Let’s Go: Ryze in the LCS
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Ryze has long been a golden standard for late-game casters in League of Legends. Once he gets a couple items under his belt, he’s an absolute monster in teamfights. He’s got tons of HP, huge burst damage, and even a solid amount of AoE. Get far enough into the late game, and he’ll win games nearly by himself.
And yet, up until last week, he hadn’t been seen much this season. With patch 4.3 changes upping his base health and Overload's range, suddenly he’s seeing more play, particularly in the top lane.
If you take a look at the supertanks that have been running rampant this split, you may notice that all of them are melee focused. Typically, casters do well against melee champions early thanks to their ability to poke down their opponents from safe distances.
However, with the current top lane focus on sustain and survivability, it’s difficult for champions like Ziggs to do what they need to do against the likes of Renekton or Shyvana. Avoiding the heavy brawling these bruisers possess is quite troublesome when all you want to do is wave clear.
Ryze, on the other hand, is happy to sit back and farm. In fact, with him, it’s almost necessary. He may have a very weak early game, but with the targeted snare on his Rune Prison, he’s got an easy way of protecting himself against melee champions that attempt to get up in his face. Meanwhile, the range increase to his main damage ability, Overload, allows him to poke from a greater distance, punishing anyone that gets too close. It’s not uncommon to see him get off a full combination of spells before a melee opponent can get out of the way, forcing them to play safely or suffer his wrath.
It may be difficult for Ryze to pick up early kills without ganks - especially if his lane opponent knows to hang back and out of his range - but he doesn’t need them. He only needs enough money to pick up a Tear of the Goddess.
It certainly helps that many items that give large amounts of mana also nab him other stats. A Rod of Ages will grant him additional health, and that’s not even mentioning the Armor, cooldown reduction, and attack speed debuffs that a Frozen Heart will provide. As it turns out, mana items tend to have a lot of utility, making Ryze an even bigger asset in teamfights during the late game.
Why is Tear of the Goddess is so important for him? Once he’s got his hands on the mana-building item, a figurative countdown begins. With each spell cast, he gains more maximum mana. And with more mana, he gets more damage, eventually transforming it into a Seraph's Embrace which gives him Ability Power based off his maximum mana and its active generates a huge shield based off his current mana. It seems for now that the farm-heavy top lane is the best place for Ryze to get that item early.
In both instances, the opposing teams relied heavily on poke compositions to keep him at bay. Whether it was Fnatic’s Nidalee, Yorick, and Lucian or Copenhagen Wolves’ Caitlyn, Heimerdinger, and Gragas, they made sure that Ryze couldn’t get close enough to deal damage without taking a significant chunk himself.
To make matters worse, he struggled to get going during the laning phase, as both Yorick and Heimerdinger have the ability to deal damage without needing to be anywhere near Ryze. In fact, they both can just summon ghouls and turrets and walk away safely, never letting him get close enough to throw a Rune Prison or even pick off creeps easily. Ryze may do well against champions that actively hunt for his head, but those who are able to sit back seem to find success.
That’s not to say melee fighters can’t find success, though: Week 9’s matchup between Team Curse and Dignitas for example. At first glance, picking Aatrox may have seemed like a weird choice for Quas to take on Cruzer’s Ryze. However, thanks to an early shopping trip to pick up a second Doran’s Blade, he was able to force Cruzer back to base thanks to a well-timed Dark Flight and a flurry of Blood Price-empowered autoattacks. From there, he never let up the pressure. At the 10 minute mark, he had a 20 CS lead and only continued to advance that.
Sure, Cruzer didn’t die early and even managed to pick up a couple kills during the mid-game, but the damage had been done. His power spike was delayed long enough for Curse to take a strong enough lead that they could run right over him.
Ryze is currently sitting well below .500 in games he’s been picked. And yet, we still see him as a popular choice. Will we see people learning to beat up on him more as time goes on? Or will he find his place among the highest tier of spell flingers as time goes on? We’ll just have to find out in the LCS playoffs.
Answer to the Meta
For much of this season, there were two options for champions in the top lane: Huge, tanky champions or champions that dealt well with huge, tanky champions: Renekton going up against Trundle, Dr. Mundo facing off against Shyvana. The battles have been described as “wet noodle fights,” with folks just wailing away at each other and farming without getting any kills.
