Ekko's area denial
First and foremost, I don't consider Ekko overpowered. In my humble opinion, he is at worst overtuned and will most likely receive adjustments regarding his numbers (Dmg, Slow/Speed ups, Stun, etc.).
However, that doesn't change the fact that Ekko, as an Assassin, does have an awful lot of zone control and area denial in his kit. Whenever a fight breaks out with him around, I see a maximum of 5v5 players brawling but Ekko makes it feel like a 5v7.
Why? Because every single skill has some sort of area denial attached to it
His Q is easy to dodge but hurts a lot, especially on its way back. It behaves similar to Gnar's/Sivir's Q with the important difference, that Ekko's projectile lingers around for 2 seconds which means you cannot move into it nor should you attack a opponent between Ekko and his Q's path. Combined with his E, he can throw it out, blink into your back-line and hit your adc with an empowered attack and his q returning. Since this is instant you better be prepared to immediately lock him down or he flashes/ults out and leaves you crippled.
Let's talk about his W next. Not only does it slow you down should you dare to cross it, it also allows Ekko to stun you for 2.25 seconds while granting him a very strong shield. (330 + 80% of your ap at max rank). Sure, the stun is only appliable after three seconds and you can leave the affected area beforehand. But for that you have to look out for his echo to throw it down (Another thing to look out for) and you do not gain vision of the target area until the last 0.5 seconds. Ekko just created a delayed Amumu ult you cannot see until it is to late. Even if he never pops it the field is still there and prevents your team from crossing it because again, all Ekko has to do is use his E and jump blink to whoever dared to cross it. With proper communication you can evade it quite easily but considering Yolo-queue, it is much more likely that your team will scatter once Ekko throws his W down.
His E is in terms of area denial actually the weakest (Not considering it's synergy with the rest of his kit) and compareable to other assassins dashes (Like Akali's ult, Zed's dash + Ult, Rengar's passive).
Last but not least, his ult. That thing is in my opinion the number one contender for best area denial in the game. Why? With all the other boons Ekko already has, the ult is the cherry on top of it. Ekko creates a lingering image of himself with a four seconds delay mimicking his movement. The rule is simple, right? Don't stand near the blue shadow or Ekko can hurt you with his ult (While also healing himself but thats besides the point). The word can is important because just by having his ult he forces you to avoid the after image. You know that he is able to use it at any time but you don't know when nor IF he is going to use it at all. You cannot chase him because that only allows him to jump back into your back-line. He can use it to proc the stun on his W. You have to make sure to either cc him before or immediately after he activated it but again, this skill is an instant blink so I hope you have good reflexes.
And that is just Ekko, there are four other players on his team you have to look out for, too!
TL;DR: Way to much area denial for a single Assassin. Delayed damaging Q with incredible synergy on his E. Zone control with W and R funneling your team into unfavourable positions else they get stunned/nuked. Has multiple dashes and speed boosts in his kit which increase the threat of W and R.
Seriously, I get that he is an Assassin playing around the prince of persia mechanic but why does he need so much area denial? Tanks in general are already great at this but they don't have incredible burst on top of it (for the most part) so why is Ekko allowed to have it?
Things that I would like to see:
- Increase vision gain on his W from 0.5 to 1 second.
- either decrease the stun duration on all ranks to 1.5 or increase it per rank.
- decrease shield strength and ap-ratio.
- provide a better visual cue after he activated his E to let his opponents know that he can blink towards them.