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Ryze - The Rogue Mage
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Skills
3. Skill Order&Usage
4. Summoners
5. Masteries
6. Runes
7. Build
8. Match-Ups
1. Introduction
Ryze is my most played and best champion and the champion I pick when I desperately want to win a game. If you care about my ELO: As of writing this I'm sitting on 1526 ELO, barely in gold, but I don't play ranked much. This guide is aimed at giving you an overview of how I play Ryze and alternatives to my way of playing.
Why play Ryze? He is a tanky sustained damage mage that spams his spells a lot and moves around a lot in fights. He has weak but workable early levels and outscales most ap champions. He can build tanky items like Frozen Heart or Banshees Veil and gain damage from them since his spells scale off Mana. He is not inherently tankier than other mages, so you still have to watch out early game, but his build allows him to be very hard to kill.
2. Skills
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Arcane Mastery
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(Innate): When Ryze casts a spell, all other spells have their cooldown reduced by 1 second.
One of the stronger passives and makes Ryze the spammy mage that he is. This really favors getting cooldown reduction on him.
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Overload
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(Passive): Ryze gains cooldown reduction.
Cooldown Reduction: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 %
(Active): Ryze throws a charge of pure energy at an enemy unit, dealing magic damage.
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 3.5 seconds
Range: 650
Projectile speed: 1400
Magic Damage: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+0.4 per ability power) (+6.5% of max mana)
Cooldown Reduction: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 %
(Active): Ryze throws a charge of pure energy at an enemy unit, dealing magic damage.
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 3.5 seconds
Range: 650
Projectile speed: 1400
Magic Damage: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+0.4 per ability power) (+6.5% of max mana)
Your most used skill, pretty straight forward. It does damage to a single target and has a very low cooldown. Using this spell all the time will also make your other cooldowns short.
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Rune Prison
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(Active): Ryze snares an enemy unit, preventing movement and dealing magic damage.
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Range: 625
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Duration: 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 seconds
Magic Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+0.6 per ability power) (+4.5% of max mana)
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Range: 625
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Duration: 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 seconds
Magic Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+0.6 per ability power) (+4.5% of max mana)
Keeps opponents in place for you and your allies to hit. Makes you really annoying for kiteable champions like Udyr or Shyvanna.
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Spell Flux
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(Active): Ryze unleashes a bouncing orb of magical power which bounces to enemy units or himself, up to 5 times (for total of 6 hits). Each bounce deals magic damage and reduces the target's magic resistance for 5 seconds. If the orb bounces to Ryze himself, it will not decrease his magic resistance or deal damage.
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Range: 675
Projectile speed: 1000 (estimate)
Bounce Diameter: 400
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Magic Damage: 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 (+0.35 per ability power) (+1% of max mana)
Magic Resist Reduction: 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Range: 675
Projectile speed: 1000 (estimate)
Bounce Diameter: 400
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Magic Damage: 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 (+0.35 per ability power) (+1% of max mana)
Magic Resist Reduction: 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24
Not your most important spell, but the magic resist reduction is quite good. It also has 25 more range than the other two spells.
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Desperate Power
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(Active): Ryze becomes supercharged, gaining spell vamp, movement speed and causing his spells to deal 50% AoE damage.
Cooldown: 70 / 60 / 50 seconds
Spell Vamp: 15 / 20 / 25 %
Movement Speed: 35 / 45 / 55
Duration: 5 / 6 / 7 seconds
Cooldown: 70 / 60 / 50 seconds
Spell Vamp: 15 / 20 / 25 %
Movement Speed: 35 / 45 / 55
Duration: 5 / 6 / 7 seconds
This has no cast time and no animation to it, which means that it does not interrupt Ryzes current orders and you can cast it while moving. You can cast it while your Q and E are still in the air, and they will get the bonus when they land. The aoe damage it grants has reduced spellvamp like any aoe spell, the single target component of the spells still proccs full spellvamp though.
3. Skill Order and Usage
Leave your first point open until you know what's happening. In invade scenarios you want to skill W for catching people, other than that you should get E. You skill E because it has the longest range and does the most damage on it's own, at least when you get lucky with bounces. Skill W when you need it. When you get ganked or your jungler ganks for you, having W is better than having Q. Other than that the skill order is:
R>Q>W>E
Example level order
EWQQQRQWQWRWWEEREE
Maxing Q first as your bread an butter spell is pretty obvious. There is a case for leaving the ult at one point and getting his other skills first, but in my eyes you gain a lot more from leveling it than from the other spells. Everything about it gets better basically, so it's well worth the points. The snare duration is more important than the magic resist reduction from E, so W takes priority over E.
