Top Lane champs dominating Mid Lane Malzahar
I can't compete when they (Nasus, Morde, Olaf, Irelia) come to mid lane. They shield and heal way more than Malzahar can dish out. Mana becomes an issue. Either NERF them or Buff Malzahar's sustain.
11 Comments
Just looked at your recent match history and I'm wondering if you actually know how to play Malzahar effectively.
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Malzahar has very terrible burst, but that's fine because he about wave clear and sustained damage, which is great for pushing structures and securing dragon. Once he gets Rylai's, Liandry's, and/or Morello's, he will win against juggernauts.
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Teleport and Flash > Ignite and Ghost. I dont believe I need to speak for Flash, but as for Teleport, Malzahar is not a burst champion and thus can't get the enemy low enough for Ignite to secure a kill. Teleport helps with his roaming potential as well as his laning phase prior to getting Lost Chapter or a full Manaflow Band. Ghost is an option here as he is highly immobile.
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Can't see runes, but I will just say Sorcery primary, and Domination, Resolve, or Inspiration. Domination provides Ravenous Hunter and Cheap Shot, Resolve provides Demolish and Overgrowth/Second Wind, and Inspiration provides Biscuit Delivery and the potion rune.
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As for items, I can get behind the Sapphire Crystal + Refillable Potion start as his E's mana sustain scales with mana. However, I will suggest to keep Doran's Shield and Doran's Ring in mind as well: both help his E by helping him deal more damage to minions with auto attacks.
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As for your first tier 2 item, Lost Chapter is a must, but don't upgrade it right away. You just want the mana on level up early on, and none of the tier 3 upgrades actually give Malzahar any kind of immediate lower spike.
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For boots I prefer Ionian Boots because while Malz deals a lot of magic damage, I get more utility from reduced CDR.
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For your first tier 3 item, I actually suggest Rylai's unless you are winning hard, in which case go with Morellonomicon or Liandry's based on the enemy team. Rylai's is just great on Malzahar not because it helps him catch anyone, but because it keeps others from catching him. Just use his W and either they will stop to attack the voidling, or the voidling will hit them and slow them down.
Buff a champion with 2 point & clicks and a 90% damage reduction passive.
Aight.
no. neither needs to happen. you need to learn to adapt
Malz isn't supposed to win lane. Your best option is to farm well until you hit 2 or 3 items and actually become a damage threat.
Malz spell shield is a joke. Many of the top laners have shields that regen with QWE, vs Malz shield takes 3 times that amount of time. Also, top laner shields absorb lots of AA damage, Malz spell shield pops with ANY amount of dmg on it. His shield needs to be given some fading CC protection after popping like it used to have. The reality is Malzahar simply cant compete with the likes of Morde, Irelia, Olaf, Nasus, etc in a standard 1 v 1 and these guys are migrating into Mid because they KNOW it.
Your advice, while well intentioned, has several fallacies. Lets start with your advice from 1 and go down the list: .1. Malz will win vs Juggernauts (FALSE). Your advice (see below) suggest to build Rylai as the first 3rd tier item. BUT... It does NOT matter if Malz has Rylai, or Liandry and or Morello. This is because its NOT possible to obtain any first complete item build such as Rylai, Morello or Liandry and have enough MANA soon enough in the game to defeat the Top Lane champs because their ability to absorb damage and heal far exceeds Malzahar's Mana pool. This means that Malz MUST obtain a Mana regen / pool early (ie lost chapter) and only then can he start on Rylai (as suggested by you). So that means Lost Chapter + Rylai. Which means we STILL don't have any item that applies grevious wounds or %HP Damage. And he needs boots to have any hope of being able to land a spell / AA / or get his voidlings close enough to help him farm.
The Mana Items DO NOT build into Liandry or Morello or Rylai. Which means Malz must either SPLIT his build or build a pure mana item first, which delays Morello or Liandry or Rylai ... and BY the time he does finish those items, Nasus, and Tryndamere have already built either spirit or life steal item that counters all the damage Malz can put out until he runs out of mana. So Yes, its true that Liandry and Rylai help... they can't help IN TIME due to the lack of a first tier item Build path that includes Mana that has enough utility to damage the top laners over the long haul. Echo works to build sustain, but it doesn't counter the healing / shielding that the top laners now have. You mention Doran's shield but that just delays the final Mana build. It does help offset the early damage received by other champs, but because of the delay in building a mana pool it hurts the long term chances later game.
