New Ryze

Today I want to talk about the changes that have recently gone through with Ryze.  They changed Ryze to have less burst damage but more sustained DPS.  I personally really like the new changes which are as follows:

Ryze

• Overload
  • Cooldown reduced to 3.5 from 11/10/9/8/7
  • Base Damage reduced to 30/55/80/105/130 from 50/90/130/170/210
  • Mana cost changed to 70/70/70/70/70 from 30/65/80/95/110
  • Missile speed increased to 1400 from 1200
  • Ability power ratio decreased to .2 from .45
  • Range increased to 675 from 600
• Rune Prison
  • No longer deals damage per tick and deals 60/95/130/165/200 damage up front (down from 80/120/160/200/240 over the duration)
  • Ability power ratio changed to a flat .6 from .4/.6/.8/1/1.2 (depending on snare duration)
  • Now deals 5% of Ryze's maximum mana in bonus damage
  • Cast range increased to 625 from 600
  • Duration reduced to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 from 1.2/1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4
• Spell flux
  • Ability power ratio per hit reduced to .35 from .38
  • Cooldown increased to 14 from 9
  • Mana cost reduced to 60/75/90/105/120 from 60/80/100/120/140
  • Cast range increased to 675 from 625
  • Base damage reduced to 50/70/90/110/130
• Desperate Power
  • No longer grants ability power but now grants 15% spell vamp
  • Area of effect damage percentage reduced to 50% from 65%
  • Cooldown changed to 70/60/50 from 50/50/50
  • Duration changed to 5/6/7 from 8
  • Now grants a passive 75/150/225 mana
• General
  • Reduced base magic resistance to 30 from 35
  • Fixed a bug where Ryze's base mana regen did not get updated properly during the previous patch's revamp

Some of these look like massive nerfs to him, but because of the mana scaling, he hits very hard.

I'll do a complete write-up for Ryze later since I've been having a lot of fun with him.  His Q is very powerful now.  Early game harassment is very strong with Q spam.  Throw an overlord, run back a bit, immediately run back in and throw another.  Most people don't know about the extremely low CD and will not even think about the lowered CD and will think you won't have it up.

Even though they lowered his "burst" he still has the potential to put out a lot of damage really quickly in fights.  Especially early game he hits very hard.  Q and W create a very potent combo and can easily make someone think twice about running at you.  His E ability, atleast for me, feels lackluster.  In team fights though with your ultimate up it becomes very power.

His ultimate is slightly weaker now, but the additional survivability added by the spell vamp is nice.  I use it mostly to push his ability cooldowns 1 second forward.

Building him is also different.  Mana becomes one of his best stats so what I like to do is pick up Tears and then a Rod of Ages.  Banshee's Veil is also one of his most powerful items.  RoA + Bveil gives him a lot of HP and makes him incredibly tanky for his damage output.

All in all I really like this new Ryze.

How the pineapple f*** do i have 22 assists... oh, Cuddly, ugh...