Locke's tough to learn but easy to kill as long as he doesn't reset.
Locke is one of those champions people would rather ban than learn to play against. If you do end up across from him, there are real seams in his kit, and they don't close.
Check out our top Locke counters below for more information on how to beat him!
Counter Guide
How to Beat Locke
Locke's tough to learn but easy to kill as long as he doesn't reset.
Locke reads as unbeatable the first few times you meet him, mostly because the damage arrives all at once and from a direction you weren't watching. What no amount of tuning changes is the shape of his kit: he has to commit before he can threaten you, and everything below is built on catching him inside that commitment. If you do end up across from him, there are real seams in his kit, and they don't close.
Vladimir- A way to blunt or absorb a burst of pure magic damage
- Enough mobility that Ashen Pursuit [E] can't pin you down
- The discipline to stay above Purgatory [R]'s execute threshold
Locke Overview
Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous
- He hits harder the more hurt you are. His damage scales with your missing health, so the moment you drop below full the health bar stops telling you the truth.
- Purgatory [R] executes, and sealing a champion away hands him more power for the rest of the fight. One successful all-in pays for the next.
- His engage range is much longer than the tooltip says. Ashen Pursuit [E] is a teleport followed by a dash, so 425 units is not the number to respect.
- Ritual Nails [Q] pokes from 950 range and banks the damage as marks he cashes in later on his attacks.
- Once he commits, walking away isn't on offer, because he picks up attack speed and move speed at the same moment.
Weaknesses: Where You Get In
- The mark window is only 4 seconds. Break line of sight and the banked damage expires unused.
- Soul Ignition [W] hurts him too. It damages him on activation and he only heals part of that back, so a Locke who has committed twice in a row is running on less than he looks like he is.
- He has no defensive tool at all. No shield, no invulnerability, and nothing to cancel a hard engage once he has used his dash.
- His damage is almost entirely magic, which makes an early magic resist item unusually effective against him.
- Purgatory [R] is a 120 second cooldown at rank 1 and needs you low to execute. Deny the threshold and you deny the ultimate.
Countering Locke
Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Locke comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:
- Reduce or absorb magic damage. A passive damage reduction or a well-timed shield turns the mark cash-in from a kill into a trade.
- Deny the 4 second mark window. Break line of sight, step behind minions, or force him to disengage before he can spend what he banked.
- Punish Ashen Pursuit [E]. The dash commits him to a short-range position with no escape, which is the single best moment to answer with hard crowd control.
- Stay above the execute threshold. Purgatory [R] is far less threatening against a target who simply refuses to sit at low health.
If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:
Playing a Bad Locke Matchup
Hold the wave closer to your own tower. Locke wants a long lane so the move speed from Soul Ignition [W] can run you down after the engage, and a short lane cuts that chase in half.
Back off the instant he has marks banked. The marks do nothing on their own, they only convert when he lands attacks on you, so walking away for four seconds deletes the damage entirely.
Buy Mercury's Treads earlier than feels comfortable and follow it with a magic resist item. His entire kit is magic damage, so there's no physical threat to hedge against.
Track Purgatory [R]. At rank 1 it's a 120 second cooldown, and the window while it's down is when you should be taking your plates, roaming, or forcing a fight you'd otherwise avoid.
Best Locke Counters
These three answer Locke in different ways, from out-sustaining his poke to simply making his damage type irrelevant.
Vladimir Out-sustains the Poke
Locke's whole lane is chip damage applied slowly and then cashed in. Vladimir is built to make that pattern fail, because Transfusion [Q] heals him on a short cooldown and costs no mana, so he refills faster than Ritual Nails [Q] can drain him. Every point of poke Locke lands has to be landed again, and Locke runs out of patience before Vladimir runs out of sustain.
Sanguine Pool [W] is the other half of it. It makes Vladimir untargetable for the duration, which removes the mark cash-in entirely rather than surviving it, and it slows everything above him while he's down there. Locke has to commit to a window that Vladimir can simply delete, and a Locke who commits without the cash-in landing has spent his whole kit for nothing.
Kassadin Ignores the Damage Type
Kassadin counters Locke almost by accident, because Void Stone [Passive] reduces the magic damage he takes and Locke deals essentially nothing else. The passive alone shaves a meaningful chunk off the poke, the mark cash-in, and the ultimate all at once.
Null Sphere [Q] then stacks a second layer on top, since its shield specifically absorbs magic damage and its cast interrupts channels. Once Riftwalk [R] comes online the lane inverts completely: Ashen Pursuit [E] commits Locke to a fixed position, and Kassadin is simply not there when it lands. Survive the early game and the matchup stops being close.
Diana Flips His Engage
Diana wins by punishing the moment Locke commits. Pale Cascade [W] gives her a shield right as the mark cash-in lands, and the shield gains extra strength when its third sphere detonates, which is exactly the kind of short-window mitigation that turns a burst combo into a survivable trade.
Moonfall [R] is the reversal. Locke's engage puts him at close range with no defensive tool and no second dash, so a pull that drags him in and slows him hands the all-in straight back to Diana. Lunar Rush [E] also has no cooldown against a target afflicted with Moonlight, so once Crescent Strike [Q] connects she can stick to him for the whole exchange.
Itemizing Against Locke
Locke deals magic damage almost exclusively, so magic resist is the stat that actually moves this matchup. These four are worth prioritizing:
Banshee's Veil is the standout here, since its spell shield can absorb a Ritual Nails [Q] cast outright and deny the mark before it ever lands. Kaenic Rookern gives a much larger magic shield for anyone willing to build into health, and Spirit Visage rewards champions with healing of their own.
Where Locke Actually Sits Right Now
Counter picks age with the patch, so check the current numbers before you trust a matchup:
- League of Legends Solo Queue Tier List, updated every patch
- Tier List Changelog, for what moved and why
- FOTM Report: Locke Mid, for the build he's running against you
- How to Beat or Counter Series, for every other matchup guide
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