If you want to dominate the lane and end the game without letting it scale, check out these Ryze counters!
Ryze is one of the hardest champions to master in League of Legends, and due to his low play rate of 1.79% at the time of this article, the chances are that any Ryze you come up against will have invested a lot of time into the Rune Mage.
There are certain champions that Ryze massively struggles against, so if you want an easy lane against him, play one of these top five Ryze counters!
Top 5 Ryze counters: Yasuo
Yasuo is a very good champion against Ryze, primarily due to his W, Wind Wall. His scaling keeps up with Ryze later on in the game. Ryze needs to hit both his E, Spell Flux, and W, Rune Prison, to root Yasuo. W, Wind Wall can block both of these, meaning even if you react to the W, Rune Prison, you can stick on Ryze!
Yasuo’s E, Sweeping Blade, means that he can easily chase Ryze once Ryze’s speed boosts from consuming two runes and activating Phase Rush kick-in.
Ryze loves to kite, and Yasuo can stop him from doing this.
Ryze also loves to shove enemies under the tower, but Yasuo can farm very well under the tower whilst also piling pressure onto Ryze with his Q, Steel Tempest, and ultimate ability, Last Breath combo!
He also scales well alongside his farm, meaning he will be a hard 1v1 for Ryze later on in the game!
Annie
The Dark Child herself is a very difficult matchup for Ryze as she has everything in her kit to match him in lane, alongside a lot stronger team fighting presence. Annie, similar to Ryze, has point-and-click crowd control with her Energized Pyromania passive stunning enemies.
Her large range and mana sustain means that she can safely farm from a distance and avoid any of Ryze’s poke – whilst poking him herself! She can easily zone Ryze off waves with the threat of her stun and ultimate ability, Summon: Tibbers.
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If Ryze does manage to put her behind, she is always useful in a team fight with a potential AOE stun with Summon: Tibbers, and she can always set up a gank if Ryze shoves her in.
These put together, makes Annie one of the strongest Ryze counters.
Akshan
Akshan is a very similar counter to Ryze as Annie is in lane, as he can also out-range Ryze and trade harder than Ryze can. His passive of Dirty Fighting requires three hits to proc, and he can easily get these whilst Ryze is doing his combo.
This weakness is because Ryze doesn’t have a stun, but only a Root, so Akshan can still attack Ryze!
Akshan’s Q, Avengerang, can push waves effectively, especially before Ryze hits level six, to get his Q, Overload damage increased when he levels up his ultimate ability, Realm Warp.
This means Ryze’s plan of shoving in waves and then roaming goes down the drain! This is an important reason that makes Akshan one of the Ryze counters.
A lot of Ryze players tend to push waves in and overextend, and with Akshan’s W, Going Rogue, he can punish these kinds of greedy Ryze players! He can also chase the speedy rune mage with his E, Heroic Swing, so kills are guaranteed!
Anivia
Ryze and Anivia are very similar champions as they both need to get to level six before they come online and can properly push waves and farm, but Anivia makes it very difficult for Ryze to push the wave or have kill pressure after this.
Anivia is also one of the solid Ryze counters.
Anivia can use her W, Crystallize, to make a wall to block Ryze from chasing her. This is Ryze’s weakness, as he has speed boosts but no dashes, so he still has to run around the wall.
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This, combined with Anivia’s stun from her Q, Flashfrost, and slow from her ultimate ability, Glacial Storm, means that by the time Ryze gets around, his root will have worn off!
Anivia can also push faster than Ryze for most of the game with her Glacial Storm and then safely back off without having to overextend in lane.
Ryze also relies on his full combo to burst down Anivia, but with her passive, Rebirth, he has to kill her twice, which can be hard early on before Ryze gets items!
Viktor
Viktor is the final champion on this list of Ryze counters, and he is one of the hardest for Ryze to play against. This is similar to Anivia in the sense that the Arcane star has more range than Ryze with his E, Death Ray, and can zone Ryze off with his W, Gravity Field.
He also has a built-in speed boost and shield with his Q, Siphon Power, meaning he can poke then escape from Ryze before Ryze can get his full combo off on the cyborg.
Viktor scales almost as well as Ryze does, and he can do most of his damage instantly and from a safe distance, unlike Ryze, who has to stay chasing his enemies constantly, especially if he doesn’t have much Magic Penetration!
So that is our list for the best five counters to pick against Ryze in the Mid lane, and whilst these five should make your time against the rework king a lot easier, there are other champions that can do it too!
A good Ryze will always find time to farm and roam, so make sure you keep an eye on him later on in the game!
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