How to Play Pyke Mid Lane in League of Legends

Last Updated: October 21, 2021

This extensive guide is intended for intermediate to professional level League of Legends players. Pyke is a support champion that can be used for mid lane and top lane. The mid lane Pyke builds/mechanics can be integrated for top lane as well. This guide will go over the mechanics of Pyke, what items to buy in-game, what wards to use, Pyke's counter champions, his combos, and his rune pages.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Learn Abilities

1
Learn Pyke's passive. Pyke's passive is extremely useful and helps keep him alive. When taking bursts of heavy damage, his health bar does not disappear like other champions; instead, a fraction of damage dealt within a small window is grayed out, and once Pyke removes himself from combat, it quickly replenishes. His secondary part of his passive also grants AD by his bonus health received from items at a ratio of 14:1. So, Pyke heals instantly out of battle and gains extra damage when built with health-boosting items.
2
Learn Pyke's Q. Pyke's Q ability is a hook/jab, called Bone Skewer. Tapping Q allows Pyke to quickly jab an enemy, dealing AD. When holding down Q, Pyke's blade charges up, increasing in range, and, while aiming the mouse, can be used to grab enemies from up to 700 units away, dealing slightly less AD, but throwing them on the opposite side of Pyke. When pulled, the enemy is slowed by 90% for 1 second.
- This can be extremely useful in combat to begin a combo move, to throw an enemy under your tower, to get them in range for your R, or to pull an enemy into a team fight. This ability should be maxed out first.
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3
Learn Pyke's W. Pyke's W ability is called Ghostwater Dive. He becomes mostly invisible (enters camouflage) to enemies that are about 250 units away from him or more, and increases his movement speed greatly for a period of a decaying 5 seconds.
- This helps him activate his passive faster because he immediately is considered "out of combat". This is great for engaging in battle quickly, chasing enemies that are low health, and getting away from danger quickly.
- Pyke is thrown out of his W if he attacks or uses any other abilities. This ability should be maxed out third.
4
Learn Pyke's E. Pyke's E ability is the most difficult to use and is called Phantom Undertow. He dashes a short distance, through minions or enemy champions, but is unable to move through structures such as walls or barriers. After he dashes, he leaves a phantom-like being behind him that follows after 1 second, stunning anything in its path for 1.25 seconds, and does some AD.
- By dashing through an enemy, Pyke can stun and damage them quickly. This ability should be maxed out second.
5
Learn Pyke's R. Pyke's R ability, or his ultimate, is called Death From Below. This ability is an execution, doing massive damage to enemy champions, and mainly used for finishing off a low health enemy.
- When an enemy champion can be executed, their level will have an "X" through it, next to their health bar. This means that by hitting the champion with this execute, they will die instantly, and Pyke will receive extra gold as a consumable in his inventory if there is an open space (if not, he will just get the gold immediately). The same amount of gold will also be given to the last assisting team member.
- If his ultimate hits kills an enemy champion, he will be refunded the ability, and be able to use it again for no cost within 20 seconds.
- When using his ability, Pyke will jump in the air and slam the ground in the shape of an X rapidly, damaging anything within the X. At this moment, he will also teleport to the center of the X, but only if it hits. If it misses, he will stay where he cast it, and the cooldown will be applied.
- This ability should be given a level-point every time available.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Pre-Game

