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Ryze Build Guide by The Meme Mage

Middle A different Ryze guide (still in progress of editing, worth

Middle A different Ryze guide (still in progress of editing, worth

Updated on July 6, 2018
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League of Legends Build Guide Author The Meme Mage Build Guide By The Meme Mage 5 1 47,879 Views 8 Comments
5 1 47,879 Views 8 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author The Meme Mage Ryze Build Guide By The Meme Mage Updated on July 6, 2018
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Ryze
    Standard build
  • LoL Champion: Ryze
    v.s AP

Zhonya's Ult removal

Huge sad news for Ryze players, and as you can probably tell I used Zhonya's a lot before the interaction between Zhonya's and Realm Warp was removed. It is still a very good defensive item, however you cannot use it as a get out of jail free card anymore and when you splitpush you need to have vision to ult away ahead of time before they can stop you with CC. Zhonya's is still very good on Ryze, but no longer core, so every time you see me talking about Zhonya's Hourglass you can just replace it with Frozen Heart or Banshee's Veil and it's pretty much the same stuff.
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I have depression, and Ryze is the perfect champ for me

Ok now that we have gotten those ****ing Anivia mains out of the way, buckle up because this is gonna be a wild ride (or to be more precise, a steep plummet down to Bronze for you because you’re about to lose some Elo playing this God awful champion). Seriously back the **** out now before it’s too late, the only reason I started playing Ryze was because I was placed at Bronze 5 at the beginning of season 7 and ya boi ain’t got nuttin’ to lose. People usually don’t even bother looking at this champion, and you probably only went looking for a Ryze guide because you are a Faker fanboi and saw him play Ryze like once and got impressed for some reason or you got ****ed in the *** by some Ryze main and now you’re trying to understand this ”broken no-skill” champion in order to cure yourself from your horrible PTSD. Imma give it straight to ya: Ryze is hard, he’s not flashy so you can’t really go around showing people how big a **** you got the way you “outplay” people with champs like Yasuo or Zed, and people might even despise you for playing an overpowered champ with no skillshots. But what i can promise you is tons of damage, tons of outplay potential and big **** plays, and maybe even some Elo.
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Chad Ryze mains vs Faker fanbois

Quoted:
But why should I play Ryze?
Ryze is an extremely versatile AP Hypercarry Mage/Duelist hybrid; he can fit into any team comps (as he can scale to be a backline DPS mage or a toptier duelist/splitpusher depending on the game and on your personal choice). He is also nearly unmatched when it comes to scaling in the midlane (apart from cassiopeia), and the lack of a true counter means that he can be picked at any stage of the draft, making him a pretty decent solo queue pick assuming you are experienced and are able to perform with the champion. His current low winrate is the result of multiple heavy nerfs, which were enforced as way of stopping high elo/professional players from always picking/banning him, which was a common scene due to him being 'the full package' back then (being strong at all stages of the game).
After Ryze's latest rework hit the live servers in early of July 2016, he was instantly picked up by a variety of professional mid-laners, and his viability went from an unseen pick to an S tier mid-lane champion. At the time he had a strong laning phase (despite mana issues), snowballed hard if fed and scaled hard if not. This led to an incredible mid-lane to late-game champion who was capable of shining in every matchup, whether it was in the mid-lane, top-lane or even more obscure positions such as jungle (I'll include a jungle Ryze guide here for pure entertainment purposes, don't do it in ranked).
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Barrier is for pussies

Pros
•Extremely versatile, with a variety of unique combos, interactions and tricks for every situation
•Late game potential for Assassin-like burst damage, ADC-like dps
•No true counters
•Top tier duelist
•Can be deceptively tanky with multiple shields
•Late game powerhouse, great outplay potential
•The scroll
•He has an AoE teleport for his whole team and minions. That is broken in itself.
Cons
•Very high skill ceiling, requires 10/10 positioning and decision making
•Unforgiving for new players (since you provide almost nothing but raw damage, if you fall behind/can't combo you are basically useless)
•Early game scuttlecrab
•Mediocre ability range compared to other mages
•Susceptible to ganks
•Struggles in most lane matchups early game (if inexperienced, of course)
•Kiting reliant
•Vulnerable to heavy CCs,can be easily focused due to short range
•Is tricky to teamfight with despite having a lot of damage (kind of like Draven) [Isn't this just positioning again?]
•Great Responsibility
Realm Warp
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Sums that you take

