Hi, my name is Lord Master Zed and I play on the NA server. I am a mid laner, and I decided to write this guide after I enjoyed some crazy Ekko plays during solo Q. Honestly, I expect that he will receive the nerf hammer quite soon but let us enjoy his full potential while we can. This is the first guide I am writing for mobafire in a while (The first was my Sion guide that I wrote in season 1, way back, and it was highest voted). Currently I am plat II but I hope to reach Diamond before the end of the season. Without further ado, let's get into Ekko and I hope you enjoy the guide. (Special thanks to jhoijhoi for the formatting guide/template you are awesome)

Pros

+ great poke/harass in lane with Q and passive + AoE stun + gap closer + Ultimate is ridiculously good + Extremely fun to play + Once you go black you can't go back

In lane, try to poke/harass with Q, and proc the passive as much as possible while getting cs. Coordinate ganks with W. In teamfights, zone with W and go in for a multi-stun or pinch their backline. Need to dance in and out of fight while waiting for cooldowns, remember you are an assassin and not a tank!

Pros

- Extremely Squishy, must care positioning - Somewhat Item-dependent (get that Luden's) - BIG nerf inc

Extremely squishy, care positioning. Also need to watch pathing and keep track of where your "echo shadow" is when ulting to make most effective and intended use of the ulti

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Z-Drive Resonance: A mixture of Diana and Vayne's passive. Third autoattack proc deals increased magic damage (against champions, grants a movement speed buff). Use it to secure last hits and also gain favourable trades early levels with Q.

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Timewinder: // Throws out a projectile that tags enemies with the Z-Drive Passive mark, slows them, and returns back to you. It deals damage on the way out and coming back in. Main poke/harass/waveclear skill.

Max Q First.

• // Use it to harass and poke early, landing the third proc with auto if you can for OP trades
• // With Luden's, this proc sync is a beast
• // Don't use it too much to farm as you will run out of mana early

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Parallel Convergence: // throws out a AoE forcefield that slows enemy targets. When you enter the forcefield, you gain a fat shield (nerf inc), deal dmg according to the %of enemy HP, and stun them for 2.25 seconds.

Max W Last.

• // It takes experience, but there's a slight animation where it seems like Ekko is throwing a "baseball" into the forcefield. If you enter in then, you will guarantee land the stun
• // the shield helps a lot in early skirmishes and 1v1's, sometimes it may help to turn into the enemy who is in the forcefield rather than running away
• // combine with ultimate (casting it on same location) for maximum damage + utility *requires positioning of "ultimate echo shadow")

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Phase Dive: // Dash a short distance, then blink to your target, dealing increased Magic Damage to the target.

Max E second.

• // Can be used to maneuver across terrain (ledges, baron/dragon wall, blue/red buff wall, etc
• // E + flash to instantly close the gap on someone
• // since you attack them right away when blinking to them, can be used to trigger the 3rd passive proc
• // can reset attack animation

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Chronobreak: // Ekko goes untargetable for a short period of time, then instantly "teleports" back to where he was exactly 4 seconds ago.

• // combination play with W to stun right when you arrive after using R (requires positioning/timing/awareness of enemy positioning)
• // can be used to negate or "cancel" enemy spells (TF gold card, Zed Death Mark, or anything that gets negated by the "untargetable" mechanic) as well as, plainly, dodging enemy skill shots (Ashe/Ezreal Ult, Ahri Charm) or delayed aoe spells (Leona ult, Aatrox Q, etc.) Using the ultimate well separates good Ekko players from Great Ekko players
• // After recalling and arriving in fountain, quickly buy items and press R to INSTANTLY RETURN TO LANE (more for utility/saving time when necessary, but use with caution as it will be on cooldown when you return to lane)

As far as Masteries and Runes go, they are personal preference. with experience you will discover that everyone has their own mastery setups that they prefer, and should be tweaked depending on the match up situation. As a standard, I run 21/0/9 on most AP mids. In the offense tree I am personally fond of the feast node for lane sustain, executioner a MUST on assassins, and Dangerous game (OP, saved me countless times from 1v1s/ ganks/ turnaround plays. Remember assists can aslo trigger dangerous game). In the utility tree, I like getting the cooldown reduction of summoners, and due to the recent buff duration nerf, I feel biscuit is better.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: can also run hybrid pen.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health: Due to the nerf of armor seals and buff of base armor, scaling health seals are far better.
  
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: Because the only cooldown we get is the 5% from mastery and Ionian Boots of Lucidity, with CDR per level glyphs, we can actually max out 40% CDR around level 14~15. This is why I prefer taking CDR boots instead of Sorc shoes, as we can focus on stacking straight AP and still get 40% CDR.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Staple for any AP Mid.

All you need

synchronizes really well with the passive procs from Z-Drive Resonance. Also increases single-target burst dmg with E and Lich Bane proc. (since it also works on buildings, Late-game you can 4-5 shot inhibitors)

If you read the Rune description section, pertaining to glyphs, you will see why I prefer these boots over Sorcerer's Shoes. Lower cooldowns = increased spell rotations = more DMG in skirmishes/teamfights = more kills earned --> more gold earned = win game

This item was pretty much designed for Echo. I like calling it Luden's Ekko. Synchronizes really nicely with Q, as it has the potential to procs luden's 1 out of 3 scenarios: outgoing dmg+ Luden's proc, slow + Luden's proc, incoming dmg + Luden's proc. Very nice item. Rush after Lich Bane.

GIMME MOAR AP

Grants a mixture of AP and MR. Buy it if either 1. Enemy team has 2+ AP (from a mixture of AP Mid + Jungler/Top or 2. Your team has 1~2 AP dmg sources other than yourself (Top/jungle/pure AP supporter). Also reduces enemy MR in a radius, helps when you dive in as an assassin with E+W or W+R or R+E or E+R

get it if they have an AD-heavy comp, or a team-comp that has heavy initiation. Use in conjunction with your ultimate to get out of sticky situations + make turnaround plays + bait the enemy team.

Once u choose between either Zhonya or Abyssal, get this as your 6th item. Time to go have fun and get Pentakills and hexakills and win game

That's it for the Ekko Guide. Sorry I could not be as detailed as I wished, but I hope that the guide can give you a general idea of whereabouts you can take Ekko in terms of item building and skilling. Feel free to send me your screenshots if you succeed with the guide and I shall post them. I will try to update the guide as much as I can and maybe even record some video hightlights/montages that show skill combos + epic plays, idk. Thanks for taking the time to read the guide and once again, shout-out to jhoijhoi for the awesome formatting templates. Cheers and good luck on the Rift!