What Riot Should Understand About Tank Ekko Nerfs

Sometimes, shit happens. I think we all know that tank ekko happened and he happened big.

And then sometimes, in fixing that mistake, Riot makes a much much MUCH larger mistake.

The nerfs that came in 6.11 made ekko irrelevant in the jungle, absolute bottom tier in mid lane, and barely passable in the top lane.

Here's the problem: by nerfing tank ekko, Riot also nerfed Ekko's ability to be a bruiser...to do sustained damage....to do burst damage...to survive during team fights...to wave-clear...to cc...and to clear jungle. Therefore, every role that ekko could potentially play is now significantly worse than it was before (no, the exceptionally minor changes in scaling did not suddenly make ekko a better late-game assassin, sorry Riot).

So instead of just ending the tank ekko spree we had in previous patches, Riot effectively eliminated a champion from low elo play in patch 6.11. I don't think I need to point out how painfully stupid that is.

"Nerfing" a champion should be about making them balanced, not about completely destroying them. It's about thinking "how do we change this champion so that it fits better into the meta" rather than "how do we make this champion worse than it was before?"