Pyke was fine, and then...

Zero Shingetsu··40 votes·14,196 views

I just had a Pyke whiff on his ult. Hit it too late and hit nothing because I died just before it landed. Two seconds later he hits our Akali with the ult and kills her, and the streak starts. Four seconds after that, we're aced under our own turret and he walks off unscathed.

This isn't fun. It's not fun to play and it's definitely not fun to play against. Pyke had a kit that really sang to me as a support main, and then they overtuned his ult and he became Captain Easymode. No champion should be rewarded for a mistake. If your ultimate is that powerful and you entirely miss because you hit it too late, you should not be rewarded for that with a free executions. Worse, they had a Darius too. There was literally nothing we could do, not even with a tanky Pantheon and a Nasus. Even if I E'd Darius's ult, Pyke would just get me with his. This game is disgusting and the balance lead should be ashamed of him or herself for allowing this off the production floor.

55 Comments

GilxeN28 votes

Whole champ pool from 2017 Zoe and above champs releases are disgustingly broken and unfun to play against.

SleepyŹoe2 votes

lets shift that after zoe, she at least takes a decent amount of skill vs literally anything after her release. yes she is annoying when you get 1 shot, but she needs to land things in order for it to happen [slayer-jinx-unamused]

OHminus1 votes

Or she can just rng pick up an ignite and chunk me to 50 percent hp with just ignite and w enhanced autos

SleepyŹoe2 votes

%75 hp is more accurate, those orbs got nerfed to hell so you are looking at losing %25 of your hp if she did that.

OHminus1 votes

Let's do the math. Consider a level 6 zoe with item 1056 item 3802 + 18 adaptive force (so 18 ap) from runes, totaling 15 + 40 + 18 = 73 ap. She is against, say, a level 6 Ziggs, who has 899.4 hp at level 6, + 60 hp from d-ring + 36.5 hp from runes -> 997 hp

Zoe gets ignite from an rng minion. Zoe R's in, procs passive, dealing 36 + .2(73) = 51 bonus magic damage + 71 attack damage. Ziggs has 35 armor and 32 mr at level 6, so this constitutes 71 x 100/(100+35) = 53 physical damage + 51 x 100/132 = 39 magic damage for a total of 92 damage. Zoe then ignites, dealing 170 true damage over 5 seconds. Zoe then gets her spell thief w proc, dealing 75 + .4(73) damage before mitigation and 79 damage after mitigation. The total damage is 341. 341 is over 1/3 of 997 hp, and this is all in the span of 1 second.

Yea, I'd say that's still pretty bullshit.

BrokenRayquaza2 votes

Except ignite and w damage don't happen all at once. I'm good with the math but saying she's does that much with those two skills in 1 second is bull

SleepyŹoe1 votes

This isn't factoring in the idea of MR runes, as well as if he picked up early MR to the matchup. more people run resistance runes into their lane (with some mids taking HP, but that's rare imo)

Also those orbs have a travel time, and this happens over the course of 2-3 seconds depending if she continues to send them out or not. so no, the damage you did math for doesn't add up in a realistic setup, maybe if you're using practice tool on a target dummy maybe.

Not bullshit by any means, if you're allowing yourself as ziggs to be approached by a zoe to be ignited and have all 3 orbs hit you, then you just deserve that for playing like an idiot.

OHminus1 votes

Be approached? She has an ability that blinks her to a target location and back, in which she can throw out E or ignite + W.

SleepyŹoe1 votes

she's rooted for that duration and can be easily punished for using it, you can dodge the E, and again, ignite W doesn't do a lot of damage anymore, especially early ranks. you act like we max that first before Q or something.

Chalze11 votes

I just don't understand so many things about his R. It shouldn't be allowed to have so many things at once. From what I can tell, it has: AoE damage True damage Resets on kills Resets on mistimed kills??????? Blink Have no cost after resets Have a staggering 20 seconds of reset time Give so much gold

If anything, none of these should have as high numbers or even be a thing. Darius' execute for instance is only single target. Why should Pyke's be AoE AND have all those other bonuses? Darius even needs to hit a few autos before even coming close to Pyke's execute threshold.

