u/Far-Falcon1912

First off, I used to be a die-hard follower and advocate of the Desperate Power playstyle — and now it's been faithfully recreated on the classic server.

If you've checked my post history, you'll see I've been pretty obsessed with Ryze's old ultimate, Desperate Power. I've imagined countless times what it would look like if that old ult were brought back into his modern kit — and in my mind, that version would be so, so much better than the current Ryze. But after actually playing the classic server, the feedback I got was pretty clear — I don't think modern Ryze would be better off if his ultimate were reverted to the old Desperate Power. Here's why. To me, modern Ryze's passive essentially does the same thing as his old ultimate. His entire kit already keeps him in a state that feels a lot like Desperate Power — his abilities have built-in AoE, which means he can maintain really strong fighting power even when his ultimate is on cooldown. He doesn't fall off a cliff without it, unlike the old days when you only felt truly powerful while the ult was up.

However, that doesn't mean the old ultimate is strictly worse. The movement speed from Ryze's passive is backloaded — it only kicks in after a full combo. Given his pitifully short range, that delayed speed boost often fails to make a real difference. Old Desperate Power was frontloaded: you press R, you get the speed. That upfront mobility is simply more effective and way easier to use. So, after playing on the classic server, I've taken a fresh look at modern Ryze's kit. Instead of reverting his ultimate, I honestly think what he really needs is a revert of his W. The more I played the classic version, the more I felt that the old W is simply superior and far more irreplaceable than the current one.

Why do the skins on the classic server show up as the modern versions instead of the classic ones? What I mean is, why can't the classic server skins actually be classic — the old versions of the skins, rather than the current ones?

For example, we could try reverting Ryze’s old passive, Q, W or ultimate and port those mechanics over to the current reworked Ryze — tweaks and adjustments like these would be worth testing out.

Honestly speaking, I don’t think the updated Ryze outperforms his old iteration in any meaningful aspect. In fact, it feels to me that the classic Ryze is far more powerful than his modern rework. The current version of Ryze simply isn’t as well-polished and fully realized as the original one.

Yep, the endless debate over old vs. new Ryze is finally going to be put to rest. Once the classic servers drop, we’ll know for good whether the original version is superior, or if the modern iteration is actually the more playable and effective one.

Why would Riot’s designers rather create an item like Actualizer than simply revert Desperate Power? This item is clearly just another version of Desperate Power — and even so, they still refuse to bring back the old ultimate.