@Riot, Mid-Year Mage Update Malzahar Suggestion

Ironclad Dragon·Jan 22, 2016·33 votes·5,829 views

http://orig00.deviantart.net/9274/f/2013/131/3/8/malzahar_by_ragingmarshmellow-d64vnuo.png Riot, could you consider giving some special visual tastiness to Malzahar?

I find it disappointing that Malzahar, prophet of an inevitable doom from an eldritch realm, doesn't actually give you malefic visions, i.e. change what you see. Illaoi does a better job of sending you into an alternate world full of monsters trying to kill you. I mean, you don't have to shape his kit around that concept, but could you actually consider making Malefic Visions visually interesting and cohesive with Malz's lore as prophet of the Void?

20 Comments

LaoBushidoJan 22, 201610 votes

This seems more like a visual thing you want, kinda like adding the vessel watery effect to his e target? From a gameplay perspective Meddler said in a post that malz's main issue is a lack of counter play so I would assume they aren't playing on adding more utility than it has now.

On a personal note I think it does a good job with lore perspective I view it like this you head is filled with dark thought of the soon destruction of the world from the void cause you immense pain and these thought spread from you to everyone who come in contact with you cause creatures from the void to be attracted to you.

AshranReaverJan 22, 20165 votes

I really don't get the lack of counter play thing tbh.

If you want to counter malz: Pick

An assassin
A burst champ
A poke champ
Any Champ with hard CC
A zone champ Build
Banshees veil
QSS or Mercs
Steraks 4.Deaths Dance
MR
Health
Damage Do
Burst him down
Go with at least one other person
Realize he's an easy kill and kill him in team fights.
CC him and ignore

LaoBushidoJan 22, 20167 votes

no no you misunderstand, his kit inherently has not counter play, that's healthy, like qss for example an item that must be build to counter this one champ that is a problem, that fact the one e can out trade you that is a problem

{quoted}

Malz - More game health issues than anything else. Counterplay's not great in particular, with Malz needing to just click on you and kill you given his squishiness, immobility, lack of reach, vulnerability to item system counters. Has a lot of distinctive stuff going on though.

AshranReaverJan 22, 20163 votes

Compared to the pentatkill on demand assassins, rengar, zed, yasuo, katarina, Mastery YI, Darius, fizz and so many others It just feels silly that people think that. There's so many counters and its not like hes the only champ with suppression and while using it he is helpless.

KaisadiIIaJan 23, 20166 votes

You are missing the point. Counterplayability has nothing to do with power.

EfficientDynamoJan 23, 20163 votes

But he does have counterplay, in part because of his long cooldowns and large mana costs. Yes he does have two strong point and click abilities, but in lane you need his E to waveclear and his ult becomes very dangerous to use unless you are in a 1v1. if he misses his combo or isn't able to burst you he is a sitting duck.

LaoBushidoJan 23, 20161 votes

Cdr can be build his e offsets his mana issue he has. The laning phase is arguably the longest part of the game as such riot has to plan for that. Also riot assumes that people in question knows how to play on a high or intermediate level. In this case that means no missing you combo components and not ulting in a 2+v1

EfficientDynamoJan 24, 20162 votes

Yes, but realistically most Malz mains will opt for a RoA rather than CDR, and if you don't have a minion wave to E off of you can go oom even at full build. And since you brought up his E, the original point I was responding to spoke to his large mana costs. If he uses his E on you, he won't be able to get the mana refund. So Malz in lane must instead E the minions and hope you are foolish enough to get close to an infected minion as it dies.

As for the level of experience, you definitely can miss your Q in the League of Mobility, and the very fact that using your ult in a teamfight is so dangerous is a component of his counterplay. He can't safely ult except under specific circumstances (either he is protected enough or he is in a 1v1).

I'm not saying he isn't powerful, because he is. But it isn't accurate to say he has no counterplay. Just not as much of the sort of counterplay that is easiest to recognize for most people, e.g. dodging skillshots.

Silverlight128Jan 22, 20165 votes

Malahar main here!

Disagree with you on some of these:

Malzahar does best vs assasin champions since he can just ult and stop all of there damage. His best lanes are vs fizz, zed, yasuo, diana, ahri, etc.

QSS should be bought on engage tanks and bruisers who have a chance of getting to him. Buying it early on assasins and other champs delay their damage and malz can just ult someone else and let his team deal with the Qss buyers. Hexdrinker can be good though.

The best champ to play against malzahar while laning is Lux. Malz is weak to those who outrange him and lux specifically can shield just about all of his e off. Ziggs Xerath Morg Ori also work well.

Best champs to play vs him later game are: Olaf, Malphite, Gangplank, Lux. Basically avoid his ult, or kill him before he can react.

Malz gets a lot of his strength from landing his 3 sec silence on multiple members in team fights, so avoid grouping and prioritize dodging it.

A good malz will know how to stay behind his front line and when to ult safely, and will typically ult their front line as extra peel for himself and the adc. Basically you need to commit pretty hard to killing malz and interuping his ult since it can be really tough when played correctly.

