Can we talk about Malzahar?

So, worlds are well under way. Seen a lot of picks and bans. A lot of them confirm what people think about balance. A few of them contradict them. But there's one champion who's clearly missing:

http://i.imgur.com/x9XMd6z.jpg

Now, a lot of champions are missing, of course. "Only" 47% of the champions have either been picked or banned. Yet Malzahar has the unique distinction of having a goddam 53.5% win rate. Mind you, the top 5 winrates all have this issue: Amumu, Lux, Rammus, Malzahar and Garen. All 5 top win rates, yet invisible in worlds so far. But why is that? What do they have in common? Well, they suffer from what I like to call pubstomper syndrome. They have very strong abilities and will completely smash teams with no coordination or who don't know what they're doing. But put them up against someone with even a remote idea of what they're supposed to do and they're shut down completely. These champions rely on their opponents making mistakes to win. This is not to be confused with champions who are really good in the same conditions, but balanced when people know what they're doing, such as Veigar or Ahri. No, true "pubstompers" become harder and harder to use as you climb up the skill ladders, until they become clearly inferior.

All 5 champions I named need help, but I'm going to concentrate on Malzahar since he's my favorite champion and I know him better. So, what's wrong with Malzahar? He seems to have a lot of strengths: Massive damage, great pushing potential through his voidlings and his E, mana regen on his E, an AoE silence, massive range and a 2.5 seconds long suppression effect which deals monumental damage. What could possibly be wrong with him? Well...

He has no mobility

Malzahar is the least mobile piece of shit this game has ever seen. Low movement speed, no mobility abilities and his only CC forces him to stand in place, meaning he can't use it to stop pursuers. This means it's really, really easy to gank him or focus him down during team fights. Any "escape" Malz has will either come through summoner spells or items. This is especially egregious in his laning phase, as his playstyle means you should be aggressive and using Malefic Visions to shove, but doing so means you push into the enemy tower, leaving you vulnerable to ganks, to which Malzahar is extremely vulnerable in the first place.

His voidlings are nigh useless

When they're not running in circles in front of the enemy waiting to get auto-attacked to death so they can give them gold, they're giving away your position or worse:

http://orig03.deviantart.net/2ddd/f/2011/208/4/d/run_malzahar_by_tekkanomaki_chan-d41tllm.gif

Also, they don't do much damage because someone decided they should scale with Malz's bonus AD of all things, and they tend to get confused and run in circles instead of targeting something relevant. Also, even if you try to use them against towers, the towers prioritize them and kill them in three hits before they have time to scale. Never mind how unreliable they are since you need to stack your passive to get them.

His W is nigh useless

It deals immense magic damage based on %max HP. However, it has a long cooldown, it's relatively small and unless someone gets CC'd in it, it's unlikely to do more than about 150 damage late game.

His Q is too difficult to land

This is especially true with high mobility champions. Mind you, it's AoE, it does massive damage AND it silences for a whole goddam 3 seconds. However, it can't be used to poke because of that. In a team fight, it's only really good after the initiation if you can aim it on a bunch of opponents while they're busy fighting your teammates. But smart opponents will jump you first and you'll be unable to do anything anyway.

His ult is too easy to cancel in team fights

"Well, Warwick's ult is just as easy to cancel!" you say. Well, Warwick's does its damage over 1.5 seconds. Malz's needs 2.5. Also, Warwick's ult has a lower cooldown. Oh, and it heals him so focusing him during his ult isn't as effective. Never mind that there's a reason Warwick isn't seen at worlds either. Either way, Malzahar relies on his ult to really take advantage of his W, meaning if his ult is unreliable, he can't use his W. I mean ANYTHING can cancel his ult, from stuns to fears to knockbacks to pulls to knock ups to silences. But it's not enough so the devs put in an item which can be used to cancel the CC effect on it. And that item gives MR and can be upgraded to also give attack damage.

His mana costs are too high

Despite the mana return on his E, Malzahar is extremely mana inefficient. Go look at his mana costs if you don't believe me. And this is a character who's supposed to spam spells so he can take advantage of his passive. Hell, the mana return on his E doesn't refund itself unless it procs 6 times.

His only reliable spell, Malefic Visions (his E) is actually pretty weak

It deals 320 + 0.8AP magic damage at rank 5. Now, that's fairly high, mind you. If you get 600 AP (which you should if you get a full build on him), that's 800 magic damage. Ouch, right? Except not. It has a 7 seconds cooldown and it has to deal this damage over 4 seconds. Also, it costs 120 mana. Let's take 3 other champions' "bread and butter" damage spells at the same rank and AP and compare. Ziggs' Q deals 645 magic damage in an area, has a 4 seconds cooldown, longer range and costs 70 mana. And it's instant. Syndra's Q deals 678.5 magic damage in an area, has a 4 seconds cooldown and costs 80 mana. And it's instant. Vladimir's Q deals 590 damage, is on a 4 seconds cooldown, doesn't cost anything AND it heals him for 205. And it's instant.

Considering its cooldown, Malefic Vision does not deal much more damage than what other mages have access to, but it's a single target spell AND its nature as a DoT means it's easy to heal, shield or lifesteal through it. This would be fine if Malzahar's other spells were more reliable, but they aren't. Call of the Void is very difficult to land unless you have teammates setting it up for you. Null Zone will not damage anyone who's not CC'd in some way. Nether Grasp gets cancelled almost instantly during team fights. Malefic Visions is what Malzahar is left with and it's inferior to what other champions have to offer.

So, what can be done? To be honest, I'm not sure. The only thing which can be straight up buffed are his voidlings. Buffing his other abilities wouldn't help: It's not their numbers which are weak, its their mechanics. Trying to make them more reliable would also be a mistake.. Doing that would only be acceptable if you nerf his numbers, and nerfing his number would likely not make him viable at high levels while destroying him at lower levels. As said, I'm not sure what can be done, however, making this thread, I'm hoping some people can come up with relevant suggestions.

Final word:

I think Malzahar is really a victim of the mobility creep. As champions become more mobile, not only do they dodge his abilities with greater ease, but they also become superior to him by the virtue that he doesn't have mobility.