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State of Ekko

Praise the Son·6/8/2015, 2:40:39 PM·46 votes·2,479 views

I think Ekko is a very interesting champion design wise and appears to be a lot of fun. I think you guys did a great job creating an engaging and interesting champion. I do have a few qualms with Ekko's current balance, however. Certainly a highly mobile, massive burst, assassin (as most are) doesn't need to have that much crowd control, shielding, and burst heals. I honestly feel like this champion has no weaknesses (he is squishy but it doesn't really matter when his shield and ability to heal combined with massive mobility negates the weakness) and is basically what would happen if Le blanc had self healing, shielding and aoe cc. I'm not sure what you decide needs to be done in order to balance him, but it is most evident that he needs adjustments. He outclasses every other assassin in the game. This champion, for me at least, is a permaban for his sheer potential to wombo and execute an entire team by himself. I look forward to seeing what becomes of this new champion and hope that, once thoroughly tweaked, he can offer a fun experience for both people playing as Ekko, and against him.

28 Comments

Fennec The Fox6/8/2015, 2:54:57 PM9 votes

I love ekko as a new and interesting champion. However i am inclined to agree, Ekko currently is a pick or ban for me. In the end I believe riot will find a way to balance the champion. I hope they don't nerf the poor guy to hard, but currently he could be hit with the nerf stick hard, and still see pro play.

Divewing6/8/2015, 2:44:38 PM6 votes

please stop saying "give him a shield and AoE CC" like that is an absolute, that thing is SOOOOOOOOO TELEGRAPHED AND EASY TO DODGE.

Only A Soldier6/8/2015, 9:34:33 PM5 votes

How is it that someone can make a post about Ekko being op and use a billion swear words, the term "overloaded kit" once or twice, call Riot's champion design team terrible, and then get like 100ish upvotes for it. But this person used clear, constructive points about the champion without making them seem like the second coming of Hitler and only gets about 20?

Celeste Benal6/8/2015, 5:31:35 PM3 votes

If you got rekt by his ult, you weren't paying attention. His temporal shadow is there for everyone to see. By its very presence or lack thereof you can tell if he has ult.

Woook3r6/8/2015, 3:38:33 PM3 votes

Stand in my circle get wrecked

XeroKimo6/8/2015, 4:06:13 PM3 votes

Weaknesses:

Squishy (of course)

His q initial range is just about a talon w range

Laning phase is weak as it's reliant on being able to proc his passive in order to win trade which people will most likely try and hit both q's and a e

His ult is hard to hit. I mean like DON'T CHASE HIM SINCE IT WILL MAKE IT EASY FOR HIM TO HIT HIS ULT!

Don't want him to ult while dueling him?, duel him for 3 seconds and then disengage, the whole game is timed so just keep track of the 3 seconds that is if neither of you died in that time.

Don't want his ult to deal damage? force him to ult for an escape

Edit: Also he doesn't out class any assassin in terms of the time it takes to burst, no matter what, his burst will be delayed by however long it takes to proc his passive or ult. Like all assassins tho, if he does get fed no sht you'll expect him to burst you from like intial q and e

KazaLyn Shao6/9/2015, 12:04:15 AM2 votes

Ekko needs to lose some mobility. TWO awesome mobility moves on one champ, one with a 1.3 AP ratio attached, is just plain stupid. WE DON'T NEED MORE MOBILITY. Doesn't Riot get that yet? Then you add stun, slows, high damage, shields, AND a heal, you get retardation. Riot just loves to release assassins they can't balance.

Varalessia6/8/2015, 6:37:24 PM2 votes

All these posts don't really talk about his passive, which in my opinion is a better version of Vayne's W (Or as close as you can get on an AP assassin) on a passive. It does far too much, they need to gut it's damage or remove the utility or change the way he procs it.

Hard4Hamsters6/8/2015, 11:27:58 PM2 votes

I think they should either focus on his Utility or his damage because he has a lot of both. The stun duration if he hits it is pretty long for someone who has as much burst as he has. He also has access to 2 heavy slows on his kit and he has mobility to boot. And I'm fine with him having these tools, but with as much damage as he can dish out, it feels overwhelming.

