{"id":2056,"date":"2026-09-26T10:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/?p=2056"},"modified":"2026-09-26T10:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:30:33","slug":"lol-locke-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Locke Guide: How to Climb With the Year&#8217;s Only New Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Locke<\/strong> is the only new champion League of Legends shipped in 2026, he lives in mid lane, and he is a reset assassin who asks you to be greedy in exactly the right five seconds. He arrived in patch 26.13 on June 24 2026, ate a health and damage nerf in 26.15, and has since settled into a win rate hovering around even alongside a ban rate north of 30%, which tells you people find him more annoying to play against than he is good. You will leave this page with his confirmed numbers, the skill order and build that win games, the matchups that decide them, and a straight answer on whether to first time him in ranked.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_83 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Who_Locke_is_actually_for\" >Who Locke is actually for<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Lockes_full_kit\" >Locke's full kit<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Skill_order_and_the_combos_that_matter\" >Skill order and the combos that matter<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Runes_and_items_what_the_winning_builds_look_like\" >Runes and items: what the winning builds look like<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Laning_and_rotations\" >Laning and rotations<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Locke_matchups_who_beats_him_who_he_beats\" >Locke matchups: who beats him, who he beats<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Build_variants_ahead_even_behind\" >Build variants: ahead, even, behind<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#When_you_are_ahead\" >When you are ahead<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#When_the_game_is_even\" >When the game is even<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#When_you_are_behind\" >When you are behind<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Should_you_first_time_him_in_ranked\" >Should you first time him in ranked?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#What_Locke_does_badly_and_where_he_is_a_trap_pick\" >What Locke does badly, and where he is a trap pick<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Frequently_asked_questions\" >Frequently asked questions<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Is_Locke_hard_to_play\" >Is Locke hard to play?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#What_is_Lockes_win_rate\" >What is Locke's win rate?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Is_Locke_a_late_game_champion\" >Is Locke a late game champion?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-17\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Who_counters_Locke\" >Who counters Locke?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-18\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#What_lane_does_Locke_play\" >What lane does Locke play?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-19\" href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-locke-guide\/#Is_Locke_the_only_new_champion_in_2026\" >Is Locke the only new champion in 2026?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_Locke_is_actually_for\"><\/span>Who Locke is actually for<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Pick Locke if you already enjoy reset assassins and you are comfortable committing to a fight before you know how it ends. He is not a lane bully and he is not a safe scaling mid. He is a champion whose whole payoff is stacking his ultimate over the course of a game and turning that into an execute threshold nobody can outrun.<\/p>\n<p>Riot lists him as an Assassin and Mage on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leagueoflegends.com\/en-us\/champions\/locke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his official champion page<\/a>, which is more accurate than it sounds. His damage is entirely magic, his passive is an on-hit effect, and his best items are AP items that reward auto attacking. If your instinct on an assassin is to press everything and dash out, Locke will feel wrong. His W actively wants you to eat damage and then get it back.<\/p>\n<h3>Locke&#8217;s full kit<\/h3>\n<p>Every number below is from the <a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.leagueoflegends.com\/en-us\/Locke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">League of Legends Wiki&#8217;s Locke page<\/a>, last checked August 2026.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Ability<\/th>\n<th>What it does<\/th>\n<th>Confirmed numbers<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Passive: Silver Stake<\/td>\n<td>Basic attacks deal bonus magic damage on hit, scaled up by the target&#8217;s missing health. This is why AP on-hit items work on him at all.<\/td>\n<td>5 to 40 by level (+10% AP), increased by up to 100% based on missing health, to a cap of 10 to 80 by level (+20% AP)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Q: Ritual Nails<\/td>\n<td>Hurls nails that slow and apply Soul Nails stacks, up to 3. Recastable twice more inside 4 seconds at no extra cost. Consuming the stacks with an auto or E is where the damage actually lives.<\/td>\n<td>40 \/ 48 \/ 56 \/ 64 \/ 72 (+20% AP) per cast, 70 mana, 10 \/ 9 \/ 8 \/ 7 \/ 6 second cooldown. Three-stack consumption up to 75.6 \/ 109.2 \/ 142.8 \/ 176.4 \/ 210 (+105 to 147% AP)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>W: Soul Ignition<\/td>\n<td>Self-buff that costs current health while active and stores the champion damage he takes as grey health. Recast to heal the stored amount back. It turns a trade he loses into a trade he wins.<\/td>\n<td>40 to 70% attack speed by level, 40% movement speed at all ranks after 26.15. Grey health cap 40 \/ 60 \/ 80 \/ 100 \/ 120 (+100% AP). 50 to 70 mana plus 0.5% current health per 0.25 seconds, 18 \/ 17 \/ 16 \/ 15 \/ 14 second cooldown<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>E: Ashen Pursuit<\/td>\n<td>Blink that damages on arrival and empowers his next attack into a dash. Resets on takedown, which is the reset half of &#8220;reset assassin&#8221;.<\/td>\n<td>40 \/ 50 \/ 60 \/ 70 \/ 80 (+40% AP) on the blink, 40 \/ 60 \/ 80 \/ 100 \/ 120 (+40% AP) on the empowered attack, 30 to 70 mana, 10 second cooldown at all ranks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>R: Purgatory<\/td>\n<td>Throws a totem that fires at nearby enemies and marks champions for execution under a health threshold. Collecting the totem afterwards refunds cooldown and grants a permanent Sealed Champion stack that raises the threshold for the rest of the game.<\/td>\n<td>150 \/ 225 \/ 300 (+60% AP), executes below 10 \/ 11 \/ 12% (+0.5% per Sealed Champion stack) max health. 100 mana, 120 \/ 100 \/ 80 second cooldown, reduced by 20% per champion sealed. Totem lingers for the remaining cooldown, minimum 10 seconds<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The Sealed Champion mechanic is the part most guides skim past, and it is the part that changes how you should play the 30th minute. Every soul you seal and collect permanently widens the execute window. A Locke with a stack of them is threatening a real chunk of a squishy&#8217;s health bar with an ability that also refunds most of its own cooldown.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"bm-video\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;\">\n    <iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/M1-3oAWtaE8\" title=\"3 Minute Locke Guide for League of Legends\"\n      style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;\"\n      loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen allow=\"encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"\n      referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n  <\/div><figcaption>3 Minute League of Legends breaks down the post-nerf Locke kit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Skill_order_and_the_combos_that_matter\"><\/span>Skill order and the combos that matter<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Max Q first, W second, E last, and take R the moment it is available. That is not a preference, it is what the winning games do: the dominant order on LoLalytics puts points into Q at levels 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9, W at 3, 8, 10, 12 and 13, and E only at 14 and 15, and that path sits at a 57.75% win rate across 3,574 games measured at level 15 in Emerald and above, last checked August 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Ritual Nails scales harder per rank than anything else he has, and the three-stack consumption is most of his kill pressure before level 11. E stays at rank one for a long time because its cooldown does not change with rank, so extra points buy damage you were not going to land in lane anyway. Three combos to practise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The lane poke: Q, walk up, auto to consume the stack, walk away. His passive means the auto is not a courtesy, it is a third of the trade.<\/li>\n<li>The kill combo: Q, Q, Q to build three stacks, E in to consume them with the empowered attack, W as the enemy turns on you, then recast W once their burst is spent. That recast timing is the whole skill expression of the champion.<\/li>\n<li>The reset chain: land the execute on R, collect the totem, then use the refunded E from the takedown to jump the next target. Locke&#8217;s teamfights either end in nothing or in three deaths, with not much in between.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Runes_and_items_what_the_winning_builds_look_like\"><\/span>Runes and items: what the winning builds look like<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The rune page is settled. Electrocute is on 87.5% of Locke games at a 49.2% win rate, with Domination primary and Resolve secondary as the most common pairing, per our read of <a href=\"https:\/\/op.gg\/lol\/champions\/locke\/build\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">op.gg&#8217;s Locke build page<\/a> at Emerald and above, last checked August 2026 on patch 26.17. Riot does not publish official pick or win rates, so tracker samples are what everyone including us is working from.