Note: You don't have to read this chapter to get good at Ryze, so skip it if you want to

Hello there! This is going to be my first guide on Mobafire for my favourite champion Ryze. Please note that English isn't my native language, so if you would, please let me know if you find any spelling/grammar mistakes in the guide. I know there are plenty of Ryze guides out there, although they have some great builds, I don't think they cover what the new Ryze can do properly. No offence to any of you out there, who made a guide of course.
I made this guide where you have me explaining my runes, masteries, build, etc. at the first part of the guide, and the actual guide the second part, so that if you want to not read certain parts, it's easy not to.
I am a 1300 ELO player at the EU Nordic/East server, however don't just think "omg n00b I'm not reading this guide of a 1300 ELO player!" I've beaten several 1700's in mid, and I don't claim to "be stuck in ELO hell". I believe in winning 5/9 times (google ELO hell, to find out more about this) and I just need to give it enough time.

Ryze is a tanky mage caster, who deals large amounts of damage throughout the mid/late game, by building a huge mana pool, and spamming his abilities. He was the first champion I played, after playing Ashe in the tutorial. He is very easy to learn, but quite hard to master, and that's why I made this guide. He is mostly played in the mid lane, but he can very effectively go top, because he excells against melee champions during the laning phase, but we will get to that later. He has very few counters, and can counter a lot of champions very effectively.

Marks:

I don't see any other runes to put here. This is the best Mark, for pretty much any AP mid.

Seals:

Greater Seal Of Vitality
These can be traded out for others. You can get Greater Seal Of Knowledge, if you want to have a better mid/late game, but be weaker in the laning phase. Greater Seal of Mana will also work, if you want more early game power. I just like the Greater Seal Of Vitality, because you're going to do well during the mid/late game, so having extra survivability is great!

Glyphs:

I find these to be the best in mid, since 99% of the time you will be facing another AP caster. Magic resist is expensive, so having the runes for it is probably the most optimal choice. However it can be traded out. Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction may also be viable, since I don't get that Frozen Heart until last. It will make of for the loss of 5% cooldown reduction. Greater Glyph of Mana and Greater Glyph of Knowledge may also work for giving you more damage, but the magic resist will give you better trades.

Quintessences:

Now this is really up to personal preferences. I take these because of Ryze's slow movement speed, and getting those and boots will give me a very good movement speed, to easylier harras and retreat. Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration, Greater Quintessence of Knowledge, Greater Quintessence of Mana or Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp and others, will all work but It's totally up to you and your playstyle.

For masteries I take 9/0/21. This should pretty much always be done as Ryze, except if you want to go 9/9/12, witch is viable too if you want more tankyness above more utility. However I don't do this, as I feel I can get tanky enough with my items. Now you're probably asking:

"If I go 21 in utility, what should I get?"
It's totally up to you, as long as you get the obvious ones such as Summoner's Insight and Transmutation , however if you feel unsure just follow what I listed above.

"Why do you get Intelligence over Strength of Spirit ?"
I get Intelligence because combined with Sorcery it gives 10% cooldown reduction, witch is far better than 40 healthregen/sec. late game to me, and it's not worth giving up on Arcane Knowledge just to get them both.

"Why do you get Butcher and Brute Force above Mental Force ?
Basically because Ryze's AP ratios aren't that good, and some extra attack damage help me last-hit.

"Can I get Improved Recall in stead of Swiftness ?"
Yes, as I mentioned before, it's totally up to your playstyle!

"Thank you!"
That isn't a question, dingus!

Items on Ryze varies a lot! It all depends on you, your team, the enemy team, and the champion you are laning against. (And their jungler, if he is fed)


You should always start like this, because that's how the current meta-game is right now. You get a movementspeed advantage over your enemy, and amazing sustain earlygame. You could start with a Sapphire Crystal if you feel really cocky, or you are laning against someone you easily can dominate, like Fizz, and maybe get your Tear of the Goddess a bit earlier. However I don't recommend this!


No matter how the game is going, you should always get this item after your Boots. This item gives mana for spamming your abilities, and guess what. Ryze gets more damage the more mana he has, and is very good at spamming abilities.

Catalyst the Protector
Now this should be you early/mid game item. It gives you more health, more damage, and a great passive for sustaining your health, and mana. Nothing to add here.


This gives you some nice magic penetration, since most champions have a flat magic resist of 30, this combined with your Greater Mark of Magic Penetration will make you almost deal true damage until they get some magic resist. These can be traded out for Mercury's Treads if they have a crowd control heavy team, and should be. You can also get boots before you Catalyst the Protector, if you need the damage, or the movement speed.


