What are some ways to negate Pyke's power?

Environmentalist·8/29/2019, 11:41:35 PM·20 votes·12,249 views

Serious question. I'm a support main, and I've been struggling against Pyke. He seems to excel in so many aspects of the game (damage, sustain, invis, maneuverability, CC). My biggest issue is his ult. Any other support, you can outplay close 2v2's, but with Pyke, short of stopwatch or hoping he misses, once you hit 30% health you're done, and not only one person, but both of you. It's definitely frustrating. I've tried him, he's pretty fun, but surprisingly I'm not great with him, despite being quite good with other hook supports. So what are some good ways to make him go 0/10 instead of 10/0? :)

edit: I'm aware of control wards, I buy many especially against Pyke.

55 Comments

The thigh guy8/29/2019, 11:51:07 PM26 votes

Tbh. There isn’t really anything you can do. He’s one of those champions that has to fuck up incredibly bad to be punished as is.

Sillae8/30/2019, 12:54:41 AM25 votes

I found him very weak during the banning phase, but if he's able to make it past that, then the game is over.

Hotarµ8/29/2019, 11:55:59 PM21 votes

Serious question. I'm a support main, and I've been struggling against Pyke. He seems to excel in so many aspects of the game (damage, sustain, invis, maneuverability, CC). My biggest issue is his ult. Any other support, you can outplay close 2v2's, but with Pyke, short of stopwatch or hoping he misses, once you hit 30% health you're done, and not only one person, but both of you.

These are 3 pieces of advice I can offer to help with Pyke:

1 - Poke his ADC, not him.

This is kind of like a reverse-Soraka scenario. Don't put any effort into poking Pyke but instead turn your attention to his ADC since he has no form of allied heals or shields. He can look out for himself and only himself, if his ADC is being poked out of CS or engaged on, there's not much he can do.

2 - **Back off when you see him charging up his hook. **

This sounds like it would be common sense but I see a lot of people try to challenge Pyke when he's charging up his hook. If you see him start up a Q back off behind minions or move away from him. If he's closer to you, try and move side-to-side rather than running directly away.

3 - Shut him down with heals, CC, and MS.

The best way to beat him consistently is through playing an Enchanter like Sona, Yuumi, or Nami. (doesn't have to be those particular three.) Enchanters have the tools and skillsets to beat him at almost every stage of the game. Likewise, Tanks are the worst into Pyke unless you're very skilled since they take a while to come online. Pyke's early game isn't the greatest, but Tanks are worse and he can use that early-mid spike to dominate the rest of the game.

Heals - Pyke's only option is to all-in, he's not going to be poking you down and his ADC will usually be more focused on CSing and following up on his all-ins. You can discourage his all-ins by staying at medium-high HP. More importantly, save your heals to raise allies out of his ultimate threshold. A well placed heal (be it from summoner Heal, an ability, or even something like Triumph) is the best way to stop Pyke in his tracks and kill him. If he mistimes his ult or you bait him into using it, you can follow up with CC and burst him down.

Shields - Pyke's ultimate goes through shields, but a well placed shield can still stop you (or your allies) from being dropped into ult range. Shielding is important, especially in teamfights, but you should be prioritizing heals above all else.

Vision + other tidbits - Exhaust doesn't work too well on Pyke. He himself does a surprisingly low amount of damage and exhausting him will not reduce his ultimate threshold, consider taking Ignite or even double Heal. Ward up midway through river and near your tri-bush, that way you can see him when he's coming from behind and stop him from roaming mid. Most importantly: MIA ping. Let your team know when he's away from lane, because if he gets a good roam off you and your midlaner/jungler are going to suffer for it.

edit: And I didn't really mention these because I assumed you already knew, but buying armor and control wards help a ton. Armor weakens his already lower damage output (and that of his ADC) while control wards discourage him from roaming and can shut off his passive.

Iron Phantom8/30/2019, 12:43:59 AM9 votes

Ban him, it's what I do.

LFT His Support8/30/2019, 12:24:50 AM8 votes

I can talk here as an absolute Pyke OTP as to stuff that makes my life harder.

