The latest League of Legends patch 9.12 once again reworked Ryze. This is probably his sixth, or possibly seventh rework. Chances are most players may have actually lost count. Along with the rework, Sylas has been nerfed with the OP cat Yuumi undergoing changes as well.
According to the development team, when played optimally Ryze is able to cover his weaknesses pretty well. In addition, Ryze benefits from being played by someone from a coordinated team, and because of these characteristics a lot of professional players continue to pick him. Because of this, the development team revealed that they are "chipping away at these strengths to quell his presence there, but at the same time, helping out those who are looking to pick him up and aren't as precise in their combos."
By removing the shield for the Overload skill, it lowered Ryze's survivability, especially when in a bad match-up. In addition, by changing his crowd control from rooting enemies for 0.75 seconds to slowing them by 35% for 1.5 seconds, his gank targets have a better chance of escaping.
The changes introduced also allows Ryze to be chosen by less experienced players. This is why the Spell Flux now automatically bounces off the primary target with the damage done by Realm Warp being scaled.
For Sylas, the approach was different. Despite being a difficult champion to use, Sylas remains to be a high-tier competitive champion. The base damage of Petricite Burst, for example, has been increased from 5-47.5 (levels 1-18) to 9-60 (levels 1-18). The detonation damage of the Chain Lash skill is still scaled, but has been lowered with the detonation AOE being lowered as well. However, the Kingslayer heal has been increased.
Finally there is Yuumi. A number of players have expressed frustration when playing against this champion, since it appears Yuumi has windows of vulnerabilities. It comes as no surprise to know that an increasing number of players are starting to get good at playing Yuumi. According to the development team, they "were pulling some of the mid-patch buffs we gave her at release and nerfing her defenses to open up some weaknesses."
Thus, while the base stats have been increased to 480, Yuumi's Bop N' Block Passive effects were reduced. The mana refund is now 30-160 (level 1-18) with the shield now at 80-300 (+0.30 ability power).
Aside from the major changes done to the three champions, 14 champions also underwent minor nerfs, with 12 others given slight buffs.
A full list of changes with patch 9.12 can be viewed here.
