Introduction x Intro x Changelog Champion x Pros / Cons x Abilities

Pre-Game x Runes x Summoner spells x Team Comp In-Game x Items x Gameplay & Macro x Ability usage

Hello everyone, welcome to my guide for Locke, The Ashen Exorcist. This will be my first guide I ever published so I will start with a small introduction.
I am MelonSeed, a (mostly) Diamond (currently Em 1) mid main on the EUW server. I've been playing league since around season 3. Mostly casual with some moments of ranked pushing in between. I have been chilling around diamond for the past 4 seasons or so. I really like the more mechanical champs in this game. Used to be a rengar one trick for a pretty long time (700k mastery at this point) but swapped to mid to play Sylas. Who is at 550k mastery already.... Since then I loved midlane and played many other champs here. Mostly focussing on assassins, skirmishers and fighters. I love Sylas, Aurora, Ambessa and dabble in some Ekko. The moment Locke got announced I was sold. Everything said about the champ clicked with me and I knew I would want to pick this champ up. Ever since the start of the PBE release for him I have been testing, theorycrafting and talking about this champ (in the locke mains discord, feel free to drop by and chat with us you can find us through the r/Locke_Mains page on Reddit or join through: https://discord.gg/locke-mains ). Now I got to the point where I want to share my view on this amazing champ so here it is. I hope you enjoy the read and I will try to be as thorough as I can be. If you end up with any questions or suggestions let me know in the comments. Thanks all!

I also want to use this place to thank the Locke Mains discord servers and especially AfroSaiyan and Karius-Nym for their comprehensive Locke guide. They did a ton of testing from which I and many others were able to learn, improve and (in my case) use in this guide.


Changelog:
Now that Patch 26.14 is out and with that the Locke nerfs. I will update the guide shortly with the changes that happen because of it.
- did some changes and added some new matchups in the threats section.
-Removed Ignite + TP as summ option. After testing it does not seem worth to drop flash ever.
-Swapped the secondary runepage for the standard page to precision. It feels more consistent imo at this point. For harder matchups or much poke resolve is still better.
- Just a quick update for patch 16.15 and the Locke nerfs here. They clearly hit pretty decently (especially the survivability with health and W nerfs imo). His damage still feels fine imo and I am not making any changes to build or other information because of it. Just know the champ is fine!
- Added the haste setup to items and build section. in my opinion this is now not only one of the best but especially the most fun way to play Locke. You are more tanky and can do constant spell rotations.

Abilities

Items

Locke - The Ashen Exorcist Melee, Assassin, Ability Power, Midlane, Jungler Who is Locke? Locke is an AP Midlane assassin. He specializes like most assassins in killing squishy targets. Locke is one of the assassins with a decent amount of AOE damage. With this comes the negative of needing setup for his damage. Getting it off, especially in AOE scenarios gives MASSIVE damage and in my opinion makes it worth learning this champion in itself.

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PROS + High Damage + High Mobility + High Skill Ceiling + Very fun (objectively, trust me) + Good waveclear + Many different setup options (different runes and item options) Locke is a pretty standard assassin if you just look at his baseline playstyle. This brings some very clear Pros especially if you like this way of playing league (I sure do ^^). He has very good damage, can dash around using that mobility to outplay enemies and has quite a lot to learn regarding animation cancels, ways to play fights and ways to flank enemies. Get creative its a lot of fun! Besides that, he has pretty good waveclear during laning phase. With the multiple Qs Ritual Nails going through the entire wave and E Ashen Pursuit popping all marks you can quickly depush lanes if needed. Lastly there are multiple ways to play, most need more testing since he is very new but i am quite certain it won't be just one way to play.

CONS - ALL magic damage - ALL flat damage - Snowball dependant - Quite difficult to pick up (especially for non assassin players) As mentioned in the Pros, Locke has pretty standard assassin traits, sadly this also brings some clear negatives. Most important of which in my opinion in the difficulty he has killing more tanky enemies. Be it full on tanks or bruisers. Since all his damage is flat magic damage fighting against a tanky opponent with some health and magic resist is quite difficult. You just miss the % health or true damage fir example to get through them. He also is quite snowball dependant. Locke does not bring much utility to the team. If he is not killing the enemies, he feels quite weak. Lastly he can be quite difficult to pick up. He is not the hardest assassin in the game but still an assassin without an easy oneshot button to press. You need to setup your kills this can take some time to get used to.

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Hover over the abilities for more details. Below a short explanation how they function in game:

Passive:Lockes passive Silver Stake gives him flat magic damage on hit scaling with AP. It does go up depending on how low the enemy is. It gives Locke a bit of consistent damage after his burst and adds auto damage as AP champ.

