Thematic Question: Does "Rune Magic" imply powerful damage or tricky utility?

Because until before the rework Ryze has pretty much just been "the mage". The runes were just fancy vfx and it had literally nothing to do with what he did.

However, now he got this fancy new utility-ult, and I have to say, while the mix is not perfect thematically (he still plays "go to people" -> "throw stuff until they are dead"), that utility works way better with his theme as a "rune mage". Runes usually imply complex magic. Every lowly apprentice can throw a lump of energy onto an enemy - you don't need special secret rune knownledge for that. However, disorting space and time, that's something way more impressive.

Personally I'd love for him to get some kind of AoE Runecage that does not root enemies, but prevents them from leaving an (rather small) area and gives them the "grounded" debuff. Maybe this would make Ryze more of a support in some aspect, but I just see the utility fitting so much better to his theme - and also maybe a bit better balanceable than his current point&click root.

Or maybe it's just me? Guys tell me what you think.