do malzahar's voidlings have a purpose outside laning phase?

hhaavviikk·Jul 30, 2017·1 votes·434 views

granted I don't play sr and only ARAM and featured game modes but in those game modes his voidlings just feel so useless, with ascension I can pick him and I feel like playing with only 2 abilities pre 6 and 2 abilities post 6 when my ult is on cooldown, it seems like ANYTHING instantly kills off the voidlings, runaans, kassadin E, gragas Q, hell it would be easier to list AOE abilities that don't instantly kill the voidlings.

even when my voidlings do survive because I happen to fight someone who somehow doesn't have AOe which is rare the voidlings seem to tickle them, pitiful damage.

so are the voidlings that weak and useless or am I doing something wrong?

10 Comments

inuitmailmanJul 30, 20171 votes

Do you have your space aids on them?

Jinzo TorranceJul 30, 20171 votes

Voidlings are only useful for doing damage against target who can't kill them (Target you ult or CCed by teammates), outside of that they can tank 1 turret shots for your minions and you can quickly get two of them out by doing Q>W and you can take down turrets extremely fast like that (when the tower focuses your cannon minion spawn them and they'll do a lot of damage to the turret).

They can also block skillshot and dance together with you.

hhaavviikkJul 30, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Cinquino Show,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1rjHk3pv,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2017-07-30T19:48:03.318+0000)

Voidlings are only useful for doing damage against target who can't kill them (Target you ult or CCed by teammates), outside of that they can tank 1 turret shots for you minions and you can quickly get two out by doing Q>E and you can take down turrets extremely fast like that (when the tower focuses you cannon minion spawn them and you'll do a lot of damage to the turret with them also attacking it), they can also block skillshot and dance together with you.

so in summary pushing, with CC and blocking skillshots, though in team fights I don't ever have them survive for longer than 2 seconds even if someone is CC'ed.

I do infest them with aids yes but their AOE tends to instantly kill the voidlings leaving me with just Q and E

Jinzo TorranceJul 30, 20171 votes

Assuming you have 40% CDR your Q will have a 3.6 CD and your E will have 4.2 CD offering you damage even without Voidlings out (with Rylais and Liandry E and Q can chunk people and just zone them from coming near you since they will try to avoid having the E refreshed).

If your Voidlings get blown up very quickly you can still peel for your ADC with ulti and poke and kite with Rylais, though you should still keep spawning Voidlings since they still need to be taken care of by the enemy.

ParoeJul 30, 20171 votes

@thread Like heimer turrets or zyra W, malzahars voidlings are a one-point-wonder. They also, intentionally, die to a single hit from any attack and ability. Most mages in the mid lane (and even top laners) have higher BASE DAMAGE than voidlings have HP.

Depending on the comp youl want item 3116 item 3151 item 3020 item 3165 item 3089 item 3135 Or item 3102 item 3157

Unfortunately because theres no non-mana raw AP 20% CDR item that isnt for auto attackers theres no real way to get 40% CDR on liandries/rylais malzahar. And you CANNOT skip rabadons because you need 500+AP, not 300+.

Youre better off maxing EQ first, because youre going to be farming with E and harassing with Q.

hhaavviikkJul 30, 20171 votes

I definitely max E and Q over W and I can definitely still be useful but it's just that it feels bad that whenever a team fight starts there's no point in me ever using W because they always die, even when it's 2 vs 2 they die to AOE all the time, and it's also that the enemy often doesn't need to target them, it's even worse with runaans, ADC attacks me or the rank or w/e and voidlings auto die, other mages AOE the same deal.

I've tried both builds you suggested but still didn't see the voidlings being useful unfortunately

I've also played zyra and her plants are definitely way more useful than malzahars voidlings and feel more satisfying to use.

AvaristJul 30, 20171 votes

Considering how many of them you can pump out, and how quickly, they are actually very effective at blocking hooks and other annoying skillshots. They also apply your Rylai's and things like that. And as far as their tickling damage goes, it adds up, again very low cooldown and very underrated.

Obviously I don't disagree though, they do die extremely quickly in a teamfight, but that's okay in my opinion, considering how powerful they are in skirmishes, and for cleanup when a fight is coming to a close.

Really your issue stems from the fact you don't play summoners rift. Malzahar in Aram isn't going to really get into many situations where the voidlings will be particularly effective.

ParoeJul 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Considering how many of them you can pump out, and how quickly, they are actually very effective at blocking hooks and other annoying skillshots. They also apply your Rylai's and things like that. And as far as their tickling damage goes, it adds up, again very low cooldown and very underrated.

Obviously I don't disagree though, they do die extremely quickly in a teamfight, but that's okay in my opinion, considering how powerful they are in skirmishes, and for cleanup when a fight is coming to a close.

Really your issue stems from the fact you don't play summoners rift. Malzahar in Aram isn't going to really get into many situations where the voidlings will be particularly effective.

Three. The ability is designed so that you can only have 3 at most. Even with 45% CDR and a seraphs the max you can get is 3 or so actually actively attacking.

AvaristJul 30, 20171 votes

Yes I realise that, but what I am saying is three is more than enough for what it's primarily used for, and the frequency you can re-summon them is pretty great.

hhaavviikkJul 31, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Considering how many of them you can pump out, and how quickly, they are actually very effective at blocking hooks and other annoying skillshots. They also apply your Rylai's and things like that. And as far as their tickling damage goes, it adds up, again very low cooldown and very underrated.

Obviously I don't disagree though, they do die extremely quickly in a teamfight, but that's okay in my opinion, considering how powerful they are in skirmishes, and for cleanup when a fight is coming to a close.

Really your issue stems from the fact you don't play summoners rift. Malzahar in Aram isn't going to really get into many situations where the voidlings will be particularly effective.

so their only real damage use is in skirmishes then? I've been having some problems there as well, for example fought a kassadin and both his E and R instakilled the voidlings so there isn't a purpose to me summoning them there. granted this is still ascension with the upped gold gain so idk if that makes a big difference. It seems it's punishing against those lacking AOE and irrelevant against those with AOE

blocking skillshots is useful yes but that kinda feels boring ya know, if my W exists purely to block skillshots that feels meh

Yeah I figured as much, and ascension is the same as ARAM where it's just team fights all the time so same problem.