In their hatred of Pyke mid, Riot may have gone too far with their nerfs and made the champion unplayable on any level of competitive, as long as these changes last.
It is no secret that Riot Games hate seeing Pyke anywhere else aside from his assigned support role. Even though the champion, with his good base stats, mobility and CC went so far as to be played in the jungle when he was first released, any deviation from his support role brings more nerf onto the champion.
The most recent nerfs are, once again, targeting his mid-lane presence. In the same way, they targeted his healing when in a solo lane, they are now trying to curb his potential for solo kills.
Riot are doing this by denying Pyke the extra gold he gets from executing enemy champions, with no allies that previously dealt damage to said champion. In essence, should Pyke ever solo kill a target, his ultimate will not consider him as assisting himself, and only give him the gold from the kill, as it would everyone else.
Riot Games
What Riot don't realize, it seems, is the fact that even support players solo kill enemies as Pyke, with it being especially prevalent in the late game where Pyke's team fighting potential is abysmal, and his best contribution is picking off isolated enemies by himself.
To try and balance out the nerf to his ultimate, Riot are giving Pyke a slow on his Q tap, lowering its mana cost and increasing the mana return when not launching the hook after channeling. All in all, a bad trade-off.
