My take on Ryze

Now, by this point, the balance of is more than a bit of a meme. He's been reworked more than any other champ, and has still found a way to be broken enough in each version to require a rework. Clearly there's something about him that needs to be fundamentally changed when the next rework rolls around. I'm going to try to figure out exactly what's wrong with him.

Now, the fact that most versions of have required skill isn't a problem. Champs like , and prove that a champ can take a lot to master, be balanced and still have a decent WR for their presence in pro play. There is, however, the issue that the modern version of doesn't really take enough skill. The same combo, E Q, works for harass, sieging, waveclear, and most of his damage, and knowledge of how to use ability rotations is supposed to be one of 's most difficult aspects.

I'd say that the next issue is 's general playstyle. The "machine gun mage," as I like to call and , makes for a fun, but hard to balance, champ. Typically, their ratios have to be kept pretty low, or else they can tear through enemies. has somewhat of a problem with this, but is so much worse with this. His Q, at the moment, has a 45% AP ratio. This doesn't sound too bad, but let's look at his combo at level 18: he starts off with a Q for 45%, then follows up with an E Q, which, thanks to his ult's passive, gets a 90% ratio. Then he uses a W Q for another 45% AP, and another E Q for 90% AP. This means that, off of Q alone, his full combo hits a 270% AP ratio. Factoring in his W's 60% and E's 30% ratio, he hits a total of 390% AP off of one combo. And speaking of ratios, we have to talk about 's biggest problem.

's passive is the core of his problem. It boosts mana through AP, and uses mana to deal more damage. Remember, in terms of this issue, that Ryze always build . The item gives him everything he needs to become truly ridiculous. It gives him mana, which boosts damage through his passive, while his mana also gives him AP through the item, giving him more damage, while stacking with his passive, giving him more mana, which both boosts his damage and gives him more AP thanks to Archangel's. This only becomes a bigger problem once the item becomes . The AP from mana triples, and the shield also scales off of mana, making him an extremely powerful, but also extremely tanky, champ. The problem even starts at or , which gives him either unlimited mana or endless sustain, respectively. Now, I don't think the items themselves need nerfs at all. They're vital for several other champs to even compete. However, having stats scale off of each other, in general, is problematic. While is another problematic champ with this type of passive, is so much worse in these terms, because of the interaction with . I would suggest that, when Riot goes back for another rework of , they give him a different passive, because combined scaling is very rarely balanced.