An Analysis of Ekko and Changes That Should Be Made
Ekko is a very popular champion because of his high mobility, damage, and complexity. This had lead to many people complaining, and him being banned in almost every game. There are problems with Ekko, and we will discuss them ability by ability.
Passive: The AP ratio on this ability may be too high, it feels like a slap in the face after you've already taken massive damage. This number could be reduced, or modified. However, Ekko is required to build three stacks in order to get the damage so it should be noticeable.
The real problem with Ekko's passive is the slow/speed-up. An 80% slow is immense, nearly a hard CC. Being slowed after taking a very large chunk of damage is frankly insulting, and showcases the problems with slows in LoL. Slows are just put on a character to give them a CC, and slows are so prevalent that being slowed is an inevitability.
Ekko is supposed to be a kind of speedster. Change the slow to an aoe around the afflicted target that lasts for a few seconds and gives Ekko a continuous speed boost. This allows Ekko to dodge retaliation in a skillful manner.
Q: Timewinder is a really annoying ability throughout the entire game. Timewinder is almost completely impossible to dodge in lane if Ekko is seriously trying to hit you with it. Because of this you are essentially guaranteed to take some damage. This becomes a problem when Ekko gets a certain amount of mana regen and begins spamming to clear waves. Just standing near a minion wave can get your health chunked.
Another issue with timewinder is the extremely pointless slow on the ability. I almost never notice timewinder slowing an enemy and it provides no real chance to catch up. This makes it merely irritating to the person who is being slowed and have no noticeable benefit to the Ekko.
A suggestion to fix this ability would be to make the damage partially scale with level so it is not as oppressive during laning. And to increase the slow field, without increasing the damage field. So an Ekko actually has a chance to use the spell for utility. This change would also allow the damage to be decreased in place of utility.
W: This ability is actually very well designed. The enemy has a very long time to react to the danger. And Ekko is given a very powerful shield and stun if he can land it. The problem here is that often times the opponent won't see the Ekko illusion preparing to throw convergence. This is compounded by the fact that the enemy has no real indicator of where the bubble will land. Fixing this ability would likely entail slightly reducing the shield or stun. And making it much easier for the enemy to tell they're about to be in danger.
The passive part of Ekko's w is the real problem. This passive is completely unnecessary. Ekko already has a large amount of damage, and this passive is really only good for killstealing low health targets. You almost never even notice the increase in damage. Just that and E+Lichbane does crazy damage if the target is low. Since the only time you even notice this passive is when Ekko is using his E it should be changed and moved to his E. The proposed change for this will be discussed later.
E: This is another mostly well balanced ability. The cooldown is very significant in the early and midgame. As well as the mobility provided being split into two parts. So Ekko can only get the full range if he's engaging, not running away. It becomes problematic when Ekko gets a lichbane and can suddenly one-shot anyone below 30% courtesy of his W passive.
The W passive should be added to Ekko's E in the form of additional damage based on target health. Ekko's E would deal bonus damage the lower a target is. This would encourage Ekko's E to be used as a finisher, not in order to get close enough to Q. This would also make the added damage be more noticeable and not something that is almost completely forgettable.
R: Chronobreak is almost perfectly balanced. It does incredible damage, but is highly situational and only allows Ekko to go in if he wants to deal damage. I have seen posts saying that it is unfair that the illusion disappears when Ekko enters a bush. The problem here is that having the illusion not go away allows people to track Ekko through the jungle and makes escape nearly impossible without using spells. The damage is also justified in that, if you're following right behind an Ekko, whether it's into a bush or just through a lane you knew you could take a heavy blow. The aoe is also very small and can only hit a few targets at max.
Ekko is a powerful and mobile character with no outstanding issues. However, he has lots of small grievances that are easily fixed which make people dislike him. Please discuss what I put forth without hatred for Ekko based on, "Too Much Damagez".