Poke supports. Srsly a Sona that buys boots early and plays super safe but still annoys my ADC to the moon is pure cancer. Same with other kinds of that. But usually I just have to wait for a misstep and they are done for.
Fiddlesticks, his kit is build to making me hate my life. Tho he's pretty useless otherwise unless played really well.
Heal and Sustain
Ignoring me, since yea sure I'm great at sustain but I can simply watch my ADC slowly die because of poke.
Play safe and don't be dumb. Like really, you shouldn't stay with half-life or less without potions / stopwatch / flash or heal.
Don't panic because of the hook. I see so many players panicking as soon as I charge my Q up. My tactic is usually to just get close to them and charge my Q up, the amount of flashes I get out of that is insane. Just chill until he does his throw animation.
Vision in both brushes and in River makes it hard to move properly, especially early on spamming W for health is mana intensive. Also, u save ur mates from roams, since he's insane in those.
Play Thresh or Alistar. If a Pyke ever gets to E your ADC while u play those champs u are clearly doing a terrible job.
Make your JUngler camp. Usually, Pyke wants to win his lane, since that's pretty much a free win. So he will most likely be played aggressive, having a Vi or something camp the shit out of you will do the job. Tho this depends on the Jungler.
Do not underestimate Pyke's damage. Srsly his Powerspikes at Serrated Dirk, Draktarr and Ghostblade are insane. I can't count how often I am able to 1v1 their Midlaner or ADC because they don't seem to care about me. A Jhin, for example, cannot fight a Pyke under any circumstance (Atleast Early and Midgame, if he's no 20/0 or something)
Try to catch him off guard while he roams or deep wards, like with any support. Even a good Pyke generally can't outplay 3 people.
Ban him. lol. In my games he's pick / ban sooo I guess that's what the majority is doing.
Do not trade kill for kill when a Pyke is nearby, you'll lose way too much if he gets to ult.
And honestly just focus him if you can. He's fcking paper and he can't really go tank since he has no HP and even if he has like 150 armor he's still not even close to a bruiser. Even with Aftershock. And he hates CC and Knock Up and stuff.

So yea that some things that make my life harder. Hope I can help you perform better against my champ lol.

[vlad-salute]

invisiblecat18/30/2019, 1:25:20 AM4 votes

inb4 the "Pyke has one of the most dodgeable kits..." guy comes to comment for another 30 downvotes

Pika Fox8/30/2019, 12:28:28 AM3 votes

Flash/mobility his ult, or pop heal bombs. If he misses ult once, hes sol.

If youre a tank, body block for your ADC. He cant hook the ADC if it hits you, and its a free engage for you.

Shield his other spells, not his ult. Just because you cant shield his ult doesnt mean you cant prevent him from getting to that point.

Cosmochris8/30/2019, 9:01:27 PM2 votes

Serious answer: I'm a support main myself and play against pyke a lot of the time and i personally find Alistar and Morgana to be pretty effective against Pyke. Alistar because if Pyke hooks you, then you're close enough to combo and shit on the enemy ADC (requires you to play good though, which shouldn't be hard), and Morgana because of her black shield. With both champions you would want to block Pykes hook for your ADC. That's honestly it tbh.

mack91128/30/2019, 8:42:16 PM2 votes

Dodge the telegraphed hook.

Dodge the telegraphed stun.

Understand he is strong early and falls off.

Learn is cooldowns.

If you really struggle just always play Morganna into him.

Posui Gart8/30/2019, 3:41:57 PM1 votes

Morgana works great against him, E to counter his Q-E engage, Q to stop his mobility, R to reveal him in his W. Also, if Morgana Qs his ADC, there is nothing Pyke can do with it Soraka is somewhat interesting. She can cancel his Q with her E, and make him fuck up his ultimates with her R, but at the same time she lowers her own hp with her W. If you are fast enough, you can bait his ult on yourself and flash/R it, leaving him without his own ultimate(and Pyke without ultimate is half of a champion) Most tank supports are fine against him if you play a bit safe early. As a general advice, do not try to focus him in early fights. He can easily escape, his adc can't. In lategame teamfights, however, he usually has to use his W and to get access to priority targets, so without any way to build defensive he is a freekill after this

Smyrage8/30/2019, 5:45:48 PM1 votes

Pyke kind of forces you to focus the enemy ADC instead of him, which means champions who can go on the enemy ADC will render Pyke less useful. I found off meta picks such as Pantheon the better against him.

You can go Morgana as well, but Pyke mains probably permaban her, because she is a hardcounter. And so is Fiddlesticks .

KingTheTyrant8/30/2019, 6:08:54 PM1 votes

As a Pyke main the hardest combo I have found is Soraka plus a Cait or Trist. Thresh, Leona, and Naut can provide a good counter because of there multiple forms of cc and general tankiness. Any other mage support I am licking my chops against. I am going to dominate that lane so hard. An amazing Raka is your best chance. DO NOT POKE WITH SILENCE... that is where most Raka’s Fail. Always save it to cancel pyke’s q. After canceling the q he becomes quite inept. But you have to play smart as her you die early and get behind then you are screwed.

pianissim08/30/2019, 6:17:30 PM1 votes

idk if this helps but Alistar, isn't meta but can counter that dude. I play Pyke wayyy too often, as well as Alistar and he has some pretty good methods of messing him up. His entire kit is designed to stop Pyke- an ultra mobile assassin with his knock up, push away, stun, and his absurd tankiness with his built in AOE heal.

