Malzahar no longer competitive at high ELO

Mataka Tek·5/11/2018, 7:54:34 PM·43 votes·16,142 views

Simply stated. He is over nerfed. And can't compete as other AD champs outscale him when they get criticals. With a nerfed AA range, and nerfed mobility and no escapes. His shield was intended to help with CC, but they nerfed that too.

So, basically... everything you gave Malzahar in the rework, you have taken back and taken away his ultimatates scaling, his ability to tank dragon, his ability to jungle.

So the hell with it. He's not competitive anymore.

Thanks for nothing.

75 Comments

Feel Apathy5/11/2018, 9:07:08 PM23 votes

High mana costs, low damage, relying on minions with 1 health to do the damage for him... Similar to Zyra he's in a bad state mid lane.

And even if you get an easy lane, you'll be a stun-bot for the rest of the game.

OP Garen Support5/11/2018, 11:14:02 PM19 votes

As if would Riot buff the biggest assassins counter when they are trying their best to push mages out of midlane, so assassins can see pro play.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

Ifneth5/11/2018, 9:57:56 PM12 votes

He needs another rework. Making him good again wouldn’t be fun for his opponents. Feeling like you can’t control the wave because of his push, can’t fight after level 6 because of his flash-ult gank assist, and can’t land a clutch skill shot because of his passive is just not fun.

I’m not against having a strong Malzahar, but not like the one we have.

Mountain Warden5/11/2018, 9:25:49 PM11 votes

I wish they'd do the Leblanc treatment to him and just revert his rework. He was more fun to play back when his voidlings were tied to his passive and scaled off of AD.

Usernamehere12355/11/2018, 11:14:32 PM10 votes

If I'm being entirely honest, thank riddance. Malzahar is simply an unfair champion to play against. Even in the World finals, Faker was almost completely negated even though he is the best League player to ever live, simply because Crown would pick Malzahar, auto shove mid, and ult him if he ever saw an opportunity.

Malzahar just isn't fun to play against, or watch. He's boring and unfair.

Crede7775/11/2018, 8:48:05 PM9 votes

Yeah he's really struggling recently. In order to land any significant amount of harass damage in lane, he has to hit his E+Q. But that combo makes him go OOM very quickly.

So he's there to control the minion wave and push, right? Well wrong. His only reliable means of pushing is E + W but anyone who has played against Malz before knows you simply kill his Voidlings in one shot or one AOE. If he tries to farm with E+Q, like with harass, he goes OOM very quickly.

He needs a change to his W badly. It's only there to really push a wave when the enemy laner is not there or to add extra damage to his E+Ult. One way to change his W would be to have the Voidlings require 3 hits or AOE ticks before dying unless they are targeting a champion in which case they go down with 1 hit or AOE tick.

Either that or add damage to his Q to improve early/mid waveclear and poke.

He currently doesn't synergize well with any keystone either after the change to Spellbook.

VoraciousX5/12/2018, 12:38:55 AM4 votes

He's the number 12 mid laner currently, with a 51.66% win rate in plat+ and is not a difficult champion to play so that should be fine for him. If you want to complain about struggling mid laners, complain about Galio, Viktor, Velkoz, or Diana who are all on the bottom of the barrel.

I feel that Malzahar needs some changes(namely his ultimate to add some counterplay with a power neutral change or possibly a buff, but not to his damage), but saying he's not viable or competetive is wrong. There are 11 mid laners stronger than him out of 45. This means he is more viable than 33 other champions in the same roles.

I'd like to see his null zone be placed as his ult, maybe made bigger, and add a grounding effect to it personally. This would allow it to be escaped from in certain situations, but not make him completely useless, and it would fit with his anti-mobility theme.

Beacon Academy5/12/2018, 2:34:29 AM3 votes

Malzahar was like an old submarine.

Low visibility in the community (Low play rate) but strong enough to be viable (52-53% win rate).

He had equipment that made him who he was.

Riot thought that they could tweak numbers to make him like Cassiopeia/Ryze/Other spam mages

But just like the boats, if you force things to work just to go underway... Everything breaks.

I just want a revert ;_;

xJLx MCHammer5/12/2018, 4:33:52 AM2 votes

they need to revert his rework

OR just completely change his ultimate. They literally nerfed the shit out of his abilities despite the fact that what really broke him was the ultimate

kao145/12/2018, 12:59:26 PM2 votes

The only reason he’s at a decent winrate is because of his ult. The rest of his kit sucks, doesn’t do damage, and is so unfun to play as and against .

Ahris5/13/2018, 12:22:03 AM2 votes

Just because he isnt competitively used in highelo doesnt mean he needs buff. Ahri isnt competitively used and so are so many other champs.