agreed. the reason not to get it is that it delayes roa too much. also the armor is pretty much useless in lane if you are vs. magic damage which is the case most of the time. if you want to rush cdr then go for sv(revolver would be good here)

Frozen Heart before RoA offers more sustained damage(Q>E>Q>W>Q>R>Q>E>Q>W>Q) Instead of Q>R>Q>E>W>Q...Q. I still think his final build should be Mercs>Tear>Heart>RoA>Banshees>Wota>Seraphs. With it, you get 8638 effective magic health, and 10744 effective physical health. And, since you'll have the Spell Vamp, from Wota, you'll live extremely long, and be able to kill their AD Carry quickly, and not die. Because of Spell Vamp.

roa gives more tankyness. also you want it early because it takes time until you get the full power.
and i still think banshee's veil(enemy team has something like blitzcrank)/abbysal(enemy team has no/not much mr)/void staff(enemy has much mr) are better than revolver, which i would only get for the fun of bein low, doing wolves and being full health again.

Glacial needs to be bought after Tear, the CDR obviously helps. Sure, the armor doesn't do much in lane but the Mana does. And Revolver helps you stay alive in teamfights much longer. With 176 Armor, 122 MR, 3008 HP, plus the 25% Spell Vamp from his Ult. And 20% from Wota, while having 3660 Mana to deal out damage, he won't be dying easily during team fights at all.

roa after tear, then boots(normally i go sorc shoes), then other stuff. also no revolver. mr>spellvamp.

1). Tear should always be bought on Ryze on his first back.
2). It's always better to start with a Sapphire Crystal so you'll actually have trading power.
3). Abyssal Scepter is not very good on Ryze, get a Banshee's Veil.
4). Randiuns should never be bought on Ryze unless the opponent team is AD heavy.
5). Item order is wrong. Should be. Boots/crystal>Tear>Mercs>Glacial>Catalyst>Frozen Heart>RoA/Revolver.
6). Never, ever, ever, start with Spell Flux. Spell Flux and Overload cost the same mana at level 1, and Overload does more damage. Starting with Spell Flux is just stupid.
7). Fury Mastery on Ryze? Seriously? What does he need attack speed for?
8). Never go 21 in the Defense tree. The Utility Tree has so much more to offer. Not to mention, Strength of Spirit, Wanderer, and Nimble lie within the Utility Tree.
This guide..

nice and simple guide, but i personally dont like AP ryze builds or ryze builds that dont get 40% cdr

Getting catalyst before Tear is just a bad idea. You're missing out on a lot of spells casted during laning phase for building tear as soon as you can for muramana. You shouldn't be building so tanky without proper reason, generally you shouldn't build randuin's unless they really have a lot of AD. In most cases you'd be better off with spellvamp, increasing your sustain and survivability with additional AP.

Amazing Ryze build, no mention of iceborn gauntlet? 500 mana, some AP, armor, and CDR? Yes please. I love everything about it. Also, the new Randuin's is something I never even considered on him, and now seems just brilliant for someone like me that loves brazenly leading the charge. Not core for some, but I personally place high value on strolling up to the ADC and ripping him a new one.

Not a bad guide i like it, Ryze is my favorite champion 9/10 of my games i am playing with him and i started playing League of legends on December 2009, did few pentas with him, if any one is interested in my guide check it out guys http://www.lolking.net/guides/48119 i spend like hours and hours building it.

Good guide, especially in terms of describing the different phases of Ryze's game. I'm a bit unclear on the idea behind the Randuin's, though, and why you say Ryze's place is at the front of the team. Plus, wouldn't Randuin's in general make more sense on someone who is already going to build a HoG. (Admittedly, this will be a moot point if/when they remove HoG in Season 3.) I've also never really been convinced about Abyssal on Ryze. It's a staple of most APs, yes, but his AP ratios are so bad...