🎯 The core idea
Locke is a melee magic-damage assassin who chains three Ritual Nails into empowered attacks, blinks over walls with Ashen Pursuit and finishes fights with an execute ultimate. Land your nails before you commit, let Soul Ignition soak the enemy's burst, and only dive once Purgatory can execute. Build Lich Bane, Shadowflame and Zhonya's, and play him mid unless you know why you're in the jungle.
- free costs nothing
- cheap small cost
- setup needs preparation
- grind pays off slowly
- skip the thing to stop doing
This Locke guide is built on the 3 Minute League of Legends video released on June 24, 2026, Locke's launch day. That video teaches him as a jungler. Every ability number below comes from the official League of Legends Wiki, and every balance change since launch comes from the official patch notes up to 26.21. Builds and win rates for the current patch come from an op.gg snapshot taken on October 23, 2026, and are labelled as such. Where the video's numbers no longer apply, we say so in the text. If you just want to know how to play Locke as a beginner, start in mid lane with the Electrocute and Lich Bane setup below, and learn the three-nail trade before the all-in.
Locke release date, role and why to play him
Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, came out in patch 26.13 and was playable from June 24, 2026. That is the Locke release date LoL players will see on the wiki, and he is the only new champion of 2026 so far. Riot's 26.13 patch notes link his official Locke champion spotlight video if you want the developer's walkthrough of the kit.
The wiki lists him as an Assassin with mana and adaptive magic damage. His listed role is Middle. The op.gg snapshot agrees: 88% of ranked Locke games are mid and 12% are jungle. On patch 26.21 (Emerald and above, all regions) Locke mid is tier 1 with a 50.2% win rate and a 31.8% ban rate, while Locke jungle sits at tier 5 with a 45.9% win rate. That is why this guide covers both roles: the video's Locke jungle plan, and the Locke mid guide setup that most players actually use.
The video's pros and cons still hold. He is very mobile, his blink crosses walls, he deals a lot of burst, and his W lets him survive burst. His weaknesses are a slow first jungle clear and no hard crowd control, only slows. So the Locke assassin LoL players see in high Elo is a pick-off champion, not an engage champion.
Locke abilities: Silver Stake and Ritual Nails
These are the Locke abilities as the wiki lists them after patch 26.21.
| Ability | What it does | Key numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Passive: Silver Stake | Attacks deal bonus magic damage, more against low-health targets | 5–40 (+10% AP), up to double (10–80, +20% AP) against a target at very low health |
| Q: Ritual Nails | Skillshot nail, recast twice more within 4 seconds | 40–72 (+20% AP) per nail, 70 mana, 6–10 s cooldown, 950 range |
| W: Soul Ignition | 6 seconds of attack speed and move speed, stores grey health you heal back | 40–70% attack speed, 40% move speed, 14–18 s cooldown |
| E: Ashen Pursuit | Blink, then a long-range dashing attack | 40–100 (+50% AP) blink, 40–120 (+40% AP) dash, 10 s cooldown, resets on takedown |
| R: Purgatory | Totem that damages, slows and marks, then executes | 150/225/300 (+60% AP), executes below 10/11/12% max health |
Ritual Nails is where most of your damage starts. Each nail slows by 25% for 1 second and adds a Soul Nails stack that lasts 4 seconds, up to 3 stacks. A target that already has 2 stacks is slowed by 60% for 2 seconds instead. The video says you have 5 seconds to use your recasts; that was true on launch day, but patch 26.14 cut the window to 4 seconds, with half a second between nails.
Your next basic attack (or the Ashen Pursuit dash) on a target with stacks consumes them for bonus magic damage. Three stacks pay the most: 75.6–210 (+105–147% AP). If you don't use your recasts, part of the cooldown and mana comes back. Since 26.21 that refund is 10–40% per unused nail, depending on level, so throwing one nail to poke is cheaper at rank 5 than at rank 1.
Soul Ignition and Ashen Pursuit
Soul Ignition (W) costs mana and health. For 6 seconds you're ghosted and gain 40–70% attack speed and 40% (+2% per 100 AP) move speed, which drops to 20% after 1.5 seconds. You lose 0.5% of your current health every quarter second, about 11% of your max health over the full 6 seconds. In return you store grey health: the post-mitigation damage you take from champions (capped at 40/60/80/100/120 plus 100% AP), plus the health you paid, plus up to 20–200 (+20% AP) based on missing health. Recast it, or let it run out, and you heal the grey health back. You can recast it while stunned.
