Note 1: "Why no detailed match up section?" - I gave this a lot of thought and after all I decided that I won't make it detailed. However, I will always make sure to keep the ratings updated and I might even put some general tips in each match to help. The problem is - time. It would take me around 90 hours (all mid lane + top lane champions) to make the match ups detailed as you want them and it's not something I can offer in my current state. Also, patch notes damage that section greatly. Just by reducing one spell by 20 damage on a specific champion, I may have to rewrite a match up all over again and things like this happen every single patch to 10 champions at a time. The section is extremely fragile and I'm sorry but I won't be able to keep it up to date. Thus, I decided to not include it instead of missleading people.

Note 2: Ryze currently is in a... decent spot. The problem is his skill cap. It requires a veeeery good understanding of many of the game's consepts to make correct use of his combos. His E (which I call Virus or Plague requires plenty of practise and above all... his ultimate. This spell has INSANE potential but it's also extremely hard to use correctly. The possibilities are endless but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good ultimate. It can destroy your team OR be extremely useless making you unable to ever use it in any way OR prove to be nothing but a distraction to keep your brain even more busy than it should be. It's a high risk-high reward type of ultimate but most of the time the risks are bigger. If you see this champ picked in LCS then do NOT think you'll perform the same. I could even recommend you go for something easier. Even Zed is tiers easier than Ryze, as hard as it may be to believe. The overall stress, RPM (how fast you press keys) and complexity in Ryze's playstyle requires you to take drugs. Zed plays off pretty chill and safe. I can ensure you 100 games with Zed can make you almost master that champ but even 200 can't help you master Ryze if you simply don't have tha talent. In order to be able to master Ryze you first of all need to be high elo with plenty of experience and above average mechanics. You have the combos, you have the E (spreading) and also your ultimate complexity all while being squishy. Come on now riot... what is this. I'm high elo, I can't complain. But my fans do and I feel bad for them. 80% of players are bellow plat, what are they even thinking? Anyways, I'm pretty mad they gave him such a hard ultimate. All I see ppl do is initiating with this ulti which is something you NEVER want to do. It's a UTILITY ulimate. Not an INITIATION one.






I'm just a normal human like all of you out there reading this as well as an active LoL player. My account is rated Master on the Nordic/East Server and Ryze is my main champion. I have spent more than 2500 games (not all of them ranked) playing with this champion and finally I believe I am ready to demonstrate you how this beast is TRULY meant to be played!

space

Pros + Deals tons of damage + Gets stronger with Mana + No skill cap. You always improve + Arguably best mage in game + Huge Mana pool late game + Carries a Death Note

space

space

Cons - Hard to play. Even harder to master - No reliable escape mechanism - Weak early game filled with Mana issues - Extremely complex itemization-wise - Long ranged champions are flat out cheating - Enemy jungler transforms into a CoD camper

Top Ryze: You can pick him whenever you want. The counters to him are very few and consist of specific champions that people don't bother to play much or don't like playing. Even when countered, you aren't 100% useless and still manage to do your job effectively. Don't pick him however if your team's heavy AP based because you're in the very least forced to buy Void Staff to even stay relevant in the game.

Mid Ryze: If you can't have the liability of knowing your opponent, whether it's a blind pick game or a ranked where you opponent hasn't picked yet, you may as well pick SurpRyze. Ryze is a champion that fits in all team comps. Either your teams need more damage or more tankiness or AOE or CC, Ryze is the perfect all-rounder to provide everything. However, I strongly recommend you pick Ryze after the opponent team has chosen their mid laner and it's not someone ranged that counters you. Getting countered in mid lane will leave you useless (if not a feeding resort) as there aren't many efficient counter measures to those situations.

These are the moments when you feel an immediate boost as if your power level just got doubled. The three last ones come around mid game (25 min) are of the greatest impact. When you reach these checkpoints, for the next 3 minutes you should have a confidence boost and upper your limitations a bit. You want to abuse these moments as long as they last because your opponents will soon catch up to you in terms of strength. Apart from these, you always get stronger in the same pace as everyone else. Overall: Your early game is very weak so you should play passivly. Mid game is where most of your spikes are located so man up and prove your team what you're made of. Late game you're just a casual but a buffed one at that since Ryze is one of those few champs that can 1v2 or 1v3 against carries of the same feed level. All you need is skill.

Here is a list of the turms I will use in this guide which may be unfamiliar to you. If at any point you don't understand something, return here.

---

Arcane Mastery: INNATE: Ryze gains (5% per 100 AP) bonus mana.

---

Overload:

PASSIVE: Ryze's other basic abilities reset Overload's cooldown and charge a Rune stack for 4 seconds (up to 2).

ACTIVE: Ryze unleashes a runic blast in the target direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy struck and consuming all of his Runes.

If Ryze consumes 2 Runes, he shields himself for 2 seconds and gains bonus movement speed for the duration.

• Always consider if having an extra Rune stack is of more use in your current situation.
• Prioritize using Overload over auto attacking to last hit a Cannon Creep. That thing costs more than a liver somehow.
• Use it randomly across the map farm your Tear of the Goddess.

