Big changes to mid lane Pyke are being implemented in League of Legends’ latest patch. Patch 8.24b is on its way and with it comes a host of new changes across the board. The small update, focusing on minor buffs and nerfs to a number of champions and items, is the last patch of the year, in preparation for season 9 starting Jan. 23.

Pyke has reigned in the mid lane for long enough. He’s a perfectly balanced supportive assassin, with the means to pick off an unsuspecting AD Carries with ease—stunning them before a quick and easy execute. He’s supposed to be a damage-orientated champion, but that, by no means, should stretch to the mid lane.

Pyke has a win rate of 54 percent in mid, versus 49 percent in the bot lane, according to League of Legends stats site OP.gg. He’s become far too powerful for his own good, and Riot clearly agrees, with this week’s patch it’s targeting his problematic tendencies, putting him down a few notches.

In Patch 8.24b the changes to Pyke are particularly tailored to affect his prowess in the mid lane. His Bone Skewer (Q) has been nerfed, reducing the damage he does to secondary targets (50 percent > 30 percent), taking away some of his laning and waveclear potential. His overall scaling has also been nerfed, reducing his magic resist growth (2 > 1.5). And finally, Death From Below has received changes, decreasing its overall pick and execution capabilities, reducing its damage in the upper execute thresholds quite significantly. Enemies above the execute threshold will now take physical damage equal to the threshold instead.

It’s difficult to say at such an early stage whether the new Pyke changes will make a real difference, or if he’ll quietly sink back to his original role in the bot lane, as intended. He’s been much too strong in his current state, but hopefully with his new changes, we’ll see much less of him in mid.

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