Malzahar's New "Identity" Is Screwing Him

This new passive he's been given has got to among the top most controversial changes made to a mage in a very long time, and as a Malzahar main, I firmly believe he needs a new primary passive. Damage reduction on a ranged mage who emphasizes zone-control, harass, and single target lockdown who builds mostly AP + HP items does not need this in their kit, as the HP is their source of survivability. The hp recovery on RoA and the newly acquired viability of Hextech Gunblade as an optional niche item that as a mid-laner, only he and Akali can take full advantage of, he is more than geared for survival.

I do agree on the other hand that Malzahar needed some temporary cc immunity, and that should be part of the active portion of his ultimate, as the biggest problem he had was getting knocked out of it and wasting his most damaging spell in the game. How riot managed to fuck up something so simple is beyond me. If you want a mage who gets in your face and deals damage while soaking it all up, we have Swain, who used to be a respectable niche pick before riot sent him to fucktown, brought him back, overbuffed him, and removed the one thing that made counter-sustain possible against him. The only truly positive thing they did for him was change his Q, but I digress.

With all that said, I do not think he needs a damage nerf at all, as he has to work to get that damage going, by which I mean the Voidlings do not come instantly and you rarely get off a sufficient combo if you don't wait for multiple Voidlings to be out, as they are the ones who are going to murder your target. For those of you having trouble laying down the hurt, grab hybrid penetration runes, it improved my farm and overall damage. There's a lot of glaring bugs I see in his kit, like the malefic visions randomly only lasting for a second, or the range they have to jump from one target to another being extremely erratic, with the result typically involving it not jumping onto an enemy champion and snagging myself some harass which the core mechanic behind how the ability was meant to interact.

I really can't think of a new passive to replace his old one, as I certainly enjoy being able to summon Voidlings at will, and his W has made them an integral part of his kit rather than hoping you didn't just pointlessly summon a voidling when Q+E would have been enough to clear that wave in the past. I know there are some die hard Malzahar players out there who presented some pretty interesting ideas before the mage update, so if you have them fresh on you, post them here as riot needs to be brain-slapped across the face and learn how to actually rework a champion.

In the end I just want Malzahar to be what he was always intended to be: a beefy control mage with high farming potential, AoE, and single target lockdown who gets punished for overstepping his mid-ranged casting area. I do not want a beefy mage with high farming potential, AoE, and single target lockdown who for can also reduce the damage of his enemies just by standing around waiting as he jerks off to void hentai.