---

Rune Prison: Ryze instantly damages and roots the target enemy for 0.75 seconds.

Rune Prison can be used to dictate the outcome of a fight. From stopping an aggressive opponent in their tracks to locking down a hapless low-health target. It all depends on how you want to approach the fight, but proper usage remains critical! It’s also a great gank setup. Holding the target in place long enough for your jungler to get onto them will often force a summoner spell out of your opponent or leave them at risk certain destruction.

• This spell is perfect for efficient farming. Meanwhile consuming the same mana as [Overload]] would, there is no travel speed as well as no cast time. This helps to finish off creeps instantaneously which would have died in the next milliseconds to come.
• This spell combined with an extra auto attack is arguably the best level 1 lane pokiong Ryze has.
• When your jungler ganks, it's often times better to consume your Spell Flux with Rune Prison. Having a 150% or so duration increase of Heavy CC is crucial.
• If you want to poke your opponent in the laning phase while being low on mana, do NOT use this spell by itself. Combined with Overload, it's justifiable. Otherwise, it costs too much mana for too little damage while also giving away your only escape/chase tool.

---

Spell Flux: Ryze targets an enemy and hurls an orb at them, dealing damage and marking them with "Flux" for 3 seconds. Flux causes Ryze's next basic ability to consume Flux granting bonus effects.

Using your spells on enemies affected by Flux:

• If Overload consumes Flux, it deals additional damage.
• If Rune Prison consumes Flux, it roots the target for 2 seconds.
• If Spell Flux is used on a target marked with Flux, all nearby units are damaged and marked with flux.

Any enemy killed by Ryze's abilities while marked with Flux will also spread Flux to nearby enemies.

This can be a lot to take in, but it’s key information to have when playing Ryze. Correct Flux usage sets apart the Ryze padawans from the true masters. You can decide to play a fight out in tons of different ways due to the variety it provides. Want to do mass AOE? Double Spell Flux (E) into an Overload (Q) could decimate health bars. Want to peel for your carry? Spell Flux (E) into Rune Prison (W) can hold an engager in place long enough for your carry to kill them or reposition accordingly.

• Sometimes it's justified to not buy magic penetration just because does it for you. Dont be too strict on your build path and buy Void Staff or Sorserer's Shoes when you're in desperate need for Magic Resist/Amor
• When pushing the lane for budget mana (aiming to recal soon) use over as it deals higher total damage even though spread amongst targets

---

Realm Warp: Ryze channels for two seconds. If he complete the channel, all allied units in its area of effect are teleported to the target location.

Realm Warp has amazing, game-changing potential. Whether it’s sneaking a Baron by teleporting your whole team into the pit, dodging out the enemy vision, or teleporting your ulting full-AP Nunu into the enemy team, there’s an unlimited amount of ways to use Realm Warp.

• Main reason you avoid Rylais and Will of Ancients is because your ultimate makes all your spells AOE, thus giving you lowered stats on the item's effects
• Don't be afraid to use it for small things like pushing, doing a camp or CSing as it costs 0 mana and the cooldown get's extremely low due to your supercharged form.
• Use it as early as possible when you need to escape even the slightest. Do NOT greed until the very last moment when it's already too late. That way you don't only discourage your opponents from chasing you but you also gurantee your escape. Holding on to it in dire moments will usually force you to flash and there are times where even that won't save you. Better safe than sorry.

Skilling Sequence

---

1st set

Sapphire Crystal along with some extra pots is the best rounded spawn buy for Ryze. Provides a huge amount of Mana while also giving damage around equal to that of 15 AP. Don't confuse Ryze with any other mage and remind yourself that your spells scale with Max Mana as well. Stats gained: 250 Mana | Overload 5-10 dmg (scales p/level) | Rune Prison 6.25dmg | Spell Flux 6dmg