Q:Locke's Q Ritual Nails is his most important ability. When cast Locke throws 1 nail. its a thin skillshot. It marks every enemy hit with 1 stack. after this throw Locke can throw 2 more within a time period. also adding to the stacks when hit. Locke can then proc these stacks with either an Auto attack or his E. Damage scaling further with more nails in the enemy. The scaling is as follows:
1 Stack: 20/30/40/50/60 (+ 25/27.5/30/32.5/35% AP) “no increased damage”
2 Stacks: 48/72/96/120/144 (+ 60/66/72/78/84% AP) “20% increased damage”
3 Stacks: 84/126/168/210/252 (+ 105/115.5/126/136.5/147% AP) “40% increased damage”
This adds up to a total maximum damage of 234/306/378/450/522 (+ 165/175.5/186/196.5/207% AP) for landing all 3 nails and consuming the full stacks.
Comparatively, your total damage by consuming only one nail at a time is 210/270/330/390/450 (+ 135/142.5/150/157.5/165% AP).
This massive damage and scaling increase is the reason you max this ability first ALWAYS. It is by far his biggest spike when you reach level 9 and have this maxed.

W: Locke's W Soul Ignition is his survivability tool. When activated Locke loses a bit of hp. Gains Move- and attackspeed and all damage he takes (from self damage and enemy champions) turns into gray health up to a cap scaling with his AP. He can reactivate this ability (even when CCd) to heal back the gray health or it will happen at the end of the duration. The gray health healing besides the damage he takes scales with missing health and time the duration was active. so leaving it on as long as you can without dying is best. Because of the great survivabilty, chase potential and even some damage with attspeed this ability provides it is best to max this 2nd over his E. The cooldown goes down and the healing cap and movespeed go up with levels. It is much more value than the next ability we discuss.

E: locke's E Ashen Pursuit is his main mobility tool. This ability is easiest explained as being a reverse Ekko E. First you have a freely aimed blink followed by the next Auto Attack being a dash with AOE damage in your path. BOTH hits do damage, this damage is not amazingly high but still good to have. ALso both these attacks can proc your Q marks making it possible to proc Q in AOE when hitting multiple enemies with your Q. And stacked on top of this the ability resets on takedown. Making it a solid engage tool that can be used to either chain kills or get out after a assassination. Sadly the skillpoints you put into this give it slightly more damage but nothing too big, don't lower the cooldown and make it cost more mana. Because of that W max 2nd is just better.

R:Lastly Lock's Ultimate ability Purgatory. When cast Locke throws the skull from his back. Marking an aoe circle when reaching the destination. Anyone in the circle at the moment of impact will be dealt damage, are slowed by 99% decaying over 2 seconds and marked for 5 seconds. All the mark does is when this champion gets below the execute threshhold (baseline 10/11/12%) they instantly get executed and sucked into the skull.When this happens to 1 person all other people marked get the 5 second timer refreshed. Locke can then pick up the skull from the location it opened from refunding 20% of the current CD of his R and granting 0.5% execute threshhold increase per target in it. His ultimate has great teamfight or duel potential. The only issue with it is that it is quite slow. Normally any champion with a dash or flash up can dodge it from any range when cast. When they don't it can instantly win a fight with it's damage proc, slow and execute.

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DOMINATION

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KEYSTONE Electrocute is the go to rune for Locke in most games. It brings solid early kill pressure, more ease blowing enemies up later and synergizes great with Locke having 3 casts on Q Ritual Nails proccing it from just hitting those in quick succession from range even. Ofcourse, this is not the only option available. The domination tree is known for being a good tree for assassins. The keystones show this, Hail of Blades (HoB) is a playable alternative to the electrocute playstyle. It trades Electrocute's high damage and high cooldown burst for a lower damage, auto attack focussed but lower cooldown alternative. It forces you a bit into a Nashor's Tooth build since this compliments it really well but it can work especially in the early trading. Dark Harvest is also playable but mostly focussed on jungle since this guide is focussed on mid I won't discuess it further but feel free to try it out. MINOR 1 This row has 2 good options. I find myself having the most succes playing with Cheap Shot. As Locke you can very easily proc in in lane with ur Q. Even when you can't fully commit to a trade you still do some extra poke damage. Also the cooldown is short so you can constantly apply it with Q hits. Sudden Impact is also a very good option. In my opinion it is better when going all in since the proc damage is higher, the trade off is that it is a longer cooldown and you need to use your E to proc it. This means either casting E1 before Q to poke or fully commiting with E2. Because of this I think it has it's place as a more all in focussed choice and it is up to the player to decide what they like more. MINOR 2 This row has 2 choices that don't matter too much. It's 100% personal preference. Grisly Mementos gives haste on your trinket. After going sweeper mid game to flank enemies the shorter cooldown does help. Sixth Sense is another option. It shows when there are wards nearby and later on lets you hit them even. This is the more AFK option of the 2. It just helps showing when you are on a ward sometimes instead letting you actively track more. I prefer Grisly Mementos personally. MINOR 3 The last row gives 3 possible choices that are all viable to play. It is the players choice what they prefer. Ultimate Hunter is just extra ability haste on your ultimate. Since Locke's ultimate is a powerfull ability for the all in potential it gives in lane. It is a good option to take for more windows to use it. Relentless Hunter gives out of combat movespeed, this is good for getting back to lane fast and roaming. Good option if you prefer map mobility. Treasure Hunter is purely for snowballing harder. It is extra gold scaling on numbers untill you killed everyone once. Going around the map to get these kills early and stack it fast can make you snowball out of control pretty quickly. I mostly take Treasure Hunter for the snowball potential or Relentless Hunter if I think I need to roam a lot in a. game.

