I'm the Ink King, an Ekko jungle main. I've played League of Legends since the start of Season 10 and have played in esports for the majority of my time playing this game. I have experience against up to Diamond level players in this experience and through Clash. My goal with this guide is to help you learn Ekko as a champion better and learn the fundamentals of jungle (and some aspects of other lanes) so you can become a better player. If you have any questions or comments please leave a comment!

IGN: TheInkKingLoL Region: NA Rank: Silver III

PROS CONS + Highly mobile + High burst damage + Strong cc + Very strong ultimate + Extremely fast jungle clear + Good map control - Semi-squishy - Easily countered - High skill ceiling - Difficult to learn - Hard-to-land cc - Falls off in the late-game Ekko is a very strong champion with lots of burst damage and lots of scaling. His ultimate, Chronobreak, is extremely powerful, allowing for escape, healing, and damage (more on this in the ability explanation part of the guide). He also has a very powerful AOE cc, Parallel Convergence, which not only provides a stun but also a shield. Due to the nature of his kit, Ekko also has one of the fastest jungle clears in the game right now, which adds to his ability to move around the map faster, and allows him to have more map control. As a burst assassin, Ekko is kind of squishy, and can usually get killed pretty quickly if he is caught. Because of this, he is also easily countered by cc. Ekko also has a very high skill ceiling, which means that he is so complex that it takes a long time to be able to fully learn his kit and combos. Due to his complexity, he is also very difficult to learn. One of the biggest fallback of his abilities is Parallel Convergence being very difficult to land, especially in low elo because you have to correctly predict the movements of the enemies, and also be sure that you are in the fog of war.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Standard for 95% of champions. If you are not taking this in matches on Ekko I can guarantee you that you will find yourself in a situation where you wish you grabbed it. SMITE: The absolute non-negotiable for junglers. If you do not take Smite you can't buy items you will need like Hailblade. If you don't take this you will definitely lose the match.

PRIMARY RUNES This keystone gives a lot of healing and extra damage. It's super useful for staying in fights longer and has great scaling into the late game. This is the best bruiser keystone. A really good rune for tower diving and staying in fights as long as possible. The healing it provides it great and the extra gold can help marginally to get powerspikes sooner. The tenacity provided from this rune in a meta full of cc is super helpful and often necessary. This rune has powerful tenacity scaling and will help you to stay relevant in fights for as long as possible. This rune gives you some increased damage to lower health targets, so you still have some ability to assassinate targets.

SECONDARY RUNES This has great synergy with Phase Dive and adds some burst damage to your full combo on a low health or squishy target. The increased damage in fights can also make a huge difference. With the nerfs to Ravenous Hunter it's much less useful of a rune when you have a lot of healing. However whether this is a better option than Zombie Ward is subject to change. The healing this build receives from other sources (i.e. healing) should more than make up for choosing Zombie Ward, so remember it is viable if you prefer straight damage scaling and vision control.

PRIMARY RUNES Dark Harvest adds a lot to your burst damage in all stages of the game. It's a powerful multi-kill rune for teamfights but still has use in 1v1s. It also is a powerful scaling rune. Take this rune when there are 3 or more squishy champions, but the enemy team isn't looking to scale into late game. An example of a scaling comp would be Vayne, Kayle, and Vladimir. This rune has powerful synergy with Ekko because of Phase Dive. The increased damage from the dash adds to your burst power against single targets. It's also the best rune in this row. This rune has powerful scaling that is always available. Unlike Eyeball Collection this rune can help you scale no matter how behind you are in a match. It also is extremely educational for lower elo players (gold and below) because it teaches them to look for vision control. It's also great because once you get into higher elos it's extremely useful for the utility aspect of vision. Ravenous Hunter isn't as good as it used to be anymore but it's still decent. It's focused more now on getting the healing later in the game after you've gotten objectives and multiple takedowns (kills or assists).

SECONDARY RUNES This is a really good rune for tower diving, which is something that is fairly simple to do (simply use Parallel Convergence behind the target and then, if you have ultimate, aggro the target, then use Chronobreak to escape tower damage after the target is dead). It also gives a little extra gold, which is good for getting powerspikes a little bit sooner. Since this build is styled like an assassin, cc completely counters this build. Legend: Tenacity helps to deal with strong cc. It's a powerful rune to take with this season being based on extended fighting and the amount of cc available in the game.

PRIMARY RUNES This build should be taken when there are 3 or more squishy targets on the enemy team and then enemy team is focused on scaling into the late game (ex Vayne, Kayle, and Master Yi). This runeset gives you extremely powerful early game. The problem with this runeset is you don't have a powerful late game, however if you are winning early this shouldn't be a problem. This has powerful synergy with Phase Dive and adds damage to our powerful burst. Due to the necessary early game strength it's likely you will be getting kills early and so you can stack this rune very quickly. It's better versus Zombie Ward here because that rune takes longer to stack and removes some early game power. This rune gives you some healing and is really the only option in this row. None of the other runes here are really that useful on a champion like Ekko.

SECONDARY RUNES This is a free 300 gold which can be used for early powerspikes. If you are getting kills early (as you should with this build), you'll get your boots faster so it's a powerful early game investment. You should take this rune because you need to be able to use your summoner spells and abilities as quickly as possible in the early game.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Q Q Q Q Q W W W W W E E E E E R R R

Starting Order Start W at level 1. The passive magic damage it provides speeds up your first camp clear significantly, and it's use also provides a helpful shield and a stun. Take Q at level 2. This spell lets you heal a lot with your jungle item and greatly speeds up your clear. Make sure to try to hit the full camp when you cast it. Take E at level 3. This just adds to your general damage output and gives you an engage or escape if you need it for ganks or early fights. Max Order Max Q first The slow utility and damage it provides is essential for fights and it greatly increases your clear speed in the jungle and on minion waves. Max E second. This greatly adds to your burst damage output and gives you lots of catchup ability. Max W last. There's no need to max this ability first or second since there is not a very helpful difference in its upgrades in the early game. Max R whenever possible. Not doing this suicide. Your ultimate is your savior and nuke ability, so if you don't max it you will become very weak.

PASSIVE ABILITY Z-Drive Resonance ✦ Ekko's basic attacks and spells stack Resonance on enemies that last up to 4 seconds. Every third stack deal bonus magic damage. This cannot be applied to the same enemy within 5 seconds of application. ✦ Can be applied on any enemy (minions, monsters, or champions), but when applied to a champion, Ekko gains temporary movement speed. ✦ Use this to your advantage by activating it during your jungle clears, and especially make sure to use it on enemy champions in fights. Q Timewinder ✦ Ekko throws a projectile in a target direction that slows to a stop when it hits an enemy champion (or at maximum range), unwinds, and slows and deals magic damage to enemies, also applying a stack of Z-Drive Resonance. ✦ After a short period, the device contracts, comes back to Ekko, and deals additional magic damage to enemies in its path, applying a second stack of Z-Drive Resonance. ✦ You can use this ability to finish off enemies at a longer range or to poke them out in addition to close range utility. If you are newer to Ekko I recommend using it more close range to guarantee the slow utility. W Parallel Convergence ✦ Ekko's basic attacks on enemies below 30% health deal additional magic damage. ✦ Ekko creates a chronosphere at the target location, which, after 3 second delay, provides vision and slows enemies within it for 2 seconds. If Ekko walks within the sphere, it stuns enemies caught inside for 2.25 seconds. ✦ This is an amazing ability in ganks and fights, but only if landed. It's large AOE and utility make it an important ability, so do not waste it. If you are ganking, try and land it early to get more damage and let your laner stay on the enemy unless you feel the need to slow the enemy with Timewinder and then zone them with this ability. E Phase Dive ✦ Ekko dashes a short distance in the target direction and gains 300 attack range for one basic attack for a short time. This dash can go over some terrain. ✦ If Ekko attacks with the increased attack range, he will blink to the target, dealing bonus magic damage. ✦ This is a powerful mobility tool, allowing you to jump over many walls due to the initial roll range being slightly longer than shown. You can use this to catch up, run away, or add to your damage output in ganks and fights. ULT ABILITY Chronobreak ✦ When the ultimate is available, a shadow of Ekko from 4 seconds in the past follows him around. Activating the ult blinks Ekko to the shadows location. If the line connecting him and his shadow is passing through Parallel Convergence upon activation, it will also activate Parallel Convergence. ✦ When Ekko blinks to the shadow, the area around him explodes, dealing magic damage and healing him. ✦ Arguably one of the best ultimates in the game, Chronobreak allows you to dive into fights and under towers with no repercussions. It is also a powerful nuke ability. You can use this in many ways, including escaping dangerous situations or tricking the enemy into getting nuked by it.

