Hello and welcome to my very first mobafire guide featuring Ryze!








I'd like to thank my friend FresHzomg for this awesome banner![/b]

First of all, i'd like to say that this isn't almost identical guide for ryze as others because i'll do my best, so you can understand my guide,items, runes and masteries i had chosen.

I will explain them in next few chapters!
Please don't judge my guide because of my english which isn't my first language.





I WILL be uploading Ryze gameplay montage in the nearest future!

Ryze

General
Base attack damage increased to 52 from 49
Base missile speed increased to 2400 from 1400
Recommended items updated on The Crystal Scar/Summoner's Rift
Animations updated for Overload, Rune Prison, and Spell Flux

Overload
Mana ratio reduced to 6.5% from 7.5%
Ability power ratio increased to .4 from .2
Overload base damage increased to 60/85/110/135/160 from 40/65/90/115/140
]Range reduced to 650 from 700

Rune Prison
Mana ratio reduced to 4.5% from 5%
Mana cost adjusted to 80/90/100/110/120 from 80/95/110/125/140
]Rune prison duration reduced to .75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds

Spell Flux:
Added a 1% mana ratio
Missile speed reduced
Bounce radius increased to 400 from 375
Spell Flux now prioritizes enemy champions over Ryze
Mana cost adjusted to 80/90/100/110/120 from 80/95/110/125/140

Desperate Power:
Passive mana component removed
Active now adds 35/45/55 movement speed



With this changes Ryze will have better early game where he was easy abused by casters, now he's a lot stronger in early game, has a great move speed boost which is way better than 200 extra mana and his Spell Flux is a beast now in the late game. I only don't like the snare duration on Rune Prison which is reduced to 0.75 at first level.

WALL OF TEXT!
skip if you already read it!



There are many on Runeterra who are attracted to the study of magic or, in recent times, the emerging field of techmaturgy. For most, pursuit of such knowledge is formalized in a college or university. The halls of traditional study were never for Ryze, however, who felt a more raw and primal connection to the magic of Runeterra than those who tried to teach him. He struck out on his own as a young man to discover what already called to him.

Ryze traveled the world, seeking the wisdom of powerful hermits, witches, and shamans - anyone who had something to share beyond what was taught in the city-states of Valoran. When he had learned all he could from these fonts of wisdom, Ryze turned to seek the lost, forgotten, and forbidden knowledge in the world, delving into mystical worlds where others feared to tread.

Ryze's tireless searching for magical knowledge led him to an ancient form of spellcraft known as thorn magic. This art required Ryze to tattoo spells on his body, permanently infusing his being with vast arcane power and finally fulfilling his need to bond with the mystical energies of Runeterra.

His travels also led him to uncover the giant indestructible scroll he now carries on his back - the purpose of the inscribed spell remains a secret only Ryze knows. He claims it is an abomination - something that he must safeguard from the world. This has piqued the curiosity of many, though no one is sure how to separate the scroll from Ryze, or if it is possible to overcome the rogue mage to do so. Since then, Ryze has joined the League of Legends to study the magical creatures and powerful will-workers that fight there, in order to complete his exploration of mystical Runeterra.


"Ryze is no longer just a mage - he has become a creature of magic itself."
High Councilor Heywan Relivash








Some interesting things about Ryze


Ryze was designed by Ezreal and Guinsoo.


Desperate Power's development function "While Ryze's health is low, his ability power is increased" is now the passive ability for Karma][/b.

He was the first champion released prior Season One to obtain a League Judgement.


Ryze's original cost was 1350 . He was lowered to 450 on April 12th, 2011.

Ryze is one of five champions voiced by Adam Harrington, the other four being Kassadin, Karthus, Mordekaiser, and Shaco.

Here are some runes that might be very useful. I will mostly talk about quint runes which i find most needed for Ryze :

Use this runes :

9X
- magic penetration marks are best for any ap/mana caster because they help a lot early/late game.
- they are also best choice on because they are only magic pen item + masteries , they also help a lot in early game and do some extra damage in mid game.
9X


After recent Ryze change he doesn't really need that few mana for more damage increase so i tried this setup and it worked pretty well. The sutional option could be Greater Seal of vitality which also provide good amount of hp for late game tankyness.

9x
- same reason as seals since midlane is now more about farming and sustaining yourself in lane rather than dmg output so more magic resist fits mana/lvl best!

and as last quints :
3x
- I prefer these the most because they give so much utility for escaping or chasing enemies or just to dodge skillshot based champions. I also prefer these because u can always stay in range of enemy while casting spell after spells.

u can also grab
after playing alot with these i think they are the best possible choice on Ryze. only get if you find yourself against Orianna or some other mobile champions with alot of skillshots.

I would not recommend any other quintessences! I'm pretty sure these 2 above are the best choice u can have for Ryze.


Your new and final rune pages(2) for Ryze should look like this :













This should be your final runes for Ryze :


5x 4x

This masteries are the only way to play Ryzecorrectly, here is some explaination :

don't get me wrong, Butcher and Summoner's Wrath are bot hvery good choices if you want extra damage for last hitting and stuff but since Ryze's range is getting reduced, we just want to farm, and trading that 2% isn't worth for Butcher , YOU should only do it if you have problem last hitting with Ryze, then you should fulfill those 2% cdr from runes, if you can't last hit well without butcher.

Sorcery- very logical, we want that 4% cdr that works well with Overload passive + Frozen Heart or Spirit Visage + 6% from Intelligence gives us exactly needed 40% CDR.

Blast - not really needed but we need to take it if we want extra magic penetration which is always nice.

Arcane Knowledge - this 8% magic pen is a must have especially if you're going to build Mercury's Treads.



Summoner's Insight + Mastermind reducing flash CDr + reducing teleport channel time.


Meditation for some extra mana regen since we want enemy to push us to tower to safely last hit, if enemy is overaggresive call jungler for gank, Ryze is a god in assisting junglers.


[[Improved recall] - faster returning to base, clutch escapes :D

Expanded Mind some extra mana, nothing special


Artificer very important because we want to get our shield back as soon as possible from Archangel's Staff.


Runic Affinity - for longer blue/red buffs.


Vampirism - a must, very good synergy with spell vamp quints + Will of the Ancients + Desperate Power.



Biscuiteer - mini potion, nice for early sustain.


Intelligence - same as Sorcery (4 % cdr), 6% cdr


Nimble extra movement speed is always nice to have, very good utility- it's like 2 movement speed quints.




Alternative mastery page would be something like this, which you should use versus teams that won't build alot of magic pen, + take this masteries in hard matchups swapping armor or MR mastery depending on matchup, with these masteries you always want to grab void staff as your last item.

as your first item you want and 3 pots against enemies with high mobility or skillshots.
if not, pick mana crystal against champions with lower range than your Overload, or if you just want to play defensive a.k.a to farm and cast as much as possible.

After you get back for first time buy Tear of the Goddess and Ruby Crystal. <----I usually get these first for mana stacking and some health. if you have problems in lane rush catalyst the protector for more lane sustain.

Buy Sorcerer's Shoes if you haven't already. Or get Mercury's Treads if you think you will get focused in theam fights or you don't need that much magic penetration as usual eg. enemy team doens't have much mr.

next big item you want is since Banshee's Veil isn't so good anymore on Ryze due to his recent changes. Also this is the first item so we can get it's benefits as sooner as possible.

After RoA we get because we need some defensives and we want to build it only if enemy got fed ability power champion, otherwise go build Frozen Heart.
[
your next core item should be Glacial Shroud for cdr and armor which will eventually lead to Frozen Heart.

pick one of these boots : , Mercury's Treads,






EARLY TO MID GAME CORE ITEMS

after getting

your build should be looking like this at mid game :[/b]



going into the late game you should finish your Frozen Heart ONLY IF YOU DON'T BUILD Spirit Visage, and get Archangel's Staff and also get elixirs because they are awesome and they glow.





MID TO LATE GAME CORE ITEMS:
MY ACTUAL INGAME SET FOR RYZE :










































ITEMS TO CONSIDER

as you can see, Ryze is very cheap champion and he is great for learning this game!

I'll try to confront you to play Ryze >

1. He's 450 IP
2. He's quite easy to learn but hard to master
3. He's also very strong and viable and is easy to carry with to high elo.
4. He has awesome skins and he's a Mage







Arcane Mastery - mostly, the best passive ever made
this passive represents Ryze and this is why he is so strong and viable pick.
I'd rate this passive 10/10 if i could. In today's meta the best deal is to be tanky while doing as much damage as possible, because of that , this passive is just so strong.













Overload - one of the best abilities in the game for sure, gives 10% flat CDR, deals tons of damage and also heals you like a boss every time you cast it while having Will of the Ancients.
Rating 9/10 because it does have a small ranger which makes him voulnerable to high range champions.



" I got these tatoos in the Rune Prison" !