There are several bottom lines I think just should not be a thing. The most glaring one is mistiming his ults. He should not get a reset if he mistimes it. Furthermore, since it literally has the potential of chain-executing an entire team, it shouldn't cost nothing after the first cast. If anything, it should cost something like 100, 75, 50, 25, 0 mana. In order to execute an entire team he needs at least 250 mana instead of just 100. Certain champions can do so much less with the same amount of mana.

ImTheJuggernauty1 votes

{quoted}

I just don't understand so many things about his R. It shouldn't be allowed to have so many things at once. From what I can tell, it has: AoE damage True damage Resets on kills Resets on mistimed kills??????? Blink Have no cost after resets Have a staggering 20 seconds of reset time Give so much gold

If anything, none of these should have as high numbers or even be a thing. Darius' execute for instance is only single target. Why should Pyke's be AoE AND have all those other bonuses? Darius even needs to hit a few autos before even coming close to Pyke's execute threshold.

There are several bottom lines I think just should not be a thing. The most glaring one is mistiming his ults. He should not get a reset if he mistimes it. Furthermore, since it literally has the potential of chain-executing an entire team, it shouldn't cost nothing after the first cast. If anything, it should cost something like 100, 75, 50, 25, 0 mana. In order to execute an entire team he needs at least 250 mana instead of just 100. Certain champions can do so much less with the same amount of mana.

Don't forget, unlike darius, pyke has a training wheels execute threshold indicator because pyke players need Riot to hold their hands. Don't forget also that, pyke can literally ult the same opponent multiple times to GET them into execute threshold, which isn't hard really. He just needs to execute one or more teammates nearby, and pyke could easily do you for 1.5-2.5k damage over that course.

Chalze1 votes

{quoted}

Don't forget, unlike darius, pyke has a training wheels execute threshold indicator because pyke players need Riot to hold their hands. Don't forget also that, pyke can literally ult the same opponent multiple times to GET them into execute threshold, which isn't hard really. He just needs to execute one or more teammates nearby, and pyke could easily do you for 1.5-2.5k damage over that course.

It shouldn't deal 50% of its damage in physical if it can be applied again and again. I'd say a fair amount would be around 25% to 30% as physical damage.

ImTheJuggernauty1 votes

{quoted}

It shouldn't deal 50% of its damage in physical if it can be applied again and again. I'd say a fair amount would be around 25% to 30% as physical damage.

I think that would be a fair nerf since it's otherwise such an impactful ability

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

Exactly this. I hate Darius. Always have, always will. But you can counterplay Darius if you're cautious. Once Pyke gets into teamfights, there's no counterplay. You can't hard CC what you can't see. If you don't hard CC, he does everything that makes Darius dangerous in teamfights, only better. AoE stun, higher mobility, longer range on his pull... And then his ult has all those things you mention. It's fairly ridiculous.

RebeccaUCuber7 votes

in my opinion pyke was never fine. He just shouldn't exist at all.

ImTheJuggernauty3 votes

{quoted}

in my opinion pyke was never fine. He just shouldn't exist at all.

Agreed, the champ is a toxic waste of a design. Never should have made an "assassin support." As I recall, Riot had already made the support role much more popular than it used to be, even without pyke. It's one thing to have a support with high mechanical skill or high damage or whatever, but he basically breaks the rules of fairness in this game.

Karunamon6 votes

I get the feeling that Pyke is going to be the Yasuo of botlane. Annoying, extremely forgiving kit that feels like bullshit to play against even when winning, no changes are forthcoming.

Zero Shingetsu2 votes

{quoted}

I get the feeling that Pyke is going to be the Yasuo of botlane. Annoying, extremely forgiving kit that feels like bullshit to play against even when winning, no changes are forthcoming.

Probably so, and what's especially frustrating about it as a long-time support main is that Pyke isn't supporting. Pyke CAN support with his core kit, but more often, Pyke chases kills and gets them. A support should be able to turn fights with one or two well-timed AOEs later on, yes. They should not be able to single-handedly walk through entire enemy teams on a regular basis. I see so many Pykes running Flash/Ignite and building pure damage that it nearly makes me sick. What are they doing to my beloved support role with champions like this?

