Boards›Gameplay

@Riot Repertoir: Malzahar is not useless without his ultimate

Tiure·2/16/2016, 11:16:45 PM·4 votes·591 views

I saw in surrender at 20 that Malzahar players feel like Malz is useless if he doesn't have his ultimate. As a long time Malz player, I have racked up so many kills from people who expect a low-damage low-threat mage and end up with a DPS DoT mage. He's a HUGE threat without his ultimate...as long as you can land your abilities. Most of the reason Malzahar's ultimate is so strong is because it forces all of his other spells to land. Any buff to Malzahar's skills is a buff to his ultimate.

Malzahar is not a good assassin without his ultimate. He is, however, a great mage. Please don't add too much power to his skills - his weakness isn't in that his ultimate is strong and his other spells are weak! They're in his immobility and lack of hard CC outside of his ultimate. The same applies to Sona, but nobody argues that her spells are underwhelming.

The reason Malz players might feel underwhelming when their ultimates are down is quite simply because they have spent no time actually learning how to play Malzahar. Malzahar's ult combo is important and may be all you really need to know to play and win with the character, but relying on the ult has the direct consequence of making you feel useless without the ult!

Many of the people who are speaking up about the Malzahar rework are not longtime Malz players, they are people who like to play Malzahar (mostly for the 100-0 no-counterplay burst combo). While obviously it is important to most Malz players that a 100-0 assassin playstyle is preserved, actual Malz mains are drawn more to the predictive/voidling parts of the character, rather than to a 2.5 second suppression. Changing him to be both easier and stronger is going to be very frustrating for longtime Malz players because we want to feel rewarded for playing at a high level of skill and we just...don't. Even at this point in time, there is very little that an experienced and skilled Malz player can do that a game-1 Malzahar wouldn't naturally do. :/ It's just "using the voidling to block skillshots," "landing your Q," and "not getting your ultimate interrupted."

These are just some strong feelings on the subject that I had and I really hope you don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to be elitist or say that those players don't understand the character. I'm just saying that sometimes these players don't realize the hidden strengths of the character and might not be able to recognize the ways in which this character can excel even without his ultimate readied.

2 Comments

Stephenizgod2/16/2016, 11:28:34 PM2 votes

Sorry bud im going to disagree with you, your main argument is that people don't expect Malzahar to do damage without his ult but there is where the flaw in your logic lies. Of course against ignorance or just pure stupidity he wont be as useless, but this is true for all champions. Malzahar is basically his Silence without his ult against a competent team in a teamfight. If he moves in to put his E on someone he will be targeted, i believe it only has 650 range which is tiny. He can throw down his W but they will move out of it or his team will need to engage. His Q is really all he has when he doesn't have his ult, even then its more dependent on them not dodging it rather than you hitting it (you can only lead someone so much).

People over-exaggerate obviously but truthfully the reason he isn't seen at higher levels of play is because how easy it is to counter his ult, once you do he becomes a free kill or is somewhat useless. People tend to think his damage is in his ult but its actually his W+R that is doing all that damage, but still his R is required to keep them in his W. He also has no way to stop someone from jumping on his face without his R, so he gets focused down fairly easily.

In a 1v1 or even 2v1 without his Ult he does have a good shot at killing them though, with smart Voidling control and ability placement. Still its not ideal and he is mechanically less equipped to deal with multiple enemies specially without his ult.

Also on a final note, I would like his Voidlings to be expanded on, but i absolutely do NOT want it to become the focus of his kit. They should be a unique add on to his kit, not his entire kit. He should remain the 1v1 duelist Mage, that is his identity and its what i love about his kit.

Nekusen2/16/2016, 11:46:26 PM1 votes

item 3140