This is what the video means by tanking burst. Turn W on just before an assassin's combo lands, take the damage, then cash it in. Don't turn it on for free when nobody is hitting you, because you'll only get back what the health cost took.
Ashen Pursuit (E) blinks up to 375 units and deals damage where you land. For the next 4 seconds, your next attack gets 275 extra range and turns into a dash at the target that damages everything you pass through. The dash also applies on-hit effects, so it consumes Soul Nails stacks and triggers Lich Bane. Getting a champion takedown resets the cooldown. Two details from the wiki matter in real games: the dash can go through terrain if the target is on the other side, and it fails if you are rooted, stunned or grounded.
Purgatory and the execute
Purgatory throws a totem up to 950 units away. It lands after half a second, then fires nails at every enemy within 400 units: 150/225/300 (+60% AP) magic damage and a 99% slow that decays over 2 seconds. Champions hit are marked for 5 seconds. Any marked champion below 10/11/12% of max health is executed, and each execution refreshes the mark on everyone else.
If the totem kills at least one champion, it seals their souls and drops to the ground. Walk over it to cut 20% of Purgatory's total cooldown per soul, and gain a permanent Sealed Champion stack per soul. Each stack raises the execute threshold by 0.5% of max health. So the video is right that Locke's ultimate gets stronger the more champions it kills, but the increase is small. You won't execute from much higher than 12% without a long game.
Some limits are worth knowing. A spell shield blocks the nails but not the execute. Guardian Angel and Zilean's ultimate stop the soul from being sealed. The totem can be blocked by projectile-blocking effects such as Yasuo's Wind Wall while it is flying. Patch 26.16 also fixed a bug where picking up the totem refunded based on the remaining cooldown instead of the total, so the refund is now always 20% of the full cooldown.
Locke patch changes since release
New-champion content changes fast, and Locke is a good example. The video was recorded on launch patch 26.13, so several of the numbers you see on screen are out of date. Here is every Locke change in the official patch notes through 26.21, split by mode. No hotfixes for Locke appear in the notes.
| Patch | Mode | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 26.13 | All | Released June 24, 2026; added to Arena as a Guest of Honor |
| 26.14 | Summoner's Rift | Q recast window 5 → 4 s; nail damage 50–90 → 50–82; stack bonus 20–60 → 18–50; W champion-damage grey health cap 40–200 → 40–160 |
| 26.14 | Arena only | Q cooldown 8.5–4.5 s, E cooldown 8 s, E dash 65% AP, R cooldown 90–60 s |
| 26.15 | Summoner's Rift | Base health 655 → 620; nail damage 50–82 → 40–72; W move speed 40–60% → 40% at all ranks; W grey health cap 40–160 (+120% AP) → 40–120 (+100% AP) |
| 26.15 | Arena only | Passive damage up, W heal up, R cooldown refund 20% → 50% |
| 26.15 / 26.16 | All modes (bug fixes) | Totem now retrievable after hitting an invulnerable enemy; pickup refund uses total cooldown; the execute no longer counts as a spell cast |
| 26.16 | ARAM: Mayhem only | 105% damage dealt, 95% damage taken, 20 tenacity |
| 26.19 | Arena only | Passive damage up again, R execute 1% per Sealed Champion stack |
| 26.20 | ARAM only | Damage dealt 105% → 115% |
| 26.21 | Summoner's Rift | Mana growth 70 → 60; Q unused-nail refund 20–35% → 10–40%; W mana 50–70 → 60–80; W missing-health grey health 40–200 → 20–200; E blink 40–80 (+40% AP) → 40–100 (+50% AP) |
What this means for you: early Locke is weaker than in the video. He has less health, weaker nails and less sustain from W. Riot's 26.15 notes say they wanted to stop W second max from being the best order, because it made him too safe. Patch 26.21 then took away some mana and made him scale a bit better, because Riot found he fell off too quickly when games went long. The ARAM and Arena numbers don't change how he plays on Summoner's Rift.
Locke combos for short trades
These Locke combos are the video's, with timing notes from the wiki.
Lane trade: Q, Q, Q, then W, then E on top of the target, then use the empowered attack to dash past them. Three nails give three stacks and the 60% slow, the dash consumes them, and you end the trade on the far side of your target, out of the way of their counterattack. With Electrocute, three nails alone are enough to trigger it.
