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How to play as Pyke, League of Legends’ newest support
We take a close look at Pyke, League’s latest addition, and how to play him in the current chaotic meta.
League of Legends has been completely turned upside down. The bot lane has been transformed, and bruisers are turning up left and right, replacing the archetype AD Carry role. But forget the state of the game for a second – there’s a new addition to the Rift and he could shake things up.
Pyke, The Bloodharbor Ripper, has joined the fray with patch 8.11, and he’s as edgy as he sounds, giving Thresh a run for his money in the style department. That said, he carries an exciting and new dynamic to the meta. He’s an assassin champion, but fits comfortably into the role of support, making him a unique and potentially valuable asset to the bot lane. Check out his teaser video below:
He’s especially useful in an era of such disarray. Although he does indeed have the possibility to fit in the top lane, or even in the jungle, his kit is fine-tuned and ideal as a means of support.
With the newest champion on the Rift now available, lets get stuck in: Here’s our take on Pyke and how you can play him. We’ll run through his abilities, his playstyle, as well as how he may be built, and what runes work the best for him on the Rift.
Abilities
A visual representation of Pyke’s abilities
© Riot Games
Passive: Gift of the Drowned Ones
Pyke’s passive ability persuades him into building Attack Damage. He gains one bonus attack damage per 14 bonus health. Similarly to Tahm Kench’s E ability, Pyke additionally stores 30 to 81 percent (based on level) of the damage he takes from enemy champions as Grey Health on his health bar.
This translates to about half of Tahm Kench’s potential shield, and can be easily be used effectively, combined with Pyke’s Ghostwater Dive ability.
Q: Bone Skewer
Pyke’s Q is the ideal ability to level and max first. It has two modes of use: When tapped, Bone Skewer stabs all enemies in front of Pyke dealing physical damage, and when held down, Pyke throws his harpoon, pulling the first enemy towards him, as well as dealing damage. Targets are slowed by 90 percent for a single second.
Pyke’s harpoon will pull its target at a fixed distance; therefore an enemy at close range will be flung behind him, similarly to Singed.
W: Ghostwater Dive
Pyke goes all stealthy and enters camouflage when activated, allowing him to move unseen, with a decaying moment speed over five seconds. Enemies are notified if Pyke is close to them, however. The camouflage is cancelled when Pyke attacks, or casts an ability, meaning you’ll need to identify when’s best to use this.
E: Phantom Undertow
Pyke’s E is a dash that bites. At maxed rank, it deals 235 base damage, plus an additional 80 percent bonus AD, giving Pyke an impactful and sufficient punch. Pyke dashes, leaving behind a drowned phantom. And after a second, the phantom returns, dealing physical damage and stunning enemy champions that pass through it, similar to a Jarvan IV flag and drag.
The ability styles Pyke into a support with real threat, combined with the rest of his skill set.
R (Ultimate): Death From Below
X marks the spot for Pyke’s ultimate ability. Pyke blinks away and strikes in an x-shaped area, executing enemies below 190 – 655 health (based on level) (+60 percent bonus AD), while additionally dealing the same amount of physical damage to nearby enemies, not within the execution range.
If Death from Below hits an enemy champion, Pyke will immediately dash towards them. If the enemy is executed, the ability becomes re-castable for a few seconds, allowing Pyke to Darius-esque chain kill with it – making this a terrifying ult of which to be on the receiving end.
An alternate skin for Pyke
© Riot Games
Items
Pyke combines his assassin capabilities effectively with his role as a support. Ideally, he’d build straight into AD, similar to Zed in the mid lane, in order to hit his damage spike, but he doesn’t really have the option to do that in his position. Pyke needs to first build support-centric items, allowing him to stay relevant in the laning phase of the game.
In the early stages of the game, he still has the playmaking potential to go for kills, allowing him to quickly build into his beloved AD. In a passive situation, it may be difficult to perform without a much-needed gank from his jungler.
Items, with almost every champion, become situational past the first few core items. This is the case especially with a support champion. Their job, as obvious as it sounds, is to support. This usually involves building to protect their AD Carry, or countering particular champions on the enemy team. In the case of Pyke, it’s quite similar, but he, more than others, should aim to build aggressively.
The Relic Shield is the perfect opener, allowing Pyke to utilise his passive, building the item into Remnant of the Aspect, converting the bonus health into AD. It’s cheap, reliant, tanky, and in his case, damage orientated.
This can be closely followed by boots, predominantly favouring Boots of Mobility for the extra added pick potential, or alternatively, in some situations, Mercury’s Treads, versus a crowd-control-heavy team, or even possibly Ninja Tabi, versus a strong line-up of AD based champions. The build can then go straight into Attack Damage and cooldown reduction. His key abilities are far from short on cooldown, so the extra reduction will be extremely useful.
The Black Cleaver and Duskblade of Draktharr fit perfectly into Pyke’s ideal path. They both come paired with high attack damage, with the Cleaver translating its bonus HP into an additional 28 attack damage. As well as their effective stats, their passives provide incredible synergy with Pyke. When combined together, that’s an additional 123 AD and 30 percent cooldown reduction. The Black Cleaver’s unique passive is particularly vital, reducing enemies armour to a maximum of 24 percent, allowing for Pyke’s potentially bruiser, armour-heavy, opponent, to be chunked down with ease. Duskblade provides that extra edge needed in order for Pyke to become a lone threat, balancing his stats nicely together, focused on dealing sizable burst damage.
The later stages of the game give Pyke the option to mix and match, depending on the particular scenario. Ideally, he’d like to build into a more damage-based build, with items such as Youmuu’s Ghostblade, or Lord Dominiki’s Regards, again, adding extra AD and cooldown reduction, but it’s more than likely that Pyke will build into something more defensive. He may wish to buy a Zeke’s Convergence, a Knight’s Vow, or a Redemption, all in aid of protecting his comrades.
Runes
Pyke’s skillset revolves around crowd control and dealing burst damage, and he has the ability to pick off and assassinate enemy champions. He does have a few options when it comes to runes, but they are usually generally stagnant.
Pyke synergises well with the Resolve tree. Aftershock gives Pyke’s Phantom Undertow extra oomph, providing it with even more burst damage and some needed sustain. Bone Plating, again, gives Pyke the ability to be more aggressive. He can take the brunt of the damage and back off or stay alive in the fight, allowing him to also trade well.
An ideal rune page for Pyke
© Lolking / Riot Games
Second Wind or Chrysalis can be taken, depending on preference. Both provide useful bonuses. Second Wind allows Pyke to be generally more aggressive in the laning phase, permitting him to trade more effectively, regaining missing HP over time, if chunked down by his opponent. It will also work well in the later stages of the game, where both teams are gradually poking away at each other. Alternatively, Chrysalis provides Pyke with an overall boost to his stats, translating the extra bonus HP into a small injection of AD, as well as ramping up in later stages of the game, when combined with four takedowns.
Then Unflinching would be a useful final rune, giving Pyke the ability to resist resistance, allowing him to engage more readily, without being crowd controlled for an extended period.
The Inspiration tree is then advised. The extra +130 health synergises nicely with Pyke’s passive. A number of utility-based runes can be chosen, again, depending on preference. This may include Biscuit Delivery, for extra laning-phase sustain, Cosmic insight for increased cooldown reduction, or even Approach Velocity, against an AP-heavy enemy team. Alternatively, the second Domination tree can be used for extra takedown bonuses, true damage, or pick potential – the choice is yours.
