Overview
One of the most reworked champions in the history of League of Legends, Ryze is a mid laner who has often been a nightmare for Riot to balance because of the sheer difference in his prowess between pro play and Solo Queue. He’s famously linked to Faker, the greatest professional player of all time, and is the namesake for one of Riot’s co-founders. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Ryze
There are probably people who've won a game without even using Ryze's ultimate once. Does this mean it's bad? No, but be wary of trying to make a Tiktok-esque play where you warp your whole team onto the opponents -- that's how you set up a wombo combo for them!
Ryze is a late game hyper carry. You will be weak early and often weak in the mid game, too -- but as long as you can priortize your farm and gain levels and items, you will always have a shot at winning late. Don't give up because of a bad early game!
Strengths
Ryze has great scaling into late game and can hard carry fights with his damage output, which is centered around Overload [Q], especially if enemies are stacked on top of each other. His damage also provides him with a great burst of speed, so as long as he’s hitting his abilities, the ceiling for his outplay potential is very high. And what makes him especially terrifying in coordinated play is his Realm Warp [R] -- being able to warp the entire team means you can sneak objectives or prevent opponents from getting an equal cross-map play. He’s a great pick as long as you’re able to properly scale into the mid and late game.
Weaknesses
If scaling into late game is his strength, then it goes to follow that his early game is relatively weak. Without any dashes or true defensive abilities, he’s also prone to early ganks, and his level 6 spike doesn’t give him much immediate power in lane like many other mid laners. This could lead to weaker skirmishes around the first couple of neutral objectives, so you’ll need your team to compensate for you early before you’re truly able to come online. The ultimate is also difficult to get proper value from -- especially in Solo Queue where you don’t have voice communication -- so it can sometimes backfire even if you yourself have done everything correctly.
Game Plan
Early Game: You should just look to farm early game. Opponents will try to pick on you but all you need to do is maintain your farm and try to lean towards your jungler to help when needed. At level 6 you can try to coordinate with your jungler to gank a side lane if you two are on the same page.
Mid Game: Ryze is going to be strongest in side lanes at this point -- you don’t have to worry about your ultimate messing with your team if you’re simply just not there with them. You can then use it to join them in fights later or to retreat from your split push if you sense the enemy approaching.
Late Game: You are finally strong and should look for fights -- you have a ton of damage, especially if you’re able to find a fight in a choke point.