PRECISION

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KEYSTONE Conqueror is the only really viable mid lane keystone from the precision tree. Even though it's the only one it is still a good one to have in your back pocket. Conqueror brings a different type of playstyle to Locke. Instead of just the assassinating and running keystones like Electrocute and Stormraider's Surge. Conqueror has more value the longer the fight takes. You can stack it very fast with 3Qs giving 2 stacks each and your autos adding to it. With this you can slowly setup and then engage with as much stacks as possible. The bonus AP and healing you get when at max stacks makes you a great fighter. during that time being able to tank a bit more than normal, do good damage and survive longer to engage on the next target after a kill. It is a bit less consistent in oneshotting enemies than electro is but in my opinion it is a strong and very fun way to play Locke. It also opens up a more bruiser build with AP health items. This is not optimal to play but can be played in games where you can't assassinate anyone and need to frontline for your team. MINOR 1 This row has a slight personal preference attached to it as well. all options are playable. most games will be between Presence of Mind and Triumph. The choice here is between wanting to have some more mana sustain through Presence of Mind just so you never really run out. Or the other option Triumph this gives you extra gold and a small heal on takedown. This ensures you can reset and still fight on or atleast makes this a bit easier/ more consistent. It promotes snowballing which is important on Locke and makes his teamfighting a bit better which is also a strong point for Conqueror. (being extented fights) Absorb Life is a niche option you can pick when laning against heavy poke. I never really find it worth to take but if you notice there are lanes you get poked out early while liking Conqueror in these lanes, go ahead and take it. MINOR 2 The legend row. In my opinion only 1 real option Legend: Haste. This gives haste on your basic spells... SO more uptime. more uptime is more damage, more survivability and more mobility. This is always the best in this row because of this. Legend: Alacrity is also playable if you really want more attack speed, Locke just does not really like to constantly hit people with autos. You rather kite away with the slow and movespeed increase and burst again after, hitting a bit with Soul Ignition attack speed if you want to. MINOR 3 Last Precision row also has 3 good options. Cut Down is my personal favourite. With the increase in damage on higher health you make enemies lower easier. It helps with poking enemies in lane and getting them into kill range AND making them lower so your passive Silver Stake benefits from the extra damage. This leads into the second choice Coup de Grace this goes all in on the resets in fights and skirmishes. When enemies start getting low you do more damage so Silver Stake does more damage and you can reset using Ashen Pursuit easier as well. It is a great option. Last Stand can also work playing with lower health through your W Soul Ignition gray health. The moments it is low your damage spikes a lot and you heal last second to survive. It works but in my opinion it is the least consistent choice.

SORCERY

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KEYSTONE The Sorcery tree has a big niche for Locke. It helps you against longer range enemies or enemies you need to poke down instead of assassinating. Stormraider's Surge is the most picked of the 3 keystones for Locke. This keystone functions as an disengage. When playing Stormraider's Surge Locke you play to all in on CD and escape with the stormraider proc. With this movespeed you can consistently force good trades in combination with your W Soul Ignition. It is the Electrocute playstyle with better disengage but less damage especially good into champs that slow you down after engage to poke back like Viktor. Arcane Comet and Deathfire Touch are picked in the same scenarios. It is mostly personal preference which one you want (unless you want to try a funky burn build with it then go DFT). They function as extra poke in lane instead of all in threat. you drop Electrocute] burst for lower cooldown poke with Q. It can negate some bad matchups and let's you scale up a bit easier towards the first few items. MINOR 1 Manaflow Band is my favourite here, since playing sorcery MOSTLY means playing more poke or constant all in so you use more mana. Manaflow Band makes sure you don't run out when doing this. Nimbus Cloak is also a good option. In combination with Ignite it lets you ignite early and run enemies down with the movespeed and mobility you already have. Very underrated on assassins overall in my opinion. MINOR 2 Transcendence is the most obvious choice i'd say. more haste and cooldown refresh on takedown later lets you continue fights with Q Ritual Nails more after resetting E Ashen Pursuit. Solid choice overall. Celerity is a fun option, especially with Stormsurge and Lich Bane you have A LOT of movespeed going. Taking this as well makes you zoom around the map. Fun for sure and I take it a lot myself to run around faster. MINOR 3 Easy answer is take Scorch pretty much always. extra poke damage is just soo good to have it lets you put enemies into one shot territory faster and makes you snowball lane easier. Gathering Storm is a solid option to take. Not bad at all it's just better to make snowballing easier through Scorch and end earlier than giving you more AP late when some champions have outscaled you.