Play Video

Above is a personally created combo guide video. It contains Ekko's main combos within it. While it may be poorly edited, low quality, etc (I'm not a YouTuber) I hope it will help you with combos!

Conqueror Build

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Emberknife Refillable Potion Warding Totem This is the best start for a bruiser build. It gives you damage reduction for stronger 1v1s and increased damage to that target. I recommend looking to place an early ward and recall before 0:50 to swap to Oracle Lens.

NASHOR'S TOOTH & RIFTMAKER You will be rushing this item before you get your mythic item. It gives you lots of raw ability power and strengthens your on-hit damage from Z-Drive Resonance. It has good synergy with a bruiser style because it allows you to deal more on-hit damage and attack faster in extended fights. This is a great item for an AP bruiser with its DOT. The omnivamp it provides is powerful for keeping you in fights longer and giving you a stronger duel/frontline. It also provides you with necessary stats as an AP champion so make sure to go this item as your mythic.

BOOTS Every game you have to remember to buy Boots. This will usually be done when you have an 300 gold. What you upgrade these into will depend on the situation. SORCERER'S SHOES These are your offensive boots. Take this when you're ahead and/or when there's a mix of damage forms on the enemy team. It is generally a standard to take this item with it's added magic penetration. MERCURY'S TREADS These are one of your defensive boots options. This item will be taken when you are playing either against a heavy cc comp (lots of crowd control, i.e. Leona and Sejuani) or when you're playing against a heavy ability power/magic damage comp (i.e. Syndra, Veigar, Cho'Gath, and AP Shaco)). PLATED STEELCAPS These are your other defensive boots option. These will be taken only when playing against a high attack damage enemy team comp (i.e. Kha'Zix, Fiora, Vayne, and Talon).

DARK SEAL & MEJAI'S SOULSTEALER You should look to buy this item early on in the game (as one of your items on your first back). It's very powerful, giving you scaling ability power with kills, and health. However, this item is a high risk, high reward item. You need to get kills and not die to stack this item, so don't take it if you're already behind early. Upgrade to this item from Dark Seal once you are at 10 stacks. This item continues to provide you with scaling ability power and it provides you with movement speed at 10 stacks or more. This item is very gold efficient, and if you can make use of it you should absolutely buy it.

This item provides armor and a stasis effect, which could be a lifesaver in several situations. Take this item if you are playing against teams that have heavy cc or burst, or against teams that you'd need armor against (because you don't want to sacrifice an item slot for purely armor, and Zhonya's Hourglass provides ability power as well as armor). This is a very powerful item, providing insane amounts of ability power. However, this item is very gold inefficient, so what you should do is complete your build first to get your mythic passive fully, and then save up your gold so you can sell a situational item (like Void Staff for instance) to buy this item in one stroke. This is a decent anti-healing item. I recommend taking this item when you are playing against enemies with a lot of healing (for instance Vladimir or Zac). I do not recommend it singularly for countering adcs (unless they are very ahead and are carrying their team) that do not take Bloodthirster ( Draven and Samira commonly take this item). This item is great when enemies are stacking magic resist against you. It's percent magic penetration perfectly counters this the more magic resist they have. You will generally buy this against tanks or if your team has 3 or more AP champions (so the enemies will prioritize magic resist). This is a strong item you can go on Ekko. If you need some more tankiness or movement speed then this is a great item. You can also take it if you need to be more of a utility champ for your team since you are behind.

Dark Harvest/Electrocute Build

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Hailblade Refillable Potion Warding Totem This is the best start for an assassin build. It gives you another slow with some instant damage which allows you to have more utility in ganks and fights and helps you to catch up to enemies, run from enemies, and hit enemies with abilities. I recommend placing an early ward and recalling before 0:50 and swapping to Oracle Lens.

HEXTECH ROCKETBELT VS NIGHT HARVESTER This item is great for its movement speed and burst damage. It also provides very useful magic penetration for each item you build. It also provides some health so keep in mind that you can gain a little bit of tankiness from this item. If you're fed early in the game (something like having 10 stacks of Dark Seal before your mythic item), and the enemy team is squishy then you can take this item if you'd like. It's not a very good general mythic item however.

BOOTS If you don't have Magical Footwear you won't be getting these for free and you need to make sure that you buy them (usually early in the game when you have an extra 300 gold). However, which boots upgrade you choose will depend on the situation. SORCERER'S SHOES These are your offensive boots. Take this when you're ahead and/or when there's a mix of damage forms on the enemy team. It is generally a standard to take this item with it's added magic penetration. MERCURY'S TREADS These are one of your defensive boots options. This item will be taken when you are playing either against a heavy cc comp (lots of crowd control, i.e. Leona and Sejuani) or when you're playing against a heavy ability power/magic damage comp (i.e. Syndra, Veigar, Cho'Gath, and AP Shaco)). PLATED STEELCAPS These are your other defensive boots option. These will be taken only when playing against a high attack damage enemy team comp (i.e. Kha'Zix, Fiora, Vayne, and Talon).

LICH BANE VS NASHOR'S TOOTH This is a great second item for high burst damage and mobility. This item is mainly bought for the mobility passive it provides, with the added bonus that it gives lots of burst damage. You should also take it versus extremely weak mid game squishy targets. This item gives a lot of on-hit power and raw AP. It's a very useful item for any situation, though it excels at objective clearing. This is a generally good item and can be picked in any situation.

DARK SEAL & MEJAI'S SOULSTEALER You should look to buy this item early on in the game (likely one of your items on your first back). It's very powerful, giving you scaling ability power with kills, and health. However, this item is a high risk, high reward item. You need to get kills and not die to stack this item, so don't take it if you're already behind early or if you are not experienced on Ekko. Upgrade to this item from Dark Seal once you are at 10 stacks. This item continues to provide you with scaling ability power and it provides you with movement speed at 10 stacks or more. This item is very gold efficient, and if you can make use of it you should absolutely buy it.

