Ryze Build Guide by Deoxysprime

Introduction

Hi, I'm Deoxysprime. I'm a casual player with too much free time on my hands. I initially struggled with Ryze after his rework but now I feel very confident with him. He is much different than he was in previous patches and my goal is to elaborate on his new strengths and weaknesses. My qualifications are not fantastic, my highest ranking is gold and I play mostly normal games. I just play enough games and when I find something that works well for me I like to tell people about it.

What's new with Ryze?

Ryze was reworked just this patch. Here's my rundown on the changes:

Passive (Old): Ryze's spellcasts reduce his cooldowns by 1 second.
Passive (New): Arcane Mastery

How does this change things? Ryze no longer deals consistent damage. His damage comes in spikes when his passive activates. When his passive triggers his damage and survivability spike briefly. This creates windows of opportunity for Ryze to become very powerful.

Q (Old): Targeted ability costing 60 mana and dealing 55/75/95/115/135 (+40% AP) (+6.5% max mana)
Q (New): Overload

How does this change things? First and foremost-- Tear of the Goddess is much easier to charge! You do not need a target to charge it since Overload is now a skill shot at a cheaper cost than before. Ryze players now also have to worry about minions because this isn't a targeted skill. It also has mediocre range and flight speed so it is easy to avoid. Other notable changes are the significant boost to the AP ratio and the significant reduction to the mana ratio. This makes the old mana Ryze build much less damaging while making Ability Power items more attractive.

W: Rune Prison

Not much has changed here. The base damage was reduced at higher levels while the AP and mana ratio were both reduced. The skill is weaker in general but still fulfills the same role. With the hugely powerful burst windows provided by Arcane Mastery this skill provides pretty ample crowd control now.

E (Old): Targeted skill dealing 50/70/90/110/130 (+35% AP) (+1% max mana) damage, reducing the target's magic resist by 12/15/18/21/24% and bouncing around hitting additional nearby targets.
E (New): Spell Flux

How does this change things? It changes everything. This skill is Ryze's biggest nuke and is the sole reason I consider him an AP hypercarry. The theoretical maximum damage on this skill is in the same ballpark as an ultimate skill and it has an absolutely tiny cooldown both outside and inside the window of Arcane Mastery. Cast this once or twice in a fight and you're talking thousands of damage while shredding up to a massive 36% of magic resist. It is worth noting that this skill is strongest when cast on enemies closely clustered together. It is also quite strong in lane when launching it at an enemy inside of their minion wave.

R (Old): Active: For 5/6/7 seconds Ryze gains some movement speed, spell vamp, and his spells deal 50% splash damage.
R (New): Desperate Power

How does this change things? This spell dictates Ryze's power spikes better than his items do. The increased cooldown reduction and duration on Arcane Mastery both provide massive boosts to Ryze's damage output. This spell also has a tiny cooldown at max rank thanks to the passive 30% cooldown reduction and Arcane Mastery. With so much free cooldown reduction it no longer makes sense to build much of it.


Here is the short version of the changes:
Passive: Now Ryze occasionally gains a small mana shield and a huge burst of cooldown reduction upon casting spells.
Q: Is now a skill shot.
W: Is now slightly weaker.
E: Now deals even more maximum damage and can more reliably deal the maximum amount of damage.
R: Now provides a huge amount of passive power and is available more often in the lategame.
General: Damage from AP increased across the board. Damage from mana seems reduced. It's more optimal to build offensive than defensive.

When/Why should I pick Ryze?

Pros: + Scales incredibly well. + Lanes well versus melee champions. + Does a surprising amount of damage. + When you finally kill people you feel like Zeus.

Cons: - Middling range. - Loses lanes to most ranged champions. - Easy to burst down. - Very susceptible to crowd control. - Not very impactful early in the game.

Ryze used to be a short range bruiser mage of sorts. His high defense and noteworthy damage made him a resilient frontline damage dealer that just so happened to launch lightning like some kind of wizard.

Now Ryze is a short range nuke with impressive scaling into the lategame. Each rank of Desperate Power provides a ton of free strength that provides a multiplicative boost to the effectiveness of his ability power and mana. (Casting more spells means casting more spells which means more effective strength from his offensive statistics.)

What does this mean? It means Ryze isn't a great bruiser any longer. He can't take a lot of punishment. It means Ryze deals incredible damage during the windows of opportunity inside of Arcane Mastery. He fulfills a different role than he did before. You can still build the old way but I felt much weaker when I used a build like that.

Ryze now has a weak early game, a mediocre early game (even if you got plenty of farm), and an insane late game. Ryze is good to pick against melee champions and champions that want to farm. Ranged lane bullies, hard pushers, and roamers are probably some of the worst choices to lane against. Pick Ryze for his incredibly strong lategame power and his ability to smoothly lane against most melee champions. I believe this makes him more suited to top lane than mid lane.