INSPIRATION

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KEYSTONE First Strike is the best scaling keystone to take in the game. Locke has a strong early laning phase. This does not support that at all. Which might feel weird. Some games however you can't really kill in lane against Galio for example. When the enemy team is squishy but your laner is hard to kill First Strike value goes up. You can scale faster get to 1,2 or 3 items quick and start running around taking over the game. Mostly the same as Electrocute in playstyle just more scaling for less early game pressure. MINOR 1 When you take First Strike as keystone you want gold. Getting Cash Back as well let's you snowball with gold very hard. This rune just makes snowballing a bit more consistent. Even when you don't kill a lot getting some First Strike procs and enough farm will give you enough gold for some items. This makes it easier to snowball to the next. MINOR 2 Fills the lane sustain function in this tree. Let's you stay longer trade harder and can even give the edge in a fight when popped midfight. Very good rune. MINOR 3 Your gapclosing rune. Approach Velocity feels great on Locke. Just because his Q Ritual Nails keeps it on very well. You will have a movespeed boost in any chase as long as you land a Q. And you won't fight without it. Consistent movespeed, feels amazing to play with.

Secondary Runepage RESOLVE - WHY RESOLVE? As shown in the rune section at the start of the guide resolve is my go-to secondary page. I suggest this because it is the safest pick to have. It covers the lane weakness of being Melee. Resolve gives tanky stats, as a melee midlaner you will take damage and this helps. Just to be clear it is not the only option we talk about other options later and when it is good to swap. Option Row 2 There are 2 options in this row that are both great for Locke. Bone Plating is picked against enemies that burst, assassins or fighters mostly. Second Wind against enemies that poke. That is the easiest way to explain when to pick which. Option Row 3 Revitalize is the one option here you always take. It synergizes very well with lockes W Soul Ignition. You go low and heal more Revitalize increases this even more making you heal more damage than you took in many scenarios. This is for me some games enough reason to take the entire Resolve tree. INSPIRATION - WHY INSPIRATION? When going Inspiration it is for 1 of 2 reasons, More gold or Approach Velocity movespeed. You can take it when you are sure you don't need the tankiness from Resolve and no other page brings useful alternatives. Option Row 1 Cash Back is the go-to snowball "the rich get richer'' rune. Buy items and get gold back with that you buy more damage so you get more kill, more gold, more items and even more free gold. It can be very strong in snowbally games where Locke as a champion shines. Option Row 2 Biscuit Deliveryis mostly a filler rune, when you really want Cash Back but don't think Approach Velocity is useful in your game, take this. More healing in lane always helps the laning phase and popping a biscuit midfight to heal back a bit can be a gamechanger. Option Row 3 Approach Velocity is a rune you should try. Feel how it is to have the extra speed after just hitting a Q. I fell in love with the feeling of never having anyone escape me after hitting my first Q. They kite back, it does not matter you outrun gapclose and pop them. Great rune! PRECISION - WHY PRECISION? Precision has the most value in teamfights over the other trees (next to Resolve for tanky stats). It is pretty flexible in bringing damage and surviability in the options which makes it a nice tree to think about when making your page. Option Row 1 Triumph or Presence of Mind. These are both still good. They are explained more deep in the primary tree section, look there for the big explanation. All I want to add here is that Triumph might take my pick for secondary. It works well with Electrocute giving us more gold after a kill and some health back to use when waiting for cooldowns and the same when playing Stormraider's Surge for example. Health back run around till cooldowns are back. Option Row 2 This does not change from main page Legend: Haste is just the best one here. If you want more cooldown take this over the others. I would suggest most games to pick row 1 and 3 if you go Precision secondary BUT if you want the haste, take it. Option Row 3 Cut Down and Coup de Grace are the same as on the primary tree, both amazing and still personal preference. I would mostly take 1 of these with Triumph when going secondary Precision SORCERY - WHY SORCERY? Sorcery is good for Movement speed or mana sustain or poke in lane. If any of these are needed it is a solid choice to go. Try out some secondary pages in games and find what fits your playstyle. Remember that this guide just gives options and my opinion. Option Row 1 Manaflow Band = mana sustain Nimbus Cloak = movespeed. They are both good. Mostly Manaflow Band takes the pick here since it gives A LOT of mana sustain. Option Row 2 Transcendence and Celerity are both explained in the primary tree section. Reasoning is same here they are great options! Option Row 3 Scorch is the go-to poke rune. when taking Sorcery secondary to get more poke always include this. Summoner spells - FLASH Flash is a must pick summoner on (almost) all champs. The sheer versatility it brings from using it to chase, escape, dodge skillshots or just completely juking out the enemy. IGNITE Standard choice. Locke wants to snowball. Ignite gives more kill pressure so more snowball chances. It is very good and I take it every game myself. TELEPORT Teleport instead of Ignite is a possibility in matchups you know you can't really kill, so Ignite has less value. You play safer and go for a few items or some roams and use TP to lose as little farm as possible. Later in the game you will have more map pressure with this and can split push easier. Which is a strength of Locke you destroy sidelanes and towers and are very hard to catch in side because of the massive mobility. When you are needed by your team you can TP to them to help out and turn a fight. TEAM COMPOSITIONS The team comps section talks about teams that support Locke but also teams that could make his life very difficult on both sides of the rift. This is not about lane matchups. IDEAL ALLY COMPS Frontline Enablers & Dive Buddies There are a couple archetypes that fit Locke really well. Grouping abilities are quite good to have in your team so Locke can reliably use his R Purgatory to mark as many enemies as possible. Besides this he loves champion that go in to ensure there is chaos in the fights. As an assassin he thrives on a chaotic fight where he can pick off enemies without getting focussed down. Lastly having physical damage in your team, especially on jungle does help. When Mid and Jungle both are AP the value of Mercury's Treads for the enemy midlaner goes up a lot. Example Synergies: - FAVORABLE ENEMY COMPS Squishy & Immobile Drafts The dream of any assassin. Squishy enemies that can't escape. Locke is no different. You want the enemy comp to be a one shot, have as little easy to hit CC as possible and be as immobile as possible. This ensures you can dash in kill and reset for more or dash out again to safety without fear. Ideal Targets: ROUGH DRAFTS: WHAT TO AVOID Bad Ally Comps (No Frontline / Full AP) Locke prefers to enter the fights after his frontline goes to create chaos. If your team does not draft any frontline you are the one person going in. This creates much more danger for you and makes it much harder to get to the enemies without getting locked down. Besides that drafting full AP is bad ofcourse. Enemy can stack MR and Locke is not good into MR stackers since he has full flat magic damage spells. Avoid pairing with: - Nightmare Enemy Comps (Heavy CC / Peel) Big beefy enemies are terrible to face. Tanks that you can't get through and throw cc around like it is nothing. Also Point click CC is very annoying to deal with later in the game. Besides that the enchanters that can lock you down while protecting their team are quite tough to deal with. It's mostly the standard assassin counters for Locke. Rough Matchups:

