Boards›Gameplay

Ekko walks like an assassin...

chipndip1··2 votes·576 views

  • Passive gives a huge burst of speed while slowing enemies so he can get away

  • E is a dash and a possible blink

  • R resets him to 4 seconds ago, and that can literally be anywhere on the map

...but hits like a disruptor...

  • Q skillshot boomerangs with a delay on the way back, hitting everything it passes through

  • W is an aoe cc threat

  • R is an aoe burst damage threat

...with a skirmisher/diver passive?

  • Passive gives bonus damage for successfully landing it on a target...after 3 hits?

Oh..., and there's the tank part...

  • W gives a shield if he jumps in it

  • W locks down everyone in it if he jumps in it

The problem with Ekko's kit is that you're mixing a shit ton of classes into a single champion, and then you're wondering why he gets away with building crap assassins shouldn't build. Now we gotta wait to see if the TriForce build catches on so we can QQ about Ekko again.

Like, even if he was gonna have a lot of stuff on him, some of these things don't really say "assassin" if you take a step back and look at it. He could use a different passive for starters.

9 Comments

Marshbouy1 votes

Overloaded champions do that and are naturally hard to balance Azir Yasuo etc

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Overloaded champions do that and are naturally hard to balance Azir Yasuo etc

Yasuo makes a little more sense than Azir, though. He's a skirmisher, so he's basically what Riot used to call "light fighters". As far as skirmishers go, he's not...the worst. Like...thinking on it, all skirmishers kind of have some bullshit defensive/sustain mechanic.

  • Trynd literally doesn't die.

  • Yi reduces all damage while healing or simply becomes untargetable.

  • Fiora can block all damag and make an aoe healing zone if she finishes her ult.

  • Yasuo blocks all enemy projectiles and regenerates his own shield by moving.

The rest of their kits are relegated to relatively short cd offensive moves that can be used to get in close and land some high sustained damage on targets, which all of them do in their own way. The problem I have with Ekko's kit is that it just has a shit ton of crap from EVERYWHERE. Yasuo actually falls inline with other skirmishers...but maybe the types of defensive tools skirmishers get should be looked into...

Rivuo2 votes

{quoted}

Yasuo makes a little more sense than Azir, though. He's a skirmisher, so he's basically what Riot used to call "light fighters". As far as skirmishers go, he's not...the worst. Like...thinking on it, all skirmishers kind of have some bullshit defensive/sustain mechanic.

  • Trynd literally doesn't die.

  • Yi reduces all damage while healing or simply becomes untargetable.

  • Fiora can block all damag and make an aoe healing zone if she finishes her ult.

  • Yasuo blocks all enemy projectiles and regenerates his own shield by moving.

The rest of their kits are relegated to relatively short cd offensive moves that can be used to get in close and land some high sustained damage on targets, which all of them do in their own way. The problem I have with Ekko's kit is that it just has a shit ton of crap from EVERYWHERE. Yasuo actually falls inline with other skirmishers...but maybe the types of defensive tools skirmishers get should be looked into...

Azir is the same way. You get punished for getting closer to azir and you are also punished for being far.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Azir is the same way. You get punished for getting closer to azir and you are also punished for being far.

Well, Azir is more like Ekko in the fact that he's blatantly overloaded. He has the range of a burst mage, but the sustained damage of a battle mage and the mobility of not-a-mage because mages usually don't have mobility at all. His Shurima Shuffle should have been fixed, because that makes the mobility part even harder to balance.

Basically, the way I see it, Yasuo doesn't step out of the boundaries of his class and into that of other classes, even though he has a good deal of tools. Ekko and Azir do, ESPECIALLY Ekko.

Ralanr1 votes

I'll be honest, I'd be fine if they changed his W. I barely use it when going full AP Ekko anyway, and my most successful uses are in preventing ganks.

Note: if you're ganking Ekko and he's standing still while you're clearly in his view, he's set up a stun zone and is waiting for you.

Astôlfo1 votes

Uh no, he's more like a fighter.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Uh no, he's more like a fighter.

Fighters are either divers or juggernauts. Ekko has a passive similar to Xin Zhao/Vi where you use melee AAs 3 times for benefits, which was already addressed.

He also has a selfish shield like a tank would.

He also has a ton of aoe zoning pressure like a disruptor would.

Yet he's an assassin, so he's highly mobile.

Unless I'm wrong in my assessment of these things somewhere.

Astôlfo1 votes

Officially, he's labeled as close to a Skirmisher by Riot. His kit encourages short duels (3-hit passive, slow projectile Q, short-delay W into a stun + shield, and then an ult to heal up anything from last 4 seconds). And no, he's not really that highly mobile. He only has one dash in his kit, and his ult for mobility doesn't really count. And just because a champion is labeled as something doesn't mean they're perfectly fitting of said label. There's exceptions to everything.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Officially, he's labeled as close to a Skirmisher by Riot. His kit encourages short duels (3-hit passive, slow projectile Q, short-delay W into a stun + shield, and then an ult to heal up anything from last 4 seconds). And no, he's not really that highly mobile. He only has one dash in his kit, and his ult for mobility doesn't really count. And just because a champion is labeled as something doesn't mean they're perfectly fitting of said label. There's exceptions to everything.

I mean, none of this refutes the point that he borrows from a ton of different class norms and molds it into his own kit. And, like I said, I already touched on the notion that his passive was similar to divers and skirmishers, although I can't think of any skirmisher with a 3-hit passive.

Also, yes he is mobile given that he has 2 gap closers in one move and his ult. You don't have to blink like Kassadin to be considered mobile. "Mobile" champs usually only have 1 dash, anyhow.

Lastly, I know not everyone has to fit into a class on the dot, but Ekko was introduced to the community as "an ap assassin". What we got was WAY more than that. I'm not saying delete Ekko more than I'm saying that his current kit will never lend itself to being the assassin he was showcased to be originally. There's too much other stuff in it that conflicts with the assassin archetype.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by chipndip1

So lemme get this straight...again...
Gameplay253 comments
185
votes
Assassins shouldn't be able to just 1v2 freely. Stop asking for it.
Gameplay211 comments
170
votes
It's kind of bullshit that Ryze gets this much attention
Gameplay178 comments
145
votes
I seriously meant "Tell people to upgrade their trinket"...
Gameplay50 comments
144
votes
If you frame champ balance like this, stop talking about champ balance
Gameplay64 comments
122
votes
Honestly: "Scaling into being unstoppable" isn't an acceptable game play niche
Gameplay130 comments
122
votes