Remember the 26.14 change: you now have 4 seconds, not 5, to throw all three nails. If a target dodges the first one, don't keep throwing for the sake of it. Every unused recast refunds 10–40% of the cooldown and mana.
Locke tips for trading: hit the attack right after each nail, because only the next attack consumes stacks. The passive also hits harder as the target loses health, so trades get better the longer they go. Short trades favor you once the enemy is already below half.
Locke all-in combo
The video's all-in after level 6 is: W, then Purgatory, then Q, then E into an attack, then Q, attack, then the final Q and attack.
Why this order works:
- W first gives you attack speed and starts storing grey health before the enemy can answer.
- Purgatory's 99% slow makes every following nail easy to hit, and the 5-second mark means anyone dropping below the threshold dies.
- E after the first nail gets you in range, and the dash consumes the stacks right away. If the kill happens, E comes back and you can chase the next target.
- Save Flash for the target who escapes your E dash. The video recommends saving E itself to follow a dash or Flash when you're not in the full all-in.
skip Don't throw Purgatory at a full-health target and hope. The execute only matters below 10–12% max health, so put your damage in first or use Purgatory to land your nails, not to finish someone who is still healthy.
Locke matchups and counters
The video's Locke matchups are for the jungle: easier against Qiyana, Rengar and Nidalee, harder against Jax, Jarvan IV and Volibear (we identified the champions from their portraits). The reasoning is simple. Assassins burst you, and Soul Ignition stores that damage and gives it back. Bruisers hit you over a longer fight and have hard crowd control that stops your dash, so W can't save you.
For mid lane, the op.gg snapshot for 26.21 has these Locke counters and good matchups. The game counts are small, so treat them as a direction, not a rule.
| Locke mid is weaker against | Locke win rate | Locke mid is stronger against | Locke win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gragas | 38.5% (65 games) | Viktor | 58.9% (734 games) |
| Kayle | 39.6% (53 games) | Orianna | 57.2% (369 games) |
| Aurelion Sol | 41.4% (128 games) | Azir | 56.9% (174 games) |
| Gwen | 42.0% (50 games) | Malphite | 60.0% (35 games) |
| Katarina | 42.7% (599 games) | Smolder | 67.7% (31 games) |
The pattern fits the kit. Immobile control mages like Viktor, Orianna and Azir can't escape a blink plus three nails. Champions who can stop your dash with crowd control (Gragas), outscale you (Kayle, Aurelion Sol) or stay untargetable in a fight (Gwen) are harder. Banshee's Veil, Zhonya's Hourglass and a well-timed Guardian Angel also blunt Purgatory.
Locke runes: Electrocute and Sudden Impact
The video's Locke runes for jungle are Domination with Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Sixth Sense and Ultimate Hunter, plus Inspiration with Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight. The shards are two adaptive force and scaling health.
Why the Domination runes fit:
- Electrocute needs three separate hits on a champion within 3 seconds. A single Q-Q-Q does it.
- Sudden Impact adds 20–80 true damage to the first hit within 4 seconds of a dash or blink (10-second cooldown). Ashen Pursuit's blink triggers it every time.
- Sixth Sense tracks an enemy ward within 900 units on a 250-second cooldown, which helps you gank around vision.
- Ultimate Hunter gives 6 ultimate haste plus 5 per unique champion takedown, up to 31. Fewer seconds between Purgatories means more executes.
On patch 26.21, op.gg shows mid players keeping the same four Domination runes but taking Resolve as the secondary tree (Bone Plating and Revitalize) instead of Inspiration. That is the most common page, at 47% of games. Locke jungle players on op.gg lean toward Dark Harvest with Treasure Hunter, Triumph and Legend: Haste. Our view: Electrocute is the simplest keystone to learn on, and the video's choice is still sound.
One note on Magical Footwear: it gives free boots at 12 minutes (45 seconds sooner per takedown), but you can't buy boots before then. The video's build order mentions tier 2 boots early, so if you take Magical Footwear, upgrade the free boots when they arrive instead of buying your own.
Locke build and items for 26.21
The video's Locke build for jungle: start Scorchclaw Pup (the red pet) and a Health Potion, then rush Lich Bane and Sorcerer's Shoes. Shadowflame and Zhonya's Hourglass come next. Finish with whatever the game needs from Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Banshee's Veil and Stormsurge.
