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@RiotRepertoir How Malzahar's Voidlings missed Malzahar's core concept in the rework.

Nilok·8/8/2016, 11:59:55 AM·67 votes·5,940 views

Something that has been bugging me since the rework for Malzahar is how his Voidlings were changed. At face value it doesn't seem like much, move a passive to an active, make it more reliable and a couple other tweaks and that's it. However, I feel that moving Voidlings from being a passive to an active has fundamentally missed a core design and gameplay concept for Malzahar that leaves him a worse feeling champion.

To go on, I need to first explain how on a concept level Malzahar's passive worked and enriched his story and gameplay. First and foremost, Malzahar isn't a summoner, not intentionally. Malzahar's core design is about tearing the world and the minds of those around him apart and through the reality and broken minds flow the Voidspawn. This was a smart way to bring Malzahar's lore directly into the gameplay and make great callbacks to the Lovecraftian inspiration that the Void was spawned from. To drive home the fact that Malzahar never intentionally called forth these Voidspawn, Malzahar could not directly control them like Annie's Tibbers, instead he could at best direct them with his Void enriched spells.

However, when you compare this to Malzahar's current gameplay, it isn't cohesive on concept level. Instead of tearing the world and minds around him apart to summons his Voidlings, he simply summons them at will. This is further complicated by the fact that even though Malzahar intentionally summoned them, he has no control over them. While it could be explained, it lacks the intuitive nature of the previous design concept.

Due to the problems the current Void Shift passive has with making Malzahar play extremely passively and refuse to engage with the enemy, I strongly recommend returning to Malzahar's core gameplay concept and having Malzahar's Voidlings once again be his passive.

"I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men." - H.P. Lovecraft - The Outsider http://img12.deviantart.net/0cd9/i/2014/182/6/4/malzahar_wallpaper_by_markussoo7-d7or73v.jpg

EDIT: I also just realized a brilliant designed decision for the old design team when they designed Malzahar. The balance reason why Malzahar's Voidlings are attached to a set number of spell casts instead of a single ability is to prevent Malzahar from playing passively like he is now. In order to get a Voidling, you would have to push the wave, spend mana, and interact with your opponent, while how he is now, he just gets the Voidlings and doesn't have to invest in aggressive plays to get them. With how Void Shift works currently, it only compounds the problem with Malzahar able to free summon Voidlings.

EDIT TLDR: Voidling as a passive makes Malzahar play more aggressively to get them, while the Void Shift passive and Void Swarm makes Malzahar play passively.

81 Comments

Troll for Trump8/8/2016, 1:23:50 PM25 votes

Yeah, they shifted too much of his power budget into voidlings; He's not really a mage anymore

PayaThePapaya8/8/2016, 4:32:55 PM14 votes

I used to be a malzahar main pre-rework and I really loved the ability to control the voidlings. Being able to stutter step the voidling autos always felt super cool to me. I can't even touch the new malz he just feels too different. Plus he's either incredibly OP with 0 counterplay or he's just fodder

aLawfulFalafel8/8/2016, 9:18:48 PM10 votes

#makemalzahargreatagain

rest in peace malzahar, an imposter holds your title now

Onkel Malte8/8/2016, 11:43:27 PM6 votes

You totally speak my mind. I hate his new playstyle with the "battle mage" identity.

I think all of this just happened because they wanted to keep AD Jungle Malz a thing. (don't get me wrong Jungle is fun with Malzahar)

Still a mage with highly impactful and really devastating spells on high cooldowns, would be more fun to play than this passively-dance-around-your-enemy-and-watch-your-voidlings-maybe-kill-them Playstyle.

Evewynn8/9/2016, 12:03:53 AM6 votes

To be frank, his old passive wasn't random either. Playing around it was just part of his kit.

It also did not make me play any more aggressively, if anything I play more safely now because of how much damage he lost from his combo after the rework. Level 6 I could 100-0 someone easy, now I have to whittle them down before trying to go in for the kill.

WoonStruck8/8/2016, 6:10:35 PM6 votes

Put Void Shift in place of Nocturne's W.

