[Rework Idea] Malzahar - The Prophet of the Void (reposted)

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/champion/Malzahar.png

Ah so i posted this in the wrong section by accident so im reposting it here in the correct section ^_^ oops my bad.

Hey! So i don't do rework ideas all that often, mostly champion concepts, but i really wanted to do a Malz rework. I've done several in the past before, but they always had pointless mechanics or were overly complicated for no reason. I can't promise this one will be any different, but my goal here is to create a new Identity and give him some update mechanics. So thank you for reading, upvote if you like it and downvote if you dont, if you could also leave a comment as to how i can improve my idea i would be very grateful. Also this is going to be a long read so skip towards the bottom if you just want to see the rework, i like to give a lot of back up and give examples of where ive had issues that i believe need fixing.

#Identity and Issues

So Malzahar's Primary Role is of course Mage, this one is obvious. His Secondary, however, is Assassin, which may not be as obvious. The Assassin role, i feel, is a relic of the past where he really could 100-0 someone just like any other assassin. Unfortunately Malzahar can no longer do this except when very fed or with a lot of cooperation from teammates. That is ok with me, i want to remove the Assassin part of his kit and move him into a DoT Zone mage where i think he will be able to shine a lot more.

Now onto the issues with Malzahar that go beyond the obvious, like mana costs or low mobility. So Malzahar's damage is almost all Damage Over Time, his Q being the only non DoT spell. The issue with this is, I have noticed over the past several weeks that Malzahar is not doing the damage it says he should be doing. Me and my friends have noticed this, and i have been recently calculating how much damage i should be doing and seeing if it matches up, well it isnt. Two examples in particular really stood out for different reasons. The first was a Shaco and the second was Annie, so ill go into both of those below.

Malzahar vs Shaco

• Reason 1: Shaco had 1700 max HP and only 30 MR at the time i tried to 100-0 him. I knew i wasn't going to kill him but i was just seeing how much damage i really do. So I W+E+R him, which is standard combo, and of course he survived. So to start off my ult should have done 1070 Magic Damage (550 base + 130% of my AP which was 520), my E should have done 640 Magic Damage (320 base + 80% of AP which is 320), and lastly my W should have been doing 12% of his Maximum Hp every second since my Ult lasts 2.5 seconds and it starts doing damage almost immediately im going to say he took 3 seconds worth of damage, so 36% of his maximum Hp is 612 Hp. Add up all that damage and you get 2,322 damage, this is not counting my Runes and Masteries nor does it count my Magic Pen. He had 30 MR which i believe is 25% Magic Damage Reduction which means 580 magic damage was reducing my total damage to 1742. That is 42 damage over his Maximum Hp at the time, and yet it only showed me doing 1400 magic damage and he survived with about 200-300 life. So what happened? I have no clue, this is not the only time this has happened.

• Reason 2: This is a surprise, im not sure if this is intended or if this is a bug, but Shaco can ult during Malzahar's suppression. When he does, he goes invisible for a second. This actually cancels Malzahar's ult, but not in the normal way. Malzahar stays suppressed, but no damage is done and Shaco is no longer being suppressed. Im also not sure if this is intended but he was able to control his clone even when suppressed. So this could just be a bug, but if it was intended then id like to know why, it seems like a pointless advantage for Shaco.

Malzahar vs Annie

• Reason: All game i had noticed how fail Malzahar is on Twisted Treeline, all my abilities except for Q required me to into AA of all the enemies, i had to almost point blank Ult anyone which is bad news for Malzahar. I also noticed that despite dealing the most damage, i couldnt actually kill anyone, even the squishy Annie. This situation in particular stuck out to me, we were losing the teamfight pretty bad but our Renekton had just punched Annie's face in. She was at around 300-400 life so i E+R (W and Q were on cool down) i fully expected her to die but of course she didnt. At this point i had 5 points in E and only 2 in R and i only had Rylais, Liandry's, and a Void Staff (plus sorc boots) so my AP without runes or masteries was 260. Meaning my E+R should have done 528+736=1266 Magic Damage but we need to factor in her MR (i mean we really shouldn't have to...) but she had 30 MR which is 25% which is 317 Magic Damage so i should have done 949 Magic Damage (not counting Magic Pen, and Void Staff mind you)... So why and how did she survive? I HAVE NO CLUE! Neither did my teammates, and im pretty neither Annie didnt know either. Some of you will check my Match History, no Skarner and Gnar did not CC me out of it, it was just me and Annie.

So if anyone with better knowledge of how this game works could please explain to me what is going on here that would be very helpful. These are not the only situations either, these are just the two that i paid the most attention to with items, damage, and what time they took place.

