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For a champion that is an assassin and is all about big risk high reward, Pyke is pretty safe

WrÆth·12/25/2018, 3:35:17 AM·92 votes·19,091 views

I mean, just think about. Literally every other assassin in the game has to snowball (which is admittedly very easy in this meta) to get things going, but Pyke just mitigates this entirely. He barely needs an item to function, is still incredibly useful when behind, can solo carry games when ahead, and is an absolute fucking nightmare to lane against. Like seriously. I can't name a single other champion in this game that can MISS HOOK, run INTO YOUR MINION WAVE, press E and STILL end up winning the trade. And by some fucking miracle if he doesn't, than he just runs away for like 5 seconds and half the damage he just took is gone. What even. I thought the one thing that was supposed to balance assassin was that they needed gold to function, but Pyke is literally designed to function on low econ. I guess if anything I just want him to be punished more for missing hook at the very least. Like he shouldn't still be so threatening if he misses his main pick tool, but he just is because E is such a scary engage tool.

66 Comments

Lemonfaace12/25/2018, 4:21:52 AM53 votes

Agreed. Pyke is barely punishable, and is way too slippery and healthy to take down. You have the duration of his Q cd to take him, and that’s hard to do when he can stealth-regen just a couple feet away with W. It’s incredibly frustrating, and even if he’s late to a battle, he can just spam ult to clean up and instantly feed his allies. Incredibly annoying design.

2Charmnot2Charm12/25/2018, 6:32:27 AM16 votes

I really hate that it's pointless following him after he dashes, because of the stupid stun that follows behind him right after.

Hayaishi212/25/2018, 6:15:59 PM10 votes

Every assassin in this game is safe as fuck. The class is simply braindead.

IP Masquerena12/25/2018, 8:29:20 AM8 votes

You misspelled Zed in the title.

As for Pyke, right now his issue might be the numbers being a bit overtoned, but that's easily fixed if necesarely, afterall, Riot did start to nerf him because he was too good in other lanes, so if that still persists, he will get another nerf, and it's surprising to see an AD champ take direct nerfs and is not Kalista.

Kaisha12/25/2018, 7:01:18 PM5 votes

When were assassins ever high risk?

Zeyphel12/25/2018, 5:59:16 PM5 votes

You might as well get used to it because now many assasins are "Low Risk, High Reward."

It is not just Pyke, a lot more Assasins also lost their original concept of High Risk, High Reward.

Sad, but true. Smash the keyboard, get kills, return safely as nothing happened.

SociaI Justice12/25/2018, 2:43:16 PM3 votes

Literally every other assassin in the game has to snowball

omegalul

well you're right about pyke being broken and overly safe but its not because of the reasons you stated nor should be ever win the trade by Eing through your minionwave with q on cd.

sobi99912/25/2018, 5:39:36 PM3 votes

He doesn't need to win lane, he needs to get that one successful ult in team fights and then proceed on ulting. Yet another bad design, but as long as he is fun, i guess there is no point in bring this up, right?

ÈvilMorty12/25/2018, 9:18:54 PM2 votes

I really think pyke shouldnt start off with more base armor then most tanks and that he hwals for way too dam much. Reduce both of those by about 25% and its a good start

Janakin12/25/2018, 5:10:47 PM2 votes

He is definitely not a solo carry champion.

Danksley12/25/2018, 11:54:27 PM2 votes

Getting basically all of his HP back every time he runs out, misses hook, and gets chunked is dumb.

Akali Prime12/26/2018, 3:11:11 AM2 votes

Waaaaaat? I thought the boards loved pyke and thought he was a healthly example of an assassin? What happened?????

rayzo12/26/2018, 3:36:34 AM2 votes

I never play botlane for this exact reason. I only have one ban. I can't ban Ezreal Kaisa Lucian Pyke Thresh Blitzcrank Twitch Zilean Zyra all in the same game.

Daddy Ants12/25/2018, 6:23:40 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Pyke is literally designed to function on low econ.

Supports haven't been "low econ" for a long time.

saltran12/25/2018, 9:28:32 PM1 votes

Agree, Pyke mistakes should be more punished, his E cd should be longer.

Dr Dog12/25/2018, 11:44:44 PM1 votes

i think his hp should only regen in bushes when theres no vision on him, his w and passive in general shouldnt interact

TwinkiePro12/27/2018, 12:42:27 AM1 votes

I'm 90% certain his passive was designed so he would actually die rather than building full tank.

TrapsYummy12/27/2018, 4:11:17 AM1 votes

Every assassin is safe.

LuluInWonderland12/31/2018, 8:49:38 PM1 votes

I have 2 issues:

  1. Stacked kit What can't he do? He's not the best at anything, but his kit has even more options than Ekko...which took forever to get balanced. Hard CC Soft CC Stealth Dash Resetable execute Damage Regen

  2. The amount of regen. He can kill somebody then just recover. He can run away then just recover. He can trade then recover. All of this while building no recovery items or ls. This makes him too durable.

All of the above leaves little counterplay except to basically CC & burst him. You can't poke him out due to sustain. It's difficult to all-in him given his dash/stun/stealth combo. You're stuck relying on their mistakes, not your opportunities. That's not a fun way to play the game.

My fear is the only solution without changing his kit is to overtune nerfs. Then he just becomes fairly useless since he still isn't a master of anything. The real fix - IMO - is changing some parts of the kit...providing more options for counterplay. This could be compensated with some buffs to other parts of the kit.

Maybe he shouldn't regen? Maybe he shouldn't get ult resets (although I can't imagine Rito doing this)? Maybe he should be easier to lock down/catch (i.e. make his dash only accessible after his hook catches, so he can't just use it to escape damage & regen)?

I don't have a hard answer, but I would love to see something considered other than just number changes. Numbers aren't his issue.

Rabbi Shekelberg12/26/2018, 6:52:45 AM1 votes

Chasing pyke as a melee champion when he uses his E is impossible. also base lv 18 130 armor

Nea10412/26/2018, 12:22:26 PM1 votes

He is an abomination, and it was evident since the beginning. Failing, escaping, back full HP, 500+ true damage...

His creator said: "Chasing the possibility of a pentakill on a support is awesome". He didn't get fired, Pyke hasn't been deleted, and we all know how Season 8 has been. Season 9 isn't gonna be any better.

Dorans Pants12/26/2018, 12:32:43 PM1 votes

Assassin

high risk

pick one

Tobykachu12/26/2018, 1:37:52 PM1 votes

What truly baffles me is how Pyke is able to instantly enter camouflage when he presses w, whilst every other iteration of the spell i.e. Twitch Q and Rengar ultimate, need to wait for a little bit before doing so or have to be out of combat entirely, like Evelynn. It is especially infuriating when he then proceeds to regenerate a huge portion of health for doing so.

shockprimex12/25/2018, 7:32:23 PM1 votes

BuT ZeD Is tHe SaFeST AssASiN

TisBis12/25/2018, 7:55:30 PM1 votes

I never feel like Zed is taking a high risk when ulting me and blinking away?

Hawthorn Tree12/25/2018, 8:37:02 PM1 votes

...tbh as an assassin main, fighting Pyke with other assassins is pretty annoying. The guy uses Aftershock really well, has infinite sustain, and is also mad good at disengaging. The whole concept of his dash stunning things BEHIND him is pretty stupid imo, and it makes the spell super easy to use defensively and super hard to use as an offensive asset. Assassins, by definition, should only be diving and killing.