Why does Riot not like tank Pyke?

Ukobarrywewa·11/8/2018, 3:04:06 AM·3 votes·2,129 views

Patch 8.22 just landed, and I was a bit confused by the changes made to Pyke. I understand earlier in the season, when Riot nerfed tank Pyke because it was oppressive, but these changes are... different. Particularly, I'm confused as to the lethality scaling on him, since it completely changes how he has to build.

Previously, Pyke could build tanky items like item 3109 and item 3065 if he wanted to provide utility for his team and sacrifice his damage. Or he could build item 3147 and item 3071 to instantly explode as soon as he stepped within 50 feet of a teamfight.

Now, his E stun duration and W movement speed scale on lethality and NOT on rank like they did before. This essentially guts a huge amount of the built-in utility that Pyke had before, so NOW if you want to be useful, the best way is to take those lethality items (and still take aftershock so you can survive at least a little bit). Sure, you CAN take those tank items if you want, but your map rotation will take much longer and you won't be as useful in teamfights. It would be a fair trade, if it weren't for the fact that lethality Pyke is now INSANELY good. Build item 3147 and item 3142 and you can dash across the map almost as fast as a teleport. On top of that, you can deal insane damage, have your stun last nearly 2 seconds, and execute enemies at a much higher threshold.

I'm a filthy Pyke main, and it probably sounds odd for me to be complaining about my favorite champion being OP, but my real problem is that the build path is so boring now. I don't have to think about whether to focus armor or magic resist; I don't need to think about which items I should build to get my team the most utility possible (you know, like a support). Instead, now I just pick up item 3147 item 3142 , item 3071 if I'm feeling really spicy, and finish it off with item 3814. No real thought at all.

5 Comments

MagicFlyingLlama11/8/2018, 3:05:18 AM4 votes

Tank Pyke annoys everyone, even Pyke.

Sett a trap11/8/2018, 3:16:35 AM4 votes

they never liked tank assassins. Ever.

Ahpe11/8/2018, 3:16:01 AM2 votes

Because of his passive. If he builds tank he'll just be getting AD anyway and his passive can heal him up to 800% of his AD at a cap of 60% of his maximum health.

The Ecdysiast11/8/2018, 3:15:43 AM1 votes

Because he isn't supposed to be a tank. Why do you think he even has the health converting passive in the first place?

That said, the faults that resulted in him being built tank are in his very concept. An assassin "support" just doesn't fit into the three subclasses of support. You don't just take Rengar to bot lane and expect to win, because the damage dealers fit for supportive roles are the ones with very long range that can provide auxiliary fire and poke from safety. A melee assassin by definition can't do that. But they somehow thought it was a good idea.

What really needs to happen is his gold share on his ultimate be removed, and his stats adjusted so he's more fit for the jungle.

Tormentula11/8/2018, 5:02:23 AM1 votes

Because assassin pyke which is riskier and rewards snowball better wasn't being played over tank pyke who did similar damage with aftershock, he could just do a full utility build that enabled him to engage risk free (enemies don't melt you thanks to attack speed slow on frozen heart, and the stats from heart + aftershock).

Tank pyke was basically doing everything assassin pyke would do but easier.