Rune Prison
- this snare is great damage spell for ryze with good ap and mana ratios.
- snare is great for catching enemies that are fleeing or for running away from gankers
- even if it is not a stun, it's still nice cc for him.

i'd rate it only 7/10 since it has reduced snare duration. He's Rune Prison also has short range but it is one of the best utility spells for junglers to gank! Every jungler would be happy to have Ryze because of utility he brings to ganks!











Great farming ability when using Desperate Power

reduces enemy magic resist which makes you hit squishys like a truck.

bounces up to 6 times! which does great damage in 1v1 combat or when fighting vs 2.
great aoe spell for farming and damage amplification.


Spell Flux can bounce to targets in the Fog of War.
Spell Flux magic resist reduction does not stack with itself.
Spell Flux can bounce back to Ryze, dealing no damage.

8/10 rating because of magic resist reducstion (it's like free sorcs shoes but even better), after rework it also has small but noticable ap ratio which scales even better into late game.







Desperate Power

Passive gives no more free mana but now gives move speed which is one of the best bonuses champion can get. free mana is nothing comapred to utility he now gets from that movement speed which will alow Ryze more reliable lane phase eg. harder to gank but also will easier catch enemies and assist ganks for jungler.
active has so short cooldown and is great for farming creeps like a boss.
ryze gets 15/20/25 spell vamp - so epic for teamfights, ryze gets aoe damage and also huge sustain. the aoe he gets is really huge, it is very noticable when enemies are grouped one to others , Where did my hp go YO? HAX, REPORT! :D

this spell in late game ,when spamming spells, can used every 15 seconds or even less.
2-3 times in one teamfight! One of the strongest utility spells in the game. Spell vamp makes Ryze so harder to kill.

Top lane Ryze is all about denying enemy champion to farm, poking him hard and disallowing him to engage Ryze, since most champion in top lane do pyhsical damage, you will find yourself building alot of armor, maxing Overload is nothing new, some matchups are harder, some are easier but generally Ryze can very safely farm in TOP lane. When going top it's also good to take ignite for small fights, starting with Cloth Armor is also a very nice option especially champions like Kha'Zix who do alot of damage early game so you don't get shutdown before 10 minutes into the game.



Some common matchups you'll find yourself in :
















My opinion on Top lane as Ryze is very simple: if you really want to play ryze, first pick him,then wait for enemy to pick mid or top and tell your team that you want to face this matchup instead of the other one, with that you can make your laning phase alot easier if you get counter picked, + your teammate can counter pick orianna for example if she gets picked.
Do as many swaps as you want, just try to get to the late game without giving up many levels and deaths, and it's gg ;).

PLAY Ryze ON SMARTCAST, you won't regret. It makes Ryze much stronger because u won't mess up your buttons and you will be faster at triggering spells ( Overload ).




Chaining abilities in the right order is key to make optimal use of Arcane Mastery.

For starters, begin with Overload and use it every 2nd spell afterwards. Advanced combos rely on making use of Arcane Mastery to cooldown priority spells.

Some example spell combos involve:
1. Overload -> Desperate Power(while Overload is enroute) -> Overload -> Spell Flux -> Overload -> Rune Prison -> Overload (maximum damage over-time, 40% CDR team-fight damage combo)


2. Rune Prison -> Overload -> Spell Flux -> Overload (short, lane harassment burst combo)


3. Rune Prison -> Overload -> Spell Flux -> Overload -> Desperate Power (while Overload is enroute) -> Overload -> Rune Prison (chasing combo, to make Rune Prison refresh as soon as possible, also used on people out of position)














SMART:Casting Overload before your other spells will allow a second cast soon, due to its relatively short cooldown due to Arcane Mastery.

If pursued, try to cast your spells on the run to use your Rune Prison as many times as possible on your pursuers. Prioritize melee champions with gap closers.

Using Rune Prison on melee enemies will effectively remove them from the fight temporarily.
Rune Prison does NOT interrupt channeling abilities, so be aware of using it against enemies like Katarina or Fiddlesticks.




Rune Prison will not stop a ranged champion from attacking your allies within range; always take this into consideration when using it on champions such as Twitch or Kog'Maw.



Try to use Spell Flux on groups of minions or a minion near a champion to hit them near towers.
When encountering a single opponent, make sure you're sufficiently close for the Spell Flux to bounce off you.


Desperate Power combined with Ryze's other abilities make farming gold easy, in mid/late game.

Desperate Power has a relatively short cooldown and its spell vamp can help Ryze to regain health.










At 40% Cooldown Reduction, because of Arcane Mastery, Ryze's combo is only limited by the player's casting speed. This makes smartcasting all of Ryze's skills a good technique for veteran players.

If you are new to this game, this is a small tutorial how to set spells to smartcast. In second part of this section i'll learn something more about asmartcasting and why is it so important for champion like Ryze. I know i said this few times already in guide but in this section if will be explained in details.

SKIP IF YOU KNOW :


as your first step, you should click "ESC" button and then go to "Key binding" section.

as for second step remove binds from your CAST SPELL 1-4.



for third step, scroll mouse a bit down and you will find "SMART CAST SPELL 1-4" in those 4 fields put your Q,W,E,R.



You are set now. It should look like this :








Now, Ryze has been reworked to a mana caster with great passive Arcane Mastery which allows him to reduce cooldowns on his spells when he casts spells. From this , you can already conclude that you will be spamming like mad and you need better reactions. Smartcast is just it:







#1 Smartcast allows you to faster trigger spells then just having to click twice to cast Overload etc.





#2 Smartcast doesn't show range of spell, so when you click on enemy, it will cast spell instantly when you come in range.





#3 I had tons of situations where for example, Ahri ults and she is 200 hp, to finish her off i needed one more Overload which i was able to cast on her before she went in fog of war only due to smartcast. - smartcast increases your agility.





#4 You will never , ever have to say again : "It was so close to cast that final Overload" You will be like boss catching everyone who tries to escape from you.




#5 Smartcast is fun and you will start to love it as soon as you learn to play Ryze and you will realise yourself that it's far better then having "cast spell" option active.





6# "In general if you need the targeting graphic, this still isn't for you. When you're familiar enough with a champion that you know your AoE and range already then go for it." (c) Epic guy If you do want to play smartcast and you don't know the range you can always activate the line missile in more options.





#7 Smartcast overall helps you to better play or to understand a certain champion, Ryze.From my personal experience i can tell it's very helpful and it can way easier secure kills and you react better with smartcast.If you don't believe , you should learn how to play smartcast and after you master it, you will find it very helpful especially when playing Ryze.



At 40% Cooldown Reduction, because of Arcane Mastery, Ryze's combo is only limited by the player's casting speed. This makes smartcasting all of Ryze's skills a good technique for veteran players.

Consider these spells :

Flash - viable on every champion, great for catching up enemies etc.

Cleanse - this spell is crucial against champions like Galio Ahri who can disable you for a longer time so you can't cast how you should!.

Ignite - more damage output.
must have against champions like Swain Vladimir

Heal - good spell after buffs, i'd say tier 2 spell for ryze

Ghost - same effect as flash but try avoiding it.
pick flash instead.

Teleport - when playing solo top or vs Twisted Fate

Exhaust - also great spell for utility, can be used against more physical oriented teams.

also, consider Garrison for Dominion with Ghost




DO NOT PICK :

Surge

Smite

Promote

Clarity - you have to learn how to control your mana! This spell is also good if you are new to League of Legends.(take it until you learn how to control mana spamming).
ETC.

when playing Ryze it all depends on first 15:00 minutes of the game after which you will go in two directions, one will be downhill(this one will lead to game loss) and the other one called uphill which will lead to a won game. in this section i'll help you to go "Uphill".


these should be your core items in ~15 minutes game:

Tear of the Goddess Sorcerer's Shoes Ruby Crystal Negatron Cloak

these provide you enough damage, movement and sustain. ultimate triangle I wanted to find a long time ago.

you should always rush Tear of the Goddess or Catalyst the Protector if you are laning against high burster champion like LeBlanc.

your early game phase is the most important so use your brain the most. Your whole game will depend on your laning phase and how well you farmed and stacked that mana.(not only as Ryze but as any other champion in the League.)

try to buy a ward or two when going back.Remember if you are losing lane, don't go rage mode and quit, try to stay calm and farm as much as you can and whait for the jungler to appear.

Do not cast so much in the early game until level 5 or 6. because Overload won't do much damage and it will burn your mana really fast if you do full combo or evne cast few spells.
Only cast if you can't get that last hit.

always buy wards. Where to place them? look at few chapters below.
If you have problems to survive the early game phases try the tankier runes which might help you.(going for 12 mr glyphs).

early game is all about surviving the lane until you get farmed, keep that in your mind. Do not try anything stupid like going rambo mod tower diving on level 2 and etc. :). Play smart and calm as it will always have better result then playing angry.

In ranked games you are supposed to farm as much as you can. You always have to buy wards and watch map!!.



when playing Ryze you will prob. end up playing mid or in rare cases as solo top.
When playing mid your goal is not to kill enemy(that is only "if you can"), your main goal is to farm lane and get as many stacks on tear to be effective when it comes to teamfights.

