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Ekko Nerf/Buff on the PBE is contradictory to what Riot just said they wanted to avoid

Mast3rMahan·6/10/2015, 3:28:56 AM·10 votes·1,001 views

So, I'm not even going to touch how overloaded his kit is in this post, I just want to understand why Gypsylord posted this the other day about them giving Ekko a 100 mana cost on his ult instead of having it be 0 cost when he is getting mana buffs on the PBE.

"So first of all, giving his ult a mana cost is not likely to solve any of the frustration problems it might have. In the vast majority of fights it's going to be used the same way, under the same contexts. If the spell needs a downside (not saying it does) giving it a mana cost isn't going to solve that. That said, from a design standpoint I do agree that there is something to the idea of "he's been spamming spells and is out of mana, now is my chance to strike." His ult not having a cost directly avoids the minor gameplay idea of "characters are weak when they're OOM." My bad on that one. We'll be fixing it for 5.12 by upping the cost to 100 (from 0). There were localization things that prevented it getting in for 5.11. As a side note, adding higher mana costs across Ekko's kit (we're also upping W cost to 50 from 30 in 5.11) helps mitigate burst in an indirect manner. Higher costs means he has a harder time farming and may want to invest in more mana/regen itemization. More gold spent on mana + less gold overall = lower AP totals at X point in the game."

Cool right? Finally some sort of nerf to Ekko. However on the PBE, Ekko currently has a buff on the PBE that is

"Base Mana increased to 300 from 280, Mana per level increased to 50 from 40"

So, basically, by level 8, his mana costs on the ult will now be negligible. I know that it doesnt mean that he will have the mana in reserve, but his mana pool will be larger than it previously was by level 9. So basically, for all the talk that he needs to have some sort of mana issues, they are essentially helping remove those mana issues. What gives Riot, especially, what gives Gypsylord?

21 Comments

Erockandroll6/10/2015, 4:28:46 AM6 votes

That doesn't change the fact that Ekko won't be able to Ult when he's out of mana. Also keep in mind that his Mana is getting buffed, not his mana regen. Like they said, this is a nerf to his mana cost/regen ratio, making mana regeneration more necessary. The exact number of Rotation/spells cast is meant to be unchanged.

Llanite6/10/2015, 9:07:48 AM5 votes

His ult has no cost, because his mana pool is smaller. Please do some research.

Now they want to add a cost to his ult, the original restriction should go as well. Nothing is contradictory.

Dragonface6/10/2015, 4:21:40 AM2 votes

Because Rito only cares about pro players. It's like someone said in another post "LB's recent nerf was just a placebo nerf to appease the crowd. In all honesty, what has it done to her counterplay?"

Knight SoIaire 6/10/2015, 9:12:11 AM2 votes

the main problem was that ekko who was oom wasnt wulnerable to getting killed becuase he still could ult to either safetyy or simply to outjuke you

the mana buff makes sence since now ekko's mana costs went noticeably up, not buffing that mana would mean that ekko wouldnt be able to use that ult much (his mana costs are already punishing for him ... not hitting a double q hurts)

it is meant to be a fix to ekko not being unable to cast when he is oom, since the fix was a nerf it requires compensation

KazaLyn Shao6/12/2015, 4:02:28 PM1 votes

Riot really, REALLY wants Ekko to go into competitive play the way he is. Too bad most teams will probably just ban him, since I'm sure the pros are more than aware of how broken he is.