Why Ryze has been Reworked so Many Times (League Files #3)

Alright so first off, I have not done any research aside from looking up Ryze's previous kits just before this and then looking at the recent changes that have come to the PBE and the reasons Riot gave for them. And these are only my opinions, I am not an experienced developer. This is simply what I believe to be true and what I think will continue to be true. I am also not a very highly rated player, heck I don't even play Ryze. I'm only Gold III at the moment and thats the highest I have ever been so take all of these ideas with a grain of salt. With that said, lets begin. (Might be a bit rambly and might not stay on topic all the time

Ryze is a champion that has had problems mainly because of the identity that Riot has chosen for him, that being a machine gun mage. The archetype itself and how Riot has decided to execute it has been the thing that makes him absolutely terrible in solo que and busted in pro play. That isn't anything new to most people but why is that and what could be done to make the machine gun mage archetype balanceable for both pro and normal play? Well to be honest I'm not entirely sure. There are a few ideas floating in my head but all those have come to mind either while writing this or shortly before.

My first thought is that to make a machine gun mage to feel like a machine gun mage you need to make sure that there is almost always a button ready to be pressed if the champion is played correctly. And that right there is the crux of the issue, that 'if played correctly' is why Ryze has never been good in solo que unless he was overpowered. Because most people don't put the time in to master the Rune Mage to the extent where he is as effective or more effective than other champions. It's because Riot has been so good at making a kit that always lets you have a button to press with significantly more power if you are able to pull off the proper combo for the situation.

So in order to keep the machine gun mage archetype and keep it balanced we need a kit that always leaves you with a button to press played correctly while also leaving room for significant power to be had when played slightly sub optimally. But he can't be too strong when he lands everything, and if it is then there needs to be a proper way to counter it aside from building magic resist.

And this leads to my next point. Ryze can't have a combo as a machine gun mage. A combo as in a way for him to hit all his abilities in a very short duration that can give massive benefits. For the machine gun archetype to work we still need to always be able to press a button but if you can use all three of your primary abilities, that being Q ,W, and E, in a matter of seconds with them all giving strong rewards but only if done in the correct way, than of course he is going to be strong in the hands of pros while being weak with new Ryze players. Instead Ryze should have abilities that solely focus on dealing damage and reducing the cool down of his other abilities. This may seem similar to what he already does but there is a key difference. Utility. The current Ryze has the ability to root champions while also dealing lots of burst damage and can also wave clear very effectively. Then there's his ultimate which is completely out of his design focus. His ultimate is something that is really only useful when well coordinated and Ryze isn't the only champion with an ability like that, But he is the only one that has that kind of ability that can also be a burst mage and wave clear monster (correct me if I'm wrong). His kit is overloaded for the archetype that Riot is going for.

Ryze needs abilities that work together purely to do damage while leaving room for counter play. This means one of two things, either he can't have any hard CC, or he can only have conditional hard CC that has the potential to be countered is some way. For example: to land the root on Ryze's W, Ryze first needs to mark them with his E, but his E can't be a point and click ability in this scenario. The PBE changes are doing this but leaving his E as a point and click which effectively leaves his combo unchanged. Another possibility is to have the ability with CC attached to it be a skill shot to allow for counter play, or something that speaks a little bit more to the machine gun mage archetype, have the CC take effect after Ryze hits a certain number of his abilities in a short amount of time or something similar. His kit still does need something that can reduce the cool down of his abilities or have his abilities be on a short cool down to begin with. That may seem like a bad idea since he would then be able to just spam his abilities but mana can always be a limiting factor. There may be ways to effectively remove the mana limiter with items like Seraphs and Rod of Ages but there are ways to make those ineffective, such as making his abilities cost a percentage of mana rather than a flat amount or making the mana cost rise the more you use it in a short duration similar to Kassadin's Ultimate.

As for Ryze's Ultimate, I think the best options are either to give him an ult similar to what it once was where he goes into a stronger state like with Nasus, Renekton, or Aatrox ult. You could also give him something does lots of burst damage most likely with conditions similar to what I talked about with putting CC on Ryze's kit. Another option that could be pretty cool is to have a combo type ult similar to Riven's Q that changes each time you use it.

Again these are only my opinions and thoughts on the matter and I am not an experienced developer and I have not researched this much and I am not even a very good player being only Gold III. This is meant to bring new ideas about how to create the machine gun mage Riot wants so bad and so constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged. If you have our own ideas on how to make Ryze balanced than please chime in.