From a 5 year Ryze lover-hater-main

I've bashed Ryze a lot in the past. I spoke out against buffing him when his VGU was released (he was buffed anyway). I suggested multiple nerfs to hinder his power. Some of them have happened, such as decreasing Ryze's root duration. At other times, I stated his need for an update when his performance began faltering. While it may seem like I'm self-loathing and bipolar, I assure you I am not. I try to objectively look at Ryze, even when it means beating him down.

Now Ryze is not doing so well in solo queue. His basic abilities, which work in conjunction, have each been nerfed. Just a single change to one Ryze's abilities can alter his entire kit. This is because his E, spell flux, grants his abilties bonus effects upon hitting a fluxed target. Additionally, Q - overload grants Ryze self-buffs if he had casted two of his other abilities beforehand.

His presence in the competitive scene however is very prominent. His ultimate is a big reason for this. It is powerful with coordinated teams that have mic communication, and a reasonable amount of game knowledge. Realm Warp allows Ryze's team to simultaneously pressure two points on the map. In theory, it sounds like a superior Tahm kench ult that could transport a whole team, rather than just two people. However unlike Abyssal Voyage, Realm Warp has a much shorter range. It also cannot be canceled, and will be activated indefinitely 2 seconds after cast (assuming Ryze isn't killed or CC'd). Any allies within Ryze's blue portal will be teleported to the set location. This is a big problem in solo queue. Tahm Kench has a good 15 seconds for an ally to click on him to join his fantastic trip. With only two seconds, Ryze's team has a very short time to react.

Redistribute power in Ryze's kit. I suggest Realm Warp's channel duration be increased. Its potency in competitive would be lowered, as the enemy team has more time to play around it. Meanwhile, in solo queue, your allies have more time to realize your ultimate is going off and where it is going off. Some allies in solo queue have doubts [1] about hopping into Ryze's ultimate, and they may not come due to fear. With more time they can reassure themselves it isn't aimed right on top of the enemy team. Take away some of Ryze's budget in his ultimate, so he can be changed accordingly i other places that can be used well in solo queue.

Another issue is Rune Prison. A big complaint is that it's instant hard CC. With this VGU, its cooldown can no longer be reduced, so it's not nearly as oppressive [2]. But it's still pretty unpleasant being suddenly stopped in your tracks then hit for a thousand magic damage by a supposed "skillshot". W E Q, is the most popular combo. It's reliable, it hits hard, and it grants Ryze a shield/MS. A lot of Ryze's I seen use this combo. It's effective, easy, and has little counterplay. So I was all for it when Ryze's root duration was lowered from 1 second to .75 seconds. The fluxed root's duration remain unchanged. E W is not instant, because the E has a travel time similar to Annie's Q or TF's gold card. I consider E W to have counterplay, because while Ryze hurls spell flux, the target can step out of range of Rune Prison. Ryze also loses out on damage when executing this combo instead of casting overload right after flux. The .25 second removed from Ryze's normal root can be put into his fluxed root to a duration of 2.25 seconds up from 2 seconds. This should give more incentive to root a fluxed target, which requires preparation. 1/4 of the root duration is removed from the more popular instant root, 1/8 of the root duration is added to the less used but rewarding empowered root.

Ryze has a bad reputation in Gold. Sometimes, after declaring pick intent Ryze, he gets banned. If doing poorly, I may be blamed for picking Ryze. The opinion of him is probably better in higher levels of play, as the Ryze players there are much better than I am. Perhaps my words don't mean anything. After all, If I were a good Ryze, I wouldn't be in Gold. I would be in Diamond or higher, where Ryze excels [3]. I don't know any Challengers or Masters. Maybe they would laugh at me and say that Ryze is really strong, and that I'm just bad. With each Ryze rework, there were mains who didn't like it and just quit, or switched mains, but I just kept going with this blue peanut head.

I'm not sure why I stuck with Ryze so long. Or why I played League for such a long time. Or what am I doing with my life. I can hardly believe that it was 2012 when I started. I began in a small, dirty IC in chinatown where I could see through the window a bucket of piss resting on the roof of the next door bodega. I didn't have much friends for the first decade of my life. It had only been recently when my class mates stopped harassing me and actually talked to me like a human being. Kids are fucking brutal, it takes one of them to bully you and then everybody does it in peer pressure.

Well some guy invited me to play LoL and I didn't get it at first. The character designs were wonky, the map didn't look nearly as good as it does now, and I had no idea what was going on. I skipped right over the tutorial because we wanted to get into games quickly. I said I liked mages, so he told me to pick Ryze. We played against bots, and I just tried not to die. I think I didn't get a single kill. We did this until I could PvP. He had a terrible temper, the sort of guy who always acts out and gets into fights. So I picked Ryze again, I didn't want to screw anything up that we had going on. Better pick something I'm familiar with. And we just played. I remember I bought two boots and he just stared at my stupid face grinning over my superior cost-effective build. He explained that unique passives don't stack and I was dismayed. I browsed through the shop and saw that multiple RoAs did indeed stack, and every game I would get 2 or 3 RoA's. He would yell at me feeding and I didn't find it very fun at all. But I was just happy that somebody would put enough effort to say I could do better. Finally someone who acknowledges me.

I played on and off in seasons 3 and 4, finally got my computer in season 5. No longer saw that guy, he was at a different school, I didn't have contact info. But I installed LoL. Don't know why, it wasn't all that fun back then. Made new account, I forgot old password. First thing I did play Ryze in the battle tutorial. Leveled myself up to 30 in a few months. I finally made it to ranked. Just climb and climb and climb. At times I don't know if I enjoy myself. I think it's the challenge which keeps me going. I pretend that he's standing behind me watching me play, calling me a fucktard whenever I die. I don't know if he's still playing or what rank he's in now. I'm just going to keep climbing. If I do get matched with him, he'll recognize my name. That's why my account name is what it is.

I got sidetracked. I just kept typing out. I don't have much better to do on Saturday. People reading this must think I'm a raving lunatic. He's just an insignificant champion, one out of 130+, in a game I didn't care about much. But after these years he's grown on me. I cheer when he thrives, I'm down when he struggles. He's always changing, his skill cap is limitless. I think I projected myself into Ryze, even though we look nothing alike. I see myself when I see him expelling lightning bolts from his palms with every ounce of mana left in him. I hated that and tried to convince myself I was being childish. Pretty silly how attached I become to a fictional video game character. Ryze means a lot to me. Please don't let him rot away.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vewra3EcQAw [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ckIwozedAY [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkoqN806kq4 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgF7_k9sgew