Ryze Build Guide by Zultan22

Introduction

Hello Summoners and welcome to my guide.
I'll try to show you, how you can build and use Ryze, as a Mana-Tank-Mage.

First of all, why should you play Ryze and how do you have to think about him?
Well, actually I played him the first time because of an accident. It was one of my first games on League of Legends and I didn't knew how to leave the game as I allready had to choose a Champion for a Coop vs. IA game. So I was chatting with a friend and did not realize that this game was about to begin. The random choice chose Ryze, who was in the League of Legends-rotations that week, and the game started.

It was the first time I played mid, and also the first time that I got more then 15 kills in a game.
I could not believe that one Champion could be that powerful and have only awesome Spells.
Today I know, that every Champion can be powerful, and every well-used Spell is awesome, but the easiest Champion to play is . . . Ryze.

So if you are looking for a Champion which you can use as a Burster or also as a Tank,
in mid and on a lane,
a Champion that is very easy to build and has the best passive Ability for a Teamfight,
one of the most powerful and damaging stuns of the game,
a Spell and an Ultimate you can combine to farm all minions on the world,
and a strong Ability you can use nearly every second,
=>take Ryze and have fun.

---

As you allready noted, the provisional AP build inplicates less Cooldown Reductin, Armor, Mana and Health.
So let's do some Maths :D

Build number one at Level 18:
Overlaod does:
160 regular damage +66 Ability Power damage +322 Mana damage =

548 total damage

Rune Prison does:
200 regular damage +99 Ability Power damage +223 Mana damage =

522 total damage

Spell Flux does:
130 regular damage +58 Ability Power damage +50 Mana damage =

238 total damage

---

Build number two at Level 18:
Overlaod does:
160 regular damage +120 Ability Power damage +234 Mana damage =

514 total damage

Rune Prison does:
200 regular damage +180 Ability Power damage +162 Mana damage =

542 total damage

Spell Flux does:
130 regular damage +105 Ability Power damage +36 Mana damage =

271 total damage

---

The first build gives 34 more damage on Overload and the second one gives 20 more damage on Rune Prison and 33 more damage on Spell Flux.

Don't forget the Cooldowns, that are much higher on Rune Prison and Spell Flux anyway, and also you got 11.9% less Cooldown Reduction with the second build.

In my eyes, both builds are good, as they have an equal number of Pros and Cons.

Now it is to you to think about how much you will use Overload, Rune Prison and Spell Flux and which build you want to take.

Pros / Cons

PROS

• Ryze is very much fun to play :D
• He bursts but has very short Cooldowns
• His Abilities have a high range
• With his Rune Prison it is easy to get rid of a chasing enemy
• He is easy to build
• You can use him as an Offtank, too
• He is a Champion which is very good on the Mid Lane AND on the Top or Bot Lane with a Teammate

CONS

• Once he got focussed by more than one or two champions in a Teamfight, it is nearly impossible not to die
• Earlygame on the Mid Lane, it is hard to play against a well-played and harrassing Brand, Lux, Karthus or Malzahar
• You can't jungle with him
• You won't win a game that you solo on the Top or Bot Lane

Runes

Think about how you want to play Ryze before you choose your Runes.

I would never take other Runes than Mana-Runes, Magic Penetration-Runes, Mana Regeneration-Runes, or Magic Resistance-Runes.

For this build I chose:

So you get 8.55 additional Magic Penetration and 175.77 additional Mana at Level 1, ;
this Mana will give you +14.1 damage you do with Overload and +8.79 damage with Rune Prison, and that is why I choose these Runes - for the Earlygame damage you do,
and keep all game long :
at Level 18 you will have 388.44 additional Mana with your Runes ( Overload +31.1 damage, Rune Prison +19.42 damage).

Also never forget, that Mana for Ryze does not only mean more damage - it means that he will have more time until he backs the next time,
I would call this Lane-Durability,
and there is nothing more annoying for the enemy than a Ryze,
which is always waiting for you with enough Mana to kill you.

Some will may prefer 9 x Greater Seal of Knowledge, instead of the 9 x Greater Seal of Mana, but in my opinion, the Seals I took just fit as well as these.

---

If you prefere having more different Runes and different effects, my second choice would be like this:

So you get your 8.55 additional Magic Penetration,
0.585 Mana per 5 Sec. at Level 1 - 10.53 Mana per 5 Sec. at Level 18,
1.35 Magic Resistance at Level 1 - 24.3 Magic Resistance at Level 18,
and 112.5 Mana.

Masteries

The Masteries for Ryze are often a 9/0/21 Combo of Offense and Utility Masteries.