Now on to Malzahars Identity Crisis. Why pick Malzahar? Well he can pressure a lane and not even need to be in it, he can lock down one enemy for 2.5 seconds while still dealing damage turning it into a 4v5 or 4v4.5 since he is suppressed as well, and he has an AoE silence which is one of the longest if not the longest in the game. The problem with this? Why pick Malzahar when you can pick Lux and deal almost as much damage, except as burst, from longer range, being capable of rooting up to 2 people with a large AoE slow, and her ult which does a very very large amount of damage instantaneously from 3000 range that is capable of hitting more then 1 person. What about Annie? She deals more damage, farms easily without pushing the lane or having to recall, and has a instant AoE large damage ult capable of not only hitting 5 people but also stunning them! Essentially capable of locking down 5 people while dealing damage Malzahar can only dream of. Why pick Malzahar when you can take Lux, Annie, Veigar, hell even Brand, they can all lock down 1-5 people and deal a massive amount of damage to multiple targets. You may say "well Malz deals a lot of damage to ONE person whereas these people focus on multiple people" but that is not true! While yes Malzahar does deal a bit more damage to a single target it is not enough to justify picking him over those others, not to mention they come with the added benefit of having extremely good teamfight capability.

Im not saying Malzahar is weaker then those other champions, i love Malzahar and he definitely has his strengths, but in the current meta his weaknesses are too prominent or more obvious then those others. Its just over all better to take one of those other champions because at least if hey get behind they still have the teamfighting, whereas if Malz gets behind what can he do other then hold someone in place for 2.5 seconds then die? I actually was going to go through and list all the abilities of those mentioned and a few others to compare them but in doing so i found a lot of things that depressed me. Malzahar out damages a lot of mages, but if you take into account the possibility of hitting multiple targets, mana costs, range, and utility then you find that Malzahar falls leagues (get it?) behind his fellow mages.

Why is this? Because Malzahar is stuck between a DoT mage with an Assassin strategy. He is suppose to pick a squishy and eliminate them instantly, so his DoT is given massive levels of damage in order to accomplish this, but there are a few issues. Not only can he not 100-0 someone who is equally fed because this is toxic gameplay for a mage but he cant even get to the back line reliably as he will be focused and his Ult cancelled anyways. He has no form of mobility so he is heavily zoned out by the front line, who built enough MR to shrug off his damage. He can't poke because his mana costs are so ridiculously high 1-2 spells means he is no longer capable of his full combo, which forces him into RoA which really really puts him behind in lane, which is bad... because he wants to kill his opponent in lane very fast and get fed before he is made irrelevant.

This is where my rework comes in, i plan to remove the Assassin part from Malzahar. I want to turn him into a true DoT mage, but i want him to excel at sustain and zoning. I want to turn "gotta W+E+R to insta kill them or i lose" into "I need to use Q and E and W and R to pressure, zone, and possibly kill them" i want his focus to be pushing them out of lane and him staying in lane. So now the moment you have all been waiting for my rework!!!!
######watch me do all this build up only for it to hella suck lol

>#Malzahar - The Prophet of the Void
Primary Role: Mage

|Stats|-----------| |- |HEALTH| |514.4 (+80)| |HEALTH REGEN.| |5.42 (+0.55)| |ATTACK DAMAGE| |54.7 (+3) | |ATTACK SPEED| |0.625 (+1.36%)| |MANA| |325.6 (+45)| |MANA REGEN.| |6 (+0.8) |MAGIC RES.| |30 (+0)| |ARMOR| |21.88 (+3.5)| |RANGED| |550| |MOV. SPEED| |340|

>#Abilities

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/passive/AlZahar_SummonVoidling.png #Summon Voidling

• After casting 4 spells, Malzahar summons an uncontrollable Voidling to engage enemy units for 20 seconds. Voidlings have 200 + 50 x lvl Health (+15% of Malzahars Maximum HP) and 20 + 5 x lvl Attack Damage (plus 5% of Malzahars Bonus AP). If two or more Voidlings attack the same enemy champion 2 second will be added to their timer, this effect can only stack up for a maximum of 6 extra seconds. Voidlings Grow after 7 seconds (+50% Attack Damage/Armor), and Frenzy after 14 seconds (+100% Attack Speed).

• Malzahar gains 5 Magic Penetration for each summoned Voidling. This is increased to 7 Magic Penetration for each Grown Voidling and 10 Magic Penetration for each Frenzied Voidling.