This item provides armor and a stasis effect, which could be a lifesaver in several situations. Take this item if you are playing against teams that have heavy cc or burst, or against teams that you'd need armor against (because you don't want to sacrifice an item slot for purely armor, and Zhonya's Hourglass provides ability power as well as armor). If you are a good Ekko player you should literally never need this item for it's stasis effect since you will know how/when to use your ultimate, however if you are newer to Ekko/the game then you should almost always take this. This is a very powerful item, providing insane amounts of ability power. However, this item is very gold inefficient, so what you should do is complete your build first to get your mythic passive fully, and then save up your gold so you can sell a situational item (like Void Staff for instance) to buy this item in one stroke. This is a very powerful item. I recommend taking this item when you are playing against enemies with a lot of healing (for instance Vladimir or Zac). I do not recommend it singularly for countering adcs (unless they are very ahead) that do not take Bloodthirster ( Draven and Samira commonly take this item). This item is very cost efficient and provides you with a decent amount of magic resist and ability power. It also gives you a magic shield that blocks one spell or attack completely. This is a strong item you can go on Ekko. If you need some more tankiness or movement speed then this is a great item. You can also take it if you need to be more of a utility champ for your team since you are behind.

Wolves, Raptors Spawn At: 1:30 Respawn Time: 2:00 Gromp, Krugs Spawn At: 1:42 Respawn Time: 2:00 Buffs (Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback) Spawn At: 1:30 Respawn Time: 5:00 Rift Scuttlers (in river) Spawn At: 3:15 Respawn Time: 2:30 Rift Herald (in Baron Pit) Spawns At: 8:00 Respawn time: 6:00 Despawns at: 19:45 (19:55 if in combat)

Elemental Drakes Spawns At: 5:00 Respawn Time: 5:00

Elder Dragon Spawns: 6:00 after a team gets 4 Drakes Respawn Time: 6:00

Baron Nashor Spawns At: 20:00 Respawn Time: 6:00

	Plants are stationary, neutral units with 1 health. They can be destroyed with a basic attack to trigger an effect. There are three different types of plants that will spawn in the jungle and river. Their spawn timers and locations vary slightly but for the most part they are fairly predictable. The first spawn locations for all plants are predetermined.

Blast Cones

Blast cones are red plants that, if you attack when a champion is within a radius of the unit, will launch the champion (yourself included if you are within the radius) in a predetermined direction. This can send units over terrain (so you can launch yourself or others over walls with it) and reveals enemy champions that get launched (this means that you can see them even in the fog of war temporarily). An indicator for landing point appears only for the player targeting the plant.

If the game is Infernal Rift (the map is changed because of an infernal soul), then additional blast cones will spawn in entrances to the jungle and in the alcoves. The locations are:

• Near each tri-brush near Gromp.
• By the Wolf Camp.
• In front of each base's gates.
• In the alcoves.

The spawn times of the blast cones are as follows (you can find each referenced location on the map):

• The first inner cones initially spawn between 1:15 and 1:25.
• The first outer cones initially spawn between 5:00 and 5:30.
• The inner cones respawn between 5 minutes and 7 minutes after use.
• The outer cones respawn between 5.5 minutes and 6.5 minutes after use.

Honeyfruits

Honeyfruits are green plants that, when killed, drop 5 fruits that restore mana and health when walked over, while simultaneously slowing the champion. These are very helpful for restoring your health before or after fights (and sometimes during fights if truly necessary).

If the game is Ocean Rift (the map is changed because of an ocean soul), then additional honeyfruit will spawn in each jungle quadrant. The changes are:

• New honeyfruits first spawn 30 seconds after the rift transforms.
• The respawn times of the new honeyfruits from after the rift transforms is 2 minutes.

The spawn times of the honeyfruits are as follows (you can find the referenced locations on the above map):

• First honeyfruits spawn between 6:00 and 6:30.
• The respawn times are between 5.5 and 7 minutes.
• Important Note: If a honeyfruit isn't taken before its respawn timer completes, a second honeyfruit may spawn. No more than two honeyfruits can exist per half of the river.

Scryer's Blooms

Scryer's Blooms are blue plants that, when hit, reveal enemy champions for 3 seconds and non-champion enemies for 12 seconds in a cone in the direction the attacker was facing. These plants are extremely useful for checking for and clearing vision in different parts of the jungle and river (specifically the pit) and to also check for objective contesting.

If the game is Cloud Rift (the map is changed because of a cloud soul), then additions scryer's blooms will spawn at the the entrances to the jungle. The locations are:

• In front of each base's gates.
• In front of each tri-brush in the river.

The spawn times of the scryer's blooms are as follows (you can find the referenced locations on the above map):

• First spawns are between 3:00 and 3:30, always at each quadrant's spawn point nearest to the side lanes.
• Next spawn time is at either spawn point, between 5 and 6.5 minutes after the plant is destroyed in that quadrant.
• Important note: Only one scryer's bloom can be present in each individual quadrant of the jungle.

Warding Safely

If you've played this game before and you've ever tried to place wards, you've probably ended up dying because of it at least once. That can easily occur since you naturally want to make the dark areas of the map light. However, while you (probably) had good intentions doing this, we want to avoid dying when warding. So how do you ward safely?

To avoid this trap, when you are looking to ward you need to go through a mental checklist to decide on safety and how deep you can push into the enemies side to ward.

	1. How many, and which, enemies are missing?
	2. Do my nearby laners have lane priority?
	3. Where and when did I see the enemy jungler last?
	4. Will allies be able to rotate to me if I get into trouble?

If you have recently seen the enemy jungler on one side of the map, then that should be your cue to go in and ward in the enemy jungle. This is a very important condition unless you are extremely ahead because it will minimize the risk of getting killed simply to place a ward.

You should also look at mid priority. Does the enemy mid laner or your mid laner have priority? (This means that they are pushed up) If they do you should be careful or not go to place a ward at all. Other considerations are the champions that are being played. If the enemy laner is playing a champion that can rotate very easily (examples include Talon, Galio, and Taliyah) then you might not want to go ward unless you know they just recalled. This also applies vice versa for champions on your team.

The main thing to consider when going to ward: Will I die if I run into the missing enemies? If you will then don't. If not, then you are clear to do as you wish. You may make mistakes sometimes, but we are only human, and so this is normal. The main thing to remember is to learn from these mistakes.



Level 1 Wards

These wards can be crucial to place in the early game. It gives you information about the enemy junglers pathing, as well as potential invade information. It isn't necessary to place this ward every game, but it can be extremely useful, and I recommend especially against powerful early game junglers like Graves.

If you place your ward from the time frame of 0:45-0:50 you can recall and buy Oracle Lens (for ganking and vision clearing) in time to get back to your starting camp when it spawns. However, you can start recall at 0:50 and place a ward at 0:56 in the middle of your recall to get the maximum value out of it.

		Level 1 Wards: Pixel Brush
		This is one of your options for an early ward. It helps gives you information about enemies invading early into the match as well can help alert your laners about level 2 ganks. However, while this is a good warding location, it does not give as much information as you could get out of a level 1 ward. It depends on the situation though, so if you are playing against a level 2 ganker or the enemies won't let you ward raptors you can place your ward here.

		Level 1 Wards: Raptors
		This is the best level 1 ward you could place. It gives you information on the enemy junglers early clear path. The best way to make use of this is to check which lane leashes their jungler (they will be late to lane) and then keep an eye on your ward if it is on the side where they started. If they started on that side but don't walk past the ward then they likely went to Krugs, which is still useful information for you.