1# TRY to gank lanes when u can
2# say miss when enemy is not on the map
3# This is team game,SO play as teammate not as Rambo!
4# you will be focused in teamfight very often , particularly in high elo where Ryze is not a joke!
5# don't be a "hero", don't go in teamfights first- you are supposed to stay back and deal tons of damage to enemy ad/ap carry.


Even if you are losing your lane, don't rage or spam chat. Whait for jungler ganks or try to farm as much as you can. YOU NEED FARM!



Remember to always communicate with your team no matter which role are you playing.
Try to stay cool even while losing because your rage won't change anything except increase
argueing and rage.


You shouldn't be playing over agressive in the lane tho you should hit them with every few times once u get lvl 3 or 5. You should focus more on farming and stacking tear instead of being greedy and doing everything for kill which makes you easy target for ganks. You should find balance between harras and farming. You will learn over time when to go in for the kill.


if you have blue buff, you should push your lane making enemy ap carry not able to folow you, after pushing you should go roam on other lanes and help your teammates since Rune Prison has good syngergize with almost anything.



Even if you are not jungler, you should help him by saying where enemy warded and when so jungler can optimize his ganks. eg. every ward lasts 3 minutes. Also you should always say whenever a midlane used his Flash because it makes it an easier target to gank.

PRO'S +Great farmer after 6. +one of the lowest cooldowns in the game +aoe damage +single targer burst is huge +great team based champion +is very tanky +no skillshots, easy to learn + Overload has very low cooldowns + Arcane Masteryis one of the best passive's in the game

CONS -can be easily kited in early game -hard to farm before 6. -may be hard to master to full potential -very item dependant -bad against silences, stuns

Dominion is fast and fun, so you want to play for fun.

If you want to play Ryze on dominion you want to build same items as in Summoner's Rift, only change is that Banshee's Veil is changed to Odyn's Veil.

One more note : Ryze isn't good pusher so you don't want to take that bottom lane.
Go top instead where you can do better for team.


IF you want to practice skrimishes, 1v1 you should choose botlane, that way you can experience some common matchups that also happen on summoners rift, which will give you some more experience about that matchup.

Did you ever wonder when to pick Ryze? I certainly did and I managed to find it out. I still can't tell rly say i'm 100% sure that Ryze is great pick for that situation but i learned something and I'd like to share it with others.

Ryze is very unique champion and he very good at several things. Ryze has great nuking power which allows him to kill enemies very fast especially when they have very little magic resist.

When I'm about to play Ryze I make sure to ban Cassiopeia Orianna or ask my teammate to ban it for me. This is very crucial because this is one of the biggest treats to Ryze and his power. Other counter picks for him aren't as big as Cassiopeia is, he can survive pretty much everyone else if played defensively in early game stages.
Also when you are first pick, try to ban out those agressive junglers like Lee Sin, Alistar and so on, because they can hurt really bad and can completely destroy you.

Enemy first pick instalocks Ahri, you pick Ryze because he just melts her face.
Your team lacks burst damage or a bit of cc?, pick Ryze for great replace for someone else.If your teammate takes Shyvana you CAN pick Ryze, why? As we all know, Shyvana has low ganking potential but she has Burnout which gives her ms which combined with Ryze's Rune Prison can be very deadly. Ryzejust fits any junglers needs because of great initiating Rune Prison. If enemy team is mostly based on attack damage you should also pick Ryze because of his natural tankyness he gets from Frozen Heart. Pick Ryze as great amplification for almost every team composition. These are just few which I already tested and are working very well.








1.

- I find this composition really strong because of great utility which is provided with full combos. Enchanted Crystal Arrow combined with Tailwind or Dragon's Descent give nice initiaton in teamfights but also there is The Equalizer which does tons of damage and slows. They all just sinergyze so well with each other and make a great intiatior team.
- Rune Prison and Burnout make great ganking potential.

- Also champions like Rumble or Kennen or Vladimir are great teammates for Ryze because their primary item will be Will of the Ancientsand Ryze benefits so well from it.







2.

This is great compositon because of great teamfighting potential which supresses and stuns provide. Because two supresses are better than one and they make few Quicksilver Sashes a must buy item. Impale firstly servers the dinner for the team which is followed by Crescendo and Trueshot Barrage which deal tons of damage, and as last if someone gets away there is Rune Prison but also Infinite Duress will every fleeing enemy. Impale and Infinite Duress after level 6 give a guaranteed kill which helps team overall. Crescendo makes landing for Trueshot Barrage which is very helpful.In this composition Ryze will always be in the range of his spells and will be able to cast all the time while enemys are under supress or stun. This comp makes Ryze's job so much easier.


I'll add few compositions Tomorrow, I'm just too tired.






3.


This comp is really strong mainly because everyone is tanky enough to protect and keep kog'maw alive to do constant damage to enemies. Enemies just won't be able to come to your carry because of so much cc Rune Prison, Staggering Blow, Riptide , Depth Charge , Blazing Stampede, Ice Blast, Absolute Zero. There is also the Blood Boil which boosts kog'maw for 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65% attack speed which is just awesome combined with Bio-Arcane Barrage - tons of damage. This is very safe team comp but it's also very strong especialyl against squishes like Soraka, Sona or LeBlanc. The only weak point of this team is early game where Kog'Maw Ryze and Nautilus are very vulnerable especially Nautilus(counterjungling) or enemy jungler babysitting against Ryze. Nautilus can be swaped with Maokai because they are the same type but also very tanky and full of cc. Maokai also has great ultimate vengeful maelstorm which reduces huge damage which keep Kog'Maw let vulnerable.





4.


These three are like made for each other. Ryze combined with Tailwind is just awesome, having 394 move speed is so godlike. Then there is jungle Alistar with strong gank potential which is even more deadly because of Tailwind but also with so much cc which Janna and Ryze give : Rune Prison, Howling Gale, Zephyr and Monsoon. That cc combined with Alistar's headbut and Pulverize is just insane, as Ryze you can get so much free kills, Alistar just need to come mid. 3 types of cc just melt any squshy ap caster on mid lane.





5.

Ultimate late game team, powerful AOE DMG, disruption, alot of physical damage coming from Vayne and alot of peeling from Rune Prison, [kennen]'s stun + Zacslows, knock backs. This team dominates anything in the late game, It's great for dragon/baron control and it excells in longer fights because every team member is very tanky + has alot of healing effects, Sona has awesome mr/armor or damage aura which is also awesome and contributes well with crescendos + all the peeling with her move speed buff or slow.

In this section i'll put some screenshots where you should put wards not only as Ryze but also as every mid champion you will be playing. These sight wards cover your blue and entrances from which enemy jungler might come to gank you or if they are trying to counter jungle your frendly jungler so you can faster and sucessfully engage 2v1 and eventually get a kill before enemy mid even tries to do something.

Protect your blue from dirty counter junglers! :)



















put sight ward in these brushes so you can have nice control over map but also you won't be thinking if enemy jungler is whaiting in them just to engage on you. Ryze needs wards because he is voulnerable in early game the most and with sight ward you will be able to surivive it more often and you will be ready to melfaces how you should because you are mighty Ryze.





































^these 4 wards are actually 2 wards. 2 wards from each side, it depends which side you will be. These sight wards are needed and every time you go b, don't be tight fisted and buy one or two wards for your own security. Also buy Vision Ward when your team is going to engage dragon which can be very helpful!!

When playing Ryze you want to stack that Tear of the Goddess as soon as possible.
at most cases when you are fed you will have 1000 mana stacked in 35+ minutes of game if you were aware or stacking!
It means that by ~12:00 minutes you would stack 200 mana and by ~24:00 minutes you would have 500+ mana stacked.

Try stealing enemy jungle while their jungler is away(ganking) because you can! Aoe ultimate Desperate Power does the trick.


SMART: Use this combo for fastest minion clean; Desperate Power > Spell Flux > Overload > Rune Prison > Overload



Note: Don't die just because of one cs, play it safe and get as many as you can without putting yourself into a bad position!

okey, let's start with champions who are nightmare for ryze.

Cassiopeia

she's the strongest counter pick to Ryze because of the folowing reasons.
Twin Fang has shorter cooldown than Ryze has on Overload which means she can constantly out damage him.
Cassiopeia has a 2 second stun Petrifying Gaze which disables ryze to cast so hard

she also has movement speed buff from Noxious Blast and slow from Miasma which give her way better utility than ryze has with his Rune Prison









Next two hard counter to Ryze are LeBlanc Kassadin
same reason is that they can kite ryze in early levels when he needs the farm but also have silence which disables ryze to cast for 1-2 second which is very crucial.
as third counter they can easily burst down ryze on early levels when he is vulnerable the most!

LeBlanc.

she just starts melting Ryze from third level to mid game until you buy Banshee's Veil or more magic resistance. Her Sigil of Silence combined with Distortion is so devastating for Ryze because of huge damage but also because of the silence. all kinds of cc hurt Ryze but silence just stops you from spamming and makes you useless for few seconds. Teror keeps on when she hits her level 6. Now she can instantly nuke you Mimic if you come close to minions. Also, her Ethereal Chains slows and afterwards stuns the target, it can be very devastating for Ryze of she hits him.