You usually either take Flash/Ghost or Flash/Teleport with Ryze, but other summoner's spells are still very useful in specific matchups or for specific situations, so I'm going to explain what each choice means to a Ryze player.
Flash: do I really need to explain myself?
Ghost: this is the second best summoner's spell (next to flash) for Ryze in combat. For 10 seconds Ryze gains increased movement speed to kite people smoother, chase people better, and running away from people/it down mid faster. Late game you just activate ghost and run down their carries blasting Deja Vu at full volume , and if you see a ghosted Ryze in the late game running at you, he either means very serious business or is prepared to throw the game.
Teleport: this is the second best summoner's spell (next to flash) for Ryze out of combat.Teleport doesn't directly increases your potent in combat, but it grants you a safer early game and is extremely important to you if you want to splitpush if the late game (you can splitpush without it, you still have Realm Warp, but you're much better with it).
Exhaust: standard issue anti-******** anti-assassin summoner's spell for people who just absolutely hate Fizz and Diana. Take this if you're not confident in a matchup against a tough melee assassin that outdamages you in the early game and to save ADCs in the late game.
Cleanse: Ryze is a champion who fights at a rather close distance to the battle, rather than 3 miles away from it like Xerath, so against team comps with tough layers of CCs that may forbid you from even getting close to the battle (Veigar's cage, Aurelion Sol's stun or TF's gold card, or just Anivia), this is an exceptionally good summoner's spell for denying them their combo potential.
Barrier: underrated summoner's spell, take this to piss long range burst mages off since they are too far away for you to exhaust them. You already have a shield from your Overload passive, and now you put a barrier on top of it, and later on in the game you will have a Seraph's embrace shield on top of all that. Recommended for newer Ryze players who are still learning the champ and are focusing on CS-ing and staying alive rather than making plays.
Ignite: good for cheesy players who want to guarantee an all in at level 3 and get first blood to start snowballing against easier matchups like Lux. Most Ryze players don't take this however since Ryze's early game is pretty ****ty, and other summoner's spells are more useful in the late game where Ryze is strong.
Smite: has potential to be useful on Ryze (or if you want to play Ryze jungle). Provides excellent roaming synergy post level 5 with heal, buff/objective contestation, mana regen and "e smite q" insta trick, and talisman is only going to be better soon with 220% mana regen.
Heal: if you're a *****.
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Take Ravenous Hunter, rest doesn’t matter (just fucking take Aftershock w

Ravenous Hunter is KEY to success on Ryze, take that and you're good to go. For runes we have a lot of options:

- Stock and Standard: Sorcery Primary with Phase Rush, Manaflow Band, Transecendence and Scorch/Gathering Storm with Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter secondary.

- Early game dominence (patch 8.13): Domination Primary with Electrocute, Taste of Blood, and Ravenous hunter with Biscuits Delivery and Time-Warp Tonic (if you start the game with corrupting potion)/Magical Footwear (if you dont start the game with corrupting potion). Swap Inspiration secondary for resolve secondary with bone plating and crysalis if you're facing someone bursty.

Further explanation on Electrocute Ryze: This set of runes is designed for Ryze to be most effective in the current early-game focused meta of the current patch. Having a damage keystone really helps Ryze trade in lane and Electrocute really helps him since he will only be taking trades sparingly (due to constrained mana problems) and we make sure those trades HURTS, while also scale very nicely into the game allowing you to 100-0 squishy targets with a simple WEQ when 3+ items. Taste of Blood is generally good for lane sustain, Eyeball Collection for some AP to scale into the late game, and Ravenous Hunter is obviously taken because it is simply amazing on Ryze (you get at least 10k free healing from this rune every single game). For Secondary Runes, biscuits help him deal with early mana problems, Magical Footwear is great because it makes up for the lack of Celerity (extra ms is crucial on Ryze since it helps him get his root in to engage fights), and of course Bone Plating and Crysalis is just pretty self-explanatory for bursty lanes as these runes pretty much only function as something to keep you alive in early levels.
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Zhonya’s Hourglass is a fucking blessing from the heavens (Zhonya's Hourg

