Pyke: Ruining Hook Support Design

Before Pyke, we had three Hook Supports that, for the most part and save a couple moments in their lives, have always been balanced characters. Thresh, Blitz and Nautilus. Most of these characters rely on proper landing of their hooks to make their kits work. is the most versatile of the original three. He's design makes him an enabler. A somewhat high-risk/high-reward type of enabler whom In the right hands can setup amazing plays and help create opportunities in the map. You'll never see him going 1v1 against an AP or AD carry, and you'll most definitely won't see him in a solo lane. Also, his skill ceiling is high, making it unfriendly to inexperienced players, and it's very punishing to be a bad Thresh player or be on the team of a bad Thresh. can go in a solo lane, but for the purposes of Support, his hook is usually a full commit. His durability is his biggest strength, but even with that, a bad hook in the late game can make him end in a bad position. If you're caught in a bad spot, your options are limited. You can try to fight and if you're AP Naut maybe take someone with you, but if your team is not around, you won't probably be able to do much. He has great initiation and crowd control, but as Thresh (unless he's like Doinb or something) you'll rarely see him dueling carries, and just like Thresh, being behind on him makes you very useless. is the most binary of the original three Hook Supports. You either land a hook or you don't. If he lands a hook, specially in lane, he can be incredibly powerful, and he's not too bad at replying to an engage, using his ult and knock up. He's however very reliant on that rotation, and a Blitz that had a bad early game usually relies on the enemy being in a terrible position to then get hooked and maybe create a play. You'll never see him in a solo lane and you'll rarely ever see him dueling anyone, as even some enchanters with their heals and/or shields can get the upper hand on him as again: He's very reliant on the rotation of his spells to be useful. Then there's All three previous hook champions lose mobility the moment they try to use their hooks. Naut can straight up hook a wall and suicide into the enemy. Thresh spends the longest time self-stunned, and Blitz has a high cost on the Q and again: if you don't land it, you're practically useless in creating plays. Pyke gets to WALK AROUND WHILE HE'S CHARGING HIS HOOK THAT ALSO SLOWS YOU DOWN IF IT LANDS. You know how Naut and Blitz have to commit to a hook? If Blitz just pulled the 4K HP Cho, he's now engaged to that Cho. If Naut hooks another tank or a wall, he's now committed. Thresh (again) has the longest self-stun of everyone, and if there's no further followup, Thresh will probably not follow, and if he does well... he's not committed to the fight, and too bad cause you're just getting ganked and you're fucked. Pyke? He pulls you just enough that HE HAS FULL CONTROL OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. The entire play is dictated by this walking guy landing his slowing hook. If he doesn't wanna commit, you're now slowed and will are probably trying to avoid a trade with the enemy ADC in that state, as Pyke could just chose to turn on you if you decided to fight. If Pyke decided to go in, not only are you slowed down, but he can now easily land... not a snare, but a stun. This is one of the most powerful setups in the entire game, and it's very hard to turn on a Pyke that has landed the hook he got to charge while he was freely walking around. And even if you try to gank and catch him out of position, well nevermind cause now he's going invisible and is recovering HP JUST FROM WALKING AWAY. If Thresh commits to a bad play, he's fucked. If Naut commits to a bad play, he's fucked. If Blitz commits to a bad play, he's fucked. If Pyke commits to a play, he can stealth, regain health, and if he hasn't used his stun, you can't even chase him to punish. It's absurd how much of the play depends not on you or on your allies, BUT ON THE ENEMY PYKE JUST FUCKING UP THE USAGE OF SUCH A POWERFUL KIT. After 6 this becomes even more powerful. His ultimate is not only an AoE Darius ultimate that gives one trillion Gold to any and all allies that participated on the kill, but it also lets him cover some small distance, so he can even use it to get away if his stealth, recovering health, stun and slowing hook were not enough to get him out of a bad situation. You know how all the other three usually require some level of success in the early game to remain impactful? Pyke can be 0/8, then get 3 people in a fight with his ult, and at that one time, he has probably contributed more to your team in less than 5 seconds than the Jinx who farmed her way up to an IE and a Zeal item, that Lee Sin who has been trying to affect the entire map with high levels of play and managed to get a couple kills, and that stupid Top laner who died once but managed to not lose his tower or that many plates. Pyke is a very low risk character with a massive high reward just waiting to be taken at literally any time. The other three when played in support will most like build supportive and enabling items. Pyke rushed a fucking Duskblade. You'll will VERY REGULARLY see him soloing AP/AD carries, and if he's fed enough, maybe even bruisers and tanks. He continues to be played in solo lanes not much but far more than you'd ever see Thresh or Blitz for sure.

Every hook character to me always felt like this champion you needed to be very smart about your kit. When do you go in? When do you pull someone? How do you use your other tools? Thresh is an enabler, Blitz is also an enabler, Naut can also do front line duty. Pyke? He can do all of those and much SO MUCH MORE. Need someone to check a brush? He can stealth and ward safely. People are there? It's ok, he can just dash/stun away. He got some damage onto him? No, he just restored his health. May be caught? No he just ulted 3 people and got two execute/true damage kills before going down. This is horrible design for a support character. Assassins can be very annoying, but while they at the very least need gold for their items. Pyke gets free Gold just by sitting around his ADC, and no other assassin has an AoE Darius Resetable True Damage Ultimate that gives 9 trillion gold to the team just by practically being around. There's very little agency you have when playing against Pyke. He's gonna dictate where every play he's a part of goes, and if you manage to kill him, it's probably because he's really stupid or because the enemy is SO FED that they're going 1v9 and it might as well not even matter, which could be said for literally any character.

tl:dr fuck Pyke