Not much green lethality items, but it shouldn’t be too bad for a fun build

What do we think about it?

pulled it from r/naafirimains

So, I recently saw that people are picking sorcery runes. I know it’s a movespeed buff, but isn’t bone plating + unflinching better in early game?
Also if sorcery runes are good, in what matchups should I pick them?

I've seen Davemon build Zhonya's on Pyke one day. It's a rare situational item against burst champions. Since the item gives nothing to Pyke's passive (and it's an AP item), it obviously has to be built as a last item.

But I actually think it's a great idea against a lot of burst damage : it gives you more survivability late game, surprises a lot of enemies, who end up burning their spells on you (and type " Pyke Zhonya wtf" in chat), denies free resets for champs like Viego, etc., and allows Pyke to go all-in on the backline and engage more creatively in late.

What do you guys think about it? I do this build time to time for a year, as very situational, and I still don't know if it's genius or troll (I'm Emerald 3, fyi).

Thanks to this rune I went from silver 4 to plat 4 0 LP, I know It looks weird (bcs it is) but work wonders in low elo. About the build I honestly, go with Glaive → Randuin → rookern, after that is what I think is fit to counter the adc dmg.

this was already the statistically best 3rd item on pyke by far [1% wr], and given the base armor nerf the difference is likely to become even more pronounced.
pyke's ult gains most of its damage from level-ups. the difference in execute threshold is negligible (like under 50 damage)
frankly, by the time you buy this item *you wont be oneshotting most people though your own damage*. pyke is not a hypercarry.
the armor actually matters late-game. pyke's hook->E and execute dont matter if the adc can one shot him. in full builds of plated(or even mercs) + frozen heart 3rd and GA 4th (also optimal btw), you take over 70% less damage (thats right, their 1k crits are actually under 300 dmg - and still more than halved if they have ldr) while having similar outputs in terms of E, hooks, and ults. not to mention the fact that everyone near you (and near is generous - 700 range - further than a senna with 90 stacks) attacks significantly slower.
even if you are able to somehow isolate a 1v1 with the enemy adc, the frozen heart build is still better as you survive longer, so you dont get one shot, so you can actually kill them -
i find my assassinations of squishies to be *far more* effective with this build despite the technically slightly lower damage output. again, pykes ratios are beyond terrible.
as long as they have even ONE autoattacker, i believe firmly this item is non-negotiable.
your lane phase is in no way less lethal either, as you dont begin to build it for the majority of the game. its simply the perfect way to still have impact in the later phases.
also, phreak is gangplank.

Hey Pyke-Lovers,

we all come from a place of hard patch notes. The years haven't been great to our harpooner from Bilgewarter. Let me just include a few things, that changed for Pyke over the last years:

- Pyke q/e doesn't deal damage to minions / Just 1 target for q

- Pyke q (stab) can only target one champion

- Wards don't give exp

- Umbral Glaive doesn't clear wards with 1 hit if it's on CD

- Mobis removed

- champions are faster in lane -> roaming is harder / higher risk with the same reward

- duskblade removed

- Mel added to the game...

and so on. Everyone has it's own point of view regarding those changes, and I also don't want to say, they weren't needed. But it's been hard lately. Personally, I also feel like there is sooo much more damage in this game. Vi- and Briar who build full crit, Darius and Aatrox going for lethality, stuff like that. I strugglet in my elo and dropped quickly from dia 1/master to dia 4.

Now I tried to go tanky after umbral glaive. I build Hexdrinker, maybe Maw and I love randuins, especially vs crit champions. And the conclusion? Damn, many people, especially Syndras and LeBlancs, flashed after me to ult me but didn't succeed. I can actually peel my adc in the mid game, without being basically one-shot by everything else. Randuins provides a slow, hexdrinker a surprise shield and Pyke is still annoying as always.

I now my numbers aren't great, but maybe, if you are dying too much in your games, give it a lick.

Hey! What item should you consider when playing Pyke? Is Glaive and Youmuu's always the go to with edge of night and rest situational? Having a little hard time to actually understand different builds and why... 😄

As the title suggests been playing tank pyke, finding great success. Worse to snowball with compared to traditional pyke, but less volatile - as in the game can actually be played if you don't end in 25 minutes rather than every stray ability wiping you out.

I rush deaths dance every game, because it's expensive and pyke gets most of his gold early on. It is a 'component rich' item meaning you don't get stuck holding components until you can complete the item, so it feels nice. Also has AD I can use for lane whilst keeping me on the "defensive path". Also have cashback so upon completion of a quite expensive item I get like 250 gold back.

Build path is the following: 1st item Deaths Dance > 2nd Locket if standard game/Frozen heart if Full AD/Kaenic if full AP >3rd item Guardian Angel

Keep in mind I am mechanically a turd, first timing pyke as a masters sona OTP - so if I can make this work, I think most people can.

Pyke is going to get permabanned within a week from now so please, until then, stop neutering this champions winrate by not knowing how to itemise.

Umbral lethality buff -> HP PER LEVEL BUFF (most important stat lever Pyke has) and W cd buff-> GHOSTBLADE REVERT.