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CORE BUILD COMPARISONS

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Lich Bane vs. Dusk and Dawn I can be quite short about this one. Many people ask about this and there are still some discussions going over what is true. In my opinion if you want a Sheen item most of the times Lich Bane is the best pick. It has more AP, Higher damage proc so it works best with an assassin like Locke. Dusk & Dawn has the advantage of being more tanky in stats. Locke does not need this though because of his W Soul Ignition healing scaling with AP not HP. Also the double on-hit proc works with Locke passive Silver Stake. The damage on his passive is not that high though so the value remains lower. You can go Dusk & Dawn over Lich Bane ofcourse if you prefer this, especilly when going a fun more bruiser focussed build.I myself rarely build it, even when going more bruiser i'd rather take Liandry's Torment. Void Staff vs. Cryptbloom As a full flat magic damage character Locke needs some form of % PEN is (almost) all of his games. The rare "no1 builds MR" game can happen and you could skip it there but mostly it is good value to get. Then the choice Void Staff the higher damage option, More AP More PEN%. You NEED damage? Get this it is good value. I go for Void Staff in most games myself, prefer the damage. Cryptbloom is the other option. A bit less AP and %PEN, so lower damage but instead you get Ability Haste and a heal on takedown. The heal is not that big so don't get it just for that but the Ability Haste is very nice to have in many builds where you have very little of it. When your Ability Haste is very low in your build and you dont need the 10% extra %PEN. Cryptbloom value goes up!

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Rush Item: Lich Bane vs. Stormsurge For assassin Locke there are 2 clear standard rush items since the start. People either rush Lich Bane or Stormsurge. I want to clear up what the difference is between them and why to pick 1 over the other. Stormsurge value comes from cheap flat PEN. flat pen value is great on Locke and getting it on the cheap here and combining it with Shadowflame afterwards makes for true damage (Pretty much)) early on against the low MR enemies. This does a LOT OF DAMAGE and feels quite good to play. Lich Bane on the other hand is mostly preference i'd say. I myself very much love Lich Bane rush. The extra burst you get when fully commiting with E Ashen Pursuit feels incredible when youn are already snowballing in lane and it also makes it easier to clean up kill when your Q Ritual Nails is on cooldown but your E Ashen Pursuit is up (from a reset for instance). Getting that E with Lich Bane to continue the fight in a skirmish is enough value to take it first for me in many games./i] Flat Pen vs. Flat AP Lastly, I want to discuss the flat PEN itself. Flat pen is a stat that compliments certain champs more than others. Because Locke is all flat magic damage, no True or physical or even % damage in his kit, you want to get as much value on it as you can. Stacking more AP increases the damage by a lot ofcourse but with the smallest magic resist purchase it gets cut by SOOOO MUCH. getting more flat pen on the other hand can negate those small purchases completely and if they don't buy it ignore all base MR and just do true damage on them. This is why flat pen value mostly outshines getting more Flat AP and is also the reason many people go for the full flat pen items start ( Stormsurge into Shadowflame/i]

Shadowflame So it was shortly discussed before but Shadowflame. In my opinion the 1 best item on Locke in the game. The only item I build pretty much ANY game, unless I am trying out some different build. Shadowflame is honestly just the best Locke item probably. increasing ALL damage he does when enemies get low to get easier resets, flat pen for damage and a lot of AP. The item makes everything else he builds stronger by just being there.

