I reached Diamond IV this season and am still climbing.

Hello everyone, my name is Chronobreak and I am an Ekko Onetrick, currently Diamond on the EUW Server. I have been maining Ekko for about 5 years now and I believe I have a lot of knowledge about the Champion that I would like to share with you in order to help you learn the Champion and climb the SoloQ ladder with Ekko. If you have any questions regarding the Champion, the game in general or anything mentioned in this guide, feel free to ask me about it in the comments. you are also very welcome to check out my stream on twitch.tv/rivox_1337 if you want to watch me play Ekko live. The guide is still quite unfinished, but the most important stuff is included and you can learn a lot of things about Ekko already.

On Ekko, your job is to oneshot the enemy's carries. To achieve this goal you want to be ahead in gold and xp and build as much damage as possible.

Ekko's early laning phase is not the best, but if you play around your opponent's cooldowns very well, you can get solo kills and take over the game from that point on. Ekko is a very explosive snowballing champ, especially with Mejai's Soulstealer.

But Ekko is not just a good oneshot-burst champion with a lot of mobility, he is also a really good sidelane champ. I usually sidelane a lot when we are behind and I don't have enough damage to oneshot the enemy's carries. If you know that you will be sidelaning a lot in your game, Nashor's Tooth will help you push very well and deal more damage to Turrets.

You pretty much want to take Hail of Blades all the time on Ekko mid. It's ideal for short burst trades and oneshotting, as it allows you to proc you passive instantly. A lot of low elo Ekko players still go Electrocute, which is just a weak rune compared to Hail of Blades, because the cooldown is way higher, and you need Q + E + auto attack to proc it as quick as possible, while Hail of Blades can activate your passive almost instantly. Remember, Ekkos main damage source is his passive, and it also gives you tons of temporary movement speed which allows you to dodge skillshots in lane or access vulnerable targets in a teamfight. I've seen some Ekko players go Dark Harvest on mid lane which is just a horrible choice because it doesn't give you any trading potential at all. First Strike used to be a valuable rune into melee matchups, but the rune got nerfed so much that it's not worth it anymore, while Hail of Blades cooldown got buffed to only 12 seconds last season.


The best rune for Ekko jungle is Dark Harvest. It allows you to scale the most for those late game one shots.

In 99% of my games on Ekko my Item builds looks exactly the same:

Dusk & Dawn has a great synergy with Ekko because it can activate your passive immediately and allows you to burst targets and completely delete them from the map. I predict that this item is going to be nerfed later this season, however, as long as the passive stays the same it will always be your first item choice in season 16. Make sure to build the items in the exact order I mentioned earlier in the notes of the build section of this guide.

Boot choice is in the next chapter.

Shadowflame is the ideal 2nd item option as it provides you with a lot of AP and flat magic penetration which helps you a lot in the early, mid and late game. It's passive Cinderbloom is a great bonus to finish low hp targets.

My 3rd item is Mejai's Soulstealer. Ekko is the best user of this item in my opinion, as you profit from the raw AP and movement speed it gives you, and you can prevent deaths quite easily with your ultimate ability Chronobreak. If you get fed early on you can even buy it before Shadowflame, just make sure to never purchase this item before finishing your Dusk & Dawn and your boots. I usually like to upgrade my Dark Seal into Mejai's Soulstealer when I have around 7 or 8 stacks.

Most of the time, my item number 4 will be Rabadon's Deathcap. It provides you with a lot of AP so you can 100% burst any squishy target in the late game. It also has great synergy with Mejai's Soulstealer as it amplifies your AP .

LAST ITEM CHOICE

My last item will be one of these four:

#1 Void Staff
Best choice if the enemy has a lot of Magic Resist. You can also consider buying it before Rabadon's Deathcap if the enemy stacks MR early. But be aware that Ekko is not supposed to oneshot bruisers and tanks. Your main goal stays to assassinate ADCs and other squishies who don't have a lot of magic resistance.