Trinket Management

		This trinket is your starting trinket and has a cooldown of 240 - 120s per charge (this decreases with levels). This trinket provides vision for a large area, but only provides vision of bushes it is in.
		This trinket sweeps for enemy wards within a large detection radius, with a cooldown of 90 - 60s (this also decreases with levels). It will deny the vision of enemy wards it detects until the ward is no longer being detected, and allows you vision of the ward so you can clear it (this includes Stealth Wards)

When swapping your trinket, it carries over the cooldown from the previous one. An example is if you just used a Stealth Ward 5 seconds ago and then swap to Oracle Lens you will have the full cooldown of the trinket at whatever level you are, minus 5 seconds. Keep this in mind when swapping trinkets. Usually when you are swapping trinkets in a match it will be permanent. You will also always be swapping to Oracle Lens. Good times to do this are: after a level 1 ward, once a champion with lots of traps hits the level where they can place lots of traps (example being Teemo at level 6), or once your support has gotten their upgraded ward item and can place Stealth Wards for you.

Defensive Wards

Defensive wards can be used in many situations. They can be used to protect your laners or your jungle, even against specific champions. They can also help keep you safe from invades when you are behind or none of your lanes have priority. Keep in mind these wards if you are ahead too since the enemy jungler might have a brain and use them.

		Jungle Protection: Entrance to Raptors
		This ward is extremely defensive. It provides you vision of the entrance to your jungle, which is useful against highly aggressive junglers (I've brought him up many times but my mind goes to Graves as an example). It can help you be aware of or prevent invades from the enemy jungler, and it is also a very useful ward when you don't have lane priority in either that side of the map, or just anywhere in the map in general. Keep in mind if you are ahead the enemy jungler might place a ward here.

		Jungle Protection: Blue Side Jungle Entrance
		This ward is like the pixel brush ward, but less highly contested by the enemy jungler. It still provides a decent amount of information, and can be extremely useful to both you and your laners if the enemy jungler has been camping/focusing a specific side of the map.

		Lane Protection: Pixel Brush
		This is a highly contested ward position. It provides a lot of vision of the river and can help defend you against invades, in objective fights, and protect your laners from incoming ganks/roams from both the jungler and mid laner. Make sure to check for wards here and place a Control Ward if you don't need it in a different place.

		Lane Protection: Mid
		This is not going to be a ward you place often simply due to the fact that it is very matchup specific. What this ward does is prevent your laners (or at least give them more information) from getting ganked by specific champions. These champions include Zac, Shaco, and even Twitch who can gank mid lane with stealth of high mobility and don't necessarily have to enter the river (or even your side of the map) to do it.

		Lane Protection: Top Tribush
		Sometimes your top lane will not remember to ward, or will ward, but not here. What this ward does is allow your laner to push a lot more safely and also protects top laners that may be ahead or are being camped. However, keep in mind this ward spot doesn't work as well against some champions (like Nocturne who doesn't need to leave his jungle to gank you with ultimate) and is very situational depending on the state of your top lane.

Jungle Tracking Wards

These are important wards in the early and mid parts of the game. These give you information on where the enemy jungler is throughout the game, allowing you to take objectives, gank lanes, and invade.

		Raptor Brush
		This is a strong ward to place, but can be very risky. This deep ward gives you lots of information about the enemy junglers jungle pathing and it can help protect you from getting caught invading the enemy jungle. While this is a strong ward, it can be risky to place, so you can just place a ward in the location of the level 1 raptor ward if necessary.

		Red Buff
		This is a good ward to place when the enemy's red buff is coming up or up, or if you are looking to get more information on the enemy's red side jungle. However, this isn't the greatest ward unless the red buff is up/coming up or if you are looking to start an objective in the baron pit.

		Blue Side Jungle
		This ward gives you lots of information on the pathing of the enemy jungler, giving you information on a large amount of the blue side. An alternative to this location is placing it in the little dirt crossroads above and to the right of the blue buff alcove. This is a powerful ward for protecting objectives as well as your laners.

		Red Side Control Ward
		This is definitely not the greatest ward to place in the mid-late game. However, it is a powerful deep ward to place at about 6:50-7:00 when red buff is respawning. It gives you some information on the enemy jungler, but is a very cheeky ward. It's also very deep in the jungle, so make sure to have lane priority before you go to place this.

Objective Vision

You will often ward like this when you are trying to get/force objectives. They provide lots of information about potential steals and prevent the enemies from getting vision on the pit. You should try to ward these locations when you are doing objectives, or be aware of these ward locations when looking to steal objectives.

		Around the Pits
		These are amazing ward locations for around the pits. They help you know about potential steals and what enemies are waiting on the other side of the pit wall. You don't necessarily need to place these wards when doing dragons since you can pull the objective out to the edge of the pit, but when looking to get baron nashor you should be placing these wards since it is stationary.

		In the Pit
		This is a good Control Ward location when looking to prevent vision on the pits if enemies can place wards over the pit walls (the pit wall is on their side of the map). It disables wards that the enemies place and requires the enemies to get in the pit to destroy it.

		Mid-River
		This is another good ward to deny vision for objectives. Place your Control Ward here is the enemies are not in a position to place wards over the pit wall (the pit wall is on your side of the map). If you place it here then you are giving yourself vision and denying any possible vision of the pit as long as you swept the pit with Oracle Lens first.

		Blue Buff: Kite back every two auto attacks. Avoid casting Parallel Convergence to save it for scuttle crab or ganking. Otherwise use your abilities.
		Gromp: Kite back when you have Timewinder up, but otherwise it is nearly impossible for you to kite. Remember not to use Smite because of the healing from the camp.
		Wolves: Make sure to use both Phase Dive and Timewinder when you are clearing this camp. Target the large Wolf primarily, but if try to proc your passive at least once on the small wolves.
		Raptors: Cast Timewinder, making sure it hits all of the raptors and cast Parallel Convergence slightly outside the camp spawn zone to kite out. After the camp is stunned you should proc Z-Drive Resonance on as many raptors as possible, starting with the large one. You should not need more than one cast of Timewinder.
		Red Buff: Kite back every 3 auto attacks and use all available abilities to clear this. Remember to kite towards your next camp.
		Krugs: Focus the large Krug first and use Smite if this is your second camp and constantly kite to avoid the smaller krugs. Use Timewinder to deal the most AOE damage possible and to clear the smallest krugs. Remember to kill all krugs when possible to maximize gold and experience efficiency.

Important Note

These routes revolve around your starting clears. You can use these clears throughout the game depending on your needs, but the information about levels, etc. will refer to these being your first clears. If you decide to go with one of these first clears, make sure that you still utilize other ones. For instance, if you start with the 3 camp clear, do not ignore your other camps afterwards. Just because you are only clearing your buffs and Gromp/Krugs does not mean that after your first clear you continue to only clear these camps!!!

Another note: with the 11.5 changes to jungle, as a jungler you're being forced out of the jungle and forced to gank more. This means in the early game taking advantage of the ability to path aggressively (ex you clear red side and then gank mid before clearing blue side). This is necessary now to get leads in the early and mid game. However, this does not mean that you should neglect your camps. ALWAYS return to farming when you don't know what else to do.

		3 Camp Clear
		The 3 camp clear is the fastest clear to get you out on the map. It involves going from Red > Blue > Gromp or from Blue > Gromp > Red. After using this clear you can look for early ganks, scuttle control, and invades on the enemy jungler. You should take this pathing when you are looking to match aggressive early junglers, when you think you'll have an easy lane gank early on, or when you can easily pressure the enemy jungler after achieving level 3.