So in Offense I builded :
1/1 in Summoner's Wrath , to upgrade the Summoner Spell Ghost,
1/3 in Brute Force , giving me +1 Attack Damage,
2/2 in Butcher , causing a little farming help with Brute Force
4/4 in Sorcery , getting my Cooldowns reduced by 4% and
1/1 in Arcane Knowledge for that awesome +10% Magic Penetration.

You could also put 3/4 in Mental Force , if you don't want that +Basic Attack Damage for better Last-hitting, prefering the little Ability Power upgrade.

Now to the Utility :
1/1 in Summoner's Insight , these 15 Sec. it reduces the Cooldown of Flash can often be salvation,
3/3 in Expanded Mind , you have 12 Mana more at Level 1 and 216 Mana more at Level 18 (you remember? + 17.28 damage with Overload at Level 18!),
1/1 in Improved Recall , 1 Sec. you win, everytime you back with Recall,
4/4 in Swiftness , you will thank these 2% of Movement Speed (when you got a Master Yi chasing you, they can give you the time you need, waiting for the Cooldown of Rune Prison to pass ;) ),
2/3 in Meditation , enjoy those little Manapoints more you get every 5 Sec.,
3/3 in Transmutation , even without Desperate Power, you get 3% of enemy's life,
2/4 in Awareness will give you 2.5% more Experience...why not?
1/3 in Strength of Spirit the masterie, made for Ryze, giving you little but precious Health Regeneration during the game,
3/3 in Intelligence and your Cooldowns will be reduced by 6%
and finally 1/1 in Mastermind , your Summoner Spells can be used 15% of their Cooldown earlier.

If the Mana Regeneration is more important to you than your Movement Speed,
take 3/3 in Meditation (this Master Yi will run away,
seeing that you always have full Mana :D ). Also you can take 3/3 in Strength of Spirit and 1/4 in Awareness instead of 4/4 in Awareness .

Summoner Spells

As you can see I chose the Anti-Gank Combo :
and .

Ghost is a very usefull Summoner Spell, you can use it to change lanes faster, to get a low-life enemy which is running away, to get back faster to the farm after you have backed,
and of course for the skill every focussed Player has to have : running away =D
Remember: it is better to be called a ***** by the enemy for running away, than to be called a noob by your Team for running into the enemy's trap.

Never forget to take Flash as you play a PvP, if you don't, you will be ganked like hell.
Flash through a wall to get away from a fight if you can't win it, Flash back if you are in Nunus Ultimate Absolute Zero, Flash in if you see you can get a kill throwing a Rune Prison on the enemy after you Flashed.

---

Heal, can be nice if you have to play solo Top or Bot Lane (but Ryze is not made for this)

Exhaust, is usefull in every game, as every Champion of the League

Ignite, for the ones who can handle it

or even

Clarity, if you are affraid of having insufficient Mana Regeneration

Surge, if you want to make instantaneous a little bit more damage.

---

In a Coop vs. IA game you won't need Flash, you should better take Summoner Spells like

Teleport!!! A Coop vs. IA player without this spell is a jungler or a noob ( in my opinion ;D )

Abilities and Skill Sequence

Now another very important chapter, your Abilities and the Skill Sequence.

These are the Ablities you have, and what they cause :


First of all your Passive : This Passive reduces your others Abilities' Cooldown by 1 Sec., each time you use one of it.
This does not concern your Summoner Spells (as far as I know), but it makes you able to act very fast, even when you got some Abilities on Cooldown.




Starting the game you should have Overload as first skilled Ability, it is the most powerful Ability you have, having a great range of 650, a 3.5 Sec Cooldown; It is very important and usefull to harass Earlygame. Also it is the only damaging Ability that never changes it's Mana cost (70), it will be your Mana-cheapest Abilityduring all the game.

It has a passive and an active part : The Passive is, that you gain 2% of Cooldown Reduction for every Level you skill it.
At his fifth Level, Overload gives you 10% Cooldown Reduction, that's why I max this Ability first.
It's active part is that little red ball you throw on your target, dealing 60/85/110/135/160 magic damage, +40% of your Ability Power and also +6.5% of your current maximum Mana.




The second Skillpoint goes to this Ability. With 14 Sec. Cooldown, a range of 625 and costing 80/90/100/110/120 Mana, you can allready make Combos at Level 2, dealing good damage. Rune Prison it self deals 60/95/130/165/200 magic damage +60% of your Ability Power and +4.5% of your current maximum Mana.
But the most important effect it implicates, are the 0.75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75 Sec. your target can't move. Don't confound this with a stun, your target keeps being able to act, it isn't even silenced.




