Hey, I'm Arcsecond. I've been playing league of legends since season 2. I started in bronze elo, and hit challenger in season 3. My two favorite roles are jungle, and mid. I started playing Ekko jungle in season 6, when bruiser Ekko top was really popular. I thought his kit would work really well in the jungle as well, and hit rank 1 with him after a few weeks. I hope this guide can be helpful to your climb :)

Why Ekko jungle? I think Ekko performs best as a jungler. I believe smite is the strongest summoner spell to take alongside flash on Ekko, especially once upgraded to blue smite. The range on the slow, and burst, plus the ability to secure objectives fits Ekko’s play style perfectly. Ekko has a hard time laning, and his w, ult, and passive can be best utilized in roam, gank, dive and flank scenarios. I also think he’s really fun to play.

I believe Ekko has the largest impact as a bruiser. Ekko deals most of his damage through his passive, the w passive, runes, and the sheen proc. Ekko is also more likely to deal damage with his ult when built tankier, and with the slow from iceborn gauntlet. Ekko can be the most impactful when playing around his cooldowns, mobility, and utility. With this build Ekko still has a lot of kill potential, but also has the mana, cooldowns, and resists to constantly pressure the map.

Conqueror: One of the best runes in league of legends. This rune fits Ekko’s bruiser style more, and is significantly better in team fights.

Triumph: Overall a good rune, and the best option in the row.

Legend: Alacrity: Attack speed is always good in the jungle. It also allows Ekko to proc his passive and stack conqueror quicker.

Legend: Tenacity: Take this rune when the enemy team is heavy physical damage and you're planning on building Ninja Tabi’s.

Coup de Grace: Decent damage rune, and execute damage is extremely valuable on jungle.

Cheap Shot: Extremely powerful rune right now. Will deal more damage than sudden impact, and it deals true damage.

Ravenous Hunter: This is the best rune for Ekko. Ravenous hunter procs off of Ekko’s passive.

Electrocute: Electrocute is my second favorite keystone option. The damage from electrocute isn’t very high right now though, especially when you’re not building a lot of ap. When taking electrocute, sorcery is a good secondary tree, with absolute focus, and waterwalking, or gathering storm. Currently I prefer coup de grace, and legend alacrity as my secondary runes.

Hunter's Talisman: Hunter’s Machete has been the best starting option before, but hunter’s talisman is currently the best option. It gives great health and mana regeneration, and helps clear Ekko’s preferred camps the best.

Stalker's Blade: Blue smite is crucial for Ekko. Blue smite’s range is greater than Ekko’s e range. The slow from blue smite will almost guarantee the Ekko e to connect. The extra burst damage will also make Ekko’s w passive deal more damage.

Dark Seal: Dark seal is great on Ekko. It costs the same amount as the sapphire crystal which is in the build path for runic echoes. I’ll buy dark seal after stalker’s blade, unless I had less than 650 gold, or had enough to complete runic echoes. I won’t upgrade dark Seal to Mejai's Soulstealer until the core Items are completed.

First back buys:

If I back with less than 350 gold, I’ll just buy a pink ward. If I have less than 650 gold, I’ll buy dark seal, and a pink ward. If I have less than 950 gold, I’ll buy stalker’s blade, and a pink ward. Between 950 gold and 1000 gold I’ll buy stalker’s blade, and boots. After 1000 gold, I’ll buy stalker’s blade, and dark seal. Then you want to prioritize tier 1 boots unless you can complete runic echoes, and prioritize fiendish codex over sapphire crystal. After runic echoes, I prioritize sheen over completing boots, and even tier one boots sometimes.

Mercury's Treads: Preferred boot option. Tenacity is extremely powerful, especially on Ekko. Since iceborn gauntlet is your first item, you’ll be low on health and magic resistance

Ninja Tabi: Built when the enemy team in mostly ad.

Liandry's Torment: Highest dps item for Ekko after the core items have been completed.

Wit's End: Wit’s end was recently changed, and is one of my favorite items to build on Ekko now. It’s one of the few magic resist items without cdr.

Adaptive Helm: Worth it as last item against heavy ap compositions after spirit visage and wit’s end.

