One of my discussion points on Ekko

Yes, yes, everyone hates Ekko, because he was strong for a single patch. I get it, he's annoying, but he's never been in the limelight outside of the first patch or two he was released. There's a lot of talk about Ekko now, and ways that people believe he should be changed. I actually really liked the change where his Q utility scaled with AP, and I wrote up something long about it a bit ago. I was going to post it as a reply to a comment, but that's all I do, and I don't get heard too often, so I figured I'd try posting something rather. All below was initially a reply, and may at points reference the original poster, so a few things will seem odd in context.

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Biggest issue with his AP build is that it's usually difficult to build full AP. I will say my favorite way to play Ekko is to play him full AP Assassin, because that's how he's meant to be played.

The issue with this is that unless you really know what you're doing, or get ahead in lane, you're at a huge risk in full AP, since Ekko's entire kit revolves getting right into the fray, and other than his ultimate, the only escape he has is a dash and movespeed, on top of the slowing he gets. This means you generally need resists of some form, be it HP or an Abyssal/Zhonya.

But the best full AP build you can have, for maximum burst potential and speed, would be and ignoring runes/masteries, with this build and an elixir, you hit 662 AP, which is certainly strong, but there's nothing in here that you can replace which would be a good fit for the build, not one thing. Lich Bane is an absolute necessity, giving loads of damage on his E (Full AP can oneshot squishies with passive + E/Lich combo lategame). Morello is a better item than RoA now, since RoA lost damage and mana, with a passive that makes it feel weaker to rush. It's the only one that may be able to replace Morello, but since it gives the same mana as Morello and the latter has a mana stacking passive, it's just worse in any way except that it gives health. Luden's is necessary for the insane movespeed, along with the Lich, and Luden's gives added burst for assassinations and extra damage in teamfights. Void staff and Rabadons are obvious, and any mage, especially an assassin one, need those items to deal maximum damage.

Here's the issue though, this build is NOT the most efficient build for overall play, because it lacks safety. If you can manage to pull off proper plays and get an edge early game (This is necessary for full AP success) then you can be powerful with this build. But since it relies on so much, you can't reliably use this build. And here's another issue with them nerfing bases. It's completely and wholly understandable to nerf the bases, but the problem with it is that it makes it even harder to get a lead early game, the more they do this. Ekko has a generally strong early game, if you know what you're doing, because if he doesn't at least get somewhat ahead, he struggles in the mid game, where he needs to be at his strongest.

All in all, yes they are technically buffing AP Ekko, but it ends up being more akin to that of a keep-up, rather than a buff. They're making him stronger in the late/midgame, while making him weaker early. But making him weaker early makes it harder to actually get to the point that he wants, which is why an AP buff is necessary, but generally isn't going to make him much stronger until the endgame. A good general idea for an Ekko build, with safety (assuming midlane), would be this: and either or , and can be replaced by or maybe even , but this is a build that maximizes safety over all else, whilst still getting damage. With an elixir, this build comes out at 360 AP, a substantial difference. And if you can't reliably get ahead, this is the kind of build you resort to, which weakens the AP buffs he's been getting.

I actually really liked the first iteration of his Q on the PBE, because at full AP build it had an extremely powerful slow, at 90%. Which sounds insane at first, but putting into thought everything else, would be one of the few things that makes full AP a viable build, and worth the huge risk it takes to get there. and it doesn't even get that until your final item, Rabadon's, so it's not until the extremely late where you get a slow that powerful.

Removing the slow on Ekko's passive will do nothing less than gut him. This is just the truth of the matter, if they did it alongside the Q change it may be acceptable, but his slow on the passive is one of the few things that helps keep him safe, admist all of the danger he has to put himself through to be effective.

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TL;DR: Ekko needs the slows he has, and has high risk for reward. Removing reliable CC makes him weaker, and with all his bases getting lowered, it's harder for him to hit the ideal full AP mark. Go back to the first iteration of changes on PBE and it will be great for full AP.