favourable outcomes post-combat resolution interactions with enemies trying to go against what will have been arguably just as powerful a pivotally placed play as any other through history!
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ekko can easily be considered one of the best mid laners in the game. His kit allows him to excel in multiple roles and can be invaluable on both offense and defense. He is extremely safe with his invisibility ult, and provides reliable CC, mobility and burst potential that has the potential to turn fights around quickly. This makes him an extremely versatile champion that can fit into almost any team composition.
Ekko is a champion that requires practice and patience in order to master, but with the right amount of effort he will soon become one of your favorites!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is Ekko’s role in League of Legends?
A1: Ekko is a champion who specializes in the role of a mage-assassin in the League of Legends game. He excels at bursting down enemies quickly and is a great pick for both solo queue and team-based play.
Q2: What are some of Ekko’s abilities?
A2: Ekko has a variety of abilities that make him a powerful champion. His passive, Z-Drive Resonance, gives him bonus damage after using an ability, while his Q, Timewinder, slows and deals damage to enemies. His W, Parallel Convergence, marks enemies and gives Ekko bonus movement speed when he moves near them. His E, Phase Dive, allows Ekko to dash and damage enemies in an area. Lastly, his ultimate, Chronobreak, allows him to teleport back in time and restore some of his health.
Q3: What items should I buy on Ekko?
A3: The items you should buy for Ekko depend on the situation, but some items that are great for him are Luden’s Echo, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff, Liandry’s Torment, and Zhonya’s Hourglass. These items will give Ekko the power he needs to burst down enemies quickly.