@RiotRepertoir: My concerns with Malzahar´s rework

**Here's some stuff we're happy with about Malzahar and are unlikely to change:

• A simple W>E>R is often enough to eliminate or remove enemies, leaving them little opportunity to act outside of not getting into his range.
• Voidlings are a cool and unique element of the kit that often don't play a large role in his success throughout the game (AD Malz aside).
• Malzahar is inherently low agency, and is historically balanced in a way that means he forces similarly low agency situations upon opponents.**

Simple W-E-R is not true. Just play 100 Malzahar games in high diamond and 'simply' W-E-R someone. The MOST important spell to hit before you can do anything is Q. W and E have low range. The moment you use W people just walk out of it, dash away, flash away. Apart from his ult he has no cc. Also if you don't silence first you might get stunned at the same time you use your ult. You always need to time this carefully.

Malzahar is in a weird spot. He doesn't have a stun or root like he can land first to follow up with a spell rotation/burst. Therefor he has NO MEANINGFUL WAYS to get to his targets. He needs to surprise them in a bush, or use flash or kill the guys in front of him during a teamfight, usually the initiator aka the Diver/Juggernaut/Tank hence Malzahar's kit relies on melting tanks.

About the Voidlings. One of the differences between a good Malzahar and a great Malzahar is how he uses his Voidlings to push and take towers fast, safely farm, harass/bully/zone oponent in lane and secure kills at 6 and in midgame. The damage of the Voidlings, especially the berserker should not be underestimated. Truth is later in the game they become less important since you don't need them anymore to burst and teamfights don't take that long anymore. I am completely fine with this. They are a great asset early game and fall of later but this trade off is completely acceptable. I don't want to shift power from his kit to make random Voidlings later in the game stronger. I really believe it won't be worth it since they become another 'thing' besides hitting your spells you need to deal your damage and they are random.

**

• Malzahar will feel less like a burst caster to everyone.
• Malzahar will continue to be low range and low mobility, but he will feel less vulnerable.
• AP Malzahar players will care about using their Voidlings correctly.
• Malzahar's kit will have clearer signals for how he could have played better and/or how opponents could have played better against it.
• Possibly, but we'd like it if Malzahar functioned more as a sustained damage threat than an assassin in the long term. He'll need some tweaks to make that a reality or worthy trade-off, however
• Hopefully it will mean more that you can expect Voidlings to act a certain way and respond to certain actions in order for them to do their thing, and that them doing their thing will have a meaningful impact on Malzahar's damage (or success, more generally)."**

Less burst? It depends on how you build him. You can build him as pure assasin/burst mage or more HP damage+MR penetration oriented thus less burst. I almost always build Rylai/Liandry/Voidstaff first. Reason is because I use him as a tankmelter. The role that suits to best to his kit and had the most success with reaching Diamond 2. Malzahar's job is not to kill the carries in contrary to popular believe. Because of his low range, no cc, inmobility, vulnerability and easy to disrupt ult when exposed he has to stay in the backline. He can only focus 1 target and needs protection from his teammates and they can help him lock down the enemies. So from my point of view he is by definition a 'safe' mage because his kit doesn't offer anything to stand in frontline so you shouldn't be there. He still has clear weaknesses because he can't kill, kite or dual 1 vs 2. He is also vulnerable to hard engage with cc and he is a bad pick vs high mobility teams, poke teams and teams with 2-3 priority targets since he can only shut down 1. The highest damage output comes from his W. This got nerfed by 25% already. I believe you want to remove his W and replace it by some sustained damage ability. What makes Malzahar a unique mage is that he can melt tanks. I am not strictly opposes to it, but I see many problems. First I don't want him to lose his ability to melt tanks since for me this is a core aspects of his kit and identity. I also don't see how he can succesfully deal sustained damage when not having meaningfull ways to stick to his opponents, no cc, being low range, no mobility, squishy and high cooldowns. This is the opposite of a kit with sustained damage like . She has a ms boost, slow, spammable damage and ult to cc and spam you to death. Or someone like who stands in frontline spamming abilities, healing and dodging skillshots and being tanky. I

> 1: THIS is the most important thing to me. Current Malzahar is so difficult to use effectively right now when his ult is a non factor. if 4 champs on the enemy team have a QSS, I'm essentially powerless, and if my ult is down the same applies. _ It would be great if we could hit a spot where Nether Grasp still felt very impactful tor its strenghts without Malzahar feeling worthless while its down. Though that's a subjective assessment, I suppose."_

> 2: So I hope he'll be "safer" than other mages (if you go that route) but not a "safe champ". _ I'd say this is what we're aiming for. I think it would be a pretty weird character mismatch (both thematically and from class strengths/weaknesses perspectives) if we turned one of his spells into some kind of on-demand lifesaver or something."_

1: Buff to QSS made it an even more accessible and core item for many AD champs. Literally his bane. This item also makes him useless as a splitpusher. If the enemy buys it he has 0% chance to win a 1 vs 1 situation because he revolves completely around his ult. (He uses his ult to keep enemies on his W to melt them really fast). Unless the rest of the team brings in cc to compensate for Malzahar he is useless. He can only do 1 job and if he can't do it he is useless.

2: A great Malzahar player already plays safe because like I already explained his kit doesn't offer anything to stand in the frontline.