.2. Ignite doesn't work on Malz (Partially Agree): I usually run Flash and Ghost, and moved to Ghost and Ignite for the reason that I CAN get a better chance of killing an enemy champ with Ignite when I ult them, or sometimes when they are low. The real problem tho, is that the top lane champs have shields in their Kit, which reduces the chance of ignite working as well has hoped. Mordekaiser, for example seems to constantly have a life saving shield up his sleeve.
.3. Runes: 90% of his dmg comes from the spells. I will say this, Most of the GOOD runes other people can use are fairly difficult to use with Malz, because he can't proc them since he is not going to do a lot of basic attacks. Most runes penalize range, AOE and DOT, and ALL of Malz spells are either AOE, or DOT or Non-Applicable (Voidlings). Therefore he gets the shaft.
.4. Items: As I said, Malz must have mana to be useful for any kind of exchange, without mana he is useless. Its very very annoying how almost every champ never has to leave lane, where as Malz MUST return to base to get some kind of Mana item or he will lose the lane. It doesn't matter what lane (Top / Mid / Bot / Jg).
.5. Lost Chapter is a Must: (100% agree) and this where my argument re: #1 comes into play. Malz HAS to build either lost chapter or the tear which ends up being not as helpful in order to survive. BUT just as you advise, HE CAN"T FREAKING FINISH the item, because now he has to build Rylai for the slow or / Liandry / Morello to get any kind of damage that lasts. Because of that, he "Mana POOL" is STILL too small to last long enough vs Nasus / Tryn etc because they heal and heal and heal and heal. So by the TIME that all happens, they have built a full item, and Malz is now has 2 unfinished items and he simply gets out traded and out sustained.
.6. Boots: Meh, not worth debating. Ionian seems ok, but again... having CDR is meaningless for Malz when he can't use it. (WHY Can't he use it???) Because it simply means he will run out of Mana 10% faster. (I hope that makes sense?)... the cdr is GREAT, but without the MANA pool He can't use it.
.7. Rylai as first item. (AGREED! But, ) If you review my last 20 builds you will see that I usually build Lost Chapter -> Echo or Lost Chapter -> Rylai... Again, this is out of 100% necessity simply because Malz must have mana. Rylai is necessary for Malz but it is NOT good enough. 20% slow just doesn't cut the mustard because there are so many champs that seem to be able to bypass the movement slowing ability of Rylai by using a spell that includes a Dash or Closing mechanic of somekind. Several enemy champs have ults that bypass slow completely.
Calling me out on Jg Malz is meaningless, I almost Never do it. That was a rare exception. I do miss being able to jungle. Its simply very unfair that Malzahar's Voidlings can't tank any damage. It ruins Malz ability do damage.
IF his voidlings did not die instantly, under AOE damage from champs, this would ALSO help his game significantly, and he might be be able to do better against top laners. As it stands, everyone knows all they have to do is wait for Malz to cast the voidlings and then counter with AOE to kill them all in 1 blast. Its basically a total loss at that point because of the CD for the Voidlings and the cost to cast them over and over.
Another issue I have noticed is that his Ultimate power has no Sustain or Scaling like Veigar (Scaling) or other Champs like massive AOE Kat or like Velkoz (True Dmg) that seem to be sooo powerful late game.
Malzahar's relies on his ULT to HOLD someone in place, and with QSS (or similar items ) they simply walk away. And Because QSS CD is much faster than Malz ult CD, it makes his ult almost useless. The fact that EVERY CHAMP CAN AUTOATTACK MALZ (IF IN RANGE) WHILE BEING ULTED BY MALZ is moronic.
So, overall , You points are mostly good, but they don't address Malzahar's issues which are lack of a Build Path that doesn't split his build early while still being able to help counter the excessive healing and shielding of the top laners. You even admit he needs to build lost chapter first, then not finish the build. But that results in a very significant delay in his build... combined with Malzahar's lack of scaling and Juggernauts simply out last and out damage Malz... At the late game stage, Rylai is useless to slow enough. There is NOT enough damage output to stop the tanks. He has NO re-usable CC QWE. Its over.