2nd set Donar's Ring along with 3 pots is the first alternative to Sapphire Crystal. Overall, a solid mage start which comes along with 3 pots. The ring itself provides mana regen and 4 mana refilled per minion last hit. Even though a great start, it has the drawback of keeping one inventory slot busy until sold. Stats gained: 60 Health | Overload 8dmg | Rune Prison 6dmg | Spell Flux 4dmg 3rd set A cool ring labaled as black and sealed. Provides the by far highest damage for a starting item, all while suffering the lack of sustain or tankiness. I can't say you wanna pick this on an agressive lane but it's a good choice altogether. Don't upgrade it any further and sell it later on like all Doran's items. Again suffers the inventory slot penalty. Stats gained: 100 Mana | Overload 10,5-13 dmg (scales p/level) | Rune Prison 8.5dmg | Spell Flux 6.5dmg Final results: 1st Set: 250 Mana + 17.25-22.25 damage 2nd Set: 60 Health + 18 damage 3rd Set: 100 mana + 25,5-28 damage From what you can see, there's no true winner. Dark Seal got the most damage but lacks sustain and keeps an item slot busy. Doran's Ring suffers with the covered slot as well but has a lot of sustain. Sapphire Crystal is the best late game option which sets up an easy first recal. It's the most flexible for your inventory granting a faster late game spike while losing you some early/mid game impact. Overall, all the options are GREAT. They're all good and really, there's no specific situation or match up where I can tell X start is better than Y. Now, in the mathematical calculations, you may have noticed that I did NOT include the base mana regen you get from Doran's Ring as well as the mana gained from last hitting. Why? Because you'll have to sell doran's later in the game thus losing 240 gold which is almost equal to what you get in value by mana potions (even though they don't exist anymore). Moreover, by the time you sell Doran's Ring you'll have gathered around 150 cs. 150cs = 600 mana. From the base regen of doran's you get 500 mana. 600+500=1100. However, bear in mind that this is the TOTAL mana. By that point you'll have recalled around 5-7 times and refilled the mana from Sapphire Crystal for a total of 1500. I don't want to get any more in detail with the calculations than this because it can easily get out of control and become boring. Just take my word and trust me on this one. First Recal Try to recal with enough gold for Tear of the Goddess. Stay as long as you can in the lane to farm gold up unless it's urgent that you recal. if you start with Doran's Ring or Dark Seal then you need 750 gold. On the other hand, the Sapphire Crystal start requires 400. Try to collect some extra gold for 2 pots and a Vision Ward. Any gold beyond this amount should be aimed towards Catalyst The Protector starting off with an extra Sapphire Crystal for mana sustain + damage. Prioritize Ruby Crystal only when playing against champions who got a burst combo and become useless after using it just so that you're able to survive it and shove them right after. Examples should be Fizz or Talon. Boots may also be a good option when playing against champions with skillshots but it's much more preferable you finish Rod of Ages before buying them. Potions The normal potions are the best option in my opinion because you get to use as many as you buy. Yes, you get more value from the other type of potions but when you need sustain, you need a lot of it and you need it now. You buy as much as you need and you're covered. Also, when you're done using these potions, you'll rarely ever sell them while the other ones will forever keep one item slot busy. Add Doran's Ring or Dark Seal and you have locked 2 item slots. Bad idea. The 3 starting Health Potions, when combined, give you 450 (+105HP+30MP from Secret Stash ) which is a great amount. Gold-wise effective in the long run but not practical or usefull enough. It always feels useless or lacking. You get a small amount of sustain from an item you aim to buy as the game starts. Not only the sustain is not enough, if you get ganked and lose half your health, you're forced to recal. You can't stay since your opponent will become extremely aggresive and you risk your life, all while having a weak early game. 2 stacks from the Refillable Potion give you 250 (+25 from Secret Stash ) which can't in any way be compared to the normal 3 pots (555hp+30mp). Yes, you may start with normal potions and change them to this on the first recal but you aren't aware whether you get to use those last 3 pots while also increasing the amount of gold spent on consumables. Better get an extra pink ward or two. You won't be jungling while if your plan is to actually take camps around your lane, the cost efficiency is still bad. Price is lower than that of Corrupting Potion while the regen rate is waaaay too slow. In case you decide to buy it, you won't be needing any extra potions so don't waste extra money on them (as if you can 4head). This is probably the only true contestant to the Health Potion. Major drawback - its cost. It works much like the old Flask but gives an extra damage buff which works similar to Deathfire Touch . It's made for those champions who have extreme mana issues all while having health problems as well. Examples should be Talon, Malphite and Kassadin. On other champions it's not worth buying because of how expensive it is. Ryze for example has mana issues only in the first 6 levels. Main issue is Health sustain and it can easily be solved with 1-2 Health Potions on each recal. Not only you forever keep one slot busy but, from mid game and forth, it barely manages to heal you for 1/5th of your max HP. Stick to your main build and rush on finishing your core items. The faster you get to complete 2 full items, the better it is for you. Delaying yourself for 500 gold isn't a wise choice. Core Items These are the Core Items that you'll be buying in every single game you play no matter which map it is or what type of opponents you're facing. Every one of these items has a thought process behind it. - These are the basic boots. They're extremely cheap for what they provide. You should aim to buy them at least after Tear of the Goddess and Catalyst The Protector. What you upgrade them to always depends on the game you are playing or your choice of preferance. - This is one of the most important items on Ryze and that is because it provides you so much for such a small price. A percentage amount of your max mana becomes damage and the Tear stacks up everytime you cat a spell thus making you stronger and stronger, while also giving a small amount of mana sustain. When you reach around 500+ stacks, you may upgrade it to Archangel's Staff for an immense damage boost. - This item is just perfect. It's the main reason you are tanky as well as deal tons of dmg at the same time. It gives a lot of Health, Mana (which is also converted to damage) and Ability Power. You should buy this item nonetheless and you might even go for a second one in some circumstances. Buy it as soon as possible in order to give it time to stack up. Finishing it around the 16 minute mark is just about fine. Item Options Offense Deffense This item is simply INSANE on Ryze. So much that I believe Riot made Ryze weaker just for having access to it. It gives Health to make you tankier, Mana to allow you to spam spells all day and Ability Power for some extra considerable damage. Upon buying it, you spend 3000 gold for value equal to that of 3100 (without passive included). Upon reaching max stacks, it gives a total gold value of 5063 making it 168.77% gold efficient. Now, you also gain damage on your spells equal to 1150 gold because of your Mana percentage scaling. Moreover, you'll be later buying Seraph's Embrace and the extra 800 Mana from Rod of Ages will also become 26 AP (equal to 565 gold). Total: 5063+1150+565 = 6780 gold of value. ABSURDLY INSANE. You may even buy 2 of these if you're ahead because it takes a while to stack. Rating: over 9000/10 Under Constraction Rating: 100/10 Under Constraction Rating: 7/10

