@Riot Abnormally low kill rate on Malzahar?

Nilok·8/8/2016, 10:00:05 AM·33 votes·3,169 views

I've noticed something strange in the API data for Malzahar, his kill rate has become abnormally low.

While I can understand people saying, "Thank god he doesn't get kills anymore", it seems peculiar that is all of his abilities being damage focused, and the lock down from his ult, he is no longer getting kills as you would expect from an anti-assassin champion. Furthermore, this also suggests that the changes have caused Malzahar players to play extremely passively, as his other stats are now also extremely mediocre compared to other mid lane champions.

Have the changes moved Malzahar into a more healthy niche, or removed interesting gameplay and interactivity?

http://champion.gg/champion/Malzahar/Middle

56 Comments

Bârd8/8/2016, 1:23:20 PM30 votes

Simply put, Malzahar has no way of securing a kill for himself.

His Q is the only "Burst" he has (and it isn't for very much). His Voidlings hurt like a bitch, but each individual hit will only deal ~50-75 damage. His E and R seriously hurt, but only over a long period of time.

It's a similar reason as to why Singed has 18th place in damage among toplaners, but is 55th in kills.

Malzahar mid is 27th in damage and 40th in kills.

The old Malzahar couldn't do this very well either, but his ult let him straight up melt single targets.

Rivini8/8/2016, 4:48:48 PM21 votes

Short and simple answer: Malzahar's damage was gutted with the rework with not much compensation.

Detailed answer: Lower base damage and ratios on Q and E, more frequent % AoE damage replaced with unreliable voidlings, and ult only does damage while the target stays in the AoE, which isn't much on its own.

The only times he actually does damage is when the enemy doesn't get item 3211 item 3155 item 3140 .

That's the problem with the new Malzahar. Before the rework, his high damage was justified because he had 0 mobility and 0 disengage. Clear weaknesses. New Malzahar still has those same weaknesses with even less MS now, except he has the new pseudo-Banshee's shield. Sure it grants him a bit of safety he sorely needed, but it's very easy to pop, and when it's popped, he's then nothing more than a weaker version of his former self.

Smart players know how to play around the passive and don't unload their full combos before it dissipates. Bronzies/stupid people who failed at this cried to Riot for nerfs.

Honestly, laning with Malzahar now feels like such a chore. It's much harder to CS than before with his E being so weak. Late-game, the only reliable thing he can do is ult a high-priority target, who will more than likely have QSS anyway.

Malzahar is now a ranged Warwick. There, I said it.

Swaid8/8/2016, 12:54:57 PM13 votes

I use to main Malzahar for middle lane before his rework and beyond till awhile ago; now I take my early sustain build for Chogath middle lane, since is super safe and all, but I find Chogath does what he does with heavier crowd control and provides a tank to an otherwise squishy lane while has fallen more and more as the nerfs kept coming; super safe, but very immobile and I have trouble securing certain kills like from Leblanc or Zed while Chogath seems to have an easier time killing them or at least survivng their burst thanks to his innate tankiness and Feral Scream. This is just how I've expeirenced the changes, by no means did I think Chogath middle lane worked at first since I had some pretty tough games beforehand, but now I find him a better alternative to Malzahar if I need to bring forth the wrath of the Void.

Oakleaf Ranger8/8/2016, 1:49:50 PM12 votes

He needs like 2 to 3 items before he actually does damage now. His base damage values are a joke now and people have been running ghost on him to make more use of the suppression more than when getting a gank instead of the damage.

abadhaiku8/8/2016, 10:24:04 AM12 votes

It's Malzahar. Riot does not really care if he succeeds or not.

KillerPenguins8/8/2016, 10:27:15 AM8 votes

The thing about malz is that it's almost impossible to punish him unless he's playing hyper aggressively. Lowering the duration of his passive thing emphasized that to where the best strategy for him in high ranked games is just to farm indefinitely with no real risk.

warmcorntortilla8/8/2016, 7:51:05 PM7 votes

I think he straight-up has fewer options than he did before. The only mechanic I like more now than before is that Q refreshes malefic visions, and I like the quality of life changes to his q delay and aa animation. Other than that I feel constantly like I can't finish anything. And even if I do manage to play perfectly, I get KSed so fucking hard I fall off mid game and become nothing but a suppression bot for our now-fed ADC. I can't play him anymore because there's just no high moments with him at all. Every potential high moment is fucked by your kill-hungry teammates, or you get the 'satisfaction' of pushing the enemy out of lane with 10 HP because you don't... do... any... damage.

I remember the beauty of the Q-W-E-R Surprise! Fun Bush combos of old. :'( Rip pseudo-assassin Malzahar.

