Hey, I'm Real. I am a former LCS coach who previously coached Golden Guardians and Team Liquid. I am also a jungler and Ekko player, I've played Ekko since his release in season 5. I have played many games on him and know a lot of his limits and how to use him optimally. I have peaked masters in Season 5 and usually hover around diamond most seasons now. I want to share this guide with those of you who are looking to pick up Ekko in the future, or maybe just hone your current skills on Ekko now. He is one of my favorite junglers to play on this patch, and I think he is pretty strong still in the right hands. Hope you enjoy!

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Pros + Lots of mobility + Fast clear + Strong mid game + Big team fight threat + Carry potential + Hard to pin down + Strong late game + Few bad match ups in jungle

Cons - Weak early game - High skill cap - Item dependent - Ultimate reliant in fights

Z-Drive Resonance (Passive)

Every third attack or damaging spell on the same target deals bonus magic damage (Cannot be triggered on the same target more than once every 5 seconds), doubled against monsters. If the target is a champion, Ekko gains Movement Speed.

Ekko's passive is a surprisingly useful ability. Not only does it give us bonus magic damage, but more importantly bonus movement speed to kite around bad situations or catch up to an enemy for a kill. This will help you out in way more situations than you expect and is probably one of the strongest passive abilities in the game. A quick combo to proc this is Phase Dive > Timewinder > Auto attack. You will use that combo a lot in your games.


Timewinder

Ekko throws a device that deals magic damage to enemies it passes through. It expands into a slowing field on the first champion hit, slowing everything inside. It then returns to him after a delay, dealing magic damage to all targets hit upon return.

Timewinder is a useful tool in Ekko's combo. This let's you stick to targets better, clear waves and camps fast, and overall let's you do a lot of damage quick. There isn't too much to say about this ability. The big thing to note is when killing camps in your clear, make sure you are efficiently using Timewinder to kill camps as you are pathing to another. Since it effectively hits camps twice (once on the way there, and once back.) if you time the damage properly you can be on your next camp while the 2nd part of Timewinder comes back to kill the camp you were previously on. It takes a bit to get used to but is worth doing.


Parallel Convergence

Passive: Ekko's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage to enemies under 30% health equal to [3% (+1% per 33) of target's missing].

Active: After 3 second delay, Ekko creates a short-lived chronosphere at the target location that slows enemies who enter by 40%. If Ekko enters the sphere, he will detonate it, gaining a shield for 2 seconds. Enemies caught inside are stunned for 2.25 seconds.


Ekko's W is a really powerful ability. 2 seconds of AOE stun is game breaking later on and can win you games outright if you get a successful pick on an enemy carry. This is the ability you will start and use often for clearing camps, the stun allows you to clear without taking too much damage from camps. It's important to remember that Parallel Convergence slows inside the area even if you can't get inside of it to activate the stun. This can be used to cut off chokes and slow enemies to catch up to them if you are not in range to reach your W. You can also pull off cool combos with Chronobreak by using Parallel Convergence behind you on your shadow to ult back to it and instantly stun + do massive damage to whoever is there. Ekko has many complex combos like this that you can pull off with Parallel Convergence.

It's also worth mentioning that the passive portion of this ability is very strong. It gives you extra damage on targets at low HP %'s, this is good for clearing camps and also finishing off enemies who get away with lower health.


Phase Dive

Ekko dashes a short distance in the targeted direction. His next basic attack will deal bonus magic damage and teleport him to his target.

A basic ability but a good one. Phase Dive is your main source of mobility on Ekko, it has a short cool down for a dash and let's you stick to enemies or escape. Does deceptively high burst damage later when coupled with Dark Harvest.


Chronobreak

Ekko turns back time, going briefly untargetable and invulnerable. He teleports to where he was 4 seconds ago and deals magic damage to nearby enemies on arrival. Additionally, Ekko heals, increased by 3% for each 1% of his health lost over the last 4 seconds.

Ekko has one of the best ultimates available in the game. Chronobreak is an amazing source of damage if landed on an enemy carry, but better yet this effectively lets you kill a target and reset in a fight. Ekko wants to kill a carry on the back line and ult back out generally to be full health and re-enter a fight. If done correctly you can turn most fights in your favor with this ability. There is a lot of depth to Chronobreak but the most important tip is to get good at estimating damage that you will be taking in a team fight to know when to ult properly. The worst that can happen to you in a fight is greeding too hard saving your R and dying before using it. Likewise, using your ult too early before killing a carry can be sub optimal too. Your best bet is if you cannot kill a carry in a fight, get them low enough where they cannot re-enter and then ult out. That way you'll still have a number advantage when you return to a fight.

It's also important to note that Chronobreak allows you to dodge abilities, including targeted ones about to land on you such as Ace in the Hole or Unleashed Power. Chronobreak can and should be used defensively in most cases so don't be afraid to use it in those situations. This can turn a play around by completely negating multiple abilities in a fight.

Flash

Always take Flash, no exceptions. It is strictly the best summoner spell available in the game.


Smite

Straight forward enough. We're jungling, only other option we can take.

Ekko Jungle



I have run many different pages testing keystones + secondary trees on the new patch and I've come to conclusion that this is one of the best in general. Dark Harvest is better than Electrocute for its snowball potential and how many kills you get in solo queue. The damage is gives you generally outclasses electrocute in a solo queue environment.

Sudden Impact is great with Phase Dive since it allows us to proc it often.