I get this Ability with Level 4 but if you want, you can allready take it at Level 3, getting your burst combo earlier. It costs 80/90/100/110/120 Mana, has the same Cooldown of 14 Sec. like Rune Prison and a range of 675, even greater then Overload.
It is a multi-target Spell, so the little blue orb you throw on a target bounces 5 times to you or another target (it will touch 6 times if there are enough enemies). It deals 50/70/90/110/130 magic damage +35% of your Ability Power, +1% of your current maximum Mana, and reduces your target's Magic Resistance by 12/15/18/21/24.

Tip: If there is only one enemy you can throw it to, try to be near to the target, so it will bounce between both of you, and will touch your target three times instead of one time.




That's your Ultimate, you will get it with Level 6. It does not cost any Mana but has a Cooldown of 70/60/50 Sec. and a range of 200, so it only affects you.
Since the latest Patch it has only an active part, which lasts 5/6/7 Sec., granting you 15/20/25% more Spell Vamp, +35/45/55 movement speed and during this time your Spells cause 50% AoE damage.

---

So this is my Skill Sequence again:


or sometimes, when you don't need that Spell Vamp because you allready have it in your build like Hextech Revolver, simply take:


Taking the second Skill Sequence, your Midgame Damage will increase but you will regenerate your Health slower and may not have your Desperate Power ready early enough, due to the Cooldown.

Items

And now the Items, the part of the build with the most influence on the Champion's stats.

Remember that this part is still not 100% tested for the newest patch, I will soon add a new Item part for the new Ryze to play.

Have a break, have some Mana

To start the game, I think everyone takes , if somebody prefers to take to get Ability Power, think about the 35 Gold it costs more, and the 100% it is useless on Ryze, because you deal less damage and have less Lane Durability.
With the Sapphire Crystal I always take 2 x , giving me a higher Lane Durability concerning the Health of my Champion.

Your next Items should be and .
Now you can choose :
If you play against a good enemy, make sure you will deal more damage and take ,
or make sure that the Mage you are playing against, wont make that much damage to you, buying .

---

Now you have to choose again between , , and .

First Archangel's Staff, I wouldn't take this now, as you can see in my Item Purchase Order, I take it in the end. If you take it directly after you took Tear of the Goddess, it will give you +45 Ability Power, +50 Mana, +18 Mana Regeneration and 3% of your Max. Mana will be converted to Ability Power - This will cost 1860 Gold.
So it is way better to take or or costing 1325 Gold and 1525 Gold.

Each one, of these two Items has a very bigger effect on your damage than Archangel's Staff, and you spend less Gold on one Item.

Your choice between Rod of Ages, Frozen Heart and Banshee's Veil depends on the way your game goes.
If you need a mix of good damage, Health and Mana, take Rod of Ages, and never forget the awesome Passive it has.

If you take very much physical damage, take some Armor with Frozen Heart, it also gives you a great amount of Mana and a great Passive.

If another Ability Power Caster deals much damage to you, get some Magic Resistance with Banshee's Veil and also pretty much Health and Mana. Of all Passives in the game, Banshee's Veil's Passive is the one I prefer, because it is usefull against every enemy, every 45 Sec..

No matter which choice you do, always buy Catalyst the Protector or Glacial Shroud first, and if you can't buy it immediately, start by buying Sapphire Crystal, in order to always get the Mana first, and then the Health/Armor/Magic Resistance.

Then you can buy Archangel's Staff, it would be stupid not to grade up your Tear of the Goddess Lategame, before choosing :

.............Your sixth and last Item!

---

For the build I chose a second Rod of Ages, because it's the Item giving most Mana in the game. But it's passive would take 20 minutes more to complete and after you bought it your game will certainly not last this long anymore.

You could also take a to become a Lategame Offtank, so you get a higher Teamfight Durability and you will be less focussed.

If you don't want your enemies to focus you again in a Teamfight, take some , and they will just fear you, seeing this little white circle around you.

If you need even more Magic Resistance than Banshee's Veil can give you, take that: for less Damage from Ability Power Caster and a Ability Power upgrade for you and of course the Passive reducing the Magic Resistance of the enemies around you (that's also pretty cool for Teamfights, in which you'll get mostly Lategame).

If you take much physical damage, and you can't see those Attack Damage Carries getting away with 1% of their life after killing you, take this : .

Or if you want to slow your enemies, getting big Health and much Ability Power, try out with .
In this case, don't forget :
the slowing of its Passive will only be 35% for Rune Prison,
for Overload it will be only 15% for it's low Cooldown, and Spell Flux will also just have 15% because it's a multi-target Spell.
So your only Spell that slows the target is a stun for 1.75 Sec., but the target will only be slowed for 1,5 Sec. , so there is no slowing effect on Rune Prison and less than half of it on Overload and Spell Flux

If you think that you could get some more Magic Penetration, don't hesitate and take .