You may have skipped the introduction, skimmed through the summoner's spells part and didn't change your rune page, but do not skip this part. This is the part where I tell you things about Ryze you probably have never heard before, and give you a list of combos to work with. Let's get right into it.
1. When in doubt, splitpush. Ryze is a great splitpusher because he has the best waveclear in the game, can easily 1v2 if fed (if it's ADC/Support then you don't need to be fed), and has a tool to regroup with team/escape if necessary (Zhonya-Ult is removed but a simple ult ahead of time would do). When you have your hourglass up, essentially you become this guy in the sidelane that the other team can't stop, because no matter what they do, you will either kill the people coming to stop you or waste their time chasing you, while also creating opportunities for your teammates to force a fight with number advantage or take an objective.
2. You can't deal damage when you're dead, so get a defensive item (Zhonya's hourglass or Banshee's veil). With Ryze's range, you're essentially another ADC in your team (who has to manually aim his "autoattacks"), so if you're close enough to hit them, they're close enough to hit you, and chances are that your support/tanks won't peel for you. You look after yourself, or you'll end up along the ADCs that have been memed to death in 2017. Don't skip this advice even if you're 100% confident in your ability to stay alive, because Zhonya-Ult is too good a tool to miss out on Ryze (update: thats why it was removed, so now you just have to not misposition). Strompest, a challenger Ryze main, builds Gargoyle Stoneplate third item on Ryze every game lately, that's just to show you how important having a defensive option is on a short-range mage.
3. Don't be afraid to duel anyone. You're a strong duelist, guys like Lee Sin have absolutely no chance against you, and I've even beaten Jax and Fiora in the late game with no problem. Of course you need to learn how to combo to duel, but I'll keep it short here: use the combos that give you shields constantly to absorb the damage and get movespeed to kite people. Don't try to fight Yi by the way, you can't kite him, root him down and he'll just meditate through the damage, and he can build tank and still kill you in 2 seconds with true damage.
4. Fight patiently, never surrender. Don't be ballsy in cluster****s, stay calm, and be the last man standing even if they call you a *****. If the fight looks bad just retreat, don't try to fight for Narnia and die a meaningless death. Never surrender as well, as sometimes you will have a tough early-mid game and you want to ff, but there's hardly any champ that scales as hard as a good Ryze, and I've seen and done 1v5 pentakills before. As long as Ryze is alive then he has the potential to carry the fight and the game by himself (theoretically).
5. Approach every single teamfight differently. There are no two teamfights that are exactly the same, and as Ryze, you have many options to create plays with your ultimate if you can just stop and think. The safest way to approach the teamfight is to be a backline DPS, but it's not always the best way. Sometimes you run into the enemy team at full speed bursting down their carry before Zhonya-Ult back to your team for an engage, other times you position you and your divers behind the enemy team to collapse on them (ZHONYAS ULT INTERACTION IS REMOVED, YOU CAN NO LONGER DO THIS IM SORRY). There's a difference between being needlessly ballsy and being smart, and you'll learn this slowly.
Now I'll briefly explain Ryze's skills before going through his combos. His Q is a generic single-target skillshot, his W is a point and click root, and his E spread "flux" onto the target that he chooses, and enemies with "flux" either take more damage from his Q, are rooted longer, or spreads "flux" onto nearby targets. The damage from empowered Q also spreads between fluxed targets that are close enough to each other. Every time he uses his W or E, his Q's cooldown instantly resets, so you may want to add a Q at the beginning of each combo, but doing so will slow you down a bit since Q has a cast animation and sometimes Ryze can't afford half a fraction of a second. Also, every time he uses his W or E, he charges a rune and keeps it for 4 seconds, while every time he casts his Q, all his runes are discharged and he gets a shield and bonus movement speed. So, if you use two abilities (excluding r) that is not your Q before casting your Q, you get the Overload bonus. Simple. Ryze's abilities are pretty straight forward, but how to use them in combination with each other is what makes a good Ryze deadly. These are the important combos of Ryze and when to use them (remember to auto attack between spells to maximize damage):
1. QEQ: quick trade combo in lane, can be performed in lane at level 2. Does decent damage but doesn't give you a shield to soak up return trade damage.
2. WEQ: quick trade combo in lane, deals disgustingly huge damage late game. Other than dealing damage, this combo also gives you a shield to soak up return trade damage and the movement speed to run away.
3. EWQ: 2-seconds root combo, use primarily for the root and the movement speed bonus to run away from people.
4. EEQ: wave clear combo, use this repeatedly in duel to get shield amd movement speed to kite people with before your W is up. It's better to EEQEEQEEQ than EQEQEQEQ, trust me. This is also the kite combo for when you don't have W up. Repeat until you do.
5. EWQEQ: 2-seconds root into empowered Q combo, lethal damage for squishies in the late game. Use this if you want to have a guaranteed kill on a squishy target or just to hold someone down for your team to attack.
6. WQEQ: low-ping combo, because you can't do this one with a ****ty ping. Does very good damage almost instantly, can even be lethal in the late game, but doesn't give you shield and bonus movement speed. Usually you're using this combo in an all-in in lane or in teamfights where you just want some fast damage.
7. EEQWEQ/EEQWQEQ: trading combo in lane when your opponent is in the middle of a minion wave (use the wave to spread flux onto him). Grants up to 2 shields.
8. QEQWQEQ: full damage combo, use to 100-0 someone when they are already hold down by some other form of CC. You have to be stationary to do this combo and you receive no Overload bonus, so use with caution.
Other "combos" are just combination of the aforementioned combos, in fact some of the aforementioned combos are in fact combinatioms of EEQ, WEQ, EWQ and QEQ. You can also add a Q at the beginning of every "combo" as E and W immediately resets Q cooldown, but sometimes a fraction of a second is what determines a good Ryze from a dead Ryze, so this comes with experience and good decision making. Know that playing Ryze requires you to use the right combos for the right situations and that takes a lot of practice and experience. Think of what you have to do; think whether you want more damage, more shield/movement speed or AoE damage with spell flux, and these combos will come to you naturally.
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RIP 2 seconds cooldown on Spell Flux and level 3 all-ins, you will be misse

