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Calling on Malzahar Players

FadedFreezy·12/29/2015, 3:46:05 PM·1 votes·1,227 views

So, I like to think at this point in my League gameplay I'm a mid lane main. The mages are hands down my favorite type of champions. So, I was saving up 4800 IP for the purchase of Ziggs, but Malzahar is free. So I decided I would give him a shot because after some reading its apparent that Malzahar can counter a number of popular mid lane champions. So obviously Ziggs is more of a siege champion, whose big on zoning enemies that can't trade in lane with him. Malzahar seems like the typical mage, having great range as well and some sweet burst. How would you guys compare the two?

I do intend to play Malzahar for the rest of the week and that brings me to the build. I was following a build that used Warlords Bloodlust, featured Rod of Ages & Rabadon's Death Cap as it's core. My idea was to build him somewhat different and wanted some opinions on what this build seems like. I was going for a more DoT focused build. It would be Deathfires Touch, Morellos & Liandry's core later building Rylais. I understand this build will indeed take away some of the burst at the cost of more DoT and the slow from the Rylais. What do you guys think?

16 Comments

1 800 MID LANE12/29/2015, 4:00:51 PM2 votes

It's my understanding that Malzahar's only reason to get any sort of AD stat (Crit included) would be his minion and, while it's strong alone, it costs a lot of mana to initially get it out and even when you do, it just gets blown up anyway unless the other team doesn't realize the little bug destroying them. This makes Warlord's Bloodlust virtually useless unless you want to peel for something that only gives 5g (I think?).

RoA is a very central item on Malzahar because of his mana cost and it's power after only 10 minutes of having it. An early Catalyst helps him be more able to poke people out of lane and the added tankiness later on is amazing considering your ult makes you a sitting duck.

Deathfire Touch

RoA > Liandry's > Deathcap/Void Staff > Rylai's and boots somewhere early on. Probably mixed in with building a Liandry's. This build in no way takes away from Malzahar's burst and whoever gave you that idea needs to re-think how Malzahar plays. The AD build is sustained damage. The AP is burst. Though, as I mentioned before, AD Malzahar is pretty useless unless you plan to peel for a bug.

Ralanr12/29/2015, 3:51:26 PM1 votes

I don't play Malz, but I would like to ask if you know of AD Malz?

You should try him AP, but the best way to learn a champion is to try multiple builds (and he's free, so great time to try).

Spoofghoul12/29/2015, 5:01:59 PM1 votes

Try this build, you will need smite but thats ok item 1315 item 1408 item 3512 item 3004 item 3071 item 3146

Take the Deathfire touch keystone, nothing beats playing ''ap malzahar'' whilst building full ad to make your voidlings go full roidrage mode.

Have fun permawarding your lane, using your and enemy raptors to deward their wards in mid/river and solo dragon or riftherald at lvl 3-4

Roam all day without worrying a bit about your precious tower because zzrot portal protects it while you are killing the enemy botlane.

Void Nargacuga12/29/2015, 6:21:47 PM1 votes

As stated before: Definitely take Deathfire Touch for a mastery. Way to much synergy to pass it up with him since he is primarily a DoT mage.

Some interesting items that work well on him: item 3116 since his voidlings can proc the slow passive. item 3071 the voidings get more damage from the AD and they can cleave the opponent on each attack that they do. item 3146 Gives your spells more damage and gives your voidlings more damage. Its a win-win for a hybrid item. And you can heal off ALL damage you deal including its active and your voidling damage.

Malzahar has a lot of flexibility in his kit just due to his absurd scaling on his voidlings being at a whooping +100% bonus AD scaling which increases to +150% bonus AD scaling if they live long enough.

I hope we have all helped you out.