The op.gg 26.21 snapshot shows the best Locke build for mid is almost identical. It starts with Doran's Ring and two Health Potions (96% of games) and Flash plus Ignite. Most players go Sorcerer's Shoes (81%), with Mercury's Treads into heavy crowd control. The most common core items are Lich Bane, Shadowflame and Zhonya's Hourglass, then Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Mejai's Soulstealer or Banshee's Veil. In jungle, op.gg players use the same items with Scorchclaw Pup and Flash plus Smite.
| Item slot | Locke items | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Start (jungle) | Scorchclaw Pup + Health Potion | The red pet's final form burns and slows champions, which helps a champion with no hard CC |
| Start (mid) | Doran's Ring + 2 Health Potions | Mana and health for the early lane |
| First item | Lich Bane (2,900 gold) | After each ability, your next attack deals bonus magic damage (75% base AD + 45% AP) and gains 50% attack speed. Locke attacks after every ability. |
| Boots | Sorcerer's Shoes | Magic penetration; mid laners upgrade them to Spellslinger's Shoes when the role quest finishes |
| Second item | Shadowflame (3,200 gold) | Magic and true damage crit for 120% below 40% health, which stacks with your passive and Sudden Impact |
| Third item | Zhonya's Hourglass | 2.5 seconds of stasis after you dive, then the fight is still on |
| Late | Rabadon's, Void Staff, Banshee's Veil, Stormsurge | More damage, penetration against magic resist, or a spell shield against pick champions |
On op.gg, the version with Dark Seal before Lich Bane and Shadowflame wins more often (54–59%) than the version without it. That makes sense for a snowball assassin: Dark Seal and Mejai's Soulstealer reward getting kills.
Locke skill order and summoner spells
The video's skill order: Q at level 1, E at 2, W at 3, then max Q, then E, then W, and take Purgatory at 6, 11 and 16. op.gg shows the same order in 87% of mid games on 26.21. Riot's 26.15 notes back this up: they nerfed W partly so that maxing it second would not be the best choice.
Maxing Q lowers its cooldown from 10 to 6 seconds and raises every nail and stack. Maxing E second adds damage to both parts of the blink and dash, which the 26.21 buff made better. W rank only lowers its cooldown and raises its grey health cap.
Summoner spells: the video takes Flash and Smite for jungle. Mid players take Flash and Ignite in 89% of op.gg games, with Flash and Teleport as the safer choice into hard lanes.
Locke jungle: first clear and ganks
The video's Locke jungle plan is a full first clear. It's not the fastest clear in the game but it's not the slowest either. Keep your second Smite charge for Scuttle Crab, because you'll often fight the enemy jungler for it.
When you gank, check the three things the video names: where the wave is, what crowd control your laner has, and what escapes the enemy has. Locke has no stun or root, only slows, so gank the lanes where your teammate can lock the target down. Ashen Pursuit's blink works over walls, so use it to come from an angle the enemy hasn't warded. Your kill threat jumps once you hit level 6 and can follow with Purgatory.
Our general League of Legends jungle guide explains the 2026 pet quest, camp timers and Smite fights. For Locke specifically, keep in mind that op.gg's 45.9% jungle win rate is much lower than mid. If you want to climb on him, mid is the better role right now.
Locke mid guide: lane phase and quest
The video's short trade combo is the core of Locke mid: when you can walk up to the enemy, use W, then Q and attack, Q and attack, Q and attack. Save E to follow their dash or Flash. W's move speed gets you into range, and its attack speed makes the three attacks after each nail fast.
How to play the lane:
- Before level 6, poke with single nails and take the unused-recast refund. Go for the full three-nail trade only when the first nail hits.
- Against assassins (Katarina is a common one), hold W to take their burst instead of using it to engage.
- Against immobile mages, a blink plus three nails at level 3 is often enough to force Flash.
- Once you finish the mid role quest, Sorcerer's Shoes upgrade to Spellslinger's Shoes, and you gain 8% bonus AD and AP. That is a good moment to roam with Ashen Pursuit.
The full rules for the mid quest, wave management and roaming are in our League of Legends mid lane guide.
Mid game picks and late teamfights
The video's mid-game plan is to keep farming and look for picks. Find enemies rotating alone, kill them, and turn the kill into a dragon, Rift Herald or turret. Ashen Pursuit's reset after a takedown is what makes Locke good at this, because the first kill gives you the blink to reach the second.
In late-game teamfights, play like an assassin. Wait for the fight to start and for the enemy's crowd control to be used. Then go in on their backline, throw Purgatory over as many enemies as you can, and look for the first kill to reset E. If Purgatory kills a champion, pick up the totem when it's safe. Each soul cuts 20% of the cooldown and raises your execute threshold for the rest of the game.
skip Don't go in first. You have no hard crowd control, so if you engage, the enemy will lock you down before W can return the damage. Zhonya's Hourglass is your way out if you dive and the fight turns.
