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Mid Year Mage Updates - Malzahar Direction

RiotRiotRepertoir·2/13/2016, 10:13:50 PM·1 votes·186,649 views

Hi all,

Though we're still a good amount of time from their release, I wanted to put up a quick post about the kinds of things you can expect from the mid season update to Malzahar. To start, I'd like to point out that this will not be an exhaustive list of the exact mechanics changes or numerical changes you can expect to see in the update, as that is all still pending. Instead, I hope that informs interested parties in the kinds of things they can expect to see.

A few weeks back, Statikk put up a post introducing the mages we plan to address in the mid season update. From that post, and a variety of others (usually player created), we've been able to identify a bit more specifically the areas we'd like to work on Malzahar and the kinds of issues we'd like to address for him specifically. The community has been a big reminder to me, and I believe Riot more holistically, that these smaller scale updates cannot take a "one size fits all" approach, and that we need to be cautious about biting off more than we can chew, so to speak.

With that out of the way, let's get into the directional plan for Malzahar, a plan that I hope is fitting to the community's vision for Malzahar, fitting to Riot's vision for Malzahar, and true to coolest and most beloved elements of Malzahar that players enjoy him for. Generally speaking, Malzahar is a relatively low agency champion by virtue of his limited range and mobility. In order for him to succeed as he is on Live, he's balanced around being able to pretty reliably drop a full spell combo on whatever's in front of him and watch them die. We'd like to make it so he doesn't necessarily feel quite so much like a burst champion, but in order to make that happen, we need to give him a bit of breathing room so that it feels like he can comfortably navigate the fast pace game that League of Legends is today.

  • Here's some stuff we're happy with about Malzahar and are unlikely to change:
  • Functions well as a reliable anti-mobility/anti-assassin via Nether Grasp (R).
  • Has really fun/unique farming patterns via Malefic Visions (E).
  • Here's some stuff we're less happy with and are actively trying to resolve:
  • A simple W>E>R is often enough to eliminate or remove enemies, leaving them little opportunity to act outside of not getting into his range.
  • Malzahar is inherently low agency, and is historically balanced in a way that means he forces similarly low agency situations upon opponents.
  • Voidlings are a cool and unique element of the kit that often don't play a large role in his success throughout the game (AD Malz aside).
  • Here's what I hope (these designs are still in progress) will be true of Malzahar following his changes:
  • Malzahar's kit will feel familiar to Malzahar players; he has a lot of cool spells/visuals, and we don't want to change that.
  • Malzahar will feel less like a burst caster to everyone.
  • Malzahar will continue to be low range and low mobility, but he will feel less vulnerable.
  • AP Malzahar players will care about using their Voidlings correctly.
  • AD Malzahar will still be a decent option.
  • Malzahar's kit will have clearer signals for how he could have played better and/or how opponents could have played better against it.
  • Playing Malzahar still won't be a mechanically intense/exhausting experience.

I've got to get going. This was something I decided to do somewhat randomly, so if anything is unclear, please do let me know and I'll try to respond. I'm going to be away for the next several hours, but I'll check in tonight/tomorrow. If anything, I hope this post helps to inform everyone what our perspective on Malzahar is, so if there's anything that seems way off or overly concerning, please do let me know.

Cheers, Repertoir

632 Comments

Malicious Metal2/13/2016, 10:53:51 PM126 votes

Let me just tell you that the way you're handling it just shows how much you guys have grown since you started with the roster updates. The way you're actually assessing which parts of a champion's kit and theme are important to the player base and which ones can be improved is a great way to truly make a perfect rework.

And yet you don't blindly follow the direction some mains would want but instead actually analyze issues of game health and other kinds of things that may be iconic for the character to some degree but simply not supportable in today's League of Legends.

Keep up the good work Repertoir!

Nebuul2/14/2016, 1:45:01 AM41 votes

The TLDR reads like this:

  1. We want Malzahar to be low range/low mobility as he is currently, but not a burst mage anymore so his matchups won't be so binary.
  2. We like his space aids and his hurrrbeam.
  3. We want his voidlings to be effective on AP builds
  4. We want his AD builds to still work

So the very concise TLDR: We're removing his silence and suppression. We're going to give a debuff to his ult so that he should win trades when using it, but it is escapable if the opponent chooses to run out-of-range.

Hellioning2/13/2016, 11:03:07 PM27 votes

Okay, seriously, thank you so so so much for doing this. Please tell me you and your colleagues are doing this for every update, it's absolutely neccesary IMO.

As for Malz specifically: I have no problems with...basically anything you said. The only thing I'm worried about are the stuff about 'signals'. This, to be, sounds like you're either changing his ult to be conditional or just changing it entirely. I really like his ult, so I'm kinda worried there. I do understand the game health issues, but there's just nothing more fun as Malz to have two voidlings attacking someone with all your DoTs on them. Their health just kinda melts.

Homemade Pasta2/13/2016, 11:27:11 PM22 votes

A simple W>E>R is often enough to eliminate or remove enemies, leaving them little opportunity to act outside of not getting into his range.

Doesn't this describe every assassin in the game?

Nefas2/13/2016, 11:00:04 PM18 votes

So:

R to stay E to stay Voidlings to stay

I'm happy.

Honestly, if AD Malz went away but the same voidling-based play style was applied to AP Malz, I would still be satisfied. I play both AD and AP Malz, but its not about the items, its about the voidlings doing tons of damage while you lock people down. Though AP itemization right now doesn't work as well as AD for a Malz-voidling based style.

GhostOnix2/14/2016, 1:14:27 AM13 votes

So with the mage update can we just remove QSS from the game? It'll make for a lot more interesting things where people don't just have no ult because someone decides to use their QSS in the middle of a fight. Really annoying to ult someone and then they just QSS it and I'm stuck doing nothing for the most part...

Retillin2/13/2016, 10:38:14 PM7 votes

Malzahar will continue to be low range and low mobility, but he will feel less vulnerable.

I hope this doesn't mean he'll be a SAFE champion. Kindred/Tahm/ect. are very frustrating to play against. So I hope he'll be "safer" than other mages (if you go that route) but not a "safe champ".

R3p0r7M32/13/2016, 11:12:29 PM7 votes

AD malz ... Riot is so funny sometimes!

Linna Excel2/14/2016, 3:05:16 AM4 votes

a plan that I hope is fitting to the community's vision for Malzahar, fitting to Riot's vision for Malzahar, and true to coolest and most beloved elements of Malzahar that players enjoy him for.

Not a Malhazhar question specifically but how do you personally take on a challenge where maybe rioters and the players don't see eye to eye or where there's disagreement within the players about what a champ is? I've noticed individual champs can have a wide variety of definitions of what this champ means to me.

X8ViEhkPS02/14/2016, 12:07:57 AM4 votes

I'm confused on how Malzahar feels like a burst caster. His kill patterns are so extended, even with his kill combo it still takes time. And in the later stages of the game where he uses his ult for lock down his kill patterns are more focused on his teammates setting up E bounces. Lock down for his Q and W to work.

Typhoid Burrito2/13/2016, 11:15:00 PM2 votes

No. Do not put AD ratios of any kind on Malz. Just make him AP and be done with it.