Use Q+auto attack for most of your early harassment if you can get in range. Using a full spell rotation (QWEQ) drains too much mana early on. Use Q for farming under your tower too. If you realize that the wave is pushing your way, auto attack the minions a lot and use E on it.
Your bread and butter combo is QWEQ and then whatever is available, prioritizing Q. Your animations force you to stand still while casting this, so you don't always cast them in this order since you have to move. Rule of thumb is, when your Q is available, use it, if not, use your other spells. Sometimes you want to safe your snare for someone (for example a Fizz trying to jump on your AD carry) so keep that in mind before mindlessly spamming all the buttons.
The usage of your ult depends on what you want to do. If you want to push your lane for example, use your ult right after QE while their projectiles are still traveling in order to get the most aoe damage. A teamfight case where you want to ult first is when your opponents are clumped up and your Malphite/Alistar gets a good knock up on 3/4 people. The aoe damage of QWEQ with ult is pretty good, but the radius isn't very large. In most teamfights and small skirmishes however, you should use your ult when your spells are on cooldown, because the ult triggers your passive. If you need to catch up to them, use the ult first, but don't expect wonders from the movement speed bonus.
When you chase someone, use the snare first, then move in further for more spells. During the Q animation they will gain more distance and you will never get in range to snare them. This of course does not apply if one spell would kill them, since the snare has the lowest range. After you hit the snare, move closer while using your other spells.
A big aspect of playing Ryze is repositioning yourself by moving inbetween casting your spell, so get used to doing that. Sometimes you don't need to move though and you should use your auto attack while your spells are on cooldown. This is mostly the case in lane, when it's a 1v1/2v2 situation and you don't have much cdr yet. In teamfights however, you will almost never have the time to auto attack.
Also, use smartcast for Ryze, but I guess that's pretty obvious.
4. Summoners
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Flash is a no brainer. While being a get-out-of-jail-free card, Flash+snare can initiate teamfights and also sets up ganks really well. Get your jungler to gank for you, tell him that you are gonna flash+snare them and against most opponents you will get kills.
Ignite helps you get kills in lane and is good against champs with healing effects. Exhaust is the better late game spell and helps shut carries down in teamfights and helps you not die in lane if you need it. Both are viable, if you expect/want to kill your lane opponent, get ignite, otherwise get exhaust.
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Taking Teleport for global presence is a possibility. I don't usually run it and prefer the combat power from Exhaust or Ignite. But when you need global presence, this is a very good way of getting some. Mostly recommended for arranged teams, as you can coordinate it much better.
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Cleanse/Heal/Ghost might be viable choices, but I wouldn't advice you getting them unless you know what you are doing (in which case you don't need me). It's not a bad idea to have a heal on a team, but I'd rather let someone else take it. Ghost is neat, but you can get a little bit of faster runspeed on demand with your ult and otherwise it's redundant with Flash. Cleanse might be great against certain comps, but you should be fine with positioning+merc treads.
5. Masteries
9/0/21
With season 3 changes and utility getting good, something like this should be the best option for Ryze in regards to masteries.
6. Runes
Marks - Magic pen
There is almost no other choice here. These increase your damage at all stages in the game. The only feasible alternative in my eyes would be flat AD, which help you in last hitting and harassing with auto attacks. I strongly suggest the magic pen though.
Seals - Armor, Health/level, Mana/level, Mana regen,
With season 3 there seem to be a lot more AD champions like Wukong played mid. This makes going armor the preferred choice here more often than not. If you don't know for sure what you are up against, just go armor, it's never a bad choice.
Glyphs - Flat magic resist
Against most champs that get played mid you want the flat mr in this slot, no contest there. In very specific cases you can get flat Mana or Mana/level in this slot.
Quints - Movement speed
Run around a lot, dodge all the skillshots, catch all the people. I feel like these are the only choice for the quint slot. Ryze is very dependent on catching up to people and moving a lot inbetween skills and these help you during all stages of the game. The only alternative I'd consider would be spellvamp, but you can get that much easier from items than movement speed. You can run flat mana or magic pen I guess, but those are very cheesy.
7. Build
Ryze is quite flexible in his item choices, since he scales off of a lot of different stats. Health, resistances and spellvamp are important for him to survive, since he has to get relatively close. At the same time, Mana, CDR, AP and Magic pen all improve his damage output. Ryze wants to max cdr since it synergizes amazingly with his passive and since it's very unlikely to always blue buff, making it part of the build should be a goal.
