A Small Discussion about Ryze (And by extent, Azir and Kalista)

I've played this game for almost two years now, but I've followed it for a lot longer.

I love Riot Games, and I love the well made and fun game they've created despite the toxicity that, unfortunately, our community has become known for. Each champion is meticulously crafted to be at least playable, even if they're as bug ridden as or as mechanically intensive as .

However, this is where problems begin to arise.

One of the most problematic, if not the most problematic, champion in the history of League of Legends is .

Ryze is a champion that has a tendency to be simultaneously too good in pro play and too bad in solo play. He has become somewhat of a meme among the community with his constant reworks, but it's honestly beginning to seem like he truly needs some fixing up. Ryze has always been the classic Machine Gun Mage in the same vein as Cassiopeia, but his play style is somewhat different. Back then, his ult used to give him insane spell vamp and his passive was similar to what we now know as the secondary component of his current Q. This opened up opportunities to give Ryze multiple tanky builds similar to , though a lot more consistent if played right.

This brings me to my next point: his current balance state. [A quick disclaimer: I am no expert on champion balance or game design; what is mentioned below is simply my two cents on the subject matter.]

Ryze is, as mentioned above, a victim of almost exclusively being a competitive pick while remaining subpar in soloqueue. Similar to him are and . Both Azir and Kalista proved to be too powerful in competitive play as well as soloqueue, even in the lower tiers; to compensate for this, they received many nerfs to their kits and subsequently became niche picks. While they certainly aren't as commonly seen today, they have become viable picks once more in both scenes due to Riot giving them some much needed love through tweaks to their kits.

However, Ryze's most recent rework went in the opposite direction.

With the release of The Rune Mage iteration of our beloved blue caster, Ryze became even more focused on professional play. Gone was his spell vamp tank mage play style, and in came the rapid fire trash talking mage we know today. While he stayed mostly the same, Ryze got some significant changes to his kit. [As this is purely gameplay focus, lore will not be covered in the changes below.]

1. Ryze's passive was significantly altered: He now has a Vladimir styled passive in which he gains Mana based on his Ability Power, and his abilities (minus his ult; we'll get into that) scale with a small portion of his maximum Mana.

2. Ryze's Q was combined with his original passive: The concept of a skillshot AP nuke was kept, but he now gains "Runes" for casting his E or his W; this also resets the cooldown of his Q. If he expends two of these Runes, Ryze will gain movement speed and a powerful shield, counteracting his low survivability and low mobility. In addition, Ryze's Q now has six ranks instead of the traditional five.

3. Ryze's W stayed pretty much the same, but was indirectly changed by the massive changes to his E.

4. While the concept of a targetted bouncing spell was kept, Ryze's E was changed very heavily. No longer does this reduce the magic resist of his targets; now, Ryze applies "Flux" to the unit hit by Spell Flux. If Flux is consumed by any of his three basic abilities, they will be enhanced in a pretty significant way. His Q will deal, at maximum, 80% increased damage to the affected unit and any other unit afflicted with Flux. His W root will go from 0.75 seconds to 2 seconds. Finally, his E will simple spread Flux to other targets as it did before.

5. Now comes the biggest change by far: His ultimate. Realm Warp teleports all ally unites inside a large circular area to another area at Ryze's command, increasing based on rank. However, due to this, Realm Warp only has two ranks as opposed to three, giving Overload its signature sixth rank.

This was a very ambitious rework for sure. While he is still a very strong champion in the right hands, Ryze has become even more attractive to players in the professional scene, while low-mid tier and even unranked casual players have experienced a much lower success rate due to this.

1. Due to Ryze's new passive, Mana Tank Ryze has become less popular and less viable. This can arguably be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask, as this downgrade in his play style is compensated by being healthier for the game and his thematic staying pretty much the same.

2. Ryze's low mobility and base stats make him high susceptible to ganks and lane bullying, with little to no way to fight back at times. While this can be counteracted by simply getting better at the game, Ryze is exceptionally weak even in higher levels of play due to this.

3. Ryze's W is a very problematic spell. Due to its status as targetted root, it has received many nerfs. This root used to be one second, before being reduced to 0.75.

4. Arguably the most problematic spell in solo queue, Realm Warp can make or break a game. If the team is coordinated enough, this ultimate can be devastating and too powerful in many cases. However, this is rare outside of the professional scene due to it being a team wide teleport. While it does have uses for Ryze himself, it can be very hard to make it work in a casual game.

This brings me to the reason I wrote this in the first place: Riot isn't doing much to fix him or similar champions.

Ryze has been stereotyped beyond belief as the pro play mage; due to this, Riot has not listened and may even be refusing to buff him. The same problems arise for Azir and Kalista, though to a lesser extent. These three have had a history of overperforming in pro play and underperforming in solo play, but the issue arises in the fact that they are kept this way due to their statuses as the pro play monsters of old.

To a similar extent, champions like and are intentionally kept as beginner champions due to their status as the pubstompers. While they CAN perform well in higher elo, Master Yi and Garen have little to no hope of being played in the pro scene due to their incredibly simple kits and low impact against coordinated teams.

As I said, I love Riot Games and I love League of Legends. However, Riot is listening to a low percentage of their playerbase when it comes to these three champions in specific. It worries me because, as much as I love Ryze, I fear that he may remain the same in the foreseeable future.

If there is anything I missed or should add to this post, please leave a comment below. I am open to criticism and I would love to hear your thoughts!

With much love, A trash tier Ryze and Morde player~