Randuin's Omen: I only build randuins now, if the enemy team has a lot of critical strike damage.

Thornmail: I’ve been building thornmail a lot recently, because of the buffed healing reduction. I’ll sit on bramble vest after gauntlet, or spirit visage, when the enemy team has a lot of healing.

Mejai's Soulstealer: Always preferred if you have stacks, your core items are completed, and there’s a low chance of you dying.

Elixir of Sorcery: The extra damage to towers is great for closing out games. Ekko’s build is also fairly cheap to complete which allows for early elixirs.

Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes: Great stats, and gives Ekko enough damage to fast clear the jungle, and have kill pressure on the enemies.

Iceborn Gauntlet: I’ll always rush Iceborn gauntlet after runic echoes. Even against a full magic damage dealing team comp, the item is worth it. The item also only costs 2700. It’s 500 gold cheaper than lich bane. Even if lich bane only costed 2700, I would still prefer iceborn gauntlet. It’s more mana, cdr, and the passive is extremely powerful on jungle Ekko. The slow sets up ganks better, and makes it easier to land both parts of q, the w, and the ult.

Spirit Visage: Ekko has a lot of healing sources: Ekko’s ult, chronobreak, ravenous Hunter, conqueror, runic echoes, health regen, and possibly wit’s end. With spirit visage Ekko has 40% cdr, health, regen, and more magic resistance. Spirit Visage gives more health than Adaptive helm, and has a much stronger passive. Abyssal mask is also a bad option now since it costs 3000 gold, and the mana is unnecessary since runic echoes now gives mana, and iceborn gives 500 mana. I only not build spirit visage, if the enemy team is full ad.

When snowballing:

Against heavy AD:

*Randuin’s Omen would be the last item in this game since they were all ad. If they had one magic damage source, spirit visage would have been built after bramble vest.

Against heavy AP:

Z-Drive Resonance: Almost all trades in which you can proc the passive are worth it. With the increased movement speed, it’s very hard for the enemy to retaliate. Use the movement speed to reposition, while waiting for your cooldowns to come back up.

Timewinder: Ekko’s q is great for fast pushing and fixing your laners waves.

Parallel Convergence: Use w to push your enemies towards your desired location. Always try to place the w in your path as well to always have the shield. The shield granted should also be used to tank damage. Use w to tank tower shots, and damage from the enemy team.

Phase Dive: Ekko’s e is a great gap closer, and can be used over most walls. Ekko will travel faster if he can connect the second part of e. Always look for possible connectors like champions, minions, ward, and orbs.

Chronobreak: Ekko’s ult is great for tower diving, initiating fights, and stealing objectives.

W E E Q AA: This is the most basic combo. Lead with w, ideally out of the enemies vision so they don’t know when, and if the w was used.

E E Q AA W AA: This combo is best, when you’re already in e range of your target.

E Q E AA: This combo is best, when you’re sure that your q will connect.

Q AA E: This combo is best for extended trades, and when you’re already close to your target.

W E Q: Safe way to slow an enemy. If both parts of the q hit, you can look to use the second part of e to proc your passive.

Raptors: My favorite camp for Ekko. Ekko heals a lot off of the camp because of hunter’s talisman and ravenous hunter. I believe this camp also has the best positioning on the map. One of Ekko’s best ganks also comes from the raptor pit.

Krugs: Best camp for experience, but takes a lot of time to clear, and often requires a smite charge for the large krug.

Wolves: Good camp for Ekko to clear, and path to out of base.

Gromp: Hardest camp for Ekko to clear. It will almost always be cleared last before a recall.

Scuttle: Ekko can clear scuttle crab extremely fast with the stun from w that reduces scuttle’s resists.

*Tip: Use smite early before Ekko’s passive when trying to quickly clear a camp to gain the additional damage from Ekko’s w passive.

Dragon: Ekko doesn’t clear dragon very fast especially before runic echoes has been completed. Since Ekko is great at defending and stealing dragon, I’ll prioritize ganks, and farming over dragon.

