Hey im vSomnia im a EUW master player trying to push for grandmaster this split. Im currently +/- 200 lp. I've been playing League Of Legends since season 3, with a lot of breaks in between. Played some other games like CS:GO... Ekko has been my OTP since he got released and I started taking this game seriously since season 9/10 I think. I've been hitting master with +/- 60% winrate on multiple accounts. So I think I have somewhat of knowledge and experience on Ekko and hope this helps you with certain matchups, items, runes or just general gameplay. <3 I used to be an account hopper but, figured to play on one acc instead this is the one I play all my games on for now. So you can check my credibility, runes or items. https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/euw/vSomnia-666
I'll will try to stream more on twitch for fun this is my profile: https://www.twitch.tv/vsomnia

I will tell you how I think you should approach Ekko.

So how do you win games with Ekko?

Well from my experience all the games I 1vs9 or carry are the ones where I didn't die, prioritized gold and xp at all times during the whole duration of the game. Try to not lose your Dark Seal / Mejai's stacks at all time.

What does this mean?

Well it means that sometimes you'll have to sacrifice your teammates in order to not die. Ignore BAD PLAYS at all times, don't try to help teammates when they make mistakes. DON'T LOSE XP, GOLD AND DARK SEAL OR MEJAI'S STACKS. Does this mean that you should never help your teammates. Not at all. Help them when you are certain that you will get kills or win the fight.
Knowing when to help and when not comes with experience and is one of the hardest things in this game. Review your games or think activily after you died or lost a fight, and look what you could have done better. A lot of the times the answer will be not joining the fight at all. BE ACTIVE ON THE MAP BUT IN CONTROL.

KDA PLAYER:

A lot of times you'll get called a KDA player. On almost every champ in the game this is a negative thing. In my opinion or filosophy about Ekko being a KDA player should be the right approach to play him, be a KDA player! Not because we care about stats being ruined or anything not at all. Be a KDA player because if you want to carry in solo Q you need the dark seal/ Mejai's stacks, you need the xp and gold lead, you need the item lead and you need the level lead. When you get behind with Ekko you are useless won't deal damage won't kill anyone and won't carry. So try to avoid this at all costs.

WHEN NOT TO BE A KDA PLAYER:

Imagine your botlane is stomping very hard and have potential to hard carry the game. Don't be the guy that is permanently playing for himself. Try to make plays with them, engage for them so they focus you and they have an easier time to deal their damage and carry you. When one of your teammembers has hard carry potential try to play with them. This doesn't mean you have to perma group with them, but maybe hover more than you would do when they weren't strong.

Early game:

I can't stress it enough to play aggressive in lane, punish people that miss key abilities or spam it on the minion wave. I covered every matchup above here. Take control in the lane, don't ever get perma harassed by the enemy player without making trades yourself. Be the agressor in lane, it will make people afraid of playing versus you. Dominate the lane and after the game. Limit test with it and learn what you can or can't do.

Facing a mage:

Try to bait there abilities by walking up just far enough for you to be able to dodge it, but for them to think they get a possible hit. Once they miss or use it for farming. Go all in proc your passive and run away. Repeat this till they have to recall or are killed.

Facing melee:

Try to consistent hit Q's and take creeps. When they are lower ( cause of getting hit by Q's) or missed key abilities go all in and trade. Always play for your passive proc.

Mid/ Late game:

Always go side lane push waves with your Q. After pushing the wave look to either clear vision with sweeper in de side bushes next to the wave, or look to make a play with your teammates trying to catch people offguard. NEVER, (you see this a lot) NEVER permanently run with your wave like a NPC. You push it and actively play the game after. If you go sidelane the enemy has to face you, if you can try to solo kill the one facing you. Sometimes this is impossible. When its impossible just hard shove (EKKO has one of the fastest wave clears in the game) and instant roam towards mid or objectives to take a fight with number advantage. Learn when to not group and when to group. Always prioritise xp and gold, level advantages and items make you win the game. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T DIE IN SIDELANE FOR NO REASON, because you'll lose all pressure and give your team number disadvantage for the time coming.

Teamfights:

There are two ways to play teamfights.