#2 Nashor's Tooth
This item helps you to deal more DPS and is a great choice against targets with a lot of HP. It's also a good choice if you want to split push, as it allows you to take down turrets way faster. Ekko is an amazing split pusher, and this item helps you to pressure the side lanes. In the jungle, this should be your second item as it helps you clear faster, and allows you to gank any lane, even those with high HP targets.

#3 Hextech Rocketbelt
I only buy this item if the enemy team has a lot of dashes or movement speed, which will make it hard to for me to reach them. But you should rather buy it after finishing Shadowflame, so you can make use of the active earlier.

#4 Stormsurge
I love to finish my build with this item if the enemy team has 3 or more squishy champs that I can oneshot with one combo. It grants bonus movement speed and can trigger a useful AoE damage in late game teamfights.



- - - HONORABLE MENTIONS - - -

Zhonya's Hourglass
Zhonya's is a niche item which should almost never be purchased on Ekko. Going full damage with the build mentioned above will be 100 times more effective and your kit gives you enough safety already, so you won't need Zhonya's to survive. I buy this item only if I really struggle to survive teamfights and skirmishes or if I know winning time can win me/my team fights. your W stun can also get activated if you are in the active of Zhonya's Hourglass, so you can stun enemies who are on top of you and ult them as soon as your invincibility expires. But this mechanic is most likely to work in low elo as high level players will not stand in your W.

Banshee's Veil
I only buy this if the enemy team has a lot of CC that is hard for me to dodge or if their team is full AP. But most of the time, Ekkos kit and items provide him with more than enough movement speed in order to dodge skillshots and position more ideal in fights, so you won't have to purchase this item.


WHAT ABOUT LICH BANE ????????
Lich Bane is still a great item on Ekko, but you can only buy one Sheen item, and Dusk & Dawn is just way better on Ekko, so it never makes sense to buy this item unless you want to use a fun max movement speed build in a normal game or ARAM idk lol.

I go Sorcerer's Shoes all the time on Ekko. The flat magic penetration is really useful to get more damage off. If you own a [Blasting Wand]] and Sheen but don't have enough gold to finish your Dusk & Dawn, you can finish your Sorcerer's Shows first. Don't ever buy Kindlegem if you cant complete your Dusk & Dawn. Kindlegem is not very gold efficient on Ekko because you don't really profit from the stats it provides. If you manage to complete your Dusk & Dawn first, you can complete Sorcerer's Shoes afterwards.

Mercury's Treads can be a viable option too if you are faceing a heavy cc comp and think you need the tenacity. But keep in mind that you are missing out on a lot of damage if you buy Mercury's Treads instead of Sorcerer's Shoes.

Ekko has a quite weak laning phase and a lot of bad matchups, but you will be able to punish enemy mistakes if they waste their abilities, especially in lower ranks. You want to be patient in lane and wait for the opponent to waste an ability, and then engage on them for a quick trade with Hail of Blades and then disengage with your passive movement speed.

On level 1, I don't put any skill points until:

Scenario A: My opponent used an ability on the wave or missed a skillshot on me; then I'll level my E first so I can jump on them and proc my passive.

Scenario B: My opponent didn't use any ability until the first 3 melee minions got low; then I'll level my Q first so I can last hit all 3 of them at the same time.

In lane you have to

- be patient
- don't spam your abilities
- punish enemy ability cooldowns

Once you reach level 6, you can look to roam or fight skirmishes, as you have a lot of fighting power.

On level 9 (or level 7, if you have around 100 AP also depending on the minute mark as minion hp scale over time) you can oneshot the backline minions with one Q and oneshot the frontline minions with one Q and and auto attack on each one. Exploit this to push the wave and look for roam opportunitys. Most mid lane champions can not match your wave clear once you reach that level.

ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS TRICK: Play Video
EKKO W INTERACTIONS: Play Video

Let me know in the comments if there are any certain matchups where you struggle a lot, and I'll try to explain my approach as detailed as possible. I might also make some detailed videos about each matchup in the future, depending on the demand for it and the resonance on my guide. I'm also very happy about any feedback considering this entire guide. It's still not finished, but I hope you still learned a lot about Ekko, the most fun champ in the game and the coolest character in the LoL universe.