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Lich Bane Lich Bane is a preference item. I discussed the reasoning mostly before so I'm keeping it short here. The item has a lot of value for Locke since he can use it with his E Ashen Pursuit (the 2nd part) to do more damage when dashing around. He can also use his Q Ritual Nails casts spaced out to proc Lich Bane 3 times with just that ability. This is especially useful when pushing towers. This is why Lich Bane is a great item in my opinion, its flexible. When splitting you can push faster, when skirmishing your damage profile gets a bit more towards E instead of being all out on Q proc. resetting becomes easier because of this. I like it, but you should try both playstyles with and without and see which one fits more for you. it is both good.

Stormsurge As explained before as well. The flat pen value is amazing. It can be a rush item with full pen build or even be slotted second instead of Shadowflame when you have low income. (its quite a bit cheaper). Then you get Shadowflame third and have a great early damage profile going.

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Rabadon's Deathcap Rabadon's Deathcap is one of the highest damage AP items in the game. Especially later in the game when the AP amp gets higher. I would not call this a must purchase in any game. Sometimes defensive items are more important, and early on flat pen is better for sure. But that does not change the value this item has later in the game when it amps your AP to insane numbers. If you need more damage later in the gam and % PEN is not necessary yet (or you already have it)? Get this

% Penetration Items Also as discussed before. %PEN is pretty much a must have for Locke at some point in the game. Do you see the enemy stacking MR or do you expect them to soon? Get this fast, be ahead of the curve. You play an assassin having moments in the game where you can't damage the important targets well is terrible for you. Be on the lookout and get this item in the game before it is too late.

Nashor's Tooth Nashor's Tooth has synergy with a few Locke setups. Conqueror and Hail of Blades especially fit well with what you want to do with it. Nash increases your DPS, auto attacks deal more damage you can continue to hit (a bit) espeially with W Soul Ignition on. When playing more extented fights with Conqueror the dps Nashor's Tooth brings can work in your favor very well. You can continue hitting the enemy dash to a new one and keep Conqueror stacks up. It is very situational when you would want this and could do this. The times this build can work is explained in the runes section. Hail of Blades is another option. This build cheeses with a lower cooldown burst than Electrocute for instance has. With the 3 auto attacks you throw out having Nashor's Tooth there increases the damage you get from it significantly. It is a fun playstyle to try out but in my opinion not optimal.

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Hextech Rocketbelt Now that Rocketbelt has been nerfed, Lower AP higher HP. It is not a Locke item anymore. Locke NEEDS AP, Health is counterintuitive with his W, making it deal more damage to himself. AP makes the healing better. Lower AP on the item but higher health makes it worse for Locke. Does not buff his survivability really. Because of this Rocketbelt is, in my opinion, not a Locke item anymore.

Liandry's Torment It has 1 purpose. Laning or even playing a tanky team. This gives Locke a way to slowly bite through health with the max hp burn. You can apply it constantly in lane with Q Ritual Nails to slowly chip down on tanky enemies and make the fight favoured towards you. It is very situational but can be quite strong in the right games. When you have a game where you think there is no way I can do damage here, get this burn and slowly chip him down untill he is in burst range. Mostly combine this with a normal assassin build ( Shadowflame is very good with it) chip down enemy. and burst them out. Or go Conqueror as a bruiser with more Haunting Guise items. It is doable but not optimal yet. /i]

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Sorcerer's Shoes These are the go-to boots on Locke. The upgraded version gives both flat and % pen which is just amazing for a magic dmg heavy champ like Locke. If you are not sure what boots to go in a game, your best bet are Sorcerer's Shoes to do as much damage as possible. Mercury's Treads easily explained, enemy has a **** ton of CC OR your laner can just screw you over with CC and magic damage. Get these, your damage is lower when you play mercs but you can actually play the game. Matchups like Syndra or Hwei are good examples of champs that mercs work well against. In that moment still decide if you rather go Sorcerer's Shoes and try to dodge the CC since they give much more damage./i]

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Plated Steelcaps Steelcaps are even more rare. They reduce auto attack damage and ofcourse give a physical damage shield after the upgrade. If the enemy has many auto attack based champs ( Akshan mid Trundle top and Ashe adc you could consider these boots. Omnivamp Boots I enjoy these boots when playing Conqueror. They will not always be optimal, it is less damage than Sorcerer's Shoes give you but more survivability. Extra healing when low is GREAT with your W Soul Ignition doing self damage. Also omnivamp for healing during the fight and 5% more damage when higher health to still have some extra value. Try these boots and see for yourself. They can be fun in certain games where the sustain is more important than the extra damage from sorcs is.

Zhonya's Hourglass Amazing defensive option, all in with your damage. Hourglass to dodge enemy counter and get the next one with Q back up and E reset. OR give your team time to follow up.even better is if you get your R off on multiple enemies and have your team follow up. lets you get reset, cooldowns back and the enemy is slowed from your R so after the stasis you can go right back in. Love this item a lot.

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Banshee's Veil Has big value when the enemy has a few important spells but not many spells that can easily proc the banshee with a short cooldown. You want it up for the big spells. If you get hit by a lot of random **** in the game don't go this.

Cosmic Drive Its health, movespeed, some ap and ability haste. Good item if you want some tanky stats later in the game and don't think the stasis from hourglass and shield from banshee is useful.

