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How to get DIAMOND playing only one champion: RYZE
By throatslasher | Updated on April 23, 2014






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Spells:

Flash

Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Introduction



My stats on Ryze are the following:

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[+] There is no lane opponent Ryze can't handle. Even **** matchups can be salvaged. [+] Ryze is a hypercarry. This is rarer than you think. He is a snowball champion AND a hypercarry. [+] Ryze has fantastic 'bounce-back'. That means if you don't do well in lane or die a few times, you can still contribute a lot to your team in the later stages of the game. [+] Ryze gets more damage with pure tank items making him an unburstable damage machine. [+] Ryze is not very item dependent. [+] When Ryze counters someone, he COUNTERS someone. More on this later. [+] Great CC, AoE, and sustain. |
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[-] ****ty auto attack. Farming with your autos takes practice [-] You don't have THAT much range. It's OK, but you can get outranged by a lot of stuff. [-] Your damage will eventually plateau. Once you finish all of your items, you will eventually fall off damage-wise and tank-wise. You need to finish the game in a brisk manner. After 45 minutes, it's all downhill. [-] Ryze SUCKS at taking towers. Since tower damage is based on the higher value of your AD or AP, you will be doing like 75 damage to towers with your auto attacks even when you have full build. _ _ _ |
Standard choices
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![]() For your second slot the two standard choices are ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Situational choice
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Are you against ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Runes




Runes




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greater mark of hybrid penetration | greater mark of hybrid penetration: I've experimented with these vs some melee opponents and I've had success. Make up your own mind, but never pick these vs a ranged opponent or someone who can farm from afar |
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9 defense isn't what it used to be either, or I'd recommend 9/9/12.
All in all, I think 21-0-9 is the way to go. If you see some pro player playing Ryze on stream, immediately check his masteries and PM me if I'm incorrect.
Starting Items
I start this every game. Without fail. This gives you the strongest harass and the fastest tear. No other combination of items at the start is as effective as this. With the bonus gold, the 3rd potion will definitely give you ample sustain.
The build order
Core:



These are your core items.
Next purchases:



After that, you can choose between




You can build





Merc treads if you need tenacity, Sorc shoes if you don't.
Towards late game, your build should look something like this:




At this point, Your last 2 items are


Item Explanations:












Alternate items:
None of these items are anywhere near core, but I have built them once or twice in extreme circumstances.





A second








Skills
(PROTIP! TURN ON SMARTCASTING! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PROPERLY COMBO WITH RYZE IF YOU DON'T SMART CAST)

Passive: Arcane Mastery

This is your bread and butter. Knowing how to abuse this passive will seperate the bad Ryze players from the good ones. This passive stacks immensely well with cdr. You get 10 from your Q and 9 from your masteries so a Frozen Heart will pretty much cap your CDR. More on how to combo later.

Q: Overload

Zap! Bread and butter. Pink fireball used to harass, abuse your passive and farm. Throw these pink baseballs to get what you want. Max this first always.

W: Rune Prison

CC! Glorious CC! Single target, but we'll take what we can get. This spell is pretty great when it's maxed out, but it's pretty poor when it's low level. It sucks to harass with this spell early for several reasons. It does less damage than Q, it costs more mana than Q and it's shorter range. Avoid using this to harass early or you'll run OOM quickly. I max this second for the consistency over E and the incresed snare duration.

E: Spell Flux

Utility, utility, utility! This is a fantastic spell and it doesn't get the respect it deserves. Knowing how to abuse this spell is imperative. This spell costs ***loads of mana, so use this spell sparingly early. To use this to it's full potential, cast it when there are valid bounce targets or cast it when you are in close proximity. I max this last because it doesn't scale that well and W has way more utility at level 5 than spell flux.

R: Desperate Power

This ultimate is OK. It doesn't do any damage but it has its uses. Use this to push waves, teamfight, abuse your passive, or sustain. The movespeed is definitely underrated so make sure to abuse this when you need to chase or flee. The cooldown is quite short consiering all the CDR you will build and your passive.
Combos
(AUTO) = auto attack
(THROW YOUR KEYBOARD DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS) = Mash all 4 buttons repeatedly






















Practice all of these combos at different stages of the game to see how much damage they do. Practice = perfect
How to play Ryze:
For laning tips, see below. For teamfighing, see above. You should just combo effectively at all times and try to put your damage on targets that don't want a truckload of damage while keeping yourself somewhat out of harm's way. Ryze isn't that complicated or intricate, but it does take some dedication to get the muscle memory down to get the maximum DPS out of him possible.
Your combination of high damage, high sustain, and decent tankiness will allow you to stand in the middle of the action and throw everything you have at high priority targets. Don't be afraid to flash aggressively if it will net you a kill on that stupid Vayne. For more helpful information, download the replays from the replay section and watch what I do and analyze it yourself.

I still pick ryze in mediocre matchups just because I know that I can be very effective in other stages of the game besides the laning phase.
I do avoid 'hell' matchups though because my opponents will probably deny me farm or maybe even kill me. Avoid hell matchups if you want, but in lower divisions you can still outplay your counters.
I'm far too lazy to get into every matchup. I don't have a set gameplan vs a lot of opponents, but I have general feelings about how the matchups play out. I'll just file them into 4 catagories raising from "pie" to "hell".
Pie:






(You win, they cry)
Medium/easy:











(You have a big advantage, but they can fight back OR they start hard-get easy/start east-get hard)
Hard:













(They have the kit to potentially deal with you)
Hell:





(They have the kit to bend you over their knee)
Explanation of matchups
Pie:

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite
Easy/Medium:

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite

Faerie charm, 4 hp, 2 mana, ward, flash ignite

EITHER (Faerie charm, 4 hp, 2 mana, ward, flash teleport) OR (Mana crystal 2 pots, flash ignite)






Hard:









Back when you have 600+ gold for tear, cloth armor, pots, and hopefully a ward. If you can wait for 900+, a second cloth armor will all but guarantee you will survive his ultimate combo. A trick I like to do which is a bit risky is to wait for him to ultimate, then flash out of range. This will cause him to miss his double aoe slash/slow, which is critical for his combo. He will most likely miss his Q as well. He will probably flash as well, and without ignite, you probably won't be able to pick up the kill, but it's a neat trick to avoid 90% of his damage.




Hell:
(for hell matchups, it's advised to not fight them at all unless they are making mistakes. Call for your jungler and wait for them. Consider teleport and conservative builds)






I'm sure I'm missing a few, so request matchups you don't see in the comments section. If I have any knowledge of it, I'll update the section.

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Replays
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Link 1 (




Link 2 ...... (will be added soon)
Link 3 ......
-Changed 'sub par choice' to 'situational choice' when referring to barrier
-Changed all instances of banshee's veil with spirit visage with explanation
-Added explanations to starting items
-4 categories in matchups instead of 5
-Went in depth with matchup description
-Altered liss matchup
Top Ryze Guides

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