Meep Man8/8/2016, 5:05:55 PM4 votes

It's because Malz had more damage but less defenses before the rework. Now he has more defenses, less damage.

Zane Zephyr8/8/2016, 5:08:53 PM3 votes

I can almost guarantee it's because of his ult not having a base damage and only doing max% health. It's a bit harder to kill your opponent because they have to be lower in order for you ult to secure a kill. Even though it refreshes his visions, it's even more telegraphed now when malzahar wants to ult.

MLDzXnRRR8/9/2016, 9:50:45 AM3 votes

The old Malza was dealing really high damage, the rework is safer, but the damage is not very good...

HPeh6tPCnH8/8/2016, 2:03:04 PM2 votes

His deaths got lower?

https://s9.postimg.org/ensu100xb/Malzahar_6_14_Stats.png

https://s9.postimg.org/9zka3ajv3/Malzahar_6_15_Stats.png

I'm sorry what?

balbraaksel8/8/2016, 2:19:47 PM2 votes

Damage over time happens to be something that other players on the team abuse to take the kill from you. It's not uncommon a Malzahar gets killstealed a lot.

cyberchade8/8/2016, 10:01:30 PM1 votes

when i play Malz my team will kill my viktom even if i have him ignited hit with E ult and all the voidlings and he was at 10 health to begin with i do with his ult had a base damage to stop that it doesnt have to be high like it was just 20hp at rank 3 just to stop the kill steal and let me enjoy my Overkill

Revali8/9/2016, 12:28:47 AM1 votes

malzahar doesn't deal to much damage

his skills make him scary for people to 1v1, and he's mostly a champion that pushes the lane

in other word he can't straight out kill you unless you do something stupid ( for example I tried to fight one when he had 4 voidlings out.... got shredded at level 3 in less than 1 second.)

h'es like viktor, except he has to use two spells instead of one. If you have good AoE damage, you can just counter his pushes and stop him from shoving you under all game

think of it like a... temporary heimerdinger status.

J Epstein8/9/2016, 1:34:06 AM1 votes

Malz's biggest downfall is now he is much more of a sustained damage mage. so he synergizes best with tanky teammates, the one thing that lower elo players hate playing as

Stephenizgod8/9/2016, 1:50:10 AM1 votes

Malzahar's damage is fairly low early and mid game, not to mention it is DoT which gives him incredibly low kill potential as the enemy can just run away before too much damage has been done. The only instant damage he has is his Q which deals decent damage but its not super reliable.

The dream was for him to build up Voidlings on minions with his E, then have the E bounce to his enemy. He then ults that person and wham bam thank ya mam they are dead. However this isn't very fun to fight against not to mention his Voidlings dished out a shit ton of damage to literally everything (see PBE and first week of release). So they lowered his damages, even so his Passive allowed him to play very aggressive which made up the difference in that he was impossible to punish. So they nerfed his Passive (and auto-attack range and his movement speed) and now here we are.

Malzahar is no longer safe push with even though that is now his core design and he can't dish out as much damage as his opponents so he can't trade anymore. All you can do is sit back and farm until Late game when you point click melt anyone who steps too near to you. This is probably why he has such low kill rates, he can't even attempt to kill his enemies until he has 3-4 big items. By then the game is either won or lost, so you tend to have only a slight impact on the game kill-wise.

Basically Riot set out to fix Old Malzahar's issues but instead created entirely new, perhaps even worse, issues while fixing none of the old issues. All they did was make my main less fun then before after making him too op so he was perma-banned...

Seenan8/9/2016, 8:27:30 PM1 votes

I think they overnerfed his passive. The cd nerfs were fine, but the 1 second -> 0.25 second? An assassin usually takes 1 second (or less depending on targets and users) to kill, and now they can start assassinating the champ meant to stop assassins incredibly easier. They gutted his damage for his passive to be that strong, so if his passive is gonna be in the weak-ass state it's in, I'd want some damage back somewhere.

His damage actually takes some finesse to keep-up. E, W (or WE)...wait...Q...if necessary, R for the potential kill and another refresh..Q a last time. For pretty low damage unless his voidlings are out. And without his core of Liandry, Rylai, Morello, VS (VS makes Liandry less garbage), he'd scratch tanks.

RISE Shlack1238/8/2016, 9:12:09 PM1 votes

His kill setup is very, very high. So his actual damage has to be lower to compensate for the fact that at high levels of play, his ult is almost always a guaranteed kill or assist, and his voidlings provide nearly free objective takes due to the massive amount of dmg they tank.

Malz is nearly 100% pick/ban in competitive play. His kill total does not reflect his true power.