Kassadin

first of all it's his passive Void Stone which reduces magic damage but also decreases Ryze's nuking power.
his Null Sphere also has Silence Duration: 1 / 1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 second(s) with wihch he can use his full combo on you and not even take a single shot because of the silence. He can just bully Ryze without getting punished.
But there is the hint, as you probably know, Ryze strong ganking potential combined with good jungler. Ask jungler to constantly put presure on Kassadin so you could farm and get advantage over him. In the later game, Kassadin and LeBlanc won't be a problem.
his Force Pulse has a good slow which can kite your movement speed and your ability to constantly stay in range of your spells. He also has great ultimate Riftwalk with which he can always bully you or escape ganks from your jungler, so it's very important to destroy him early in the game. Also remember to also say miss when he's not in the lane because he has huge ganking potential and moves really fast with rift walk.

To sum up, Ryze is weak to silences and slows which LeBlancand Kassadinhave plenty. Ask your jungler for ganks where you can easily kill them with Rune Prison + jungler.

Orianna

Orianna can be counter to Ryze but also does not have to be, but I put her in this section because i find her very difficult to beat as ryze. Orianna destroys ryze in early game with her long range Command: Attack and due to her passive Clockwork Windup which deals good amount of damage to Ryze who has 446 hp.
she's also good against ryze because she can shield from your Overload with her Command: Protect but also she reduces your utility with her Command: Dissonance with which she can slow you but also speed up herself.

Xerath

next counter to Ryze is Xerath

Xerath has better range with Arcanopulse than ryze has with Overload
Xerathhas huge range and he can constantly poke you from distance without even having to worry about ganks or even about your Overload or any other spell. Not to tell that he can kill you in 2 seconds while you are stunned.
Xerath also has 1,5 second stun Mage Chains which he can use to pop up whole ultimate. Arcane Barrage

Arcane Barrage is one of the best ultimates mage can have. it has great range and deals tons of damage. Arcane Barrage combined with Locus of Power it has huge range but also Xerath gets magic penetration which makes him penetrate your magic resist a.k.a Banshee's Veil. It makes you "less tanky".

--> some info about Arcane Barrage so you could counter a bit.

Arcane Barrage provides vision slightly larger than the area of effect (that reveals all fog of war) for a short amount of time.
Arcane Barrage has a cast time of approximately .35 seconds, making it so that all 3 blasts cannot be cast at once.
Arcane Barrage will not deal damage if Xerath dies or gets applied by silence before the cast is complete


Zyra is his new counter. First reason is that her passive does true dmg which Ryze can't avoid with his tankyness. Other reasons are that she pretty much pushes lane far better than him and has also pretty better range on spells which can just deny Ryze all day long. If you try to close gap with her, she'll just hit u with Grasping Roots and you'll take even more dmg.



Viktor is also a nice counter to Ryze since he has long range poke with his Hextech Ray, his Power Transfer can block portion of your burst and his ultimate Arcane Storm gives small 0.5 silence that can shutdown Ryze before he gets to throw even one spell.









remember that also pushers like Morgana Brand Malzahar are not real counter to him but they can also kite his farm because they are better pusher than him, but in 1v1 situations ryze should be able to survive their combo and eventually win.

Morgana

she's very strong champion and has awesome ultimate but also farms lane far better then Ryzedoes with her Tormented Shadow, she outlanes ryze] with that but also returns some nice hp with her passive [[Soul Siphon
-when playing against Morgana just try to farm as much as you can because later in the game you will be able to nuke her down and her Black Shield or kill her fast enough if you are well organized with your team.

Brand

is good against Ryze because he can easily outpush you so he can go gank other lanes but you can easily kill him. You just have to avoid his stun combined with his spells Sear+ Pillar of Flame or Conflagration. Also try to farm as much as you can and whait for jungler to gank your lane. Also try to move away from ally champion or minions when he casts his ult Pyroclasm because it can damage you heavily. Brand has strong poking potential and be aware of minions that are affected by Blaze because he could instantly cast Conflagration and deal some nice damage before you even came in the range of your Overload or Rune Prison. try to win against Brand by calling jungler for ganks which are really easy with your Rune Prison

Malzahar

Malzahar is very decent pick against Ryze but i wouldn't say it's hard counter for him mainly because Ryze, later in the game, can survive his full combo and eventually get a kill. Malzahar is a bully and he does it pretty well from level 1 to level 7 most of the time. He drops of later when Ryze gets some magic resist and mana items or Will of the Ancients which will make him survive full combo even easier. Also you must buy Quicksilver Sash, MUST!.

After malzahar pops his Nether Grasp you should activate Quicksilver Sash and do a full combo on him instead starting with big red ball Overload. I probably thought that Malzahar has silence, and yes he does but it's very hard to land especially when you have great movement speed. If you can avoid his Call of the Void you are on the horse. Be careful when he hits level 6 because Ryze is very squsishy then and will not have any magic resist items, so care because he could drain your life from 100% to 0%.







Ryze counters also:

Ahri

ok, Ahri does not do very big damage until level 6 or more. Ryze also counters her by his movement speed which is far better than Ahri has. 383(with ms runes which is recommend) vs 350 is way better. Ahri has, let's say 3 flashes, so good bursters can kill her easily. Ryzedoes a great job in this part. he has so low cooldown and he can spam Overloadwhole day on Ahri but also not to mention that Rune Prison makes Ahri unmovable which makes her all skillshots 50% less effective.

Vladimir

Ryze just hard counters Vladimir because he has so long cooldowns until level 9. Ryze is so special counter for Vladimir for few reasons :
#1 Ryze has much lower cooldowns, Overload > Transfusion
#2 when Ryze uses Rune Prison and vlad uses Sanguine Pool he stays in the pool but doesn't move.
#3 Ryze is much faster than Vladimir which makes him always constantly poke vlad.
#4 Ryze has strong poke potential and he can really bully Vladimir whole game, especially at early levels.Vlad is so vulnerable to nuke damage that he just dissappears when he faces someone like Ryze, LeBlanc or Vayne with her Silver Bolts.
#5 Vladimir can't nuke Ryze because of his natural tankyness but also Ryze has a lot of spell vamp he gets from Desperate Powerand Will of the Ancients combined with low Overload cooldown just make it not possible.
Vladimir has strong teamfights power with his Hemoplague so try staying behing at start of the teamfight! Vladimir is also one of my main champions and I just hate playing against Ryze because he just destroys you no matter how strong player are you, you just can't trade damage with him.











Ryze is also very strong against champions like :

Kennen

if she wants to kill you, she has to come near you. It only makes you easier to kill her because almost nobody except Cassiopeia LeBlanc Kassadin could win ryze in 1v1 situations.
Ryze has way better spell ranges than Kennen
Kennen can't burst him because of magic resistance
and also Kennen has skillshots and Ryze doesn't(which makes the job way more easier)

Veigar

he is high nuker but you naturally build magic resist and you have nice nuke too.
Ryze counters him only because he can outdamage Veigar while having magic resistance to absorb burst damage.
Ryzehas so easy job against Veigar because he has much lower cooldowns and he can spam Overload whole day long. Ryze with constant spamming also debuffs Veigarto stack ability power on his Baleful Strike

Now, let's take a look at his Primordial Burst. It also deals magic damage plus 80% of the target's ability power. Hhuehueheu, Ryze really has low ability power and it's only from Will of the Ancientswhich makes Veigareven less better against Ryze



Gragas


Ryzeis one of the champions that is a great threat to Gragas since he has huge burst and lockdown. and his cooldowns are much lower than Gragas. If you can survive the early game poke from Barrel Roll you should eventually come on top against Gragas. His Body Slamshouldn't be problem since u got Rune Prison. You should care in teamfight or lane about his Explosive Cask which can setup an easy gank for their jungler.
And also do not try to fight him early on because he will just 3 hit you because of Drunken Rage which provides huge amounts of damage reduction and ad dmg.

Fizz

Fizz while snared with Rune Prison can't escape with [playful Playful / Trickster
fizz is vulnerable to burst damage Ryze LeBlanc
Ryze also counters fizz because of magic resitance and spell vamp he can pop to return poke damage from Fizz.
Fizzcan be good and bad against Ryze but mostly loses 1v1 battles because he has huge cooldowns which is opposite from Ryze. Ryze can spam Overload all day long but also you just need to time Rune Prison well to completely detroy that fish.








PLAYING AGAINST Galio DEPENDS ON PLAYER'S skill level.

It can be hard but doesn't have to be.

Galio

You are probably thinking : how is that possible?
well, I was playing Ryze recently in a tournament against Galio ( I also had Cleanse )
he could deal more damage to me in early game stage but later he got destroyed because of
Spell Flux reduced magic resistance and Overload 's low CDR.