This section contains damage comparisons between Mana and Ability Power scalings on your spells. As you know, Ryze scales from both AP and Max Mana but not only on one or two spells. He does on all of them and thus it becomes important to investigate on this matter. On the other hand, someone like Blitzcrank who has only his passive, Mana Barrier that scales with Max Mana isn't justified to change his whole build around it.

If you want to become better in League then you might concider Enabling SmartCast (if you aren't using it already). I added this section because in order to use the combos in perfect flow you absolutely MUST be using SmartCast! Ryze simply can't go without this feauture so definitely start using it.





SmartCasting is an option that causes your abilities to be cast when you press down the key towards where your mouse cursor is. Basically, it reduces the actions you need to make from 2 to 1. So, instead of pressing the skill and then clicking you simply press the button and your job is done. Only problem when using SmartCast is that you lose accuracy because you can't see the range of the spells but that doesn't mean a thing because Ryze has more or less the same range in all his spells (600) and you'll get used to it extremely fast.

Now that we made sure you're using smartcast and know how every spell works, it's time I teach you the combo. However, before we get to the combo, there are some things and terms I want you to learn so you fully understand my explanations on the Combo execution paragraph. The combo itself is not hard to execute it but it does require focus, patience, orb walk skills and most important of all, muscle memory.










The combos are all about 15. Why that many? Because trading needs 4 combos, trading among creeps needs 5 more, teamfight combos make up another 4 and so forth. Overall, remembering all the combos is IMPOSSIBLE. Don't try being mister perfect and overthink. Try deciding always what would fit the most and think very well the reasons WHY it would. Here are the combos, at least most of them that is.



Starting off, you snare your opponent making him unable to move. After that you Spell Flux and then dish your Q to proc your virus and deal amplified damage. Missing Q is impossible if all spells are cast fast due to W duration. The combo is made so you gather 2 stacks and then proc them with Q. You'll get the movement buff to dissengage/chase and also the shield which about 80% of the time will neglect some of the damage taken making it a powerful trading combo.



This is the same combo but in this instance you start with an early extra Q which is debatable whether it hits or not. If you can get it off then go for it.







The idea in this combo is the same as in the Basic Damage Combo. However, you switch the order between W and E. Instead of getting your Q stronger for the damage, you'll consume your virus to enchance your W and increase the snare duration to 2 seconds up from 1. Why do that? Maybe you want to buy extra time for your jungler. Maybe you're afraid of taking damage back too fast. For example a yasuo. Against him, aim for this combo cause he can start jumping through minions and reach you for devastating results. An extra second of sleeping should calm him down enough to not seek revenge (as if he'll be able to xd).





Just like before, an extra Q in the beggining. Might make a difference where it should. Remember that. Also, pay attention to your mana pool early levels. If your chances of hitting the first extra Q are abysmal and your mana left is reasonably low then don't risk the extra MP loss.

---

This is the "all-out fk em up" combo. Use it to destroy ppl. BUT!, don't use it everywhere as if it's your one combo wonder. One a total, you'll use this combo around 20% of the time so DO learn all of them.





In order to pre-set orbwalk, all you have to do is right click once towards the direction you want to move and then combo normally just as you did before. The reason you want to do this is to keep up with your opponent towards the way he's heading in order to not lose track/distance of him. However, pay attention to incoming skillshots or possible direction changes of your target. Remember that this can also used when kiting.





Here you do the same thing as before with the main difference being that you click the direction you want to move between each and every spell you cast. This time you control the movement of your character much better since you get to change the direction each 0.2 seconds but you sacrafise your comfort. Instead of having to press 6 spells and keeping the mouse on your target, you'll have to press 6 spells, do 6-10 clicks + reposition your mouse constantly. This method is much more accurate and better than the previous one but it's also more complex and demanding. A new player for example or someone with lower than average reaction times may find this too hard to execute and thus I decided to include both ways. If you're gold or higher ranking then I definitely recommend you use this method. Just like before, you can use this method to kite but it becomes much more difficult since you have to throw your spells in the opposite direction of which you're running.

Slaying the Dragon grants the Dragon Slayer buff to your whole team. The first four stacks of Dragon Slayer are permanent, while the 5th exprires after a small period of time.

1. INFERNAL DRAKE: + 8 / 16 / 24% attack damage and ability power.
2. MOUNTAIN DRAKE: + 10 / 20 / 30% bonus true damage to epic monsters and turrets.
3. CLOUD DRAKE: + 2 / 4 / 6% bonus movement speed, tripled to 6 / 12 / 18% while out-of-combat.
4. OCEAN DRAKE: Restores 4 / 8 / 12% of missing health and missing mana every 5 seconds when you haven't taken damage from champions or turrets within the last 8 seconds.
5. ELDER DRAGON: Slaying the Elder DragonSquare Elder Dragon will increase these effects (by 50%/100%) for a limited time span.

