Ekko - Thoughts and Ideas

Recently Riot has revealed a new champion, called Ekko – The Boy Who Broke Time.
Ekko is what Riot calls a "skirmishing assassin", which is to say one that is good at minor fights and trades, as opposed to an "OHKO assassin" that can instantly kill a carry. That being said, he still has quite enough damage to really kick butt in teamfights.

Passive: Z-Drive Resonance
Ekko deals bonus damage and slows every third attack against the same enemy. If this enemy is a champion Ekko also gains a considerable speed buff.

This really helps Ekko in extended trades in lane. If he's in trouble all he'll have to do is autoattack a third time and he instantly gets some free peel.

Q: Timewinder
Ekko throws a projectile that damages units in its path. When it has reached its destination it expands, slowing units around it before coming back to Ekko, dealing extra damage to enemies in its path (scales with AP).

This ability is kind of odd in the way it moves. It's a bit like Gnar's boomerang (if I recall correctly), or Draven's ult. It moves forward before slowing down a bit, lingers for a short time and comes back depending on where Ekko is – this means that Ekko, like Gnar or Draven, can control how it returns by repositioning himself, and likewise use his positioning to his advantage.

W: Parallel Convergence
Passive: Ekko's basic attacks deal more damage to low health targets (scales with AP).

After a delay, the target area will slow enemies inside. If Ekko steps inside he gains a shield (probably scales with AP too) and all enemies inside are stunned.

This makes Ekko a monster to deal with in terms of positioning. If you're not careful, he can slow several targets at once, get considerable damage in and make it out unscathed due to his shield and the stun. The passive helps him close in for some kills if needed, and works especially well with his next ability.

E: Phase Dive
Ekko dashes a fixed distance. After that, his next basic attack has huge range – attacking allows him to blink to his target, dealing extra damage (Scales with AP) and applying on hit/spell effects.

This gives Ekko not only a gap-closer/damage ability, but an escape/juke tool too (in terms of dash range it's about the same as Lucian's). For example – he can use his dash to jump through a jungle wall and follow up by blink-attacking a nearby jungle camp for a clean escape. Or, if a trade isn't going quite as planned, he can simply blink-attack a nearby minion to escape. He can also use this dash to juke enemy skillshots. The possibilities are endless!

R:Chronobreak
Ekko briefly turns untargetable and invulnerable. Afterwards he reappears where he was a few seconds ago, healing for a portion of health lost during that time and dealing lots of damage to enemies (scaling with AP).

Wow! Like Zilean's Chronoshift, this helps Ekko "cheat" death. It's remarkably useful if, say, he gets ganked while trying to harass his lane opponent, and Riot's Chefo has even remarked that it could even be used to return to lane "if he's a speedy shopper after recalling".

More analysis is coming up. Read more here: http://www.newsoflegends.com/index.php/champion-reveal-ekko-the-boy-who-shattered-time-38521/

 

Although a lot of champions were nerfed heavily after release (Yasuo and Azir being notable examples) I think it might be a bit of a stretch to say that Riot could be doing it on purpose (Braum, Gnar and Velkoz weren't exactly too OP upon release). Besides, most people just buy with IP.