When playing against Galio, always take Cleanse and don't use it until he uses his Idol of Durand
Galio is way stronger than Ryze in early game with his Resolute Smite but here helps you movement speed you have. When playing against Galio farm as much as you can and whait for few core items when you can start to dish out some damage. Galio will outpush you but try getting as much minions as you can.


Playing agaist Galioreally depends on which summoner is better, that one will win lane.
Tho Ryzecan have hard times farming against Galio in early game.


in this list you can find more info about League of Legends counters, take a look.

League of legends Counter pick list!



Some more charts showing champions that are good/bad against Ryze and which mechaniscs counter him.

People voted for Ryze counters :









People votes for champions that Ryze counters :












The mechanics that are good against Ryze :








We're in the middle of season 3 and this is some new information i get from lolcounter.com which i give all credit to : some insight about Ryzegeneral counters, I prefer these charts because they're easy readible and i'll give explainations later further we go into the guide.

Ahri
Difficulty : Easy 3/10

Ahri is a very dodgy champion with lots of mobility. This makes ryze a really good pick vs her because his all spells are single target spells which is very helpful. Though ryze does fairly well versus ahri, you can still find yourself in trouble if you died early or even by her pushing power which is far better then yours. Ryze is very solid pick against ahri.



Akali
Difficulty : Average 6/10
She is manaless which allowes her some early pressure when ryze is weak but she's also melee which allows us to poke her with AA and spells. Before Akali's started 9 pots this matchup was easier but now it's harder because she can outheal our poke with potions and we might find ourselves sitting at tower or getting denied especially after level 6. As Ryze you do alot of dps so you can keep up with her burst as well. You probably want to pick up pink ward and put it on mid so you can have full vision during her shroud. Matchup shouldn't be 2 hard unless you get behind before getting RoA and tear.


Anivia
Difficulty : Hard 8/10
Anivia is a really powerful mage with alot of disrupts/slows and stun which can greatly affect our damage overall. She's really hard to reach and even if we do, we'll probably lose trade before getting items. She also has godlike pushing power which might set us behind alot. Best solution would be getting early advantage by killing her with the help of jungler, otherwise just try to farm as much as possible trying not to fall behind. Teleport spell would be good here so you could come faster to lane or gank botlane/top if you can't stay very long in lane because of Anivia's poke.



Annie
Difficulty : Average 7/10
She gets countered by building health/resists and she's very strong early game because of her stun and low cd Q but also the burst she can put out. Her AA is significantly better(625 range) so she can poke you with auto attacks. This matchup is hard because of early game pressure she can put out on us so it's better to keep our distance away from her until we get more tanky or just kill her with the help of jungler because she has no mobility or escape tools, or just kill her if you feel confident enough to fight her eg. her tibbers is on cd or her ignite.



Brand
Difficulty: Average 6/10
Same as annie, he has no escapes but has alot of burst which in this case is skillshot so it's easier to dodge.Be careful about his ultimate bounces which hurts alot so care when diving him with jungler or trying to rune prison him near the minions because you might get nuked which you don't want to happen if you want to stay in game. His W range is bigger then ours Q so he can poke us for free most of the time if we don't play carefully.


Cassiopeia
Difficulty : Almost Impossible 10/10

By FAR the biggest counter to ryze for these reasons:
1. Good chasing ability with Q movespeed increase and W Aoe slow.
2. Her Q is long range poke
3. She can spam E so hard that if you over commint on early levels, you'll die 95% of the time.
4.Her ultimate is 2 seconds stun or huge slow which is enough for her to gib you insntatly from 100% to 0%.
Playing this matchup the safest way is to skip the tear and rush catalyst the protector ASAP and get magic reistance such as negatron. Play passive and try not to die because you won't be able to win her in duels.
5. She scales incredibly well into late game which is one of ryze's indicators but she can keep up with him pretty well.
Junglers help in this matchup is essential if you want to shut her down or just play passive and don't give her any advantage like kills. Also taking cleanse/exhaust is much better then actual teleport or ignite.


Diana
Difficulty : Fair 5/10
This one is tricky because you can zone her hard and deny her cs really hard but on the other hand if you somehow die to her, you won't be able to touch minions or you will end up dying most of the time. Though, playing this matchup is easy,don't waste much mana until you get lvl 3,4, bnefore that poke with AA, after that use Q's and E to deny her cs. She's easy gankable because of Rune Prison because she has no escapes before 6 but also post 6 because she'll use it as an intiation spell. Getting Catalyst early is very good in this matchup so you don't risk getting nuked.



Elise
Difficulty: Easy 4/10
Only thing about her is the poke she ca put out, but aside of that, this matchup is a pieace of cake, you got far more dps and damage that you can't possibly go wrong, if she goes into duel, she'll lose the trade and fall behind. If none duels each other, Ryze will 100% outscale her into the late game.Don't come to close to her though, let her come to you and just poke with Q whenever possible.


Evelynn
Difficulty: Easy 2/10
She's even easier to play against after the nerf. She goes in for the creeps? You just QW her and she'll get chunked,Poke her to death, If you feel safe, you can flash into her and kill her easy after she's below 50% hp.You can't go wrong in this matchup.



Fizz
Difficulty: Easy/Fair 3/10

Don't get too agressive early or you might lose, poke him when he wants to cs, W him after he uses his E, your all spells are single target so he can't really dodge much damage or any big spells like karthus's ult and such.



Galio
Difficulty : Fair 5/10
He's fairly tanky and has really good aoe pushing power which will keep you at your tower, but as ryze if you don't fall behind you can trade very well because of magic resistance reduction from Spell flux but also you scale better then Galio into the late game. Don't try to duel early, just try to poke him with AA's and Q sometimes to not let him feel like it's a free farm lane but don't over commit into dueling with him.



Gragas
Difficulty : Easy/Fair 4/10
Decent matchup, he can push you early but you can poke him effectively, IF you dodge a single spell of his, you will win trade 100% or even kill him most of the time. Only trick in this matchup is his sustain from passive and pushing which might set you behind a bit.


Heimerdinger
Difficulty : Average 7/10
He's really annoying because if you try to poke him you will eat his rocets. He has a really good slow so laning against him is tough.Though, he can't kill you so just farm for the late game.

Karthus
Difficulty : Fair 5/10
This matchup is about farm, karthu's q is a long range so you might get poked but he also has better push which is helpful because you can lock him down easy with jungler and get free kills. Though if the karthus is good he will maintain farm with you and you'll both be useful in late game. This matchup depends on who ever gets more fed as soon as possible or before the other one. You will almost never be able to get in range to poke him unless he is dumb or really wants to bait or try to kill you.


Kassadin
Difficulty : Average 7/10
he's silence is a great counter to us as also is his slow. But we can dominate him early game unlike in many other matchups. This gives us great advantage to poke him with AA/spells or simply deny him any source of income. We'll also scale tankier then most of other mages into late game so he won't be able to burst us down quickly enough and we can lock him with rune prison for the kill after he uses rift walk for engage.


Katarina
Difficulty : Average 7/10
she's melee whihc means we can pressure early and deny creeps. This matchup would be very easy if she isn't sourceless which means she can spam ability to poke us down. We should avoid early skrimishes with her until we get enough to bully her out of the lane. Same as kassadin , she won't be able to burst us down later in the game unless we fall behind too much.


Kayle
Difficulty : Average 7/10
Really good slow and consistent dps with alot of poke early game. Hopefully riot finally decided to nerf all her spells so this matchup isn't as hard as it used to be. We totally outscale her in the late game but she's still a really good pick because of her ultimate and good utilty slows and movespeed increases.Try to play agressive once her E is on cdr which means you can zone her out of creeps.


Kennen
Difficulty: Easy 2/10
So the biggest impact on this matchup is that kennen has to dive our face to actually do damage aside her q/w poke in lane which means we can out damage her anytime she tries to fight us. Our cds are much lower so we do more damage.If you are in range to damage someone like kennen, you will come on top 99% of the time. you can also easily kite her with ultimate or just snare her right in the middle of her ultimate which will drop her damage like 50%.Very simple and easy matchup.



LeBlanc
Difficulty: Easy 4/10

In this matchup rush catalyst, get magic resistance and even if you die you will win the game in most scenarios just because we outscale her really hard and even if she has like 5:0 score we can single handedly kill her post lvl 9 or even before. Easy matchup because she also has no real pushing power so we don't have to sit at tower focusing on creeping and just taking free damage.


Lux
Difficulty: Hard 8/10
Long range mage with alot of burst. She has great pushing power which will lead to us getting free poked at our tower. Playing this matchup right is to poke very early on lvl 1 or 2 to get her play more passive because her lvl 1 and 2 isn't stronger then ours so we should make as much adnvatange as possible. IN the late game, she won't be able to burst us so it's another great thing which most mids don't have, get snared and you're probably dead(Not as ryze).Be careful about enemy junglers because her binding+slow sinergizes really well with them. Get early wards on first back.



Malzahar
Difficulty : Hard 9/10
He literally has everything in his kit that is strong against ryze. A 2 Seconds Surpress, Long range spells, strong pushing power and also a silence. He can 100% us to 0% once he hits level 6. This matchup is really hard because it's hard to engage on him and even if we do we'll probably lose it against we grinded enough gold to get tankier. Help of jungler is really good in this matchup because he has no natural escapes except flash.

