Hello everybody, before anybody truly votes, read and give constructive criticism. I truly enjoyed creating this guide and I hope somebody will get some use out of it. I'll be adding pictures of wins, other hero's that lane well with Ryze, spell sequences, and etc. Thanks for reading my guide

P.S. I'll be more than glad to add anybody who wants to play, message me here with your username and I'll be more than glad to add you!

Pros
Unique mage DPS
Tanky mid-late game
Mana based with minimal need for AP.
Hits hard
Amazing passive!

Cons
Not a great early farmer
Squishy early game
Very item dependent
Ultimate could use a slight buff; still very viable!

Most people who played Ryze once, or twice have probably easily complained that his ultimate is severally lacking. While it is not over-powered, it's not as useless as it is made out to be. Here is why:

- Low cool down on ultimate
- Helps make farming a breeze
- Has a 50% AOE damage.
- Heals you while you eat people's face

I want to elaborate on the AOE part. What makes Ryze's ultimate dangerous is that he can repeatedly cast spells and damage everybody, hence MAGE-DPS. Using Spell Flux to reduce their magic resistance, casting Overload and Rune Prison is more devastating than one can believe. Lets show some math ladies!

Overload
Rune Prison
Spell Flux

Lets say a Ryze has 4000 mana, and 200 AP. (Late game you can have over 5000 mana but that's beside the point).

An Overload will do 320 + 40 + 130 = 490 damage to one target (Not even including MP, MR or any of the lather)
490/2 = 245AOE

Rune Prison will do 200 + 120 + 200 = 520 damage
520/2 = 260AOE

Spell Flux will do 130 + 70 = 200 damage (This is only including instant hit, not even the 5 other bounces)
200/2 = 100
Potential damage is even higher than 500 AOE!

Total 1210 damage almost instantly
Total of 860 damage AOE instantly

The numbers go will quickly sky rocket as you keep casting. With my terrible math skills and write out of my numbers, you can easily see how the AOE damage is easily underestimated.

Maxing Overload is number one priority for skill order. This spell is his bread and butter, is B's to his Knee's, spaghetti and meatball, I think you get the point.

Besides Overload, their is controversy on whether to put points into Rune Prison or Spell Flux. I choose Spell Flux because it makes farming that much easier. If you prefer maxing out Rune Prison then by all means go for it.

As I stated in the Pro and Con list, Ryze has a hard time farming early game. Last hitting with auto attack is poor while laning with just about anybody. Because farming is poor early game, every drop of gold should be used sparingly until income is sufficient.

How to farm as Ryze
Play passive unless a champion kill is open. Use your spells heavily on minion kills to gain money for a tears of goddess. Do not be afraid of running out of mana. No gold = no items! After you obtain a TOG, use your ultimate and spells at level 6 freely to farm. The faster you cast, the faster you farm, faster your next ultimate is up to wipe out waves of minions.

Keep farming and don't waste time running around the map unless your truly needed. For Ryze, farming becomes harder when the minions take multiple spell casts to kill. Earlier you farm the better. I have also seen too many Ryze finish the game with less than 50 minion kills. I die a little inside every time I see that happen.

Runes are were players personal style comes in. Because everybody has a different style of playing, I'll only explain what I mainly use, and my second rune set-up

Main set-up:
9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Mandatory for any AP hero; magic penetration!
9 Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - Optional - Keep's the mana pool full while you farm into mid - late game.
8 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist Optional - Ryze seriously lacks magic resistance.
1 Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction Optional - In my opinion it feels right, I'll crunch some numbers after for my reasoning why

Optional: Second rune set-up
9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
5 Greater Seal of Vitality - Any hero can use more life and Ryze is not an exception.
4 Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration
9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Their are only 3 summoner spells I would ever choose as Ryze.

Flash
Ignite
Ghost

I personally use Flash and Ghost. Ryze does not have any way to escape fights besides Rune Prison. Flash to obviously get out of sticky situations and chase/tower dive. Ghost is used in the same fashion as Flash but it's better for chasing in my opinion. Ryze is a slow champion and it easily compensates for it.

Occasionally use Flash and Ignite. Great for first blood or healing enemy hero's.

The Mastery's I have chosen are generally your standard 9/0/21.

I have heard some people running 9/3/18
9 in offensive (Mage standard)
3 in Resistance
18 in utilities - Ends with 3 points into Intelligence

The main reason why they would ever run the lather setup is because they want the extra magic resistance. In my opinion, it's not worth loosing the 15% CDR from Presence of the Master

The item sequence I use is more realistic than many other guides on Ryze. Some people rush Rod of Ages because they get over worried of it's unique passive. Even though getting a fast Rod of Ages can never hurt, I believe that 860 gold on buying a Blasting Wand could be used more efficiently. More specifically, build it towards a Glacial Shroud.

Getting the Glacial Shroud gives you 425 mana, 45 armor, and 15% CDR. Much more valuable for laning than a measly Blasting Wand than in my opinion.

Other items should be almost self explanatory, if somebody needs explaining, I'll be glad to add it, other wise I wont add it.

Because every game has its surprises, you MUST adapt to survive. Sometimes you become more tanky than you would like, and sometimes you become a stronger mage-dps with less tank like qualities. Here are my optional items:

Abyssal Mask - Against an AP heavy team, this item can you dream item. Giving 57 magic resistance, reducing enemy MR by 20, is amazing in itself; plus the extra 70 AP to turn your Rune Prison into a more dangerous spell is great. Easily replaces Void Staff

Void Staff - Even though I have this in my build, it can be switched out or added. Use this item only against heavy MR teams; Which I personally always come against which is why it's in my main build.

Force of Nature - Against a heavy AP team, and your Banshee's Veil is not doing enough, I strongly suggest picking this up and becoming tanky to survive those nukes.

Guardian Angel - Because this brings nothing to the table but MR, Armor, and a 5 minute CD on an instant revive, I automatically put this in optional items. It does not bring anything to your damage which don't forget; your a mage.

Mercury's Treads - I usually do not get these simply because I prefer to keep my role as a DPS mage, but sometimes their CC is too much; choose these if they have a lot of CC.

Quicksilver Sash - Even though this does not bring anything to your damage, it can easily save your life against a Malz. Might be better to simply skip this and get one of the other items, but I'll leave it here anyways.

Rod of Ages - Yes, it's here, a second ROA. The stats on this item is undeniable even for a second one.

7/7/11 v1.0.0.121
Ryze: Overload base damage increased to 40/65/90/115/140 from 30/55/80/105/130