The Malzahar Paradox
https://streamie.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/img-malzahar-banner.jpg #WARNING, LONG POST. SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR TLDR;#
In league, range is a delicate part of a character that can turn every aspect of their entire kit into an elegant symphony or a disjointed mess. If you hadn't guessed, I'm going to be explaining why Malzahar's kit with relation to his range causes him to be the later.
First, we need to examine what I call the "long range agreement." That is, the weaknesses you accept on a character in exchange for the advantage of range. The closer a character must get to the enemy in order to deal damage, the more able they must be to protect them self. The farther from which a character is capable of threatening enemies, the less able they are to protect them self. Let us consider three champions here:
Fizz is an all in champion who dives deep and heavily risks himself to the enemy team. He has high damage, and in exchange it does not take a lot of damage to kill him compared to most champions. Therefore Fizz's kit affords him multiple fail safes to outplay enemies when he dives. His passive ignores unit collision, his Q gives him a dash for juking, and his E lets him dodge an ability entirely. That Q and E heavily define his all in playstyle and make Fizz the champion he is.
(this is also why it is so toxic when he is able to build tank)
Xerath on the other hand has extremely long range, particularly on his Q and R. He can happily sit at the back of his team, firing off abilities. Due to this, his kit actually decreases his mobility in multiple instances. While charging his Q he slows down. Casting this spell in the face of an enemy is asking to be caught. His ultimate completely roots him, and so must be completely safe from any threats before daring to cast it. He has one hard CC, but the closer an enemy is to him, the shorter the stun duration. Everything about Xerath rewards him for distance with safe high damage, and punishes him for allowing enemies to get close.
Then we have the case of Lissandra, who rides the odd realm in between of the mid-ranged champion. She carries some of the strengths and weaknesses of both close AND long ranged champions. She can poke from afar with her Q and E, and so does not have particularly high defenses. Despite this, she has many close range tools such a snare and a stun. This is the great elegance of Lissandra's kit: She is mildly effective at range, but is encouraged to take risks to maximize her usefulness. She can launch herself into a fight and still defend herself if a melee champion manages to dive her with her aoe and point and click cc. The entire kit is held together by her multipurpose E, which acts both as an engage and disengage tool, AND a long range damaging spell, all of which you must consider against each other when you cast it. Using her E for one effect often means giving up another. Even the safe poke on her Q encourages Lissandra to get close and fire it off of one enemy into another to maximize damage. Every aspect of her kit works together perfectly to create this mid ranged risky playstyle that few other champions have gotten quite right.
Now this brings us back to Malzahar. Let's take a walk through his kit:
#Passive
Malzahar gains a shield that reduces damage and ignores crowd control. As we've seen with edge of night and the old banshee's veil, spell shield effects are great on champions who dive a lot or are easily dived. This passive really encourages him to get close to the enemy team, and prevents enemies who reach him from across a team fight from easily punishing him for getting caught.
#Q This ability has a lot of range, size, and even silences enemies. Its a great way to damage foes from afar and even prevents many champions from activating tools that would help them catch up to him. It is equally effective at all ranges though, so casting on near or far enemies yields the same result.
#W Void Swarm lets Malzahar completely ignore fighting at all while his voidlings do the dirty work. This is his most disengaged ability of all. Once voidlings are on target he can continue to fight at a distance, treating them as a long range spell or even just disengage while the enemy takes passive damage.
#E Sometimes, voidlings are stupid and so you can cast an ability to direct their aggression. The range is shorter than his Q, and so puts him in slightly more danger if he wants to use it normally, but the secondary affect causes it to passively leap whenever the target dies. This means he can cast it on a minion near death and avoid interacting with the enemy at all. He's actually encouraged to cast it like this, as it refunds mana. A very well designed ability for a long ranged champion who must find ways to avoid their foes.
#R His ultimate again has slightly lower range, forcing him to get fairly close to the target he wants to suppress. Malzhar gains GREAT rewards from this skill, locking down a champion and dealing damage to everyone around them. In exchange, he must stand still and risk taking damage or even being knocked out of the ability entirely. Luckily he has a passive that can grant him some forgiveness if he times the ultimate well. In addition, if malzahar makes a mistake during a fight or gets dived at his tower, he can use his ultimate to quickly turn the tide of the fight and punish the champion who managed to reach him. This huge moment of power on his ultimate is a great asset for a mid ranged champion and maximizes a risk reward play style.
#CONCLUSION/TLDR;#
Malazhar's primary abilities reward him for fighting at a distance and make it hard for enemies to reach him, while his passive and ultimate prevent enemies who manage to get close to him from reaping rewards for catching out a ranged target. His kit works together with itself in some places, and in others seems to be patching his intended weaknesses without making his game play more interesting. This leaves Malzahar's kit in a difficult place where it is frustrating to play against and does not provide a clear or rewarding playstyle.
