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I've lived through Fiora, Cinderhulk, Juggernauts, etc. And only now am I scared to go top.

Melledoneus··21 votes·2,105 views

I virtually cannot think of a champion to pick top lane that would counter tank Ekko. To prove my point more quickly, here's a concise list of strengths and weaknesses of tank Ekko.

**Strengths: ** -Ability to zone opponents -Deceptively tanky -Deals massive sustained damage through base values -Overwhelming amounts of utility at his disposal -Reliable engages and escapes -Combination of slows and stuns make him difficult to catch or escape from -Brings great amounts of CC to fights

**Weaknesses: ** -Doesn't scale as well into late game -Would lose in a general sustain fight against all-in champions like Xin Zhao -He can die. Eventually.

Seriously. Half of his strengths used to be his weaknesses. He used to be bursty and hard as all hell to catch, but at least you could kill the little imp when his ult was down. Oh, no. Being a melee in the top lane SUCKS when you have to deal with Mr. "2.25 second AoE stun" with his dash-blink- speed boost all day. You can't catch him, you can't fight him, you can't even farm. He bullies even the likes of Darius and Renekton out of lane because of how much damage and utility he has while building tank.

The solution? #Increase scaling, reduce bases to MINIMAL, and for goodness' sakes make that speed boost and his Q something we can play around.

If you guys agree that tank Ekko is an abomination that should not be able to straight up overpower every top laner in existence, leave an upvote. If you don't, leave a comment. If you want to leave a comment, sure, nobody's stopping you. Let's make top lane fun again.

54 Comments

Catastrop8 votes

They need to Katarina his bases.

Melledoneus2 votes

I think this is a good idea, considering how he's been played anything but AP mid these days.

CanaryKiller4 votes

Its not necessarily ekko thats the problem, its the items. go anyone top with item 3068 item 3065 and item 3025 and the tank becomes almost impossible to die. its the main build for tank poppy, gragas, nautilus, and trundle once he gets his item 3748 (which has already seen nerfs). there needs to be nerfs to the items because we are in tank meta and anyone with mobility and engage or disengage utilizes those items all too well.

Melledoneus3 votes

Those three are not necessarily tank items, however. They're all aggressive bruiser items that utilize damage, aggressive CC, and sustain in order to win by becoming more beefy and having utility/damage on their side. However, it is NOT okay for ADCs like Ezrealana Jones and melee top laners like Ekko to utilize items like Iceborn Gauntlet beyond its normal potential.

Handin Out Naps6 votes

Hold on are you trying to argue Sunfire and Spirit Visage aren't tank items..? I'll take IBG, but cmon man don't fool yourself.

Melledoneus1 votes

They're aggressive items at the least.

Beldair4 votes

They are tank items.

Titanic Hydra is a juggernaut item.

Ralanr2 votes

Aggressive tank items (beyond Hydra, which is a bruiser item). item 3068 is probably the most aggressive of the tank items.

Sure it's passively aggressive, but aggressive nonetheless.

Melledoneus2 votes

And Iceborn Gauntlet isn't aggressive? It literally rewards you for chaining spells and auto attacks offensively.

Ralanr1 votes

I'm still unsure if it's a tank item anymore honestly. I don't know why I'm unsure. I just am.

Melledoneus1 votes

True. Ezreal makes every spellblade item his bitch until they nerf it for everyone.

The Loveless2 votes

wouldn't cry if they deleted Ekko altogether, and i paid rp for him

MetalGearTeemu2 votes

Full tank Garen can win the lane, problem is ekko outscales him.

Funny that.

Melledoneus1 votes

I should try that. In the meantime, however, I'm going to say that all of my attempts to even farm as other top laners has failed thus far. Ekko has way too much range when zoning.

MetalGearTeemu1 votes

Your milelage may vary once the nerfs to grasp of the undying kick in. Managing uptime and using the silence+mastery to engineer winning trades is important.

He'll lose it too though so its a wash

Handin Out Naps1 votes

You can go Bamis into cleaver and absolutely stomp Ekko as Garen. I'd say Garen is one of the better options vs Ekko.