		Full Clear
		The full clear involves clearing every camp in your jungle. The order of camps is as follows: Red > Krugs > Raptors > Wolves > Blue > Gromp > Gank/Scuttle Crab or Blue > Gromp > Wolves > Raptors > Red > Krugs > Gank/Scuttle Crab. The blue start pathing is not great because it takes longer to get from Krugs to the river than from Gromp to the river. This clear gets you level 4 after your last camp. However, you may not be on scuttle crab at its spawn, especially if you don't clear the jungle near perfectly (see clearing tips above).

		5 Camp
		This clear involves only clearing five of your camps, usually leaving out Krugs or Gromp so you can be in the river at the exact moment the Scuttle Crab spawns. This is a useful path for when you are looking for Scuttle control on a specific side of the map (for instance you are playing against Nunu & Willump so you want to deny as many Scuttles as possible).

		Quadrant Clear
		This is half of the full clear. Basically you just clear one quadrant of the jungle. It will get you level 3, and can be useful for doing an early level 3 gank (for instance you clear Blue > Gromp > Wolves and then gank mid lane). Use it to abuse early lane ganks and to get quick clears out of base into ganks in the mid game.

What is Vertical Jungling?

Vertical jungling is when you and the enemy team basically rotate the jungle map 90º. Instead of going from your red side to your blue side jungle, you would go from your red side to the enemy blue side jungle.

This occurs in multiple scenarios. One is when both enemy junglers are hard camping opposite sides of the map. For instance, the enemy jungler is hard camping the top side and you are hard camping the bot side. Another situation in which this occurs is when you are both playing heavy invade champions, and you both decide to invade the opposite sides. You can know when to do this from aggressive or defensive vision placement, either in your jungle or in theirs. At that point all you're doing is countering their invade with one of your own, creating a vertical jungle situation.

Vertical jungling is not necessarily something that lasts any certain amount of time. It can range anywhere from one quadrant invade rinse to hard lane camping. There is nothing wrong with vertical jungling, and it can be very beneficial in some situations. However, knowing how, and when, to vertical jungle is the important part.

How do I Vertical Jungle?

This is a fairly simple question with a fairly simple answer. In a basic sense, to vertical jungle you just try to match the enemy junglers invade with your own. For instance, if you see on a defensive ward in your blue side that the enemy jungler is heading in to clear your camps, you should immediately be moving to counter that and vertical jungle by clearing the enemy's jungle from the farthest camp (from your base) to the closest camp. In some situations you might leave base and go ahead and rinse the enemy's camps once again, continuing this vertical jungling style. If you decide to do this and the enemy jungler doesn't then you could gain a significant advantage XP and CS-wise.

When do I Vertical Jungle?

If you see the enemy jungler heading into your jungle (through vision), then that should be your cue to begin vertical jungling. This allows you to counter the cs loss that would be inflicted upon you if you didn't do this.

Another situation in which you should start vertical jungling is when you are ahead (or know you will win 1v1s against the enemy jungler). This way if you run into them they will not be able to fight you and you will gain a major lead with possible kills or summoner spells and also more cs and xp.

Ekko is generally considered to be an AP assassin with lots of burst and powerful scaling. However, with the new items, he can also viably become something similar to an AP bruiser. However, while these are both viable playstyles on Ekko, and are both extremely powerful played correctly, there is nuance to playing each playstyle properly and not inting your team in ways other than buying the wrong items or overextending.

Assassin Playstyle		Bruiser Playstyle
Assassin is the general standard for Ekko in preseason right now. It gives him a lot of burst damage, scaling, and outplay potential. When playing as an assassin on Ekko there are a few key things to remember. Throughout the game you can play fairly aggressive unless you're against powerful early game champs like Graves or Nidalee who beat you until you can outplay with ultimate. When you're teamfighting or looking to dive under tower, you need to check that you have your ultimate. If you don't have your ultimate you put yourself in an extremely dangerous position without a way to get out of it. Unless you are sure you will not die (or you are limit testing which is fine as long as it's not the biggest fight in the match) you should not be going in without it or a fast follow up from your team. Another thing to remember is that you are not tanky. Try not to tank unnecessary damage in fights. The only situation in which you'd tank damage is when you are tower diving and you have ultimate. Your ultimate temporarily makes you untargetable, so if you use after finishing the dive and you're tanking turret, the last turret shot will not land and you will heal back most (if not all) of the damage you took. For more information about teamfighting as the assassin please refer to the teamfighting section of the guide.		This is basically a different champion. If you take this build you lose all of your burst damage but gain powerful tankiness and DOT (damage over time, think Liandry's Torment burn). When playing this playstyle you want to play extremely safe in the early game until you get Riftmaker and then you can start making plays. You also want to make sure to be in the frontline for your team and soaking up as much damage as possible. An important thing to remember is not to overextend. While you may have your ultimate to escape dive damage, it can't take you halfway across the map. If you overextend you don't have great escape tools. Also when trying to poke the enemy out you can throw Timewinders, which if hit, will deal a decent amount of damage.

		Planning Your Pathing
		This should be done on the loading screen. This is done by looking at what the different lane matchups will be. You should be looking mainly at two things: volatile lanes (through literal lane matchup analysis) and runes. A volatile lane matchup is considered one where the laners will have to either trade a lot/one teams lane having a lot of cc or the laners will have to be in close range to trade with each other.
Let's look at the above example. After looking at the loading screen I can see I'm going to be camping bot and mid lane. Twisted Fate is a ranged matchup into a melee matchup ( Yasuo) and he's looking to burst down his opponent as fast as possible, so I need to prevent him from gaining influence across the map. I will also be camping bot lane because Varus will probably be pushing up a lot, and my laners have some decent cc that would allow us to immobilize the enemies. Top can't be camped because Shen counters Urgot really well, and can escape fights very easily if he conserves his dash until he gets cc'd by Urgot.

Volatility of Lanes/Lane CC Composition		Runes/Playstyle Predictions
The volatility of a lane refers to how much the laners will be trading and how exactly they have to approach trading. If the lane matchup is Fiora vs. Maokai then we can see that the lane matchup is very volatile. Fiora requires close range to trade/all-in Maokai and Maokai literally jumps onto enemy laners. This would be a lane that we would want to influence a lot so our laner can snowball and win those very close range trades. Another factor of the volatility of lanes is the cc composition of your lanes. Again looking at a Fiora vs. Maokai matchup, let's assume we're on the Maokai's team. He has a lot of cc with his engage, stun, and aoe root ultimate. This factor adds to our ability to gank this lane and affect it.		Runes are an important thing to watch out for in your lanes matchups. Seeing the keystones help you to think about and predict the playstyles of your laners. If you have a laner like Akali and you can see she is running Fleet Footwork, then you can assume just based on this information she will be playing safe, which allows you to look for a lot of ganks early. This can also be done when looking at the enemy laners. Again looking at an Akali, this time on the other team, that's running Fleet Footwork, we can assume that she will be playing safe and our laner will be pushed up a lot. We know from this that this lane is likely ungankable for us, but will probably be camped by the enemies.
There is a humongous disclaimer to this: even if you make a plan, that doesn't mean everything will go according to plan. Always remember you can predict the playstyles of your laners and the common states of the lanes, but you will never know for sure. It is extremely likely that you make a plan and then can't even follow it because your laners do exactly the opposite of what you expected, or maybe the enemy laners do the opposite which causes the lane to go the opposite direction of what you expected/wanted. However, you need to remember that you can and should be adapting as the game goes on. If top lane is pushing instead of getting pushed in, then change your clear route to go botside instead. You should also remember that these opportunities are likely unexpected by the enemy jungler as well, and so you can take advantage of your Garen pushing into their Teemo by invading the enemy and looking for deep vision.

