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Malzahar Viability Changes

MrThinger··2 votes·784 views

Hello all, I am a Malzahar main that can see the strengths and overwhelming weaknesses of my favorite champion. I have been playing Malzahar before I was even level 30 and I can see where he is lacking and hopefully how to fix it while maintaining his strengths and keeping some form of counter play.

First lets highlight his strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths: "Tons of damage" ;D 3 Second line aoe silence Hard CC Ultimate Can't be denied farm via E + Voidling Amazing 1v1

Weaknesses: Short Range Immobile Locks himself down at an incredibly short range without much payoff QSS

What is his overwhelming weakness? Skirmishes and not an amazing team-fight. His ultimate puts him in a bad spot at an incredibly short range with no trade offs especially if the target has QSS.

Suggested Change to his Ultimate:

Nether Grasp RANGE: 750 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80 ACTIVE: Malzahar channels an engulfing void of energy for up to 2.5 seconds, suppressing and dealing magic damage to a target enemy champion every 0.5 seconds while the channel holds. During this time Malzahar can move and cast spells. TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE: 250 / 400 / 550 (+ 150% AP)

Explanation: This route gives more reliability to the rest of Malzahar's kit. Allowing him to consistently get his combo off instead of hoping that his q lands and that hes in range to follow up. And again leaves counter-play with QSS.

Nether Grasp RANGE: 700 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80 ACTIVE: Malzahar channels an engulfing void of energy for up to 2.5 seconds, suppressing and dealing magic damage to a target enemy champion every 0.5 seconds while the channel holds. If the target dies during this time, this spells cooldown will reset. TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE: 250 / 400 / 550 (+ 130% AP)

-Reset or pull a Darius and make it cast-able again within 20 seconds. I realize the damage may be to high for a resetting cooldown, however its only if the target dies in those 2.5 seconds and the channel is still interruptable.

Explanation: This creates some sort of trade off for Malzahar to use his ultimate in the middle of a fight, leave his weakness to QSS, and make him better in teamfights and skirmishes.

Feel free to comment with opinions, ideas, changes, and whether one of these changes are possible or not.

*Edit: I feel my first suggestion is much more viable than the second and suggesting that he can still move during his ult but no longer spell-cast or attack.

10 Comments

IAmNeverViable3 votes

I actually like the first one where he moves around but i don't like he can cast spells while channeling. He already has huge damage and aoe. Maybe u should make more uses of the passive ability. Maybe like every .5 sec while channeling, the passive gain a stack. If a void minion been summon while channeling, it becomes huge void minion and atk the enemy being channeled. This is just a suggestion.

MrThinger1 votes

Thats not a bad idea however voidlings only attack whatever has Malz's e on it and only adds more damage so i dont think it would solve the problem as Malz already has a crazy amount of it

7ha7guy7771 votes

voidlings actually prioritize enemies affected by nether grasp, then malefic visions, then your auto attack targets

Serpents Embrace2 votes

But... Malzahar is already viable...

Thunder Dreamss1 votes

I disagree with your premise. In what world is Malzahar short range? He's got 900 and 800 range on his q and w respectively and while I may not be a Malzahar main I do know how to "bounce" his e off a minion onto my intended target (well a intended target, can't decide which enemy champ I want to hit). In practice his shortest range is his ult at 700. It's not super long range but it is longer range than (for example) Syndra's ult at rank 1 and 2.

So in reality he locks himself down at pretty decent range and for amazing payoff on anyone who doesn't have qss. What's that you say? Every single enemy bought qss? Well congratulations, you just forced the build path of the entire enemy team. Nothing says under-powered quite like distorting the entire strategy of every enemy you go up against!

It's true Malz's team-fight potential isn't as high as his dueling potential but that is what we call clear strengths and weaknesses. He's very good at killing you 1v1 and can take your turret down quickly but his DoT and self-stun leave him somewhat lacking in team-fights.

You say you want to maintain his strength and keep counter play? Both of your proposed solutions reduce counter play considerably. Letting him remain active while suppressing someone with his ult takes away the whole weakness of "I lock us both down, bitch" and reapplying suppression repeatedly is basically a dick move as people now cannot counter you with qss.

MrThinger1 votes

I respect your opinion however Syndra has self peel with her easy to land stun. Syndra's ult also doesnt root her in place for 2.5 sec. The 900 range q and the 800 range w are not reliable sources of damage unless you combo with your ultimate. My whole post is about that malz is a little to weak and needs to be buffed in some areas, not to keep his strengths and weaknesses the same. If you would like to suggest a change I would be happy to listen.

Thunder Dreamss1 votes

Honestly, I don't hink he needs changes. He may not be viable in the highest levels of play (I don't know) but he is viable for 80%+ of the elo range. He has clear strengths and weaknesses and clear opportunities for counter play. In solo queue he even has a pretty comfortable 51%-55% win rate. Only in Diamond dose he falter down to 50%ish.

These aren't the signs of a weak champion in need of a buff nor a "toxic" champion in need to a rework.

But if we want to give him something... The one thing I'd like to see is for his crabs to keep fighting after his death. It would be a very minor buff right now they just stop the second he dies which doesn't make much sense. If we really wanted to get crazy on death you could take control of any/all remaining crabs to fight on for as long as they last.

MrThinger1 votes

Haha yea, AD Malzahar would be op as hell if that happened. Like 3 adcs xD.

Thunder Dreamss1 votes

I don't know about OP as hell, but it might be the touch AD Malz needs to be really viable. Of course AD Malz is my personal favorite Malz...

Uthael1 votes

I also main Malz (or at least I used to), but his ult is soooo unreliable it's funny. What people don't realize about the 700 range is that it's the range from the CENTER of his hitbox. Autoattacks and linear skillshots come from the END of champion's hitboxes. The difference is roughly 100 range. Therefore his QWER currently have effective ranges of 800, 700, 550 and 600 (+AoE for Q and W). The ranges should remain as they are. Malz doesn't have mobility, his Q is dodgeable and W does like 100 damage on cast if harassing (not worth the mana and CD).

This being said, I very much agree that his ult is a big "con" to his kit. I would very much like the added ability to move during the channel, even if slowed, but the ability to cast would be overpowered indeed. Cooldown reset would be overpowered, too. I'd rather say add Jinx's passive to his ult. Malzahar's other abilities don't have a huge cooldown and he's still viable in a teamfight in the odd case of him surviving his own ultimate.

Also read my post here. It's also about his ult, but another story.

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