Weird Picks #105: Lethality ADC Pyke

The latest Pyke buffs in Patch 8.19 are strong enough to earn him some bonus kills in the current meta. While this build will NOT work with a sustain support, playing him alongside a kill support like Leona, Thresh, or Alistar can be extremely effective. Check out how it works below:

Weird Pick #105

Lethality ADC Pyke

September 2018

Pyke Buffs

How to Play

Abilities: Q, E, W then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Summoner Spells: Flash + Heal
Starting Items: Doran's Blade + Health Potion
Core Items: Youmuu's Ghostblade
Mercury's Treads
Voltaic Cyclosword
Black Cleaver
Trinity Force
Guardian Angel

Rune Setup

How It Works

Early Game Power Spike
In the early levels of the game, marksmen often get very cocky against melee champions or other off-meta picks. Unfortunately for them, there's a reason why supports dominate the early levels, and that's because they're just that much stronger. Pairing Pyke with a kill support gives them the element of surprise, and it's rare that enemy laners will insta-flash the initial CC. This allows you to drop considerably more CC and quickly burst down enemies for free kills.

Insane All-Ins
Even if you don't manage to do an early game cheese, there's a reason Pyke's so good as a support. His ability to set up ganks and initiate is extremely powerful, and his damage output is certainly enough to solo enemy champions by himself as the game goes on. If you have someone with multiple resets like Katarina, team fights can quickly turn into 2v5 stompfests...by the two.

Increased Mobility

Most bot laners suffer from being too squishy or having difficulty getting away. As one of the highest utility stealth champions in the game, Pyke can easily pop any marksman 1v1 before they can react. This can snowball games quickly and result in some incredibly difficult early to mid-games.

Potential Pitfalls

Low Tower Siege Potential

Pyke as the bot lane farmer means that your team will need someone in another lane with some range to siege towers. If you have a Kindred or Graves jungle this won't be an issue though.

Need for Cheese
This is not a playstyle that allows you to farm slowly into the mid to late game. You have to either cheese or roam to be effective, and only by getting kills will you unlock the full gold generation potential from his ultimate.

Conclusions

Pyke as a bot laner can dish an incredible amount of damage. As a reuslt, pairing him up with a champion like Thresh can produce wonderful results. If the enemy team isn't expecting the crowd-control train, things can quickly turn into a clown fiesta bot lane.

Suggested Tier: Tier 3