WHY EKKO?

Hey guys, welcome to my first guide. My name is LightWave and I'm a Gold player on NA. I've been playing Ekko on and off since release, and am now maining him as a jungler with this build. It may seem a bit unconventional at first, but I ask that you take some time to read for the reasoning behind everying.

This build is very consistent in performance in every game if played correctly. While it takes a little bit to get rolling during your first clear and the early game, you'll be unstoppable after finishing your first defensive item.

This build is for a TANK Ekko that can still dish out ridiculous damage and take out a backline while providing a distraction for the rest of the team during a fight. I highly recommend it.

Ekko as a champion is not a very difficult to learn, however mastering his kit can take some considerable time and practice if you'll want to play efficiently in every situation.

*One thing to note about Ekko is that he is NOT the best champion at doing any of the things he does.
He is a Strong tank, however Malphite, Mundo, or Jarvan can tank more raw damage.
He is an excellent Assassin, but you'll see Khazix nuke someone a lot faster.
He excels at manipulating a team fight but a Nautilus hands down outdoes him.

Ekko is good at almost everything, but he he is a master of none.



If you like my guide feel free to comment, and tell me what i can do better! also, feel free to leave a +1 vote

Ekko's passive is Z-Drive Resonance. Any spell or basic attack landed by Ekko on a Monster, Minion, or Champion will apply a stack of his passive. The third stack applied consumes the stacks and deals bonus magic damage, and slows the target. If the stacks were consumed on a champion target, Ekko receives a burst of movement speed.




(Q) Ekko's Q is Timewinder. Timewinder is a skill shot that travels a fixed distance, or until it hits a champion, dealing magic damage. At this point, it slows and creates a slowing field as it travels a bit further, and then returns to ekko, dealing more magic damage on its way back.




(W) Parallel Convergence is a unique skill shot. It has a passive and an active, and is ekko's most difficult ability to use.
ACTIVE: 3 seconds after casting, a slowing field will appear, which will slow champions by 40%. If ekko enters the field while it is active, It explodes, stunning all enemy champions inside for 2.25 seconds, and giving ekko a substantial shield.

PASSIVE: Ekko deals bonus magic damage to enemies below 30% HP based on their missing health.




(E) Phase dive is a short dash, after which ekko's next basic attack has massively increase range, will teleport him to his target, and deal bonus magic damage.




(R) Chronobreak is another ability that can be difficult to master. When activated, Ekko becomes untargetable and warps back to where he was 4 seconds ago, healing based on how much damage he has recently taken, and dealing massive magic damage in the location where he warps.




*For exact stats on how much damage these abilities do, scroll over their icons at the top of this seciton.

A Good gank with ekko is reliant on how you use your abilities, as with any other champion. Using your abilities in the wrong order can let a free kill slip through your fingers or worse, feed a kill.

The most basic gank combo is very simple.

Make a calculated decision on where to place you Parallel Convergence
*Try to plan out where the enemy will run or move to when you come into view. If you can properly plan a parallel convergence stun, its an almost guaranteed kill for you or your laner.
and then...

The basis of this is that you come from brush with Phase Dive, and blink on top of them. Once on top, placing Timewinder in whatever direction they're running along with the slow from your Smite will lock them down pretty hard while dealing significant damage due to Z-Drive Resonance and Thunderlord's Decree .





An example of this combo without Parallel Convergence ....







Ekko's E, Phase Dive , is a really versatile skill that can be used to gap closers, escapes, and wall hops. Here is a map of all the walls Ekko can jump with casting Phase Dive

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: +1.5% Movement speed (x2)
  
• Greater Quintessence of Armor: +4.26 armor (x1)
  
• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: +1.7% Attack speed (x9)
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: +.16 MR per level (3 at lv 18) (x5)
  
• Greater Glyph of Armor: +.7 armor (x4)
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: +1 armor (x9)

This is gonna take a lot of explanation.

I've done a lot of trail and error with runes with this build and I've gotta say this is the best rune page for Ekko that applies to all phases of the game and is the most versatile.