Like any other champions in League (apart from Jax and Ezreal, build anything on them and it will work), you need the right items to make Ryze work. I will lay down a list of items that synergize well with Ryze, when I build them/when people build them, and what other items that each item synergizes well with. Know that different Ryze players can actually have different playstyles, therefore one item may work wonders for one but is useless for another, so keep an open mindset and experiment in norms if you have to. Here are the items that work on Ryze and why they are so:
1. Archangel's Staff/Seraph's Embrace: build this on Ryze without question. This synergizes so well with Ryze's kit since he needs a HUGE pool of mana, since his spells scale with the size of his mana pool, and his mana pool scales with his AP. This item on Ryze is like Triforce on Gangplank. Usually people complete this item second in the game, sometimes third (I'll explain later), but nobody leaves the fountain without it.
2. Rod of Ages: this item is certainly not as "core" as Seraph's, but it is indeed a very good item on Ryze because he is a short range mage and being a little bit tanky saves him from being instantly blown up by, well, anything. Usually, the first powerspikes in the game for a Ryze is Tear+Catalyst, with these items (Catalyst is a component item of RoA) Ryze's mana issues are basically gone and since he also scales with Mana, his spells hurt a bit more as well. Most of the time you complete this item first, and then move on to complete Archangel's.
3. Abyssal Mask: instead of building RoA, you build this against heavy AP team comps. This item solves your mana problems, gives you 10% CDR (which is so good on Ryze), magic resist, and it's passive grants you extra 10% magic damage late game (magic damage, NOT AP). So late game you actually get a lot of extra damage from this item IF you build enough AP on Ryze.
4. Morellonomicon: this is what you build on Ryze when you want to be ballsy: you get all the stats you want from a fully-stacked RoA instantly (minus the Health), plus 20% CDR and a passive that works really well if you build Manamune/Muramana. I build this item when I'm snowballing and want to keep the snowball rolling and complete it first (in place of Rod of Ages). You can also build it after you have completed RoA/Abyssal Mask and Seraph's/Muramama (the first two items, making Morello the third), but to be honest unless you run no CDR in your runes at all, this is a bit overkill on Ryze. Lost Chapter+Tear is, naturally, also a powerspike for Ryze in the early game. Try it, build it if you want, it's statistically a good item on Ryze but it's actually a bit overrated since it provides nothing but raw damage and there are better options for CDR items.
5. Frozen Heart/Iceborn gauntlet: I put these two items together since they serve the same function, and that is to make Ryze beefy against AD champions. This is basically the Abyssal Mask for AD heavy teams. I prefer Iceborn Gauntlet since you always have the sheen proc slow with your auto attacks, which actually help you kite/chase more effectively. You shouldn't buy these items if you're the only one in your team who deals actual damage (useless ADCs) since these are purely defensive items, and they are good for duels and splitpush/skirmisher Ryze, but not lategame teamfights since you don't do enough damage and is never going to be as tanky as a real tank.
6. Manamune/Muramana: this is a special item for Ryze. It gives you the best midge powerspike but only when fully stacked, since Manamune doesn't actually benefit Ryze, it's Muramana that does. Muramana's shock passive gives you bonus damage on your Q, E and W since they are unit-targeted spells (only champs tho) but since the damage scales with current mana, you deal diminishing damage. This is why Morellos is good together with Muramana since you get mana back from kills/assists, allowing you to do more damage. Playing with Muramana Ryze is definitely a bit different, I'll go through it in the extra tips/tricks part and link a guide from the guy who popularized it, but this build is rather risky and should only be built when you're ahead and need to TONS of damage to carry.
7. honya's Hourglass: my baby, people underestimate this item but I almost never leave the fountain without it (figuratively). It's a pseudo-defensive item for Ryze against anything (but works best against AD since it provides Armor), it gives you AP, CDR, Armor and a very sick active. You can use Realm Warp and then activate Zhonya's hourglass to safely escape from almost any situation (let's call it Zhonya Ult for short) and can create game-winning plays with it. Notice, however, that if you are tethered (Leblanc's chain, Morgana's ultimate, Karma's chain, etc.) before you activate your Zhonya's, your Realm Warp will be cancelled, amd know that this item is only a pseudo-defensive item, not a pure defensive item, so you're not tanky at all with just this item.
8. Banshee's Veil: basically Zhonya's Hourglass for AP heavy teams. Although you don't have stasis, you do have a spell shield which can be very helpful if they have a strong pick champion (like Blitzcrank or Morgana) since you have short range and is easily shut down by any form of CC. This item also nullifies assasins that rely on one spell such as Ahri Diana or Annie (not really an assassin but eh), not only engages, so it's a very good item worth building on Ryze.
9. Boots: all boots have something to offer. Ninja Tabis and Merc Treads for a defensive option, Sorc boots for dank midgame powerspike, Boots of Lucidity for dat 45% CDR (or 40%) if you don't have enough yet, and Boots of Mobility/Swiftness for when you want to run around and catch people with your root. Most of the time, the choice is either boots of lucidity or sorc boots anyway.
10. Lich Bane/Luden's Echo: good items for when you want to sell your boots late game (only recommended if you take 2-3 movement speed quints). Lich Bane is actually really good on Ryze since you can always add an empowered autoattack between your combos, and since you have high AP late game thanks to Seraph's Embrace and your passive, you can also practically 3-shot towers with it. Don't build it if you need the mobility, basically if you play Ryze as a backline dps mage you can opt for these items, but if you frontline as Ryze, don't.
11. Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment: build these when the enemy team has 4 tanks that stack health. Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, be ready for it.
Here are some of the full builds for Ryze and when you use it (I don't include boots btw)
1. RoA/Abyssal Mask, Seraphs, Morellonomicon, Void Staff, Deathcap: build this when you are confident that you can dodge everything that comes at you in the game, and that you are certain that you can snowball your team to victory when you have a lead. In other words, not a very good build if you're not a perfect Ryze player.
2. RoA/Abyssal Mask, Seraph's, Zhonya's/Banshee's, Void Staff, Deathcap: the Ryze build you don't deserve, but the one you need. This is when you want to play Ryze as a DPS mage in the backline and sometimes frontlining depending on the situation, and you have a backup plan if things go wrong. Abyssal/Zhonya's work great together, and is the dream build for Ryze.
3. Frozen Heart/Iceborn Gauntlet/Abyssal Mask, RoA, Seraph's, Void Staff, Mirellonomicon: a tankier Ryze build. You can have 40% CDR from items alone in this build, and you're pretty beefy, but you don't do enough damage to oneshot squishies in one rotation OR have Zhonya Ult to go back out, don't be ballsy or you'll die. You can, however, duel the **** out of people, and you still hurt a lot, just not WEQ ded kind of hurt.
4. Morellonomicon/RoA, Muramana, Seraph's, Zhonya's/Void Staff, Deathcap: the ultimate squishy Ryze 1000 AP oneshot build. Tons of damage, but feels awkward to play around for new Ryze players. This is the build you go to when you want to WEQ ded an ADC, and you can add more damage to it with Void Staff (don't get me wrong you can already oneshot without it, but this is to give you more damage) or survivability with Zhonya's hourglass. The goal of this build is to hit people, not to get hit, so Zhonya's hourglass is the only acceptable defensive item in this build (sometimes Banshee's but generally Zhonya's is way better).
5. Morellonomicon, Seraph's, Rylai's, Liandry's, Void Staff: against very heavy tanky team comps, this should melt them. Gotta be ready for anything, m8.
These are of course only recommendations, you need to be adaptable in building items. Look your oponnents and allies, do you have to deal damage? Or is your backline doing enough already and you can afford to build a bit tankish? Is one of the ennemy fed? Think about what you need to do and build accordingly, itemization is important on Ryze as it is on anyone else in the game (apart from Jax and Ezreal).
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The Early game struggle

