Ryze wasn't difficult in THAT way.

The recent nerfs to Ryze have dropped him hard... Well, as hard as you can drop a man who's already six feet under. Where the problem lies is they made changes that would have been reasonable for a champion with a high skillcap that grants too much of a reward, but that only applies to champions whose abilities are difficult to execute.

We'll talk about his ultimate in a moment, but as for his basic abilities they're actually quite easy to perform. His difficulty came from knowing when to use which combo on the fly, not how to use them.

As a result, these changes that served simply to remove aspects of the combos and even one of them haven't had the effect similarly-minded changes would have on a champion with difficult-to-execute abilities. He's simply weaker for anyone who plays him, now.

Then there's the fact they didn't hit where the actual problem lies, his ultimate. As is the problem for every single champion with a teleport-like ability in pro play. But Ryze's, being the only version of such an ability that can move all 5 allies, doesn't really belong in the game.