Teamfight Tactics has been on the live servers for around a week. There are fifty champions in the game and as much as you can have about six to eight (technically, more, but usually) champions on the board, you have to give some thought to which champions to select.

The Origins and Classes are quite well balanced, as for individual champions… it may need some more work, although some of them are intended. In TFT Champion Spotlight, we’ll be looking at individual champions, good synergies to utilize them with and which items to use.

PykeThe Bloodharbor Ripper

When the game mode first was deployed on the PBE server, Draven and Aurelion Sol were known as the most broken champions. They’re obviously still strong, but now, other champions are gaining more spotlight. On the live servers, a LOT more players are able to play which means there are so many more comps being attempted.

During the first week of live Teamfight Tactics, the champion that gained the most attention was Pyke. Pyke is a Pirate Assassin. The skill he uses in Teamfight Tactics is Phantom Undertow, his E skill on the Rift. He dashes through his enemies and when his shadow also moves through the enemies, they get stunned. Just with this, people may wonder why.

The biggest reason Pyke has received so much attention is that he becomes untargetable while he dashes through his enemies. Naturally, the enemies that target Pyke moves on to hit the next closest enemy. When Spear of Shojin (B.F. Sword + Tear of the Goddess: After casting, wearer regains 15% of its mana per attack) is equipped on Pyke, he starts spamming his skills which makes it a lot more difficult to kill as everyone in his path is stunned.

Up to now, Riot allows us to stack items; 2 SoSs mean even faster mana regain for Pyke. At this point, Pyke actually zigzags through enemies, even before they recover from the initial stun. Pyke has been nerfed, having the stun duration reduced from 2.5/3/3.5 to 2/2.5/3, but this won’t have that big of an effect on him.

Items That Go Well With PykeSpear of Shojin x2 + Basically Anything

Spear of Shojin (★★★★★)

- As mentioned above, give your Pyke two Spears of Shojins. This would be the best build. When you start a game thinking you want to try this, grab a B.F. Sword or Tear of the Goddess or a Pyke at the start Carousel. Apparently, SoS had a bug where the item gave more mana than intended, which is being addressed by Riot. However, even if it does what is intended, it would still be strong.

Phantom Dancer (★★★☆☆)

- Phantom Dancer is a very underrated item. Its ability to dodge all critical strikes goes well with any champion. Sometimes Pyke penetrates into the opponent backline and gets popped immediately. The Phantom Dancer will prevent that from happening.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade (★★★☆☆)

- Guinsoo’s Rageblade works better for champions who survive for a long time. Pyke’s ability keeps him alive for long, so it seems like a good match. The +20 AP is also a plus for him.

Morellonomicon (★★★☆☆)

- Pyke’s skill can hit multiple targets. With Morellonomicon draining opponents’ HP by 3%, you may not need AoE damage skills.

Synergies

Blitzcrank

- Blitzcrank grabs and pulls the furthest enemy at the start of a combat. This mechanism works before where assassins jump to is decided which means it can open up a spot for Pyke to jump to. Even 1-star Blitzcrank can do the trick... Although the whole 


Pirate

- Pirates help you gain 0-4 extra gold after every PVP round. Quite effective to boost your economy, but not always that easy to find 3 or more. You can get Graves and Pyke rather early, but Miss Fortune is 5-cost… Gangplank is quite good when he has the chance to blow up his barrels but if not...

Assassin

- Going for the Assassin synergy is one of the simplest and easiest strategies in the game. How you pull it off is just pick up every single assassin you see until you have 6 of them… You do mostly need an extra champion that has an AoE CC skill.

Ninja

- The 4 Ninja buff grants the Assassins 80% attack damage; if it’s activated, it’s almost as good as having all four champions +1 star. Plus, it’s quite easy to transition from Assassins, since there are two Assassins among them, and there’s always the Spatula formula (although you may not have enough B.F. Swords).

Gunslinger

- Gunslingers are good to carry early to mid game, and it usually goes with Pirates. However, you usually need an extra carry for the late game, considering Pyke has most of your resources.

AoE CC

- As much as Pyke is also a champion that has such ability, but it's always good to have one of these two champions.