There are two words that can fully describe Ryze's laning phase: long and weak. After the nerfs, Ryze is rather weak in the waning phase, but this doesn't mean he's harmless, as he can still deal surprising amounts of damage to enemies if they stand mindlessly close to minions. Ryze also has decent lane control with his Spell flux, and sometimes all you need to do is keep your opponent in lane and farm to victory. Ryze also wants his laning phase to be longer than usual so he can farm for his items and scale with levels to where he can actually hurt. Here is how seasoned Ryze mains play around his early game, as it can be difficult for Ryze to get back into the game if he's put behind in the laning phase, and in this meta where midlaners buy Morellonomicon and start oneshotting everything, it can be hard for a Ryze player to know what to do against a fast paced game.
Laning pase starts from champion select with your choice of summoners spells (other than flash): if you look forward to killing your opponent in lane, ignite/ghost; if you look forward to mainly farming in lane, teleport/ghost, and if you expect to be killed in lane, barrier/exhaust. Start the game with a Sapphire Crystal and Refillable potion (or cookies), and now you have 2 options: start E or Q. You start Q against champs with strong level 1 poke (Ahri, for example) so you can farm safely from afar with your Q if you feel you're going to be poked. You also starts Q against melee champions with no ranged poke that can kill you in lane when they click on you (looking at you, Fizz players) so you can start letting the minion wave push to you and freeze it in front of your tower (what Dopa does).For other situations, start E, and last hit minions with your E to spread flux onto the wave. You can get some poke in at level 1 by a well-aimed Q or E on minions. No matter what you do, Ryze players benefit greatly from an early back for a tear (usually at the third/fourth wave with 400 gold or more), and since you can push hard with your E, do it, and back early for a tear. In matchups where you know what you can't back early for tear (when they can push harder you can like against Yasuo or Morgana, or when you can't push at all if you don't want to be all-in and die like against Fizz or Shaco/Evelynn jungle), preserve your mana and just last hit minions. Your main goal is to survive and farm, you will outscale your lane opponent.
Aside from warding and playing on your strong side (if you bot side river brush, hug that side, and also try to hug the side where your jungler is, it's safer in general), you should also know all the different positions you can play from in lane. The dangerous zone is the zone from the middle of the lane to their tower [will have images], the neutral zone is from edge of the wall on your side of the lane to the middle of the lane, and the safe zone is from the edge of the wall to your tower (so when I say freeze in front of the tower, I mean stand in the safe zone). Obviously you want to position yourself in the neutral zone most of the time because it's where you can last hit freely, dodge skillshots freely and escape from ganks if you are not instantly 100-0, but there are times when you have to stay in the safe zone, and times when you can afford to be in the danger zone. You need to stay in the safe zone when the enemy jungler/midlaner has scary early game burst (Shaco and Fizz combo) or when you can't outpush that Yasuo; you have the advantage of being completely ungankable if you're not poked down to low health, and your jungler can come gank for you very easily as long as he's not an idiot, but you have to farm under turret, and your jungler shouldn't invade while you're here since you have to sacrifice minions to go help him should a fight break out, and you will also be slower to arrive at the fight since you're further away from the other side of the jungle (on the flipside, if you see your jungler playing agressive, always push so you can come first, always). You want to be in the danger zone when you want to reset the minion wave so you can back for your tear, when you're against a weak laner like Gangplank, or when your jungler is invading camps (you can run to assist him faster without missing CS), but you're extremely vulnerable to ganks in this position, and know that you don't have a dash/blink/******** mobility to escaoe from ganks. The best possible lane for you is when you can keep the minion wave in the middle amd hard push just before you back for your tear, but you can also take teleport if you know you can't outpush your lane opponent to back for an early tear. You can also choose to stay in lane and not back for an early tear, and sometimes this is what you must do, in which case conserve your mana at all costs since a Ryze with no mana is absolutely useless in lane. I will cover how to last hit under tower perfectly with Ryze from level 1-5 in the tips and tricks part.
Just because Ryze is weak in the early game doesn't mean you can let them push you around without hitting them back, and this is how you trade in lane as Ryze. Look to either E to last hit minions or Q a minion with flux on it so you can soreas flux onto the minion wave and zone your opponent from his minions; if he gets too close, spread the damage to him with another EQ on the minion wave. This is extremely effective against melee champions, but you shouldn't overdo this since you will run out of mana very fast if you do, and the goal is not to kill your lane opponent at all costs, it's just to poke him down enough so he doesn't go ballsy on you and maybe fkr your jungler to come and gank for you (and of course, to farm). Many people also seem to forget the fact that Ryze has a shield to absorb damage as well, so if you are against poke damage that you know you can't dodge all the time (Syndra or Lux for example), you can time your EEQ combo on the minion wave so you can have a shield to soak up damage and spread flux onto them for return trade damage, killing two birds with one combo. Ryze can actually kill in lane if your opponent stands too close to minions, you can EEQ the wave and then EWQ/WEQ him for the root and continue to EQEQEQ him until he dies, but his doesn't happen very often and just know that your primary goal is to farm, not to try too hard to get a kill and snowball.
Last but not least, always remember to ward. After your first back, try to buy a control ward and ward a river side, and use your yellow trinkets to ward your opponent's camps (raptor camp is a good spot) to know the enemy jungler's movements and react accordingly, and to stop roams from your midlaner (we'll talk about this later). You can find good ward spots from guides online everywhere, wards are important so don't forget them.
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Mid game big boi

