Malzahar, the AD Mage???

Elite4Runner·Apr 21, 2016·2 votes·1,352 views

Am I the only one who thinks the new Malzahar will be more commonly built AD than AP?

I am perfectly fine with this to be honest. I thought AD Malzahar was fun pre-rework, but mostly because people tend to ignore his voidlings until they realize you are going AD and by then they are already too strong to deal with. It did feel a little awkward because none of his actual abilities really worked with AD though. Now with his voidlings multiplying like bunnies (hmmm, ... skin idea? lol) they can swarm your enemy and shred their health.

16 Comments

SerevasApr 21, 20162 votes

I definitely think that it'll be more prevalent, especially since all the ap ratios as well as base damages on his other abilities were nerfed. He's also wide open for hybrid itemization as well.

MisterShamelessApr 21, 20161 votes

There is a Malzahar main that goes Death's dance, Rylia's, Torment for a hybrid build that revolves around DoT damage. Forgot who though.

SerevasApr 21, 20161 votes

That's pretty much exactly what I'd expect to be common, high AD items, with Rylais & torment for a little spell penetration and AP for spells, while still buffing minions. It also wouldn't go to waste as a chunk of your AP gets slapped on top of the auto attack damage.

Furor NexisApr 21, 20161 votes

Considering that Malzahar was always built with AD in mind during URF because of the multiple voidlings he could spawn, it wouldn't exactly be surprising to see his kit having AD adaptability in it. He's not the first mage to go AD either. Anyone remember the AD Soraka/ AD Anivia builds?

Elite4RunnerApr 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Furor Nexis,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oExbIcfE,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-04-21T13:55:55.912+0000)

Considering that Malzahar was always built with AD in mind during URF because of the multiple voidlings he could spawn, it wouldn't exactly be surprising to see his kit having AD adaptability in it. He's not the first mage to go AD either. Anyone remember the AD Soraka/ AD Anivia builds?

Yeah, but I'm not talking about URF. I actually expect this to become his new meta unless they nerf it.

Elite4RunnerApr 21, 20161 votes

I mean, this is about as close to being AD URF Malzahar as you can get without being in URF. Definitely not AS broken, but it looks really strong to me.

ErockandrollApr 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Furor Nexis,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oExbIcfE,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-04-21T13:55:55.912+0000)

Considering that Malzahar was always built with AD in mind during URF because of the multiple voidlings he could spawn, it wouldn't exactly be surprising to see his kit having AD adaptability in it. He's not the first mage to go AD either. Anyone remember the AD Soraka/ AD Anivia builds?

The only time I saw AD Raka was in nemesis draft, in lieu of a normal ADC. But it was pretty ridiculous though. Stacking lifesteal gave her a pretty good amount of health for healing her allies.

Moulin RougeApr 21, 20161 votes

Hmmmm, I never thought of this. Then again, now that he can manually create his voidlings and he has %hp damage. I don't see why.

Elite4RunnerApr 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moulin Rouge,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oExbIcfE,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-04-21T14:08:13.226+0000)

Hmmmm, I never thought of this. Then again, now that he can manually create his voidlings and he has %hp damage. I don't see why.

He had %hp damage before. Your AD kit was a silence, %HP damage, AIDS to tell your voidlings who to attack, and a suppression. Stack your mana with item 3004 , get some cooldown, AD and armor pen. Maybe some life steal, maybe item 3508

It was actually fairly solid, but he was a bit weaker early game, then ripped some new booty holes late game.

Now his voidlings scale on less AD individually, but it looks like you can quickly stack about 5 of them on an enemy at once so you should ultimately deal more damage. Your new passive gives you some safety. I'm not completely sure on the scaling on all of his abilities, but everything else seems pretty much the same except that his AP ratios are lower and his %HP damage appears to have been moved to his ultimate, since his old W and Ult were combined.

CoolMike127Apr 21, 20161 votes

I can see where you are going from and it is a possibility, but I think he would still be AP because his abilities scale better with AP than AD.

AttackOnTeemosApr 21, 20161 votes

This is why we can't have things anymore, people keep going Korea mode and trying champs out of roles >->/

ExtasiosApr 21, 20161 votes

Inb4 Rageblade malzhar

Wînter FoxApr 21, 20161 votes

I have no problem with Malz having AD and AP as viable options in theory. I just don't want standard AP Malz to be gutted to force you into using AD Malz. Or while Riot is trying to contain AD Malz, AP Malz becomes nerfed into oblivion where AP Yi and Tank Kat await. Considering Riot's history with dual builds - they always choose one to back and the other simply disappears. If Malz becomes some AD jungler or whatever without his AP mid playstyle I'd never forgive Riot.

MrBuffingtonApr 21, 20161 votes

I think AP will still be the dominant playstyle, since he doesn't have any other AD ratios, and especially since they nerfed the AD ratio on voidlings (but they have the 100% AS buff and swarm like crazy when attacking certain targets). Voidlings also scale with AP, so I think it'll be more common since everything else works with AP. Hybrid might be more likely than pure AD.

NilokApr 22, 20161 votes

Malzahar "Oh crap, they are nerfing all my AP items, what am I- ...well hello over stated AD items, I think you and my Voidlings well get along wonderfully."

Besides, everyone knows Malzahar should get a Not A Pokémon Master skin with all the Voidlings he will be dropping on people.

AgntSApr 24, 20161 votes

Malzahar is no longer an AP mid laner. He is now an AD jungler. Think about it, all his ability power spells had their base damages and ratios nerfed into the ground. Every aspect of his kit revolves around his W now and you will indeed end up doing more damage going with a straight AD bruiser/carry build. There is no reason to build AP anymore. I mean, why use Maelific Visions? So your voidlings will target and gain 100% movement speed to get to your opponent. Why use Call the Void? So you can refresh Maelific Visions and keep the opponent from using abilities to get away from your voidlings. Why use Nether Grasp? So you can keep the opponent in one place while your voidlings stomp on him. It certainly isn't for the damage these abilities bring to the table. They severely nerfed his early to mid laning phase mana sustain from his E as well, which doesn't matter when you get blue buff. Finally, his voidlings are very important to his ability to wave clear and trade but are also very susceptible to high amounts of AOE damage that comes from a lot of mid laners. So put him in the jungle where he clears camps incredibly fast and you don't have to worry about that.