Mordekaiser
Difficulty : Fair 5/10
This matchup can go 2 ways: 1. being him pushing is to tower and free farming everything and 2. being us denying him with huge poke with AA's to keep his shield down and not let him refresh it. We got more dps then him so if he tries to duel us we can kill him easy, as malzahar he has no escapes which aloows us great set up ganks with the rune prison.

Morgana
Difficulty : Easy 3/10
Her only good things is that she has good pushing power and a snare+stun which can lock us down.
On the other hand we just wreck her in duels.One Q will remove her shield which allows us folow up snare and eventually kill. If we dodge her Q she'll probably die if she has no flash. In the later game we can burst her in 2 seconds before she can use zhonyas. Really easy matchup but be careful not to die early to her Q+W+AA's which can set you behind if she gets first blood, aside that matchup is very in favour of Ryze.


Nidalee
Difficulty : Fair/Easy 4/10
no real pushing before 6. We can't die to her unless we get randomly speared in the face. We can zone her really well early and poke her. Playing against her assure almost no pressure on mid and it is very unlikely that you will die from a gank because nidalee can't help her jungler and the jungler usually himself isn't big enough to kill us alone on early levels. Really easy matchup for Ryze because you survive early game very simply. Farm and later wreck her in teamfights or duels.


Orianna
Difficulty : Hard 9/10
Alot of utility with ultimate and w slow/move speed increase. Her Q is lower cd then ours so she can zone us all day. She can harras us with AA's and out damage us at any given time before 20 minutes. She's really safe so your jungler might have problems to gank her, it's really hard because we can never get in range for rune prison. Trying to farm here is best option and when go in to trade with her after she moves her ball toward minions or not near you, then you have a small gap to do some poke or you will lose trade.


Swain
Difficulty: 7/10
He has alot of sustain and over time damage which hurt alot especially his crow which also provides huge slow which folows up Swain's snare easy because ryze has no escapes. With blue buffs we lose the trade 100% and might end up dying. This matchup is plyed to deny swain's blue buff and poke him with your spells whenever possible. We beat him easy later in the game.


Syndra
Difficulty : Hard 8/10
Her laning phase is apsurdly good, her q is long range and low mana cost which means free poke and creep denying. Taking barrier in this matchup can be useful because her burst is incredibly strong and we can get 100% to 0% without even touching her. We'll get zoned most of the time. Late game is another story, we crush her while being tanky but getting to that phase is really hard without feeding her kills if we want to keep up in creeps.Play passive and try to farm, get helped by jungler to not let her feel free to deny us.

Teemo
Difficulty : 4/10 Easy
Playing this is matchup is simple. Get to level 5 playing passively, let him push you in and once you get back into lane you can start poking and outrading/zoning him to the rest of the game. Buy early wards to not get ganked by enemy junglers because ap teemo snowballs really hard.Getting some early hp can also be helpful like hunting guise.


Twisted Fate
Difficulty : 8/10 Hard
He can refill his mana in no time, he can push leaving us bind to turret while he can roam for free which leaves alot of pressure on every other lane. We Win in duels versus him but we'll rarely be able to get in range to kill him. Setting up first blood though, isn't hard, flash w snare to folow up jungler and he's dead at most times but we can't stop him from pushing again. Taking teleport in this matchup is essential because ryze has amazing ganking potential which might get you a nice counter gank which will snowball game into your victory.


Veigar
Difficulty : 3/10 Easy
Play passive early game to deny him fro getting early kills. Once you got mercury threads and catalyst you can start making pressure. Also on levels 1-2-3 you can zone him alot with your Q. Ryze's standard build doens't involve alot of ap so that's another great advantage because veigar's strongest spell relies on opponents ap.He's also not very mobile so once his E is used, you can easily catch up to him with ultimate and burst him down if you didn't get burst down before that.


Viktor
Difficulty : 8/10 hard
He has a very long range poke which hurts, he has a 1,5 seconds stun which is easy to land because we have no escapes whatsoever. His Q also grants him little more tankyness + movespeed to kite us. His burst is really powerful and his ultimate has a silence of 0.5 seconds which may be enough to get a kill on us or to force us out of the lane. Only advantage we get from this is late game domination over him, we outscale him pretty hard.


Vladimir
Difficulty : 6/10 average
Vlad is a well sustained hero, Ryze's dps is godlike so we can outpoke him most of the time, he can't trade until lvl 9 which makes it even more easier for us.Most of the time you will go evne with him in lane so none actually wins but both scale pretty well. Your snare presists when he pools which allows you even more free damage if he uses pool in the wrong moment.


Xerath
Difficulty : 7/10 Average
He has long range poke and alot of burst damage, playing this matchup right is to play very agressively early game before he gets his long range poke+ blue buff which will hurt us alot. We can trade well with him into the late game but we can't allow to give him any kills. If you can't stay in lane, roam bot/top with teleport and try to keep up with farm. Don't stay in lane with 200 hp because you might lose creeps because not dying>getting creeps. So don't make any mistakes because if he gets ahead he'll smash us every time he can get a stun.




Ziggs
Difficulty: 7/10 Average
He has long range aoe poke,strong auto attack because of his passive which makes him a good bully. IF we try to engage on him he'll just slow us to death. Playing this is simple meaning to play passive , farming gold for items. Later we can beat him easy.be sure to ward outer sides on river and such so you can tell your teamamtes if he's going to roam or use ultimate. He's pushing is also really good meaning we'll have to play passive trying not to get hit by his abilities.


Zilean
Difficulty: 8/10 hard
He's early damage is ridicilously strong(double bomb + slow). If we manage to get in range we'll win trade in most cases but we need to play passive and try not to get hits by his bombs very early because he'll force us out of lane which will lead to his early game dominance, He'll just rush with his E into us and dump bombs on us and we can't do anything to him. He's late game tunrs into mage/support which means he won't be doing much as his ultimate is utility based and only 2 abilites are able to put out damage. Try not to give him any advantages early game.




Zyra
Difficulty: Average 7/10
Her plants make her almost impossible to reach without taking more damage then we expect. Play farm game and dodge her E. Later into the game outscale her.

Before starting to guide you through this section which will be very helpful, i want to give some facts that should be known about Ryze vs ad carries/assasins/bruisers. I'll try to lead you though all midlane possible matchups and how to best possibly deal with them but myself i wouldn't recommend playing ryze versus most ads but it's possible because he is very powerful in the late game(1. condition is no to die early which is hard).





1. Fact is that Ryze has a very weak early game without any sustain which makes him a really easy matchup for most assasins or bruisers because they have a very powerful early game with a gap closer 90% of the time(Ryze has none which means that if we overxtent a little bit vs a good player, we'll get punished and may not recover whole game).





2. On the other hand, they're mostly melee expect champs like Jayce meaning you can poke them effectively. I'd also recommend one of these starting items : Sapphire Crystal+ Health Potion Health Potion for more poke vs someone like Wukong or anyone else who can't all in you on level 2.though, you should start with Cloth Armor for champions like Jarvan IV, Kha'Zix or Pantheonwho have really powerful level 2 all ins.




Caitlyn
Difficulty: 9/10 Hard
The only ad carry i'll talk about in this section. Why? Because she's the most effective one because of her long range early game which makes us impossible to do anyting, going for the cs is not worth because we'll take 2 much poke.. Trying to avoid damage and rushing early armor is the best choice in this matchup even tho you'll find yourself behind in creeps.


Darius
Difficulty : 6/10 Average
This matchup is easy, poke with Q, AA'S, avoid getting caught by his E because you may end up dying, once you dodge it zone him all day.also getting early armor is nice. He's damage is apsurd early game so you don't want him to get close to you.





Fiora
Difficulty : Unknown, prolly 5/10
I never played vs Fiora as Ryzeso i don't want to talk about something i'm not sure is true.Getting early glacial shroud and armor boots should be helpful enough to stop her from doing damage to you.



Garen
Difficulty : 4/10 Easy
snare him once he rushed into you, poke again throught the laning phase, zone him from cs. Haunting guise and early catalyst will do the trick.If you fall behind get armor boots, if not get usual magic pen.



Gangplank : 5/10 easy, once you get some armor this fellow is done, just don't die to his all in early game, lose few cs, just don't die to him, get glacial shroud and you've won your lane.



Elise : Average 7/10: we outscale her hard, care for her burst past level 6, if you all in her you can beat her easy, get early Negatron Cloak, poke her in lane, she pokes you with Q, you poke her with full combo, nothing much she can do to you expect some minion denying first few levels. Mid/Late game she's easy peasy matchup.


Irelia : Average 7/10, If the player is smart, once you use your Rune Prison he'll hard engage you, and do massive damage to you, he'll stack alot of magic resist + Ireliahas very decent sustain, getting Frozen Heart + spell vamp is best option for this matchup, never use your snare to poke or you're dead, you should use it only when she uses her dash onto you, then you can peel her easy and out trade her, Poke her with Overload.



