For over 12 years of League of Legends history, Ryze can be considered one of the most important champions both in terms of gameplay and lore. In cinematic videos, Riot portrays Ryze as a “superman” defending the continent of Runeterra. Gameplay-wise, Ryze exemplifies the poor balance of champions as this character has been reworked numerous times yet always faces complaints about his power.
Most recently, as Ryze’s power and win rate hit rock bottom, Riot continued to mistreat this character by introducing an extremely minor buff. If you didn’t know, Ryze currently has a win rate of around 40-42%, a number far too low compared to other champions. However, instead of a comprehensive buff, Riot only slightly increased the power of his E ability – Spell Flux in the upcoming patch 12.11.
As soon as the news about patch 12.11 was announced by Riot, it immediately incited anger and backlash from players. They even stated that the way Riot has treated Ryze has shifted from tragedy to farce. The complaint post below was shared on the League of Legends Reddit forum and quickly garnered nearly 5,000 upvotes, receiving enthusiastic support from the community.
As mentioned in the complaint post above, what frustrates players the most is that Riot has simplified Ryze’s gameplay rather than addressing champion power. Essentially, Ryze currently has almost only one damage combo, which is E followed by Q. Sometimes you might use W in conjunction with E to snare opponents, but most of the time, the E-Q combo is what Ryze players execute. Clearly, for a League of Legends player, playing a champion with just two buttons is not exciting at all.
Therefore, many have thought it might be time for Riot to rework Ryze’s skill set (once again) as they have ruined this champion. However, whatever happens to Ryze in the future, he will likely remain a testament in League of Legends history to the terrible balance of champions by Riot.