Attacking it and then backing away to lead it out of its lair can be vital! If it remains in its lair it is possible for an enemy champion to Smite from across the back wall, throw a projectile spell and generally steal the last hit if they realize that your team is attempting to defeat the dragon. This is especially important when playing on Red side.







Your role as Ryze most often comes down to bursting the dragon with your combo. If you're playing top then you won't have many chances to help at early dragons which doesn't matter too much either cause you're still weak. Now that first dragon's dead, keep your timer on the next respawn and act accordingly. You want to be present there but you don't want to sacrafise too much by doing that. Here are some tips on how to prepare for dragon:

• Recal to buy items and head towards drake
• Push your wave so that the opposing laner is forced to deal with it. If he doesn't he loses a lot of farm thus still giving you a small lead. If he does, you'll have time to help your team while he's busy farming.
• Inform your team to buy you time until your Teleport is back up again so you can help your allies. They can do that by scaring your opponents off from rushing/forcing it.
• Press 'Tab' and look at the timers. When there's less than 1 minute left, immediately warn your team by typing "Dragon in 40 seconds. Start preparing"
• If your Teleport is down but you're aware that your lane opponent has it available, he'll probably try and help his team. Do NOT let him do that. Force him to stay in the lane by pushing hard and if he attempts something fishy then flash and Rune Prison him. That will interupt his teleport thus leaving your team in peace, or at best, at a fair 4v4 fight.

Overall, early game is hell. That's all you need to know. Your mana pool is too low to keep on doing sustained fights and your damage is akward because it heavily depends on Overload which is a skillshot. If your opponent has a good form of sustain then you won't be able to get him out of lane and the worst part is that he may outsustain you to the point where he can stay in lane permanently. What you need to realise is that you're a champion who's weak early and that you have to play defensivly. Wait for mid-late game and you'll almost always destroy your opponents 1v2. You got scaling runes as well so play along with them. Taking flat runes means you'll be aiming to go agressive and that's not what you want to be doing with Ryze at the early stages of the game.





Your No1 priority in the laning phase as Ryze is last hitting creeps. Every creep wave comes with a pack of 6 creeps (3 melle and 3 ranged) and your mission is to last hit as many of them as you can. If you think that killing creeps is a waste of time then let me tell you that 12-15 creeps are actually equal to 1 Kill in terms of gold. It's not hard but it's more complicated with Ryze because of his low base AD. Most of the time you'll need to use your Q in order to last hit efficiently and I strongly recommend you do so on cannon minions because they give double the gold. If you're bad at last hitting then you should enter a custom game and practise there for a couple of hours. From what my fans told me, they've seen an average of 44% increase on CS after an average of 5 hours practising in customs. If you ever find openings to harass your opponent and believe that it will be worth it then go for it. Always pay attention to what items your enemy has bought in his last recal so you know what to anticipate from him.




The worst thing you can possibly do in the early game is attempt to do your full combo. "Well, doing your combo and dealing damage is not a bad idea, right?" Absolutely, but not always. In the early game, unless you're about to finish your opponent off, it'll be far more harmful than you think. The reasons are:

• Your passive lasts for only 3-3.5 seconds. It's so low that your opoonent doesn't even have to care if you become supercharged. He'll just stun you when you enter passive and that's it. Passive lost and you take free damage.
• One combo and you just lost all our mana. This is bad for 2 reasons. 1: You can no longer fight and your opponent will simply use a potion and get back to full hp. 2: You encourage your opponent to play more agressive since he knows you have neither Ignite, nor mana and thus you're not a thread to him. He'll even stay in lane with 200 hp and provoke you because of how useless you are.
• If your opponent is skilled and he knows how your passive works, he'll never fall for it and aproach you on high stack count. Moreover, you make yourself easily baitable. If he realises you're fishing him to combo him down then he'll abuse your way of approach to bait you for a gank. You'll think he mispositioned and start shoving spells on him, but little did you know that there's a bad mean guy behind you. This is a scenario that usually happens against players ranked Plat+.

My main goal was to make this paragraph a huge rant about how much I hate every jungler in the world and how much they should burn in hell for camping me just because I'm destroying my noob opponent in the laning phase. So much salt that I didn't even put a full stop or a coma. See? That's why I'll simply exlpain what to do with those guys in a more of a normal and human way. First of all, don't be me. It's literally the best advise I can give you. "What am I" you may ask? I'm that guy who always rushes damage cause of how good he is. So much that I won't even bother to pick an extra ward with me. And even if I do pick a ward, I won't even use it. Genious, I know. I swear it's the opponent's fault for triggering me constantly with all their laning mistakes, down to the point where I get so mad of how bad he is and I straight out flash in to kill him. It works most of the time but then the jungler comes and kills me for free. Now, this is one of the reasons why it's bad to not have wards. I could have killed that guy whenever I wanted. All I had to was keep track on the enemy jungler and kill my opponent when he's not around but you know...wte. I'll just blame genetics. Don't ask why, I don't know either. I believe you guys already know why it's important to keep vision and all of the drawbacks that occur from dying to a gank. What I'll show you however is how to ward properly in order to maximise your safety.