LightswornLance3 votes

Is this sarcastic? Every single support runs flash ignite, and plenty of them build full AP, pyke builds full lethality because of scaling with his ultimate, and duskblade offers pretty good ward clear to the team. Not every support needs to be a healbot.

Zero Shingetsu2 votes

{quoted}

Is this sarcastic? Every single support runs flash ignite, and plenty of them build full AP, pyke builds full lethality because of scaling with his ultimate, and duskblade offers pretty good ward clear to the team. Not every support needs to be a healbot.

... Is this sarcastic? Every support I know runs Exhaust. Except the fucking Pykes (and those who intend to play a similar role). Most of them build full AP because of utility, not damage. Shields and heals tend to scale with AP. Pyke has zero utility that scales with his damage. It's all just raw DPS output. It's true not every support needs to be a healbot. I play Pantheon and even Qiyana at support all the time, and I've had superb success with AP Nasus. But supports who do damage are supposed to lock down enemies and whittle them down for their ADC, then hand them the kill. Pykes don't play this way, and Ignite sure as hell doesn't do it. (It CAN, but it rarely does.)

LightswornLance4 votes

No support runs exhaust under any circumstances except yuumi. Supports run ignite for kill potential. When you are running exhaust you arent playing to win lane at that point you are playing to lose it. I think thats why you have a problem playing against pyke. You have to be the aggressor, dont let him run all over you. Supports run ignite so that they have kill potential because most supports like rakan for example lack kill potential even on a target at 30% hp without ignite. Look at any pro or high elo game at all, every single support has ignite.

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

No support runs exhaust under any circumstances except yuumi. Supports run ignite for kill potential. When you are running exhaust you arent playing to win lane at that point you are playing to lose it. I think thats why you have a problem playing against pyke. You have to be the aggressor, dont let him run all over you. Supports run ignite so that they have kill potential because most supports like rakan for example lack kill potential even on a target at 30% hp without ignite. Look at any pro or high elo game at all, every single support has ignite.

When the fuck did this become a thing? No wonder this game is so stupid now... Though it makes sense when you think about it. Exhaust Yi and he'll still 1v5 you. May as well bring Ignite and really make it a party.

Well, I'll do it. I'll bring Ignite and hunt kills at support. I'll report back and tell you how my team felt about it. If it's what the pros are doing, it's what we should all do, right? I must be like the cool kids! I must.

Anyway, in the first place, my problem isn't with Lane Pyke. I can do fine against Pyke in lane. In fact, I don't know if I've ever lost a lane against Pyke. My problem is how he snowballs in teamfights.

UPDATE: Tried it. 2/6/5. We surrendered early and Twitch got mad at me for going after his kills. You gave me garbage advice and I now wish to contact your lawyer for restitution of time lost.

Omituinen1 votes

Ignite gives you 2v2 kill pressure that you lack with exhaust

You don't actively try and take the kills but dropping an ignite during an early all-in fight to get them low for your carry and reduce the value of their heal summoner (and any other healing they might have) is huge. It perhaps doesn't scale as well as exhaust does but an on-demand GW for a priority target in teamfights is still useful - if Vladimir isn't getting his full Q heals off for instance he drops much more easily. Also sometimes makes you able to solo a target if you're by yourself and they misplay.

Yeah your ignite will sometimes "steal" kills but odds are that they're kills you wouldn't have gotten without it anyway if you're using it properly

LightswornLance2 votes

I checked your match history and the game you went 2/6/5 in you were playing qiyana support with ignite cleanse and coin instead of relic shield. You went first item infinity edge, and your primary rune was arcane comet. The enemy team didnt have a jungler and half the players were iron. I wish I was kidding but your above average for the people that complain about pyke.

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

I checked your match history and the game you went 2/6/5 in you were playing qiyana support with ignite cleanse and coin instead of relic shield. You went first item infinity edge, and your primary rune was arcane comet. The enemy team didnt have a jungler and half the players were iron. I wish I was kidding but your above average for the people that complain about pyke.

No one ever said anything about changing my ENTIRE playstyle. I was just told I was supposed to bring Ignite and push for kills. When in Rome, do as the Romans, but that doesn't necessarily mean picking up some javelins and marching with the hastati.