1
Set up Rune Page Part 1. Rune pages consist of two parts, but the first is always the most important. Doing this pre-game is also very smart. The way Pyke's runes are set up for support and mid lane are very different. His primary rune column should start with Hail of Blades, under the Domination category (red). Most people seem to think Electrocute is best, but Pyke is not meant to deal with heavy damage and does not need the boost. He does need a boost in attack speed early on for farming because it is his weakness.
- His 2nd tier rune should be Sudden Impact. Pyke deals all of his primary damage using his R and this is a one-shot ability. This rune will provide the extra boost needed to deal with some additional damage.
- His 3rd tier rune should be Eyeball Collection because Pyke gains additional AD every time he executes an enemy champion or destroys an enemy ward (which he will be doing constantly).
- His 4th tier rune should be Ultimate Hunter because every time he gets an execute, his ultimate's cooldown will reduce slightly. This allows for more executes!
2
Set up Rune Page 2. The secondary rune page supports the first and is not as important, but still can help quite a bit. His supporting rune column should start with Second Wind, under the Resolve category (green). This will boost his passive, gaining back extra health after taking damage from enemy champions.
- His 2nd tier rune should be Revitalize, another healing regeneration boost. Pyke is a finisher, so the longer his passive keeps him alive, the better; these two Resolve runes can boost that significantly.
- Now, three buffs can be selected. The most relevant for Pyke would be Attack Speed, and the rest are completely optional (mostly depends on the opponents). The main setup would be Attack Speed, Armor, and Health.
3
Set up the summoner spells. Pyke is almost ready to fight but you need to select two out of the 10 summoner spells. The correct choices for Pyke would be Flash and Ignite. Flash can help him hop over a wall or get away from danger instantly, and Ignite can help him finish off a player when soloing in the early game.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

In-game Purchasing

1
Purchase starting items. When Pyke spawns in, he will start with 500 gold (like everyone else). When buying starting items, consider who Pyke is against.
- See if the enemy is pokey, and if they generally play aggressively. Check if they deal a lot of damage and not allow much farming, or if they play defensively and allow for better farming.
- If the enemy champion pokes a lot and makes it hard for Pyke to farm, adapt him before even making it to the lane by buying a Warding Totem (Trinket) to avoid getting ganked, and switch it later to an Oracle Lens to spot enemy wards and increase the Eyeball Collection rune. He should also purchase a Corrupting Potion to stay alive.
- If the other champion is more defensive and allows Pyke to advance and farm more, buy a Long Sword and Refillable Potion to have a heal and to have a little extra damage. This will help later on.
2
Rush the first item and then build boots. Pyke needs to have an item rushed for farming purposes, and every champion should build boots 1st or 2nd in terms of full-item-building. Pyke needs Tiamat. This item is extremely essential to Pyke's farming since he does not do a lot of minion damage and has slow attack speed. This item should be sold late game to make room, and should never be built into a full item.
- Get boots for Pyke based on the enemy team. Build ones with armor if facing an AD champ, or magic resist for an AP champ. The best go-to for Pyke is Ninja Tabi or Mercenary's Treads.
3
Complete a full build. Pyke's full build should begin with early items and transform into 6 strong, full-built items by the end of the game. Replace the Vision Totem with a Oracle Lens so Pyke can uncover enemy wards and destroy them. This should be done after the first tower falls (timeline-wise). The first actual item Pyke should be full building is Youmuu's Ghostblade. This item is strictly for movement and AD for Pyke and is a great first build because of its active ability that increases movement speed greatly for escapes.
- Secondly, Pyke should have Ninja Tabi, for attack speed and movement.
- Build a Duskblade of Draktharr for Pyke for its AD benefits and passive ability; this item and the Ghostblade pair very well.
- Sell Corrupting Potion and begin to build Black Cleaver. This item will keep Pyke alive. He gains massive health, some armor, and AD.
- Sell his Tiamat and begin to build Sterak's Gage for a massive health increase with armor and AD, and a passive that will make sure he seldom dies.
- Build a Guardian Angel, which provides health but also a resurrection upon death, with a cooldown of course.
- You can build several items for Pyke, but Maw of Malmortius gives a boost of AD and magic resist, with 10% cooldown reduction which helps spam R. This full build should make Pyke virtually unstoppable, especially with level 18 and a potion of wrath to top him off.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Combining It All

1
Learn to use Pyke effectively. Learning Pyke is not just mechanical or by knowing how the lane works or by buying the right stuff. It takes a combination of all of it, which has been provided below. Buying in this order, and maxing out Q, then E, then W (and using points on R when available) with the provided runes will make Pyke very strong. Learning combinations of moves can make all the difference.
2
Q an enemy over Pyke's back, and dash with E through them. This allows for an effective poke or chance to escape, or even a chance to R and execute.
3
E through an enemy and then W away for an easy escape.
4
E through an enemy and tap Q on them for quick damage. Then walk away or W away.
5
Pull a half health enemy to Pyke. Then use R to instakill.
- These are just some basic moves, and Pyke is super fun to use, so experiment with different combinations.