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So I think we all would pretty much agree that Ryze is a pretty weak champion pick, and that he needs some tweaks to be viable. I think Ryze would be really cool if he was a short range (taken care of already), short cooldown (somewhat taken care of), sustained dps caster.
As of right now he has 3 options:
1) Go tanky w/ banshee's and frozen heart/randuins and max his cooldown reduction.
2) Go hybrid AP/CDR/Tank with a DFG/RoA/frozen heart/etc.
3) Go full AP with Zhona's/void/etc.
Here are the main problems with Ryze (in no particular order):
1) Squishy
2) Short Range (very short range if you're 1v1, if spell flux doesn't bounce you lose)
3) Relatively small AP ratios, probably resulting from the possibilty of getting ridiculous spell flux bounces... owned by RnG.
4) No mobility, ghost and flash are a necessity.
What Ryze brings to the table:
1) Pretty Decent Burst
2) Magic Resistance Reduction
Reasons why I would pick Ryze over Annie in a game:
1) None.
Annie has higher burst, a TRUE stun (that also can be AoE), some survivability from shield, and a pet that does pretty big damage at lower levels simply by auto attacking/standing by someone.
Things that I think should be done to Ryze to make him a cool sustained dps caster:
1) Lower the cooldowns on his moves such that they allow him to chain cast his spells with very little downtime (with maxed cooldown reduction)
2) Lower the AP ratios or base damage of his moves depending on how strong he is early on or later on in the game. I would tend towards lowering base damage on his moves and keeping his ratios the same, allowing a burst Ryze build to still be viable. while keeping the sustained dps cdr version of Ryze in check.
3) Lower the mana costs of his moves.
4) Lower the immobilize duration of his stun, it might get to be too strong with the cooldown changes Actually, scratch that, this move would pretty much be too strong. It would need to be changed into something along the lines of a pretty big slow such that people don't just get nearly perma immobilized. Or maybe giving this move diminishing returns if it's cast on the same target might make it not super OP.
5) Modify his ult to give him some form of survivability/mobility (i.e. giving him a movespeed boost related to how much CDR he has. For instance, have his ult give him 1/2 of his cdr to him in movespeed added onto his base movespeed, possibly removing the AP increase all together if too strong). So assuming cdr reduction of 40% he would have a move speed of approx 450 with lvl 2 boots.
These changes would make Ryze a pretty unique caster and would open up some item builds for him imo.
Anyway, I understand I've kind of already stated this before, but I really believe that Ryze has the potential to be a really awesome caster, but he simply is overshadowed by other casters in this game because he doesn't really serve a purpose. The only champion that his powerset allows him to be compared to is Annie, and she's just simply better. Morg and kass both have pretty similar burst ability as Ryze but can do it with relative safety due to blinks/longer range and higher AP ratios. Not to mention they both have more utility than Ryze (Morg: huge 3 second immobilize, slow ult, spell shield. Kass: long silence, big slow, and a long range short cooldown blink)
As of right now he has 3 options:
1) Go tanky w/ banshee's and frozen heart/randuins and max his cooldown reduction.
2) Go hybrid AP/CDR/Tank with a DFG/RoA/frozen heart/etc.
3) Go full AP with Zhona's/void/etc.
Here are the main problems with Ryze (in no particular order):
1) Squishy
2) Short Range (very short range if you're 1v1, if spell flux doesn't bounce you lose)
3) Relatively small AP ratios, probably resulting from the possibilty of getting ridiculous spell flux bounces... owned by RnG.
4) No mobility, ghost and flash are a necessity.
What Ryze brings to the table:
1) Pretty Decent Burst
2) Magic Resistance Reduction
Reasons why I would pick Ryze over Annie in a game:
1) None.
Annie has higher burst, a TRUE stun (that also can be AoE), some survivability from shield, and a pet that does pretty big damage at lower levels simply by auto attacking/standing by someone.
Things that I think should be done to Ryze to make him a cool sustained dps caster:
1) Lower the cooldowns on his moves such that they allow him to chain cast his spells with very little downtime (with maxed cooldown reduction)
2) Lower the AP ratios or base damage of his moves depending on how strong he is early on or later on in the game. I would tend towards lowering base damage on his moves and keeping his ratios the same, allowing a burst Ryze build to still be viable. while keeping the sustained dps cdr version of Ryze in check.
3) Lower the mana costs of his moves.
4) Lower the immobilize duration of his stun, it might get to be too strong with the cooldown changes Actually, scratch that, this move would pretty much be too strong. It would need to be changed into something along the lines of a pretty big slow such that people don't just get nearly perma immobilized. Or maybe giving this move diminishing returns if it's cast on the same target might make it not super OP.
5) Modify his ult to give him some form of survivability/mobility (i.e. giving him a movespeed boost related to how much CDR he has. For instance, have his ult give him 1/2 of his cdr to him in movespeed added onto his base movespeed, possibly removing the AP increase all together if too strong). So assuming cdr reduction of 40% he would have a move speed of approx 450 with lvl 2 boots.
These changes would make Ryze a pretty unique caster and would open up some item builds for him imo.
Anyway, I understand I've kind of already stated this before, but I really believe that Ryze has the potential to be a really awesome caster, but he simply is overshadowed by other casters in this game because he doesn't really serve a purpose. The only champion that his powerset allows him to be compared to is Annie, and she's just simply better. Morg and kass both have pretty similar burst ability as Ryze but can do it with relative safety due to blinks/longer range and higher AP ratios. Not to mention they both have more utility than Ryze (Morg: huge 3 second immobilize, slow ult, spell shield. Kass: long silence, big slow, and a long range short cooldown blink)
Notice any similarities between my post and their changes? =)
The only difference is that they opted to give Ryze more spell range instead of giving him move speed. It's a similar idea, in that it offers survivability just in a different sense.
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/HOSJD/kama.png)
