Ekko relies on getting inside teamfights, assassinating core targets, and ulting out in League of Legends. His area-of-effect crowd control allows him to decide what is the flow of the fight by either slowing enemies down or stunning them inside his Parallel Convergence.
A few seasons ago, one of the best things about playing Ekko was the flexible build paths. The champion could go for tank or damage-oriented items, giving you the chance to decide what kind of role you wanted to have within the match based on the game state.
While the tank version of Ekko is no longer viable, the Boy who shattered Time has been rising in popularity as a jungler with relatively strong success in the solo queue ladder, with a 51.96 percent win rate in Diamond and above, according to U.GG, and his ban rate rising up over the last few days.
If you want to pick him up and you’re not sure which are the best runes and items combinations as a jungler, we have got you covered. Here are the best builds for Ekko jungle in League.
Runes
There are two common rune setups on Ekko, both of which have the same primary tree.
Domination
Dark Harvest: While as a mid laner you would prefer having Electrocute, Dark Harvest is a better rune for jungle Ekko. It’s easy to proc with your ganks, works great with Ekko’s hit-and-run kit, and scales infinitely as long as you keep stacking the souls. Remember that you will lose a little bit of damage in the early stage, but Dark Harvest will allow you to shine in the mid-game teamfights when it is possible to use it on multiple targets.
Sudden Impact: Sudden Impact has been buffed this season, giving you extra lethality and magic penetration when activated. For a champion like Ekko who plays with the fog of war and uses dashes extensively, it’s the best rune you could ask for. Compared to Cheap Shot, it just amplifies your damage much more with a rotation of spells.
Eyeball Collection: This rune rewards you with more ability power the more takedowns you get. It’s the perfect rune to snowball games since it can grant a maximum of 30 additional ability power, which is great value for the champion. While the other two are also viable options, it requires you to play with the vision and it will take more time to stack them.
Treasure Hunter: Ravenous Hunter used to be the best rune in the last row of the Domination tree. The balance team, however, removed it and put Treasure Hunter in its stead. It is a high-risk high-reward rune that can help you get a substantial gold lead over the opponents, which is essential for an assassin like Ekko. If you’re confident you can kill all the enemies within the first 15 minutes, Treasure Hunter is the rune to go. Otherwise, Ultimate Hunter gives more value as you always prefer to have less cooldown as possible on its Chronobreak.
Inspiration
Future’s Market: the best thing about this rune is that it allows you to get a good early buy after your first clear. Regardless of whether you take a kill or not in the process, you will be able to get your core item, which is essential on Ekko to get the snowballing started. An alternative to Future’s Market is Cosmic Insight, to have your upgraded smite available earlier in the game, as well as having your Flash on a lower cooldown.
Magical Footwear: most players opt to go for Magical Footwear to save the 300 gold spent to buy tier-one boots. They grant an additional 10 movement speed compared to the normal ones, which is handy, especially when you can allocate those resources in rushing your Mythic item.
Alternative Secondary Tree: Precision
Triumph: it’s a great rune for early skirmishing and it can be rewarding when stacked with Eyeball collection and Treasure Hunter, granting you even more gold with the same amount of takedowns.
Legend:Tenacity: You’d usually want to go for this tree if you’re facing enemies with lots of crowd control. While Ekko does have Chronobreak to save himself from nasty situations, he needs to be able to cast his ultimate. Legend: Tenacity helps him deal with this kind of issue.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Starting items
Just like all junglers, you have to decide which jungle item you want to upgrade your smite. Between Emberknife and Hailblade, Ekko works best with the latter. You prefer having the slow on the smite to chase people down or close the gap between them. Not only that, but the true damage gives that little more burst compared to red smite, which is best on prolonged skirmishes. Always taking Refillable Potion since they refill upon returning to base.
First back items
Your first recall is important since it will directly impact most of your early game until you finish your Mythic item. If you’re playing with Future’s Market, there are two potential buys you can do on your first recall, depending on how much gold you have. This first one opts to maximize your snowball potential by buying as much ability power as possible. With 1200 gold (and Future’s Market) you should be able to buy the Blasting Wand and an Amplifying Tome to get a total of 60 ability power. It’s the best buy and both are recipe items of your Mythic (which we will see later). If you have less than that, go for Hextech Alternator. That being said, it only grants 25 ability power and the 150 health bonus it grants is not that significant for a jungler like Ekko.
An alternative to this, if you have approximately 1200 gold, is to get the Blasting Wand and the Dark seal, hoping you can get those stacks as soon as possible.
Core Items – Hextech Rocketbelt-01
Ekko has only one choice when it comes to Mythic items. Hextech Rocketbelt-01 gives him all the stats he wants: ability power, ability haste, and magic penetration. But what makes it so valuable is the item’s active. The dash allows him to quickly reposition or gap close for a fast kill, adding more damage to his combos. The mythic passive also grants additional magic penetration on his legendary items, giving him strong scaling throughout the game.
After closing the Rocketbelt, make sure to buy Sorcerer’s Shoes to greatly increase your mid-game damage output. At this point, you will already have 24 magic penetration, which should be enough to burst down any squishy target.
For the third item, you will have two choices: Lich Bane or Nashor’s Tooth. The first one works best when you’re only able to get one auto attack and proc one instance of the Z-Drive Resonance. If you’re able to take advantage of the attack speed bonus, then Nashor’s Tooth is better for more consistent damage output.
Fourth Item
Once you get those three core items, the fourth item depends primarily on the game state. Zhonya’s Hourglass does wonders to bait enemies and synergizes with your ultimate, while Rabadon’s Deathcap puts more focus on giving you the ability to one-shot people. In most scenarios, the first item will be ideal, since it also costs 600 gold less. You can get Rabadon’s as a fifth item if you need it.
Last item
To round off your build, there are three items that you can consider: Shadowflame, Banshee’s Veil, and Void Staff. Shadowflame amplifies your magic penetration so buy it even your targets to kill don’t have magic resistance. Otherwise, go for Void Staff for the percentage magic penetration.
Instead, if you’re having a hard time dealing with enemies dealing magic damage, Banshee’s Veil is the best option, and it also grants you a spell shield that can save you from an inevitable death.
Below you can find an example of a full Ekko build:
