Locke Mid Build & Guide — Patch 26.18

Overview

Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, is a melee AP skirmisher who lives in the awkward space between assassin and bruiser. His passive Silver Stake (P) turns every basic attack into bonus magic damage that scales with how low the target already is, so he wants to weave autos — short attacks slipped in between abilities — rather than cast-and-run like a normal mage. Ritual Nails (Q) is not one throw but three: recast it twice more inside 4 seconds at no extra mana cost, stacking up to three marks on one target, and a single attack that consumes the whole stack hits far harder than eating the marks one by one. Soul Ignition (W) is both his fight steroid and his healing, and Ashen Pursuit (E) is the dash that lets a melee champion reach the back line at all.

His game plan: poke a mark onto the enemy with Q, wait for Soul Ignition (W) to be available, then dash in with Ashen Pursuit (E), burn the mark with empowered autos, and finish with Purgatory (R) when they drop low. He is strong when he gets on top of a squishy target and miserable when he can't — which is exactly why he plays the all-in game patiently instead of forcing every wave.

Recommended Build

Starting items: Doran's Ring + Health Potion. The Ring gives the mana and ability power a melee caster needs to trade in the early levels.

Core items (in order):

1. Nashor's Tooth — attack speed plus on-hit magic damage. It powers up your empowered Q autos and your Silver Stake (P) passive at the same time, which is the core of how Locke deals damage.
2. Sorcerer's Shoes — flat magic penetration to make sure your on-hit damage actually lands on the squishy targets you dive.
3. Riftmaker — the key spike. It gives ability power, 350 health and damage that ramps to 8% in a long fight, plus omnivamp (you heal for a share of the damage you deal) at full ramp — exactly what a melee champion who hurts himself with Soul Ignition (W) needs to survive a long trade, so do not delay it for a second damage item. It is not the answer to the Patch 26.15 health nerf, though: that cut 35 points of base health, a tenth of what this item hands back, and it costs you an early trade, not a late-game fight.
4. Shadowflame — extra burst whose bonus damage to low-HP targets lines up with your Purgatory (R) execute.
5. Rabadon's Deathcap — your late-game multiplier; it scales every other source of AP you own.

Situational items:

• Zhonya's Hourglass — into divers and assassins (Zed, Diana, Talon). The stasis (a few seconds of being untargetable and frozen) buys time while your Soul Ignition (W) heal is on cooldown. The cap on how much of that self-damage Soul Ignition (W) gives back is not new: Patch 26.14 and Patch 26.15 lowered it twice, from 40/80/120/160/200 to 40/60/80/100/120, with the scaling cut from 120% to 100% ability power. The W no longer holds you up on its own inside a dive, so treat this as a near-default buy against any comp with a real dive threat rather than a niche pick.
• Void Staff — the moment a priority target buys any Magic Resist item, this restores your on-hit damage.
• Morellonomicon — into healing-stacking comps (Soraka, Vladimir, Dr. Mundo). Its anti-heal makes sure your execute actually kills.

Boots: Sorcerer's Shoes is the default. Swap to Mercury's Treads when the enemy team is stacking stuns and roots, so the extra tenacity (reduced crowd-control duration) lets you finish your dive.

Skill order: Max Ritual Nails (Q) first — it is your damage and your poke. Take Soul Ignition (W) second, but know what those points buy: since Patch 26.15 its Move Speed is a flat 40% at every rank, so ranking it up adds attack speed and healing, not mobility. Leave Ashen Pursuit (E) for last — its cooldown is a flat 10 seconds at every rank while the mana cost climbs from 30 to 70, so early points there drain mana without buying you more engages. Put a point in Purgatory (R) at levels 6, 11, and 16.

Runes: Primary Precision with Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, Last Stand. Secondary Domination with Sudden Impact and Ultimate Hunter. Into ranged pokers, take Sorcery secondary with Manaflow Band and Transcendence for waveclear mana and cooldowns instead.

Key matchups

• Xerath / Ziggs: Long-range poke that out-ranges you hard. Arcanopulse (Q) and Bouncing Bomb (Q) chip you from further than Ashen Pursuit (E) can travel, and Eye of Destruction (W) and Hexplosive Minefield (E) zone the exact ground you have to cross to commit. Use minions as cover, never walk straight at them, and all-in only at level 6 once Purgatory (R) can punish a single step forward.
• Veigar: Immobile and lethal if he lands his cage. Bait Event Horizon (E) with the teleport half of Ashen Pursuit (E), then commit — but before Nashor's Tooth the dive only chunks him. After the Patch 26.14 and 26.15 cuts to Ritual Nails (Q), the kill comes from the empowered autos and Silver Stake (P) that follow the mark, so farm the early levels and take the all-in once the item is online.
• Yasuo: Wind Wall blocks Ritual Nails (Q). Throw Q to bait the wall or land it when his wall is down, then commit with autos and Soul Ignition (W) rather than relying on the skillshot.
• Diana: Crescent Strike (Q) into Pale Cascade (W) wins her every short trade before level 6, and that shield eats most of the mark damage you were counting on. Respect levels 1–5, farm from range with Ritual Nails (Q), and take the all-in only with Nashor's Tooth online and Lunar Rush (E) on cooldown, so she cannot reset the gap after your Ashen Pursuit (E).
• Galio: An anti-AP wall — Shield of Durand (W) cuts incoming magic damage while he charges it, blunting a consumed Ritual Nails (Q) stack, and Colossal Smash (P) out-trades you on the way back out. Don't extend for trades you can't win; farm safely and roam with Purgatory (R) to help your side lanes instead.

Power spikes & win conditions

• Level 2 (Q + E): A chip trade, not a kill window. Ritual Nails (Q) was cut in both Patch 26.14 and Patch 26.15 and its recast window shortened, so the mark-and-dash pattern buys lane priority and a health lead: land the mark, dash in with Ashen Pursuit (E) to consume it, and step back out.
• Level 6 (Purgatory): Your first execute. An overextended enemy mid, or a low-HP target in a river skirmish, is suddenly a free kill — and you can roam to threaten the side lanes.
• Nashor's Tooth completion (~ minute 14–16): Your real first spike, and the point where the all-in starts reliably killing squishies. Ritual Nails (Q) stays the first max — the marks are still your single biggest hit — but after two rounds of nerfs it no longer closes on its own: the attack speed and on-hit magic damage feeding Silver Stake (P) are what turn a landed mark into a kill.
• Riftmaker online (~ minute 22–26): The 350 health, the ramping damage and the omnivamp it unlocks let you win extended skirmishes outright. Group for objectives here.

Common mistakes

• Diving in with Soul Ignition (W) on cooldown. That spell is your heal and your steroid. Without it you have no sustain, so checking its cooldown before you commit is the difference between a kill and a death.
• Using Ashen Pursuit (E) to start the fight every time. It's also your only escape. Against assassins and junglers, hold it to reposition out of danger instead of burning it on the way in.
• Auto-attacking without consuming Ritual Nails (Q) marks. The marks are most of your burst. Land Q, then make sure your next attacks actually eat the marks — wasted marks mean you do a fraction of your damage.
• Throwing Purgatory (R) at full-HP targets. It's an execute: its value is in finishing someone who's already low. Hold it until they cross the threshold instead of using it as opening poke.

Advanced tip

Ashen Pursuit (E) has two parts: you teleport to a spot first, then the dash to your target happens. Use that first teleport to dodge a skillshot — step the teleport sideways through an incoming root or stun, and the follow-up dash still connects on your target. Done well, this turns your gap-closer into a dodge and a commit in one button, which is how you survive against the lockdown mages that otherwise wall your dive.