WHY ARE YOU RUNNING 16 ARMOR?
It's no secret to anyone that champions that don't have a built in sustain in this preseason don't get much love in the jungle. Running a total of 16 starting armor in runes leaves you with 44 starting armor at level 1, with 31% physical damage reduction. To further explain why this is BETTER than running more scaling MR in your glyphs or some extra speed or damage in your quints, follow these points:
- Safer early clear with higher damage reduction from camps
-Having the extra armor allows you to invest into your late game build without having to worry about building armor immediately. Your base armor will scale at a healthy rate so that your armor is actually pretty healthy. So ultimately Dead Man's Plate isn't your go to rush every single match.


Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed Will allow you to move quickly, gank more proficiently, close gaps, stick, and escape more readily. Theres no reason not to pick these up. - Not to mention a total of 450 MS with full Dead Man's Plate momentum.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed brings you up to + 15% atk speed. You'll need this attack speed to clear camps efficiently and execute kills with Thunderlord's Decree and Z-Drive Resonance

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist Taking these gives you a healthier transition into late game. An additional 15 MR is a nice little touch to keep you much alive in fights.

SO MUCH ARMOR

Greater Mark of Armor A staple of most rune pages. +9 total Armor gives you nice bulk so the jungle doesn't rip you apart.

Greater Quintessence of Armor A big +4.26 armor to your already beefy set is nothing to overlook. paired with your seals and glyphs, you'll be sitting pretty.

Greater Glyph of Armor Although a lackluster +.7 armor is disappointing to look at, 4 of these bringing you up to the 16 armor mentioned above is well worth it.


Other options
Personally, I find that running the above rune page works best for me, however you may be far more confident and a lot less afraid of the jungle / counter junglers. Here's some other glyphs I take in different scenarios:

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power +4.95 Ability Power
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction -.83% cooldown
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction -1.67% cooldown at level 18
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power +1.2 Ability power

Nothing else is really worth taking.

Ekko has a first clear as a jungler that is 10/10 dumpster trash. It's actually so bad that you may even consider backing after doing just two camps. I'll walk you through how to do what you gotta do, but the PRIMARY goal of his first clear is to:
A) survive
B) Get a minimum of 700 gold


STEP 1

Start ancient krug. Ideally, Blue side is the best to do this, with a nice heavy leash from the duo bot lane, and if you get luck you can convince your support to take a hit or two for you.
Use Parallel Convergence just a moment after you start the camp. This will give you the nice 2.25 second stun to beat on the Ancient Krug and by the time they come out of stun, your krug smite will stun them AGAIN, saving even more HP. NEAT!

Get lv 2, level up you Q, and head over to red buff.

STEP 2

If you got a good leash, you're probably sitting pretty with decent HP right now. don't worry that'll soon be gone.
Position yourself between the wall and one of the smaller creeps for red buff so that your Timewinder will hit all three of them, and start the camp. Use Parallel Convergence the same way you did with krugs.
Awesome you finished the camp, but piss your HP is low man.
Go to the scuttler and pray to God that their jungle isn't there doing it.

STEP 3

(No tips for killing the scuttler... you just kill it.)

THE ACTUAL STEP 3

After killing rift scuttler you should have regained some decent HP off of the life steal of Hunter's Machete and completing the camp. crimson raptor is next.
Run on over, cast Timewinder and Parallel Convergence and make sure you knock out the little ones first. You take less overall damage this way.
Your HP after this camp may be lacking again depending on how your leash was, but you're level 3 now, so you have the option to gank... ha, yeah right back to the jungle.

STEP 4

If you're happy and confident with your HP go ahead and do gromp and you should be at about 700g! if not, clear scuttle and make your way around to the gromp

CONGRATS you survived your first clear somehow. But no the game gets 10000% easier.






Realistically, you're a lot stronger now and you should be able to clear the jungle without any problems now. Especially once you finish your Hunter's Potion.You have the option to keep jungling and farm like a madman or start ganking. And fear not, Ekko's ganks are terrifying at the very start thanks to Thunderlord's Decree and Z-Drive Resonance

go. be free. Do what you will, just itemize correctly.