I'll be honest. I want his damage gutted :P. His ult has a very high ratio on the damage portion and has a very sizeable heal on top of it. His Q has a .8 ratio his passive a .7 ratio, and finally his E has a .2 ratio (<--this is the ratio I'd like to see on Ekko :P). This means if he gets the damage portions off of every ability he will output 3x his current AP in damage before considering base damages. But wait there's more. Two core items item 3100 and item 3285 add more to his burst. So let's say Ekko just has these two items and no runes or masteries. He gets 600 (ability ratios) + 100 + 80(75%AD as lichbane base damage) + 120 damage from these two items (Luden's Nerf = .1 ratio) = 900 damage from two items before base damage (about 1180 damage at max level) and resistances. You can't really say that for any other champion. His damage is conditional, but you could say that about any champion really. Because he makes such good use out of Luden's and Lichbane, I think he can afford to have some of his ratio's nerfed.

I haven't even touched his shield which I think is absolutely ridiculous for a base shield with such a high AP ratio. But I have to agree with the OP that he is very interesting and fun, but I feel like he has too much damage for how much outplay potential he has.

grumpyfrogy6/9/2015, 8:50:48 PM1 votes

simple: delete him and replace him with ao shin

For Carthage6/8/2015, 6:35:42 PM1 votes

{quoted}

He outclasses every other assassin in the game.

Ahri Katarina Talon

We'd like a word with you, please.

MLDzXnRRR6/8/2015, 7:29:26 PM1 votes

What about the assasins who build tanky and still assasinate targets - VI, Irelia, Cho - Ekko has to build massive Ap to outdamage anyone of these 3,

Iota Theta6/8/2015, 8:36:53 PM1 votes

I agree. I love the idea of a timey-wimey character other than Zilean, and one that is an assassin is pretty cool. I've lost to him and not enjoyed it, but I'm also not the greatest player, especially since I've only been playing for a few months now. Even an early fed Ekko is annoying, but I bet people have complained when I play Shen and get fed and go 17/4. He's a great character idea, he just needs some tweaks here and there and made more assassin-like. His heal is what boths me, but if it can be tweaked and be reasonable, I'd be ok with that.

shalexade6/9/2015, 12:24:53 AM1 votes

Le Blanc doesn't need Shielding or AOE CC because she isn't a melee champion.

Allow Ekko to deal his damage from 700 range, and strip his CC

Teridax686/9/2015, 2:24:22 AM1 votes

I think Ekko's current problem is just that he deals too much burst damage. On release, he was touted as an assassin who traded off instant damage for massive utility and crowd control, and while his utility isn't too terrible to deal with on its own (his crowd control and ult are both heavily telegraphed, as is the bulk of his Q and passive damage), he can still deal enough damage in a single QE rotation to burst down most squishies. At this point, I think just toning down his numbers, especially the damage on his Q, would make him a lot less terrifying to deal with, and would finally bring out his intended weakness (he does telegraph his biggest sources of power pretty heavily, though, which is a significant weakness).

Other than that, I think there's a lot of stuff that could be pared off his kit if need be. His shield is somewhat redundant relative to his stun, as is his execute damage relative to his passive. Removing both the shield and the on-hit missing health damage, and instead making his sphere's stun duration start out lower and scale up per level, would make his CC/utility much easier to deal with early on, and would better limit his kill windows to his passive. His ult self-heal may also not be entirely necessary, since the mobility and escape potential it gives is already enough in most situations to save his life.

theGodODeath6/9/2015, 6:49:24 AM1 votes

ekko is broken.... vs a really strong hard team and our ekko still went 32/9

ThePlasticSpork6/9/2015, 8:46:19 AM1 votes

Ekko does have weaknesses, but was simply overtuned because of them.

The reality is that his Q, W, and R are all very telegraphed. His only guaranteed damage is his E and passive, and I guess if he E's to you and then casts Q then the first hit of his Q is very reliable as well. His stun is even less reliable than Veigars, and more than enough people complain about Veigars current level of reliability anyhow.

IMO his shield and heal amount are too much. I also think he should still take DoT damage during his very short ult casting animation, and I think his ult should have a mana cost as well.

But his damage is fine. If he instagibs you with a full combo, then 9/10 cases you probably deserved it, because his abilities are telegraphed as hell.