"There's plenty of room for everyone at the bottom of the sea..."
tl;dr Loadouts
Standard - 12.3
Best Overall Runes
Spells
Skill Priority
Q
E
W
Best Overall Build
Safe n Supportive - 12.3
Best Overall Runes
Spells
Skill Priority
Q
E
W
Best Overall Build
Introduction
First off, my name is Kynes and I play support, mainly Pyke, on the OCE server. I've been playing since Pyke's release in 2018. I don't play Ranked often because of schoolwork, but I was Gold in Season 2021. I am currently sitting at 370K points on Pyke.
Why play Pyke?
Pyke is a very interesting and unique support that can provide so much for the team in ways other supports cannot. This man can straight-up print gold. He can steal kills without getting flamed. You'll love him if you like playing aggressively in lane.
Because he is such a special snowflake, there are multiple ways you can play him, depending on the matchup and team composition.
Pros
Very strong during early/mid game
Great engage potential and peel
Powerful sustain
Speedy roams
High mobility
Good cleanup
Manipulates vision well
Cons
Cannot gain additional health; super squishy
Weak late game
Weak against tankier champions
Runes
Pyke will normally take Hail of Blades against most matchups, but he can also bring Glacial Augment against certain matchups with high damage. Predator can also be fun as it helps with roams and landing CC.
Standard
Safe n Supportive
More information below :D
Standard
Safe n Supportive
Standard Pyke Keystone. Hail of Blades empowers his already strong early game by letting him land three rapid attacks on an enemy after a hook (Q) or a stun (E). It allows him to chunk an enemy quickly before they can fight back. Because of this, Cheap Shot works very well to amplify that damage.
Zombie Wards are a must-bring, as they synergize very well with Umbral Glaive, an item that lets him destroy regular wards with one attack and control wards with two.
Because Pyke already gains so much Ability Haste from Ionian Boots of Lucidity and various lethality items, he is free to take Relentless Hunter, which boosts his roam potential. However, this depends on your own playstyle, so you are free to switch around with either Ultimate Hunter or Ingenious Hunter.
There are also plenty of options to choose from the secondary Rune path. I personally like to take Future's Market to buy crucial items quicker, or to bring an extra Control Ward. When you're up against a scary team with a lot of crowd control, you may want to consider taking Triumph and Legend: Tenacity, under the Precision tree.
With Glacial Augment, you will want to take Evenshroud. With a single hook, you can cause affected enemies to deal decreased damage while taking increased damage themselves.
This Keystone is great against opponents with high damage, like Draven, because it helps pin them down. Glacial Augment also provides effective follow-up on a gank/roam. Glacial Augment synergizes well with tankier builds.
Perfectly Timed Stopwatch is perfect for adding extra survivability to Pyke in team fights, especially to help him escape dangerous situations where he is left vulnerable after using his R to blink to an enemy. This gives time for his teammates to come to his aid.
Legend: Tenacity further adds to Pyke's deceptive 'tankiness', and can potentially save him from certain death.
Summoner Spells
Always Ignite and Flash. Ignite helps with securing executes with Pyke's Death From Below (R). The DoT and Grievous Wounds are very helpful for this. Flash is a must, as it opens up fresh, new combos with Pyke's Q, E, and even R.
Skill Path
Pyke will always upgrade his abilities in this order, no matter what matchup he is against.
Q>E>W
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Item Builds
Pyke has a lot of options to choose from, in regards to itemization. He is not too reliant on buying his Mythic items, which means that he can adapt very well to all sorts of different situations. You may sometimes find yourself going Maw of Malmortius first item or even Death's Dance.
With his Glacial Augment build, even going Mikael's Blessing is an option if the situation requires it. If you have Prowler's Claw, you can take advantage of its Mythic passive ( +5 Lethality per Legendary item) to build items that give no Lethality at all. This helps as his abilities scale with Lethality.
Standard 12.3
Safe n Supportive
Basic Items
As explained earlier, Umbral Glaive synergizes well with Zombie Wards and Pyke's high mobility, to improve vision for his team.
The best boots to buy, generally. You are free to buy Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads instead, against certain difficult matchups. The need for Ability Haste overshadows the movespeed of Mobility boots. However, if you find Ultimate Hunter to be more of what you're looking for, then mobility boots aren't bad, either.
A solid item that improves Pyke's survivability during teamfights by giving him room to breathe after every execute with his R.
Where the enemy team lacks a lot of mobility, or they're generally squishy targets, or if you're just fed, Prowler's Claw may be an option. This Mythic item adds to your kit another dash for your combos. Landing E becomes so much easier. Paired well with Ingenious Hunter or Cosmic Insight.
For a more utility-based playstyle. If your team has enough carries and doesn't need any more damage, this item is perfect to enhance their power. This also makes Pyke deceptively harder to kill, thanks to all the armor and magic-resist.
This item synergizes with Pyke even better now, thanks to patch 12.3's Death's Dance rework/revert. It really helps with staying alive in fights and giving you time to heal up using DD's passive and Pyke's passive in Duskblade stealth, after every kill. You may build it second, or even first if you'd like to feel tanky.
A very powerful item for Pyke that synergizes well with his ultimate. However, because the item is quite expensive, I would only really recommend it if you feel you are strong enough, already.
That's all folks! And remember, the pink chroma increases your win rate (proven)!