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The opener comes down to preference in my opinion. I find flask nice to have, mainly since it allows skipping buying pots on subsequent backs. Faerie charm allows faster building of Tear and leaves more money for consumables. Starting without an item and only consumables is also very viable and offers the most sustain and wards for lane.
Spend the rest in consumables as you see fit. Against a lane with heavy harass you want the health pots, against a jungler that is has at least some threat early you want one or more wards. Manapots are nice to have, especially when you will get shoved to tower early or can harass a melee champion in lane.
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Then either get Catalyst or get Tear, depending on what you need. After that get the other item. Catalyst is very strong item for lane and I always love having it. Since Tear is quite cheap, you can usually get it first, especially after opening Faerie charm, although in a hard lane you might want to get the Catalyst first.
Tear PSA:
You can get charges on your Tear without actually using spells. To do so, you have to use a spell on a minion that is about to die. When you last hit a minion with your auto attack, cast Q after you do the auto attack. If you time it right, you will not actually cast the spell, because the minion will die before you finish the animation. The charge on the Tear is added as you start casting, so you will get a charge without actually using the spell.
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Don't forget to get at least level 1 boots early on, preferrably with your tear. Movement speed is huge for Ryze and both of these upgrades offer a lot for him. Make the choice depending on what you need. If they have lots of reducable cc, magic damage and/or the enemy mid has high kill potential on you, get the mercs, for damage get sorc shoes.
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Given it's cost efficiency RoA is pretty core on Ryze and will be the upgrade for the Catalyst most of the time. There are a few situation where a Banshees Veil can be the better choice for a catalyst upgrade, mainly when behind against a burst caster mid.
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Since Muramana got it's toggle changed to physical damage, Seraphs is the better tear upgrade. Lot's of mana/ap and a shield to absorb burst.
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A very strong item and in any given team, one person should have this. Due to giving mana and just enough cdr to get to 40% with masteries and the passive on Q, it is very good for Ryze. Get the glacial shroud relatively early, usually before upgrading catalyst and finish the item as you see fit. You can delay it and the glacial shroud (or skip it in rare scenarios), as long as you get blue buffs and physical damage is no real threat. After you finish it you can usually let your other team members take blue buff when they benefit from it.
Last 2 items:
Boots, RoA, Seraphs and Frozen Heart leaves 2 slots to fill. One option is to just get more Rod of Ages, but there are a lot of situational items Ryze can get which benefit him more.
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While at first I thought it might be better to just get a second Rod of Ages instead, Warmogs health regen helps a lot in staying at full health through some poke before a teamfight and in keeping healthy enough to push or take objectives right after a teamfight. Probably the best defensive option right now.
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The %penetration goes really well with flat magic penetration now, making Void Staff all the more viable for dealing more damage, even if your opponents don't have that much magic resistance.
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Guardian Angel gives you an extra life and protects you from being focussed and bursted down. With his high sustained damage and tankiness from his build, this is a really good defensive choice and used to be my most common choice before I started liking Warmogs. Still really good when the opponent team is heavy on burst, but low on sustained damage.
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Movespeed is one of the most important attributes for Ryze. Twin Shadows offers a strong albeit long cooldown active. I haven't build this yet, but this looks like it could have some viability.
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Abyssal is still good, but flat reduction doesn't stack well with % penetration, like flat penetration does now. If you need MR and your team can use the aura, it's a viable choice.
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As an alternative MR item, Banshees usefulness depends on what spell the Bubble blocks, so it often depends on the champions on the enemy team, whether it is a feasible item.
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Lyandry's is an interesting item that goes well with Void Staff. You can get the Haunting Guise early and upgrade this much later. Don't expect this to do wonders, it does add some damage, but will leave you squishier than what I prefer. It should go really well with the amount of single target spells Ryze throws out, but other items are just more important from my tests.
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Rylais helps kite really well, but since most champions that want to get close have means of doing so regardless of slows, this item isn't as good. It is really good against the handful of kiteable champions though, I like it, it's just very situational.
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I kind of want to buy WotA, but there is not much reason to. Flask, catalyst and ult will supplement the sustain that Revolver would give. Double AP is pretty much a thing of the past, which is when this item shines the most. Very situational and dependent on your own teamcomp and there is very rarely a reason that justifies getting it.
8. Match-ups
Here is an overview over some match-ups against typical mid laners from my experience. In any lane, if the lane gets hard for you, buy MR. Cassio, LeBlanc, Swain and Zilean are some of the top candidates for getting a fast Negatron or at least Null Magic Mantle against. Delay your Tear if you have to, having a Ruby Crystal and a Null Magic Mantle and surviving is better than dying with 40 more charge on your tear.