Tailypo8/30/2019, 7:02:03 PM1 votes

cc him and blow him up. he's one of the squishiest champs in the game.

stay noided af8/30/2019, 7:11:45 PM1 votes

To counter Pyke in lane: Poppy support, Fiddle Support, Volibear support, Morgana, Rakan, Soraka

To counter pyke in later game teamfights: Sona, Soraka, Morgana, Poppy

Off lane counters: Yasuo, Diana, Tyrndamere, TF, Heimerdinger, Quinn

King Braum8/30/2019, 7:58:53 PM1 votes

Champions that can interrupt his engage or punish him for rushing in tend to do well, but how well that works mainly depends on the pyke player

Blessed Death8/30/2019, 9:11:15 PM1 votes

I'll drop in my 2 cents. I'm not a support god or anything close to it, but these are some things I've picked up playing against him.

Pick/Ban Phase Usually if I'm going to play a squishy support, I ban Pyke. The rare exception is if I'm going to play Morg, Sona and sometimes Soraka. Otherwise, I ban him. His ability to snowball and his R makes life for squishy supports difficult. Yeah, if you're good at what you do, you can try to outplay but why make things difficult on yourself?

If I'm picking after he's selected, I generally play Leona. Her kit is pretty strong against him. Her Q can disrupt him if he happens to hook your ADC. She's also generally tanky enough to be able to take his combo and reverse the engage with her combo either on him or his ADC. I usually tell my ADC that if I take a hook from pyke and I'm at full hp, focus the enemy ADC because that's generally where I'm going afterwards. It's what I do against Blitz match-ups too. I thank the Blitz for getting me close to the ADC and then crap on his partner. I mean it's definitely situational and you have to read the moment, but given the right moments, you can definitely counter engage and come out on top.

Laning Phase

Playing against Pyke is like playing against any hook champ. Positioning is key. Use your minions. He can't hook you if keep them between you and him. Vision is key. He can't catch you out of the bush if you can see him. Most issues I've encountered that went sour were because of poor positioning or lack of vision.

If you get hooked, don't panic. He's usually going to follow up with his dash. Make note of where that's going to put him. Sometimes a pyke will get too aggressive and put himself between you and your ADC, out of position from his ADC. Take advantage and punish. If you have CC, lock him down so he can't escape.

If you have Ignite, be aware of the situation. If you don't have the ability to keep him from escaping and use it too early during a trade, he may be able to regen the hp back rendering it ineffective. I've seen some use it as a deterrent to his regen. Popping it as he gets away so that he can't regen his hp. You could possibly use this to force him to back, giving you and your ADC a moment to either bully off CS or pick the enemy ADC for a kill.

Know when to back. If you get caught out but manage to get away, just back. If you have no pots or any way to regen the HP, don't risk it. Pyke is a snowball assassin. He needs the kills. Don't give him the opportunity for an easy one.

Also, make note to your ADC that you both shouldn't be afraid to play it safe and farm close or under tower. If Pyke and his ADC look to have a strong early laning phase, let them push up. Try to assist your ADC in farming safely. Yeah, it may be boring, but if your ADC is able to successfully farm and you don't give Pyke(or his ADC) any kills, that's usually a wash or a win for you. Plus, allowing them to push moves them out of position and opens opportunities for your jungler or mid-laner to gank. I know in solo Q it's hard to coordinate stuff like that sometimes, but it's still better to create the opportunity than it is to not.

I know a lot of this is just general stuff but if any of this advice helps, I'm glad to offer it.

JRobin318/31/2019, 3:11:36 AM1 votes

My Challenger friend said that Pyke must get kills with his ultimate and snowball or he will become useless. So the key is to avoid the Pyke ult.

I play in Silver games. What do I do? Ban Phase: You could Ban him. Everyone knows that. Not super helpful advice (unless your teammates suck, in which case it's the best and only advice). Pick Phase: Pick champions that counter Pyke's ultimate such as Zilean . You read when Pyke is about to ult and use Zilean ult. OR pick a healer. When Pyke is about to ult, you heal the target. Pyke's ultimate fails to execute. Counter picking gives easy wins against most Pyke players. It might as well be 5v4. Of course, maybe you don't own any counterpicks or don't like the counter picks. What to do?

