Champions' Ultimates
As a result of the uproar over Ekko's ultimate having no mana cost, I decided to look into champions and the cost of their ults. Here is what I gathered.
Champions With Ultimates That Do Not Cost Secondary Resources (mana, energy, etc)
Aatrox - All other non-passive abilities cost health Akali - All other abilities cost energy; her ultimate consumes a charge Dr. Mundo - All other abilites cost heal AND his ultimate costs health **Ekko **- All other abilities cost mana Elise - All human form abilities cost mana; ultimate is a transform Garen - All other abilites are costless Gnar - All other abilities are costless; ultimate requires Gnar to be in Mega form Jayce - All other abilities cost mana; ultimate is a transform Karma - All other abilities cost mana; ultimate upgrades another ability Katarina - All other abilities are costless Kennen - All other abilities cost energy LeBlanc - All other abilities cost mana; her ultimate recasts her most recent spell Lee Sin - All other abilities cost energy Mordekaiser - All other abilities cost health Nidalee - All human form abilities cost mana; ultimate is a transform Olaf - All other abilities cost mana; ultimate buffs Olaf Rek'Sai - All other abilities are costless Renekton - All other abilities are costless Rengar - All other abilities are costless Riven - All other abilities are costless Rumble - All other abilities are costless; ultimate can be silenced by Overheating Ryze - All other abilities cost mana; ultimate buffs Ryze Shen - All other abilities cost energy Tryndamere - All other abilities are costless Vladimir - All other abilities cost health Yasuo - All other abilities are costless; ultimate requires a target to be airborne Zac - All other abilities cost health Zed - All other abilities cost energy
(thats 28/125 champions)
Most of the champions on this list have what I consider to be acceptable reasons to not have a resource cost on their ultimate - energy-based kits would be awkard with an ultimate costs, health-based kits/kits based around costless abilities obviously won't have resource costs for ultimates, and transforming ultimates.
The leftovers are Ekko, Karma, Olaf, and Ryze. I put Olaf and Ryze into their own category - their ultimates buff themselves. Karma's ultimate buffs her next spellcast, so hers is very similar to Ryze's and Olaf's. I can see an argument for adding a cost to their ultimates, but their ultimates are not overly strong on their own, so I can also see part of why Riot decided to make the ultimates costless - they rely on other spells to excel.
Ekko's, however, has no reason to be costless in my eyes. It is a very strong ultimate, and he has a mana-based kit. I haven't seen very much Ekko play, but based off of stats I feel that Ekko's ultimate should have a mana cost.
There is a decent chance I missed a champion or two, so feel free to point out any I missed. Feel free to criticize my grouping of ultimates as well - I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on this. Thanks for the read!
TL;DR - skip the list and read the paragraphs