Ekko, The Boy Who Shattered Time, was released back in 2015 with an extremely powerful kit that allows you to delete anyone in the rift while getting out of any messy situation by just using your ultimate ability. Since then, a lot of things have changed, not only in Ekko's abilities but also the meta and the other champions. However, all of this pushed forward the idea of playing Ekko jungle to the point where people hate to play against him since he holds an even bigger power than before. In this guide we'll be looking at all the things you need to know to be that guy that completely destroys enemies with no signs of remorse.

But everything sounds way too perfect, so here's some pros and cons of playing Ekko:

PROS

Insane mobility, when played properly you are unreachable even in teamfights.
Very fast clear throughout the whole game.
Strong mid - late game.
Very reliable in the jungle, he has just a few bad matchups that can also be overcome by playing smart.
Deadly teamfight potential, his kit is made to punish hard any mistakes from the enemy team.
His snowball potential is huge, you can solo carry games with ease.

CONS

His early game is weak and you can get punished really hard for that.
He's a very hard champion to master.
If you fall back even a bit you'll have a hard time getting into the game again.
He's very dependent on his items, having one item less makes a terribly huge difference on your potential.
If you don't gank or get into teamfights you'll never reach your potential.

So, if that caught your attention then let's see his kit!

ABILITIES

PASSIVE | Z-Drive Resonance: "Ekko's Zero-Drive charges his spells and attacks with temporal energy. The third hit deals bonus damage and, if the target is a champion, Ekko gains accelerated movement speed."

Ekko's passive grants him a speed boost when he triggers the 3rd stack of his passive, while also giving him extra magic damage. It allows us to easily kite while fighting, since the speed boost is actually quite high. Have in mind that you can trigger this passive with your Q, E, R and also basic attacks, so you have different ways to trigger it that can help you to escape, get closer to your target or just kite around. Oh, and this applies to jungle camps as well, that, combined with his abilities, gives him a very nice clear.

Q | TIMEWINDER: "Ekko throws a temporal grenade that expands into a time-distortion field upon hitting an enemy champion, slowing and damaging anyone caught inside. After a delay, the grenade rewinds back to Ekko, dealing damage on its return."

Timewinder allows Ekko to get closer to his objective, since it slows as well, and it has a relatively low cooldown. Notice how Ekko's Q charges his passive as well, but the thing here is that you can apply 2 stacks with a single Q, one on its way forward and the other one when it comes back to you. This means that, if you hit the Q on both ways, you will be able to trigger his passive in the next hit, which is huge since it will also give you the movement speed bonus, so it's at that exact moment when you are a potential threat to the enemy team.

Also, Ekko's Q is a powerful tool in the jungle, since it allows you to kite camps better while dealing damage at the same time. To clear efficiently you'll have to get used to your Q's damage, since you can use it once the monsters are low on health and then you can go to your next camp since the Q will be going back to you killing all the monsters that you left behind. We'll see a few more tricks with this ability later on this guide.

W | PARALLEL CONVERGENCE: "Ekko's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage to low health enemies. He can cast Parallel Convergence to split the timeline, creating an anomaly after a few seconds that slows enemies caught inside. If Ekko enters the anomaly, he gains shielding and stuns enemies by suspending them in time."

This ability is straight up insane, so we will stop here for a bit. It slows all the enemies inside the range of the W and if you manage to get inside of it as well then you'll stun all the enemies while also gaining a shield. It has a rather long cooldown in early game, so don't waste it. This ability will be extremely important in mid-late game, as you can win a teamfight if you manage to pick up one of the carries or even the whole enemy team. Have in mind that the casting animation of this ability is easily recognizable, so if the enemy can see you, they can predict where it will land or they can just back up. That is why you want to use your W when out of sight, that way no one will be able to see that you just used your W, catching them off guard when it lands and increasing the chances of hitting multiple targets.

It has a passive that deals more damage to low hp objectives as well, which can delete enemies if you manage to hit them with your 3rd passive stack.

Also, it's not always a good idea to cast your W on top of the enemy, since they will most likely move to the sides to avoid it before it even comes out, so you want to predict where they will be once you get in or, even better, use your W and then lead your enemies to the place where you used it by either baiting them or just chasing.

There's also a few combos that you can make with your E (it also allows you to cancel the W animation) and R, but I'll go into more detail once we see those skills.

E | PHASE DIVE: "Ekko rolls evasively while charging up his Z-Drive. His next attack deals bonus damage and warps reality, teleporting him to his target."

This one is quite simple. You just dash to the direction you want and if there's a objective close you will hit them while getting closer as well. It has a low cooldown for a dash, so don't be afraid of using it as a gap closer. It triggers 1 stack of your passive, so if you manage to hit 2 Q's you can trigger your passive with your E, dealing a bunch of damage. You can also dash through walls very easily. And, as I told you before, it allows you to cancel the W animation by using the W right after using your E. The downside to this is that you will run out of your E before your W lands, so you must think of what you're going to do once you engage.

R | CHRONOBREAK: "Ekko shatters his timeline, becoming untargetable and rewinding to a more favorable point in time. He returns to whenever he was a few seconds ago and heals for a percentage of the damage received in that duration. Enemies near his arrival zone take massive damage."

Chronobreak is both a defensive and aggressive ability. If you use it defensively then you're looking to recover as much health as you can while ending up in a safe position, which is why you always have to think where you're walking because that's the place you'll be in once you use Chronobreak. You can also use it aggressively to deal massive damage, since it currently scales with 150% of your AP.