If you're already ahead, congratulations. But if you're not, don't worry, because you're about to. You barely survived the laning phase so your team don't have to carry you, you tried to stop people from carrying their games by stopping roams and splitpushing to stall the game, but now, now it's your turn to take control and start carrying your team on your shoulder. You have a big scroll, but you also have great responsibility, if you can't win the game after you have reached this stage of the game not being 0/10, it's your fault for not carrying hard enough (unless the enemy team has Kog'Maw, Lulu and 3 tanks, then I'll allow that).
What you do in late game is very simple: kill everyone. Your splitpushes are much more harder to deal with now because you're not just a decent duelist, you're now a top-tier duelist, and you probably has Zhonya Ult to always escape so the enemy team has no choice but either watching towers fall or waste time chasing you. Your teamfight is way better because you melt tanks very fast and you destroy squishies in the blink of an eye (and that also means that rather than being nothing more than a blue and bald Twisted Fate, you can now actually try to assassinate carries). There are few champs who can carry teamfights harder than you do due to your massive amount of single-target damage, but it doesn't mean that your teamfights will be a breeze (and remember, Orianna and Gangplank and Tristana still exists, you may not be the only big guy around). What you should try to do is to continue splitpushing hard (if the enemy team has no hard-engagers like Leona or Malphite; if they do, just stay with your team), draw one or two people to you, and then regroup with your team with Zhonya Ult (or just a regular Ult) or Teleport if you have it. When people lose as Ryze in the late game, it's mostly because they don't teamfight correctly as Ryze, so we will move right to the splitpushing and teamfighting section to see what you can do as a blue bald man in a teamfight.
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Splitpushing and teamfighting