Jarvan IV : HARD 9/10, this matchup is hell, he can deny you all day, kill you on lvl 2 with no problem, in this matchup Cloth Armor is a must, try to shut him down early and buy armor as soon as possible, if you get advatange by killing him over and over with jungler's help then you're safe for the rest of the game, but if he gets 1 kill and makes that into The Brutalizer and Hexdrinker you're pretty much done because there no way you're going to escape out of Cataclysm unless you have Flash. Doing his E+Q combo is very crucial because then you have full 0.75 seconds to cast which you wouldn't be able to if he knocked you up.


Jax : Average 6/10. use ultimate + Rune Prison once he's trying to stun you, poke him hard with Overload and pretty much zone him all day long once you get Glacial Shroud.






Jayce : hard 8/10; buy Glacial Shroud, snare him once he engages you with his Q in melee form, try not to get hit by his poke or you will get zoned and tower dove, poke him with Overload, you can pick up Cloth Armor in this matchup if you think he'll play agressive very early.



Kennen : same as midlane, very easy matchup, scroll up to see it.


Kha'Zix : hard 9/10, we all know Ryzedoesn't have the most ideal early game and he can't trade with most asassins like Kha'Zix, Pantheon, that's why you should pick up Cloth Armor and try to play very passive, use snare once he uses his jump onto you and be very careful of his lvl 2 engages which can kill you easily and snowball rest of the game.



Lee Sin : Average 7/10 very annoying matchup, unlike other asassins, he has alot of sustain, dodge his Q, and zone him by poking with Overload, snarring him once he engages you with q is probably the best option, try not to get executed by his Sonic Wave Dragon's Rage Resonating Strike combo which can easily kill you if you didn't get early armor. You outscale him pretty hard into late game, so just by not giving him any kills is already a won lane for you.



Malphite : Easy 4/10, get some early mr and all his damage is gone, poke alot with Overload and Spell Flux, shut him down or just free farm, anyway it's free farm lane, you shouldn't be dying to him especially with early magic mantle.





Nasus : easy 4/10, if he engages you, snare him + ultimate for move speed, deny him farm and kill him if he goes for cs, nothing he can do to you.





Olaf : easy 1/10, very simple matchup, he's over nerfed, poke him, zone him all day, dodge his axes with movement speed you got, nothing much to say, outscale him hard later in the game.




Pantheon : Average 7/10, care for his all ins lvl 1-5, don't die to him, buy Chain Vest, get Glacial Shroud and you've won the laning phase, poke him once he goes for cs and snare him if he tries to stun you, play more passively while having your Rune Prison on cooldown.




Quinn : Hard 9/10, as every adc, she has range poke, auto attacks will zone you hard, + she's very mobile so you won't be able to chase her down as other opponents, + every adc runs lifesteal quints nowadays so it's very hard to force her to go back. try to stay back, don't get poked down too much or you'll end up dying and feeding her , she's very snowbally especially if the player knows what he's doing, as usual, build alot of armor, and you might turn the matchup around in the mid game.



Renekton : hard 10/10, It's a counter.Just play safe early(real safe,he destroys you lv 1-5) then you can just farm and punish him hard if he uses E, if you die early, you'll never get back into the game and he'll towerdive you with no problem. get dem armor and far mas much as possible, if he misses he's E, play more agressively since all his cc/dash abilites have very long cooldowns, abuse it.



Singed Easy 5/10, you do so much dmg, he can't proxy behind your tower, you can zone him of minions easily, he can beat you in 1v1 trades especially early game, very simple matchup, just don't get fling into the tower because you'll die especially on early levels.




Shen Average 7/10: shen is incredible in amplifying ganks with his taunt and taunt flash combo, and considering the lack of ryze's mobility, he can snowball this lane so easy with ganks. you can't really kill him in lane later once he gets some mr and hp, you can zone him once you get some levels on Overload, pretty fair matchup, he does fair enough of damage, Ryze is very decent in this matchup but Vladimir does this job much better because of huge healing that makes shen zero threat to Vladimir, your Rune Prisondoesn't stop him from channeling ultimate which is also another flaw in this matchup for Ryze. If you play it safe you can farm and become a bigger threat late game + you can skrimmish him easy once he starts split pushing.




Wukong Hard 8/10, his all in on lvl 6 is very strong, his lvl 2 all in is one of the strongest in the game, he can crush you if you make a single mistake, he's stealth makes you unable to counter act as fast as you need to escape from his ultimate, this matchup is very hard even if you get armor, because his Q ignores 30% of your armor once used, you can take advantage of this matchup early in the game if Wukong plays very passively, he's late game scaling is very scary because of his passive + ultimate so be careful when playing, try to shut him down with the help of jungler because, once he engages, there is no way he'll escape with rune prison on him.




Xin Zhao : HARD 10/10, everything as Jarvan IV but he also has that sustain which makes him even a bigger threat to you, on 1-5 level engages, he'll kill you with ease, give him one kill and you're done for the rest of the game, he's natually very tanky because of ultimate, and he'll dive you whenever he gets the chance.





Yorick: Hard 8/10, you can't really counter this guy, he's very annoying early in the game and you'll get zoned, don't get killed, you'll outscale him, deny him farm once you hit lvl 7+ or even kill him.



Zed; Average 7/10, strong all in on lvl 6 is all you have to fear from this guy, zone him hard early game, deny him, outpoke him and outtrade him whenever he's ultimate is not up, get some armor and you won the matchup, snare him only when he uses his W spell because it's his only escape mechanism, once he used it you can chase for the kill.




Zac, Average 7/10, very sustained, if he gets spectral wraith item + spirit visage, your damage and poke to him is done, you can out trade him on early levels tho, and care about his Q, it really hurts, dodge his E once he egnages and you won't die to him, Get a kill on him early and he'll get zoned all day long, play very aggresive from the beginning of the match.

So after talking about Ryze counters in top or mid lane i'm sure that we can come up to the conclusion what type of champions counter Ryze pretty hard and you should avoid those matchups.


I'd like to start with mid lane.


1. counter to Ryze is : Cassiopeia, this counter everyone knows about. Sure she isn't played alot and many people don't have enough skill to play her to full potential but she's the hardest counter out of all champions in the league especially since riot reduces range on all of Ryzeabilities. Her Noxious Blast, is very long range, it's very spammable because of her passive and low mana cost, she can follow it up with Twin Fang + Ignite and you're pretty much dead on lvl 3, her q gives her move speed, her W slows you.. her ultimate is a 2 second stun... that's enough for her to kill you if you ever try to play agressive on lane.. IF enemy champion pushes you to the tower that's usually fine but with Cassiopeia you can still get bullied alot. Beating this matchup is hard, and the best way would be t ohave a jungler with alot of cc like Nautilusthat could provide early pressure and kill her whenever she pushes in the wave of cs especially since Ryze has great sinergy with junglers because of instant cc.




2. counter would be : Orianna,also as Cassiopeia her main ability Command:Attack, is lower cooldown than your overload], same as [[twin fang, she can use it to harras you so hard throughout whole game, she's very safe so that means she can push you without getting punished for it, her command:dissonance, gives her move speed if she needs to chase you, or just slow you if she needs to escape, that makes her very hard to fight as Ryze, especially since her shield provides her with armor and magic resistance also, her late game power is very strong and that's why she's powerful against Ryze in every stage of the game. If you plan on first picking Ryze for the midlane, be sure to ban Orianna because she's highly contested pick and everyone knows she's good against Ryze.



For the third counter i couldn't decide what to put from all of them so i decided to put all 3 since they all have the same purpose, zoning Ryze, denying him early because of huge burst damage and much longer range of abilities : Annie, Xerath, Viktor.




Best Top lane counters : Jarvan IV, Yorick - Yorick is just yorick, you can't really counter him because he's sustained champion and Ryze is not, until you get few items you will just get zoned and harrased under tower, Yorick's only weakness is that he's voulnerable to ganks early, so try to kill him with jungler's help.

Jarvan is another story because he has great lane poke with Q, Ryzesucks early game compared to jarvan's damage, Jarvan IV has amazing kill pontential with E+Q combo, especially on 6 if Ryzedoesn't have flash to escape Cataclysm.



champions that can also be troublesome: Xin Zhao, Kha'Zix, Renekton, Pantheon, all because of their kill potential on lvl 2 especially with red pot + ignite combo.

My League of Legends account is on EU-East server and my name is XTX sacre <

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add me if you want to ask me something or just want to play a game with me.

in this section i'll talk about Ryzeas current 2400+ diamond elo player(Challenger soonTm i hope :D). First of all I think Ryze is one of the strongest mana casters who can play mid against most ap casters. Ryze outdamages any ap caster if it's not Cassiopeia or Orianna who can just melt you with high burst or lower cooldown.







FACTS:

~ Ryze is one of the weakest champions in early game phase but also is one of the strongest ones in the late game where he just kills everyone.

