The biggest change:
R - Chronobreak HEAL RATIO 20% of health recently lost plus an additional 6% per 100 ability power ⇒ #** flat health equal to 0.6 ability power**
Also, his passive slow was removed.
He is an assassin, not a tank.
Having no utility as a tank helps no one if all you can show for it is a positive k/d when the enemy beats you.
Sir Fuzzi1 votesI think what makes him really viable in tank is that his ratios are strong and don't really punish him for shooting off into non-damage-centric builds. Furthermore, he possesses an overwhelming amount of utility as Assassins go that mixes between offense and defense, and he has great room for clever and clutch plays alike. All in all, Ekko has a lot of power going for him and he doesn't really pay for losing damage the way, say, Riven does. He has good synergy with most items he's eligible to build and is in a unique paradigm where he covers for the fact that he's melee fairly closely.
Now I'm not really into the high-level ranked scene, but I think Ekko will always be oppressive. The slow removal is good, but does he still get a move speed boost? Because that's still going to serve most of the same purpose-- he might not be as convenient to teammates, anymore.
The Ecdysiast1 voteshe might not be as convenient to teammates, anymore.
Exactly.
If someone wants to play Tank Ekko, I don't really care as long as they aren't doing it on my team and providing absolutely 0 utility that the tank role is supposed to have.
If you're just going to be an assassin with damage as if you're behind but tank stats to be able to say you were the only one alive when the enemies won, you aren't helping.