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Is there a downside to supporting Pyke instead?

Lafirenze·5/15/2018, 7:49:28 AM·4 votes·3,351 views

If Pyke's main strength is killing things and his main drawback is that he can't take a hit, wouldn't pairing him up with another support be more optimal than having him support an ADC? It would also mean the support would have their assists be counted as kills during his ultimate, so it seems win-win.

To take a practical example, I'll use Lulu since I main her.

She can use Help Pix to give Pyke a good amount of damage shielding as he engages with bone skewer, and then follow it up with a glitterlance blasted from Pix for a second slow after Pyke's has worn off, allowing him to use phantom undertow to finish the job.

She can use Whimsy to help him escape after he's used his own movement abilities to engage, or use Polymorph to neutralize one of the bottom duo for the few seconds Pyke needs to kill the other.

After he pulls an enemy in with the bone harpoon, she can Giant Growth him to knock them up to give him a chance to assassinate them without fear of retaliation.

And let's not forget that Giant Growth also gives Pyke 300/450/600 (+50% of Lulu's Ability Power) bonus health, which Pyke converts into Attack Damage. I'm not sure what the conversion ratio is going to be, but that certainly sounds like it will work out to be a whole heck of a lot of extra damage for the quick burst an assassin needs (not to mention that it creates a backdoor for Lulu to convert half of her own Ability Power into attack damage, which is pretty nifty).

With all of those benefits, I'm not sure why pairing Pyke with an ADC would be a better combo.

22 Comments

Late For Tea5/15/2018, 5:45:24 PM4 votes

He is a squishy melee champion and will heavily get bullied if he tries to cs. It's one of the primary reasons you don't see any melee ADCs botlane. He probably also doesn't have enough damage to substitute for an ADC. Having that much damage on a support would be broken.

Baval5/15/2018, 8:07:01 AM2 votes

Youre trading a fed support for an adc. not a good trade.

Automated Riven5/15/2018, 7:52:59 AM2 votes

He likely will be balanced by not having enough damage to kill a target without the adc's help. That way he won't end up in lanes he isn't supposed too.

OurLestrade5/15/2018, 7:59:28 AM1 votes

He could encourage the return of kill lanes for better or worse. I didn't miss going against Jax/Pantheon bot lanes as an immobile ADC :P

Malfectious5/15/2018, 6:30:17 PM1 votes

Pyke with an on hit Bard bot lane ftw

FridgesArePpl25/15/2018, 6:41:35 PM1 votes

how would you farm with Pyke against a ranged champion?

MorganFreemanBot5/16/2018, 1:05:54 AM1 votes

Riot said that his base damages and scalings will be unimpressive, which in real-world lingo means he'll fall off like a rock even faster than most assassins.

Beyond that, he looks to be an assassin who can go 'in', but has pretty much 0 ways of getting out. His kit also looks like it doesn't have much damage combo potential, given the CC he brings.