Eyeball Collection is the best in its tree in my opinion. Extra damage is never bad, and I feel it outclasses Ghost Poro. It tends to be easy to stack on Ekko since in the mid game you are getting a lot of kills/assists ganking around the map.

Ravenous Hunter is insane and a must take on Ekko. This helps you gain health back during your clear (which is already pretty fast) and let's you gank lanes healthier. Also in a team fight this heals you for a deceptively high amount. Relentless Hunter is good but pales in comparison to how strong of a rune Ravenous Hunter is.

Magical Footwear is a great rune and the main reason we take inspiration as our secondary tree. A free kill's worth gold value at 12 minutes (sometimes earlier) is fantastic. They are also slightly better than regular boots, so the value only goes up. I think this rune makes the inspiration tree edge out the sorcery tree in terms of usefulness alone.

Cosmic Insight is not a crazy rune but it still is somewhat useful for us. The 5% cdr + max cdr is nice, since we build 40% cdr in every game, that turns into 45% cdr. We also use a number of actives on Ekko such as Zhonya's Hourglass and Hextech Rocketbelt, so getting those up a bit quicker is a nice bonus.

Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes

Generally the jungle item you will be going in most games. The extra slow is great for helping close the gap on Ekko after an enemy flashes away from your combo. When combined with the extra move speed you get from your passive you can generally catch anyone who runs from you with chilling smite.


Skirmisher's Sabre - Runic Echoes

Take this against hard match ups or hard dueling champs, especially if you do not have an early lead. Good in match ups like Lee Sin, Xin Zhao, or Olaf. This lets you duel junglers and is generally just good for 1v1s and skirmishes. Early game is pretty weak for Ekko so we are mostly trying to avoid the enemy jungler - but there are times where you can't avoid them and that makes this a useful buy.

Hextech Protobelt-01

This will be your core 2nd item every game. Hextech Rocketbelt synergizes so well on Ekko and gives us extra damage and mobility, as well as wave clear. It also gives us health and AP, 2 amazing stats for Ekko as an AP assassin. Hextech Rocketbelt is too good to pass up and as such we build it every single game.

Lich Bane

I tend to build Lich Bane 3rd most games to help snowball. The build path with Sheen makes this a great option for the extra CDR + damage. If you are ahead you almost always want to pick this up 3rd except in certain sitations explained below.

Zhonya's Hourglass

Zhonya's Hourglass 4th is usually pretty core. However, I will build this 3rd and before Lich Bane in certain situations. If the enemy team has a fed AD assassin like Zed, Talon, Qiyana or Yasuo then building this 3rd instead is very efficient. Pick this up if there are big AD threats on the enemy team early and the game is getting out of control. You can also grab an early Stopwatch to sit on and finish your Lich Bane if you want. I tend to prefer to just finish my Zhonya's Hourglass outright so I have more than one use, but depending on the situation a Stopwatch can suffice.

Rabadon's Deathcap

Nice final item to round out your build. We already have 40% CDR at this point from our build so the extra damage and passive from Rabadon's Deathcap becomes more efficient. Full build Ekko is a huge threat in the late game and you should be really strong at this point, especially if you snowballed early. If the enemy team has a lot of MR at this point you can also opt for a Void Staff instead as your last item. I think Void Staff is a lot more situational though and you will usually just be building Rabadon's Deathcap last instead.

Once you are full build don't forget to buy a Elixir of Sorcery when you have the gold for some extra damage in team fights. The extra true damage adds up and can change the outcome of a fight.

Early Game

Early game as Ekko is one of his weakest points in the game. You typically can't duel most junglers early as you are pretty weak before you get your Runic Echoes item. Generally it is best to farm up camps safely and try to secure the crab opposite of the enemy jungler.

I tend not to fight too much early unless you are against an equally weak early game jungler (which there aren't many). Things that get low in their jungle early can be killed, like Dr. Mundo, but most strong junglers in the current meta like Lee Sin, Kha'Zix, and Graves will destroy you early. Farming up for your Runic Echoes and playing safely should be your main priorities in the early game.

Mid Game

Things start to get fun for Ekko in the mid game once he finishes his Runic Echoes and Hextech Rocketbelt. You can begin to do massive amounts of damage with only 1 to 2 items on Ekko and can get kills around the map pretty easily. Look for skirmishes and ganks at this point and try to abuse your power spike.

At this point you should be strong enough to contest Dragon or Rift Herald and should be looking to secure these objectives when possible. Keep up pressure and try to gank as much as possible while you're strong. You should be able to snowball if you played proactively with the help of Dark Harvest.

Late Game

Ekko remains very strong in the late game with his ability to pick off a carry in a fight and reset with Chronobreak. Look to kill a carry and reset in a team fight to give your team a numbers advantage. Also look to hit a multi-target Parallel Convergence, good use of this can completely turn a fight in your team's favor later in the game. Ekko is pretty good at flanking with the use of his W, you can use it to cut off a choke point and slow the enemy team even if you don't activate the stun portion of it.

Ekko is not terribly good at dealing with the front line so it is generally not recommend to try peeling with him. Kill the carries in the back and then work on what's left of the front line after. If played properly in the late game fights should almost always be 4v5 after you get a pick. Ekko is pretty good at setting up flanks with Parallel Convergence and Phase Dive. Look to cut off the enemy team from the side or behind to start a fight.

Thanks for reading my guide on Ekko. I hope you take the information learned here into your next Ekko game on the rift.



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