As a malzahar main (well, for mid anyway), my concerns, and thoughts, and advice for his rework.

first off, let me say, yes, he does have problems. immobile whos only hard cc puts him defenceless from others. He has insanely strong 1v1 potential, but if ANY other enemy is there at all, your ult will leave you more of a sitting duck than a threat, as any disruption at all, will cancel it, which, almost every jungler has in some way. making him one of the most vunerable champs to ganks-which, in tern, hurts him even more, as his playstyle is heavily based on pushing. Anyone else see a problem here? that said, if there ISNT any other enemys there, once the ult is on, there is very little-if anything the enemy can do at all, but hope they don't die(unless they have QSS or cleanse). making him have VERY clear weaknesses, and VERY clear counterplay problem at the same time.

now, on to his strengths: he has an AOE silence, that can chunk health, and set up for his combo, or protect himself defensively. If i'm farming before my E can do much, if i see them walking a bit closer, i throw out my q, to silence them, so they can't go in on me.(helps ALOT against champs like lux and annie). so he has SOME defensive options, but it's skillshot relient, so if he misses, he's very vunerable. But this is a good thing, as it's not unavoidable like kass's where there wasn't anything you could do, it leaves counterplay options, so ide say, this is a healty, and reliable, silence. his W, is nice %hp dmg, so ulting when thier on that, is EXTREMELY effective, as at later ranks, it can do like, 5-8+ %hp dmg with enough AP. I dont see any problems with this either. Now, the E. This, is the whole bread and butter of his kit. he has VERY high mana costs, so if your too spammy early, you'll go oom fast. But this spell gives a small amount back every time it moves to another target. So, in early levels at least, before you can spam your other abilitys to help clear the wave, only using this on lower hp minions, can keep your mana to a decent level, so you will be better of if you need your other spells(most of the time), with it being targeted, theres not much one can do, but if it wasn't, it would kinda destroy the purpose wouldn't it? if it's on a minion, move away from the wave to stay safe. You'll lose cs, but you'll stay in lane longer to get more due to more health. Now, for the voidling. Every 4 spells, it brings one of these cuties out. it will attack what you attack, and follow you otherwise, or, if e is on something, will attack that target no matter what. This makes moving E to other targets, for early mana in early game, SO much easier. it will die overtime, but slowly gains attack speed and health the longer it lives. This is extremely reliable for poke with E, oe wave clear, the only problem is thier a bit hard to click on before they grow, sorta like yoricks ghouls. So, that could be fixed.

now, for my advice. his ult, needs some changes, no doubt, but maybe not a strait up nerf. give it more options for counterplay, but make malz less of a sitting duck when it's used to compensate. maybe make it a skillshot, but due to it being single target, and a long cd, missing it, would be EXTREMELY punishing. So, what if, if he misses, the cooldown, and mana cost, are refunded by 75%/90%/and 100% with each rank. So, it could leave counterplay, but malz isn't to pushished for missing. Now, he would still be a sitting duck when it's used, so this is a nerf if anything. so, if it's been done, interupting the ult, could do a silence with a like, 5%/10%/15% slow(that does very little damege) to the interupter, so he has a harder time being punished immidietly, allowing for some chance of escape. To compensate, he could not be able to apply this effect, if he canceled it himself. this could make some counterplay to it, without making malz even more vunerable than he already is. and PLEASE, do NOT get rid, of the silence on his q. Thats like, all of his defensive power early game, and his only means of setting up his combo, and has counterplay. So, that should stay the same, and so should his E, as thats really core to his kit, and i can't think of anything for his W. now, the voidling, they could make the hitbox bigger when it's small, so it could have a better chance of being destroyed before it becomes a problem. Not as big as the bigger voidling now, but bigger than it is now at least.

now, my concerns: i'm afraid they could make malz even more vunerable than he already is. He's very vunerable to ganks, and just sort of hopes he'll get a kill before he dies if he doesn't have flash if ganked. I'm afraid that, if riot gives it "too much" counterplay, and not enought to help malz too. he'll be gutted, due to making himself a sitting duck more than anything. They NEED, to give him more counterplay, but they also need to make sure he;s not even more vunerable than he already is. And thats what worries me, that they might only focus on the counterplay, and not the vunerability of the champ in question. We dont need veigars E change to repeat itself with malz's ult. And i also fear that they could get rid of his q's silence, as the've done that alot, but it's his only defensive option early on. My concern, is that they might focus too much on counterplay, and not enough on malz'z vunerability.

i hope this could enhance his kit slightly, while still leaving a fair chance for the opponent, without destroying the champs viability, or making him blatently overpowered. A good example of this imo, is quinn's rework. Her new ult fits better with her kit, and enhanced it. But, it has some counterplay, as any damege at all will stop it, so a ranged attack before she can get to you (like, a mundo cleaver) could just save yourself, and the cast time too. Quinns rework did nothing but enhance her kit, without endangering any key parts, or being too overpwered. It made her more viable, and didn't add any glaring weakness's, but added strengths, without a lack of counterplay. And i hope, they can do something simaler, with malz.

sincerely, a die hard malzahar fan.