"Why ward this way and not straight on?" I've spectated 5 games and the average amount of times a laner goes to ward his lane and bumps right into the enemy jungler is 1.6 times. 1.6 times per GAME. That's WAY too much. Hell, 1 time is already enough to lose you the laning phase - if not the game. Not only you fully expose yourself by warding straight on but you also let your lane opponent know you went to ward. Don't be lazy. Make an extra circle, go around and put a ward when you know you're actually safe by doing so. If your opponent sees you retreating from your lane then he'll probably think that you're either recalling or going to take a camp. He'll most likely push and thus give you a small unintentional advantage. If he won't, then at least you don't risk dying like a loser. What you sacrafise by going to ward this way? 1-3 CS mostly. Best time to ward is when you return from base.

Early game in a nutshell

• Keep it low.
• Don't draw too much attention.
• Wait for ganks.
• Get some wards out there.
• Focus on farming over kills.
• Pay attention on the map for teleport opportunities

Mid game is where one of the outer mid turrets is already destroyed or maybe even both. The teams start giving more emphasis on objectives like taking dragon, doing baron, destroying turrets, turning the map's fog of war to their advantage (in-brush traps) etc. The hardest part about playing Ryze is now gone and you may start doing fights. Once you get level 9, you'll have 5 levels on Q and thus reaching the maximun duration on passive. You'll have Tear of the Goddess + Rod of Ages finished by now thus your mana problems are gone and you're able to combo without fear of being left OOM. Try and play more aggressively now to show your opponent who's the boss.




This is the best feeling ever. You just won with a weak early champ and got a free pass into late game. You either did it with the help of your jungler or the help of your awesomeness...idk. What matters is you made it. Now, what you're looking for is to make the most of yourself and help your team out. Lemme give you some advice to help improve your decision making.

"The enemy jungler is near and i'm certain I can get a double kill": Act stupid and bait him to come on you for an easy double kill. Try to keep some stacks up and be prepared. If you lost your stacks or just exit your passive then back off a little. Get 1-2 stacks and go back in. Apart from that, freeze the lane and zone your opponent off lane. He won't be needing that CS or XP anyways. Just make sure you ain't missing those last hits while at it.

"I got the turret and pushed slightly. What now?": You TP somewhere and help people. If you dont have it and you're top then you try and roam for a gank on mid lane. If you're mid then you can gank wherever you want. If you're top then an idea equally good is to get some heavy warding in the enemy jungle and steal some camps. If the enemy jungler is the farming sort like a Shyvana, Master Yi or Kayle then definitely do so.

"I can 1v3 cause I'm god himself. However, my team feeds like my mom does to me which made me overweight": First of all, lemme tell you that I feel you man. What you want to do is to tell your mom to feed you for half the amount. And well, even though that's a godlike IRL advice, it won't work in league cause your enemies love getting diabetes from eating your alies. This is a kinda akward spot where your team starts spamming that you should help them. There are 2 cases. If enemy top+jungler+mid have a total of 2 or more hard CC then I recommend you push out your lane a little and stick with your team. If they lack CC though, you start pushing HARD. Tell your team "Start pushing heavily and group together on one lane while I buy you some time. Take objectives and dragon if possible". The plan is: If 2 people come top: You kill them both thus making your team able to 4v3. If 3 come top then you'll be able to take around 1-2 kills in the very least while your team is gathered up and taking objectives. There's no way your team can lose 4v2 and you'll also get some value from your death. In case you see all enemies missing, run for your life. They're probably after you. I don't know anyone doing this strategy cause I thought it by myself but it won me more games than I can count. Last tip: If enemies ignore your splitpush and you're at most 1v1 then that's awful. You either force push on turret and take it or run to help your team. They won't hold on without you.




Everyone has an unlucky game once in a while so don't take it personal.

First of all, you don't think about giving up. Best thing to do in this situation is play extremely defensively. Turret hug and put a ward or two around. Don't try anything stupid or poke your opponenet for damage if it means he will be able to damage you back. Gank once in a while if you got teleport and if your opponent has low pushing potential then you may as well push the lane down to his tower and search for oppurtunities to gank other lanes. Ask for ganks and pray to god your team doesn't flame you.

"My opponent bullies me to the point where I gotta recal constantly": This is awful. Snipe any cs you can with max range Qs. Avoid unnecesary trades. Try to always stay in the XP zone just so you're not left too behind. Try and bait your opponent to dive. He might even miss-step while he's trying to poke and get one or even more turret shots. As soon as he damages you under turret, instantly Rune Prison him. If he's going ham then back off, if he did a mistake then probably go for combo and punish him.

