Ryze's Rework - The Unfixable Champion of League of Legends

LONG OVERDUE but it's finally here. For this episode of the Rework Retrospective I bring to you Ryze: The Rune Mage!
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#LoL #Ryze #leagueoflegends

[@HeleneSyrstad]

Ryze really is the poster child of "sometimes a thing thats not consistent isn't bad"

[@abogmus8904]

not broken don't fix it

[@wraithchronicler5915]

Why do I get the feeling that I've seen this video?

[@mightypancake8949]

That's the third video on ryze, I guess that's why. Vars even mentioned it himself in his last video if I recall correctly

[@lillyie]

his previous video on ryze was how he would rework him

[@TheClassyRob0t1]

he reworked the ryze video

[@silliestgoober69]

because you just watched it?

[@AccedTCM]

Alternate title: The Ryze and fall of rework champion

[@blue_jesus9252]

To make the joke, Ryze would have had a raise in any point of his history... We wouldn't have so many memes if it happened at least once.

[@AccedTCM]

@@blue_jesus9252 I mean, Faker did destroy a Worlds by playing Ryze and they couldn't get him off of it in 2015 😂

[@mantraki]

Crazy?. I was crazy once. They locked me in a subreddit once. A ryze main subreddit! A ryze main subreddit with arkham asylum copypastas, and arkham asylum copypastas make me crazy.

[@sethb3090]

Let's have a moment of EQEQEQEQ for this tortured soul

[@justarandomdude2212]

EQEQEQEQ

[@pathos92]

I just imagine Mr crabs eqeqeqeqeqeq

[@seanrollins2383]

Crazy?. I was crazy once. They locked me in a subreddit once. A ryze main subreddit! A ryze main subreddit with arkham asylum copypastas, and arkham asylum copypastas make me crazy.

[@JustAguy006]

Man?

[@marianorivera3272]

Ryze is Blue.

[@BabygirlUwU_]

Dabade dabadie

[@dynhoyw]

i drink blue paint every day to get closer to my lord and saviour ryze christ

[@ancient5138]

@@dynhoywchryzed

[@lol24q]

Yes

[@tolis19]

I know thsi doesn't really matter but i just wanna say i appreciate you using pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky music because thus game's ost is incredibly good

[@bmac4]

Arata Iiyoshi my GOAT (and Keisuke Ito the other GOAT even though the former composed the specific track)

[@KohlKovet]

Honestly, Hweis kit should have been Ryzes. Just him using a fraction of the runes or something

[@crazyman7504]

Yes but that would throw his well known identity of being a dps mage out of the window . It would be another aatrox/skarner

[@user-hc4rr5cw4g]

@@crazyman7504 true, let Ryze be what he is now. He need only partial revert to his previous iteration.

[@Chichirumiru]

I especially love the current version of Ryze, whose E has a 10% chance of not marking a target and Q also having a 10% chance to deal no damage upon hitting a target. They should add those thrilling surprise mechanics to the other champs as well.😍

[@to_the_vo1d]

His combo abilities (like when he able to gain shield at certain combo) was cool, like hwei

[@metrux321]

I used to LOVE ryze, he was the champion I could always think of how to play better on next play, could analyze why I should've used one combo instead of another, if I should've stayed close or kited, if I should've stopped an enemy or gunned another... He was so diverse and had such rich skill expression, that even loosing on him was mostly fun, because it was like a fast paced puzzle in the middle of the action. Now it just... I don't know. I don't find him fun anymore. He is still cool, but... Unless I need to stop a vayne top, I don't see a reason to use him, you just get bullied until you can fight back and then you mash without thought.

[@aydenbonnet9630]

100% agree. Learning and getting better on 3.0 Ryze was one of the most rewarding learning experiences of any champion I've picked up in League

[@Siigrit]

Once u get 3 items he still feels like this imo. Getting there is painful though.

[@metrux321]

@@Siigrit Nah, you don't really get to "puzzle" your way through a fight, at most you choose if you use e+w or e+q while spamming.

[@gorrazin7983]

Yeah you don't have to think about your combos too much anymore. It used to be like "I wanna kite this enemy to death so I'll q, e, q, e, w, q, e, q to get some damage off before getting my shield" Or "I'm fighting multiple enemies so I need to mitigate some burst while nuking both of them so I'll q, e, e, q, e, w, q, e, e q." which I guess some combos like this still exist but it definitely doesn't feel the same. I think it's because there is no point in Ryze double casting e anymore so he lost a big part of his combo game and he feels worse for it.

