Toning Down Ekko's Safety & Reliability

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ALRIGHT LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN FOLKS

Ekko has been sitting at a 53-54% win rate with an 8%+ play rate for months now. This was mainly due to a multitude of buffs in preparation for his true damage skin being released to get him seen in pro play more. These included a cost reduction and stun duration increase on his W in 9.18, as well as higher damage on his E and a lower cooldown on his R in 9.16.

All of this combined has pushed Ekko to the top tier Jungle spot. How? High reliability and a plethora of failsafes in his kit.

Ekko's optimal build path starts with , giving him additional mobility with which to get to a champion. Combined with his two-part E, which first lets him cross walls before blinking to an enemy, this dash range is nearly half the screen (First part of E, , second E.) Once on you, you're either stunned for a whopping 2.25 seconds or at least slowed by his Q. Three stacks of his passive also grants him movement speed, which is easily obtained just from his E + Q + auto. This makes escaping from a gank quite nearly impossible on an immobile champion, even when successfully landing all of your abilities.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Ekko's kit is his R, however. While it's an easily avoidable damage nuke, it's more often used as an "oops, I messed up" button to get away with tower dives and failed engages. Combined with his passive movement speed and a shield from his W, this makes Ekko far too safe of a champion.

So how do you nerf him back to a state where he's able to be dealt with while keeping his unique play style as a skirmisher for teamfights? The easiest answer is to revert the majority of his buffs, as they were largely unneeded. Ekko's SUPPOSED to be a high skill cap champion, but he's simply too safe and reliable at the moment to really be anything of the sort, as evidenced by that high win rate with such a huge play rate. Specifically, I'd revert the cooldown buffs to his ultimate, and reduce the duration of his stun back to 1.75.

My other thought is to remove some of that reliability when it comes to trades, which gives the enemy time to react. The main reason you can get an entire rotation off on him and still come out behind is because he's already triggered his passive before you're able to peel him off, giving him an extra speed boost to close whatever gap you managed to create. This can be done by upping his passive's trigger requirement to four hits, which requires two auto attacks in addition to his initial E + Q before he gains that bonus movement speed, and upping the cooldown of his dashes by an extra second or two, forcing him to retreat for an additional moment before reentering fights.

Hope that was enough effort.