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http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/spell/AlZaharCalloftheVoid.png #Distorted Worlds
Range: 900/400
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Mana
Cool Down: 10 seconds

Malzahar opens two portal to the Void, dealing magic damage to everything caught between after a 0.5 second delay and temporarily distorting dimensions for a few seconds afterwords leaving a lingering wall of Void energy for 1.5 seconds. All enemies hit by the initial damage will be silenced for 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2 seconds. The wall of Void energy will deal damage to anyone who walks through it and prevents anyone from dashing or leaping through or over it.

Initial damage does 50/80/110/140/170 (+60% of his AP) as magic damage, walking through the wall of Void energy will deal an additional 30/45/60/75/90 (+30% of his AP) as magic damage.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/spell/AlZaharNullZone.png #Void Zone
Range: 800/250
Cost: 80 Mana
Cool Down: 14 seconds

Malzahar creates a zone filled with Void energy for 5 seconds dealing magic damage every second to all enemies standing in it. If an enemy champion stands in Void Zone for all 5 seconds they will be afflicted with an Extreme Malefic Visions. Extreme Malefic Visions does not bounce and will only return Health and Mana if it kills its target; Extreme Malefic Visions will stack with Malefic Visions.

Void Zone deals 2/3/4/5/6% (1% for every 200 AP) of target's maximum health per second as magic damage. Extreme Malefic Visions deals 15/25/35/45/55 (+10% of his AP) Magic Damage per half second for 5 seconds. If the target dies to Extreme Malefic Visions it will return 25/35/45/55/65 health and 15/20/25/30/35 mana. Void Zone is capped at 120 damage for minions and monster

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/spell/AlZaharMaleficVisions.png
#Malefic Visions
Range: 650
Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 Mana
Cool Down: 15/13/11/9/7 seconds

Malzahar infects the target enemy's mind, dealing magic damage every half second for 4 seconds. If the target dies during this time, Malefic Visions will pass to the nearest enemy, refreshing the duration and adding a stack of Void, enemy champions count as 3 stacks of Void.

Malzahar can recast Malefic Visions to instantly deal magic damage and consuming all stacks of Void to regain health and mana. If Malefic Visions does not kill an enemy or fails to be passed on, all stacks of Void will be lost. Recasting Malefic Visions does not cost Mana

Malefic Visions deals 10/15/20/25/30 (+10% of his AP) magic damage per half second for 4 seconds, if it is recasted it will instantly do 20/30/40/50/60 (+15% of his AP) as magic damage and consume all stacks of Void. If the target dies during this time Malzahar gains a stack of Void, each stack returns 10/20/30/40/50 health and 5/10/15/20/25 mana.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/5.15.1/img/spell/AlZaharNetherGrasp.png #Nether Grasp
Range: 800
Cost: 100 Mana
Cool Down: 130/115/100 seconds

Malzahar locks down the target enemy champion and channels for up to 2.5 seconds, suppressing them and dealing them magic damage every half second while the channel holds. If an enemy champion dies before Nether Grasp ends, a Frenzied Voidling will spawn for 21 seconds.

Malzahar can recast Malefic Visions while suppressing enemy champion without it cancelling the tether. Any Malefic Visions including Extreme Malefic Visions will instantly be passed to that champion. It will cost Mana and put Malefic Visions on cool down, it will also remove all stacks of Void without returning Health or Mana. Can not be recast if Malefic Visions is already on cool down.

Nether Grasp deals 50/80/110 (+25% of his AP) magic damage every half second for 2.5 seconds.

Ok so there ya go, there is my rework. Im sure you noticed i didn't change much and that is because despite all my bitching and complaining i do really love Malzahar's kit! I just think he is outdated :( he is a relic of ancient times when Immobile Mages were Kings, now he is nothing more then his Suppress. This kit puts more emphasis on his ability to lock down a lane and push hard without removing his weakness to mobility. Yes his Q now stops dashes and leaps, but it does not stop flashes or teleports such as Katarina's or Ezreal's. It also forces him to pay attention to his Malefic Visions so he cant just mindlessly throw it on a minion wave and watch it go bye bye while he gains a ton of Mana, but it also helps him stop his wave clear because he normally pushes waaay too hard. I normally have a lot of issue with Null Zone as it is either worthless or has a lot of hidden power, i feel i sort of solved this with my Void Zone. It doesn't do as much damage in max health and rewards good placement and timing on ult better. My Nether Grasp is pretty much the same although i do like my change to Malefic Visions being able to be recasted. Malzahar still has fairly high mana costs so its highly doubtful you will have the mana to recast. But if you do you need to decide whether you should lose all the sustain for a kill. It gives Malzahar a lot more versatility and gameplay, it might cut down on his counterplay a bit, but ill leave that up to you guys to decide, obviously since i made it im a little blind to its flaws.

Anyways thank you for reading if you got this far and i really appreciate any feedback.