Nekusen2 votes

i thought this was going to be about Graves Quinn Teemo Urgot and you know, stuff which attacks aren't extremely easy to dodge

MLDzXnRRR2 votes

Playing vs Quinn, Graves, Teemo, Renekton, Jayce, Urgot, Kindred is 10 times more toxic than playing vs Ekko.

charcharmunro2 votes

The thing about AP Ekko is he's relatively high-risk when his ult's down, but high reward. Tank Ekko has almost no risk because his ult comes up in the time it takes to get his health down, and yet almost the same, if not more reward. It's so damn annoying. Also, I am not playing SR at all as of right now because it's Ekko, Irelia and Darius mostly in the toplane. And, y'know... I want to enjoy League when I play it.

redniwediS1 votes

I don't know how the actual play is different, as I've never really faced a tank Ekko that didn't go jungle, but Garen does fairly well against mid Ekko. Might want to check him out as a counter.

Weiner the Pooh1 votes

{quoted}

I don't know how the actual play is different, as I've never really faced a tank Ekko that didn't go jungle, but Garen does fairly well against mid Ekko. Might want to check him out as a counter.

Wait until you fight tank Ekko, you'll want to stab yourself

LookItsRain1 votes

Im a lower elo player, but i cant remember the last time i lost to top lane ekko. I find it easy to predict his AOE stun/sheild and dodge his q. Outside of lane, i think his kit is just too loaded.

In lane, i think garen, darius, renekton, tahm can beat him pretty easily.

Melledoneus1 votes

Was it a tank Ekko? Because if it was and he didn't give you a hard time, he wasn't playing it properly. Basically any matchup in the top lane WILL lose against a top lane Ekko that at least knows the basic mechanics of the champion. As an experienced Darius player who can beat even the likes of Kennen and Teemo in lane, tank Ekko was too much of a challenge. I couldn't even farm due to how much damage he did without taking much abuse as he was dishing out.

Beldair1 votes

Have you tried Tank Azir or Poppy?

Let's see Tankko dash his way away from Poppy when she has her W active XD

Melledoneus1 votes

Ekko is a listed counter to Poppy... :/

ViashinoWizard1 votes

We forgot the terror of Tankko. But the terror did not forget us...

D3m37r11 votes

Then u look at surrender at 20 and see that tank ekko has nerfs on the way.

DropFill1 votes

A counter to full tank ekko is basically...full Ad fiora. He gets health, which she is good against. He gets armor, which she doesn't care that much about, and she can deny his stun 100% of the time. She also gets a good amount of MS and can dodge his second Q in case he is on top of you with her Q, which has low cd assuming you hit something. She is the only one I can think of the top of my head though. Maybe olaf too.

Darfaller2 votes

So use bs to fight bs, yay top lane. Imma go play nasus now.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

{quoted}

A counter to full tank ekko is basically...full Ad fiora. He gets health, which she is good against. He gets armor, which she doesn't care that much about, and she can deny his stun 100% of the time. She also gets a good amount of MS and can dodge his second Q in case he is on top of you with her Q, which has low cd assuming you hit something. She is the only one I can think of the top of my head though. Maybe olaf too.

Another counter would be Vladimir, for a couple of reasons.

First, Vladimir is ranged. He will be able to trade and to harass Ekko, unlike many other champions.

Second, Vladimir has plenty of sustain, while Ekko has none.

Third, Vladimir can deny Ekko's stun by using his pool before the stun pulls off.

Fourth, Vladimir forces Ekko to itemize for magic resistance early, delaying his Sunfire Cape/Iceborn Gauntlet, as both are armor items but Vlad deals exclusively magic damage.

Athenes Lulu1 votes

Lulu Ok let's go.

If you can accurately predict when he's gonna ult (which is probably very obvious), save that polymorph and make him small. Then proceed to kill him (or get him killed) and spam /l.

Though if you're not gonna play that kind cancer, I understand.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

I agree that he doesn't scale as well into late game, that is basically his only weakness, if the can't end the game soon it is likely that he will fall off. But he is like Malzahar, is that even though he technically falls off late game, he still has a pretty impressive win rate late game, and he is far from being useless late, depending from the enemy team composition it is likely that he will still be as strong as he is early.

