I want to have a discussion about him (as someone who is perpetually too poor to afford new champions)!
You guys have like 3 ranked games experience with him by now so you all are pro analysts right? Perfect :D
What are some key components that you guys think will keep him anchored in the support role?
Or if not, what are some of Pyke's strengths that might be able to propel him into his own lane?
What I dislike is he doesn't offer anything.
His engage comes with nothing to disengage (rakan can W in, E away), so in a 2v2 he's literally having assassin syndrome with diving carries next to supports.He can't really help his ADC out with hard poke (play pyke into a cait zyra lane, no more needs said.) as his only healing is for himself and he doesn't give shields. A lot of passive "eat it up" supports have heals,shields or damage migitation to help laning phase more, be it alistar's heal or braum's E to negate the problem or even thresh's lantern.
The big question for pyke is: are his assassin qualities worth his absolute lack of utility? Currently, I don't think so because laning will go much smoother with a rakan or alistar, if pyke gets behind he won't have any utility to save the game.
The only saving grace stopping me from calling him worthless is his Q, which can pull a pretty important target, but if you're playing him for his hook and kill setup, blitz seems more consistent to learn in the long run. His ultimate is really strong tho, but I feel like his ultimates potential when really ahead is what gates power budget everywhere else.
...but we'll give him more time. tbh i'd take removing that hp -> AD passive and just nerf his ult a little so he has to either build raw AD to be a true assassin, or he can choose to have weaker ults for the sake of diving into fights with his E.
He can make picks and add damage, but early on he lacks the damage to kill a target on his own, and his ult does grant bonus gold to other friendlies, meaning you want to be killing people with another ally if at all possible. Also, he cant jungle at all, given his passive and high early CDs.
He can potentially top lane, but he seems like hed get bullied out too easily and being isolated makes poor use of his R.
His roaming is not good, because roaming does not mean randmly disappearing from lane. When bard goes roaming to collect his chimes and maybe gank, he has his e to get off and on lane quickly, his chimes also give him ms and most importantly, he can leave heals on lane for his adc. Pyke has his w, but is still quite slow in comparison, he also leaves nothing to keep his adc alive while he is gone.
And on botlane itself, as a lot of people already point out, he is just nonsense. He is a weid thresh shen mix, with more cd and less survival chances, is he misses his dash and since he goes full assassin, it is not like he will survive getting hit by anything himself.
And once the terrible laning phase is over, all he can hope for is landing an e or ksing with his ult
I don't see him doing anything other than maybe jungle. And as a support, he's pretty terrible if your bot lane is competent. As long as you don't overextend and get caught out, he's pretty much a soraka without a heal or a Q.
EDIT: I guess he has a self heal. Meh.
