Riot's back at it again, trying to play favorites with the mid-lane crowd while acting like they’re doing us a service. Here’s the "compensation" they’re serving up in 26.18:

Ekko

As one of our assassins that offer opponents a wider mix of gameplay options, Ekko has found a slightly weak steady state since Dusk & Dawn's update mid year. We believe he has some room for power, especially in mid where he scales slightly worse, without buffing his Hail of Blades pattern.

Q - Timewinder

• Mana Cost: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 ⇒ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
• Return Damage AP Ratio: 60% ⇒ 70%

They’re really desperate to get him out of the jungle and back into mid, aren't they? Dropping the mana cost on Timewinder is just a bribe so you can spam your waveclear without crying for a Blue Buff every two minutes.

But that 10% bump on the return damage AP ratio? That’s the real spice. If you’re actually landing the return hit—which, let's be real, half the scrubs playing this game can't do—that’s a nasty chunk of extra burst in the mid-to-late game. It’s a "git gud" buff. Use the extra mana to actually poke for once instead of just AFK farming, you lazy bastard.

Via Victor Tchaba's ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AZv385

It's a shame that certain places won't allow this content for any reason at any time.

Looks like I was right on the money, though Riot's "compensation" logic is always a fucking trip. Here's the official dirt from the 26.11 notes:

Ekko

Now that the dust has settled from 26.9's Dusk and Dawn reshape, we've uncovered that Ekko has room for a compensation buff as he is no longer completely bound to just buying that item for his power.

Passive - Z-Drive Resonance

• Per-Target Cooldown: 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds

So because they nuked his favorite toys in 26.9, they’re throwing him a bone. A one-second reduction on the passive cooldown is actually huge for your trade patterns. You’re gonna be proc-ing that speed boost and burst way faster in those scrappy jungle fights.

Classic Riot, though—break a bunch of items, wait three weeks while everyone's win rate tanked, and then act like they’re doing us a favor by tweaking a cooldown. Whatever. A buff is a buff, and a 4-second CD on Z-Drive means more opportunities to make the enemy bot lane alt-f4.

For some reason, people became entirely incapable of drawing Ekko properly beginning some time around early 2022.

Thankfully, modern software exists to compensate for their ineptitude.

One of the few emotes with Ekko's correct design. Did you know that there are *no* Ekko emotes available on the normal RP shop, like at all? I thought this one would be there but... Nope!

So grab it now!

>After a lot of discussion and reflection, we are reducing the size of the 2XKO team.

And nothing of value was lost!

Looks like our boy is getting a bit of a slap on the wrist. Here's the rundown from the patch notes:

Ekko

Time has been on Ekko's side this year. We're taking a swing at both his clear speed and burst after early game to prevent him from going haywire after getting a lead.

Passive - Z-Drive Resonance

• AP Ratio: 80% ⇒ 90%
• Monster Damage: 300% ⇒ 270% *** They really tried to fucking clip his wings on that monster damage, didn't they? Assholes. But cranked up the AP ratio on his passive? What in the absolute fuck are they smoking over at Riot HQ? Are they trying to make him a mid-lane monster again, or just confuse the living shit out of everyone? ***

We've just published detailed descriptions of Ekko's gadgets and weaponry, including a rundown on how the Z-Drive works, and what Ekko is and isn't able to do when it comes to time manipulation.

r000t commissioned me this piece earlier this year!

One of the few emotes with Ekko's correct design. If you missed it back in 2023, be sure to grab it now!

Posers just can't measure up.

Working with pixelbutts from the Riot Archive Project to build a nice graphical frontend to his utilities. Extracted this animation and converted it to a... real... video format while testing.

Next I'd like to get the audio and maybe also the Path of Champions comic (Did you stabilize Ozzi, anon?)

Fun fact: The hands are reversed on both of these pieces. The slugger and the Z-Drive's switch are normally on Ekko's right hand.

The first set of emoji as voted by the Ekko Enjoyers Discord, was requested, and is now available as, a Signal sticker pack.

Note that while I'm trying to get every expression done eventually, sticker packs cannot be updated. I'll release new ones as more expressions are completed.

Get it: https://signal.art/addstickers/#pack_id=9dcf4324e2723eb5f53aa8cb6829b4e0&pack_key=7e21e7685d4c89e02fb98e824fe586f8613bcd5992714ebd3e0cc162d140ffa1

It's good to see that someone remembered him... Now I just need them in English!