1: You hit a massive portal on multiple targets. (You make the initial play)
2: Your teammates engage and you look to oneshot enemy carries. (You play more passive and wait for good moments when enemies are fighting your teammates and forget about you)

I will not cover what every ability does, cause I think you can all read. But I will cover how you can use them in certain situations.

:
- Poke vs melee champs or low range champs with scorch.
- Shove waves very fast
- Slow people when getting chased

:
- Stun people with it
- Use it for the shield when trading
- Zone people out of certain places
- There is a smal angle when it is about to dissapear you can still walk into it and it will still stun, sometimes you can use it to catch people ofguard. Test it in practice tool.
- Slow people when getting chased or chasing yourself.
- Use it to make trades under enemy turret, the shield covers a full turret shot.

:
- Dodge abilities
- Engage
- Can go over a lot of walls (LEARN THEM)

:
Best way to use ult is for surviving and the heal in my opinion. I rarely use it for the damage, I think its alway better to try to engage run away with passive get an other combo and ulting after so you get full hp and can get an other combo in after.
- Use it to escape
- Deal damage with it (Only use it for damage when you are certain you'll get a kill, or when you hit multiple people and your team can clean them up after. After using ult you are vulnerable.)
- Heal
- Dodge cc abilities that will get you killed

Only COMBO'S you need and when to use them:

E + Q:

Use E and instantly cast Q on the enemy you cancel the Q animation making it the fastest way to get your passive pro. Use it to engage on people and get a fast passive proc. You need to land Q or you miss all damage and are stuck on him losing the trade.

TIP: Don't always use the E + Q combo instantly sometimes it's better to E on the enemy do one or two basic attacks and when they dash away or run away, you use Q on them to proc your passive. This is better versus better players that expect your E + Q combo and dodge it instantly or champs that have a dash.

Q + E

Use Q on melee champs, or low range champs or people disrespecting you. When it's about to come back you E sideways to make sure it gets second hit on them and try to hit E on them in the mean time. Kinda mechanical way to get your passive proc. Surprises a lot of players disrespecting you.

E + W:

Use E and instantly cast W aswel it cancels the W cast animation this might be handy in some situations as the malzahar matchup, when Q is on cooldown or when you expect to get cc'd or when getting chased.

E + R:

When you want to use R for damage, E first so after you R you cant instantly cast second E to deal damage without having to cast first E first. Resulting into faster damage less reaction time for enemies.

Q + FLASH:

You can cancel Q animation casting Q and instantly casting Flash. Sometimes you can use it to last hit a kill when they dont expect or to gapclose when E is on cooldown. You will not use this a lot.

Here I will post some short reading tips that might help you understand Ekko and maybe the game:

Don't autopilot:
USE YOUR GOD GIFTED BRAIN. Activily think when to use your abilities. Don't perma shove the wave without reason. Look at the map, look at how enemy plays and adapt your gameplay to it. In general perma shove when you have no kill pressure, and fights will happen in the next few seconds, so you can help where needed. Try to slow push and only last hit when you can trade with enemy and get kill pressure. A lot of beginners are thoughtless permashoving, missing a lot of opportunities to win your lane and snowball the game out of it. Also in sidelanes, look where enemies are, look for plays, you are not a minions that has to perma run in lane.

Look at enemy items:
Constantly look what the enemy is building. Avoid targets that are stacking magic resit. Negatron cloak and all upgrades makes your damage dissapear if you have not build void staff. To many times I died trying to kill an enemy (that I could (as good as) oneshot before), but because of the magic resist you deal no damage and you lose your lead. So always look at items and try when you can, to focus the enemies that are not building magic resist.

Level leads:
Play around level leads. Try to always trade when being a level higher. Never trade when being a level lower. Unless you get ganked or can get a kill ofcourse. Try to teamfight more when you have a level lead since you'll deal more damage than enemy that is lower leveled.

Be aggressive but in control:
As said before be aggressive but in control. Don't be headless trading, trade with knowledge. Don't be afraid to trade even when you lose hp. Be the bully!You take control in the lane don't let the harras you without reacting. Make them afraid or hesitating to make plays.

Rune inspection:
Before the game starts look if enemy midlaner Bone Plating. During the game look when he has it up or not. When he does and you go all in you will probably lose the trade. So try to hit a Q to get it off cooldown and go all in when it is on cooldown.

