LoL is a game which does ease you into the flow alot more, yet can still seem daunting to early players. I hope this guide may help some new users.

Ryze is a hero very much built upon the fact that he can eliminate an enemy quickly, and harass successfully. Some people try to play him as more of a lane holder/support character but there are hero's far more suited to playing that role, so this guide will be built around the first ideal.

Abilities

Here is a brief overview of Ryze's abilities:


Overload (Active): Ryze unleashes a terrifying energy blast of lightning at a single enemy unit.



Arcane Mastery (Toggle): Permanently increases mana pool, and causes attacks to deal magic damage.



Rune Prison (Active): Binds the target with sealing runes, prohibiting movement and attacks, and dealing damage. 



Spell Flux (Active): Releases an orb of pure energy at a target. The orb bounces from the initial target and
continues through 6 bounces. Each bounce which lands upon an enemy deals damage.

Desperate Power (Passive): While Ryze's health is below 40%, his ability power is increased. 



In the next section I am going to go over the thing's you'll want to sort out before you join the queue.

Summoner Spells
There are many skill combinations that benefit Ryze, and it mostly depends upon the player's preference. I am
going to list the ones which are beneficial, and why.

Teleport: A brilliant spell to have. It means that in early game you can minimize shopping to time to gain as 
much XP, and in late game, it means that you can swap lanes effectively for ganking, or pushing.

Flash: Ryze is not a high hp hero, and therefore sometimes will need to escape quickly. flash is one of the options
in this situation. It is best to escape from a caster, and can be used very effectively, for example, when about to 
be ganked in a lane, you can flash through the trees on the edge of the lane, into the jungle, meaning any character 
would have to walk around to catch you.

Exhaust: This skill is best to escape a melee character. The first effect of blinding means that you will take no damage
from their attacks, and the 40% slow means that you will have time to put distance between you and them.

Ghost: This is a dual use spell. The first is similar to above, where you can use it to put distance between you and a 
melee character. The second is to chase down an enemy. This makes this a more useful skill that exhaust in my opinion.

I advise against taking other spells such as heal, clairvoyance or promote. These are best left to support characters that 
won't be going after kills, or being near death as much as you will.

Summoner Mastery 9/0/21

This is a well known "cookie cutter" style build that works fantastically well on Ryze.

Offense: My top row consists of 3/3 Deadliness and 1/3 Archmage's Savvy, but you can swap out the Archmage's Savvy 
for Cripple if you have chosen Exhaust as a summoner spell.
The must-have choices after this are 4/4 Sorcery and then 1/1 Archaic Knowledge.

Defense: We spend no points here as it makes it impossible to reach both the bottom of Utility and Archaic Knowledge in Offense.

Utility: In the top row I take 1/1 Spatial Accuracy to improve my teleport, 3/3 Good Hands to reduce my time spent dead and
3/3 Perseverance. In this row you'll want to take the improved Ghost if you are taking that particular skill. If you are taking 
Teleport and Ghost, then take both the improves and take a point out of Perseverance. Now take 4/4 Expanded Mind in Tier 2,
3/3 Meditation in Tier 3, 3/3 Quickness in Tier 4, 3/3 Intelligence in Tier 5 and 1/1 Presence of the Master in the final tier. 
The improve for flash is essentially useless compared to its surrounding skills, so I advise not to take it.

Rune Book 
There are many ways of using the runebook, but I would like to focus on the runes which I take, with note of the other options.

Red: Greater Mark of Malice +0.93% crit chance x 9 = +8.3% crit chance.

Yellow: Greater Seal of Vitality +20.34 hp at level 18 x 9 = +182 hp at level 18.

Blue: Greater Glyph of Insight +0.83 Magic Penetration x 9 = +7.47 Magic Penetration.

Quintessence: Greater Quintessence of Fortitude x 2 + Greater Quintessence of Insight = 81 hp and 1.67 Magic Penetration.

Totals: +8.3% crit chance, +9.1 Magic Penetration, +81 hp constant, +182 hp at 18.

Overview: This build focuses on using each of the sections specialities to gain the most from using them. In the red section I have gone for crit chance; this rune is one of the most effective in this section compared to others which people suggest, for example the ability power runes add only ~9 AP which is nothing compared to the crit chance.

I've used Vitality in the yellow as it is the slot in which it is most effective. Ryze is a low hp hero and as this slot is poor at attacking runes, this makes the most sense.

In the blue section I have chosen Magic Penetration runes as each unit of penetration effectively increases your damage by 1%. I used one insight quintessence to increase my Magic Penetration to just below the diminishing returns value, and the others  are Fortitude to increase my early game survival; this is important as Ryze is a very good hero to harass early, and even get kills. More on that in the game play section.

