My thoughts on Malzahar
I know this is a little weird with Kalista and the new updates having just come out and here i am talking about some unpopular mage, but idk i sorta just felt like talkin about it.
So Malzahar is my favorite mage, recently i have been using him top and its a lot of fun. There are some issues i have with Malzahar though some i feel need to be buffed and some i think need to be nerfed or changed.
So first i would like to talk about his Mana costs, they are huge. I am pretty good at using his E to regain mana so its not much of a problem while laning, but if i get ganked then im pretty much screwed if they decided to dive since i dont have the Mana to deal with it (Malz has no escapes so it costs some mana and maybe flash to escape most of the time).
Speaking of his E, the only issue i have with it is its bounce patterns. Sometimes it wont bounce like 3 ft, sometimes it will bounce like 30 ft, sometimes it will bounce from a minion immediately to a champion, sometimes it will never bounce to the champion. For a game that requires skill this is a pretty random feature, similar to crit except you can control how often you crit.
For a long time i felt like his W was useless except for when you ult but recently ive found its a pretty good scare tactic. That being said i feel thats its mana cost and cooldown are a bit high, i feel like to the point where using it other then when ulting is useless.
I have no problems with the Q, the hitbox can be a bit wonky but its manageable.
The ult i feel is slightly toxic and at the same time too easy to counter. In a 1v1 its no doubt the ultimate has little counterplay, there is plenty you can do to stop it with the right champions, but if you cant stop it you are probably screwed. Its lack of base damage is solved by the hp% damage done by the W when used in conjunction, meaning even tanks are vulnerable. The downside is if you can stop it, the delay on the ult means anyone with decent reaction time can cancel the ult before the animation hits them. I feel like its a cool feature but its a little too easy to do and since the cooldown and mana cost to set it up is fairly high i feel like its too much of a counter. Take Pantheon, he can just wait to time his jump for right when he sees the ult animation and it will cancel it. Not to mention QSS removes the ult entirely sometimes even though i was pretty sure it wasn't suppose to.
So what can be done to fix some of this? Im not too keen on balance but playing Malz as much as i have there are a few things ive thought of that could make him a bit more relevant on the Rift.
First it would be nice if his E's mana cost was scaled back slightly early game, it doesnt deal much damage without magic pen anyways and it is his only farming method, whats the point of getting mana back if you can only use it on his E just to stay in lane a little bit longer?
Second the E's bounce mechanic could use some work, maybe give it a more obvious and reliable pattern to bounce, that way i know where its going and also so does my opponent. This creates counterplay as well as allows me to plan better.
Third reduce his W's mana cost, using it to farm is a waste of mana anyways and its best use is when you are ulting. Maybe if it could be used a bit more often it could be a nice counter to mobile champs, they will be less likely to move into an area they think Malz will ult them in. This gives him a bit more lane control and also allows counterplay since they can bait him into wasting his ult.
Fourth the ultimate i can deal with being cancelled, it forces me to really consider when and where to use my ult, but maybe QSS shouldn't cancel it (if this is just a bug it should be fixed). Also it would be nice if you could use actives while ulting, you can ignite so why can't you DFG? If you could DFG it would open up his builds a bit more then rushing Liandry's and Rylai's. I still get DFG from time to time but the range difference makes me sometimes end up wasting DFG or ulting without using DFG. It would be nice if Ignite didn't cancel your ult if you are out of range, it should just not go off.
So sorry for the long post and thank you for reading it, tell me what you think about it whether you disagree or agree (please try to stay civil, we are exchanging opinions not arguing like children) and also let me know what you think about Malzahar and his place in the current meta.