Avoid bruisers:
Avoid fighting with bruisers 1v1 even when you are ahead they are your biggest counter. Try fighting a Fiora 1v1 and you'll find out :D. You can easily **** up your lead disrespecting them and causing you to lose the game.

Learn Macro:
Learn how to sidelane, when to group, when to teamfight, when to roam. I will not go in detail because this is kinda the same for every assasin. There are a lot of youtube video's explaining this.

How do you get better on Ekko:
Watch Xiao Lao Ban (The Best Ekko) vods on youtube or watch his streams, look how he plays the game, the matchups, and how he plays sidelanes.

I shortly described how to play all matchups, if you still cant figure it out how to play them watch specific matchup video's on youtube and look how they play them.

Hail Of Blades gives you the fastest passive proc possible. In a lot of matchups you can even E on them and do three auto attacks and get passive off at level one, when they used ability ofcourse.

Look to make trades when you have it

Togheter with Nashor's Tooth you can oneshot people without even using Q. Ofcourse you still need to use Q for most damage haha.

Best option in almost all games since they nerfed electrocute.
Learn how to use it and when you can cheese with it, play around with it.

I'll make it this easy and short on this one.

Electrocute:
In matchups you don't want to fight for a longer period of time cause they will run you over with basic attacks or abilities, you take electrocute. Examples, Yasuo, Yone, Irelia, Sylas, some other weird bruisers picks mid.

Hail Of Blades
In all the remaining matchups you can take Hail Of Blades.

You can always test around and find out do some trail and error, maybe you like the one over the other more in certain matchups.

Patch 14.5:

The higher elo you get, the harder it becomes to get solo kills, I start shifting my gamestyle to a more farming based style, trying to stay as healthy as possible and get prio as much as I possible can. Why? So I can help my jungler in any way possible. Play around your jungler at all times. Does this mean you should never look to trade. Not at all, but be of full control, don't do trades when you 50/50 it. Always make profit. When enemy laner plays like ****, PUNISH him! Destroy him in lane. But most of the time this isn't possible.
Does this mean you should be the junglers dog, NOT AT ALL, still keep previous mentioned aspects I talked about in this guide in head. But try to be the midlaner having all impact on the map and don't be the guy taking every cs to be late at the fights all the time. Be the player that enemy jungler, support, adc or even toplaner start crying about, make them rage on their midlaner, BE THE MID DIFF!

Supports roam a lot more in higeher elo resulting in sometims 1vs3 or 2vs3's this can be in your favor or against you. This is why being as healthy as possbile is key, so you don't die cause of it, or can help your teammates when ganking you, doing objectives, jungler invading etc. I feel like midlane isn't about the flashy plays and solo kills anymore (which sucks in my opinion) but more about being as active as possible, helping your teammates.

Never felt this useless as mid in a while and on ekko. Sometimes 10/0 and cant kill or face anyone. So this makes playing perfect even more important. Good times will come maybe a buff or changes that make the game less about better jungler and support.

Patch 14.6 / 14.7

Started playing to get perma prio, cause I feel its not worth it to play for solo kills anymore. You will end up with lower hp, making you fall in risk to get ganked more. Also when you avoid taking damage and get prio, which is kinda easy on ekko. You can go roam and help jungler with full hp. Does this mean you never use abilities on enemy midlaner. Not at all, but look at the map for support roams and where jungler might be, and also look what your team is doing, if you jungler is doing invades it's better to be full hp to be able to help him. Or when you see you can roam bot, same principal.

So in short I try to be as healthy as possible and collect kills around the map instead of midlane itself. Keep your stacks in mind! Don't die!

Bit the same as previous patch, but I applied to roam more this one which has been working really well for me.

14.9:
Upcoming HOB nerfs might be scary will see what it gives when it is released. STAY TUNED.
Dropped 400lp ish kinda lost motivation, will take break till next split, than itryhard only. Will lower playrate aswel, full focus only

14.10:
Same runes and items :D

I might add some more things in the future. But for now I have no more inspiration, if you have suggestions or things that need some more clearance let me know!

I want the guide to be more eyecatching in the future but I really don't understand the coding behind it. Any help with that is welcome.

Ask me questions if you need more in depth answers.
You can add me on league aswel or ask them here.

Unranked to master full solo Q season 13 final split:
One of the hardest carries I've done: Sadly in high diamond