AshranReaverJan 23, 20161 votes

The funny thing is almost everything you said is just about the ult. If they have someone who tanks turret aggro, you're done with laning phase, have uncoordinated teams or someone is out of position or you get flanked all of that goes out the window. I just feel like the ult is good but not great. If it was replaced with something like a morg binding that would be more in character. He's more of a zone mage that does high damage and spams his spells but his ult just lacks that feeling.

He's one of my primary champs and I can play him in every role to success but I feel the ult is what makes why his potential is so limited.<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qkG8eKw_RWE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Meep ManJan 22, 20166 votes

Given the how often Malzahar can use the spell on you, giving it any glaring visual sight changes would make it incredibly annoying. Imagine every 8-10 seconds, 4 of those seconds being with Malefic Visions on you, your entire screen is just purple tinted or has some distracting outline.

I do think Malefic Visions would be cool as another Curse spell (similar to Illaoi's E) that, instead of a DoT, makes the enemy champion forced to play differently for a little why that could put them at a serious disadvantage. I always liked the fact that Voidlings prioritize targets with Malefic Visions on them so it would be cool if Malefic Visions was harder to apply than just a click, but made the target have to endure, perhaps, a legion of Voidlings for a little bit rather than take intense DoT damage.

Ironclad DragonJan 23, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Inept Maverick,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ANPRnfVE,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-01-22T15:18:16.459+0000) I do think Malefic Visions would be cool as another Curse spell (similar to Illaoi's E) that, instead of a DoT, makes the enemy champion forced to play differently for a little why that could put them at a serious disadvantage. I always liked the fact that Voidlings prioritize targets with Malefic Visions on them so it would be cool if Malefic Visions was harder to apply than just a click, but made the target have to endure, perhaps, a legion of Voidlings for a little bit rather than take intense DoT damage.

Basically this. I want this.

SrlqulongtardJan 22, 20165 votes

I've been playing malzahar since I was lv 8 and I love that hes a mage that also can be played as ad. Maybe an idea for a rework would be to make him more of a hybrid mage with new ways of making use of his voidlings. Something like every 3 -6 minion kills you spawn a voidling, champion kills spawn voidlings, ect just to really make him feel like the pokemon master of league. I know alot of people have an issue with his ult (even though i love being able to make 1 person unable to play league for the nxt 3 seconds) so maybe make it something like a tether that slows the target and voidlings just start spawning like crazy when the ult is being used. malzahar always felt like the type of champion who never gets his hands dirty so making his kit utilize the voidlings more would be a really cool rework.

Karma DeifiedJan 22, 20164 votes

Just have some dark sounding whispers audible only to the afflicted enemy.

SpoofghoulJan 22, 20166 votes

malefic (h)ear(ing) aids

ZombieAlpacaLipsJan 23, 20163 votes

I like the visual addition idea to malefic visions, would give him a little texture.

If they want to change him to allow more counterplay, maybe do something along this route: reduce the damage done by malefic visions as a dot(or even remove the damage entirely), but casting it always spawns a voidling, when it jumps between targets, spawns a voidling. This would change his play, so instead of "Point-click-damage" , you could counter play by denying farm so he can't spawn voidlings, or by killing them once they spawn. It would also make AD malz stronger/AP weaker. Could still have his lockdown ult, but without voidlings spawned, it won't hurt much (no more: Point, click, delete).

Just an idea, no idea how numbers would play out, just a concept. Prophet of the void, summons waves of voidlings from minions he's driven mad/killed/converted, they surge and tear apart his foes...

AuroramancerJan 23, 20161 votes

IMO as a former Malzahar main, I find that Malzahar's greatest thematic strengths, represented in his kit, are Voidlings and Malefic Visions.

In tandem with your suggestion for Malefic Visions to be more accentuated, I feel Riot needs to do some work for Voidlings, more in the regard of how they are spawned.

I'd honestly like to see Call of the Void's silence to be replaced by a Voidling summon (or 2 Voidlings maybe, one from each portal?), so that Voidling summons are on-demand and not inconvenient or untimely in their spawn nature as they currently are on live.

Then just put the silence (or some other form of CC) into his passive, kind of like Annie's passive, but a silence instead of a stun. Low scope changes.

I'm still with you on Malefic Visions though. I'd just like to see more usability (and presence) for Voidlings.

Rundus1Jan 24, 20161 votes

HOLD UP! Make Malz abilities change visually for a target with the space aids. Hear me out: Assume everything else on Malz is the same. You aids someone. Q now looks like two beams that collide in the middle and disintegrate. W has random void claws and tentacles swiping out, Ult has dank black and purple lightning around the beam, and his Voidling look like horrifying Void-beasts charging you with writing limbs and more of that dank lightning. Audio wise you hear 2-6 Malzahar-like voices murmuring hyperly over each other in the background, and Voidlings spawn and die with a scream.