You can use your W back to where your shadow is and then ult, that way you'll apply the stun to all the enemies that were following you. From experience I can tell you that people often ignore Ekko's shadow in danger situations or when chasing, since a lot of times they'll follow you thinking that you're already dead, and Ekko's R damage is often underestimated.

ABILITIY SEQUENCE ORDER

Timewinder (Q) > Phase Dive (E) > Chronobreak (R) > Parallel Convergence (W)

RUNES

I've seen a lot of Ekko players running Electrocute instead of Dark Harvest, but the thing is that Dark Harvest gives you a better snowball potential overall in mid-late game, that way you'll be able to take full advantage of the lead you get.

Sudden Impact works wonders with Ekko's E, since it'll give you magic penetration every 2 triggers of your E later on in the game.

Eyeball Collection is the usual rune I use on any champion when going for the Domination tree, since the extra damage it gives you is pretty nice. However, you can also go for Ghost Poro if you're usually playing for vision, which is common on higher ranks.

Ravenous Hunter will heal you more while you do your jungle route, so it's a must. Also, it will heal you a lot on teamfights, it might even surprise you if it's your first time playing Ekko. Some would think that Relentless Hunter is also a great rune for him because of the movement speed bonus, but it really lacks a lot compared to Ravenous Hunter.

For the secondary tree we'll go for Inspiration. Magical Footwear is a rune that gives you free boots at the 12 minute mark or earlier, which is insane given the fact that it saves you 300 gold while also giving you around 120 plus gold value since they give you +10 movement speed more than normal boots.

Cosmic Insight will give you some CDR, which will be very useful in the early game when clearing your jungle. It also gives CDR to items, and we will usually have 2 active items, so we'll be able to use them more often.

BUILD

We'll start with Hunter's Talisman since our Q deals damage to multiple objectives, healing us and dealing extra burn damage to monsters. This is pretty good specially at the raptors, since we're able to clear the red side of the jungle and finish it with full health. We can use the Refillable Potion at the Krugs and then Gromp if we're too low.

For our first set of items we'll have Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes most of the times, since the slow it gives us will be useful when people try to escape from our combo. The only time you want to get Skirmisher's Sabre - Runic Echoes is when dealing with strong duelists like Olaf, Lee Sin, Xin Zhao or Trundle.

Hextech Protobelt-01 gives us AP, HP and CDR, pretty much all that we need with Ekko on early game. It also has an active that works as a gapcloser or as a tool to clear waves and camps faster, so make sure to use it often.

As our final set of items we have Lich Bane, since it's passive works extremely well with our E, triggering the passive all the time. It also turns us into a tower delete machine.

Zhonya's Hourglass will help us when dealing with heavy AD champions, since it gives time for our shadow to get to our current position, forcing enemies to fall back, otherwise they'll recieve a ton of damage. If you're very ahead of the game, you can build Seeker's Armguard only and upgrade it later on in the game.

Rabadon's Deathcap gives us tons of AP... that's all.

You can change some stuff on this build. In example, it would be ideal to get Void Staff if the enemies are building magic resist items. Another option that I've been trying recently is Hextech Gunblade instead of Hextech Protobelt-01, since it'll give you more damage overall but it lacks the CDR and the gap closer, so it's something that I rarely use.

For boots you have several options. Sorcerer's Shoes give you damage, so they're great against squishy teams. Ninja Tabi is a must when dealing with heavy AD teams. Lastly, Mercury's Treads will help you against CC, which can be a problem for Ekko.

PLAYSTYLE

EARLY GAME: As I said before, Ekko is very weak in early game, so you want to clear your jungle first as fast as you can. Start by leveling up your W at level 1, since you'll be able to deny some damage from the buffs. Use it at the 1:27 minute mark, that way you'll stun it as soon as it's swinging for its first attack. Starting on red right now is better overall, not only for Ekko, but for most junglers, since it can be the difference between winning or dying on a fight in the jungle at this early stage, and given Ekko's lack of damage it will be a plus. Clear the rest of your jungle while kiting and try to use your W when you can to preserve your HP. Now, Ekko can pull some nasty ganks thanks to his W, so be aware of all the lanes, if the enemy laner burns flash it's a great opportunity for you to gank, since you'll be able to connect your W. Also, you can make them burn flash with your W as well, no one wants to get hit by it since it's a secured kill at that point.

MID GAME: This is the stage where you will shine. Look for ganks all the time, abuse your mobility and your W by ambushing laners, and look for dives since your R will remove the tower focus of you. Contesting objectives is also your strength, since you can make the enemy team split with your W. You can also try to steal dragons, remember that your Q charges up 2 stacks of your passive, so you will deal a lot of damage once you use your E and you also have your Smite to finish it up.

LATE GAME: At this point you should be a monster. Ekko's build and kit allows him to disappear even the toughest enemies at this point, so make sure to have vision on the map to punish any positioning mistakes from the enemies. You can one-shot carries of course, but you can also deal a bunch of damage to even tanky enemies, and with the help of your W and your team you should be able to take down any objective you want.

TIPS & TRICKS

You can use your E to escape as well, using it on a minion to travel a longer distance.
If you're fighting against a champion with dashes try to wait until they use them, since you can follow them if with your E.
Kite around when you trigger your passive, your movement speed at this point is quite high.
Try to use your W when out of vision and then use your E to get closer, that way you'll catch the enemies off guard.
Go to practice tool and check out the damage you deal to dragon and baron in different stages of the game, since your passive allows you to steal them with a full combo quite easily.
Check out the map all the time for potential ganks, your W can change the outcome of a lane, so always use that to your favor.

Now it's time for you to go on a match and put in practice all that you've learned here! Good luck on Summoner's Rift.