Summoner Spells

Flash should always be taken on Ryze. Ryze is very easy to gank and needs this tool to avoid certain death.

Teleport should be taken when in top lane so you can lend aid to your team when they're looking to take important objectives like towers or dragons.

Ignite is safe to take in lower rated games or in mid because it will provide an additional burst of damage which can turn a trade into a kill if used effectively.

Other spells are generally unviable and should not be taken. Clarity is a noob trap because it encourages you to spam more spells which should not be necessary after completion of Tear of the Goddess. Ghost is silly because you realistically need a means of instantly escaping from the enemy rather than movement speed. Barrier and Heal are better reserved for champions that deal consistent damage and need an additional means of survival. Smite is for junglers and Enchantment: Cinderhulk top laners.

Laning as Ryze

Ryze has a very weak early game right now. His biggest strengths lie in high ranks of Desperate Power, times when Arcane Mastery is active, and connecting Spell Flux in closely clustered groups of enemies. Desperate Power is not available until level 6 and that is what provides more uptime on Arcane Mastery. These factors definitely imply Ryze having a low power level early on in the game.

In order to lane successfully you'll want to focus on farming and stacking your Tear of the Goddess which is now pretty easy thanks to Overload being a skill shot with a forgiving mana cost. Use Overload to last hit from a distance and gain stacks on Tear easily.


The secret to winning trades and fights with Ryze:

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-> -> -> -> -> JOHN ****ING MADDEN

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Sometimes you have to trade with the opponent in lane and even though you're not particularly strong early in the game there will be times where Ryze can dish out some damage. If you want to initiate a trade you probably want 2-4 stacks on Arcane Mastery. Begin with a Rune Prison to lock down the enemy and follow up with a Spell Flux on the immobile enemy. It is ideal to cast Rune Prison on them while they are in the middle of their minion wave so that Spell Flux will deal as much damage as possible. If there are no minions in the way you can then land an easy Overload. If you trigger Arcane Mastery, mash your keyboard as hard as you can while casting spells in their general direction. You'll probably do a lot of damage.

Additionally, I recommend timing Desperate Power shortly after triggering Arcane Mastery. This will make Desperate Power trigger the free cooldown reduction from Arcane Mastery while also maximizing the spell vamp and splash damage because of the sheer number of spells you will be shooting off.

Mid Game

As midgame approaches and team fights break out you will begin to notice Ryze ramping up in power. Rank 1 and 2 of Desperate Power will likely be available and you will have a few core items built and maybe a few ranks into Spell Flux. Combine that with a few core items complete and you will finally be doing a bit of damage. Ryze's short range can often be his downfall though. You will need good positioning in order to deal optimal damage without dying. If you can finally connect spells you will be very powerful.

Team fights in close quarters will be your location of optimal power because Spell Flux will shred multiple targets and deal the most damage to single targets. This will also ensure that Desperate Power's splash damage hits multiple targets. Your goal in team fights is to hit whomever you can. Your short range does not allow you to pick and choose targets. Thanks to the gigantic magic resist shred on Spell Flux you can even dismantle the enemy's frontline rather effectively.

Your goal is to ultimately trigger Arcane Mastery then activate Desperate Power and go nuts with your damage to closely gathered enemies. This will deal the most damage possible.

Late Game

Ryze has hit his power spike. He has a free 30% cooldown reduction. He has 6 seconds of Arcane Mastery. His Desperate Power has an absurd uptime. You are a team destroying machine. You still have to be careful though. Your short range and low defensive stats make you a prime target to focus. You do have some defensive countermeasures to avoid being destroyed in lategame teamfights though.

First and foremost is your shield from Arcane Mastery. It grants a shield equal to 8% of your maximum mana when it is triggered. In the late parts of the game it is not unreasonable to expect a mana pool of roughly 3,000 and that means you will receive a shield of about 240 damage. This will mitigate a portion of a single attack. Combine this with the shield from your Seraph's Embrace and you will be more able to survive unfavorable encounters. This by no means makes you tanky but it certainly buys you some time to either get better positioning or deal some additional damage.

Because of your lategame power it might be prudent to buy a Guardian Angel in case you get quickly focused and killed in a team fight and need that second chance. It may also be viable to go for a Zhonya's Hourglass to avoid enemy burst damage or crowd control. Additional defensive items are an excellent choice to keep you alive in the lategame even considering your poor range.

Closing

Thanks for reading my guide. If there are any issues with the content or formatting just let me know and I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.

P.S. Ryze is more fun if you pretend you're one of those LARPer types of people and scream "LIGHTNING BOLT!" at the top of your lungs every time you fire Overload

Now go forth and drop a toaster in the enemy team's bathtub.