With the Summer Split of the LCS now underway, the introduction of a new champion to the rift just made sense. We now welcome Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time. Primarily an assassin, this ability powered melee champion came onto the scene with an overwhelming amount of hype, as Riot Games did a great job of keeping us in the dark before the video “Ekko: Seconds” was released. Of course, the main thing that drew us in and shocked me at least was the Chronobreak ability shown in the video – the ability to rewind and do something all over. At first glance, this could break the meta, possibly having the chance to redo a team fight, redo a tower dive, redo a gank. Much to my personal dismay, it only affects you, so the second chance on a team fight is a no go for your whole team. However, in the other instances, it gives you a chance to make a huge change. Let us look a bit deeper into the new addition to the league, and see what you can do with him…or redo.

Abilities

Passive - Z-Drive Resonance

This ability is almost as good as Ekko’s ultimate. Using any damaging ability, basic attacks included, the enemy gets a stack of Resonance. At 3 stacks, the enemy takes a scaling amount of bonus magic damage that scales not only with level, but with AP. On top of the massive damage potential, your enemy of choice is slowed by up to 80% at max level for 3 seconds. Now, this is not similar to Vayne’s Silver Bolts where once the stacks are used you can start stacking again, you will have to wait a few seconds to stack up again. This could be absolutely huge if enough attack speed is built, or with a lot of AP.

Q Ability - Timewinder

This new boomerang skill is excellent for farming and poke potential. When first thrown out, it will hit a max range or an enemy champion and expand, creating a slowing field. On the return, it comes back to Ekko’s position, dealing even more damage on the way back. This is a great level one ability to pick to get early zoning in, as well as great damage.



W Ability - Parallel Convergence

For this ability, Ekko brings in a different version of himself to hit a device to a targeted location. After a few seconds, the item expands to a large field and slows enemies by 40%. It should be noted that enemies will not see the area until half a second before it expands. If Ekko enters the range of the item, it explodes, giving him a shield and stunning everything in the area for 2.25 seconds. As a bonus, the passive from this ability allows basic attacks to deal percent missing health to your enemy, given their health is below 30% of their max health. I think that the passive of this ability is more important, as finishing off your opponent faster is always better as an assassin.

E Ability - Phase Dive

To give a small gap closer/escape, this spell jumps you to a targeted location, empowering your next basic attack to not only give you bonus attack range, but “blink” you to your desired target, dealing bonus magic damage. Overall, the dash itself is not the greatest when trying to escape from a gank, but if you want to get that little bit closer to the enemy and burst them down with damage, this is the way to go.

R Ability - Chronobreak

And now, the ability we’ve all been waiting for! Let’s talk about the active first here. After a brief delay when activated, Ekko rewinds to wherever he was 4 seconds prior, dealing a massive amount of magic damage to nearby enemies and healing him for a flat amount plus a percent of the damage he took in those last 4 seconds. This ability has so much potential to finish off your enemy of choice, or to redo that tower dive that you probably shouldn’t have done. Being able to redo 4 seconds of time on top of being healed is huge as an assassin. However, there is a catch – the passive. I see this as the definitive fight or flight point as the person against an Ekko. The passive shows a ghostly trail of where Ekko previously was the last 4 seconds. This means that tower diving him with his ult up could spell disaster as not only you are stuck under tower range, but a good amount of the damage you just dealt was just healed back, and he is out of your range to deal damage. If you are able to draw out the ultimate, he loses a lot of potential to recover from being ganked, as well as team fights.

Where Can Ekko Go?

Mid Lane - This is the suggested place for Ekko, as his assassin/all-in style makes him well suited to take down the mid lane. His kit is perfectly suited to handle other melee mid laners and shorter ranged casters, as his rewind can save him from being jumped on and his poke is phenomenal.

Top Lane - After seeing the potential of slows, stuns and burst, Ekko could be a great top laner for his ability to zone well, deal stackable damage and have a life-saving ultimate. While he does not have a lot of tank potential, seeing carry top laners in the current meta is not uncommon, and the damage that can be dealt makes up for his downsides in the top lane.

Jungle - I have seen a few jungle Ekko players, and I will admit, it does not seem that it is a wise idea. However, with his passive stack damage, AOE stun + shield on his W ability, and the great damage on the Q ability, his ability to clear jungle camps is fairly good. As for his ganks, they really rely on running in and blowing up a target, rather than holding down an enemy and giving the kill to someone else.

Overall, the introduction of Ekko to the rift has the potential to have a lot of changes on how team fights are fought, as well as the way assassins could be played overall. With the amount of detail and work that went into Ekko, I am left to wonder one last thing – what is going to come next?

If you liked what you read, leave a comment below and tell me what you think of Ekko! You can also follow me on Twitter at @_CasualToaster and also on Twitch at twitch.tv/pirateboarder! Best of luck on the rift, friends!