Problems (and benefits?) with the 8.22 Pyke Changes (Lethality Pyke)

TL;DR: New Pyke trades some of Old Pyke's playmaking ability for more damage, which makes him stronger in duels and weaker in teamfights. Overall, these changes are worse for Support Pyke but better for Mid Pyke.

Whether building full tank or Damage-Resist hybrid ( ), old usually had the tools to kill a medium durability or squishier opponent with an ally's help. This gave him a clear gameplan throughout the game: Find an enemy laning against an ally, cloak in, hook & stun them in some combination so your ally can get their rotation off, and execute to share the gold. In this form, Pyke, like before him, was a true "support assassin," a champ with exceptional playmaking, utility, and backline kill pressure, but that required an ally to finish the job.

The 8.22 changes move away from those concepts, and not in a way that benefits , at least not in the Support position.

"So his Lethality build got buffed, who cares? Why can't we just keep playing Pyke like we always have?" Simple. It's significantly weaker and much less consistent.

1. Pyke's W had it's level 1 movement speed cut from 60% to 30% + 1.5 MS per point of Lethality. Considering that this is the last ability Pyke maxes, a Lethality-less Pyke will be stealthing in (or out) at half speed, which still diminishes over the duration of the move.
2. The duration of Pyke's E (his stun) no longer scales with level, only Lethality. A 1.1 second stun is significantly less consistent than the 1.6 seconds his Pyke's old rank 5 E and often times gives the opponent that crucial half second to flash out, dash, heal, or otherwise escape what would have been a kill option.

Playmaking: New Pyke vs. Old Pyke

This new Lethality Pyke does damage, and I mean a lot of damage. When ahead with two Lethality items (or sometimes just a and a , it's possible for a Pyke to solo an enemy squishy with their full rotation, aftershock, and ignite (sometimes even without the ignite). Old Pyke could never match the 1v1 potential of New Pyke, and if you're lucky enough to catch a solo pushing, low-mobility carry once you have some Lethality built up, you're gonna have a good time. Overall, New Pyke feels (and builds) like a true assassin.

But Old Pyke wasn't a true assassin, he was a support assassin, and Pyke's new identity becomes abundantly clear in larger skirmishes and teamfights.

Old Pyke could dance around the outside of a siege or contested objective threatening to hook and stun enemy squishies, knowing that the enemy couldn't realistically burst them down through their resistance-heavy build before they could dash or stealth away. This enabled Old Pyke to position hyper-aggressively and put immense pressure on the enemy team. New Pyke does not have this luxury, and the enemy team knows it. If New Pyke gets caught, he can and very likely will die. Consequently, whereas Old Pyke could position aggressively like a "stealthed Thresh," New Pyke has to position conservatively (more like a Talon), waiting for their team to both a) initiate and b) soften the enemy backline so he can explode his targets. Essentially, New Pyke trades playmaking ability for playending ability, which is typically not what a team needs from their support unless they are running double tank and/or a support midlaner ( ). Considering that we are in a skirmisher meta (and who plays tanks/mid supports in SOLO QUEUE lol) the chance of getting the ideal team comp for New Pyke is low compared to Old Pyke.

Silver Lining? While the Lethality changes have made Support Pyke even more of a niche pick (4fun champs hehe), they've also made Mid Pyke somewhat decent, or at least less of a soft int. Despite his weak early waveclear (pre- ) and kill pressure (pre-6), Mid Pyke is still an assassin who can prep his own ganks. Consequently, a Mid Pyke lane is extremely easy to camp, especially since many enemies will overextend trying to shove him under his turret. When played mid lane, New Pyke goes from being a "support who brings damage" to "an assassin who brings utility," which is huge given Mid Pyke's ability to influence top and jungle skirmishes that Support Pyke could never reach from bot lane. More importantly, having access to a dedicated farming lane removes a lot of the inconsistency from Support Pyke, who falls significantly behind if he can't supplement his support income with execute and shutdown gold. All in all, I think there might be something here, even if it's only a noncompetitive pick like top or mid.

I'm going to keep testing out the new , and I'll update this post if I find any new results. Let me know what you think playing as/with/against the new .

Thanks for reading.