In order to get a stronger Rune Prison and a hurting Spell Flux,
take .

If you want to take any other Item in the end, do this. The last Item always depends on the game you are playing.

---

Never forget to buy some , and , if you have a little rest of Gold being at the shop.

If you don't know why and how to use your Sight Wards, look at this great Warding Guide : Warding helper - More than your eyes can see.

That's OK, but who to play Ryze?

Well, Ryze is easy to play.

If you play him mid, play without taking risk :
avoid every Spell your enemy throws on you, and when you think the time has come, or if he does not realise that he is that near to you, give him some Overload, and if you want to, throw all your Combo on him.
It should be like :
Overload - Spell Flux - Rune Prison - Overload

If you fear that he could flee :
Overload - Rune Prison - Spell Flux - Overload

If you have your Ultimate :
Overload - Desperate Power - Rune Prison/ Spell Flux - Spell Flux/ Rune Prison - Overload

If you want to get the full Spell Vamp effect of your Ultimate, try it like this :
Desperate Power - Overload - Rune Prison/ Spell Flux - Spell Flux/ Rune Prison - Overload - Overload

The last Overload should be in time of your Ultimate, if you are fast enough, having enough Cooldown Reduction.

---

Once you made one of these Combos on enemies, initiating a Teamfight, don't give a s**t to every rule, every Spells Cooldown you see finishing - throw it on the focussed enemy!

Everytime you don't see an enemy near to you, write that little "ss" into the Teamchat, preventing ganks on other Lanes, and farm and push to the enemy's Tower and get it down if you can.
Don't push like this Lategame!! Lategame is no more Lanetime, you probably wont see an enemy, so just farm, and make sure you are not to far away from your Tower or other Teammates.

You can ward the bushes between the river and the Mid Lane if they have a jungler, if not, just ward dragon or baron, so you will have an idea of gankers from other Lanes.

If you are on the Top or Bot Lane with a Teammate, make sure he knows about your Rune Prison and it's effect. Harass with Overload and Spell Flux, but make sure you always have enough Mana to help your Teammate if he gets caught.

If you see one or both enemies from your Lane ganking Mid Lane, try to split, one of you going mid in order to help your Mid Lane Teammate, or deffend the Tower if your Mid Lane Teammate has allready been killed. The other one should try to push the enemy's Tower down if both enemies are gone, or just continue to farm if there is still one on your Lane.

If you see, that the gank on the Mid Lane was just a loosy failure, and that your Mid Lane Teammate is safe and able to deffend his tower, just get the left enemy with a Rune Prison, and together with your Teammate, kill him, or push him back to his Tower.
He wont risk to much to deffend the Tower if you well-harassed him.

Sometimes you can throw your Rune Prison on an enemy, even when he is under his Tower, just make sure the distance between you and the Tower is large enough, not to get caught by it's Ray.
Don't forget that you are a Burster, if you have enough Health, and you think you could get him down with a Combo, get him under his Tower, kill him, and Flash out of the Tower's range.

If you don't have a jungler in your Team like Fiddlesticks, using and needing the Blue Buff, make sure that you get it as soon as possible.

---

For the first blood of a 3 vs. 3 game, you should know that you have insufficient Health at Level 1 if you are focussed. As you see your life getting less than 50%, take some Health Potion, and never forget, that in a real PvP, no one of your Team will cry something like :"That was Kill Steal!!!!",
just kill an enemy when you have the possibility (Of course, it can be that you just change the Lane and see that an enemy is caught in a 2 or 3 vs. 1 trap of your Teammates. In this case let them kill him if you want them to be nice to you).

Always be kind to your Teammates!
I bet that I am one of the loosiest Teamplayers in Coop vs. IA games, letting a Teammate die because he insulted me or things like that, but I would never do this in a PvP game.

If a Teammate insults you in a PvP, just tell him you will report him or something like that, but help him if he needs you, just ignore that the Champion you see running beside you is a reallife a***ole
(After you finish that game, you will probably never see him again).
There is nothing worse than a Team, playing if it wasn't a Team.

Screenshots

Not the best, but not worst. If the Statistics aren't that good, it's because of my skill, and not because of the build ;)

(lots will follow)

Summary

Thank you for reading my first Guide, I hope you enjoyed reading it, if you want me to add something, if you have questions, ideas, critique or just comments, write them, and don't forget to rate.

Special thanks to

Indeed545

who made that awesome guide : Making A Guide.
To everyone on Mobafire.com, before publishing your guide, read this one and make sure your guide is really as good as you want it to be ;D

NOTE that the guide is still not finished, cause it is not 100% adapted to the latest Ryze patch. I will try to update the masteries, runes and items as soon as possible. :D