@Balance team, What are your plans with Ryze since the recent nerf?

Hi,

I'm a hard stuck plat 1 Ryze otp on Euw. and I was a little confused when Riot deciced to nerf Ryze's W. For those that don't know what the change was. They changed Ryze's empowered root from: -2s to 1.5s

This in itself might not seem like a huge deal right? Then you remember Ryze has the second LOWEST winrate out of ALL midlaners in the game provided by OP.GG literally 44/45, with only Karma being worse. And he's been this bad for 4 patches in a row. (8.14-8.17)

So why did Riot nerf Ryze? He needs buffs if anything right? Well if you ask me, I somewhat agree and would've been happy with Spell flux E getting its mana cost reverted from a previous nerf. But it wouldn't have been a huge deal to just play Ryze in his current state (pre W nerf)

Then when I saw that Ryze was getting his W nerfed on the PBE recently I was sad, shocked and even more sad. I understand that from Riot's perspective they don't want Ryze to be nearly pick/ban in every game at worlds since this is the patch it will be played on. But why do you target his W when his ult is the ability that makes him good in competitive play where you have comms?

For those of you who don't know... Ryze has been a stable midlaner in the LCS for a while now, this is due to his ability of being blindpicked and be somewhat fine into any matchup and, of course, how much better the champion becomes when there's clear communication between all 5 teammates.

With the W root duration nerf, I guess Riot hopes that it reduces the gank assistance Ryze can set up at Worlds. Nerfing his W duration would definitely help in doing that but it won't make his ultimate any less useful, the ability that contributes hugely for Ryze being p/b in pro play. My guess is that this W nerf won't do too much for his high pay rate in competitive, as people are picking Ryze because of being able to BLINDPICK SAFELY+HAVE A GLOBAL ULT THAT TP'S ALL ALLIES.

Now with these W nerfs Riot basically said "F U" to all the soloQ players playing Ryze they've gutted a champion that's already on the weak side. Setting up ganks are harder now, setting up kills for yourself is harder.

How did this nerf affect me on this patch you may wonder? I've personally lost soo many kills from doing an EWQ(empowered root) into an EQ combo and not getting the kill because the final Q would miss due to the W nerf... everytime that happened I just thought to myself.. wow 24 hours ago he/she would've died :(

I pray Riot doesn't keep Ryze in his current state for longer than a patch or two, it feels so fking awful to do a EW combo now compared to last patch. I hope Ryze's win rate drops to <40% so Riot will feel pressured into buffing him. If you want ideas to give ryze compensation buffs Riot, be sure to revert his W nerf to at least 1.75s so the final Q in a EWQ EQ combo can actually hit.. and be sure to revert his E mana costs nerfs.

I'm rambling too much now but... basically for the people who want a tl;dr

TL;DR Riot nerfed Ryze's W so he won't be P/B at Worlds. They nerfed the wrong ability, and in turn also screwed all the soloQ Ryze players who were already suffering. Now what compensation will Riot give on the next patch?

Kind regards from an upset blue boi main.