Serika Zero1 votes

{quoted}

I virtually cannot think of a champion to pick top lane that would counter tank Ekko. To prove my point more quickly, here's a concise list of strengths and weaknesses of tank Ekko. -Ability to zone opponents -Deceptively tanky -Deals massive sustained damage through base values -Overwhelming amounts of utility at his disposal -Reliable engages and escapes -Combination of slows and stuns make him difficult to catch or escape from -Brings great amounts of CC to fights -Doesn't scale as well into late game -Would lose in a general sustain fight against all-in champions like Xin Zhao -He can die. Eventually.

Seriously. Half of his strengths used to be his weaknesses. He used to be bursty and hard as all hell to catch, but at least you could kill the little imp when his ult was down. Oh, no. Being a melee in the top lane SUCKS when you have to deal with Mr. "2.25 second AoE stun" with his dash-blink- speed boost all day. You can't catch him, you can't fight him, you can't even farm. He bullies even the likes of Darius and Renekton out of lane because of how much damage and utility he has while building tank.

The solution? #Increase scaling, reduce bases to MINIMAL, and for goodness' sakes make that speed boost and his Q something we can play around.

If you guys agree that tank Ekko is an abomination that should not be able to straight up overpower every top laner in existence, leave an upvote. If you don't, leave a comment. If you want to leave a comment, sure, nobody's stopping you. Let's make top lane fun again.

I will list my 2 mains: Tank/Hybrid Akali: a) Ekko deals mostly Magic Dmg meaning that once you finish item 3211 he basically heals you item 3065 still insane effective

b) she has self healing. Its ok, Ekko has a shield, but you don't give a fuck, you sustain with Q+aa

c) multiple build paths, you can max Q or E first for either Q or AoE.

d) invisibility which will fuck over his passive 3 hits. Or force him to buy pink wards, delaying his build path

e) depending on your build path (currently both Titanic Hydra and Gunblade are viable) you will deal 50% AD and 50% AP damage (for titanic) or 75% magic and 25% AD due to gunblade

f) due to your massive sustain, you can rush resistances and be effective with them.

g) your power spike after you get ultimate is huge compared to his, and much less cooldown

h) if you snowball you can always go AP build after cowl and feast on everything and many more, but got lazy to list everything akali does to shit on ekko. Ekko has better team fighting too, but who cares when you can 1v1 anyone in the game unless their name is Yorik

My second choice: Kayle. Well, maybe you tried this, maybe not. The beautiful part about Kayle: massive lane sustain (hey, didn't I mention this before? xd) item 2033 potion start, + W level 2 means Ekko can't do shit to you. You will simply be able to farm and get your dear and lovely item 3115 + item 3124. Now you don't give a fuck about anything and 1v1 him anywhere you see him on the map. Kayle's weakness is her early game, but, tank ekko is shit in early. He won't be able to kill you. You can easily sustain yourself out of early game with the item 2033 + summoner 12 + self heal from W.

Yes, Ekko will be able to escape Kayle. But you don't give a fuck. He comes to your lane after 2 items? he goes down to 20% hp, he goes back to base, you take tower or rotate mid. He goes aggro and tries to kill you? when his close is over you press alt + r, otherwise spam normal attacks, easy. Her passive (Kayle's) rapes though armor and mr that Ekko builds. And the on hit from rageblade and nashors are massive. Ekko has no "tank steroid" which normal tanks have (Maokai ult, Mundo ult, Malphite armor increase W and passive shield, Cho ulti stacks, Alistar ult, Nasus's rape attack speed, etc). So, you will cut though him as its butter.

The only problem is getting to 2 items. But against such a weakass laner that can't all in and needs a very extended fight for a kill, its more than possible. You can easily deny fights with W and Q while you kite, making him curse the moment he picked Ekko.

And as bonus from me :) Urgot top. Have fun with freelo

Sire Hippington1 votes

if you get bullied as renekton, you do something wrong... Darius has not an issue with his damage, but his mobillite. Anyone who can force short trades and avoid his Q is good vs darius.