<\/p>\n<p>Within those trees we run Sudden Impact and Ultimate Hunter, because a blink assassin with an 80-second ultimate at rank three uses both about as well as anyone in the game, plus Second Wind and Bone Plating, because the mid lanes that beat Locke beat him by chipping him out before level 6. Dark Harvest and Hail of Blades show up in smaller samples if you want the scaling or the burst-auto pattern instead.<\/p>\n<p>Summoner spells are barely a decision: one pair sits on 95.66% of Locke games at a 49.27% win rate on the same op.gg data, and it is Flash plus Ignite. The small minority running something else lands closer to 43.8%, which is a large gap for a choice that feels minor.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Slot<\/th>\n<th>Pick<\/th>\n<th>Why it is there<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Start<\/td>\n<td>Doran&#8217;s Ring and 2 Health Potions<\/td>\n<td>On 95.88% of games. Dark Seal starts exist at under 2% and win less. This is not a slot to be creative in.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Boots<\/td>\n<td>Sorcerer&#8217;s Shoes<\/td>\n<td>76.72% pick, 50.26% win rate. Mercury&#8217;s Treads at 12.44% sits near 46.75%, so buy them for a real reason, not out of habit.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>First item<\/td>\n<td>Lich Bane<\/td>\n<td>His passive is an on-hit effect and his combo is built around an empowered auto. Lich Bane is doing two jobs at once here.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Second item<\/td>\n<td>Shadowflame<\/td>\n<td>Magic penetration that scales with how low the target already is, on a champion whose passive and ultimate both scale with missing health.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Third item<\/td>\n<td>Zhonya&#8217;s Hourglass<\/td>\n<td>The item that lets you commit into a fight you would otherwise wait out. On a champion who dives, this is a damage item wearing armour.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fourth and later<\/td>\n<td>Rabadon&#8217;s Deathcap, Void Staff, Banshee&#8217;s Veil, Cosmic Drive, Stormsurge<\/td>\n<td>Deathcap if the game is going long and you are ahead, Void Staff the moment two enemies buy magic resist, Banshee&#8217;s into a poke or pick composition.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>One caveat worth more than the table. On op.gg&#8217;s Emerald and above sample, the most-picked core build sits on 17.67% of games at a 46.82% win rate, while a less popular line sits above 51%. The popular build is not the best build, which is normal for a champion this new. There is also a sub-600-game line reading 76%, and you should ignore it completely, because that is what selection bias looks like when only the games that were already won ever reach the item.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Laning_and_rotations\"><\/span>Laning and rotations<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Locke&#8217;s lane is a slow build to a level 6 spike, not a level 3 all in. Before R, his kill threat is Q stacks plus an E consumption, which is real but not enough against anyone who can shove him under tower. Farm, hit your Q stacks on the caster minions, and treat every wave as a chance to land a free three-stack consumption while the enemy laner is last hitting.<\/p>\n<p>His W changes how you should think about trading. Most assassins want to enter a trade at full health and leave at full health. Locke wants to enter at full health, spend some of it, and get it back on the recast. Losing 30% of your health bar in a trade is not automatically a loss for him. Panicking and recasting W at the wrong moment is.<\/p>\n<p>After 6, he is a roaming champion. Purgatory&#8217;s cooldown drops hard if you collect the totem after a kill, so a successful gank does not just get you a bounty, it gets you a mostly refunded ultimate for the next one. The best Locke sessions we have watched on order look repetitive on purpose: shove wave, roam bot, seal a kill, collect, walk back, repeat. The booster who did our cleanest Locke stretch this summer got from Platinum 2 to Diamond 4 in eleven days doing almost nothing else, and he told us afterwards the hardest part was resisting the urge to fight mid.<\/p>\n<p>If the grind is the part you want to skip rather than the part you enjoy, our <a href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/en\/league-of-legends-boost\">League of Legends division climb<\/a> team plays these lanes at Diamond and above every day, on your schedule and with the champions you actually want on your account history.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Locke_matchups_who_beats_him_who_he_beats\"><\/span>Locke matchups: who beats him, who he beats<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Locke is a counter-pick more than a blind pick, and the matchup spread is wide enough to matter. The table below is our read of LoLalytics&#8217; Emerald and above matchup data, minimum 100 games, last checked August 2026 on the current patch. Riot publishes no matchup data, so this is tracker sourced.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Matchup<\/th>\n<th>Locke&#8217;s win rate<\/th>\n<th>What is actually happening<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Talon<\/td>\n<td>44.11%<\/td>\n<td>His worst lane. Talon beats him at the exact levels Locke is still building toward his spike, and roams faster afterwards.