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This match-up is playable for Ahri, maybe even having a small advantage the early levels, but Ryze does outscale her and Ahri can't all-in him as easily as she can jump on other champions. Ahri does outrange Ryze with her Q though and can charm him and walk away if he gets too close. You can play aggressive, focus on dodging her charm and Q.
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Hard for Ryze. She can push very hard post-6, trades very well with Ryze if she lands her Q and the wall is annoying for a rather short ranged mage that wants to move around a lot. Dodge her stun, there isn't a whole lot to do against the ult+e combo but to throw spells back at her. Anivia is really squishy without items, so you have a good chance of getting her into her egg if she gets too close. And with Ryze having good sustained damage, you should be able to kill the egg too.
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A douche early on, but you will outscale him. Most of the time Brand players will poke with pillars, so predict and dodge those. If he gets in range to use his E, he gets in range for your skills. Dodge the stun and throw spells back at him and you will win exchanges. Remember that after he uses his combo he will have no damage for a while.
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Hard match-up since she can exploit the early weakness of Ryze. You have to farm while avoiding getting harassed down until you have some items. When you get your items she should be manageable, try to dodge Qs and by all cost avoid getting stunned by the ult. It's playable with some practice, defense masteries heavily recommended for this one.
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Represents everything that is wrong with midlane. Pushes hard while you can't kill him. Will not kill you either. His Q is not too hard to dodge and he doesn't have much sustained damage. It will take a lot of mana to kill him through his mr and his shield.
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Pretty good for Ryze, although Gragas does have a lot of burst and pushing power. You can harass him early when he goes for cs, since he is melee. Watch out for him using his charge at early levels and punching you with his W on, he does a suprising amount of damage. Later on he can clear the wave with barrels and doesn't ever need to get in range of your spells.
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You can kill him in a fight, but he will farm from a safe distance. When you do actually fight him, you can stay out of defile while keeping him inside of your spell ranges. And moving inbetween your spells you should be able to not get hit by Lay Waste.
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Pretty easy match-up, harass him early on with a lot of auto attacks, don't let him trade for free post-6. If he rift walks in and silences you, try and follow him as he walks away and then blast him with spells. I recommend merc treads to reduce his cc.
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Try to avoid his harassment early on. He won't be able to fight you after a while if you keep the lane even. Stay behind minions to not get hit by shurikens, don't let him auto attack you when he has his W proc up (his hands are lightning)
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This girl is very annoying, but you can stack mr and still outscale her. Don't let her get kills on you by staying around on not full health. She is very squishy, so if you can damage her she will die quickly.
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Mordekaiser can push hard, but you can hurt him a lot. His shield doesn't save him from your sustained damage. You should win this as long as you avoid letting him hit you and your creeps at the same time with his E, so don't stand inside of your own creepwave.
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The match-up I probably played the most. Morgana can't fight Ryze at all, unless you play catch the bindings. Her full combo won't kill him and after that she literally has no damage. Like Karthus, she can farm from a safe distance and push hard though. If she is relatively close to you, break her spellshield by using Q and E before you snare her.
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Will outtrade you early with autos and harass you from range a bit later. Watch out for her auto attacking you early on, they hurt. After a couple of levels she will be unable to fight you straight up, but she can still harass and push. Very squishy without her shield and without the ball on her.
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He outtrades you hard and is really annoying to deal with as Ryze. It was much better when Ryze Q had 675 range, but now just ask for help from the jungle. The way these two champs work with their mainly single target spells, whoever gets ahead early on wins. One of Swain's biggest weaknesses is that he can't deal with being pushed, but Ryze can't really exploit that very well. Bring ignite.
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Same as Morgana and Karthus. If you get close to him he dies since he is super squishy, but fighting other champions straight up isn't why people pick Twisted Fate. Farm it out, when he ults away, judge if you can follow and turn that around or push your lane.
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Spam spells at each other until Vlad dies. Ryze has a nice advantage here. Both are quite weak early game, but Ryze gets stronger faster. If Vlad gets ahead by ganks or for some other reason, he gets really annoying though. He is similar to Swain in the way he fights against Ryze, but has a much weaker early game.
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Really annoying bomb harassment. He can't fight you straight up, but he can push and harass you out of lane. As long as he has mana he is pretty much ungankable thanks to a stupidly good speed boost and his ult. Just farm what you can and don't fall too far behind, you will be much stronger than him.
So thats my Ryze guide. Feel free to discuss/suggest anything that I missed/have gotten wrong.