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How to 'save' Malzahar.

SweedishGunner·4/18/2017, 12:12:21 AM·5 votes·852 views

At this point in time we know that Riot are set in killing Malz off in pro-play, they don't want him in the support role, but to achieve this they're simply out right nerfing him with no compensation buffs.

> Malzahar

  • Base armor lowered from 20 to 18.
  • Voidling HP lowered from 3 to 2

These are the changes most likely hitting Malz right in the gut on Wednesday. This will destroy mid lane Malz in nearly all stages of the game, his Voidlings as of now are his primary damage source and the only way to deal meaningful damage is to have them stack on a target infected with Malefic Visions. Giving them 2HP at all stages of the game means they're fodder for AoE spells, fodder for Runnans armed champions and for anyone with an empowered auto. Now considering Rito haven't shown any interest in reverting him so we have to deal with what we have.

> Suggested buffs: 'Voidlings gain one extra hit point per 300AP'

What I propose to go along with these nerfs is a compensation buff based on AP, this way supports cannot abuse Voidlings early game, but mid lane Malzahars get their Voidling power back mid game and actually have the potential to gain even more power late game.

I believe this change could fix the early game Malzahar support crowding out LCS and high tier play as it means Malz support wont get 3HP Voidlings until they get item 3092 item 3151 item 3116 item 3135 in the mid to late game. And if Malz support opts for item 3190 item 3107 then they won't see 3HP Voidlings for the entire game.

Mid lane Malzahar would get around 300AP (and the 3HP Voidlings) mid game with item 3165 item 3151 item 3116 and could even push for 4HP Voidlings by building item 3089 along with another high AP item. This way mid lane Malzahar doesn't loose power by the mid game and can even opt for more damage late by sacrificing defensive AP items for raw AP to amp up his Voidlings further, offering additional build diversity.

Please Rito, don't let Malzahar rot away.

Thanks for reading, also link to my champ stats (yes I'm low elo); http://www.lolskill.net/summoner/EUW/SweedishGunner/champions

7 Comments

Lucian Waifu4/18/2017, 2:44:45 AM5 votes

Malz just need to be remade again, or changed back to his old kit because I am selfish and liked his old kit better.

Votable Jester4/18/2017, 12:19:50 AM2 votes

My main issue with this change is that it would make Malzahar's strength much more volatile as items get buffed and nerfed.

I expect many builds would aim for exactly 300 or 600 AP. If they did, even a 10 AP reduction on one of those items would dramatically impact him.

I think they should just change him back quite a bit. Maybe shifting his W to spawning just a single strong voidling (could still have charges) rather than a multiplying swarm. This would allow it to be more durable in the late game without it being oppressive early. It would also be a lot more stable/controlled.

Having 1 reliable source of damage is much more balanceable than a range of 1 - 6 sources of damage.

Arkale4/18/2017, 12:31:27 AM2 votes

Most vocal opinions agree that voidlings shouldn't be malz's strength when he builds full ap. Originally they were used most when playing ad malz jg. When the rework gave them ap scalings though, it made them too strong while still being able to rely on space aids and call of the void for damage (they also nerfed the ad scaling to make up for giving them ap causing a huge drop in ad malz jg) causing him to be way to powerful.

If you want to keep most of his current kit, you could take away the ap scaling on voidlings completely and give them higher ad scalings, while also buffing the ap scalings on his malefic visions and call of the void so that ap malz doesn't suffer, but voidlings wouldn't be so strong when you aren't focusing on them.

Or he could get a semi-rework where voidlings became his passive again, the malefic visions and call of the void could keep the current damage (maybe increasing the base damage of malefic visions) move null zone of his ult nerfing it's damage and giving it a small buff (a slow, or empowering malz/voidlings that are inside), and moving his passive to his ult so that it only activates when he's ulting that way it does what it was originally intended to do while giving his ult back it's flat damage.

Nilok4/18/2017, 5:36:52 AM2 votes

Honestly, with how they have handled the Malzahar rework and how much it made such a stable champion for years so volatile, it makes me question if I should invest anything into the game.

Reverting Malzahar would go a long way to rebuilding that bridge.