Pyke Comparison to Blitzcrank / Another Water Champion
With Pyke, we now have only 5 water champions (unless I am forgetting someone) with: Fizz (fish) Nami (mermaid) Nautilus (diver) Tahm Kench (catfish or frog, technically he is a catfish) Pyke (shark)
Four of which are all support champions! Just something I want to point out that water must mean 80% chance for it to be a support champion (unless I am forgetting another water champion, skins do not count, Zac is made of goo and not water), no other reason for pointing this out, just thought it was interesting.
The other part to this is showcasing Pyke's power budget with a similar ability kit (Blitzcrank) to showcase that Pyke does not have some overpowered or overtuned kit, number balancing is a separate thing.
Passive - Defensive steroid
Q - Hook ability
W - Self movement speed buff
E - Hard crowd control / lock down
R - Damage ultimate with a supportive utility (one gives gold, the other silences)
For his ultimate gold sharing, he changes total kill gold from 450g to 600g (so 33% more gold, not 100% more gold) when he executes a target champion with his ultimate. It is an ultimate version of Relic Shield, farming champions instead of minions! (Sorry for the bad pun...)
Gangplank's Q gives SIGNIFICANTLY more gold than Pyke's ultimate's last hitting reward mechanic, even in extreme kill scenarios because it is a lot more consistent farming a little bit of bonus gold from minions than gaining a champion kill where you need to last hit it with your ultimate for.
Also Blitzcrank has more attack damage steroids between his W's attack speed and E's double attack damage, if AD blitz sucks then Pyke will be significantly worse at it. Impressed by Pyke's skill expression by the way (skill expression is showcasing different ways to play the champion, not whether the champion requires a ton of skill to play or not) with choosing between using W to get into range for your hook into stun for the kill, or using your dash and stun and then hook to peel the target away and using W to re-group with your team with the stealth and movement speed - his passive is great for this harass combo as well, which is what you want your support to do to allow your duo-laner to safely harm up.
Also do not jungle Pyke, hook abilities have very long cooldowns and it is his only damage spell so his clears will be terrible (again, Blitzcrank has more tools to clear the jungle and sucks at it) and no way to heal since his passive is champion damage only for the grey health. Play him as a support, he has a very strong support kit and requires having a teammate(s) nearby to maximize its power.
