I think I've figured out how to fix Ekko, please take a look

This is a long-ish post, I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom

Yo guys, I'm an Ekko main, have been since the end of last year when I realized how fun he is to play. I play him AP mid rather than tank, and it's frustrating to see him become such a balance nightmare, and to see him constantly banned or picked for the abusive tank build. And, I'm gonna be honest here, I can't deny he's pretty annoying to play against even when built the intended way. As much fun as I have with him I can't say he doesn't have a fair few problems that need to be addressed, but I've been worried for a while now about the upcoming assassin rework. I can't shake the feeling that Ekko's numbers will be shuffled in such a way that he ends up as a more straight forward burst assassin rather than the hit-and-run cc assassin he's meant to be.

With that in mind, after staring at Ekko's wikia page for a long while, I think I've figured out a way to address almost all of the problems with Ekko with a single simple change, and it doesn't even involve changing any numbers. To start with, I tried to nail down exactly what Ekko's weaknesses are supposed to be to counterbalance his numerous strengths. The biggest and most obvious weaknesses Ekko _should _ have are as follows:

A) Lack of easily accessible 100-0 tier burst

and

B) His abilities have delays attached to them and require some manner forethought or setup to get the best out of them, or to get the bulk of his damage in

The issue with Ekko right now is the second point on that list isn't quite true. Ekko can get his combo in a little too reliably at all stages of the game. At first I put this down to his E, as it's targeted and allows him to effectively setup his other abilities, but I couldn't think of a way to change the reliability of his E without the rest of the kit falling apart somewhat. Then I realized, the E isn't the problem at all really, Ekko being in melee range in general is a nightmare for another reason, the E just lets him get there. The problem is actually something kinda subtle, a tiny modifier in one of his abilities that allows enables the "run someone down with permaslow" playstyle that makes tank Ekko such an ever-present issue, and makes his laning so nightmarish for any melee champion. Here's an excerpt from the description of Ekko's Q:

At maximum range or upon hitting an enemy champion, the device slows to a stop and expands

"upon hitting an enemy champion". This sounds like a small thing, but bear with me. Ekko's Q proccing the slow on contact with a champion is what lets him set up the rest of his combo so effortlessly; it's what lets him land both the return part of his Q and his passive in any given melee trade. A point blank guaranteed slow flies in the face of what Ekko is supposed to be, it lets him simply brute-force trades and gives him both the option to run down a target or effortlessly disengage, without having to plan the trade or position correctly or setup his abilities beforehand; in fact the opposite is true, the ease of this trade means Ekko can start setting up his other abilities **afterwards **by setting up stuns on already crippled victims, disengaging and running circles around a foe while waiting for cooldowns, or in the case of tank Ekko, simply wailing on somebody until they drop dead. As somebody who plays Ekko a whole lot, I can tell you that I abuse this combo in every melee lane, because there's just no beating it. At level 1 if an opponent moves forward to CS, Ekko can nail them with a point blank Q and use the ensuing slow to land both his passive and the return Q, guaranteeing the trade goes in his favor. From level 2 onwards Ekko can do this every time an enemy comes within range of his E. The guaranteed slow is what causes Ekko to be such a threat when played as a relentless bruiser, and it's also what makes him so frustratingly snowbally when built AP, because short of flashing the Q, there's almost no way to stop his damage happening.

I'm not gonna pretend Ekko couldn't use some number rebalancing, but I think if his Q were changed to always travel the maximum distance, it would solve a lot of the problems. Suddenly Ekko can't brute-force unwinnable trades, and he can't easily run-down enemies without at least a small amount of setup before the attempt happens. He has to play with distance a little more carefully, hitting opponents with the slow beforehand, or carefully positioning afterwards to land the return Q, rather than getting the best of both scenarios by virtue of simply getting into melee range and _then _ pressing buttons. Without some degree of setup melee opponents can sidestep the Q or simply walk away, and at later levels Ekko can't brute-force burst assassinations vs an opponent that has any kind of mobility. I've thought about this a bunch and can't really see a downside to making this change a reality, aside from Ekko potentially getting some more AOE damage out in a teamfight if a team lines up right, but that seems like a fair tradeoff for a significant hit to his reliability, particularly in the early game. While we're at it, it might also be worth upping the mana cost of his Q ever so slightly, so he can't effortlessly waveclear either.

What do you guys think?

TL;DR Ekko's Q should always travel the maximum distance rather than expanding on contact with a champ so that he can't force unwinnable trades at melee range