On blue side rush to ward the tri bush to prevent invades, and cheeses. Then move towards mid, and throw your w towards pixel brush by dragon. This can be mirrored on red side, but the tri bush ward for top lane isn’t as important. Use w on the starting camp at 1:27. Ekko’s auto attacks deal more damage to lower health enemies. For the last auto on red you can wait for the hunter’s talisman damage to tick before autoing. The last Ekko auto will deal around 125 damage.

First Clear: Red start is always preferred as it is a stronger buff than blue, and it’s nearest two camps are raptors and golems which are extremely good camps for Ekko. Only start blue if the enemy team is looking to cheese red level 1. Having Red keeps you healthier, and makes you deal more damage. A jungler with red vs. a jungler with blue will almost always win. It also makes it easier to secure the other side of your jungle, and scuttle crab. Ekko becomes a lot stronger after hitting level 3, and with a couple of items.

Main Paths (From Blue Side):
*Paths from red side are mirrored

Red Buff -> Raptors -> Wolves -> Blue Buff -> Gromp or look for a gank -> Scuttle Crab -> look for ganks top side or for a top side invade,
Main route
Red Buff -> Raptors -> Krugs -> Enemy Blue Buff -> Wolf Camp if the enemy jungler showed on the opposite side of the map, otherwise Gromp -> Scuttle Crab
Good when you have a strong bot lane to gank, and when the enemy jungler is weak early.
Blue Buff -> Gromp -> Wolf Camp -> Raptors -> Red Buff -> Krugs -> Scuttle Crab
When the enemy team looked to invade your red.
4. Red Buff -> Krugs ->Raptors -> Check mid gank -> Wolves -> Blue Buff -> Scuttle Crab
Great route, especially when playing against a strong level 2 jungler like Xin Zhao.

*Tip: Scrying orb will have spawned for blue to make it safe to reveal the scuttle area

Second Clear: The first camp that was cleared by both junglers will respawn around 4:25. Generally you want to path towards either of the respawned camps unless there’s a good gank available.

If route 1. Krugs ->Look for bot gank, if on blue side, or go to Raptors -> Wolves -> Gromp or look for a gank or invade.
If route 2. Check your Wolf Camp Raptors -> Krugs -> look for bot gank -> Enemy Wolf Camp or moves towards mid and your opposite side of the map
If route 3. Look for top gank or do gromp -> Wolf Camp -> Look for mid gank or invade top side if not then -> Raptors -> Look for mid gank again -> Krugs -> Look for bot gank
If route 4. Krugs -> Look for bot gank -> Raptors -> Check mid gank -> Wolves or look to invade top side -> Gromp or look for top gank

These are the routes I’ll take out of base:

Ekko has great teamfighting. Look to proc your passive on as many targets as possible, and to land your w on priority targets. The longer Ekko can delay his ult the better for max healing, damage, and the best position. If you are engaging against lot of enemies try to proc Ekko passive, and ult immediately after. Then look to follow up with the movement speed from Ekko’s passive. Use w passive, and ult very liberally, especially when you can proc your passive on a squishy target. They will lose a majority of their health while you will still be full health, and will have kill pressure once your next e q combo is available. It’s better to save your ult when possible, and use the shield from w and the movement speed from passive to win trades. Ekko has a lot of healing sources making most trades worth taking.

*Tip: Use the movement speed from passive to dodge enemy melee auto attacks.

Most games are won through baron and elder. Ekko is great at setting up, protecting, and stealing those objectives. Ekko can zone the enemy team with parallel convergence, to gain, and clear out vision.The passive from parallel convergence also helps secure the last hit on objectives with the bonus damage to low health enemies. Ekko can fast push all waves with q, and passive to set up objectives. It’s very difficult for the enemy to gain big advantages against Ekko since he can clear waves against tower pushes, and can threaten stealing baron, and dragons with his kit. Avoid farming camps far away from the objectives. Item purchases past Ekko’s core items aren’t worth risking baron or dragon over. Prioritize staying alive and securing the objectives over kills. Once baron is secured, Ekko is great at rotating between waves, and bringing empowered waves to towers. Use Ekko’s w, and q to zone enemies away from their towers.