In-Game: Lane Phase: hook is telegraphed. If you can't dodge it, then run behind minions to block it. If Pyke goes invisible, simply run away. He generally really can't catch you if you just run away when he goes invisible. Pyke's stun is the most annoying, but it usually only lands if you overextend in lane or if he lands his hook. So don't overextend and dodge his hook! What if you get ganked: Always a problem in any game, but usually Pyke telegraphs the gank by going aggressive and usually if you just deny him the hook, then he can't get anything out of it. But you play an aggressive support that wants to fight, now what: too bad for you. Suck it up and play safe. Virtually any support will out scale him if he gets denied the gold from his ults. But my lane partner is feeding him: That's really too bad. I guess you should've banned Pyke or grabbed a counterpick. Otherwise, you should've played so as to have Pyke trying to kill you instead trying to kill your lane partner. Like picking a tank and body-blocking the hook, then wrecking his face. Rest of Game: if you laned properly against Pyke, then you denied him any ult kills and if you didn't lane properly, he got fed and got his bot lane fed. You laned properly: now your team farms him for easy kills, snowballs and wins the game. Why is that? Because when Pyke hooks a stronger enemy, all he does is place a powerful opponent in the face of his teammates and he gets wrecked. If he makes a comeback, then he earned it by being a better player somehow. Suck it up and move on. You laned improperly against him: You better be crazy good at mid game or you just lost the game for your team, gj, go you! You better hope your other lanes knew what they were doing (unlike you) and are snowballing harder than Pyke is. Let them carry you or die trying.

But... I don't lane against Pyke: Tell your team to get item 2420 and deny the Pyke ults. If they don't listen, then it's your fault for not banning Pyke.

Items: Generally Speaking: Get item 2419 item 2420 item 2423 . You could use runes to get one or you could spend some gold to get one. It's not too expensive. Once you deny the early snowball from Pyke ult, he drops off and you win (unless you are bad at the game, in which case: get better at the game).

Summoner Spells: You can summoner 4 the Pyke ult. You can summoner 7 before Pyke ult lands.

So anyone can have at least 3 outs from being Pyke ulted, if they have any common sense: two summoners and an item. If you still feed the Pyke despite having 3 outs from his ult, then you need to get better at the game.

Lux Is Mai Waifu8/31/2019, 3:32:51 AM1 votes

not putting a ton of CC on an invisible assassin

Ionian Vulpix8/30/2019, 1:32:34 AM1 votes

I want to say Zyra because you can make a minefield of plants. Just rush Morellonomicon after getting tier 2 support item.

musixxal8/30/2019, 1:55:01 AM1 votes

Janna she is so good against Pyke you wouldn't believe it.

Crescent Dusk8/30/2019, 5:29:37 AM1 votes

Burst champions. A good Qiyana or zed if they can win their lane can insta-delete pyke before he can even heal up. So can Fizz, especially since he can E pyke's stun.

As bot lane, you probably want something like a Tristana or Sivir, though Ezreal and Caitlyn work as well. Bad idea to pick low mobility champs like Draven/Jinx/Jhin into Pyke. Kaisa takes too long to come online to survive Pyke's oppressive early game.

You also want a strong frontline, so ask your junglers to pick sej/Nunu/skarner and something like a Jax/Riven/Darius top lanes with strong CC and threat potential making Pyke dives far less effective.

Also know that since Pyke is made of paper he will always wait for the rest of his team to do damage before he engages, so make sure you're not getting sieged out because that's exactly what Pyke wants.

Ironically enough, Pyke does very poorly against highly aggressive, dive+cc heavy teams with at least 2 tank champs. As do most assassins.

Support Position8/30/2019, 5:31:07 AM1 votes

Removal of the "unique" healing for "in combat" for 15 seconds.

Would let him actually die for once.

R not giving additional gold.

Whoever the assist is gets the FULL gold. Not pyke.
If pyke is the assister (R while they die but they dont die to R) he gets full gold.

Easy way to make him not op. And no double gold etc. 1 person for 1 full gold. Period. EDIT: Ex. When pyke gets a kill he gets full gold and stack of gold. This shouldn't have even happened.

FrancisMuni8/30/2019, 7:00:27 AM1 votes

Ban him in champ select. There is no way to actually counter that shit.

Bob the Toastr8/30/2019, 3:01:18 PM1 votes

If you've got a fast enough reaction time you can pick Morg and black shield to prevent hooks. And if you get a good root it shuts down his mobility temporarily.

ImTheJuggernauty8/30/2019, 3:05:19 PM1 votes

ban him

only luciano8/30/2019, 3:21:24 PM1 votes

Leona is pretty good into Pyke but he's more snowbally then ever. Ban him