Let's talk about teamfighting first to keep the momentum going. Remember when I said that Ryze's strength is his versatility and that his weakness is also his versatility? It takes an experienced Ryze to know what he can do, but it takes a smart Ryze to know what he should do. Of course, you can continue to be the backline dps mage the way you do with Ryze in the midgame, and most of the time this is what you do, but sometimes, you need to get ballsy with Ryze in order to reach his fullest potential. When you really think about it, you only need to win one teamfight to really win the game (of course sometimes winning the teamfight doesn't mean you win the game because of those damn backdoors, but we'll get to that later), so no matter how good you think you are with Ryze, you gotta win that teamfight. Here are a few things to notice when you teamfight as Ryze:
1. When in doubt, play like a ***** ADC. Just stand back and deal damage to anyone closest to you. As late game Ryze, your single-target damage is HUGE, and whoever that you're targeting should die very fast, even if that's a tank (provided that you itemize correctly)
2. It's always worth to do the EEQ combo rather than the long QEQWQEQ combo in teamfights if there are more than 3 enemies grouped together. Actually, it's even worth it when there are 2 enemies together, and this is because...
3. You should always use kite combos, a.k.a combos that give you movement speed buff like EWQ WEQ and EEQ instead of straight up QEQWQEQEQEQ... unless it's absolutely safe to do so. This is because like an ADC, you need to kite people rather than stand still while shooting at people. It should be absolutely safe when enemjes are already CC-ed/nobody is targeting you.
Of course, being a pure backline dps mage isn't the only thing you can do. Sometimes you can:
1. Be a flanker. You can do this alone or with your divers with a well-placed Realm Warp. Remember that unlike Twisted Fate's ultimate, if the enemy team has no vision of where you're ulting from and to, they don't even know that you have used your Ult. Realm Warp has no sound indicator (ok yes it does but it's very small and only people near you can hear it), and no global visual indicator (unlike TF, everyone knows when he's about to teleport). If you ult behind a wall or something like that, they won't see you coming. Step back out of enemy's vision (a scanner would be useful here) and then ult. A more guaranteed way to flank would be what I call the reverse Misaya bait on Ryze: you approach the enemy's carry with Flash or Ghost or both, WQEQ or EWQEQ and then immediately Zhonya Ult back to your team before they can react. You probably have already killed the ADC if they don't have GAs or a Lulu, and if you haven't, he's down to about 100 health or something now and your team can follow up with that engage you just did. This is not something you must always do, but against something like a Kog'Maw with 3 tanks, this is your only option to win a teamfight, since your damage can't go through the frontline unlike other mages who can just ignore frontline with their AoE damage.
2. Be high-quality bait. Ryze isn't as squishy as an ADC due to all the shields (and mayne the items you build on him), so you can sort of act as a bait for the Jax and the Xin Zhaos to collapse on you. When you have got their attention, use shield combos to kite them or Zhonya Ult out of the way and let your team finishes the job. You can just finish the job yoursef since you ARE a very strong duelist, but eh.
3. Peel. Well this is pretty obvious and is quite repititive, but I gotta mention it. You habe a point and click root for ****'s sake, use it. You're literally the bane of assassins' existence, since whenever they try to all in and use their flashy 10000 dashes, you just click on them and burst them out of their existence.
4. Pick. Unlike a traditional ADC who deals damage to the people that his team put CCs on, you're gonna be the guy to apply CC yourself with your root. Remember, 2 seconds root is always better when you're making a pick (Traditional ADC is rather a loose term but what I mean is people like Jinx who doesn't have any real CC to catch people out in the open).
5. Deal massive AoE damage like other mages and some ADCs. I would say that Ryze only has CONDITIONAL AoE damage (since people don't always group with each other and minions), but you should look for the opportunity to do so. The most obvious opportunity for some AoE damage is when they are taking your tower: they are standing in the middle of a minion wave doing it, obviously, and you know what to do right? You can also spread flux onto carries when they stand too close to their tanks (you need to always watch the battle closely to see these small windows of opportunities) and proceed to make them scream with your damage.
To sum up, teamfighting with Ryze is tricky, play like an ADC and always look for the tiniest windows of opportunities to burst someone down, make a flank with your Ult, or just hit everyone with massive AoE damage. But you can actually avoid teamfighting as Ryze because you can always splitpush. In fact, splitpushing gives you the option to collapse on the enemy team with your Realm Warp when they send people to stop you. In order to splitpush effectively, there are a couple of things you need to pay attention to, and I will list them below.
1. Always use shield combos in duels unless you can oneshot people. What makes Ryze a strong duelist isn't just his damage, it's the amount of shields and movement speed that he gets from his combos as well. Imagine a Jax coming to kill you, and you EEQEWQEQEEQ him: in those 12 seconds (assume that your E cooldown is 2 seconds, in fact it's even lower when you have more CDR) you have 3 shields up, you're always running faster than Jax so he can't catch you, and the moment he jumps on you, you get shield and root him in place for the next 2 seconds. Basically what I'm trying to say is, just kite people to oblivion with your EEQ and EWQEQ.
2. Know your powerspikes and limits. Obviously a late game Ryze ***** on almost anyone, but in midgame, you gotta look at your items and your opponent's to see whether you can actually fight someone. This may sound redundant, but if ADCs can farm in sidelanes without a care in the world even though there's a Riven on the enemy team, I know that there will be people who will try to fight people without realizing they are not as fed as the enemy/the enemy is building a **** ton if MR.
3. Don't overcommit if you don't have Ult (or Zhonya Ult). Ryze splitpushes are similar to Twisted Fate's splitpush in that you can try and come to stop him, but he's just gonna teleport away. Or teleport all the minions to another lane for another push. You can do that. Also, you need a way to instsntly regroup woth your team, so if you're splitpushing where your ult can't get to where your team is, have teleport at the ready.
4. Get Zhonya's Hourglass. Imagine a guy with super strong wave clear threatening your towers, and he just killed your ADC under tower so now you have to send more people to stop him, but it doesn't even matter because he can always escape and he'll be back doing the same **** he does 2 minutes later. No that's not Singed (it CAN be), that's a Ryze with Zhonya Ult.
5. Wards. It's obvious isn't it, you gotta know when people are coming to stop you and where they are coming from.
6. Always flash your mastery 7 when you die. You must do it at all costs.
Unlike traditional mages like Orianna, Ryze can actually be a great splitpusher being a great duelist, having godlike waveclear and a tool to escape from any situation. If you put enough pressure onto towers, they will always have to send 2 people to stop you (since you are ranged you can just WEQ anyone under tower as they try to clear minions and all in once they are low enough) allowing your teammates to take an objective or force a fight with number advantage elsewhere on the map. Many newer Ryze players don't do this, but this is actually how you can win games as Ryze.
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Tips and Tricks

