Why, hello there!

My summoner Name is I Rheth, i'm playing on EUW and I can hold myself in Platinum.

I'm playing Ryze since i started playing LoL as he was one of the first Champions i bought. I immediately fell in love with his spellcombo and rotationdamage.

I made alot of experiments on Ryze itembuilds and tried anything possible, my latest succsess is what i summed up for you in this guide.
This way to play Ryze was inspired by the common way to play Kennen, which i also find is a fun Champion. I hope i can help you guys improving with my guide!

Stay calm, have fun and don't forget to write "easy" after every won game, no matter how close it was, gg wp - enjoy this guide!

Playing Ryze like a real man will make your enemies run like the little girls they are, so you probably gonna need Ghost + Ignite to hunt them down and put them to rest.

If you play against an enemy either with ghost or alot of movement speed or escape skills, you can also pick exhaust instead of ignite for the safe first blood.

Starting off with Doran's Blade and 1 hp, 1 mana pot will give you sustain and early poke, don't question it!
If you still question it, even if i told you not to, let me explain it to you:
Ryze has higher range on his normal hits than on his spells. Then with the Doran's Blade and increased AD Pen (Runes) and AD (Masteries) your poke will bully your enemy either out of the lane or, if he doesn't learn his lesson, you can still get a little closer and make him taste your spells. In my expierence your spells and normal hits do kinda the same dmg until lv 4 or 5. Your enemy probably won't be sure what to build then! ;)

After your first backport, you should greet your enemy with the power of the tear, which is the most important early item for every Ryze!! If you have enough money, get 1 or 2 more mana pots and keep the poke up, you probably win every trade now.

For Mid- and Lategame the rest of your itembuild is pretty obvious:
As i explained, you deal alot of AD Damage and to not lose this nice advantage from it, we upgrade this little extra with 2 more items: Sheen and Manamune.
Got it?? NICE! Now you have some Mana, AP and AD!! So what is missing? - Health, right!

For more Health you easily build 1 or 2 Rod of Ages. You can tell the number of RoAs by the ingame time. If you can get 2 RoAs before lategame comes, Well done. If you can't, you shouldn't try to force the second RoA, as it will just take too long to stack and you will fall a little behind.

From now on it's up to you how to finish off your itembuild, the suggested one above is my personal favourite at the moment but basically you should build to counter your enemys.

You start with your Q and here is why:
Your Q has the lowest cooldown and allows u to fight at lvl 1.
The combo goes like this: AA - Q - AA - AA - Q... ot whatever

Then, at lv 2 you get your W and here is why:
You can never know what a tryhard the enemy jungler can be...
prevent death by skilling and using your W on time + you can poke easier on lv 2.

Then get your E... here is why:
Now you can use your full rotation, anytime you get in Range: Q-W-E-Q
Or fight your enemy when he goes for a close ranged 1v1: Q-AA-W-AA-Q-AA-E-AA-Q[/i]

Time for a serious topic.

As you guys probably noticed i put some uncommon masteries up. Let me explain it to you:

FAQ:
Q.: AD?!?! WTF BBQ WHY? OMG Uninstall noob.
A.: Have you ever noticed how many normal hits you make as Ryze?? and they have a pretty nice range too... Let's improve this little underestimated extra and see what happens.

Q.: Lol Extra Gold at start?! Gold Ryze is dead, Season 4 started! report this ******!
A.: When you start with Doran's Blade, you only have money for one more pot. But actually you need 1 hp and 1 mana pot, just to be safe... Trust me, it will pay out.

Q.: 0p in Defense, still take Double-Edged Sword?!... gg wp i afk u 2 squishy bro!
A.: Stfu, don't QQ and get some mechanics!! you still win trades when u know how to move! Though you will get tanky lategame.

Tip: Try not to use your pots too early, as you also got increased duration on them!

Quints:
1x Movement Speed! 2x HP Regen.
As i explained before, you will need the mobility either to outplay (dodge/juke) or chase an enemy down. Then, for some Garenlike HP Regen, put some HP Regen Quints in and voilá - there is the sustain.

Marks:
9x Hybrid Pen!
We are breaking the meta guys! this is our key to do early dmg in both ways, AD and AP!

Seals
9x HP Regen.
To win the trades and outsustain any enemy (even if they counter you), put some HP Regen in here! I Wouldn't suggest this if u play against an early strong AD Champ, but against poking APs it's awesome.

Glyphs
9x Magic Resist.
This makes u invincible for the early levels and gives u a great advantage against any AP enemy.

Let's Assume we are in mid- or lategame and a Teamfight comes up.

The first Rule as Ryze is: CC will destroy you, any C-C-C-Combobreaker is your nightmare!! So stay away from heavy CC champs or wait until the CC is done.
In case of an enemyteam without much CC, it's no problem for you to get focussed, as your lifesteal will heal u, your team will help you or you kill them before you die.*

*Works only with an atleast light advantage.

If your Team is not made for all-in fighting you can also help them poking. Use ur E+Ult, maybe 1 or 2 Qs with that and then use skills on minions to get your ult ready again!

The nice thing about being Ryze is: you damage everyone! That means: even if their carrys are not in your range, it is enough to focus any enemy near those squishys while your ult is on. It will deal enough dmg that your Team can all-in them and you just keep spamming all what you got.