Talk:Ryze/Strategy/@comment-64.231.5.4-20130113003514/@comment-83.85.46.234-20130309230853

Congratulations, you succeeded in completely ignoring the question you replied to.

The question was, when should I build Manamune vs. Archangel's Staff.

Ryze's abilities scale with 40%, 60% and 35%(per hit) AP. The 60 + 3% of max mana AP goes towards all abilities, and most notably counts for the AoE damage his ult does. Your Q, W and E deal 1.2%, 1.8% and 1.05%(per hit) of your max mana more damage, respectively.

A Seraph's Embrace will make you deal more damage with all your abilites, and gives you a shield for surviving a tiny bit longer. If you're not just dieing in a cc-lock, this can be quite useful.

Muramasa gives you 20 +2%max mana AD to your auto attacks only. The toggled ability works for your Q and W, but not your E. It takes 3% of CURRENT mana and converts it to twice as much magic damage. Both your Q and W deal 6% of your CURRENT mana more damage. The extra damage dealt by the toggle is NOT affected by Ryze's ult, it doesn't deal AoE damage.

If you can attack fresh from the fountain with a full mana bar, you can unleash a lot more damage using muramasa while also autoattacking inbetween abilities. If fights tend to a war of attrition, it will drain your mana quickly and leave your subsequent damage from the toggle effect lower, a drawback SE doesn't have. Of course, you can just switch it off, but your E and AoE damage from your ult are still lower than with a SE.

If you're targeted a lot and die often, the Muramasa has the advantage of dealing high damage a lot of the time, as you spawn with full mana each time. SE has the shield, and the short time you're alive with your ult up deals that much more AoE damage.

tl;dr: Neither one is strictly better, Muramasa is single target burst damage that drains mana, SE is balanced with a shield.