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Cassiopeia<\/td>\n<td>44.92%<\/td>\n<td>Sustained magic damage against a champion who has to walk into auto range to convert his combo.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Qiyana<\/td>\n<td>45.07%<\/td>\n<td>Out-bursts him in the exact window his W is meant to survive.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Azir<\/td>\n<td>45.96%<\/td>\n<td>Range. Locke&#8217;s E gets him in, and then Azir&#8217;s ultimate puts him back out.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Katarina<\/td>\n<td>46.16%<\/td>\n<td>The other reset assassin does the same job with a lower commitment cost. op.gg&#8217;s broader sample has this one even worse at 43.64%.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Vex<\/td>\n<td>52.21%<\/td>\n<td>Her punish is aimed at dashes, but Locke&#8217;s E is a blink into an empowered auto rather than a long dash in.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Syndra<\/td>\n<td>53.48%<\/td>\n<td>Immobile burst mage. If he closes the gap with stacks up, the trade is over.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Vladimir<\/td>\n<td>53.88%<\/td>\n<td>Ignite plus a missing-health passive against a champion whose whole plan is getting health back.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Malzahar<\/td>\n<td>56.29%<\/td>\n<td>Malzahar&#8217;s suppression is his only real answer, and Locke&#8217;s W was designed for exactly one bad five seconds.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>vs Irelia<\/td>\n<td>56.87%<\/td>\n<td>His best listed matchup. She has to commit first, and committing first into a stored grey health bar is how you lose.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The pattern is simple enough to draft around: he loses to early-game assassins and long-range control mages, and he beats immobile mages and melee champions who have to walk to him. If you are building a pick-and-ban plan around that, our <a href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-counter-pick-guide-by-lane\/\">lane by lane counter-pick guide<\/a> covers how to actually get the last pick you need to make it work.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Build_variants_ahead_even_behind\"><\/span>Build variants: ahead, even, behind<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_you_are_ahead\"><\/span>When you are ahead<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Mejai&#8217;s Soulstealer after boots is genuinely correct on a champion who resets on takedowns and collects a totem after every kill. It is also the single fastest way to turn a good game into a humbling one, so buy it when you are 4-0, not when you are 2-1 and feeling optimistic.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_the_game_is_even\"><\/span>When the game is even<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Lich Bane into Shadowflame into Zhonya&#8217;s, unchanged, and spend your energy on roam timing instead of item creativity. This is the line both op.gg and Mobalytics surface as the core, and an even game is not where you experiment.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_you_are_behind\"><\/span>When you are behind<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Move Zhonya&#8217;s ahead of your second damage item and lean on Q waveclear. Locke is unusually good at being useless-but-alive for ten minutes and then relevant again, because Sealed Champion stacks do not care that you went 0-3 in lane. Farm side lanes and wait for the fight where your ultimate finds two low targets at once.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Should_you_first_time_him_in_ranked\"><\/span>Should you first time him in ranked?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Only if you already play an AP assassin, and even then, take him through two normals first.<\/p>\n<p>The case for it is real. His kit rewards fundamentals you already have if you play Katarina or Akali, and Riot lists him as medium difficulty rather than a mechanical nightmare. The best Locke players on LoLalytics&#8217; leaderboard sit at a 56.76% win rate with an average rank of Challenger, so the ceiling is there.<\/p>\n<p>The case against is the ban rate. He is banned in roughly a third of games on both op.gg and LoLalytics as of August 2026, which means the champion you spent two weeks learning is unavailable in one game out of three. That is a rough deal for a one-trick and a fine deal for someone adding a fourth pick to a pool. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/lol-champion-pool-size-guide\/\">guide to how many champions you should actually play<\/a> makes the case that three to four per role is the climbing sweet spot, and Locke is a good fourth, not a good only.<\/p>\n<p>The other honest answer: if you want a new assassin to climb with and you want it to work this week rather than next month, there are safer options. Our roundup of the <a href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/best-lol-assassins-to-climb\/\">assassins that actually carry solo queue<\/a> covers the ones with fewer bad matchups and a shorter learning curve.