LightswornLance1 votes

Well taking ignite isnt going to win you the game but its a step in the right direction :)

chipndip14 votes

If you die in the mark, it isn't a "whiff". You don't have to be slain by Pyke for the resets to work. You just need to die while targeted.

Also, I have no idea why everyone on these fucking boards are so obsessed with what's fun to play with/as/against and constantly act like they bear the ultimate answer in that regard when they never did.

Zero Shingetsu2 votes

{quoted}

If you die in the mark, it isn't a "whiff". You don't have to be slain by Pyke for the resets to work. You just need to die while targeted.

This is exactly what I'm complaining about. Mistiming your ult shouldn't be rewarded. Can you imagine if Darius could just immediately use his ult despite it not actually getting the kill? "Oh, well I targeted the right guy, so that should be fine. I was just unlucky. I had the right idea!" Can you imagine if other powerful ults worked this way? Warwick doesn't get a free cooldown if someone dies while he's mid-pounce. Caitlyn doesn't teleport to the target with a free ult charge if someone dies while her ult is en route. Sejuani's ult doesn't freeze the next closest champion when her target dies before her ult hits them.

My entire point is that allowing that sort of window makes Pyke that much more insufferable. It's not too much to ask to say that he has to time it another 0.75 seconds more accurately to get the benefits.

Also, I have no idea why everyone on these fucking boards are so obsessed with what's fun to play with/as/against and constantly act like they bear the ultimate answer in that regard when they never did.

This is conjecture and adds nothing to the conversation. Obviously, people are obsessed with what's fun to play because this is a video game, and you play them to have fun. If something makes the game insufferably annoying, it's not worth having in the game. That's obvious. But this "ultimate answer" nonsense is just you pontificating. I never said I had the ultimate answer, and I rarely see others suggest such things. Sometimes people have suggestions, but very rarely do I see someone say "JUST DO THIS, IT'S THE ONLY SOLUTION AND IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!!"

I said Pyke's ult is slightly more forgiving than it should be, and noted that it has a more profound effect on balance than one might think. I don't suppose to have an "ultimate answer" to that because there are no ultimate answers when it comes to video game balance. On the same token, there's no feasible ultimate answer to theft, but that doesn't mean you just shrug at let people steal. If there's a problem with the game's balance, you should at least work to fix it, and ideally this work should happen before it goes out for consumption.

LightswornLance4 votes

Thats how darius's ult works though? When your press r as darius 3 things can happen. Your ult hits and doesnt kill, no reset Your ult hits and kills, you get the reset and noxian might Your ult doesnt hit because the enemy got killed before the axe came down but they were already targetted, you get your ult back like nothing happened, and you dont get noxian might With pyke its the same except since his isnt targetted and instead has an area of effect, if they die within the area of effect he gets the reset.

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

Thats how darius's ult works though? When your press r as darius 3 things can happen. Your ult hits and doesnt kill, no reset Your ult hits and kills, you get the reset and noxian might Your ult doesnt hit because the enemy got killed before the axe came down but they were already targetted, you get your ult back like nothing happened, and you dont get noxian might With pyke its the same except since his isnt targetted and instead has an area of effect, if they die within the area of effect he gets the reset.

Right, but he still gets the teleport as well. In my example, for instance, he can mistime his ult and still put himself in a position to chain ults together. Darius's bonus is Noxian Might, which he doesn't get if he mistimes. Pyke's is a flash to the center of the AoE, which he doesn't get if the target doesn't die, but he does get if he mistimes.

Jet Sett1 votes

But they serve different purposes for different champions. Darius isn't in a lane sharing gold and EXP with a carry, he's a solo juggernaut meant to absorb damage and be able to dish it out.

Pyke is a support with a kit focused on providing damage and crowd control. If his ult didn't work when someone else kills his target he would be virtually worthless because of how dependent he is on getting the gold from it.