Ganking is an important technique used as a jungler in which you flank enemy laners and work with your teammates to kill them. The ability to do this is essential if you want to be a successful jungler and improve as a player.

While this may seem like a fairly simple skill, it's actually deceivingly complex. It is also very playstyle dependent, depending on things like the lane matchup that you are ganking and the awareness and skill of the enemy laner. You will learn some of these things simply the more you play the game, but there are still things to look at whenever you are looking to gank a lane.



Identifying What to Gank

Identifying what lane to gank can even be done from the start of the match, in the loading screen. What you want to be looking at is what crowd control the lane has, the volatility of the lane (an example being they trade a lot or to fight have to be nearby), and the snowball ability of the lane.

Now, I don't literally mean snowball like Nunu & Willump. Snowballing is the ability of a champion and player to extend a lead and do a lot with it. For instance, an Ekko with a lead can snowball really well because of his scaling power and how oppressive he is when ahead. However, to snowball, the player playing the fed Ekko has to play it the correct way.

So, when you're looking at lanes, you should consider what champions will snowball the game into obliteration when ahead, whether it be on the enemy team or yours. This will be the win-con for each team. If you can get your win-con ahead then as long as they don't throw, you will probably win the game. The same goes for the enemy team, except the opposite for you. You want to shut down the enemy team's win-con, preventing them from snowballing. Deciding what is the win-con for each team helps you figure out what lanes to gank.

You should also be looking at the crowd control availability in potentially gankable lanes. For instance, if a Leona on your team has ultimate then you have a powerful engage and cc setup. However, if that Leona had just used ultimate, then the gank immediately becomes less viable. Basically, you want to keep track of the cooldowns of cc on your team and the enemy team.

Finally, something to consider when looking at what lanes to gank is the volatility. Volatility in League of Legends generally refers to close range champions or champions that might trade a lot. If a lane is very volatile, it would be a strong move to get it ahead so that way it has less of a chance of losing trades and fights.



Using Crowd Control

When ganking lanes with cc, there are a couple of things to look at. The cooldowns, the cc types, and if laners have dashes are all important things to consider when ganking lanes.

In basics, it's easier to gank lanes that you have cc in than lanes you don't or lanes the enemies have more cc in. It's also difficult to gank lanes with dashes and high mobility. If the enemy team has dashes ( Lucian is an example) then they will have an easier time dodging your ability and cc. The same goes for if they have high mobility. Consider these things when thinking about ganking, and if you are for sure ganking a lane with little cc or multiple enemy dashes, work to adapt to this and adjust your approach.

You also want to try your best to layer the cc. If you're ganking and you have a Leona engage, you should try to time your cc with the ending of Leona's. Otherwise, you'll just be putting a bunch of useless cc on the enemy that will come of faster than if you layer it. This can be difficult if you're fairly new to the game, but as you play you will learn the cc timings of many abilities and will be able to time these things more easily.



Lane State and Resources

This is a very important thing to consider, and something that many low elo players do not consider when ganking. Before you gank a lane you need to assess the lane state of the lane and the resources of both/all laners.

The lane state is related to if your or the enemy laner is poking a lot, or taking a lot of trade, etc. You can abuse these playstyles by for instance going in after a Zed commits his ult to your Xerath, or if your Xerath has poked the Zed to below 50% HP.

You also need to look at the resources of the laners. Resources are the HP and the mana/energy bars. If your laner is low on mana/HP and you try to gank them, then they will likely not be able to help you very well and it will turn into a 1v1. If the enemy laner is low on HP/mana then your gank is more likely to succeed since they will have difficulty escaping with their lives without at least blowing their Flash.

Finally, you should consider the dash and ability cooldowns of both your laners and the enemy laners. An example of this is you know the enemy Tryndamere just E'd in, so he will be unable to use his E to dash out. You can abuse these cooldowns to get off more successful ganks.



Wave State

Wave state refers to how the minion wave in the lane is when you are looking to gank. Generally, there are 4 different denominations: slow pushing, fast pushing, neutral, or frozen. If you know the enemy wave is pushing then you can prepare for a gank and catch the enemy laner out very quickly. However, if your wave is pushing then it is more difficult to gank since the enemy laner will be farther back (most likely). The best situation for ganking a pushing team wave is tower diving. If your team is freezing then the enemy team is in a really vulnerable position for ganks, however, if the enemies are freezing then you need to help your laner(s) break the freeze since otherwise, they will lose a lot of XP and gold. Consider the wave state before you gank a lane to know if it's viable and to help predict the behavior of your laner and the enemy laner.



Wards and Approach

After considering each of the previous things you can begin to think about your approach to the gank and possible wards from the enemy laner.

Whether it matters if you walk over vision depends most specifically on the wave state. If the enemy laner is fully pushed up, then it doesn't matter if you simply walk over vision since they will not have enough time to react. However, if the lane is neutral, then there is less space for the enemy laner to have to move if they see you walking over vision. This is one reason why we get the Oracle Lens, to sweep for vision on ganks.

If you want to gank a neutral lane, then you should keep in mind possible vision locations from enemy laners. Examples come to mind of the side brushes in the mid lane, or tribrush or side bush in bot or top lanes. Some locations you can sweep, others you can simply avoid with vision tricks. Some basic things to remember are you can loop around possible vision, sweep it, or place Control Wards preemptively (in low elos generally the laners won't care about you being there and will make the mistake of not moving away from that side of the lane, however, don't rely on this).



Gap Closer & Spell Timing

Some laners that you gank will have dashes, and if it hasn't been used, their summoner spells. They can use these quite easily to escape ganks, so you need to try your hardest to stay on them for as long as reasonable (don't go chasing under towers for no reason).

To avoid allowing enemies to escape, you need to time your spell usage timings and your gap closing abilities to match up with the enemies getting ganked. To do this, you do things like save your dash (in this case Phase Dive) until the enemy dashes or Flashes. This will allow you to keep up with them and make their usage of spells or dashes useless.



Side Lane Approach Options

There are 5 general gank pathing options when ganking a side lane. Which option you choose depends on your personal preference but also on the things above, which should be considered before the gank starts. The notes here will assume that you know everything already discussed.

1. Through the river

Sometimes this might involve clearing vision, though if the vision is not clearable you can use the blast cone to get over the blue quadrant wall.

2. Tribrush

You can use this to do a deeper flank and to catch enemies off-guard with tower dives.

3. Over the wall

This is more difficult to do with Ekko but you can abuse the fog of war in these areas to have a higher chance of landing Parallel Convergence.

4. From Krugs

If you are coming from enemy Krugs you can come from all the way behind their tower to gank them. Very useful if they're running, you want to push them to your team, or you're looking to tower dive.

5. In Lane

To do this you have to abuse vision and carefully make your way into a lane brush. Then once the enemies push up you can gank them from the bush, which can catch them extremely off-guard.



Mid Lane Approach Options

There are 5 general gank pathing options when ganking mid lane. Which option you choose depends on your personal preference but also on the things above, which should be considered before the gank starts. The notes here will assume that you know everything already discussed.

