Boards›Gameplay

The Latest Ryze Update Has Me Genuinely Scratching My Head

The Yetii Rider·6/26/2019, 10:56:34 PM·3 votes·1,719 views

So, I get why Ryze needs to be changed. He's always so popular in pro, he's always so powerful at higher elo, blah blah blah we get it. The real question is, why did he receive these changes?

For reference, I'm talking about this changelist:

Base Stats MANA 400 ⇒ 300 MANA REGEN 6 ⇒ 8 Q - Overload RANKS 6 ⇒ 5 DAMAGE 60/85/110/135/160/185 ⇒ 80/105/130/155/180 removedSHIELD No longer grants a shield after consuming 2 Runes updatedSPELL DAMAGE BONUS 40/50/60/70/80% (based on Spell Flux's rank) ⇒ 10/40/70/100% (based on Realm Warp's rank) BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 25/28/31/34/37/40% ⇒ 20/25/30/35/40% W - Rune Prison RATIO 1% bonus mana ⇒ 4% bonus mana COST 50/60/70/80/90 mana ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100 mana BASE CROWD CONTROL Rooted for 0.75 seconds ⇒ Slowed by 35% for 1.5 seconds SPELL FLUX BONUS Increased root duration ⇒ Converts Slow to Root E - Spell Flux DAMAGE 70/90/110/130/150 ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140 COST 60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100 mana newBOUNCE HOUSE Now always bounces off the primary target removedPING PONG PAIN Bounces no longer damage enemies removedFLUX BOMB No longer spreads Flux to nearby enemies on unit kill R - Realm Warp RANKS 2 ⇒ 3 newWARP DAMAGE Overload damage bonus against targets with Flux increased to 40/70/100% newCLOSE ENOUGH Immediately casts at max range when attempting to cast beyond that MINIMUM CAST RANGE 730 ⇒ 1000 MAXIMUM CAST RANGE 1750/3000 ⇒ 3000 COOLDOWN 180 seconds ⇒ 210/180/150 seconds

So the original fourth Ryze rework added this Flux mechanic to make him more interesting. It allowed people to customize how they wanted to use Ryze's E. You could get a longer snare, or a shield and some movement speed, or just a giant AOE.

Cool. But now, they don't like it. So rather than remove that entirely and just go back to the old Ryze where E was just wave clear, we have these changes.

Snare is gone. Now you have to hit with Flux to snare. Okay.

Shield is gone. No way to get shield.

Movement speed is nerfed early, not buffed late.

On top of that, we have to put 3 ranks into ult again, when ult is terrible for single players. Not fun, not interesting. I hate these damn "team" ultimates that are practically useless if you're not on a mic, they aren't fun to use on ladder and they just feel like they drag on the character's overall damage output.

But okay. So, Ryze was too good before, now he is nerfed. My question here is: why should I play Ryze now?

Conceptually, at least. Not like I personally was ever going to touch him before. But what makes Ryze special now?

You can't build Frozen Heart on him like you used to, because they gave him AP dependency. And they removed his shield. So he's not particularly tanky.

You have to ramp up his abilities to get any amount of DPS out of him. So he's not bursty.

He lost his point and click snare, now requiring you to use your abilities (and more mana) to get the snare. So that, which was one of his best ways of defining himself before, is gone. If I want to combine abilities to deliver some good CC, I'll play Brand and at least get a longer range and a stun instead of a root.

Do you pick Ryze for Realm Warp? Why would you do that? You can blast people to death with Syndra, stun everyone with Annie, nuke the back line with Brand, hell, even if you're looking at specifically top lane shrooms and Slicing Maelstrom are way better for the island fighting. Realm Warp is for pro players and 5v5s. So why would anyone choose Ryze when they were starting to play League, or even when they hit Gold or Plat? Are you just supposed to ignore Ryze entirely and then pick him up the moment you decide to go pro? Why is that his character design?

The whole combo mage feeling is just lost now. It doesn't feel like you have cool "super" options depending on Flux, Flux now feels like a chore that you have to do if you want to play Ryze. It just feels like every other mage that has an optimized rotation, and again, Ryze's rotation isn't even that much stronger than others now.

3 Comments

SurgicalStriker6/26/2019, 11:36:26 PM1 votes

the ult does a lot for solo lane players now, not for the active but for the passive. Making your Q do substantially more damage on flux targets is very useful, especially at max rank when it makes your Q do double damage, really gives him some solid burst capability. Especially paired with his teleport to catch a runner, slip behind them do a QEQ combo and finish them off

Sliro6/30/2019, 4:33:38 PM1 votes

Im having problems not on damage but on survivability. Ryze always gets bullied in lane by every ranged champion, and now you dont even have the shield to protect yourself, especially in the early game. Nowadays i have to literally hug the tower in the early 7 or 8 levels because you can get one shooted by everyone. If you get ganked, than you are dead already, there is no counter play. Ryze as you said, to get burst need to reach level 16, but why would you want to reach level 16 when the game is already lost and you died 6 times to a zed without even reaction... this doesnt make sense, and the ultimate is so fucking terribel, so terribel, that even cho gath W can cancel that crap. now you cant even use zhonias to escape, you just get cooked all the time, by every champion, in every role. The E change is good just on teamfights, the lane push was already great before the changing, why buff the lane push and nerf survivability on a champ that already struggles in every matchup. I hate this changes i hope they revert this.