[@runemage]

I hope one day Riot gives Ryze a last rework

[@omegasybers1110]

I think the shield was and is vital for his identity. 3.5 ryze with current E and Q should work better as a spammy battle mage

[@LouisSaver2012]

Ryze is blue, Zeri is green, the next rework disaster is going to be a red champion.

[@el-nathan]

aatrox

[@d1etpussy621]

Naafiri

[@user-Heizen]

I miss playing ryze, the challenge to play a hard and so flexible champion was so fun, specialy the rework he got the new ult, bu then they removed everything that was making him fun, the zonias ult, the multiple combos to get movespeed or shield or more damage etc is now all gone he is just a brand with more mana and a harder to pull of ultimate

[@theshadynorwegian6036]

My friend loves ryze, but has had to abandon him. Simply because nothing about him feels good anymore. He loves to point out that Ryze was too much of a pro play champ, so they gave him an ultimate that is only ever useful in coordinated play. He now plays Urgot or Swain. He still pulls out the ryze, but very rarely.

[@nameme270]

Dang you finally did and it was a great vid good work.

[@ambeis]

temporal tower as the bg music…vars has great taste as usual !! great vid as usual too

[@setoshi3297]

I am one of players who joined League around 2020 so I haven't seen much of v3 Ryze. Now he is my favorite champion exactly because of his skills being so much reliant one on another. I wish I could do more fun combos (because I keep hearing what Ryze had been and what he became and it is such a pity).

[@DawnofHope]

I swear, like every KZbinr I watch just uses NIntendo music tracks that I loved from my teenage years XD Temporal Tower, Somnom Woods, etc. Just banger after banger.

[@corbinberrong8482]

I see you with the PMD music in the background

[@meadowmage]

Great video also your editor is super cool and not at all strange

[@ryzeking33]

this is good! I agree, desparate power needs 2 returned !!! many people are saying this!! thank you and much love - ryzeking33

[@warrare345]

I love the current ryze. pumping out the maximum amount of damage with the optimal combo (dependent on your ability haste) is very satisfying. Too bad his ult is 3 minutes long, and i barely get to use it.

[@SpookSkellington]

Had some crazy fun with the first iteration of Ryze, where his E bounce had a bug that would instakill enemies that are directly ontop of eachother (same with Fiddle E)

[@eprjct]

They took most bouncing abilities away cause it's too rng. Same with Fiddlesticks. It's pretty apparent how unbalancable those type of skill is. Just look at Brand.

[@Vinicius-Bigode]

Good lord you scared me, I thought they would be reworking him again.

[@Ratty524]

I want old point-and-click Ryze to come back.

[@theRobson0908]

Remember the good ol times playing bruiser pirate ryze top

[@HuyNguyen-mx3pj]

His point and click dmg and root low range battlemage ií perfectly fine. Especially in these where champions has 53718 dash inside their kit

[@lordsnia2152]

just asking but weren't you planning to talk about the old and new R/Ultimate ability? i feel like you forgot about them

[@spkbreadroll]

this man can't catch a break

[@coolgabe555]

This might seem weird given his design but you could probably turn Ryze into a ap or mana dps juggernaut, this would let them keep most of his kit except the ult and the W would probably have to be a skill shot since a point and click root on a juggernaut is kind of stupid but it would probably suit his close range gameplay with no dashes.

[@GaireDuine]

Assassin ryze was my favorite ryze. Using your ult and assassinating the enemy team in 3 seconds was perfection.

[@NeonIcyWings]

Not related to Ryze, but I hear Pokemon Mystery Dungeon in the background, and that alone is worth a like.

[@alanyang7801]

Version 3 Ryze was an absolute menace. He terrorized mainly top lane and with the new keystone system, him running phase rush, being absurdly tanky and doing too much damage while running insanely fast was a nightmare for us bruiser/tank players.

[@iko8465]

I really liked Ryze when he had the MS and Shield rune on his Q because since he’s relatively short range battlemage, that open up opportunities to walk up and brawl with enemies. What i never understood is his ultimate. Why a Support ultimate on a Hypercarry mage ?

[@localhobo5362]

because qwe had enough dmg already, so they gave him Realm Warp, and it goes well with his lore of nomad mage, who just jumps around places. Giving another steroid like previous reworks had would be boring

[@TheBlackLightMan]

Ryze was my first champion I've ever made when I used to play. After retiring from league i still get sad seeing the blue man suffer

[@lazerkh5569]

This made me wanna play ryze

[@BlameBarky]

Bring back old point and click Ryze and Twisted Treeline and I’ll be happy.