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Riftmaker Riftmaker is a possible item in a bruiser build with conq. You can stack it up with conq and then once everything is stacked you become quite tanky from healing. deal good damage and can constantly fight. Very fun in the right games./i]

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Bloodletter's Curse A possible % pen item when you go bruiser. Gives you more health which is nice in this build. It removes MR instead of pen so if you have more AP champs on your team they also benefit and so this item gains more value.

Haste build
I want to take some time to talk about the new build that Phantasm started playing. This setup is focussed on becoming a bit more tanky through AP health items but even more important almost all items here give haste. The setup gives a few options. Rocketbelt can be bought 2nd, 3rd or be skipped if you feel like you don't need it. You can then instead build any other AP item that you like, shadowflame for more damage, liandry for burn, Cosmic for survivability for instance. Bloodletter's is always 2nd or 3rd in this build and with that is the standard pen item. Locke as backloaded damage so the shred that happens after a few hits don't matter much. The extra damage gives combined with the survivability is insane. This item feels amazing especially with a haste focussed setup like this. Now we don't play Locke like an assassin here. You don't just oneshot anyone you see BUT you have so much haste that you can do multiple rotations easily without losing conq stacks or bloodletter's stacks on the enemy making your damage better and better the longer the fight takes. play a bit slower than normal and you will be able to fight many enemies and constantly run around with W and dash around with E. A LOT OF FUN!

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EARLY GAME: THE LANING PHASE

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Levels 1-5: Trading and Setup
Locke's early levels are quite strong. level 1 in range matchups you can't really do much. Throw a few Qs at the enemy to poke them a bit but you have no real threat. Against melee on the other hand you can try to get them with 2-3 nails when they go for farm and even get the passive proc. This would make you instantly win the early lane in many cases. The damage from proccing 3 Q marks is amazing. Once you hit level 2 you can start to look for actual damage. If they walk up and use their main ways to deal damage on the wave or mis it you can try to counter with Q and E together to do some damage. We will talk about how to use this most optimal later but just remember to always check if enemy uses anything they can to counter you and if it is down, use this time. levels 3-6 stay pretty much the same. Look for Qs, if they overstep and you can get close enough with E1 to get 2-3 Qs and E2 go for it., you win most trades especially when you use W the moment you hit them so any damage they do back to you is technically reduced (since you heal some of it back.



Level 6: The First Power Spike
The level 6 spike opens more damage for you. Locke R Purgatory is a solid spell in lane to force summs or get kills. try to look for moments when they step too far up and have no realy escapes up. E in and R the enemy so you can Q 3 times and E2 for the kill. If you can hit this it is a kill on most laners from 70-80% health. VERY strong all in. Use this power so either snowball lane or in skirmishes around objectives. You move FAST if a fight breaks out close get there first and burst the enemy down so your team has a man advantage. You need to make use of Lockes strength early on.






MID GAME: SKIRMISHES & ROAMING

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Side Laning and Macro Pressure
Many times after the first tower falls your botlane will move to mid. I have to admit many times especially when I am strong I don't like this. But especially when playing solo there is no choice just play along. You can still shadow midlane for a bit when you think a fight might break out and capitalize on it with a flank. This works many times in my experience. The big danger for many assassin players, Locke not excluded, from here on in the game is consistency. You can run around and try to kill as many enemies if you can but if you just do that and nothing else you will in the end be screwed. They will still catch waves scale up and in the end outscale. Instead pressure sidelane, Farm well, hit towers, get objectives with your team. DONT SLACK. You are an assassin you can't fall behind. if you are not ahead of the curve you are close to useless as this class. keep up pressure get objectives and towers so you're team gets time to also farm up and get stronger. Look for flanks before objectives spawn so you have a man advantage on every objective fight, get dragons and hit sidelane again for pressure or look to pick off solo moving enemies.







LATE GAME: TEAMFIGHTING & CLOSING

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Positioning in 5v5 Teamfights
Once late game arrives Locke is not the strongest champion. You still do a good amount of damage though. Look to stay on the side of the fight as much out of vision as possible. If the enemy can't see where you are coming from they can't respond well. Let your team start the fight and jump in after important spells (especially CC and survivability spells) are used. drop everything to secure important targets. Thats pretty much all you do in late game teamfights. You can't just run in like a madman even if you are mega fed. They will CC you and burst you down. Constantly stay on the flank and when teamfights are not happening pressure sidelane. You are FAST and push towers fast as well, especially with Lich Bane. Use this to push towers and escape when they group. If only 1 person is send you might even kill them if they step up too far. Play it smart, never brute force as an assassin it is not what this class is good for.

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This chapter is made to explain how Locke uses all his abilities in the best (known) way. Some tips and tricks, good usage and different ways to make the most use of his spells and combination of his spells. It his seperated in all spell usage itself and then combos of spells together.