Only thing I think should be nerfed is his insane double gold gain, and his passive regen should be locked to W so he has to get that to heal.

mack91122 votes

Can we get the clip of that

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

Can we get the clip of that

You could, but it's not really worth the editing it'd require. Then I'd have to go through Youtube, which is ten pains and a half, because I can't link to Nico on here lest I get banned for posting foreign language content.

mack91123 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zero Shingetsu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=fq0B6mEf,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2019-09-16T16:53:14.614+0000)

You could, but it's not really worth the editing it'd require. Then I'd have to go through Youtube, which is ten pains and a half, because I can't link to Nico on here lest I get banned for posting foreign language content.

Ya not hard to use the client to make a clip.

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

Ya not hard to use the client to make a clip.

I can do it with the client, sure, but the only hosting site I trust can't be linked on the NA boards because it's foreign language, so I can't see wasting the time.

mack91121 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zero Shingetsu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=fq0B6mEf,comment-id=0003000000000000,timestamp=2019-09-17T15:52:11.253+0000)

I can do it with the client, sure, but the only hosting site I trust can't be linked on the NA boards because it's foreign language, so I can't see wasting the time.

Can you just tell me what match it is and I will just watch it in the client.

Vlada Cut2 votes

Just revert his your cut buffs and remove lethality scaling on his ultimate.\

And since his passive healing is now on his W then he shouldn't regerenate grey health bar UNTI HE UNLOCKS HIS W.

WTF RITO

VageneAndBøbs1 votes

The thing is.. In their effort to ruin solo lane Pyke, they had to make compensations for support Pyke that resulted in this.. You can't nerf 1 role in to the ground without compensating for the lack off power he then has in the other role.

So you have to choose between 2 evils, Solo lane Pyke or a strong support Pyke.

Thefrostyviking6 votes

{quoted}

The thing is.. In their effort to ruin solo lane Pyke, they had to make compensations for support Pyke that resulted in this.. You can't nerf 1 role in to the ground without compensating for the lack off power he then has in the other role.

So you have to choose between 2 evils, Solo lane Pyke or a strong support Pyke.

Not quite though?

Problem was always that he could engage willfully and either directly solokill you or leave you needing to take like 10-20% more max hp damage before he could ult and drop you but you could not actually do anything to him.

Engage on him? He dashes and stealths away+regen.

Poke him? He regens insanely.

All in him to drive him off? Insane regen so unless you could directly 100 to 0 him it was pointless, you´d be wasting resources and CDS for nothing.

Even if he couldnt kill you he could just go in a few times until he could and it would work, not like he´d ever lose trades with that nutty healing of his.

These have never changed, these are why he´s always been good and why people feel so frustrated dealing with him.

The only way to deal with him is to wait for him to go in on his own and screw up horribly, that´s it, there is no other way to kill or even just trade back at him.

VageneAndBøbs3 votes

{quoted}

Not quite though?

Problem was always that he could engage willfully and either directly solokill you or leave you needing to take like 10-20% more max hp damage before he could ult and drop you but you could not actually do anything to him.

Engage on him? He dashes and stealths away+regen.

Poke him? He regens insanely.

All in him to drive him off? Insane regen so unless you could directly 100 to 0 him it was pointless, you´d be wasting resources and CDS for nothing.

Even if he couldnt kill you he could just go in a few times until he could and it would work, not like he´d ever lose trades with that nutty healing of his.

These have never changed, these are why he´s always been good and why people feel so frustrated dealing with him.

The only way to deal with him is to wait for him to go in on his own and screw up horribly, that´s it, there is no other way to kill or even just trade back at him.

I used to play Pyke a lot, then started to play top/jngl and I just started playing him again, Pyke is normally something I pick when My ADC has a really bad match history. I never have problems facing a Pyke tho, I always never lose against enemy Pykes.

I think a lot of people don't know how to fight against Pyke or expect to fight Pyke when they are a squishy champ. Pyke is a easy target if you focus him down in team fights or cc him, IMO.

Thefrostyviking2 votes

{quoted}

I used to play Pyke a lot, then started to play top/jngl and I just started playing him again, Pyke is normally something I pick when My ADC has a really bad match history. I never have problems facing a Pyke tho, I always never lose against enemy Pykes.

I think a lot of people don't know how to fight against Pyke or expect to fight Pyke when they are a squishy champ. Pyke is a easy target if you focus him down in team fights or cc him, IMO.