[@sylvanaswindrunner4357]

Omg, I remember when I used to watch BunnyFufu and he showed up in this video

[@agentalberta6531]

I like how even to this day, people still regard Ryze as a late game champion, when in reality if you are on even item(3 or 6), there is no way you can split push or team fight against some of the most popular champions, and most of them are laning against you from the start. The only way Ryze can contribute is to farm up quickly using your “unique” kit, try to get an item lead and finish the game before enemy team can catch up.

[@donaldf9055]

Swain getting up there

[@allangamingG]

hey vars could you make a video with the best scaling champs excluding infinity scalers? like with all the math on ap ratios and stuff

[@lokombro1553]

Love ogs ryze spell sfx after he ulted

[@mrgibus5084]

the shield version with the non auto spread E was the best version of this champ, ofc riot had to make him silver proof and took away a really fun and rewarding champs from the rest of us

[@jamesoverbuild9496]

Who would have guessed that a champion that's supposed to spam abilities and machine-gun you to oblivion would be a bit of a nightmare to balance.

[@ethanross1426]

I think if they can alter his ultimate to not teleport, but instead be an aoe buff that gives him a shield (like his old passive) and then they can adjust his numbers as needed. Not sure if this would broken but at least it would be leaned more towards solo queue rather than pro play.

[@abejandro1462]

Ryze should have moves like Aphelios.

[@Martorfunk]

It's a weird case tbh, his second rework was nice quite unique since it meant that once you mastered the timing and combo you could do a lot. The 3.5 version has a similar feeling but something is missing. I think one of the main issues is that despite the changes so he uses his q after the rest of his abilities, still feels like after doing that rotation one time, there is not much else for you to do than waiting or do E-Q over and over. I think some mix of the last 2 versions would be great. His E interactions are good in my opinion, I would bring back the spread on double E to make sure he has more combos. Then I would bring 2.0 passive but with both a cooldown on activation and some way for you to both activate it manually, to avoid situations like with Annie and Kled where nobody gets close to you on passive. If not, maybe so each time he hits Q he gets one second less on W and E, that way he has reasons to try do more than just one combo and use as more Qs as possible but without making him unkillable. Tho I can't deny I don't know what to do with the shield passive apart from taking it out. I like his new E-W interaction but it makes it to safe for him to just do E-W and get a shield plus damage all the time, specially on lane. I would bring back his 2.0 R, maybe one or two adjustments, but I like the idea of an empowerment ult that lets him go full crazy. Of course I haven't played him in a while as I did before, and I don't fully recall well his 2.0 version, nor I'm high elo. But I think it could help him have some similarities with his old kit while keeping the high ceiling of today.

[@manosst4711]

Swain is the new Ryze tho

[@austinwhitaker9835]

I love our current version of ryze. His ult is kinda mid, but his qwe are spammy fun

[@Kiroto50]

13:03 missed opportunity of adding it to the info card

[@thrahxvaug6430]

Honestly Old Ryze was fun as a face roll champ even when weak. Sometimes it's fun to just play a ooga booga champion where you smash the keyboard and machinegun things happen. Instead of having to play a high APM very deliberate actions champ. It's why I will cry on the day they heavily rework Malphite or Nasus. Then second Ryze I honestly thought was very cool because he was like a fighting game character. Had depths and very cool interesting tricks in there and you had to be good to really get value out of him. Which was why he dominated pro play. Current State of Ryze doesn't really fulfill either playstyle now. You have a pretty meh machine gun with an ultimate that just kind of... doesn't fit the run and gun playstyle. But also has no depth or real utility that he can take advantage of solo. Zeri is quite literally Old Ryze done better. Has some machine gun casting. But then presses her ult to RUN AND GUN. If literally any champ with some dashes or speed come into contact with Ryze. He only has the Rune prison to hold them for a moment. Then after that Ryze just kind of... slowly saunters at them. Especially if he doesn't have ghost. Either give Ryze something similar to his old ulti back. Or get creative with him and do something like make Rune Prison his ultimate. And it's something like Morde's ulti but maybe with more players able to be pulled into it. Then make his W the old bouncy ball. And when the ball bounces to targets marked by his E it slows them a bit. Like just make the champ feel fun to push the buttons on but require a smidge of thought and all of the buttons feel like they should go together. To you that read all that rambling. Thank you and I hope you have a nice day.

[@szadec2375]

My personal definition of a rework is a faithfull aesthetic continuity with moderate mechanical redesign/modernizing. Ryzes reworks work in my line cause while he’s still a bad champion it passes the vibe check of the abilities being new but familiar and the cosmetics been right in line. But shit like attrox was just uncanny in all direction the only thing left familiar was the name.

