Tips on Ryze

NegaDKR·Aug 1, 2015·1 votes·1,555 views

I joined the League community a few months before the rework and he was my first champion ever purchased. I loved playing the Rogue Mage and he helped me learn a lot during my first few weeks playing. However, since his rework I've had great difficulty in grasping how too properly play him with the way he is now, especially with the recent nerfs to him in the latest patch. With that being said, I've made this discussion to ask for advice on playing well despite all of his changes.

5 Comments

HiemdolAug 1, 20152 votes

Well, there are a couple of general tips I can share. As a note because your post doesn't say some of what you do and do not know about Ryze some of these might be to general. I'd be happy to share more specific tips if these are not really helpful.

After the mini rework Ryze needs to be build differently to reach the same kind of damage he had before the changes. Starting the game with a Doran's Ring is a lot better than it was before, but do note it can delay building your Tear, so knowing what match ups you can build a greedy Sapphire Crystal is very helpful. Building Tear of the Goddess into Rod of Ages into Archangel's Staff is still optimal. After that raw damage is often better than going into other mana items. Almost all the Needlessly Large Rod items have some place on Ryze depending on the game.

Also for masteries before the changes it was very common to play Ryze 9/0/21 to take advantage of the extra utility because his damage was so large late game you did not need offensive masteries. Post changes 21/0/9 is now more optimal, taking all the standard mage masteries as well as the flat mana and movement speed in the utility tree. For runes using percent movement speed is still very viable, and my personal preference, but if you are mid using flat or scaling mana can be very effective.

You have more flexibility in how you level your skill now. For early single target damage, and in most cases in fact, maxing Q first is best. If you are against a melee opponent that you can bully maxing W first for kill pressure due to the increased root duration can be really strong. Not optimal, but maxing E first for early wave clear against an opponent with great wave clear pushing you in constantly can be a good call, but often even in these cases maxing one of the other skills first is better.

For play pattern when you see your lane opponent sitting in their creeps that is when you want to harass them with E for bonus damage. Never be afraid to use that Ult. The cool down is insanely short. Just use it to quickly farm that wave, it will be up again before you know it. If you go to gank another lane be sure to toss a few Qs out to charge your passive before you get there. Having that shield at the start of a fight can really go a long way.

If there was something I did not do a good job explaining, or just something else you wanted answered, just let me know.

NegaDKRAug 1, 20151 votes

Thank you for the reply, and I apologize for not clarifying what I needed help with exactly. I've noticed that most people seem to play Ryze up top since his rework, does he still have a place in the midlane? What champs should I pick Ryze into and what should I avoid? Is it better to go pure damage with items like Luden's or the bruiser route with things like Rylai's?

HiemdolAug 2, 20151 votes

Ryze is indeed still viable mid lane. Personally I enjoy him there because the freedom of not needing Teleport and being able to instead run ghost or any second summer spell of preference. He is really popular top because of the high amount of melee match ups where Ryze can excel/ farm for free to scale into the late game.

You can play Ryze into most short-to mid range match ups if your positioning is good. Long range poke mages are hard because any potential kill pressure you may have is gone if they kite you to stay away from your snare. If playing him top he does well into most melee tanks. He suffers against melee carries such as Tryn and Riven. Their ability to jump on him whenever they want turns the lane goal into "just survive".

If playing him mid he does really well against mages like Syndra and Karthus. Assassins are generally a skill match up these days. If you can poke them enough to discourage an all in you can control the lane, and the slight tanky-ness of a normal build helps too.

With the low range of Ryze Luden's movement speed and extra scaling make it a great buy for him any game you feel you dont need item help surviving. Agsint a team that has a hard time peeling you Rylai's can make sure no one ever escapes your combo. Zhonya's is always great if the other team if diving you a lot and Seraphs Embrace is not alone enough to save you. Also after the AP item rework Tear+Rod+Deathcap has the highest AP levels you can reasonably get in game upping the burst power Ryze already has.

So mostly situational, but the situations you want one over the others are fairly distinct. But good catch all items are Luden's and Zhonya's because there are almost no games where the stats they give you are bad.

NegaDKRAug 2, 20151 votes

One last question, is Will of the Ancients ever a good buy or does the spell vamp from his ultimate and unneeded CDR make it completely worthless? Thanks for the advice, you've given me a lot of insight into Ryze.

HiemdolAug 2, 20152 votes

Will of the Ancients can be really good is a situation where poke or sustained damage is to high for you to reliably engage ie vs Kog'maw or Azir. The synergy with your ult can give Ryze a really surprising amount of tankyness in team fights. It can be a good buy, but it will not press a snowball advantage so not an every game kind of item, but not something you should get every game for the reason you mentioned, the wasted gold on CDR. That being said if the gold spent on spell vamp keeps you alive to DPS that is definitely worth the money.