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Locke_does_badly_and_where_he_is_a_trap_pick\"><\/span>What Locke does badly, and where he is a trap pick<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>He has no answer to being poked out. W stores damage he takes from champions, which sounds like a poke counter and is not one, because the storage is capped and the recast is on an 18 to 14 second cooldown. Against Cassiopeia or Xerath you do not get to bank the poke, you just lose the lane slowly.<\/p>\n<p>His teamfight is also binary. Purgatory either finds two executable targets and wins the fight outright, or it fires into a full-health frontline and he has contributed a slow. There is no median Locke teamfight, which is fine at high elo where fights start at low health bars and miserable in games that are decided by one bad 5v5 at Baron.<\/p>\n<p>The loudest community objection is that his W does not belong on the kit at all. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/leagueoflegends\/comments\/1u29ai0\/riot_shares_insights_into_lockes_design_one_of\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">r\/leagueoflegends thread on Riot&#8217;s design notes for Locke<\/a>, the most-upvoted objection is exactly that: an assassin with a defensive self-sustain button is not carrying the risk an assassin is supposed to carry. Whether or not you agree, it is the reason he keeps getting looked at in patch notes, and it is why building your account around him is a bet on Riot leaving him alone.<\/p>\n<p>As for where he is a trap: Iron through Silver. Locke&#8217;s payoff is a stacking execute threshold that requires you to consistently secure kills and then survive long enough to collect a totem in the middle of a fight. In lobbies where fights are chaotic and nobody backs off at 15% health, the reset chain that makes him strong at Diamond simply does not fire. He is at his best from roughly Platinum upward, and at his worst in exactly the ranks that are most tempted by a shiny new champion.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently_asked_questions\"><\/span>Frequently asked questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_Locke_hard_to_play\"><\/span>Is Locke hard to play?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Moderately. Riot lists him as medium difficulty and his combo is short, but the W recast timing and the decision of when to commit E carry most of his win rate. He is easier than Azir and harder than Annie.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Locke&#8217;s win rate?<\/h3>\n<p>Around even, and it depends who you ask. op.gg reads 48.97% with a 6.50% pick rate and a 33.70% ban rate, while LoLalytics reads 50.28% at Emerald and above across 25,336 games, both last checked August 2026. Riot does not publish official rates, and a 1.3 point spread between trackers is normal because they slice brackets differently.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_Locke_a_late_game_champion\"><\/span>Is Locke a late game champion?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Sort of. He does not scale like a traditional late-game carry, but his ultimate does, because Sealed Champion stacks permanently raise his execute threshold. A 40 minute Locke with stacks is a real threat to a squishy at a health total that would be safe against anyone else.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_counters_Locke\"><\/span>Who counters Locke?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Talon, Cassiopeia and Qiyana are his worst matchups on LoLalytics&#8217; Emerald and above data, all sitting between 44 and 46% for Locke. Broadly, early-game assassins and long-range control mages beat him.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_lane_does_Locke_play\"><\/span>What lane does Locke play?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Mid, essentially exclusively. The wiki lists no secondary position and the jungle experiment that circulated after release has not held up in tracker data.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_Locke_the_only_new_champion_in_2026\"><\/span>Is Locke the only new champion in 2026?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Yes. Riot confirmed he would be the only new champion released in 2026, which is why he owns the &#8220;new champion&#8221; conversation for the rest of the year rather than being replaced by the next release in three months.<\/p>\n<p>So: max Q, run Electrocute, build Lich Bane into Shadowflame into Zhonya&#8217;s, dodge the Talon and Cassiopeia lanes, and treat every kill as a chance to collect a totem rather than a chance to chase a second one. He is a good fourth champion in a mid pool and a rough one to one-trick, mostly because he is banned in a third of your games.<\/p>\n<p>If you would rather have the LP than the learning curve, our <a href=\"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/en\/league-of-legends-boost\">League of Legends boosting<\/a> team handles division climbs, placements and duo queue across every rank on the ladder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Locke build guide for League of Legends: the Ashen Exorcist&#8217;s full kit, skill order, runes, item path, matchups, and whether he is worth first timing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[55,58],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-of-legends","tag-build-guide","tag-climbing-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boostingmarket.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}