Basically intending this guide for something to point to when people new to the game ask for a hero suggestion and I suggest Ryze. Most of the other guides that I've seen have given seriously bad advice on items, spell usage, or both. This is intended for me to have one guide to point to that doesn't give bad advice.

Ryze has a very simple gameplay style, and is extremely powerful at almost all points in a game. While he does have some more subtle tricks that a new player might miss, his overall gameplay is very easy. I'd recommend him for any new player to the game.

Magic penetration for marks, some combination of mana and mana/level runes for the rest. I listed my personal preference, but it doesn't really matter. If you don't want to create a specialized rune page for ryze, I'd recommend flat armor and magic resist seals and glyphs as a more general alternative.

You'll have 36% CDR with 0/9/21 masteries, 39% with 9/0/21 masteries. If you really want to hit 40%, use an Elixir of Brilliance It's really not necessary though. You will generally be hitting abilities as fast as you are able to whether you have 36% or 40% cooldown reduction.

0/9/21 with strength of spirit for laning for SR. It's certainly possible to go without strength of spirit, and run a more standard caster 9/0/21 build, but I prefer to run strength of spirit since it helps with winning your lane. Winning your lane tends to be so important because games can quickly snowball out of control from a dominated lane on either side.

9/0/21 with 15% spell penetration for dominion since strength of spirit is quite weak there.

Start Sapphire Crystal and some combination of health/mana pots. If your lane opponent is likely to not heavily harass you, a mana potion will keep you in lane longer than a second health potion. On your first trip back, buy catalyst the protector if your lane isn't going to be a breeze(95% of the time), buy Tear of the Goddess if it is. Obviously buy both if you can afford it.

Work on getting Glacial Shroud, Tear of the Goddess, and catalyst the protector, and sorceror's shoes(sometimes mercury treads, make a judgement call on the amount of crowd control the enemy team has) as soon as you're able. Finish Banshee's Veil and Frozen Heart after that. If your lane opponent is proving difficult, consider rushing whichever of Banshee's Veil or Frozen Heart counters their damage.

While not Ryze specific, it is important to leave an item slot open as long as you are able to in order to place wards. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on where to place wards, since there's tons of other resources on that. It's generally a good habit to buy a couple of sight ward every time you return to base and have some gold left over.

That's the basic core and you'll probably end most games with about that much built. If it's a long game, the only items to really consider are Rod of Ages, Will of the Ancients, or Void Staff. Generally always Void Staff if the enemy team has significant MR(they almost always will). Will of the Ancients if you want to do better at small fights, typically in dominion, or Rod of Ages if you just want to add hp and mana.

One of the best things about Ryze is that you are building your defenses and offenses with the same items, in incredibly cheap parts. Even if you have a poor early game, it's still quite easy to come back and be useful for your team if you don't feed enough for the other team snowball out of control.

Desperate Power when available, Overload > Rune Prison > Spell Flux, with one point in Spell Flux at either 4 or 8, personal preference.


I highly recommend rebinding hotkeys to automatically smart cast. In combat, it's extremely important to use Overload in between every spell. Overload should begin every single combo, and follow every spell that isn't Overload.

Overload -> Rune Prison -> Overload -> Spell Flux -> Overload -> Desperate Power -> Overload.

NEVER Overload -> Rune Prison -> Spell Flux, never start a spell combo with Rune Prison or Spell Flux.

Typically QEQWQ for damage, since Spell Flux lowers magic resist, or QWQEQ for an immediate snare. The ultimate is to be used to reset the cooldown on Q after W and E are on cooldown.

Flash 100% of the time. Ryze has relatively poor mobility, and in summoner's rift, flash is more or less a requirement.

Exhaust 95% of the time.

Exhaust will likely give you more damage in most situations than ignite because Ryze's damage output is typically more limited by position and his own health rather than number of spells in his combo.

You still want to take Ignite if you know you will be laning against Mundo, Swain, Vlad, or another character that relies heavily on healing.

Pros:
-High damage
-Very strong from about level 5-7 and remains strong the entire game
-Very durable for a character with this much damage

Cons:
-Slow
-Very fragile until you buy some items
-Does minimal damage to towers

Let the harassment come to you. Last hit with your auto attack, use spells to last hit at the tower. Ryze wins lanes by out damaging, and typically outranging other harasses. Anytime an opponent comes near, hit them with Overload, Rune Prison, and Overload again. They will almost always take more damage than you. Return to base when you can't control your lane anymore due to either low health or low mana.

Tough lane opponents are typically ones with stuns/silences and high burst. Early catalyst is extremely important in those lanes.

Because Ryze is slow, you often don't really get to choose who you attack. It's important to stay near the back because Ryze generally can't retreat very rapidly. Ideally, your first targets will be Assassins that attempt to kill your ranged AD carry. Hopefully with your burst and snare, you can make sure that a significant damage dealer on your team stays alive and continues to deal damage. Keeping your softer team members alive is the most important thing to do in team fights.

His damage is typically high enough to deal significant damage to any hero though. While softer targets in range are always better to attack, it's not worth sacrificing position and getting yourself killed to dive into their whole team to focus an Ashe.