[@JustATotalNerd]

I started playing league in Season 2, my college roommates introduced me to the game. They recommended I start with Ryze. I'm starting to think they might've been trolling me

[@wicked2874]

ive said it a million times- give certainly T one last rework to go for. His record with them as far as the champ being fun, having a strong identity, and being well executed is almost unparalleled. if people want to complain, let them. Ryze deserves it at this point

[@bobyhappy2992]

When a champion's kit, or part of it, is a problem both Riot AND the players needs to accept the fact that it needs to change EVEN if it's part of "the champion's identity" -.-

[@Aletonsi]

I guess the part about stealing shields of Zeri's kit was indeed a massive problem...

[@KoloXD]

Was not expecting a DBZA inclusion :D

[@ar00k23]

Didnt mention the ults despite saing that he will

[@Celmondas]

I think another big problem with ryze is the way he scales with mana. That has lead to some weird builds with frozen heart and Stuff which made him insanely tanky while still oneshotting everyone

[@foxy_bl1784]

As a former ryze main i would like him to be better lol

[@ignacioperez5479]

Wich rework are we talking about?

[@shanecoffing]

Ryze being simple is not necessarily a bad thing. Keep his current kit the same. What they should do is give him a real ultimate. Something to do with his runes he loves so much. Maybe place a rune down that buffs all his abilities and gives a bunch of mana regen, but only when around the rune. Or maybe the rune follows him and gives him mana Regen/omnivamp while active. Lean into his more tanky nature. Heck they could even do some crazy stuff like when he ults it "upgrades" his current "rune" to a buffed version. Like super arcane coment or super phase rush, although that seems a bit much. His ultimate is his number 1 issue, for as long as it exists he will always be balanced around pro play. Fix the ultimate, the rest of the kit is fine compared to todays champs.

[@ViktorLoR_Mainu]

You should prob. Add the other vid you mentioned to the description

[@cjdjsmith]

I must be crazy did he forget to talk about the ultimates

[@BigMuskachini]

bring back old ryze

[@Mike-iz6li]

The previous ryze was the best. He was also so cool to play. Since rework i never play him

[@NothinImportant]

Here’s an idea for ryze. I mean he is the rune mage, why not have his abilities change based on what keystone rune page he uses? Sure that make him arguably one of the most complicated champions in the game, but it could also potentially mean that certain rune set ups are good in certain Elos potentially (ex: resolve and precision low elo and sorcery inspiration in high elo) making him being able to be played regardless of skill level, you know hopefully

[@ShadowGeek12]

I loved ryzes 2nd version, turning an enemies wave advantage into a deathtrap for them due to how R and E worked, they should either revert him to version 2 so hes fun again, or remove Realm warp that basicaly kneecaps his entire balancing due to being too good in pro play and give him something like desperate power instead

[@gundeer9156]

I honestly think ryze should feels like ryze in lor, adapted to LoL of course but maybe him having to choose 1 rune from the 5 and depending on which rune he choose, his spells could change slightly.for exemple if he choose domination rune (red) gives his q more dmg in exchange of more CD/range or if he choose sorcery he could gain range/projectile speed but cost more mana

[@Ex_Xantus]

I really miss the bouncing ball xD

[@bensparrow3356]

I think it would be awesome if they took away his utility and put that power budget into unqiue interactions and combos based out of the rune system. For example, certain combo would trigger electro, phase rush, PTA/conqueror, and first strike effects.

[@diego.camacho22]

Ryze being forgotten

[@SomeoneSomewhere42069]

12:39 Wait. Homie just HAS Infinity Edge on his back?! 😂😂😂 Are there any weapon lore videos? One breaking down.. well, the lore of each item and it's components? Like, I know Black Cleaver is Darius' axe, Dead Man's, is Graves' armor (I think), but where does oblivion orb come from? Why does it do what it does? Who's heart, is Heartsteel? So many questionss

[@AlryFireBlade]

I remember when Ryze Ult had the Passiv Effect Passiv: Increase Ryze maximum Mana by 75/150/225 Yeahthat was the Passiv Effect a small amount of extra max Mana. This screams old league :D

[@SuperKosi]

Wether or not he is strong, OP or whatever, i feel like this kind of "combo-oriented" playstyle ist missing in League. Sure you have Syndra with her stun combo, but that´s pretty much it. How the game developed i don´t think Ryze in his current state will ever be as viable as other top-tier mages, just because he isn´t a burst mage, or should i say needs to long to blow up the enemy. In my oppinion really a shame.

[@jeydomo]

I don't like realm warp for him. It's odd, to me atleast. And someone suggested Hwei's kit for him makes sense, or something similar to it. I agree, but I like the idea of kits like jayce,karma to be what they could do for him and make his R and passive sources/switches for his other spells to expand the kit.

