Talk:Ryze/@comment-79.147.92.116-20130211181738/@comment-178.166.24.118-20130212021052

Unholy Grail is really crappy on Ryze. Every single item on him should have either Mana or MPen, and if it has AP it should come with a defensive counterpart. The MR on it is just average and you don't benefit from mana regen at all compared to a larger mana pool in general.

That said, it should be noted that Zyra dumps on Ryze in laning phase. It's even worse if you're on a custom 1 v 1 without relying on your jungler and such. She just outranges you way too hard, on autos and every single spell. Sure, if she comes close you can beat her like anybody else. Sadly there is no reason for her to come close, she can farm and harass from miles away. She's just gonna push you all day and there's not much you can do about it.

From my experience in this matchup I'd rush Tear and a Catalyst, get Negatron and Merc. Treads next and then finish Banshee's. I also use a rune page for Ryze which was specifically built to adress his early game issues against long range mages like Zyra or Cassiopeia. I use Spell Vamp quints (or Movement Speed, depends on the amount of skillshots and how easy they are to dodge) and flat MR Glyphs. Ryze doesn't scale that well with AP to make full use of AP runes in early trades, so you might as well take something which gives you an advantage in lane.