Itemization with Ekko is extremely linear, and in MOST games, you won't be deviating from the primary build which is:

The main thing that will change in games is the ORDER in which you buy these items, however in maybe about a third or so of the games you play, you'll be itemizing a little differently.
The best situational items for Ekko are:
Randuin's Omen
Banshee's Veil
Zhonya's Hourglass
Turbo Chemtank <--- i'll explain this one
*And Maybe Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads




- Sorcerer's Shoes gives you a nice +15 Magic pen along with standard movement speed for tier two boots. With this build, magic pen is huge. While you ARE a tank, your primary role as Ekko with this build is to dive the backline, force someone out of the fight ( or get a kill ) and remain around long enough to apply your Parallel Convergence stun/slow and do some overall tanking.
With Thunderlord's Decree , Z-Drive Resonance, and Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive that additional magic pen does wonders for your damage.
You'll really only want to take Ninja Tabi if you're facing a heavily AD team, and Mercury's Treads If you're having trouble handling a fed extreme burst from AP assassins like Akali, LeBlanc, and even having trouble with CC gods like Nautilus



-A huge debate I had with myself when i first started playing Ekko jungle was Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk vs Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive. After much trial and error, and a lot of time, I've determined that Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive is the best jungle enchantment for this build, and Ekko jungle in general. Let me explain with some bulletpoints.
-- Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive is MUCH cheaper than cinderhulk. With a total cost of 1625 gold , that's pretty hard to beat.
-- Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive's bonus cleave + damage to Jungler monsters helps Ekko's clear tremendously, and can save you a lot of time clearing in the jungle. -- Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive's extra damage as a sheen proc allows for easier assassination of a champion. Go figure.
-- Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive COMPLETELY ELIMINATES Ekko's mana problem. One of the PRIMARY issues with Ekko is how many reliant he is. This completely removes one of the con's on the list above by restoring 8% of his mana after each skill he casts when he auto's a monster. I mean what's not to love?
-- Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive gives +10% CDR. woopee


- Dead Man's Plate is a great item for Bruisers and Tanks alike. 50 armor and 600 health are pretty healthy, and will leave you around 2k+ HP if you build it after Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive (which you should). Although as a defensive item, Randuin's Omen is superior to Dead Man's Plate, the utility of maximum momentum + tier 2 boots gives you 450 Movement speed (wow), and the bit of bonus damage with max momentum + Phase Dive being excellent, I take this item almost every game.

-Taking Abyssal Mask is integral to this build. The item
gives you +70 Ability power and +50 Magic resist, hands out that beautiful -20 MR aura, and is relatively inexpensive. It gives you the MR that you need quickly, and increases your damage at a shocking level.
Think about an ADC that didn't build any MR. Now think about Sorcerer's Shoes and Abyssal Mask in your arsenal smacking them around with Thunderlord's Decree + Z-Drive Resonance... You done thinking? moving on.


-If you followed this build correctly, and bought in the correct order, you'll be at a nice 3k HP after finishing Warmog's Armor, leaving the Warmog's heart passive at the perfect point. Throwing a huge chunk of HP into the mix doesn't only make your survivability something to brag about, but it makes you intimidating! yay for tilt!
Summing it up: you become a tank God, and you can dip in and out of fights, healing steadily as you do so for free. Neat! coupled with Stalker's Blade - Runeglaive you basically wont ever recall til your pockets are busting with gold.

*another option to grab here is Randuin's Omen


-By the time you get around to buying Luden's you should be pretty difficult to kill. Warmog's Armor and all of your resistences coupled with your ultimate, Chronobreak, you should be sailing pretty well. Buying Luden's Tempest gives you that last bit of punch that really pushes Ekko over the edge from "Really strong" to "overpowered" (and Thunderlord's Decree ). More of a nudge in the movement speed department, a huge chunk of AP, and a nice burst bonus added to your Phase dive with Luden's passive.

*If you're having trouble surviving still another tank item could still work though. Zhonya's Hourglass works wonders.

---

- Now I had write a section on this because I see people floundering about awkwardly with Turbo Chemtank all the time with no idea what they're doing, regardless of the champ.
On Ekko this item can be fantastic or a complete disaster so please pay attention.
Turbo Chemtank is a fantastic engage item that gives you a little bulk, and a heavy slow on the enemy team. If used correctly, It can push a lead into a landslide.
Here are the conditions in which you SHOULD and SHOULD NOT purchase this item:

Well that's it fam. I hope you guys learned something new about Ekko and give this build a shot. It's extremely powerful if done correctly, and It's extremely fun. This is the end of the guide so do das it.

If you're interested, you can find me at Twitch.Tv/L1ghtwave

Peace.