Add note to late game part: after you win a big fight, get an objective and reset. Death timers are very high in the late game, so don't overstay your welcome.
Smite interaction: if you e, then smite and kill a target (while E is enroute), E will spread as if it was a Double e or E kill.
How to last hit under turret with Ryze (with 1-2 points in E): Ryze's autoattacks are not enough to finish off a melee minion after 2 turret shots, but this can be an advantage. If you auto-E a melee minion (provided that E is level 1-2, this doesn't work once you level E up to level 3), the flux will spread to all other minions nearby, and now you will only have to last hit the minion being hit by the turret, since now melee minion = 2 turret shots, one auto (and an E) while ranged minion = 1 turret shot, one auto (and an E). Of course there is gonna be damage from your minions as well and you'll have to be flexible; it's like solving a puzzle with Ryze everytime you last hit under turret, but with practice you're very likely to have perfect CS even when you have to farm under tower.

Teleport(R): If you target the Teleport just on the halfway (closer to the side you don't want to go on) of a wall, you can appear on the other side of a wall and surprise an enemy.
6 tears run it down mid tyler1 special build
Roses are red,
Ryze is blue,
My opponent is dead,
QEQWQEQ
credits to /u/GuruCree
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Anivia has terrible design, no counterplay and should be removed from the g

Ok now that we have gotten those ****ing Anivia mains out of the way, buckle up because this is gonna be a wild ride (or to be more precise, a steep plummet down to Bronze for you because you’re about to lose some Elo playing this God awful champion). Seriously back the **** out now before it’s too late, the only reason I started playing Ryze was because I was placed at Bronze 5 at the beginning of season 7 and ya boi ain’t got nuttin’ to lose. People usually don’t even bother looking at this champion, and you probably only went looking for a Ryze guide because you are a Faker fanboi and saw him play Ryze like once and got impressed for some reason or you got ****ed in the *** by some Ryze main and now you’re trying to understand this ”broken no-skill” champion in order to cure yourself from your horrible PTSD. Imma give it straight to ya: Ryze is hard, he’s not flashy so you can’t really go around showing people how big a **** you got the way you “outplay” people with champs like Yasuo or Zed, and people might even despise you for playing an overpowered champ with no skillshots. But what i can promise you is tons of damage, tons of outplay potential and big **** plays, and maybe even some Elo.
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