Here's a little guide on how I build my Ryze in almost every game.

PROS
-Spammable spells
-Ult costs no mana!
-Snare vs runners
-High burst/sustained dmg
-Durable mid and endgame
-Can harass quite well with Q Overload and E Spell Flux

CONS
-Squishy early game
-Silence will break you down
-Maybe a tad slow (not so easy to chase others)

Marks
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Pretty selfexplanatory. Penetration = more damage.

Seals
9x Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration
This, in conjunction with your items, will give you enough mana regen to last for a very long time in lane and come out with lots of mana to spare after a teamfight.

Glyphs
7x Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
Enough for 39.3% CDR at lvl 18.
2x Greater Glyph of Knowledge
More mana equals more damage.

Quints
3x Greater Quintessence of Health
If you want more survivability early game.
3x Greater Quintessence of Knowledge
If you want more damage lategame.

Offense Tree
You need 9 points in here to get to Archaic Knowledge , picking up some CDR with Sorcery.

Defense Tree
7 points in here are enough to get Strength of Spirit maxed out. This is a very important talent for Ryze. Think of roughly 5k mana endgame. This talent alone will then give you 50 hp/5 !

Utility Tree
All the rest of your points go in here. Be sure to grab Haste and Blink of an Eye .

Start with a Sapphire Crystal and if you like, some potions. Go to mid (preferred) and farm and harass and do what has to be done (kill the cocky Vladimir). After you've reached 595 gold port home and buy your Tear of the Goddess. This is the most important item of the entire build, meaning it gives the most mana. After that go back to your lane and farm the minions. Try lasthitting with your Q. It's easy and you will get mana from your item. Once you've got enough money to get your boots and another crystal, push your lane and harass like a madman to use up almost all of your remaining mana, then port back. From here on out you can just run around and pwn faces. Folow the build to victory.

Small harass:


Heavy harass:
-> -> ->

Heavy damage / Kill combo:
-> -> -> -> -> ->Heavy harass combo
This has to be done quite fast. If done correctly, your Spell Flux and Overload should still be travelling towards the target when you activate your ultimate Desperate Power. This way, both your Q and E will have the AOE and spell vamp effect, as well as your Q just after your ult.

Ghost and Flash are both great spells and can be used in a variety of ways.
Other usable spells would be Ignite for even more damage or Cleanse for easy getaways. Clarity really isn't needed on Ryze. He has more than enough mana regen to sustain himself.

Lasthitting is easy with your Q. Don't spam it before you have your Tear of the Goddess though.

Try focussing the enemy carry by using your kill combo (maybe combined with a Flash to get there. If the enemy team focusses you, run back to your tank/team while casting spells and snaring the most dangerous pursuer. If your ult is on, you may even regain more health than they can take away from you. Be careful though of any enemy champion that can silence. If you flash in and LeBlanc, Cho'Gath, Kassadin or any other silencing champion gets you, you're pretty much screwed.

Ryze is a very solid mage who isn't hard at all to play nor to master. He isn't played that much in normal nor ranked games. Most of the times you can surprise your opponent with your burst because they don't expect a whole lot of damage from a slow-moving blue guy with a book and a scroll.