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Ritual Nails is mostly considered as Lockes most important ability. It has most of his damage (especially when hitting 3Qs). Before we already discussed all Lockes abilities so this chapter is focussed on what to do with them now that we know much more about the champion. You want to use Lockes Q to set up your kills. It has good range, a nice slow and sets up your damage. The difference between Locke killing and tickling an enemy is all about hitting this spell. In lane you use it as poke untill you see an opportunity where you hit 3 and have time to fly go in and kill without getting yourself killed. Later in the game it is all about fishing with Qs or using it from unexpected angles to set up your damage. Most important things to remember with Ritual Nails is that hitting multiple nails stacks the slow 25/25/60. This means hitting 3 nails makes a massive difference on this part already and on top of that the proc damage scales when popping more nails 20/40% increase. Remember this always when using this spell.

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Soul Ignition is an interesting skill. It has Lockes survivability and adds to his mobility. The gray health works similar to rengar W. The only difference is that rengar has a short time to heal back. Locke is instead capped on healing based on his AP and W level. This means that you have to make sure to turn this spell on BEFORE you take big damage and re-use it before you are dead (DUH). Always keep an eye out for enemy spells. When you expect or see how damage spells being cast activate W before the hit so you can tank it and heal back before you die. This combined with the movespeed and attackspeed this spell provides makes it possible for Locke to run around the edge of a fight and swoop in when he sees the opportunity to take get takedowns.

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Ashen Pursuit has a few interesting mechanics added to it. Because this ability is an instant blink it cannot be cancelled. This interaction also works with stuff like blitzcrank hook: Play Video Other related types of CC will react in the same way. This means buffering CC is an important mechanic to learn when playing Locke. It lets you escape many guaranteed deaths. Other things to keep in mind with Locke E:
- You can cast other stuff during E2's dash. So you can either do a Q or R with the dash to remove the animation.
- The dash hit is dodgeable, it is an AOE hit pointed at the location of the enemy the moment you start the auto. If they dash fast or blink (flash for example) away. It can completely miss.
- As partly explained before here. This dash does not follow the enemy like a talon Q would. It will dash to the max ability range always. Hitting from close will extend beyond the enemy because of this.
- always remember both parts of Locke E do damage. For maximum damage output you want to blink on top of the enemy and then dash.

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Locke R Purgatory is an interesting spell. It has good range and a decent size AOE, to make up for this however is the travel and activation speed quite slow. This makes it so that enemies with some movespeed are able to walk out of the spell after you throw it if they react fast enough. Completely negating your ultimate ability. If it hits however don't be afraid to use it. The big slow and execute mark scare away most enemies making them panic slightly. This could already give you the upper hand, especially with your team close you can quickly take care of a lot of enemies after the mark connects. Another strategy is waiting with your R for after your first rotation. They will be chunked or even in execute range and flash away for example. Throw R after them, they either dodge back letting you catch up or get hit and die. It is a very good way of securing kills that would have escaped in any other way.

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Now this in a very interesting section. Locke is a character with very creative gameplay. You can do your rotation in MANY different ways. So instead of just telling you how to do exact combos I want to explain WHY to do certain combos.
Let's start off with some classic combos to use in early laning:
Q-Q-E1-QE2 = This is the best way to open up a fight when you want to stay (relatively) safe untill you fully commit. The last Q with E2 you cast together. It will cast mid E2 dash and connect before so you get the full proc. I don't name W in this rotation because the W usage depends on what you need it for. You either start with W for movespeed to get Qs or end with it to deny return damage and run away. The rest of the combo is focussed on throwing you Qs without any commit yet. If they land run in if they don't just chill. You did not dash or commit that much mana yet so it is fine. This combo also works very well after your first reset on things like alternator or blasting wand if you were able to get that. There are many enemies you can run down with Qs after this spike that can't handle your damage.

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If you are more certain of your Q skillshot (and want to make hitting it easier to commit) you precast E1 to get close, then do the Q-Q-QE2. Again W usage depends like last one. With this you need to realise that you commit your mobility BEFORE you are sure you hit the Qs and with that your damage setup. IF they dodge your Qs in any way you will be in a bad spot, will have to W to run away. Lose health and a ton of mana for nothing. Always consider this when committing with this combo.

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With those 2 basic early laning rotations out of the way let's talk about implementing your R [Purgatory] in this. As discussed in the section about the ability Lockes ultimate can be used at different times in the combo depending on what mobility spells the enemy has up and what damage spike you are at. Also ofcourse the fog of war. From fog the combo will open with R into the rest of the rotation. If not you can either combine your R with E2 to cancel the animation. Throw it during the E1 blink to surprise the enemy OR the last one as discussed before throw it at the end of the rotation after they burn mobility spells/summs. Especially good if you can wait for a sec so you get your spells back up before the slow is gone to guarantee the kill.


just an FYI I am planning to add more videos covering combos and spell usage later on. This will take some extra time to get right.

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To end this guide I want to once more thank everyone if the Locke mains discord servers. This guide is made to evolve together with Locke in the community. Because of this I want to invite anyone reading this to leave any tips, suggestions or your opinion on anything Locke related in the comments. I will read and use this to update the guide as much as I can and make sure it will stay up to date with Locke.
Thanks to everyone for opening this guide and especially going through it untill this part. I hope you enjoyed and got as hyped about this great champion as I am.