Pros + High mobility with Ghostwater Dive & Phantom Undertow + Strong early game with Hail of Blades + Easily kill squishy targets + Prints Your Cut if ally assists in Death from Below + Can change teamfight outcome with Death from Below + The only Assassin support + Great ganking & roaming potential thanks to Ghostwater Dive + Easily the most satisfying pentakills from every champion + Every skin has it's own Death from Below sound effects + High skill ceiling

Cons - Very squishy & can't gain bonus health due to Gift of the Drowned Ones - Skillshots only that can be very punishing if missed - Death from Below can be easily avoided with Flash, Zhonya's Hourglass or any type of Heal which can cost you a whole teamfight - Gift of the Drowned Ones is much weaker in solo lane - Can feel much weaker when behind - Whole kit heavily relies on Lethality & attack damage - Weaker early against poke champions due to being melee - Cannot properly farm minions without Tiamat or Profane Hydra - Axiom Arcanist does not increase Death from Below's execute threshold

DOMINATION

Hail of Blades is your best friend in early game and even later on due to the 140% increased attack speed on the next 3 basic attacks. Be sure to abuse it in early game if possible as auto attacks can be quite devastating. Electrocute Can be also used, however it requires you to hit enemy champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities and is generally more useful for finishing off enemies / putting them in Death from Below's threshold and cannot help you out as much in early game. Be sure to take attack speed in runes with it as it makes procing Electrocute easier.

Cheap Shot provides 10-45 true damage on stunned / impaired targets if you're fast enough (Can be proc'd with your AA or ability). Sudden Impact Used to give you lethality after using Ghostwater Dive or Phantom Undertow but now it provides your next AA or ability for 4 seconds to deal 20-80 True damage, however it's cooldown is 2.5 times longer than Cheap shot which makes it worse as you get less use out of it.

Deep Ward is the best rune for supports, thanks to it increasing World Atlas's ward time by 30-45 seconds and giving them 1 extra health (as long as they are in enemy jungle or river (after lvl 9) ). Sixth Sense could also be used, but it only becomes useful at lvl 11 since it works like Oracle Lens. It's not worth picking over deep wards due to it's cooldown being way too long.

Ultimate Hunter lowers your Death from Below's cooldown by 31 Ability Haste at max stacks and by 6 at 0 stacks, which let's you have it ready for every fight.

SORCERY

Axiom Arcanist is just Axiom Arc but as a rune which makes it better due to freeing up item slot, keep in mind it DOES NOT INCREASE DAMAGE unless enemy is over execute threshold. You're picking it purely for the cooldown lowering after each takedown, it can save you a lot of ultimate's downtime

Celerity gives you free movespeed while also increasing all movespeed you get by 7% which works with your Ghostwater Dive, Opportunity and boots which can help you close gaps easier.

In the 1st one you can pick either 10% Attack Speed vs 6 attack damage both are helpful. In the 2nd you should always pick as it provides you with 12 attack damage (1 AD per 14 extra health) instead of just 6 like Adaptive Force. In the 3rd I prefer to take 10% Tenacity and Slow Resist than 12 AD from the health one.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Besides using it to escape, you can use it to extend range of your Bone Skewer or Phantom Undertow, or use it last second while your Phantom Undertow is coming back to you to chain stuns on enemies. IGNITE: Reduces enemies healing received while dealing true damage which helps you keep them at the Death from Below's execute threshold.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Gift of the Drowned Ones ⦾ Pyke's maximum health cannot increase except through growth (per level), instead he gains 1 bonus attack damage per 14 bonus health. ⦾ Pyke gains 1 bonus movement speed while in the river. ⦾ Pyke stores 9% (+ 0.2% per 1 Lethality ) of the post-mitigation damage he takes from enemy champions as grey health on his health bar, increased to 40% (+ 0.4% per 1 Lethality ) while there are two or more visible enemy champions nearby. He can store up to 80 (+ 800% bonus Attack Damage) grey health, with an upper cap of 55% of his maximum health. While not visible to enemies, he rapidly consumes his grey health to heal for the same amount. you can use it to check for wards in bushes as it won't regenerate if there is a ward.

Q

Bone Skewer ⦾ Tap: Pyke stabs the first enemy hit (prioritizing enemy champions) dealing physical damage and slowing them by 90% for 1 second. ⦾ Hold: Pyke charges while being slowed by 20% for up to 3 seconds to increase Bone Skewer's range over the first second of the channel. Bone Skewer can be recast within the duration. Dealing physical damage to the first enemy hit and pulling them, during which they are also revealed, then slowed by 90% for 1 second. ⦾ If the charge is interrupted or completes without being thrown, Bone Skewer is cancelled and the ability is put on full cooldown but refunds 75% of the mana cost. Bone Skewer's mana cost is also refunded if it hits an enemy champion.

W

Ghostwater Dive ⦾ Pyke submerges into water for 5 seconds, entering camouflage and gaining 45% (+ 2% per 1 Lethality ) bonus movement speed that decays over the duration. Attacking or casting abilities ends Ghostwater Dive immediately. ⦾ Try to use Ghostwater Dive mainly for escaping after you engage with Phantom Undertow as using both will leave you vulnerable. If you are in the middle of a fight you can use Ghostwater Dive to quickly regenerate health as long as no enemy is within your Ghostwater Dive range.