If you take a look at the supertanks that have been running rampant this split, you may notice that all of them are melee focused. Typically, casters do well against melee champions early thanks to their ability to poke down their opponents from safe distances.
However, with the current top lane focus on sustain and survivability, it’s difficult for champions like Ziggs to do what they need to do against the likes of Renekton or Shyvana. Avoiding the heavy brawling these bruisers possess is quite troublesome when all you want to do is wave clear.
Ryze, on the other hand, is happy to sit back and farm. In fact, with him, it’s almost necessary. He may have a very weak early game, but with the targeted snare on his Rune Prison, he’s got an easy way of protecting himself against melee champions that attempt to get up in his face. Meanwhile, the range increase to his main damage ability, Overload, allows him to poke from a greater distance, punishing anyone that gets too close. It’s not uncommon to see him get off a full combination of spells before a melee opponent can get out of the way, forcing them to play safely or suffer his wrath.
It may be difficult for Ryze to pick up early kills without ganks - especially if his lane opponent knows to hang back and out of his range - but he doesn’t need them. He only needs enough money to pick up a Tear of the Goddess.
Tearing It Up
Ryze is unique in the fact that all he really needs to build are mana items thanks to the bonus damage his abilities get when he has tons of mana. Whereas many casters have to balance getting Ability Power with having enough mana items to allow themselves to cast their abilities, Ryze can just go ahead and build as much mana as he can gets his hands on.
It certainly helps that many items that give large amounts of mana also nab him other stats. A Rod of Ages will grant him additional health, and that’s not even mentioning the Armor, cooldown reduction, and attack speed debuffs that a Frozen Heart will provide. As it turns out, mana items tend to have a lot of utility, making Ryze an even bigger asset in teamfights during the late game.
Why is Tear of the Goddess is so important for him? Once he’s got his hands on the mana-building item, a figurative countdown begins. With each spell cast, he gains more maximum mana. And with more mana, he gets more damage, eventually transforming it into a Seraph's Embrace which gives him Ability Power based off his maximum mana and its active generates a huge shield based off his current mana. It seems for now that the farm-heavy top lane is the best place for Ryze to get that item early.
How to Beat Him
So how do you take Ryze down? Well, it seems that right now the easiest way is to simply outrange him. During Week 11 of the European LCS, Gambit picked Ryze against both Copenhagen Wolves and Fnatic. In both games, Darien struggled with the champion, only picking up one kill to his nine deaths.
In both instances, the opposing teams relied heavily on poke compositions to keep him at bay. Whether it was Fnatic’s Nidalee, Yorick, and Lucian or Copenhagen Wolves’ Caitlyn, Heimerdinger, and Gragas, they made sure that Ryze couldn’t get close enough to deal damage without taking a significant chunk himself.
To make matters worse, he struggled to get going during the laning phase, as both Yorick and Heimerdinger have the ability to deal damage without needing to be anywhere near Ryze. In fact, they both can just summon ghouls and turrets and walk away safely, never letting him get close enough to throw a Rune Prison or even pick off creeps easily. Ryze may do well against champions that actively hunt for his head, but those who are able to sit back seem to find success.
That’s not to say melee fighters can’t find success, though: Week 9’s matchup between Team Curse and Dignitas for example. At first glance, picking Aatrox may have seemed like a weird choice for Quas to take on Cruzer’s Ryze. However, thanks to an early shopping trip to pick up a second Doran’s Blade, he was able to force Cruzer back to base thanks to a well-timed Dark Flight and a flurry of Blood Price-empowered autoattacks. From there, he never let up the pressure. At the 10 minute mark, he had a 20 CS lead and only continued to advance that.
Sure, Cruzer didn’t die early and even managed to pick up a couple kills during the mid-game, but the damage had been done. His power spike was delayed long enough for Curse to take a strong enough lead that they could run right over him.
Ryze is currently sitting well below .500 in games he’s been picked. And yet, we still see him as a popular choice. Will we see people learning to beat up on him more as time goes on? Or will he find his place among the highest tier of spell flingers as time goes on? We’ll just have to find out in the LCS playoffs.
MOTHAFUKA
s E ability is called event ho