Makes Nocturne a decent but not broken champion again, considering he's a squishy melee diver in many cases.

He'll get the attackspeed when the shield drops.

Gideon968/8/2016, 9:54:51 PM5 votes

What really gets me angry is that even thought theyre putting more thought into the lore, the champs who get reworked have their kits not capture the essence of that character, but instead get game mechanics that the riot team wanted to test out, even though it takes away from the immersion i get from playing a champ because their lore enticed me

Count Zubat8/8/2016, 5:02:38 PM5 votes

Eh, if not the rework, I might have become AD Malza main to some extend. I played few AD Malza jungle games and I loved how his old passive worked. I loved how I had to manage passive stacks to efficiently spawn voidlings. Right now, it's just click W and done...

ClatoVerataNicto8/9/2016, 4:01:52 AM5 votes

Malz main here for many seasons. I hate the new Malzahar. I think a big part about why I hate him is because new Malz reminds me of my old champ, but feels different. Feels wrong. I loved the old kit.

I agree that voidlings work way better as a passive. As you said, it forced me to use my abilities and be aggressive. Also what made me good was my voidling management, especially in lane. It added a depth of strategy. Use them properly to push farm or harass to your best potential. Now every time it's off CD I can just shove the lane very easily and safely. Worst of all it feels clunky to use in a rapid combo situation. Null zone used to flow so much better.

I agree his new passive promotes passive gameplay. Now I am likely to sit back for 20 seconds while it CDs in lane so I can be harder to gank.

I really really miss Null Zone. It was an amazing team fight tool. Great for zoning, yet so easy to walk off of. Putting it on his ult makes his ult feel really bad to use sometimes. You get to lockdown a high priority target, but sometimes they are in the wrong place to make the damage effective. But hey, at least you have 5 voidlings running around the teamfight out of your control instead.

I understand that his old ultimate was too good at murdering a squishy target. It did too much damage while leaving you almost no options. The way to fix that is to make it either do direct % damage to it's target, or flat damage up to a certain % of targets max hp. That way catching a wayward adc with your ult alone wouldn't burn them for 75% of their health leaving them with no option. The second option is good because then you don't do stupid amounts of % damage to tanks.

TL:DR New kit isn't fun to play with or against. Revert Malzahar to his old kit and cap the damage his R can do by a % of the targets max hp so he needs to combo with it to kill you alone.

ZyniX8/9/2016, 7:49:16 PM4 votes

I dislike how they changed malzahar from a burst mage. They completely changed his play style ignoring what his mains have enjoyed for years. Leblanc is a mage with burst but malz can't be one? She's go mobility too...

Keepe8/9/2016, 7:35:03 AM4 votes

Well put, my friend. And I feel your pain.

You make one vital mistake, however.

You assume Riot cares for anything more than your wallet.

You, Riot, pulling out un-needed reworks on champions who really don't need them, meanwhile champions that do are left to rot. Mordekaiser, my one-time main, was turned into a bloody JOKE of what he once was. While he retains SOME of his identity, it does not change the fact he was brutalized as an experiment, ramped up to unhealthy levels, broken down into a mess, and then was left to rot. Veigar, a favorite of mine, is now no longer punishing specific people, but rather is destroying almost EVERYONE with a more Mage version of a Garen ult while Riot decides to ramp up his scaling to "+1 AP for sneezing on a champion." instead of EARNING AP through kills and assists. Vlad... I am not strong enough yet to comment on.

IN SHORT. I would LOVE to see Malz reverted back to his older self. But it is a sad fact that it probably won't happen. Riot won't admit it done effed up and Youtubers will scream "OP OP OP" and help ramp up sales briefly.

Tobias Brackner8/8/2016, 6:07:29 PM1 votes

Instead of tearing the world and minds around him apart to summons his Voidlings, he simply summons them at will.

...but how does he summon the minions? Couldn't the spell he uses to summon them involve tearing the world and minds around him apart?

After all, they hunt people with Malefic Visions on them.

ChargeItDownMid8/8/2016, 9:59:02 PM1 votes

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