Out of the 136 champions that have joined the League to battle it out on the Summoner’s Rift, there is no other champion that’s like Ryze. As one of the very first champions to be released, he has received countless minor balancing updates as well as 2 major updates that have reworked his entire kit. In some ways, 3 different champions have carried the name, Ryze, with similar yet different playstyles.

However, there is a good explanation for that. Ryze has been well-loved by casual and professional gamers alike, as he is one of the oldest champions. Over the long period of time that Ryze has been out for, he has been adjusted multiple times to fit into the meta in the direction Riot wanted; especially since in the past, there were many moments when he was considered overpowered by many.

Right now, Ryze is in a different situation. Since the start of 2017, Ryze constantly received nerfs after nerfs, and now, players are considering him to be weak and unplayable. There are also statistics online that prove this point further. In the North American server, Ryze sits with a winrate of 40.2%. Literally being the champion with the lowest winrate out of all 136 champions. The only ranked tier that Ryze isn’t the last place is Diamond. But even then, he still has the 2nd lowest winrate there, only besting Garen.

Now, let’s look at all the updates Ryze received this year:

Patch 7.1:
Q - Overload -‘Overload’ shield and movement speed buff reduced

Patch 7.4:
E - Spell Flux - Q bonus damage against Flux’d target reduced

Patch 7.5:
W- Rune Prison - Base root duration reduced
E- Spell Flux - Skill cooldown during the early levels increased.

Patch 7.9:
The in-game item, Adaptive Helm, which reduces the magic damage from repeated use of the same skill is added to the game. Due to Ryze’s kit and playstyle, this item indirectly nerfed Ryze’s capability of damaging tanks.

Ryze was a great champion in 2016. But as the year 2017 came around, Ryze started suffering from multiple nerfs starting from patch 7.1.

In pro play, Ryze’s ultimate skill, ‘Realm Warp’, can be used flexibly and can either make or break a game. He can thrive in a competitive environment due to all the communication that exists there. But in ranked games, whether it is solo queue or flex queue, such luxury does not exist, keeping Ryze inconsistent.

Looking into champions with high winrates, on average, the highest winrate reached is around 54%. If we categorize “Balanced” champions by their winrates, 50% should be our goal, making those champions about 4% off the desired rate. But Ryze sits nearly at 40%, with some tiers being even lower than that. Some professional players are even predicting yet another rework to happen in the future for Ryze. If that’s the case, Ryze will end up with more reworks than the number of skins that Yorick has.

It is true that balancing is difficult on a 'MOBA' game, especially if the game bolsters 136 champions with a countless amount of items. But looking at the state of some champions, I truly think Riot needs to once again focus mainly on the balancing issues of the champions.

To finish it off, I used Ryze as the main example, as he is currently having the biggest problems. However, he isn’t the only victim to the said issues, and there may be more champions with similar problems in the future.