Malzahar Rework Concept
So preferably I would want a revert of rework, however if Riot is not willing to do that I was thinking of perhaps a new rework using the current kit as a base. Tell me what you guys think. I am not going to bother with damage scalings and cool downs, I think it would detract from the mechanics of the rework since people tend to get caught up on numbers.
#Passive Void Shift
Current: When he hasn't recently taken damage or been crowd controlled, Malzahar gains massive damage reduction and crowd control immunity, lingering for a short period after taking damage.
Damage from lane minions is unaffected.
My Rework: When he hasn't taken damage or been crowd controlled, Malzahar gains an aura of Void Corruption. While surrounded by this Void Corruption, any ability or attack used against him will also effect the attacker. Malzahar will take full damage and Crowd Control effects, but the attacker will take a percentage of the damage (ramping up to 100% as he levels) and the full effect of the Crowd Control. Cool down is halved when hit by an Auto-attack.
Damage from lane minions is unaffected.
Thoughts: His current Passive is pretty useless tbh. When he was first released it was busted, he was practically immortal and impossible to poke or gank. Now it is a minor inconvenience, if you are Ranged you just AA it before using an ability, due to its very long cool down it stops an all in for maybe 3-4 seconds. My proposed Passive rework retains a similar function without making him impossible to poke or gank. An Auto-attack still removes the Passive, allowing for a successful gank, but it doesn't cripple him and render his Passive useless.
#Q Call of the Void
Current: Malzahar opens up two portals to the Void. After a short delay, they fire projectiles that deal Magic Damage and silence enemy champions.
Malzahar opens two portals to the Void that fire projectiles inward, dealing 70/105/140/175/210 (+65% Ability Power) magic damage and silencing enemies hit for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s).
Thoughts: I think Malzahar's Q is one of the most balanced parts of his Kit.
#W Void Swarm
Current: Malzahar summons Voidlings to attack nearby enemies.
Passive: Casting Malzahar's other spells gives him Gathering Swarm, increasing the number of Voidlings summoned by Void Swarm (max 2).
Active: Summons one or more Voidlings. Voidlings last 8/8/9/9/10 seconds and deal an additional 12/14/16/18/20 (+20% Ability Power) (+40% bonus Attack Damage) magic damage each hit. Voidlings deal 300% damage to lane minions affected by Malefic Visions. Voidlings deal 50% damage to epic monsters.
My Rework: Malzahar summons Voidlings to attack nearby enemies.
Passive: Casting Malzahar's other spells gives him Gather Swarm, at 3 stacks a Voidling is automatically summoned. Additionally, if Malefic Visions bounces up to 3 times or bounces to an enemy champion, a Voidling spawns [If it bounces 3 times then bounces to an enemy champion, 2 will spawn].
Active: Void Rage - Malzahar summons 2 Enraged Voidlings with bonus Health, attack speed and damage. Nearby Voidlings will become frenzied increasing their attack speed and damage as well. Voidlings will prioritize enemies under the effect of Malefic Visions, Enraged Voidlings will prioritize enemy champions.
Thoughts: His current W just feels like an extension of his E. Press E then press W and watch a wave disappear. The unreliability of Voidlings means having it as a core part of his damage makes him really weak when he can't get them to focus the target he wants. Not to mention its his only way to clear a wave since his AA's are terrible. So once he uses it to farm, he has nothing to prevent being engaged on, which leaves him in an awkward place against aggressive enemies. So I took inspiration from his original Passive in that you spawned less Voidlings overall, but at least they didn't come at the cost of a core damage ability. So he can still push a wave, but now he can keep his W for when enemies engage on him.
#E Malefic Visions
Current: Malzahar infects his target's mind with cruel visions of their demise, dealing damage over time. Using Malzahar's other spells on the target will refresh the visions.
If the target dies while afflicted by the visions, they pass on to a nearby enemy unit and Malzahar gains Mana. Malzahar's Voidlings are attracted to affected units.
Deal 80/115/150/185/220 (+80% Ability Power) magic damage to an enemy target over 4 seconds. Applying Call of the Void or Nether Grasp to the victim during this time refreshes the visions.If the victim is killed, Malzahar gains 0 Mana (2% of max mana) and the visions spread to the nearest enemy.
My Rework: Malzahar infects his target's mind with cruel visions of their demise, dealing damage over time.
If the target dies while afflicted by the visions, they pass on to a nearby enemy unit and Malzahar gains Mana. Malzahar's Voidlings are attracted to affected units. Additionally, Voidlings and Malzahar do bonus damage with Auto-attacks to enemies afflicted by Malefic Visions. [Optional: If there are 2 Malefic Visions in effect and they both bounce to the same target, the second one to bounce will do its damage instantly instead of over time.]
My Thoughts: His current E is a sad shell of its former glory, I believe that is partly due to the added effect of his other abilities refreshing the timer. Removing this, I believe we can put some power back into the ability so that he can properly clear waves instead of having to use 2 abilities just to kill a minion. The bonus Auto-attack damage should help him with last hitting and helping it bounce, not to mention the boost to AD Malzahar builds :). The final part is something I added in just to see what you guys think. It can easily be removed and i think the ability would still be fine, however it sounded kind of fun in controlling his E. Otherwise the ability is largely unchanged.
#R Nether Grasp
Current: Malzahar channels the essence of the Void to suppress an enemy champion over a zone of damaging negative energy.
Malzahar suppresses a target champion for 2.5 seconds, dealing 125/200/275 (+80% Ability Power) magic damage over the duration. A zone of negative energy is created around his target for 5 seconds, dealing 2/3/4% (+[1% Ability Power]%) of nearby enemies max health as magic damage per second.
My Rework: Malzahar channels the essence of the Void on a target champions, dealing damage and locking them in a cage of negative energy. Malzahar is Suppressed for the duration of this ability, however Void Shift will activate and remain active for the duration of ability.
Malzahar targets a champion, opening a portal above them that creates a zone of Void negative energy for 2.5 seconds dealing damage over time to the target as well as a percentage of their max health per second to them and all other enemies within the zone. Targeted champions can move and attack within the zone, if the targeted enemy champion leaves the zone Nether Grasp will end and they will be stunned. If Nether Grasp is ended prematurely by enemy crowd control, target enemy champion is stunned.
Voidlings prioritize enemy champion targeted by Nether Grasp over Malefic Visions
My Thoughts: Even though I like his ultimate, it is fair to say most people find it to be bullshit. So how do you keep the core identity of Malzahar as a zone lock down mage/assassin without his current ult? I don't know, but hopefully I have sort of hit close to the mark? I figure you are still isolating them without locking them down so there is nothing you can do. The issue with my proposed R is that Malzahar can't attack but his opponent can which would mean you could easily cancel it. So I needed it to have some safety measures for him so he isn't just suicide-ing, hence Void Shift activating and remaining active. This way if his ult is ended by his target, they are still stunned its just the damage stops. If someone else ends his Ult, the target is stunned and the one who CC'd him is effected by their own CC. This means that while it makes Malzahar safer in a 1v1 or 2v2 (where he should be strongest) he is vulnerable in a situation where more than 1 champion can threaten him. He can't walk into a 5v5 and just ult someone without being punished, but he also isn't useless if he ults someone and its immediately cancelled. This also helps with his hard counter, Cleanse, in that you cant QSS or Cleanse the first part of his Ult, but you can cleanse the stun. So it requires a bit more interactivity than hitting a single button and walking away for free.
Ok so what does everyone think? Like I said at the beginning, I would prefer they just revert him to his original kit and work it out from there. But I think if they would rather just rework him, my rework has some interesting mechanics that I believe better fit his original core identity.