1. Straight from the river

When the lane is severely pulled in this is a fine option for ganking. It doesn't really matter if you walk over vision at this point because the enemy laner won't be able to react in time anyway.

2. Past Pixel Brush into a flank

This involves walking through pixel brush and then hugging the pit wall to get a flank on the enemy laner without being seen by vision in the side brushes. This is usable and useful when the lane is neutral, when it's starting to push, or when it's pulling.

3. Own side past pixel

This is extremely useful against low mobility champions and when lanes are pulled in. It comes from an unexpected spot, so it can be easier to surprise enemy laners.

To execute, simply hug the wall of your own side and then hop the wall to gank.

4. Behind/through tower

This is mainly used for diving. It involves going past the enemy wolves camp and going behind the tower or hopping to large wall into the tower zone.

5. Raptors

This is used for diving and hard flank ganking and can be used in every situation except when the lane is pulled in (it's just useless then, it gives them early vision of you and is too hard of a flank to be useful).

It involves wall hopping a (generally the enemy's) raptor camp wall (or the small wall jutting out next to the lane).



Jungle Tracking

This may not seem like an important part of ganking, but it's actually very useful. Jungle tracking properly allows you to know what lanes to enemy jungler might gank next, and lets you set up for counter-ganks or tells you when to hover dives. It can also tell you when not to gank.

For instance, you know the enemy jungler just pathed up topside and now will likely gank top with the volatility of the matchup. With this information, you know not to show on vision, not to gank yet, and that you will likely have an opportunity for a counter-gank. Supposing they don't ever show top and instead gank mid, you can just gank top since you waited patiently outside of vision.

This is only one of many reasons why jungle tracking must be done, so make sure to try to place wards and keep an eye on the enemy jungler when possible.



Lane Assistance

This specifically ties back to resources and important cooldowns. When going in for a gank, you need to make sure you will have assistance from your allied laners. If you do not get assistance, then you will likely not pull off a successful gank unless you are either extremely ahead or you are trading your life for the life of a large shutdown enemy.

When you are going in, make sure your laners are ready for the gank. If they aren't ready to respond then there is no reason to go in. Usually, they will communicate going in with pings, or will just respond to you pinging, but this ties into the following section and will be covered there more.

You also need to make sure they're willing to help you. They might be willing, but simply unready. They might be low on resources or something and not able to help you but want to, or they simply may not want to help you gank. If either of these is true, you probably don't want to go in.

You also should consider deficits and leads here. If your laners have a lead, they will likely be extremely helpful in a gank, but the enemies might play much safer. The opposite goes for if your laners are at a deficit to the enemy laners. In most games, you'll want to avoid lanes with deficits, but that doesn't mean passing up a free (and viable) gank.



Communication and Pressure

This is extremely important in pulling off successful ganks.

To make sure you are communicating well, you need to be pinging. When you are about to gank, try to ping on my way and/or assist me at least 3 times to get across the message and attract your laners attention. This is also vice versa. If your team is asking for assistance in a lane, consider if it's gankable. If it is, do it! You've got to listen to your teammate's demands sometimes, though yes, I know not many of us really want to with the number of useless pings we from them.

Applying pressure is also an extremely powerful thing in lanes. If you put pressure on the enemy laners with a gank and got their summoner spells or chunked them, then you can easily repeat gank to get their lives. This puts them under a lot of pressure and can cause them to make mistakes easier than they normally might.



Using All of Your Ganking Options

You have to know and use all of your ganking options when you're playing the game. These include the things mentioned above, but also styles of ganking.

Counter-ganking: Ganking a lane after the enemy jungler starts ganking it.

Spam ganking: Repeatedly ganking lanes. Also referred to as camping.

Repeat ganking: Ganking a second or third time to abuse enemy cooldowns and resource levels.

Drive-by ganking: Ganking as you are transitioning from one part of the map to another (this basically only refers to mid lane).

Clean up ganking: Ganking after a fight.

Level 2 ganking: Ganking after first or second camp.

These are all powerful options and you should always try to use a good variety to get the maximum effect. Consider everything mentioned in this section of the guide if you want to become a successful ganker and jungler.

What is Lane Priority?

And why do I need it? Well, put quite simply, lane priority is when you or the enemy team have lanes that will be able to rotate to help you without losing lots of gold or XP. Most often lane priority will relate to pushed up lanes. This is because your laners will not be losing xp or gold if their lane is pushed up.

Lane priority allows you to do things around the map with less fear. For instance, you want to invade the enemy raptors, but first, you need to make sure you will be safe. The ways to do this are by checking the nearby lane priority. If you have mid priority, then you know that you will be safe because your mid lane can (and hopefully will) rotate to help you if a fight breaks out. The opposite occurs if you don't have mid priority. You would not go for the enemy raptors because you could easily get collapsed on by the enemy mid laner and jungler without assistance from your mid laner. (Obviously these rules are not be-all-end-all. For instance, if you just killed the enemy jungler but you don't have mid priority, unless you see the enemy mid rotating to stop you, you can safely take the camp)

You may ask, how does this relate to scuttle control? Well, think about it. The rift scuttler spawns in the middle of the river, smack dab in the middle of the area between lanes. If you don't have priority on either lane, you're putting yourself in an extremely vulnerable position. Before you take scuttle crab you want to have priority in at least one lane nearby. So, if you're wanting to take top crab then look for top or mid prio. If you want bot crab, look for mid or bot prio. It's even better if you have both!

If you want to get some lane priority you can ask your laners if they want you to help them shove the lane or you could gank the lane. Both of these create scenarios in which your laner will be able to help you afterward because the enemy laners are unable to do anything without becoming extremely vulnerable.

What is Scuttle Control?

And why do I need it? Scuttle control (also known as river control) is when you have killed the rift scuttler (s) and used it to give your team an advantage. Now, keep in mind, this does not just mean go killing the rift scuttler willy-nilly after their initial spawn.

At the 2:00 spawn time of the crabs you'll want to look for double scuttle control. This can only occur once per game as after their initial spawn only one can be on the map at a time. The reason you look for double scuttle crab at 2:00 is because it gives you a severe map advantage early. It gives you free vision to help prevent ganks, it tells you where laners might be roaming or where the enemy jungler is, and it helps you get around the map significantly faster than you would without it. Keep in mind that even if you think you don't need it, the enemy jungler will definitely want it, and you know we can't let them get what they want.

However, after this initial spawn, you will want to be looking to strategically kill the rift scuttler . This means that if the crab is just spawning in the bot side river but you know the enemy jungler is top side, don't kill it! Why? Because you aren't denying as much. Yes, you are, in theory, denying gold, xp, and vision, but it makes it so much less useful. If you know where the enemy jungler is, and it isn't near that side of the map, why take it? The vision becomes useless and you bet the enemy jungler isn't expecting to be able to go take the crab by the time they get to that side of the map. They lose much less, and we want them to lose as much as possible. So, try to kill the rift scuttler before you take objectives and when you don't know where the enemy jungler is (or you know they are nearby).

		What Are Objectives?
		Objectives, even as a jungler, include more than simply the drakes and rift monsters. Towers (and inhibitors by extension) are included as objectives as well, and all three of these objectives are important to winning a League of Legends match. Drakes give powerful stats for your entire team. Rift objectives ( rift herald and baron nashor ) gives your team severe map pressure. Destroyed towers open the map for a team and living towers close it off. These objectives also all give large amounts of gold, so there's another incentive to pay attention to them.
Because these are such powerful objectives, they are often contested by the enemy team and so you want to look for the most opportune moments to take them. Usually you'll look to take an objective after getting a kill nearby. This creates a fight advantage situation for your team, and also puts more pressure on that side of the map. However, in the early-mid game you might sometimes be looking to take objectives without kills. This would usually be done alone (though it's not required to be) and it would be while you have lane priority in nearby lanes. This again applies the concept of pressure, forcing the enemies to decide between defending their lane and going for the objective.