"My opponent is roaming all the time and beating everyone": You either follow him and attempt to stop him or at the very least, calm him down. You may as well spam the living sh*t out of your team that he's missing and that they should run and hide because of how big he is. However, one thing's sure. The damage has already been done. He's gone and what's about to happen cannot be prevented from this point on. You gave a warning but that's all. What do you do now? No, you don't cry. You make the most out of that situation. As soon as you see him leaving and you're certain he's far and gone (not baiting you), push the lane as hard as you can. Try and get a turret (global gold) and farm the CS you weren't able to get before. Hopefully, things'll get better eventually.

"My opponent is so mean that he absolutely zoned my out of lane and can turret dive without dying": RUN. That's all I can say. This is the hardest thing to play around in the whole game. Around only 1% knows what to do in these type of scenarios. What do the others do? They end up making things worse and worse until they seal off the game completly because of how tilted they are. Listen to me. If there's a huge storm heading your way then you don't just sit there and blame your jungler. NOBODY will help you. Not even god (jungler). No matter how much you beg, he'll never help you just like he never did before. The power is in your hands. You gotta be a man and take the situation under control. You can't always depend on others to cover your mistakes and save you. So, start off by going to your jungle and farming some camps. If not, then try and go help the other lanes. I don't care if you can't get a kill from ganking on other lanes. You just DON'T stay in your lane anymore. Type on chat "Somebody go and stop that guy, please. I messed up and need some farm/assists now to even become relevant in the game." If your mid laner won his lane then great. Trade lanes and let the two fed storms fight each other. And as I said, no matter what happens, stay away from that guy. He'll certainly kill you if he gets anywhere near you so don't underestimate him. This is your last shot to get back into the game. If this fails too then admit defeat and move on. Tomorrow is a new day.

These are some tricks or secrets to help you become a better player overall. Many of you may already know these Pro Tips (and in fact you might know even more than I do) but, keep in mind that not everyone does.

Pro Tip No1 : If you play a late game champ like Ryze, Nasus or Irelia then it's a lot better to CS than trade damage with your opponent. With 15 CS you gain the same money you get from a kill. Problem is if you trade damage and end up losing a later on 1v1 then you end up losing both, the CS and the lane control. You may however harass the opponent when you feel that it'l be worth it in exchange for 1 or 2 CS.

---

Pro Tip No2 : When putting a ward in the outer side of a brush, in order to not miss, pay attention to your mouse indicator. If it is green then it will be placed inside the brush but if it isn't then you
will probably miss and everyone will laugh at you.

---

Pro Tip No3 : When you're being chased by a group of enemies and you are most likely going to die, tower dive. When not being hit by an enemy champ for 10 sec, the enemy won't get your kill but the turret does meaning the enemies gain nothing from your death.

---

Pro Tip No4 : For this one, make sure you have a good connection and above all good reflections. What you need to do is act like you're afk. You can achieve this by standing still for some time. First of all, your opponent will probably either attempt to kill you or at least throw a skillshot to deal some free damage. This method is an excelent bait for DC abusers because you can get free ganks this way. Your opponent this you're afk, he goes in, immediately your jungler jumps onto him and you just got yourself a free kill with the help of some masterful tactic. Another similar thing you can do is to start recalling at weird places while you're low. You're able to archieve the same result but it always depends on the circumstances. One more smart trick is to recal when standing next to a brush (extremely close to it but not in it). Recall, but right before teleporting, run into that brush. Your opponent might actually get tricked and think you recalled but in fact you're sitting right there, hiding and now able to make a surprise attack. However, if he attempts to stop your recal then he'll have to either burn a spell which you can easily dodge or get close to you. In both scenarios you get to line him up in front of you to land an easy skillshot or two.

---

Pro Tip No5 - Never level up your first spell at fountain or anywhere else until you actually have to use it. The reason is simple. If you are, for example, playing with Vayne then you may wanna level up your tumble as soon as the game starts. But, what if you invade and you needed to have Condemn there instead? You might even end up losing the kill as well as making your whole invade a waste of time. The same goes with Ryze. You are never sure whether your enemies invade you or if your team decides to do it out of nowhere. If you're indeed going to invade then leveling up Rune Prison is a guranteed kill so definitely always wait before leveling up.

---

Pro Tip No6 - Be one with your enemy. Think as the enemy. You are the enemy! (AKA Try to predict enemy movement). This is something junglers mostly do when (for example) you have mid Fizz and the enemy has Ryze. It's common sence that Ryze will try to stomp Fizz in the laning phase so you need to gank and the best time to do that is as soon as Ryze moves in to poke. Overall, try to think of your opponent's plans. If you have a Riven top lane then it's likely she'll get ganked since she is known as an really aggresive champion as well as squishy and easy to kill early. Basically, the enemy jungler right now is thinking "I'm gonna gank that b*tch Riven and take first blood. My team will start praising me and I will have an excuse to cover my level of Noobesy in order to not get reported later on". However, that is where you come into play. You know that the enemy jungler is going to gank top so you go there and set a counter-gank trap. If it goes as planed and your picks overwhelm the enemies then GG. Enemy flaming has just begun so just sit back and enjoy. Same thing can be done in the laning phase. Try to predict where the enemy is clicking his mouse to move and aim your skillshots. If one of the creeps in your side is droping too low on HP then the enemy will close distance just enough to last hit and that is your oppurtunity to throw some free poke. Small and simple things such as these make a huge difference. It can be a little hard to pay attention to your map+last hit+poke+watch out for enemy spells+predict enemy's movements+listen to music+talk to your mom who is obviously spamming to pause an online game and throw out the trash...but you know. This is called multitasking and it's the reason why asians are good players. Try to train your mind and one day you will notice that it has leveled up from Silver to Gold for example. One day you will make it to Challenger and then your carrier as Bronze 5 on Korean Server will begin.