[@iskander0725]

I've seen the videos. I've seen the subreddit, before. I'm just curious. Are they still tanking for the Cause?

[@jonhard1049]

WHat if, Ryze can make his runes stronger? for example if he got Arcane Comet or Electrocute, then his damage on them would be slightly stronger?

[@sakutaro3musik486]

as long as his identity is tied to ability spam and mana scaling he will be probably unbalanceable. I think he would be more fun if his W would also be a skillshot and a root again

[@TheAngelRaven]

Ryze in a nutshell: A champion that forever stomps in Pro Play, but forever lacks in solo que. All because Riot doesn't have the balls to add voice chat.

[@brosam_]

Honestly just take out Realm Warp and give him a combat ultimate like every other battlemage in the game has and boom, done, he's fixed for the most part (besides number adjustments to compensate for the fact that he now has a combat ultimate). The only reason to level up Ryze's ult nowadays is because it gives you extra damage on EQ, so why not just give him a combat ultimate instead of forcing him into being a coordinated team play monster.

[@muffincopnoicingforme8220]

Now do the history of irelia's nerfs that started the whole better nerf irelia thing

[@danieljakistam9409]

That's because whatever rito do some kids will keep complainig anyway.

[@lillyie]

or that he does way too much for someone who's combo is point and click. literally half his kit is point and click and overload lands on those who have spell flux(which is point and click) so it might as well count

[@user-hc4rr5cw4g]

@@lillyie poor gp, he doesn't even have any skillshots...

[@teh133djskfhwieu]

I like the newest ryze. Basically only mage with real dps, rest are either one shot mages or burner bots.

[@GuardianGrarl]

Yo, listen up here's a story About a rune mage That lives in a rune world And all day and all night And everything he sees is just runes Like him inside and outside...

[@majikwizard]

can somebody please tell me the name of the song in the video?

[@kingkold1000]

Hwei is what Ryze should've been imo. Part of me still hopes Riot will take him in the direction of being a combo mage in a similar way but with more focus on damage and survivability than team utility.

[@jordank5551]

Another one?

[@ExiledSummoner]

Sadge

[@santiagocorbo4327]

Always glad to watch THE mandatory Ryze video for this year. Having said that, perhaps when Ryze get a nice rework I will come back to league for a while. They murdered him when "combos" were removed, like yes, he was bad but also he was fun. Right now Im enjoying HOTS because there is less damage and the game is more objective oriented, there is no character like the blue boy, but is fun non the less.

[@AlryFireBlade]

Reasons behind reworks... 1. Make money by selling more of the existing SKins 2. Remove an old unfair Design Champions from the Game (Yorick, Poppy) 3. Try to increase the playerbase of that champion 4. ... 5. Profit The last 2 are something like Aurelion sols first rework. Where it didn't fixed any problems, and just pushed his Mains away.

[@KHfan0011]

It's very depressing how essentially the main character of League is so bad :/

[@Peter-zg3em]

like anything else, it's for money. they want to patch the game up secondarily, mainly they want to sell skins.

[@Dalauan_Sparrow]

true because no money = no game but this comment shouldve been on a video about a character that hasnt gotten patched and reworked 7 million times

[@kogamustard7717]

What will they do? Rework visually a bald blue megamind knock off? How can you make this sell skins​@@Dalauan_Sparrow

[@Setonix1-.-1]

Version 3 ryze was suffering from success, poor guy i loved that version, they should retourn it, doesnt matter he would have 35% winrate, give him personality for fck sake and make him fun to play at least for those 10 people still playing him xd

[@galdorg4996]

no comments? Damn.

[@4dragons632]

I miss version three so badly. 3.5 is just so dull to me compared to the conditional spell flux spread.

[@torri776]

Poppy then: a bruiser with the single best ultimate in the game, but lacked the ability to block dashes, so she was essentially useless without her braindead ultimate. This means that in the current meta of 9999x more CC than in the past, this statchecker version will be weak, possibly even unplayable. She is worse designed than the rework, though. Poppy now: a tank with immense %health damage, has the best anti-dash kit in the game, frontline privilege, and one of the most reliable ultimates in the game either short cast or long cast, both of which can be completely gamebreaking if used correctly. For reference, if Poppy hits her ultimate against an enemy team coming to contest and steal baron, she would single-handedly secure it because at least someone will go packing. I struggle to see how such a broken champ as reworked Poppy is one of the best designed.

[@stellamagdalene3521]

Hwei should have been Ryze's rework but instead of Art and Paint it should have been Runes related.

[@jayhawker8200]

The good Ole college try

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

15th time the charm