Ryze is struggling like never before in solo queue on League of Legends patch 11.10 due to the recent nerfs made to Phase Rush.
The most recent patch has already taken its toll on Ryze, even though the Rune Mage didn’t receive any direct nerfs. Instead, Riot chose to nerf the Phase Rush keystone by adding a longer early-game cooldown and decreasing the bonus movement speed from the rune. This has hurt Ryze a lot, as he has been an avid user of Phase Rush for a long time.
Is Ryze good in LoL?
Even before patch 11.10, Ryze was in a tough spot with low win rates in both the top and mid lanes. The nerfs to Phase Rush have only made this problem worse, putting Ryze at a horrible 42.36% win rate in the top lane and 44.22% in mid. This makes Ryze the lowest win-rate champion in the game and leaves Ryze players with little to no reason to play him in solo queue.
Despite Phase Rush being significantly weaker than before, it’s still the go-to keystone on Ryze. The reason for this is that Ryze relies a lot on quick combos that can trigger Phase Rush easily. As an immobile mage, Ryze needs the extra movement speed to stay out of trouble and complete favorable trades. With the longer cooldown to Phase Rush in the early game, Ryze now has to pick his fights even more carefully as Phase Rush won’t be able to save him as often anymore.
Lillia struggling like Ryze after Phase Rush nerf
Ryze isn’t the only champion heavily affected by the Phase Rush nerf. Another champion that has taken a big hit is Lillia, who is currently winning just 43.69% of all games played at Platinum rank and higher. These numbers are very low for the popular jungler, who has been a solid meta pick for the majority of patches since her release in July 2020.
Just like Ryze, Lillia depends a lot on the movement speed given by Phase Rush. As a squishy melee jungler, Lillia wants to hit her combo and then kite enemies around with the help of Phase Rush and the passive on Blooming Blows (Q).
With Phase Rush being weak right now, most players have started to run the Dark Harvest keystone instead on Lillia. While this keystone is strong, Lillia players are likely missing the times when Phase Rush was the more viable option for the champion.
It’s still unknown how Riot will handle the weak state of both Ryze and Lillia, but it’s expected that these champions will see some buffs during upcoming patches.
Source: https://win.gg/news/8118/phase-rush-nerf-puts-ryze-at-lowest-the-win-rate-in-league
