Riot need to address Malzahar and speak to his Mains

Hi All,

So I posted this on Gameplay+ hoping for a more engaging discussion around Malzahar's kit and maybe even some comments from Riot themselves(=O) but was naturally blocked because I said riot made a mistake, so it's going on here instead and I'll write one that'll pass their censorship another time xD. I'm going to give both sides of the argument regarding each piece of Malzahar's kit, discuss some of the other options, and explain how Riot can avoid compounding issues in future.

So lets start by looking at each of his abilities, what changes have happened, and why people dislike them so much.

Passive - Void Shift Every 30 seconds Malzahar has not taken damage he gets a shield that blocks 90% of the next damaging effect, and blocks CC for the next 025 seconds.

Ok so this is a hated passive. People playing Malzahar hate it because... well it's only good if your opponent is bad. It gets broken by an AA, only blocks initial damage so anything that lasts longer than instant still hits you, and therefore is only really good if your opponent throws something like a TF Yellow card at you while it's up. It also prevents you benefiting from Banshee's Veil which is the only AP/MR item in the game. People playing against Malz hate it because it can block their damage and CC so they HAVE to used AA's or one of their abilities to break it. On the whole neither party is happy with this passive.

Q - Call of the Void After a 0.25-second delay, Malzahar summons two orbs at the target location perpendicular to where he is facing, after a 0.4-seconds delay dealing magic damage to all enemies caught between the orbs and Silence icon silencing them. Also refreshed Malefic Visions

Ok so here we have Malzahar's poke. Not many people really "hate" this one tbh. Don't get me wrong it feels bad being hit by it and silenced, but it is a skill shot with a delay so while annoying it is acceptable. For a Malz main it kinda sucks to have it cost so much mana, but for it's low-ish CD and the ability to silence your opponent I don't think anyone really minds. It didn't used to refresh Malefic Visions, but then it also used to cost less mana, do more damage, scale better and silence longer. From a Lore point of view it makes no sense but little in Malzahar's kit does xD

W - Void Swarm Every time you cast a spell you get a stack to a max of 2. Activating the ability gives your 1+your stacks worth of voildings that will run out and attack the nearest target or anyone effected by Malefic Visions.

Ok so this is a Malzahar main's biggest gripe. Voidlings have been core to Malz from his release to last years midseason changes. Much like Yorciks Ghouls they were a main source of his damage, but as of last years changes they are now 1 shottable for any spell or ability. On top of that he used to be able to have 6 of them out and they did a third more damage each. On the OLD Malz he could only have 2 of them out but they had huge scaling and a far longer duration. In both of these cases they took timing and setup to be used most effectively, and they gained movement speed towards anyone effected by Malefic Visions. Now they are basically wave clear/free gold to his opponent. However, from his opponents point of view the previous renditions of voidlings were just too oppressive. No one felt this more than bot lane as a Malzahar support could just put Malefic Visions on you and spawn these and laugh as they chased you out of lane. At least in Midlane the Malz had to wait for Malefic Visions to ping from a minion onto you because he needed it for waveclear meaning this was more of a punishment for mispositioning, but in support? That shit was painfully oppressive.

E - Malefic Visions Damage over time for 4 seconds, refreshed by Q and R, will make voidlings target you.

This ability, while irritating poke, is like Q in that it's not really a major point of contention. It punishes you for getting too close to the minion effected which can be a good zoning tool, and can even just be put on you and then refreshed with Q which is also annoying, but it doesn't really do much damage early anymore so is more of an annoyance then anything. It becomes a much greater power later on when you get Rylai's and Liandry's, but even then it's damage is low compared to most other abilities. Cassio Q for example does the same damage, but also is AOE, speeds her up, and allows her E to do double damage. It also has a much shorter CD; the effect ends just as it comes off CD. On the whole though not many people really mind Malefic Visions.

R - Nether Grasp/Null Zone Malzahar Suppresses his target for 2.5 seconds with damage split between a beam and a 5 second 200 unit diameter AOE that does % current HP damage. Malzahar is rooted and any actions taken while this is channeling break the ult.

Now THIS is a hated ability. This is hated by Malz mains at least as much as it is by their opponents if not more so. The number of nerfs Malzahar has gone through on account of this Ultimate is ridiculous. For his opponent it feels REALLY bad having to either invest in a 1300 gold QSS, especially if you're AP and cannot build it into something later on, and for a Malzahar main it feel horrible to have so much of your champions power funneled into an ability that is instantly useless for the price of just 1300 gold, and also using it feel like a coin flip as to who dies first: the person you're ulting or yourself. BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT. I cannot stress this enough! But this is actually a relatively new problem. For years his ult has just been a "hold still" button to stop hypermobile hypercarries from running rings around him, a way of saying "tower dive me if you dare" that saved us all so many times (whether you are the Malz or the champion he's saving from the enemy carry). So what changed? Well simply put, burst got too high. In season 8 any amount of CC, even a 1 second stun, can end up in you being 1 shot. Give someone a 2.5 second suppression AND some damage (remember it's not GREAT damage because voildings are already nerfed) and it is basically a guaranteed kill. For anyone playing against Malzahar this feel horrible because their is so little counterplay, but remember that for the Malz this is now his main source of power ad countered for a 1300 gold multi use, MR item

So looking at this we can see 3 area's that need to be addressed: His passive, his W and his R... that's a fair amount. But what are the alternatives?