I've yet to see a tank ekko that really scares me...all you need is some early mr and sustain, and he'll run oom befor you get even close to death, and ofc playing a bit defensive if you don't have the likes of renekton. If tank ekko doesn't snowball, he gets outscaled by most toplaners. The big problem with tank ekko is that his early lane(which is the same as ap-ekkos) is pretty good and if he gets a lead, he can snowball hard of it as you can't get away from him, neither can you kill him even with your jungler he most likely will press r and somehow get the passive proc to speed away.

Ghiingis1 votes

I main top, and i beat the living shit out of ekko with : Trundle, Garen, Poppy, Darius, Graves, Volibear, Vladimir and probably someones i can't think of right now.

Kodyack1 votes

as someone who has been looking into it, my best answer so far is on-hit Xin zhao, attack speed base runes, doran's blade and W start, you can out-trade his level 1, and Q lets you fight him damage wise if you rush spirit visage into rageblade and etc. etc.

It works outside of lane against other tanks as well, though, realistically, it's not the strongest teamfight champ until you get to a 6 item build, then it's pretty cool actually.

Melledoneus1 votes

So... fight cancer with cancer... I thought as much.

Jokes aside, that's one of the only things that works for me.

stealthfox941 votes

I feel like Irelia should counter him but I haven't played that matchup.

Meep Man1 votes

Volibear eats him usually

Ackelope1 votes

This is nitpicky, but I don't think 'Ability to zone' should be mentioned as a strength. Every champion in the game can do this at some stage of the game, because every champion in the game is capable of dmg, cc, or generally being a threat at at least one stage in the game....

Melledoneus1 votes

He can zone you off of half the lane. If that's not a strength, I don't know what is.

Ackelope1 votes

I see so many champions do that though, I'd say it's pretty standard to be able to zone. Zoning is only remarkable if you're not good at it, in my opinion. It's very powerful, for sure, but not unique to Ekko in the slightest.

Melledoneus1 votes

Ekko in particular, unlike other champions, can consistently zone you. Other champions have powerful abilities that give them the ability to zone. All of Ekko's abilities do that. His passive as well, making him able to punish opponents extremely hard with his mobility and utility given to him.

Degritone1 votes

Insert Yorick and Tankko isn't allowed to League anymore.

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted} He bullies even the likes of Darius and Renekton out of lane because of how much damage and utility he has while building tank.

Stopped reading. The point that Ekko is strong now is true and understandable, but this is a ridiculous lie. Ekko isn't some god that magically outtrades everyone including the best lanebullies. That's just false.

Melledoneus1 votes

Darius especially, Renekton is more situational. But in both, Ekko has the advantage in both damage and tankiness because of his very high bases. I've played the matchups, Darius can't win trades against Ekko early on, and is zoned away because Ekko has such a large zone of threat. Ekko's get in, get out playstyle directly counters Darius's, and he can pull off his whole combo and escape before Darius can activate his passive.

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted}

Darius especially, Renekton is more situational. But in both, Ekko has the advantage in both damage and tankiness because of his very high bases. I've played the matchups, Darius can't win trades against Ekko early on, and is zoned away because Ekko has such a large zone of threat. Ekko's get in, get out playstyle directly counters Darius's, and he can pull off his whole combo and escape before Darius can activate his passive.

No, he doesn't. I have quite the experience in toplane, and when Ekko tries to trade Darius, he gets dumpstered. Even moreso if Darius gets a bit of MR. At best, he can poke with Q while being zoned, but he gets destroyed in trades, and let's not even talk about all ins. For the last time, Ekko doesn't have larger base damages than Darius. He's more mobile and has more CC, but doesn't have more base damage and tankiness.

Sisters100861 votes

I feel like this is much more frendier than juggernauts... as an irelia main, I don't see how I can loss lane to an ekko... Haven't played against him so Im not sure..

Melledoneus1 votes

You don't want to play against that. Trust me.

CrisisEchoes1 votes

Im a big gnar main, and there is no situation that ive profusely fed on him except vs tank ekko. You try to farm? die. You try to sap exp under tower? Nope you cant do that either. Might as well sit under nexus towers and hope he doesnt try to flash into your base 1shot you at 90% hp, and proceed to ult out.

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