Stealing Objectives		Defending and Sieging Towers
Sometimes you will lose a fight or end up late to an objective, and whether this is your fault or not, you aren't able to get the objective without stealing it. This is where the complicated part comes in. If you are trying to steal an objective, you need to make sure that 1. You will have an escape, and if not 2. The objective is worth dying for. For instance, if you're denying a Dragon Soul, then it's definitely worth risking your life for. If you decide to do this, you need to make sure the enemy can't see you. Then use Parallel Convergence on where you think the dragon is (to see the health of it) and then Phase Dive or Flash over the wall to get to the objective and steal it with Smite once it gets low on health. You then can try to Chronobreak out.		As Ekko, you will be defending an sieging towers in exactly the same way (of course depending on your playstyle). If you are playing assassin, then you want to target the most dangerous squishy target and kill them without dying. You will also want to be clearing waves. If you are playing bruiser, you will mostly be clearing waves, but you will also be trying to frontline for your team and help them dive the enemies (diving is specific to sieging).

Teamfighting is a significantly more complicated thing than some people may realize. Because of the different classifications and playstyles of different champions, they each have different roles in how to teamfight. For example, a tank will frontline and provide cc, whereas a mage will backline, provide poke, and primarily deal damage for the team.

How To Teamfight as Assassin Ekko

Assassin Ekko is literally what it sounds like. An assassin. In case you have been living under a rock for the past 20 years of movies and games (if you actually don't know what an assassin is, know I don't mean that), an assassin (according to Merriam-Webster) is "one who murders a politically important person either for money or from fanatical adherence to a cause". Um...so yeah that's kind of what we're looking for...I guess? Basically, in League of Legends, an assassin is a class of champion that looks to remove squishy and important targets from fights very quickly. This is done with a quick burst of damage, and often the assassins will have some form or another of escape (for instance in our case Chronobreak).

So, as an assassin, you will be looking to flank the enemies. This means you path around them, where they can't see you, until you can get behind them and catch the VIT (Very Important Target) out.

If you don't do this you aren't fulfilling your role in teamfights and will likely lose them. There are very few situations in which you wouldn't flank (mainly they don't have any squishy targets, or they are all squishy targets), so you should look to do that most games.

How To Teamfight as Hybrid Bruiser Ekko

Bruisers are a different story. They often are in the frontlines of the fights, though they may sometimes rotate out. They often deal a decent amount of damage the longer the fights go on, but are not the main damage sources. You could say they are similar to juggernauts (though not quite), especially some champions like Nocturne that can go bruiser but still have a high DPS and adaptability (though Ekko is not one of those cases).

As bruiser Ekko you will looking to frontline for your team and mainly deal damage to the enemy frontliners. You will try to use your ultimate to heal back up when you get low and use your abilities to have higher DPS and sticking power.

Do not try to assassinate people. This will, in the best way to put it, extremely underwhelming. Because of your build path, in the early and mid game you have no burst power, and in the late game your burst only comes from your raw AP from your items. If you try to assassinate people that aren't extremely behind, you will find yourself dying and losing your team a lot in fights and on the map.

Closing out games can be one of the most deceivingly difficult things to do in a League of Legends match, or the easiest. How you go about closing out games really depends on the team comps in the match and the advantages and deficits between players.

First and foremost, you don't want to even really attempt to close out a game if you don't think you'll win teamfights. If you are in this situation, what you and your team should be doing is looking for picks (isolated kills). These let you easily catch the enemy team off-guard and gives you the ability to win fights. This is because even if you killed a player that wasn't having a lot of in teamfights, you will still have a numbers advantage which can be easily abused.

If you're in the situation where you know you will win teamfights, then you can employ a few different options. The main ones include 1-3-1, grouping, and objective forcing.

		1-3-1
		In this strategy, you have two splitpushers in the side lanes. One top lane and one bottom lane. You then have the 3 other members of the team push mid. This strategy requires two splitpushers otherwise it does not work. The numbers on the map to the left denote the number of and locations of champions on the map in this strategy.
This strategy works because you are applying pressure in all 3 lanes of the map. The enemy team then has to split themselves up to go deal with each of these three lanes. The ideal situation would have the splitpushers be able to 1v1 or 1v2 enemy laners, drawing lots of team members to that lane so that the other lane(s) can push in and take towers and inhibitors.

		Grouping
		Generally referred to as ARAMing mid, in this strategy your team groups up (generally as 4 or 5) and hard pushes in the mid lane, looking to siege and take objectives. The issue with this strategy involves the possibility of enemy splitpushers taking towers in a lane you aren't attending to. You mainly want to do this if you have a good team comp synergy and good ability to siege (for instance poke and engage).
This strategy works because it puts an extreme amount of pressure in one lane, causing most, if not all, enemy players to come respond to it, and because you know you will win the fights, you can continue the push without fear of losing. It is also often a strategy used in low elo since most players don't know how to splitpush, or simply don't want to.

		Objective Forcing
		This involves forcing objective fights. What you do is bring your team to an objective (in this example we'll use baron nashor ) to attempt to take it. The enemy team would then either respond and attempt to fight for it, or give it up. If they attempt to fight for it, your team can easily turn on them and destroy them, getting the objective along with kills. If they don't attempt to contest the objective, you just get a free objective.
This works because it makes the enemy team make a huge decision. They can either attempt (and probably fail) to prevent you from getting the objective, or they can give it up, giving you free buffs and gold, but without sacrificing their lives. Either way (as long as you win fights), you will get an advantage that is easily abusable to close out the game.

Thank you for reading through my Ekko jungle guide! I have put a lot of time in effort into it and hope it helps you in your League of Legends journey.

If you need any help with Ekko, don't hesitate to comment on the guide with your questions! Also please give it an upvote if it's been helpful and/or you liked.

I have had a lot of help along the way and so would like to mention and link those who have assisted me, both directly and indirectly.

First of all, Wicked Cherry (link embedded in the name), a great design artist who has made designed the header for this guide as well as my Sett guide. You can find her art shop here. Thank you so much!

Secondly, I'd like to thank Katasandra, a Mobafire moderator with the highest level of skill I've seen at table coding. I've gotten assistance with coding my guides here and also inspiration from her Table Coding Guide. Thank you!

Thirdly I'd like to thank jhoijhoi. With her guide to making a guide I've drawn inspiration (and used some content) to create portions of my guide. You can find her guide to making a guide here. Thank you!

Fourth I'd like to thank PsiGuard. He gave me the idea to create an Ekko guide and also indirectly helped me design my guide (by viewing his guide I was able to take inspiration and check my bases). Thank you so much!

Finally, I'd like to thank my esports team, which has helped me with this entire guide throughout its creation. They have spent hours reviewing my guide, checking the text information, and critiquing the design, and I have gotten lots of helpful feedback from them. I've also used them to observe patterns of error found in new Ekko players, so lots of credit goes to them!

I hope you all enjoyed the guide, and if you liked it, please check out my profile here for other guide links and some more information about me.