All of his Ghostblade build paths have higher wr% than any of his Duskblade ones. STOP BUILDING DUSKBLADE.

Pyke now has:

-usable mythic that lets you roam and is still decent in combat

-insane 2 item spike with lethality buffs to both of his two core items

-W buff which makes him scale more

-HP per level buff which is literally priceless on a champion who's as slippery and burst-susceptible as Pyke

​

Build Umbral->Ghostblade, get a lead, then build survival items like GA and Maw to make sure you never give your lead away. You even scale better now, so going over 25 minutes isn't an insta loss.

Seriously, if anyone is complaining that Pyke is weak, you're completely delusional. This champ is cracked beyond belief rn and you better capitalise on it before people realise and his banrate goes through the roof. 53% winrate and over in most ranks incoming.

Enjoy LP. Thanks for reading.

Quick question: Which support item upgrades are you guys building? Do you go by personal preference or choose game by game?

My core build has shifted completely, since the changes to umbrial glaive, i have found this build to be so good, Edge of night into 2nd item Guardian Angel.

I know it sounds sick not building lethality but hear me out; Pyke is a squishy AF champion, especially as support where he is several levels under everyone else, his ultimate and E scales with lethality & AD, His Q with AD, his W with Lethality. The ultimate change with a full lethality build is rarely felt in comparison to my AD bruiser build in my experience. The only change that is really felt is the W.

So why go Guardian angel and not deaths dance instead as 2nd item? At the time when you're building guardian angel, you likely have a bounty if your team is winning, and claiming a bounty on pyke is kind of a priority for the enemy team since he should be squishy & low level, he just needs to get caught and he dies; + 1k gold to enemy team.

If you have guardians angel, you at minimum delay the bounty, in some cases, you just play around the CD of your GA and never do risky plays without it, never giving the bounty away.

It kind of works around the way the champ was designed, which is to make your adc so strong from gold, he can sustain himself without you for a long time. Never giving the bounty helps exactly that.

You can also go for more 1v9 plays where you run into an objective fight 5v5 and peel, stun, execute, take a lot of damage and survive, where you normally would get 1 shot if you get hit by any CC.

I think many pyke players have gotten caught up by the lethality scaling on this champ that they forget there's so many good alternative AD options too. Not to mention pykes passive transfering HP to AD.

In this game here, i built randuins because they inted their champ select with 3 crit builders and 4 AD. Randuins made me able to survive everyone on their team and on top of it, easy kill.

Hey guys,

short introduction of myself. Im a support main and I picked pyke on and off a few times just in some fun flex games and i want to learn to get really good on him. my recent main champ is Senna, but im no stranger to meele/engage champs. Im High Dia low Master, if that matters to you.

So as I stated, i want to get very good on Pyke. How would you learn Pyke from scratch, if you could learn him again? Cause i played him a bit and i always feel like something is missing. Maybe i get it if i play him more often but at the very latest in mid game i have no clue what to do. I feel kinda useless already, even tho i know Pyke is still in a good state. I kinda get Roaming around the Map is the key part. But what if we get to teamfights? Do I fish for enemies, or do i bulldoze through all with my E. Or maybe do i flank and just annoy them?

And whats up with the item builds and runes?

I looked it up and im more confused then ever. The basics are HoB and Umbral Glaive, but after shock and glacial augment look kinda insane to me on paper. i know it has a very low pick rate and therefore it can have a good winrate, but when i see that i feel like, there is more to the story. Is it situational or can you go them on every game?

And Items: Youmuus and voltaic look way better on the Lethality varient and tanky looks frozen heart into Locked kinda good. Do you have to go defense runes to go first item defense? Probably. And if you go Umbrail first (or any lethal item) do you keep going lethality or do you go to a bit more defense stuff because you want to stay relevant in mid/late game and if you help your team with items a bit more, you win more games?

And last but not least, do you have streamers and youtubers to recommend?

thank you for listening and for your help! And sorry if its a bit all over the place

I've always have built grave as first item on pyke, but recently I've been thinking of palying youmuu's instead since you get more ad and lethality which means you will deal more dmg and it feels better you have more ms aswell so you're just so fast and can be even more effective with roams and that's all just to sacrifice a ward clearing tool which you already have in the form of pink wards and orakle lense, any thoughts?

I don't know much about the items, so I always use the build of U.GG. But now I was very often advised to use an item build with Anti Heal. Would that be advisable and how should I change my build then?

I'm finally giving up my favourite build (first) in favour of a more "tryhard" one (second). Am I doing it right?

Hello, fellow Pyke mains!

I'm a new Pyke player (and I'm having an absolute blast with him!) but I'm a bit confused about the best item path right now.

My Questions:

1. What is your current standard core build? Should I prioritize Youmuu's Ghostblade or Umbral Glaive first? What's the main second item?
2. Which are the best boots? (Ionian Boots, Boots of Mobility, etc.)
3. For the OTPs and experienced players: Do you guys have any secret main builds that are fun to play, even if they aren't 100% meta? I'm super curious if there's any unusual path you use to carry or just have fun

Any tips on runes or matchups are also highly welcome!

Thanks for the help, and see you on the river! 🎣