Introduction
Ryze is without at doubt League of Legends most changed champion. There is not one main reason why he is always being changed, but most players believe it has something to do with his core gameplay identity of being a “battle mage” or a mix between a burst mage and a DPS mage.
But besides the reasons for his constant changes a question always remains: How difficult is Ryze? This one is a very interesting questions as it implies that most people don’t play him because they think he is too hard.
Whatever the reason the perception that he is difficult, either overpowered or underpowered makes Ryze an enigmatic figure in the mid lane (and sometimes in top lane too!).
In this article we’re going to go deep into this topic, we’ll talk about everything Ryze including how difficult he is to play, some of the history of Ryze and we’ll end up with a pretty decent guide to understanding current Ryze and what role he plays in the game today.
The History of Ryze
Ryze is one of League of Legends oldest champions. Being one of League’s first set of champions he was released as early as the second week of the alpha build.
Riot always had a clear idea of what type of champion they wanted Ryze to be, a powerful mage who dealt a lot of magic damage from close range. This was in sharp contrast with the usual mage archetype that we see even today in most games: weak defense strong offense from afar.
Sadly, to this day Ryze might be Riot’s worst failure when it comes to champion design, this combination of different roles, lore worked well in the past for previous designs like Shen (ninja who is a tank) or Urgot (tanky ranged damage dealer) but in Ryze’s case it has never been a stable combination.
There are a couple of reasons for this but Riot’s insistence that Ryze must do lots of damage coupled with his short range meant that they had to give him defensive tools that made it possible for him to get close to his opponents, but this made him impossible to balance.
To this day Ryze has gone through at least 6 reworks to get to where he is today: A weird champion who has been constantly viable for professional play but is barely ever played outside of that scene. Nowadays, Ryze is at about 48%-win rate overall, so he is somewhat viable but he’s not most interesting choice for players as he requires a lot of effort for not that much reward.
Playstyle
Ryze is a unique champion in League of Legends due to his ability to cast spells in rapid succession. His playstyle revolves around chaining his abilities together to deal massive damage to his opponents. Ryze’s abilities are all based on his mana pool, which means that he needs to manage his resources carefully to be effective.
Ryze’s Q ability, Overload, is his primary damage-dealing spell. It deals damage to a single target and has a short cooldown, which means that Ryze can cast it frequently. His W ability, Rune Prison, is a crowd control spell that roots an enemy in place, making them unable to move or attack. This ability is useful for setting up kills or escaping from dangerous situations.
Ryze’s E ability, Spell Flux, is a unique spell that bounces between enemies, dealing damage and reducing their magic resistance. This ability is particularly effective when used in combination with Ryze’s Q ability, as it can increase the damage dealt by Overload. It’s also integral in actually enabling his W to root his opponent in place instead of just slowing.
Finally, Ryze’s ultimate ability, Realm Warp, allows him to teleport himself and his allies to a nearby location. This ability is useful for quickly moving around the map and setting up ganks or escaping from dangerous situations.
To play Ryze effectively, players need to be able to get to the mid game without losing lane hard, this can be quite hard depending on the matchup but Ryze’s entire playstyle revolves in him getting to level 16 and being able to accumulate a certain amount of Mana, Ability Haste and Ability Power so that he can comfortably use his abilities in the late game.
Role in the Game
Ryze is an interesting, short range battle mage in the vein of Vladimir or Swain. He is tanky enough so that he won’t just disappear after one hit and his damage is more than good enough to be a threat.
Unlike those other champions though Ryze’s main difference and what makes him such a viable pick in competitive play is his ultimate Realm Warp, it lets him and his team teleport together into a pretty big area of the map in just a second.
This ability is what has defined Ryze for a long time now since he’s had it from back in season 6. With this ability coordinated teams can totally change how they approach teamfights and this is something no other champion in the game can do. Realm Warp, also allows him to quickly move around the map and set up ganks or escape from danger.
It’s pretty obvious that Riot’s difficulty in balancing Ryze comes from balancing his core gameplay identity of a DPS mage together with his tanky stats and team mobility spell. It’s a bit too much and they can’t seem to find a way to make it all work together in a way that makes the champion both fun to play with and fair.
How Difficult is Ryze
If this question was asked back in 2020 then I would have said: Ryze is super hard to play, only people who have a lot of time should invest their time into him or pros.
But today things have changed, and since his latest changes in 2021 his combo potential has been reduced and thus his difficulty too. Nowadays you can get by with EQ until level 14 or something and do ok damage.
No need to go all out on overcomplicated combos that you will never hit because most other champions have either one or two dashes while you only have a single root (which is really good but still).
Most players at the moment will struggle more with his laning phase than with his mechanical difficulty, he is quite weak early game and he can’t reliably push the lane until he’s at least level 9 when he gets enough damage to one shot the caster minions.
If you want to start playing Ryze then I would recommend you get comfortable with the idea of thinking about Ryze similar to how most players play their ADC in bottom lane, farm up and only help your team when they really need it, focus on farming as much as possible, actually taking camps from your jungler might be a viable strategy at this point (you can also take them from the enemy jungle). Just be careful not to tilt your own team mates, not everyone is on board for that kind of playstyle.
Aim for 8 CS per minute at a minimum if you want to win matches, if you can’t get that much then you would be better off playing a faster m
Conclusion
Ryze is a strong short range battle mage that has seen so many changes since his release that most players don’t even bother to play him, plus they almost never see him on the rift! He is definitely a controversial figure in the game with so many problems with his design but he’s always been one of the game’s most iconic mages, for many years he was the face of the game in most marketing images.
With all that I have written in this article you might be feeling discouraged and might not want to pick up Ryze, but that was never my intention. In fact, Ryze is the most viable he’s been in quite some times so don’t be intimidated.
Back in the dark days he had barely a 43%-win rate overall. Right now, he is a difficult but viable champion, so if you like his lore, voice lines and gameplay style then feel free to put some hours into him, he is definitely a cool champion and it feels great to carry games with him when facing the usual meta mid laners that plague solo queue!
I encourage my readers to try out Ryze in a couple of matches, you will be surprised with how viable he is right now, he continually gets stronger as the game progresses and he is quite fun.