~ Ryze because of his damage coming from mana ( he doesn't depends so much on ap), he can just build tanky items Frozen Heart and Rod of Ages to do hardcore damage, plus some extra spell vamp and he has one of the best sustain.( casting Overload every 1 second and healing for 150 hp for each Overloadis very huge.

~ Ryze is weak early so try to focus on farming as much as you can until you get some mana items, pay defensive!

~ Ryze can be destroyed by junglers like Rammus , Lee Sin and especially by Shaco. This is also a great reason not to play offensive in early game stages.

~ Ryze has only few true counters, so by baning out Cassiopeia Orianna can greatly help you to win your lane.

~ Ryze is a very strong pick You could have noticed it in hannover, almost every game Ryze and Janna were the most banned .


~ Ryze is better to play with smartcast because you can't mess up all the buttons and you would have better reaction just casting Overloadand Rune Prison than just having to click on spell and then cast it. Once you master it you will find it's power.



~ Ryze is very dependable on runes so if you want to play like ryze master, you have to get rune page for him because he's very unique champion. for example, i can't imagine playing Ryze without Greater quintessence of Swiftness which i find very helpful overall. They help you chase but also escape those scarry junglers Shaco, Lee Sin but also to win lanes against skillshot based champions like Ahri.



You will really start to enjoy Ryze when you fully master him, trust me.
Have fun ryze'in to the top with Ryze

Note that these changes are only from the last reworked which were done by shurelia

V1.0.0.134:
Overload mana ratio reduced to 7.5% from 8%.
last update to Ryze. It's not going to affect him really that much, Ryze will be still viable as he was.

V1.0.0.121:
Overload: base damage increased to 40/65/90/115/140 from 30/55/80/105/130.

V1.0.0.116:
Overload: mana ratio reduced to 8% from 10%.
Desperate Power: Desperate Power spell vamp now scales to 15/20/25% from 15%.

V1.0.0.111: (Rework)
Base magic resistance reduced to 30 from 35.


Overload:
Base damage reduced to 30/55/80/105/130 from 50/90/130/170/210.
Ability power ratio reduced to 0.2 from 0.45
Range increased to 675 from 600
Missile speed increased to 1400 from 1200.
Cooldown reduced to 3.5 from 11/10/9/8/7.
Mana cost changed to 70 at all ranks from 30/65/80/95/110.


Rune Prison:
No longer deals damage per tick and deals 60/95/130/165/200 damage up front (down from 80/120/160/200/240 over the duration).
Ability power ratio changed to a flat 0.6 from 0.4/0.6/0.8/1.0/1.2 depending on snare duration.
Now deals 5% of Ryze's maximum mana in bonus damage.
Cast range increased to 625 from 600.
Duration reduced to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 from 1.2/1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4.


Spell Flux:
Base damage reduced to 50/70/90/110/130 from 70/85/100/115/130.
Ability power ratio per hit reduced to 0.35 from 0.38
Cast range increased to 675 from 625.
Cooldown increased to 14 from 9.
Mana cost reduced to 60/75/90/105/120 from 60/80/100/120/140.

Desperate Power:
No longer grants ability power but now grants 15% spell vamp.
Area of effect damage percentage reduced to 50% from 65%.
Cooldown changed to 70/60/50 from 50/50/50.
Duration changed to 5/6/7 from 8.
Now grants a passive 75/150/225 mana.

Play Video



First of all i don't owe this video and nothing in it.
I just find it great to show how ryze should be played in competitive play!

As you can see from the start Xin Zhao was focusing Ryze because if you don't he will destroy your team. 0:00 - 0:30

from 30:50 second into the video you can see how Ryze has very nice sustain and
how he always moves between spells. - this is very important so u can always stay in range of spells but also it makes enemy harder to focus you.

at 0:52 you can see Ryze popping he's ultimate to fight 1v2 which gave him very nice advantage. He would probably die if he didn't have it.

at 1:12 Ryze flashes out of Ashe's range just to get cooldowns
- that is one of the best things about ryze because u can just turn around and pop up your full combo after only 2-3 seconds.

and as last, spell vamp from Overload saves him from pirate and Ryze gets penta kill.

This video is great to show how Ryze is working in teamfights and how his potential can be used!

I'd also like to give ThebuttonMasherz feedback for this video. Go check their channel, they are very funny but also have very helpful tips and tricks. visit their youtube channel and subscribe to their channel!

TheButtonMasherz

In this section I will be putting players screenshots who succeeded with Ryze folowing this guide!

Here won't be nice scores, I will be putting ranked scores in this section!


24.3.2012 => RIZLA earned 80% reputation! 4 place in Ryze guides! Thanks everyone for great support and precious votes! :)






My own score as Ryze

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Season 3.





HALL OF Ryze


Fica XD 1800+ elo player

2.3.2012 - removed Rabadon's Deathcap because I find it less effective for Ryze than Void Staff

- ryze has better scaling with magic pen than more ap becasue of low ap ratios.

16.2012 - changed Cleanse with Ignite, I also updated item builder because it couldn't be clarified which items are core and wich are "Need to have" against specific enemy team comps!

16.3.2012 - got Platinum badge on EUNE server!! =)

22.3.2012 - added Orianna to Ryze's counter list because she can easily shut him down in early game due to better range and strong basic attack poke.

22.3.2012 - added a bit more explaination about Ryze laning against champions like Morgana and Brand

22.3.2012 - also added Ahri to champions which Ryze counters!

24.3.2012 - added LoL counter pick list, which i do not own, I just find it very helpful. You can find it in the "Counter counter" section.

24.3.2012 Added sight ward section where i talk where to put wards because they can help ryze to be awesome, to survive the early game without any pain. Ryze can only be shut down in early game.


24.3.2012 added a bit more information in "Farming" as Ryze, section.


24.3.2012 added "My thoughts on Ryze" with some tips, tricks and facts.


25.3.2012 added "Smartcasting" section because i find smartcasting for Ryze very helpful and "a must have" to fully master Ryze.

26.3.2012 changed a bit mastery tree. Removed one point from Awareness and added it into the Strength of Spirit for some extra health regen. I' also removed all picture from "masteries" section and added a new one with new masteries so it doesn't confuse you :)

-Also removed one point from Brute Force and added it to Summoner's Wrath because if you have Exhaust or Ignite they benefit really well from it.



29.3.2012 UPDATED "counter counter" about LeBlanc and Kassadin, added a bit more info about how to achieve victory when laning against them but also how to play against them and what to be aware off.



29.3.2012 More info about Xerath("Counter Counter" list). I also added Vladimir to "countered by Ryze" after i got destroyed almost every time when played Vladimir against Ryze.


30.3.2012 added more info about Malzahar in "Counter Counter"

31.3.2012 new chapter has been added called "When to pick Ryze?" where i wrote about team compositons and banning champions which affect Ryze

5.4.2012 Transfered to EU-WEST server to more competitive play, add me Sacreboi,EU-WEST

11.4.2012 climbed to 2000 elo.

12.4.2012 Came from holidays, I added Rylai's Crystal Scepter to items section as sutional item. It's very strong because of hp it gives and it procs slow on Overload, great for chasing enemies but only it's viable if enemy team hasn't got much mr. Buy it as your 6 item.

12.4.2012 added new chapter about new rune pages that are viable. I tested them both and both are very useful. You just need to try them all in as many situations as you can.(I gave some examples, it should be helpful). I personally could use 3 rune pages only for Ryze but i'm broke atm and can't afford more rune pages. In nearer future i'll buy few rune pages and fill them up with runes for Ryze which will allow me to counter enemy much easier, ofcourse if you can't afford it's not really needed. You can play Ryze with only one rune page.


14.4.2012 - added 2 replays in the section "When to pick Ryze?" Where i played against LeBlanc and Cassiopeia in mid lane and won. I think it should be helpful. Nothing is impossible. Also added more compositions which suit Ryze





26.8.2012 - HUGE UPDATE
GUYS I HAVE UPDATED MY GUIDE ABIT FOR EVERY CHAPTER AND WILL LIKELY CONTINUE WORKING ON IT. I Really got inspired by comments admin wrote, thank you. I am also reminding you that my big Ryze project is on the way. I will publish my Ryze gameplay, commentary and highlights. Once finished i will provide links in this guide! Thank you for your support which made me think : Some people care about my guide and want me to continue, thank you very much once more. Love you guys!

Thank you For reading yet another Ryze guide. Thanks for the precious time spent reading this wall of text!

although random downvotes without explaination hurt a lot, I will keep updating my guide for you guys who supported my guide!

please don't just upvote or downvote guide, leave some comment about what you did like and what you didn't so I can improve my guide which is for this mobafire community.

I'd also like to thank jhoijhoi for awesome line separators!
If you liked it , give a feedback. Comment in comment section below! :)


My newest progress in league! :)
























Hey! One more note from me, guys if you really liked my guide and want me to continue doing this, you could give me support by liking this page on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/XtremelyXtravagant , there will be also Riot Points giveaway with also fan games if you want to play with me, Thank you for all te support and 900K individual viewers, thank you.