E

Phantom Undertow ⦾ Pyke dashes in the target direction, leaving behind a Phantom. After 1 second, the Phantom homes back to Pyke to stun enemies around it and those it passes through along the way for 1.25 (+ 0.1 per 10 Lethality ) seconds. Enemy champions hit also take physical damage. you can use it to go through walls where Phantom Undertow is over half their length

R

Death From Below ⦾ Pyke marks the target location with an X before striking it, executing enemy champions within the area that are below 250 − 550 (based on level) (+ 80% bonus Attack Damage) (+ 1.5 per 1 Lethality ) health. Other enemies hit and enemy champions above the threshold are instead dealt 50% of the amount as physical damage. ⦾ If Death from Below hits an enemy champion or at least one is killed inside the X by the execution or an ally, Pyke will blink to the center of the X. For the latter case Pyke can also recast the ability within 20 seconds at no cost. ⦾ Each successful execution grants one Your Cut to the last assisting ally, instead of its natural assist gold. Otherwise, Pyke is granted Your Cut for each enemy champion killed inside the X by an ally during Death from Below's cast time. ⦾ Death from Below is your main ability, expect enemies to flash away from your ult so do your beset to either CC them or predict where they're going to flash to secure the kill. ⦾ The cooldown can sometimes bug out due to runes so remember:If it shows you threshold on enemies it means your R is ready, don't believe the cooldown!

Hubris

Opportunity

Hubris - the best 1st item. It lets you infinitely stack 2 AD per takedown, which is easy to do as Pyke with Death from Below. Opportunity - gives you total of 29 lethality ( the additional 11 lethality lasts for 3 seconds after dealing damage to champions) which scales with nearly all abilities, also let's you chase or run away after takedown due to 200ms it gives.

Hubris

Opportunity

Death's dance

Profane Hydra

Death's Dance - this is what you want when it comes to getting tankier against AD teams but also anyone in general as it turns 30% of total dmg you take into DoT, which gives you more time to score takedown and cleanse the DoT while regaining some health at the same time. Profane Hydra - your best bet on being able to protect base/push waves or helping you secure the threshold on enemy with it's active.

Bloodsong

Celestial Opposition

Bloodsong - your go-to support item. It gives you more damage and spellblade effect which enchances your AA to deal more damage after using any ability, it's only 8% more dmg but it's for your WHOLE team not just you. Celestial Opposition - the one item you take before you get Death's Dance if you're getting heavily bursted. It does basically what Death's dance but with cooldown.

Synchronized Souls

Boots of Swiftness

Synchronized Souls - could probably be your go-to boots as they have higher move speed (5 less out of combat as Symbiotic Soles | 35 more out of combat when upgraded to Synchronized Souls) out of combat ( 15 less during combat when not upgraded | 10 less when upgraded) while not losing a lot when compared to Boots of Swiftness, and the faster recall is a nice thing but you only obtain it once they change into Synchronized Souls! Their feats of strength upgraded version Forever Forward grant you a total of 122 out of combat movespeed, and that's just while walking, just like Celerity it increases during your Ghostwater Dive as long as you are out of combat. Boots of Swiftness - great but only really if they have champions with strong or a lot of slows (i.e Crippling Strike, Wither, etc.) Swiftmarch grant 5% of your total Movement Speed as Adaptive Force (20 Adaptive Force (or in pyke terms 12 AD) while simply walking, basically granting as much as Health Scaling does at max lvl).

Serpent's Fang

Edge of Night

Maw of Malmortius

Serpent's Fang - is a perfect item against teams with lots of shielding. Edge of Night - if you are getting constantly CC'd. Maw of Malmortius - pretty much the only option you have when facing heavy AP teams or champions as the shield scales with AD and not health.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Serylda's Grudge

Axiom Arc

Solstice Sleigh

Voltaic Cyclosword

Umbral Glaive

Youmuu's Ghostblade - bait item, it gives you more ms but you already have enough thanks to your W and boots. Getting more is an overkill and a waste of item slot. ONLY BUY AS LAST ITEM IF YOU WANT TO REPLACE BOOTS

Serylda's Grudge - used to be good back when the armor pen was scaling with lethality, but nowadays you rarely need it.

Axiom Arc - another item that's a waste of slot as there is literally a rune that does exactly the same thing and does not take up an item slot.

Solstice Sleigh - not good for you because you're not a tank so getting more damage from bloodsong is preferrable, the cooldown for heal and movespeed is also too high.

Voltaic Cyclosword - not necessarily bad, however there are simply better items to choose from and cyclosword's slow is not worth it when you play pyke since you can easily catch up to enemies anyways.

Umbral Glaive - used to be core item due to zombie wards and letting you easily deal with wards, however now if enemy is using deep wards it WON'T 1SHOT THE WARD forcing you to hit it at least twice which can cost you your life if you are too greedy. The item cooldown is now 90s instead of 50 which makes it even less useful.

Green - Best usage of wards, easier to place (due to being near your lane) / more helpful spots | gives your team more info on enemy jungle and anyone inside it, lasts longer with +1 HP due to Deep Ward.
Yellow - Don't benefit from Deep Ward till lvl 9 due to being in river / due to being in a lane / your jungle, but are useful regardless | you should prioritize using Bounty of Worlds on ones marked as green.
Red - Don't benefit from Deep Ward due to being in your jungle or not in jungle at all | will only use those spots either for extra safety (yyour side) or for Teleport & extra vision (enemy side).
Magenta - There is only one Control Ward of that color and that is due to this spot being great only when ocean dragon takes over the rift, causing a brush to spawn inside the dragon pit.