Ekko is a mage assassin with a unique gameplay that veteran players love to play around. It takes some time to master this champion but every second learning his kit makes it completely worth the investment. Learning how to use this champion will give you better insight on the core fundamentals of playing assassin champions. Take a look at this Ekko tips and tricks guide to get a better idea on how use him in the mid lane.
The Best Ekko Tips and Tricks
The most important thing to keep in mind when learning to play Ekko is that he is an assassin. That means you need to learn how to master specific combos designed to kill an enemy champion in one shot. While Ekko has the ability to get out of fights fairly easily, it’s difficult for players to learn the best way to escape once they go in. This will be one of the primary topics that we’ll talk about in this Ekko tips and tricks guide.
Ekko loves to play in the mid lane because he has good wave clearing ability and can gank lanes efficiently. Understanding how his macro gameplay works is the first step that you’ll need to learn if you want to master this champion using our Ekko tips and tricks guide. Luckily, we’ll take a step-by-step lesson on how to best utilize his kit to make sure that you’re always ahead of the competition when it comes to securing an advantage in the early game.
Resonance Stacking
Ekko’s passive ability may not seem like much but it’s a very useful tool to make sure that you are able to get takedowns quickly and pave the way for more kills or escape. His passive activates when he lands a combination of 3 basic attacks and/or abilities. This will deal a ton of damage to the target enemy and give Ekko a large boost in movement speed. The best part about this ability is that it will trigger once for each enemy.
The best way to stack Resonance is to use your Timewinder to hit multiple enemies and then following up with an auto-attack and Phase Dive. Remember that you always want to go for the highest priority target in teamfights which is most likely the AD Carry. Once you pop the resonance stack and feel like the enemy can’t be taken down, it’s always smart to back down and conserve some HP until all of your cooldowns are back up.
Boomeranging Timewinder
Timewinder is Ekko’s most important damaging ability because it activates all of his other skills. Ekko throws a very slow projectile towards a direction which the enemy target can easily dodge if they have a decent level of reaction speed. However, Ekko’s Timewinder returns back to him after it travels the max distance at a speed that won’t be easy to dodge if you manage to aim it correctly.
Remember that the initial cast is used to aim at the opponent and force them to move towards a certain direction. Follow their movement so that when the Timewinder returns, it’ll pass through your target once again. This means that if you manage to have the Timewinder pass through a target twice, you’ll get two stacks of resonance immediately. Another good trick when using your Timewinder is to close the distance between you and your target to make it impossible for them to dodge it on time.
In-and-Out
Ekko specializes in diving in and is equally as good as escaping the fight. The common mistakes that beginners make when they play assassins is overcommitting to a fight despite not having the resources to deal further significant damage. It’s also a terrible idea to go into a fight to bust all your cooldowns and leave immediately after. Finding the right balance between the two is a great way to ensure that you’re efficiently dealing damage.
The best way to go about it is to go into a fight and bust all your cooldowns (except Ekko’s ultimate) on the enemy and see how the fight goes. If the enemy starts to fight back and deal a significant amount of damage, it’s best to pull back and look for another opportunity. This also applies if they have allies nearby and they are closing in on you. Otherwise, chasing enemies to deal more damage by landing auto-attacks will prove to be significant.
Phase Dive + Convergence
Ekko’s Parallel Convergence is an extremely powerful crowd control ability that can lock down multiple enemies at once. It has a wide radius and an extremely short cooldown but the drawback is that Ekko needs to jump inside the radius to activate the stun ability. Luckily, Ekko has a lot of mobility tools in the form of items like Hextech Rocketbelt, Flash, and Phase Dive to help him close the distance between himself and the enemy without any problems.
Remember that Parallel Convergence will slow the enemies by 40%, which will help you close the distance. There is no rush to push the panic button just to jump at the enemy if you can just walk towards them with the slow effect. Remember that you should consider both Phase Dive and Parallel Convergence as abilities that should be used together at all times. We keep mentioning in our Ekko tips and tricks guide the importance of buying as much time as possible to deal damage so it’s a good idea to practice this combo.
Countdown Until Using Ultimate
Ekko’s ultimate ability is such a powerful tool that can be used offensively or defensively. You’ll see that once you level up to 6, you’ll have an afterimage that will follow you. It’s a good idea to watch how this afterimage moves since it’ll give you a better idea on how to properly use your ultimate. Most players will use Ekko’s ultimate as a survival tool but it can also be used offensively since it deals magic damage on arrival.
The best time to use your ultimate is when you take a huge chunk of damage to reset your HP. Make sure that you at least deal some damage to the opponent before pulling back. Another good way to use your ultimate is to catch an enemy who is standing near your afterimage to deal a huge burst of damage and instantly take them down.