Now you don't need to get this item right now, if you're roflstomping your lane, or if you picked up Mercury's Treads. But I tend to grab it, because it gives me much more control over my lane. It's very optional.


Now this item is very good. It gives you a big chunk of health, aswell as mana and ability power. Before Ryze's remake, this wasn't a very good item for him, you would rather build a Banshee's Veil, but now that they buffed his AP ratios, and nerfed his mana ratios, a Rod of Ages is much more attractive. You can choose to get a Banshee's Veil instead if you're having trouble, but I find a Negatron Cloak and a Rod of Ages to be much better, except if I'm playing against a Veigar.


This item is great. It gives armor, cooldown reduction, and a nice chunk of mana. When your are getting this, the enemy AD carries should be starting to deal the most damage on the enemy team, so the armor is really helpful. Delay this if their AD is underfed.


This item is so great for Ryze, because he has so high damage, and such low cooldowns, that getting health back won't be a problem. Combine this with your ultimate Desperate Power in a teamfight, and you will be unstoppable!


Before the Ryze remake, you would never get this on him, because it doesen't give any mana. But now, this is actually very good for him. It gives him magic resist, damage, and it reduces enemies magic resist. A very good item for Ryze unless they're stacking magic resist. But I'm talking about them having an average of 100 magic resist. If they do, build a Void Staff instead.


This item will turn all the lovely mana you have into ability power. You can build this before the Abyssal Mask if you don't need the magic resist, or magic pen, because this will give you more ability power. If would have gotten this item earlier, but I felt the need to have other items was much larger.


Just to upgrade your Glacial Shroud. This is a good late game item to weaken their AD carry. Get this earlier if they have a fed Ashe or Vayne.

End game items:

These are all great choices, if you want to sell your boots. It depends on if you want more magic resist and health regeneration, or if you want more health, or if you want more health, damage and utility. It all depneds on you, and how the game is going.

Sight ward
Remember to buy these! If you head back to base, and have some money to spare, grab a sight ward or two, and some Health Potions. I do not recommend Mana Potions, because they regenerate 100 mana, and that is equivalent to about two Overloads, so it's much better to get a Health Potion.

This is pretty standard for Ryze, and should pretty much always be done. I've seen people max Rune Prison first, as it deals more damage and has more CC than Overload. This is true, but you've got to remember that it is on a much longer cooldown, so it isn't that great. You can max Spell Flux before Rune Prison or even first, but I find that I'll need the cooldown reduction on Overload, and the snare from Rune Prison more, but you might want to try out maxing Spell Flux second, and see how it is. For now, just follow my recommendations.

"Why do you get every skill at level 3, rather than getting a level 2 Overload?"
I do this, but this is not always what you should do. If you land your combo (we'll get into combos later on) QWEQ, it deals more damage than a level 2 Overload and a level 1 Rune Prison, but if you are playing passively, and can only get an Overload off your opponent from time to time, and not your full combo, you might want to get Overload at level 2.

BEST SUMMONER SPELLS!

These are the best summoner spells for many AP mids. They allow offence and defence. Flash is great for escaping, or surprising your enemy. Ignite is awesome for finishing a kill, or for that pesky Swain.

Other good summoner spells:

This is a good item for getting back into the lane quickly, or getting into teamfights. You should only get this if you go top, but it might be good to have in mid. Replace Ignite with this.


Great defensive summoner spell. It removes the damage from ignite, and can be very useful if you're playing against a Malzahar. Replace Ignite with this.


I think Flash is far better than this, because when you are in the middle of the lane, you can pretty much flash back to the safety of your tower. However i've seen people run Ghost and Flash as their summoner spells, since Ryze lacks a strong escape, but I find ignite much more useful than Ghost. If you need it, replace Ignite with this, or if you're going top, replace Flash with it.

Other ok summoner spells:..

I don't really ever grab this spell, except if I'm playing AD carry. Although you can do a great job of baiting with it, it's not a very good choice above Flash or Ignite. If you REALLY want this, replace Ignite with it.


If you know you're going to lane against an AD carry pick it. if you're laning against an AP, I feel a 35% ability damage reduction, and a slow is far from better than picking Ignite. If you pick it, replace it with Ignite.

NEVER GET THESE!

I don't need to tell you that you need want this spell. It is meant for junglers, and you're not a jungler!


NO!


Your support should get this spell, since you can loose your lane if you replace this with another spell of yours. In my ELO rating no one gets this, not even the support, witch I think is wrong. But never mind.