Hero Abilities

This is a very important gameplay, and could change your game. I am not going to set a rigid sequence of skills as some 
are more useful that others in certian situations.
The first skill you choose should be Rune Prison. This is a very useful spell for early harassing. You should then take Overload, 
as a followup attack when you Rune Prison someone. Take Rune Prison again. Here you have a choice of preference, 
some games I like to take Arcane Mastery here, as an early boost to your mana, to stay in your lane longer, and to increase 
your damage to make last hitting even easier. The other option would be Overload if you think you could have a chance at an 
early kill, and want extra damage on the nuke. You will then ding 5, and choose Rune prison. After that it's pretty much get your 
ultimate, then level in the priority: Ultimate, rune prison, overload and then arcane mastery. The order should be something like:

1) E - Rune Prison
2) Q - Overload
3) E - Rune Prison
4) Q/W - Overload/Arcane Mastery 
5) E - Rune Prison
6) R - Spell Flux
7) E - Rune Prison
8) Q - Overload
9) E - Rune Prison
10) Q - Overload
11) R - Spell Flux
12) Q - Overload
13) Q/W - Overload/Arcane Mastery
14) W - Arcane Mastery
15) W - Arcane Mastery
16) R - Spell Flux
17) W - Arcane Mastery
18) W - Arcane Mastery

Item Build

My first and favourite item build depends upon early killing and being able to last shot creeps well, if you think this isn't for 
you then go for the second:

1)Sorc Boots - Start with a purchase of the AP book.

2)Mejai's Soulstealer - This is where you'll get your AP boost early game from. Start with whichever piece you can afford when 
you have to blue pill.

3)Zhonya's Ring - This again will give a massive AP boost, which is all you need as Ryze.

4)Rod of Ages - start with the Catalyst the Protector, as other heroes will start to try to counter gank you. This gives a nice 
boost of AP too.

5)Archangels Staff - Gives you more mana and mana regen for continued fights, and the passive gives you more AP.

6)Guardian Angel - I like to buy this if the game is dragging on to have a bit of fun. The armor + magic resistance will give 
you a lot more survivability while the passive (Revives your Champion upon death, restoring 50% of their Health and Mana, 
this effect can only occur once every 5 minutes) can really catch the enemy off guard.

The more new hero approach:

1)Sorc Boots - Start with a purchase of the AP book.
2)Lich Bane - Make sheen first.
3)Archangels Staff.
4) Zhonya's Ring.
5+6) What you feel you need.

Game Play

At first you need to buy the AP tome to start making your Sorc Boots.

There are two ways of starting off the game. One is very offensive, and the other more defensive. This method works 
best if you have a friend playing with you, or you can grab a lane partner who will listen. You should buy asap, and run 
into the bushes in the top or bottom lane; making sure you are the furthest toward the opposing turret as possible. 
Around two thirds of the time the opposing hero will run past you and your partner, either to try a similar trick or to just 
stand in the middle. You can now pounce, using your trusty first skill Rune Prison to hold the hero in place while you and 
your partner keep up the damage. 1) They may get away really quickly, taking no damage, in which case they will now play 
really defensively. 2) They make nearly die, and have to blue pill, giving you a free lane for that time, or 3) You will get an 
early kill and everyone will chuckle (not likely unless the player is terrible or you're playing with a partner who also has a stun.)

The other way to start is to get a lane to yourself, and just stay behind your minions, last shotting as much as possible to earn 
as much XP and gold as possible, while also throwing in a few rune prison + overload combo's at the opposition to harass. As you 
get to around 500 gold you can blue pill and buy your sorc boots. This helps you avoid getting ganked as you now have the movement 
speed mastery and your boots. If you chose teleport, get back to your lane asap to keep the gold/xp flowing.

You should now just play safe and keep earning your XP and gold. As you get to level 6 you should buy whichever part of the 
Mejai's you can afford, and teleport into another lane for an early lane clear with your ulti, and return to your lane asap.

Now you should follow the basics of playing LoL, defend your lane, harass when possible, and when called, assist in ganks. 
Whenever your teleport is up you should use it to do a quick shop.

There are several nice game play tips with Ryze that will help you to succeed. Firstly, rune prison can be used for nukes, but also 
make sure you have it up if you need to get away from someone, and don't forget you can still be attacked while they are inside it. 
It is very good to use if someone plans to attack you inside the range of your turret. Stick them inside the range and watch them get nuked.

Also, you need to know when to use your ultimate. Do not use it when there are alot of minions around, as it will be a waste of the 
bounces. The best time to use it is against two enemy heroes, as it will only bounce between them, doing huge damage. Other times 
it is useful is if you are in a 1on1 and start to fall behind on the damage, your ultimate will bounce between yourself and them, and you 
will stay alive.

Another handy tip is using the map to your advantage. For example if you're being pushed back to your turret by an enemy on around 
half health, look like you are running back, but instead go through the jungle, to the river, and appear behind them. They won't be able
to run toward the turret, and you can rune prison and dispose of them quickly. Little things like thinking about your position like this can 
change your game.

Conclusion

I hope this helps players who want to play an exciting character, or have been struggling playing Ryze in the past. Please post any feedback, 
I'll be happy to hear it, and so will anyone else who wants to read this guide.