Well his Passive could easily be changed, there are MANY options from increased Vision (he is a Seer after all) to an annie/kennen style stun to replace his ult's supression. There's been options for a DFT style burn, a return to his old passive (the Voidlings) to allow his W to be Null Zone again, and even a combo style burst like Vel'Koz. On the whole there are a LOT of options for his passive that are far more suitable and rewarding than his current one.

His voidlings could stay being 1 shottable by turrets but become 2 shottable by champion AA, limiting their effectiveness in a support role as they would do little for tower diving or in a 2v2 matchup beyond free gold. Their duration could be increased alongside their CD and damage, build paths could be opened up with AD physical scaling, and their movement speed returned until their first attack much like Yoricks Ghouls when you hit an E. They could be put on his Passive again or left as his W, or an amalgamation of the two: a return of Null Zone but with an old passive voidling able to spawn out of it. There were many options on getting Malzahar out of the Support role, Riot effectively picked the worst.

Then there's his Ult. This has been a NECESSARY part of Malzahar's kit for as long as he has existed. By WHY is it necessary? From his short range to his "melee oppressive" playstyle, Malzahar's niche is to counter melee hypermobile hypercarries. Those champions like Yasuo, LB, Zed, Irelia and Kat that can dive in with huge burst and then escape. How he did this was threefold:

1. Burst - Malzahar's burst with his ult combo was huge. It wasn't that any specific ability did huge burst; they all do sustained damage, it was the combination of Malefic Visions Dot, Voidlings beating on you, Null Zone burning % hp and nether grasp holding you still that gave Malzahar his burst. In short almost everything he had all doing damage at the same time.
2. Interruption - You jump in and instantly cannot move, and cannot combo. This is crippling for those that rely on burst and run tactics. Malzahar's suppression stops you in your tracks and by the time you got out of it you were thinking about mere survival rather than killing him.
3. Hold Still - You cannot dodge it! These champions are used to avoiding a lot of damage through mobility. Malzahar's ult prevents them from using this advantage making them vulnerable to his damage, turret damage, and his teammates.

But isn't there a better way? The answer is yes, several, but my personal favourite is a largish (Vlad ult sized) Null Zone with a grounding effect and a short knock up. Think about it:

1. Burst - Malzahar's Null Zone would do % hp damage like it used to, so it would work the same way.
2. Interruption - A small knock up for 0.5 seconds would do this
3. Hold Still - Their dashes are blocked by the grounding, but with it now being an AOE it gives him better presence in teamfights.

This would still allow pick potential, still allow Malzahar's ult to fulfill it's role against hypermobile hypercarries, allow him to MOVE during his ult, and free up a LOT of his power budget for other parts of his kit. Meanwhile it would allow a lot more counterplay from his opponents, and remove that god awful "Suppression Tax" that EVERYONE hates.

So what have Riot had to say on the matter? Well, nothing. They have been actively avoiding the entire discussion, and it has not been for the want of trying on the communities part. It is my hope that with putting this on Gameplay+ Riot might finally respond to the concerns of the community, and aim to make a change after Worlds (it's too late now). This would allow plenty of PBE time to balance him correctly.

How could Riot have avoided these issues? They could have avoided most of the issues with Malzahar (and other parts of the game) using a basic form of Performance Analysis called Root Cause Analysis. This is where you see a problem in performance and seek out the exact cause of it, the underlying issue, rather than the first point you noticed it. That way you can resolve the cause and therefore resolve the initial problem. I use this in my work all the time and is pretty standard for all businesses. An example of this would be in a Sales Team:

Sales are dropping at a call centre. You look into it and see everyone is demotivated and therefore not working to their best. At this point Riot would have a go at the agents (nerf/buff) in the contact centre in an attempt to get better results. Root Cause Analysis however would look deeper; WHY are they all demotivated? Well their bonus didn't come through correctly. Why did it come through wrong? Because there was a new guy (champion/meta) that didn't do it right. How can you fix this? So you make it a priority to get them it straight away (don't ignore the problem!), apologize to them (It was your mistake, own up to it), and ensure it won't happen again by retraining (balancing the root cause) the new guy.

Root Cause Analysis with Malzahar would have been:

Malzahar's too oppressive in bot lane. It's because of his voildings chasing people out of lane from level 2 or killing them in tri-bush level 1. Why? Because they speed towards you, replicate, and can't die easily. Solution? Reduce their speed, reduce their early damage, or make them 1 shottable (this is where Riot went and did all 3). How will that effect midlane? Reduced speed before the initial AA would reduce some of his trading power, reducing their early damage would also reduce his early trading power, making them squishier would prevent his trading power unless he has his ult up. How can we suit both? Reducing their early speed or damage will have the desired effect. (pick one)

Riot did all 3 because they didn't go to the root cause, only the initial problem, and we see this through S8 across almost every change. Reactive balancing is FINE if done right as no one can predict what a change in meta or the introduction of a new champion will mean on the scale of this game, but Riot just don't look deeply enough when making changes and that's caused no end of problems this season.

So in conclusion, most of Malzahar's kit needs review, his power budget needs to be redistributed more towards his Voidlings, and his Ult and Passive really need to change from the "feelsbad" state they are in for both the Malzahar and his opponent. Riot need to look at Root Cause Analysis to resolve balancing issues rather than just "X is a problem because of Y; change X"

That's all from me.

-- Loki --