Yes, it does, when you can increase damage/survivability more effective by using other items.

For its cost, wardens mail + catalyst would give you more EHP and damage, and if you really wanted to go anti AA, a thornmail also works very well. And for Mana there are better items to grab, or you can finish your archangels earlier, get spell vamp earlier (WoTA actually has the best AP/Gold ratio in the game)

Yeah but you need to consider slot efficiency. If they have a lot of autoattackers, grab a thornmail. If they have a lot of AD casters that are wrecking you, grab a second Frozen Heart/glacial after your core build. Yes wardens + cata gives you more effective hp and damage over a single Frozen Heart (and for cheaper), but you can fit the Frozen Heart into 1 slot, and grab a catalyst as well; FH/glacial + cata > warden mail + cata on Ryze by a long shot, even if it's a second FH/glacial.

:P, while tha tis true, it is the two glacials I was mainly commenting about.

In the end I think its still more effective to get a catalyst then rush Wota

Alright, thanks for the input! I'll try some of these suggestions out next time this occurs =)

building to counter your enemy....heresy

Frozen Heart costs 2775g, and provides 1500g worth of armor and 1000g worth of mana. So it would be semi-cost effective on Ryze.

However, as mentioned Thornmail is EXTREMELY powerful vs AD champs such that it should have been your choice.

Basically you paid 775g for +500 mana, and minus the thornmail effect. Thornmail effect is worth a lot more than the 500 mana, and cheaper too.

You likely already had plenty of health, by getting Odins. A Rod of Ages makes a decent 5th item also, providing a good chunk of mana, high health boost, and some less than useful AP. Will of Ancients is a competing item for that slot if you aren't getting bursted down... it gives you the spell vamp to effectively increase your health.

I often build both Frozen Heart and Glacial Shroud on Ryze in DOM, as it allows me to go 9/9/12 masteries (I hear that a free 40 HP/5 is pretty cool) and still have 40% CDR. After that though you should stop and consider other things though. That's more than enough armour and mana at that point, things like WotA, Haunting Guise, and RoA (it's still cost effective even if it doesn't get full power) are good to round out a Ryze build if you don't need any magic defence.

Going Thornmail on top of that seems excessive unless, for some reason, their ADs are going after the guy with a unavoidable snare and over 200 armour.