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Malzahar is glorious, but is he too glorious?

Daggerman··2 votes·770 views

Lately I've been playing a lot of Malz than I used to, this is because he counters a substantial majority of AP casters and his team comp is undeniable beautiful, so where does he limit? Truthful the main counters I can think of are champions such as taric or anyone else (with a stun or long silence) that can keep this space aids casting monster from taking control and forcing all to bow down before him. Sadly most of these kinds of champions require an ally beside them at all times to be effective, contrasting with the fact that mid is a 1 v 1 lane, and the only counter that I can think of is Morgana! Theres also the prominent pushing style that Malzahar possess, should the Malphic Visions be limited to 3-5 bounces?

So these are the questions that I'd like to be answered:

  1. Is Malzahar too glorious?
  2. Know any good 1 v 1 AP casters or AD mids that counter him?
  3. Should his Malphic Visions be limited to a few bounces rather than infinite?
  4. Any tips to dealing with this bully's pushing capability? -As a squishy AP caster -As a squishy AD mid -As a tank Mid (AD or AP)

9 Comments

Takeuchi 173 votes

dont you dare insist upon touching my main bae. hes easily counterable with champs like syndra, talon, lux or leblanc (basically anyone who can stun and/or jump on him) you just have to play safe in the laning phase. Zed can also be a decent match up. rush a hexdrinker and then jump on him.

hes extremely susceptible to early ganks because of his immobility. just pay attention to his malefic visions and youll be fine. hes prob one of the most balanced champs out there.

not only that but just buy quicksilver sash and his ult will mean nothing

Drunken Mutt2 votes

If he could move during his ult he would be unstoppable but thats what makes him balanced.

Godaren2 votes

Malzaher is way to safe. I despise laning against him he outscales most mid laners and he can farm and harass with the same ability. A champions counterplay should not be spamming your jungler for ganks. Also having a silence and a suppression on the same champ is a little much.

S H A Y C 02 votes

hes easy...

LoLKiru2 votes

{quoted}

Malzaher is way to safe. I despise laning against him he outscales most mid laners and he can farm and harass with the same ability. A champions counterplay should not be spamming your jungler for ganks. Also having a silence and a suppression on the same champ is a little much.

To be fair, he can't really harass with the same ability that he farms with; unless you go near the minion he places the visions on (in which case its your own fault for them jumping to you, I believe Visions prioritize champions if one is within its range, don't quote me on that though)

OT: As a malzahar main, the hardest matchups for me are simply the ones where the enemy outranges my spells (or at least everything but Q) and can just farm safely, unless they get REALLY badly out of position Malzahar has next to no kill potential on them (he needs you to be within at least 650 range to reasonably kill you during the early and midgame)

The easiest matchups are of course melee champions like Yasuo, Zed, Talon, etc; Since I can easily harass them with Visions when I have 4 stacks of my passive and just have the voidling chase them down for a good chunk of their health

A tip for that by the way, if a Voidling ever targets you because of visions, don't stand and fight it, thats the WORST thing you can do; run to your turret and let the turret gun it down.

TL;DR: Anyone who can farm from 800-ish range+ is usually pretty safe against him since he needs you to be close to kill you, never pick a melee into him or you WILL have a bad time, get QSS if you intend to actually fight him and not simply farm

Edit: Annie is a pretty tough matchup too since she can harass him reliably early on while he's still weak (he can't really reliably fight back until 2 or 3), especially if you ult as malzahar tries to ult you, Tibbers will destroy him, nearly every Annie forces me to just farm most of the game instead of looking to kill her (unless she messes up badly early on)

S H A Y C 02 votes
  1. NO
  2. Xerath, Zigs, and with skill vel'koz. Xerath+Zigs have redonk range on malz and will never be in fear of his bad dreams, velkoz has good enough range and wave clear to match malz and skilled timine of his e cast just before ult, can know him right out of his channel, then proceed to spell vomit laserbeam his immobe little tushi into the dirt.
  3. no, its fine.
  4. i refer you to #2 - outrange him and make him feel stupid
Godaren2 votes

Yeah I play a lot of katarina zed and yasuo so facing him in lane is just really frustrating. Annies the only champion I play that is decent against him. I don't really like the long range poke champions cause most of them suck in the current meta. I feel like his e is a little to strong i see it do over 600 damage easily be mid or late game.

Sooko2 votes

Mages that outrange him mess him up Get a jungler and drop his flash, get a jungler the second time and he is most likely dead Oranges QSS Playing safe early until later teamfights usually helps against Malz, considering his ult is quite easy to interrupt in a scenario that isn't a 1v1. Don't dive Malz, ever Delayed CC (Cho's Q) can save you from his ult in a 1v1 Stay away from your minions once he uses his E Dodge his Q, its his only burst ability, the rest his DoT If you are feeling non-sheepy, you can pick Galio and heal off his Malefic Visisons with your W Abuse the lack of mobility in his kit if you somehow picked an assassin vs Malz If he has his Voidling ready post-6, wait until he wastes it, that extra tick of dmg gone might save your life

Daggerman1 votes

Thank-you all very much for answering my questions, very helpful and I love the different opinions, but now I feel like I have better potential on fighting him and playing as him :)

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