Thank you for checking out my guide! I think I've discovered a very clever way to play Pyke in the top lane that makes him versatile against many of the meta and dominant top lane picks and very fun!


I like to think of myself as the master of thinking outside the box and often find all sorts of fun gimmicks that are super fun and effective at the same time such as my Ryze Jg, Caitlyn Sup, Rammus Top, Nidalee Mid, Kai'Sa full ap jg, etc.


Why I'm so hyped about Pyke:
One of the most exciting mechanics about Pyke is his passive completely plundering the way we look at the shop when playing him and picking items. Basically, take all the hp stats and divide them by 14, that number is now your new ad you will get from the item!
This turns Frozen Mallet into an 80 ad item w/ an ashe passive for just 3100 gold, turns Black Cleaver and Trinity Force into very efficient and scary damage items with huge ways of making Pyke even more elusive and threatening.
His passive regenerating hp allows him to make trades with champions always "cheated" as 30% at lvl1 and growing to beyond 50% of the damage is warmog-ed after trades through going to bushes or walking out of lane vision or simply W-ing a caster minion distance away for a few seconds.
All this makes Pyke extremely unique. The other huge thing is that the runes interact very differently with him making the resolve tree available to him as the base stats would provide ad instead of hp!

Resolve + Domination gives you great early stats and the best stats any champion can get post lvl4 for ad.
Resolve gives 15-135hp which is roughly 1-10ad throughout leveling
Domination gives 5ad


Grasp of the Undying - gives you great lane sustain for trades and allows sapping permanent stacking ad (5hp per sap, so 1ad per 3 stacks).
Bone Plating - great for tanking the trades which you will be doing lots of
Crysalis - gives 50hp at game start which will be 3.5ad, once 4 stacks gained, becomes 9ad
Overgrowth - Pyke can't buy hp and top can be difficult to win with that restriction, and overgrowth WILL give you extra hp. Fun Fact: if you get 20% overgrowth, you can swap an item for warmogs giving 57ad, 200%hp regen and the insane passive.

Cheap Shot - Q and E are going to proc cheap shot, and with it on a 4s cd, it is the best choice for early game
Ravenous Hunter - Pyke has to dive in and get dirty to make his passive worth it's dream. Healing from the abilities will buy you more time to fight and with cdr make you very difficult to stop.




Other options I'm exploring:
Electricute+Sorcery with Absolute Focus - would be fantastic if Pyke can live to use it against some of the early laning phase kings like Renekton, Darius, and Irelia. If possible, this would give base of 11ad, later surpassed by the rune setup above this at level2 actually, but electricute scaling 50% with bonus ad would make itemization into making his burst as big as possible very tasty.
Building BC first item would be bonkers, going into Duskblade and edge of night. If very ahead, going Righteous Glory could be deadly.
Absolute Power is on when your hp is over 70%, making it a fantastic choice on Pyke due to his passive.

Reversing the rune page and putting Domination and then Resolve could work if the Grasp isn't necessary to hold wave from a maw-over. This way you can hold on to Eyeball Collection and Crysalis giving Pyke 2 runes with stats that grow over time allowing Pyke not to fall off as roughly if behind.

Phase Rush could be a clean option of sorcery into resolve/domination as well. All different variants based on preference of play style



Update:
Currently exploring a better option than domination secondary. Absolute Focus with Gathering Storm is insane for plain rune stats for Pyke!

Start:
Doran's Blade - INSANE! 16 ad from this item because 80hp converted to ad! No competition for this item start.

First Backs:
Tiamat is fantastic to rush if enemy is shoving you into turret in order to match cs if you can't safely trade early.

Rushing Duskblade of Draktharr is great for when ahead or when in strong control of lane and/or bushes

Sheen is very good if mana is the only issue for the moment and you're getting away with much grasp stacking and want to roll the snowball, but obviously this won't provide ad but it will provide great tempo as the cdr helps Pyke a lot.

1st items:
Trinity Force - great well rounded item that make Pyke very smooth at trading and picking fights and one of the best items on him overall

Duskblade of Draktharr if not under siege or pressure, amazing rush item if safe.

Frozen Mallet if really struggling with trades putting you in a death trap. Most champions would never ever rush this, but the price is very affordable for the stats Pyke gets of a hefty 80 ad and a 40% slow giving his aa a cc in addition to the q and e to help him stay alive more easily against hard cc chaining in 1v1s and such (looking at you Rekenton)

Black Cleaver - great against tanks, replaces trinity if rushed comfortably


Best Value:
Duskblade of Draktharr provides procs opportunities for Pyke so often, it is one of the best items on him
Edge of Night has the best ad+lethality as it gives the ad and hp with lethality.
Frozen Mallet is incredible value of 80 ad and passive that it provides
Ravenous Hydra provides great waveclear, prime ad and healing, a must pretty much any game





Gameplan handbook:
Ahead, able to win trades and no mana issues - get Warhammer into Duskblade
Some mana issues and want better trades/cdr - sheen
behind and need wave clear/mana issues too - tiamat

Squishy just need to get em - duskblade is ur buddy friend
They getting too healthy to burst down and losing trades due to long fights - vamp scepter
Doing great overall, rich - get that trinity

All Pyke's abilities are great for disengage and punishing trades initiated by enemies. I like to compare his playstyle to shaco top. Since Pyke only regens damage from champions and not minions, minion aggro should be avoided.

Q does more dmg and is a line aoe if not charged for range which is great for short trades inside waves. Save long ranger Q for keeping enemy laner in the fight and force them to take extra aggro.

Charged Q if done up close will flip the enemy over behind you. Very useful in escape scenarios and pulling someone for the team.

R will hop you to whoever you hit with ult even if it doesn't kill them. If it doesn't, it'll simply X mark and damage and you'll stay put. This can be used to play mind games with opponents and bait abilities out in tight fights

Pyke's passive allows you to also check if something is warded or not because the passive wont activate if a ward sees you. This effect will proc on the moment you walk out of vision even if you don't have grey bar.

Pyke's E has a fixed range, it cannot be cast under it's large range, so be weary of this.

Pyke's Q when charged up where it can pull player over, interrupts all channels and dashes which is fantastic for nullifying engages on you and is great and a key strength against champions like Vi, Riven, Alistar, etc.

If you liked this quick rundown of how I play Pyke and if it helped you learn to enjoy him in the top lane, leave a vote up or a comment on your thoughts! Any constructive feedback is welcome!

Fòxý <3