These Locke tips work for both roles: wait for the enemy to use their crowd control, land your nails, then dive. For the season-wide changes that shape every role in 2026, such as role quests, Baron at 20 minutes and permanent turret plates, see our League of Legends season changes guide.
How this guide was fact-checked
- Ability numbers (passive, Q, W, E, R values, cooldowns, ranges, interactions such as spell shields, Guardian Angel and dashing through terrain) come from the Locke page on the official League of Legends Wiki, which lists his last change as patch 26.21 and his release date as June 24, 2026.
- Patch changes come from the official patch notes for 26.13 to 26.21. We checked which section each Locke line is in, so Summoner's Rift, Arena and ARAM changes are listed separately. We found no League Classic changes or mid-patch hotfixes for Locke.
- Runes and items (Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Sixth Sense, Ultimate Hunter, Magical Footwear, Lich Bane, Shadowflame, Zhonya's Hourglass) were checked against their wiki pages.
- The video's choices (runes, build order, skill order, Flash and Smite, combos, matchups, jungle plan) are credited to 3 Minute League of Legends. We identified the matchup champions and items from the on-screen icons.
- Current stats (role split, win rates, most common runes, items, spells and counters) come from an op.gg snapshot for patch 26.21 (op.gg labels it 16.21), Emerald and above, all regions, taken on October 23, 2026. Win rates move every patch.
- Corrections to the video: the Q recast window is now 4 seconds, not the 5 seconds the video says (patch 26.14). Nail damage, W move speed, W grey health and base health have all been cut since the launch-day footage, and E's blink damage was raised in 26.21. The wiki lists Locke's role as Middle, while the video teaches him as a jungler. We cover both.
What this guide doesn't answer
- Arena and ARAM: Mayhem Locke builds. Those modes have their own augments and Locke-specific numbers; this guide is about Summoner's Rift.
- Locke top lane. Op.gg has only a small sample of top lane Locke games, too few to give a reliable build.
- A full matchup list. Locke is new, and most matchups still have small samples.
- Pro play builds. Riot said he would not be on the MSI stage, and Worlds builds can differ from solo queue.
- Skins and lore. Only the base and High Noon skins appear in the release notes; this guide is about gameplay.
- Exact numbers after 26.21. New champions are often changed patch by patch. Check the latest patch notes if you're reading this after patch 26.22.
Frequently asked
When was Locke released in League of Legends?
Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, was released in patch 26.13 and became playable on June 24, 2026. He is the only new champion of 2026 so far. Riot has changed him on Summoner's Rift in patches 26.14, 26.15 and 26.21, plus bug fixes in 26.15 and 26.16, so videos from launch week show outdated numbers.
Is Locke mid or jungle?
Locke is mainly a mid laner. The wiki lists his role as Middle, and on op.gg for patch 26.21 about 88% of his ranked games are mid, where he is tier 1 with a 50.2% win rate. Locke jungle is about 12% of games and sits at a 45.9% win rate. He can jungle with Flash, Smite and Scorchclaw Pup, but his first clear is slow and he has no hard crowd control for ganks.
What is the best Locke build?
For patch 26.21, the most common Locke build starts Doran's Ring and two Health Potions mid (Scorchclaw Pup in the jungle), then Lich Bane, Sorcerer's Shoes, Shadowflame and Zhonya's Hourglass. Late options are Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Banshee's Veil, Mejai's Soulstealer and Stormsurge. Lich Bane fits because Locke attacks after every ability, and builds with Dark Seal win more often on op.gg.
What runes should Locke take?
Take Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Sixth Sense and Ultimate Hunter. Three Ritual Nails trigger Electrocute on their own, and Ashen Pursuit's blink triggers Sudden Impact's 20-80 true damage. The video adds Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight for jungle; most mid players on 26.21 take Bone Plating and Revitalize from Resolve instead. Use two adaptive force shards and scaling health.
What is Locke's best combo?
For a short trade, throw Q three times, then W, then E on top of the target and use the empowered attack to dash past them. For an all-in after level 6, use W, then Purgatory, then Q, E into an attack, and keep alternating Q and attacks. Purgatory slows by 99% and executes marked champions below 10-12% max health, and a takedown resets E so you can chase the next target.
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