The Problem with Malzahar (And Why His Voidlings Are so Important)

So I'm going to preface this statement with something I know a lot of people will disagree with, and could very well downvote this post for on-sight. All I ask is that you give what I say some genuine consideration.

inhale

Malzahar's Voidlings are not the problem in his kit.

Now before you go on a knee-jerk reaction and rage at me for saying this, allow me to explain. I am not saying that Malzahar's Voidlings are good or healthy or the best part of his kit. What they are though and why they've had so much of Malzahar's power budget focused into them, is interactive. And that's the problem with Malzahar's kit; too few aspects of his kit allow his opponent to outplay him, and as we all know a lack of outplay potential means a big problem when a champion is strong.

Malzahar's Q isn't problematic, but because of just how powerful and game-changing an AoE silence can be stuffing a lot of damage into it as well just wouldn't be healthy for Malzahar or his enemy, as he'd be relying on his biggest (non-ult) utility spell for damage as well. That would mean his other spells would have to have their own damage heavily reduced when their entire focus is on doing damage and Malz would basically be a Q/Ult bot.

Malzahar's E is quite honestly probably THE most problematic part of his kit. It's an auto-hit DoT that can only be avoided by being outside his range, which for some champions simply isn't possible. If he manages to drop it on you there's nothing you can do but take the chunk of damage it will do and try to run away. And if he drops it on your minions, what can you do to stop the spread of it? Kill your own minions? Separate them? No. Intentionally afflict yourself with E and take the brunt of the damage? Yeah, that would be helpful. And on top of this, Malzahar's E also has mana restore for every unit it kills, meaning a good Malzahar can use his E and so long as he plays safe, is very hard to push out of lane.

And then there's his ult, which really needs no explanation. With a press of a button Malzahar basically gets to say "you don't get to play League" for about 2.5 seconds and if you're alone there is nothing you can do about it unless you build either QSS or Mercurial. It is a point-and-click spell with no cast delay or means of outmaneuvering it.

And this is why most of Malzahar's power finds itself dumped into his W: Because his voidlings are interactive when the rest of his kit really isn't. Malzahar's W and R (and to a certain degree his Q) require Malzahar be the one to mess up rather than his opponents be the ones to outplay him. His voidlings are different. They can be CC'ed, they can be killed, they can be outrun. They give the enemy player several means of responding that don't amount to "hope Malzahar makes a mistake".

So no, Malzahar's Voidlings are not the problem to his kit, and his rework doesn't need to be reverted. His old W was utterly underwhelming in how it felt but carried a considerable amount of power, and the old Malzahar with his ult up was basically the same as old Warwick; he could delete a squishy while leaving them no room or opportunity to react unless you built one of two specific items, which some champions can't even use effectively. What the problem is, is that the rest of Malzahar's kit is so comparatively uninteractive that dropping power into those other spells makes Malzahar a stat stick; you can either withstand his damage and out damage him or you can't, and you better damn well hope he doesn't have his ult even then.

Malzahar is unfortunately much like Skarner and Mordekaiser and Annie in that the problem is his rework couldn't afford to go far enough. Malzahar needs additional work, either a mini rework like Shyvanna/Alistar/(Upcoming) Reksai or an outright VGU, which can give him the focus he needs while bringing more skill expression and outplay potential to his kit, allowing him a greater power budget without leaving him an overbearing mess of a champion.

TL;DR: Not enough aspects of Malzahar's kit allow his opponent to outplay him, and that means most of his power budget has to be focused into what CAN be outplayed. He needs work to achieve both a healthy and satisfying state.