This summoner spell only works on hybrids like Cho'Gath or Teemo, where it doesn't even work very well. This summoner spell is overall bad, and it's even worse on Ryze, since he doesen't benefit that much from the AP.


You don't want to be pushing your lane, and you can easily get the farm the cannon will do, just by last hitting, or using your Overload spell.


This will only be useful in the first like 5 levels. Further into the game, you will have loads of mana anyway. I don't recommend this summoner spell on any AP mids, but you should stay away from it when playing Ryze.

Pros:

• Deals large amounts of damage.
• Quite tanky.
• Has a huge mana pool later in the game.
• Can counter a lot of champions.
• Great pusher past level 6.
• Has the most awesome dance ever.
• Great at poking.
• Great top
• Has a strong 1v1

Cons:

• Weak early
• Get wrecked by bruisers mid game, if not fed.
• Lacks some better CC.

So you're in the game. You buy your Boots and 3 Health Potions and head to your blue to protect your jungler. What's really important is that you don't get any of your abilities right away. You wait, and if the enemies invade, you take a point in Rune Prison cast it on the enemy closest to you, and either run or Flash away. If they don't invade, level up your Overload skill. It's your job to pull the blue buff for your jungler! (In most cases) You do this by hitting it with an autoattack, then casting Overload right after. This gets a little bit more damage in on the blue, but won't take more time than just casting Overload.

So you're in your lane. As in any lane your want to focus on last hitting as much as possible. But don't just pay attention to the enemy minions health. Pay attention to your own too. If one of your minions is on low health, chances are that your enemy will try to get the last hit. Take advantage of this. When he is going to hit it, run at him, and throw a Overload on him, and run away. Nothing more. But keep doing this to force your enemy out of the lane. Just remember that you aren't very strong early, so you shouldn't try to pick a fight. Just harras, and farm as much as you can. If the enemy is low enough health, so you're sure you can kill him, then you want to pick a fight. Maybe even Flash in and kill him with a combo, and finish him off with Ignite. This will surprise him, and he won't be able to react, he'll just die. +300 gold for you!

In teamfights you usually want to stay behind your bruiser lane, but in front of your AD carry, and just deal as much damage as possible with your combos. You mostly want to go after the enemy carries, but if it gets you into a poor position, then just don't do it. Try to spam your abilities as much as possible, but not on an all-tank. However, if you can't reach the carries in the back, spamming your abilities, and killing an off-tank, will be much better than just dying.

This is your ordinary combo, and that is what you should be using in the early game. This is the easiest combo to land, and the first few times you are playing RYZE}} you might want to use this all the time. You cast you [[overload followed by your Rune Prison followed by Spell Flux and due to your passive, you will have your Overload ready again. This is your primary burst combo early. You might want to throw in a Desperate Power in before you combo, for insane damage, and AOE. However there are other combos, witch are much better from time to time.


This will also work well, as your Spell Flux will proc before your last overload, meaning it will damage through some of your enemy's magic resist. If you're quick it won't do that with the other combo. you can also throw your Desperate Power before this aswell. This combo is good for early/mid game teamfights.


(wait a second or two)


(wait a second or two, then do it all again)

This combo is very useful for late game teamfighte. It gives you the more damage in total, than the other combos, and is just a great sustain damage combo. However this can mostly only be achieved by having 35% cooldown reduction ( Glacial Shroud, Level 5 Overload, Sorcery and Intelligence ), or even 40% (if you have blue buff, or Frozen Heart.) Keep in mind that it doesen't matter if you trade out Rune Prison for {{spell flux]] and vice versa.

Now this is where it gets real. What you should do as Ryze changes a lot. It all depends on your lane opponent. Here are some matchups, and my opinion on what you should do against them.


This is an annyoing matchup for Ryze, but if you play it right, you can dominate this lane. Try to dodge her abilities, and don't push your lane, as she will hunt you down with Spirit Rush. If she misses you with her Orb of Deception, go in and do a full combo on her, but stay behind your minions to avoid her Charm. You should almost always try to stay behind minions to avoid her Charm, but be aware that she can still hit you with an Orb of Deception.

Difficulty: Medium



A really easy matchup for you. You are a counter to pretty much any meelee champions. Whenver she gets too close, for example if she wants to kill a minion, throw an Overload on her and start autoattacking her, to zone her out. This lane shouldn't be a hard lane for you, as long as you stay offensive, and spam your abilities on her. Her Mark of the Assassin