10/12/2015 - Guide published.
2/1/2016 - Trying to make some time to finish the guide. Exremely busy IRL. Stay patient guys. Sorry.
10/1/2016 - Finished the Pros & Cons chapter.
19/2/2016 - Updated the Items section.
19/2/2016 - Updated the Combos and Summoner Spells sections.
21/2/2016 - Added the MANA vs ABILITY POWER (Scaling) section.
28/2/2016 - Updated the Skill Sequence, Abbreviations and Terms and Pros & Cons sections.
2/5/2016 - Updated the Dragon, Early Game, Mid Game, Late Game & Teamfights combos.
6/6/2016 - Re-created the Smart Casting section. Updated the Introduction section.
3/7/2016 - Added 2 Pro Tips. Updated the Introduction and Final Words sections.
5/7/2016 - Re-Created the Summoner Spells section. Updated the Runes & Masteries sections.
1/9/2016 - Updated the Skill Sequence and Itemization sections.
12/9/2016 - Added 2 more pro tips and updated the Introduction sections. Hooray for my birthday :D.
22/9/2016 - Updated the Early Game and Mid Game sections.
27/9/2016 - Updated the Masteries and Summoner Spells sections.
5/11/2016 - Updated the Pros & Cons and Abbreviations and Terms sections.
11/11/2016 - Updated the Runes and Itemization sections.
3/12/2016 - Updated 7 sections. Spent around 12 hours. Happy birthday, guide ^^.
18/12/2016 - Too lazy to update anything, came by to say hi. Hope you ok, boys :D.
19/12/2016 - Updated Introduction, Last words, Items, Combos and Dragon sections.
15/8/2017 - Re-Updating the whole guide. Total progression of chapters to update: 10. Update progress 12%.
17/8/2017 - Re-Updating the whole guide. Total progression of chapters to update: 10. Update progress 20%.
15/3/2018 - Updated the Introfuction section. Total progression of chapters to update 22%.
16/3/2018 - Updated the Dragons section. Total progression of chapters to update 27%.
17/3/2018 - Updated the Spells Section. Re-Created the Runes section. Total progression of chapters to update 38%.

At last, your journey of reading has come to an end. If you're wondering how much time it took me to write all this then here are some precisely calculated numbers. Throughout the period of 3 months, I've spent a total of:
258 hours to create the guide.
18 hours updating based on patch notes.

I didn't really have to put so much effort, information and detail but It's not every day you create something like this and I'm a man of quality so here's my masterpiece. While editing, I tried to make everything look top notch. By that, I mean appealing for the reader's eye, grammar/vocabulary correct and all this while also including jokes every once in a while to make it more interesting. My guide can't be compared with some of the godlike ones like Elusive Ferret's Ahri guide which is next level gorgeous but this is the best I can offer with the time I have availble. And I know what you're thinking right now: "What an idiot. Wasting his time like this" and I'm saying this because i've heard it countless times(at LEAST 30), but hey. As I said, I'm a man of quality and this is the way I enjoy 'wasting' my time.
"If you enjoy the way you spend your time, you aren't wasting it" -Unknown

Let's not put aside the fact I met so many people and made so many friends because of my guide. All the support I got through your kind words, through your donations and all those expensive skins you gifted me... I really couldn't have been more thankfull. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this guide as much as I enjoyed writing/editing it. ^^

What to expect:

• I will always add new lane match up's or make changes in order to keep this guide up to date. Everything depends on the League patch changes.
• I will add more Pro Tips whenever they come into my mind.
• If you ask a question in the comment section then it should take me a maximun of 2 to 3 days to reply.
• If there's huge demand to make a guide on a specific champion, I'll do it. Most certainly if you donate.
• I'm always League active and I do take coaching orders for payment in case you're interested.

Special thanks go to:

Spooky1986 - for inspiring me to play Ryze in the first place

LordNisroc - for helping me out with Vocabulary/Grammar

Utopus - for giving a lot of help with his critique + coding advices + explanations

IceCreamy - for helping with a lot of the coding both through PM and through his guides

Jhoijhoi - for giving some advice and guidance + her guide on how to make a guide witch is amazing

Klck - for helping me make the 3 combo videos (after 2 hours of trying we made it. Sorry for the trouble man)

If you want to follow me, be updated on my progress or contact me then here are my details:
League summoner name: SecondCaller [Nordic East + West]
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/secondcaller
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secondcaller [new]

I accept everyone and i'm always available to help you or discuss any subject you're interested in so feel free to contact me.

If you like the guide, don't forget to Vote, Share and Comment in the comment section down bellow.

Good luck in the Fields Of Justice, summoner!