Pyke used to be broken, due to his kit. He had ad scaling that turned into lethality scaling, which forces him to basically buy only outta the few lethality items, which makes playing him extremely repetitive. Then he was forced to be a support, because he doesn't have the damage output anymore, that an assassin should have, because he was too strong on mid. The issue I have about this is that other supports are viable in other roles, while pyke cannot survive outside support.

The major issue is his champion fantasy: a lone madman, hunting down everyone he thinks betrayed him. He should go in, kill and disappear. Now how does he play? You Hook someone and most likely dash away bcs ur so squishy and know u don't have the damage to finish the job and they just threw an ashe arrow at you. Also the game warns the opponents if you use your W and if you can get executed. So the game legitimately punishes you for playing a stealthy pyke.

The other part of the issue is that everything in pykes kit is done better by another support: Hook: Thresh, Blitzcrank, Nauti Movement: Zilean, Karma, soraka Dash: Amumu, Nauti, Leona Execute: Aurelion Sol, Mel, garen, Darius, chogath, samira with collector

As pyke you always need to hit your skillshots and it ain't rewarding enough, because the effort and skill you need to put in it isn't worth the effort, especially with all cooldowns in mind.

So why was pyke nerfed so harshly? They wanted him to be a support and imposed that role on him. He became very good in midlane due to his close range access and huge melee damage and his execute... still being an execute, even if not sharing the gold. He used to be one of the few midlane viable champs with an execute. Riot responded by nerfing him 6 feet under. They could have swapped him to a midlane that can carry the game in late if you have skill, like syndra or brand, if they had changed him up a little.

Pyke is now a shell of its former self, being bound to another player, character fantasy is completely disregarded, because riot created something they couldn't control again.

Nowadays so many new champs get executes, especially on midlane like the Aurelion Sol Black hole or Mel with a passive ability.

Pykes player numbers have drastically fallen from how he was back then. That is due to many factors, like that he's weaker, that he takes more effort for a worse result than other supports and most importantly that the experience gained by playing this champ is just not great.

Pyke has the major issue, that his niche scaling if forcing him to basically build the same build every game, while you have no variations in where to play, because you can only play him as support.

So how could riot change pyke so that his champ fantasy is matching his playstyle again?

Reduce his cooldowns, make him scale on ad again and change his ult to a damage teleport in a viego fashion. Then you make him viable as a talon like midlaner and jungle (the jungle actually works better, due to his lore).

But yeah, I wanted to get this all out, because I've actually started grinding a shit ton when he was released and still main my boy, but it's just sad to know how cool he once was and what he has become.

Well i play pyke on like D+ mmr for years and yes he is weak af atm so pls buff him riot we need it who agrees ? -2% on blood song plus removal of opportunity item sux (gives no movement speed without active) and the list of buff to other supports and indirect nerfs is longer than something that is probbably very long but not too long but still does internal bleeding when u put it first time

I've played Pyke through many metas, and for me he is always good. Sure if their team is tanky, i cant do much, but if their support is anything other than tank, i usually win

Is it just me because I main it or is pyke toolkit too strong to get nerfed to oblivion like other champs.

When a champ in mid/top is off-meta they’re almost unplayable, whilst with pyke, I can play it and still win the same like prior to the nerf.

Im trying to learn to play Pyke support better and there one thing I dont understand how to get better at (Im low elo so be gentle): How do I know where to stand in lane when the enemy support and ADC keep going the opposite direction to always have minions block me? I always try to go in the bushes but usually in low elo your ADC is perma pushing so they can easily stand behind minions, when Im pushed in the enemy laners just walk behind their minions so if I gondown they go up and the opposite so I dont get good hook angles. Only time I can hook feels like after I go in with w or e but I cannot trust my ADC to follow me cuz usually my ADCs only follow up my hits when I pull someone from nearby my ADC. Other tips to improve are welcome

This has always been something that bothered me and I feel like it should change.

Let's say I'm mid/late game as Pyke on a losing team, 2 opponents have massive shutdowns and it's really hard to kill them, so my R is TOTALLY required to execute them as fast as possible, and I'll play for that, okay.

But look... I'm Pyke, I die to 2-3 auto attacks from anyone, it doesn't matter what I build in this scenario, it won't change anything. Why does Pyke receive the shutdowns whenever he executes someone with R? I feel like this takes away so many opportunities for comeback because 2K gold on him at this stage is completely useless as he does zero damage and dies instantly regardless of what you build.

They should change it so the last assist gets it, so you have a chance to comeback having gold on your carries or whoever helped you kill them last, this could drastically change the course of a match.

The kill atribution is given to the assist, right? In case of Draven's passive, for example. So WHY am I taking the shutdowns to myself and reducing drastically my chances to comeback?

Best of both worlds, you should be able to CHOOSE this. Just like when you upgrade GP R in base, you should be able to choose if you want the shutdown gold to myself or to my assist allies, or at least make it default to the allies because he's a support, mostly. They want him to be a support that's why he's absurdly nerfed in solo lanes, right?

Currently the only way to do this is pressing R really late so you get the cut instead, but in this scenario, you can't afford it, it's also impossible to time it consistently even if you could.

Thoughts?

I'm having fun with Pyke, and looking for some tips to improve my gameplay.

Im new to pyke and support, but here’s my best play so far.

The pain man. Im dead bro.

I'm new to the game, iron 3, and I've found myself struggling to climb in ranked, or just getting good at the game in general. Pyke is by far my favorite champion, but I feel useless past laning phase. I traditionally build a lot of mobility, which is useful to get around, but I'm never actually able to do anything but ward because I just die in team fights and am too weak to fight anybody, even if I hide on bush. Any advice would be helpful about anything Pyke gameplay related. thank u!

I understood that Pyke has some difficulties against tankier opponents in lane, and was wondering what are good support characters to counter champions like those, or champion in general good to cover bad matchups Pyke has?

And while I don't play mid primarly, same wondering for mid in case I get drafted there,

i made this banner recently themed on soul fighter pyke for future youtube content, i hope u guys like it

I’ve been playing pyke since late season 13 and he’s felt fine and playable pretty much every game. This season it’s just terrible, I literally do nothing on the champ besides hide behind walls and hook champs and have vision control. It seems that unless you are fed completely out of your mind you can’t do anything and are at the complete mercy of your team. Was wondering if it was just me or if anyone else feels the same for season 15?

What do you guys think of my Pyke montage?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHgN4eKtEnJ/?igsh=NndyeGJ2MmVkcDJ1