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/against one enemy - Can feel much weaker when behind - Whole kit heavily relies on Lethality & AD - Weaker early against poke champions due to being melee - Struggles to farm minions without Tiamat or Profane Hydra - Axiom Arcanist does not increase Death from Below's execute threshold

PASSIVE ABILITY

Gift of the Drowned Ones How does your passive work? 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. (game changing passive) 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. IMPORTANT TIP You can (and should as it can be really helpful for making efficient use of Oracle Lens) use it to check for wards in brushes as it won't regenerate health if there is a vision nearby.

Q

Bone Skewer How does your Q work? 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. IMPORTANT TIP you can pull people over the walls if they're close to them or even throw someone over the wall behind you if you're both close enough to it. Example Play Video

W

Ghostwater Dive How does your W work? Pyke submerges into water for 5 seconds, entering camouflage and gaining 45% (+ 2% per 1 Lethality) bonus movement speed that decays over the duration. IMPORTANT TIP 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 with no means of escaping other than having to burn Flash. 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 How does your E work? 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. IMPORTANT TIP You can use it to go through walls where Phantom Undertow is over half their length. Example Play Video

R

Death From Below How does your R work? ⦾ 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. IMPORTANT TIP Death from Below can be a game changer, so expect enemies to flash away from it and do your best 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!

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.

Sixth Sense could be used (if you REALLY wanted), 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. 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).

Relentless Hunter for when you want even more out of combat movespeed (47 at 5 stacks with Celerity and no boots) and feel like Axiom Arcanist lowers your Death from Below cooldown enough. (Best taken with Synchronized Souls and Forever Forward.) 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.

RESOLVE

Conditioning is useless as you're not going to be build tank items (that was funny and more useful a few years ago when you only scaled with AD) Second Wind won't be of much use since your max health is static and only increases from level instead of items Bone Plating is the best choice here since it reduces the damage you take from next 3 spells/attacks within 1,5 second and given you can't gain bonus health it can be very helpful.

Overgrowth gives you free AD which is always going to help you stay relative in the game. Revitalize Is the rune you should go with if you're taking Resolve to begin with, as it will add extra healing. It's going to be only really noticeable later in the game once you have items as your gray health scales with lethality. Although Unflinching can seem helpful I believe it's a dead rune and not worth giving up free AD that you'll get from Overgrowth or the extra healing from Revitalize.

Stat shards

In the 1st one you can pick either 10% Attack Speed or 6 AD, although attack speed helps you clear 2 wards with one use of Oracle Lens if you're quick enough. 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 AD like Adaptive Force. In the 3rd I prefer to take 10% Tenacity and Slow Resist than 12 AD from the health one as 10% less CC duration can be a difference between you dying or living a teamfight.

Hubris

Best 1st item if you know how to play pyke. It lets you infinitely stack 2 AD per takedown, which is easy to do, especially 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 of your abilities, also let's you chase or run away after takedown due to 200 Movement Speed it gives.

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 Death from Below threshold on enemy with it's active.

Ideally you should only replace Profane Hydra for any of those items. As Death's Dance is an amazing item for pyke.

Serpent's Fang

Perfect item against teams with lots of shielding. You'll most likely need this if you're up against enchanters such as Lulu or Yuumi

Edge of Night

If enemy team has a lot of CC

Maw of Malmortius

Pretty much the only option you have when facing AP heavy teams, or champions as the shield scales with AD and not health.

Bloodsong

Great support item if you're ahead and just need more damage. It gives you spellblade effect which enchances your AA (after using any ability) to deal more damage and mark enemy you attack with it to take more damage, it's only 8% more dmg, but it's for your WHOLE team, and not just you.

Celestial Opposition

Currently my go-to support item. It's a great anti-burst item and does basically what Death's dance but with cooldown and AOE slow on nearby enemies when it breaks.

Ideally you don't want to replace it as having 4 wards ready at any moment as soon as you leave base with Oracle Lens on top of it to deny enemy team vision is all you need.

If the game has been going on for too long and you already have full build and want to replace it you should go for Umbral Glaive and Stealth Ward. That way you get lethality, ability to detect and 1-shot / 2-shot wards, and also keep ability to ward objectives / bushes with wards that have double the duration due to Deep Ward.

Synchronized Souls

My go-to boots as they have higher move speed out of combat in comparison to Boots of Swiftness (5 less | 35 more ) which let's you roam and get back to lane faster, however You do lose a bit of Movement Speed during combat in comparison to Boots of Swiftness ( 15 less | 10 less) You also gain 50% faster recall (from 8 seconds to just 4), but only once you complete Synchronized Souls! P.S You should get them as soon as you finish Hubris (or 1st item in general if you chose a different one), so that you can finish their quest asap, because You can only get feats of strength upgrade once it's finished! Their feats of strength upgraded version Forever Forward grant you: the same as during combat | 45 more out of combat And that's without including the total 8% Movement Speed which adds up to 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

Should really only get them if enemy team has champions with strong / 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 (this includes my runes and items), basically granting as much as Health Scaling does at max lvl). P.S The AD can increase during Ghostwater Dive, but it doesn't do much since it'll disappear as soon as you exit it, so don't get thrown off by it when looking for Death from Below thresholds.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Get this only if you want to replace boots It gives you more Movement Speed but you already have enough thanks to Ghostwater Dive and boots. Getting more is an overkill and a waste of item slot when compared to other items you can get instead.

Umbral Glaive

Get this as support item replacement Very controversional, however to me this used to be core item due to Zombie Ward, and letting you easily deal with wards (always 1-shot them). Now if enemy is using Deep Ward it won't 1shot them as they'll have 4 health instead of 3, forcing you to hit it at least twice which can cost you your life if you are too greedy. The item cooldown has also been massively increased (90s instead of 50) which makes it less useful unless you take Cosmic Insight, but even then it won't be as good as it was.

Serylda's Grudge

Used to be good back when the armor penetration was scaling with lethality, but nowadays it's better to just build lethality items instead and pray that rest of your team builds armor penetration.

Axiom Arc

Not necessarily a bad item in comparison to the rest, however it'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.

Voltaic Cyclosword

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.

Solstice Sleigh

You're not a tank so getting more damage from Bloodsong / anti-burst from Celestial Opposition is preferrable, the cooldown for heal and movespeed is also too high.

FLASH Besides using it to escape, you can use it to extend range of your Bone Skewer or Phantom Undertow. You can also use it to pull off combos with your Phantom Undertow. EXHAUST Personally I never run exhaust, but it can be useful against attack heavy ADCs such as Vayne, Yasuo or Draven, especially later in the game once they have items.

IGNITE Reduces enemies healing received, while dealing true damage which helps you either get enemies to or keep them at the Death from Below's execute threshold. Can also be used to discourage enemies from chasing you / your ADC.

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 (your 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.
Blue - River area, only important if you're using Deep Ward.