Ryze/Strategy

Skill usage

 * Don't be afraid to use to last hit minions as the spell has low cooldown and low mana cost.
 * Chaining abilities in the right order is key to make optimal use of . For starters, begin with  and use it every 2nd spell afterwards. Advanced combos rely on making use of  to cooldown priority spells.
 * Some example spell combos involve:
 * -> (while is enroute) ->  ->  ->  ->  ->  (maximum damage over-time, 40% CDR team-fight damage combo)
 * -> ->  ->  (short, lane harassment burst combo)
 * -> ->  ->  ->  (while  is enroute) ->  ->  (chasing combo, to make  refresh as soon as possible, also used on people out of position)
 * Casting before your other spells will allow a second cast soon, due to its relatively short cooldown and.
 * If pursued, try to cast your spells on the run to use your as many times as possible on your pursuers. Prioritize melee champions with gap closers.
 * Using on melee enemies will effectively remove them from the fight temporarily.
 * does NOT interrupt channeling abilities, so be aware of using it against enemies like or.
 * will not stop a ranged champion from attacking your allies within range; always take this into consideration when using it on champions such as or.
 * Try to use on groups of minions or a minion near a champion to hit them near turrets.
 * When encountering a single opponent, make sure you're sufficiently close for the to bounce off you.
 * combined with Ryze's other abilities make farming gold easy, in mid/late game.
 * has a relatively short cooldown and its spell vamp can help to regain health.
 * At 40% cooldown reduction, because of, combo is only limited by the player's casting speed. This makes smart casting all of  skills a good technique for veteran players.
 * When low on health, don't be afraid to use +  on a minion wave to regain some health as his ultimate has a low cooldown. Since  has a low cooldown as well, use this as much as possible while your ultimate is on cooldown to reduce it using.
 * There is a bug that allows Ryze to lower his cooldowns while farming : While Ryze is about to kill a unit with his  for example and throws another spell very shortly before the minion dies, for example, he can use another spell like his  before the impact of the  so that all of his cooldowns get lowered even though the last spell he threw isn't on cooldown. This bug allows you to get your  very quickly in order to shove the lane or do the wraiths, or be able to gank after he pushed the lane. Also, all the other spell cooldowns are lowered by a second, so  is way more spammable.

Build usage

 * relies on mana, and magic penetration to increase his damage. Any items that grant one of these stats, or a reasonable combination, is probably worth buying.

Mana
Because most mana items offer some health and armor, can be effectively built tanky and deal a lot of damage at the same time with his spells.
 * is especially key, allowing to more freely use his spells while passively increasing his mana pool, and indirectly, his magic damage.  is a viable upgrade, but should not be built out of  immediately. When  has a very deep mana pool later in the game, he can make full use of  passive +3% max mana to ability power.
 * Never forget that the mana pool bonuses from Archangel's Staff and Manamune can stack; however, it takes a long time to finish both.
 * Building a and later be built into a  can provide more damage (as it procs on autoattacks and single target spells), because of  mana pool:
 * (250 base + (55 per level × 18 = 990 at level 18) = 1240 + = 2240 mana × 0.06 = 134 bonus physical damage
 * 134 + 20 bonus AD + (2240 × 0.02 = 45) = 199 bonus autoattack damage


 * Keep in mind that:
 * damage is not splashed during.
 * The bonus damage from is physical and will not benefit from  MR reduction and penetration.
 * toggle scales off current mana - the less mana available, the less bonus damage from the item.
 * Concurrently, provides (60 + (2240 × 0.03)) × 0.4 = 51 + (1000 × 0.065 = 65) = 116 bonus magical damage on .
 * The choice between and  depends on the player and want the player wants to be built on . An  can be built into a, which provides more defensive stats for  as it expends a certain percentage of mana for a shield (which  should have a lot of mana in his build, which means stronger shield). The  path provides more offensive stats as it amplify 's autoattacks and his spells thanks to 's toggle. It doesn't hurt to build both items at the expense of building two  longer.
 * should invest in an early for health and mana. It can be built into  later.
 * Avoid building items with the spellsword effects, namely the, and , despite they ALL give mana and ability power as  minimal cooldowns and ability spamming leave little room for auto attacks with high CDR, as his cooldowns become so short he can nearly enter a non stop casting barrage by using his passive and proper use of smartcast.
 * could be obtained as it gives a very large amount of mana and useful armor. The basic attack proc isn't all that important (or actually usable) as the item seems a godsend for given the stats it gives. Unfortunately, the  actually gives superior stats, builds similarly, is cheaper and has an aura. The auto attack proc is not particularly useful as  is rarely attacking by late game.
 * is more AD oriented and the large majority of its stats like attacks speed or critical change are a full waste on . On the same vein, doesn't even have particularly good base AD or an on-hit ability so the procs are pretty lame or barely usable
 * would be nice as might end up with a decent ability power pool due to  and maybe a magic penetration related item like, but once again, he has very little time to actually proc the passive.
 * works wonderfully with, as the item not only gives him some health tankiness and mana, the item's active synergizes well with , and makes him more to difficult for your opponents to kite you once you get close enough and the slow is applied.

Cooldown Reduction

 * 's gameplay is based on Cooldown Reduction. However, he no longer depends on Cooldown Reduction items. His Desperate Power ability maxed alone grants him 30% Cooldown Reduction.
 * Due to Arcane Mastery's cooldown reduction of other spells by Q - Overload's Cooldown, his innate 30% CDR alone is highly viable for a game.
 * As a result, he go on without CDR items allowing more space for situational items.


 * With masteries,  reaches the maximum cooldown reduction cap easily.
 * Intelligence adds 5% CDR and a potentially higly usefull 10% CDR on activated items abilities. It is a must for players that go with a more situatuonal build.
 * Against a team with more magic damage where a might not be sensible,  is an excellent choice for cooldown reduction and magic resistance especially when purchased with a  and/or.

Miscellaneous

 * Because has low ability power scaling, magic penetration is important. Although  does reduces enemy magic resistance, it is often insufficient.
 * Items like and  will improve his late game damage output if enemies have built some magic resistance.
 * works well in conjunction with the spell vamp of and makes you surprisingly durable even at low health, as well as giving a fair amount of CDR.
 * Watch out for over-killing the 40% cap! Most of his other core items already give large amounts of it.

Countering

 * 's damage output is mainly magic damage. Investing in a magic resistance item can help reduce his damage.
 * Because all of 's abilities are point and click and rely on him entering a certain range, picking champions that outrange him or that can poke him without entering his ability range are good choices.
 * Stay back when you notice him activate his . It gives his spells AoE damage, causing him to deal a lot of damage when facing him in a minion wave.
 * Although  is very strong at late game, he has a weak early game. Putting pressure on his lane or denying his chance to farm or kill will reduce his effectiveness in the later stages of the game.
 * takes a while to rack up mana via - denying him farm and killing him early on will hamper him in the later stage of the game.
 * Late game, although deals a high amount of damage and is quite tanky, his short range (particularly since his recent nerfs) and relatively low base movement speed makes him quite vulnerable to kiting. Beware, however, as the MS buff he receives during  can make this tactic temporarily less viable.