Ryze is one of the oldest champions in League of Legends. He’s one of the poster childs for the game, and for a good reason: he’s the quintessential mage trope that’s fairly easy to pick up and play for new players. However, in the past he’s been marred with issues, as his ability kit was one of the hardest to balance in the game: either he would be stupidly overpowered, or he would be too weak to ever be able to hit his late-game fantasy. However, Riot Games hopes to change that with the announcement of Ryze’s brand new rework, the second he’s gotten in the recent past. However, this rework is much larger, and includes major kit changes as well as an art overhaul.
Before, Ryze’s kit involved essentially just ability spamming to moderately effective results, which was why he was fairly simple for newer players to pick up. However, by memorizing and utilizing the correct ability sequences, Ryze’s potential was unlocked fully, and could be devastating in the right hands. This is why he was so difficult to balance in the past. Now, Riot Games aims to take Ryze and push his “combo mage” gameplay to the max, rewarding players who take the time and chain his abilities properly.
Ryze’s passive has been vastly simplified to what Ryze has always been known for: scaling off of his mana. He does more damage for his bonus mana and also gets mana based off of his Ability Power. This means that all of the stacking mechanics from last rework are gone (thank goodness). His new Q is the same in functionality but grants a new passive: Ryze’s other ability casts charge a “Rune”, and it takes two non-Q abilities to fully charge it. If he uses his Q while the Rune is charged, he gets a shield and movement speed if he lands it, reminiscent of his old passive. His new W is exactly the same functionality wise, but has more potential now with his E, which now does damage and throws a mark on the target. This mark grants his abilities bonus effects: his Q does bonus damage and bounces to other marked targets, his W roots for longer, and his E spreads the mark to nearby enemies. Needless to say, there is so much potential for crazy combos in this kit, and it’s definitely going to increase the difficulty of playing Ryze effectively if you’re new to the character.
Finally, his ult, which received major changes. Now, Ryze opens up a portal below his location, which after a few seconds teleports everyone in the area to a short distance away. Now, Riot has done flanking/team mobility abilities before with the addition of Tahm Kench and Bard (<3) about a year ago, but nothing to this extent. This can be a full five-person mobility spell! The uses for this are endless: flanking, objective control, escape routes, ganks… It’s going to be really interesting to see how the game adapts to such an ability.
“The scariest thing about Ryze’s ult is his ability to reposition his team mid-fight.“
This rework will be a part of Patch 6.14, which will be heading to live in about two weeks. You can check out the announcement page here.
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