Pyke vs Brand Counter Pick

A record of 1,059 games on patch 16.13.1 makes the 53.5% figure here more dependable than most support-position readings, and the Easy rating rests on a durability gap rather than on any trick. Brand carries 570 base health and 24 armor, ending at 2,355 and 95.4, while Pyke opens at 670 health with 37 armor and finishes at 2,540 and 116.9. A physical-damage assassin who reaches 150 units and can pull his target inward needs little more than that.

The threat opposite him is real but conditional. Blaze stacks up to three times, Sear only stuns a target already ablaze, and Conflagration spreads further under the same condition. Every one of those conditions requires a first hit landing at 550 range against a champion who spends fights out of sight: Ghostwater Dive removes him from view and adds a significant decaying move speed boost to a 330 base, ten points below Brand’s 340, which matters only while he is visible.

Pyroclasm bounces up to five times and rewards a clumped fight, so the practical instruction is to open while allies are spread, use the long pull of Bone Skewer rather than the short stab, and finish with Death From Below. Brand has no dash, no shield and no way to reset an exchange once the phantom stun has landed on him.