"just focus and CC him" is what people say about champs like master Yi too, and he is still like the nr 1 most popular champ among boosting specialists because of his ability to avoid that concept entirely.

That strategy only ever works if the target in question is dumb enough to try and rush in alone with no cover at all.

LightswornLance1 votes

The reason why yi is so good in low elos isnt because they dont know how to focus cc, its because the one trick carry characters the enemy play dont have cc to begin with. Good luck locking down a yi when your only hard cc is a riven w.

Thefrostyviking1 votes

{quoted}

The reason why yi is so good in low elos isnt because they dont know how to focus cc, its because the one trick carry characters the enemy play dont have cc to begin with. Good luck locking down a yi when your only hard cc is a riven w.

He is the most popular for boosting in Diamond as well alongside malphite,vlad and a few of others last i heard.

Used to be Zac, taliyah and aurelion i think but times have changed <.<

ImTheJuggernauty2 votes

{quoted}

Not quite though?

Problem was always that he could engage willfully and either directly solokill you or leave you needing to take like 10-20% more max hp damage before he could ult and drop you but you could not actually do anything to him.

Engage on him? He dashes and stealths away+regen.

Poke him? He regens insanely.

All in him to drive him off? Insane regen so unless you could directly 100 to 0 him it was pointless, you´d be wasting resources and CDS for nothing.

Even if he couldnt kill you he could just go in a few times until he could and it would work, not like he´d ever lose trades with that nutty healing of his.

These have never changed, these are why he´s always been good and why people feel so frustrated dealing with him.

The only way to deal with him is to wait for him to go in on his own and screw up horribly, that´s it, there is no other way to kill or even just trade back at him.

Even if he screws up horribly, he's so dam safe due to the OP way his dash works with good range and STUNNING anybody who tries to chase. Stunning anybody he goes through. The dude is literally impossible to 1v1 finish off unless you burst him immediately or he's stupid enough to stick around against a stronger opponent with no backup. The champ is literally braindead

ImTheJuggernauty4 votes

{quoted}

The thing is.. In their effort to ruin solo lane Pyke, they had to make compensations for support Pyke that resulted in this.. You can't nerf 1 role in to the ground without compensating for the lack off power he then has in the other role.

So you have to choose between 2 evils, Solo lane Pyke or a strong support Pyke.

That's laughable because pyke is vastly overtuned now in the support role. Which is to say that, even with supposed solo-lane nerfs, he was STILL balanced in support role. Now, with an overbuffed ult (gold, execute indicator, aoe at range being able to hit the same champ multiple times) and supreme forgiveness for terrible decisions (from excellent mobility and solid CC plus ridiculous regen), pyke is just ridiculous. He never DOESN'T GET FED AND SNOWBALL. There is almost no difference in performance between good pykes and bad pykes, because the dude is both on training wheels AND overtuned af.

The DrBonjigollo1 votes

Not gonna lie, I love Pyke. If anything should be changed on his R I say get rid of double gold (seriously why) and give less uptime for his ult reset timer. The rest of his kit idk, either slow down his healing or maybe make it drain a little bit of mana, but as an assassin, he already has slightly low mana compared to other roles.

HoldMyPlank1 votes

If Pyke whiffs ult too late and gets 300g to himself and an ally, chogath should get a stack if he whiffs ult too early

DCYOUNG8881 votes

As someone who is a pyke user/main who is mastery level 7 I did not think it was necessary to give him double the gold when he kills someone with ult at the cost of dealing half damage to surviving enemies in patch 9.14. Even for an assassin that is way too much snowballing and I would prefer that change to be reverted (both half damage to surviving enemies and the extra gold) and if he's still weak due to the previous solo lane nerfs to waveclear then he should be given slightly higher bonus ad ratios and lethality ratios on his ult like was initially done on the pbe earlier.

GankLord1 votes

The entire champion is something that should happen he's a contradiction and while they may make for good writing when giving breath they rarely work out well.

Illabethe1 votes

You do realize that if he whiffed, he wouldn't have been able to ult Akali....

He hit the same time as his ally; But his ally got the credit.

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