New champion concept, or how to save old Malzahar

Disclaimer - english is not my native language, so be kind, I'll try to fix all misspelled words, grammar etc. on the fly :)

Okey, here's a nice idea – let's don't rework Malzahar! The answer "why" is easy. I see that Riot wants to rework Malza, because he is (wrongly) considered toxic champ (mostly by people complitely not understanding how easy is to break his synergy). That's ok. But he's being reworked into hiper-toxic champ. And that's not ok. With different playstyle – and that's totally not ok for me. Add to this that, there still is no other champion to counter reworked-Malzahar (with his new mechanics), and items are less of a counter that they were before. You are taking toxicity of a champion to whole new level.

First thing first – I find new Malza really interesting champion, that I would love to try, but definatly, I don't see him as my main. And classic Malzahar is my main, because of unique playstyle that it offers and won't offer anymore.

To be honest I see great potential in new mechanics, but at the same time I see that remains of old Malzahar is what drags this "new" champion down. Between passive, new W and oldish E lies somewhat of new synergy for new gameplay mechanics, but old Q is what makes this champ hiper toxic. Not to mention unimaginative (and even more toxic) "new" R, that actually seems to be forced and out of place. It's like the only reason for R (mixture of nerfed old R with old W) is to utilise already estabilished assets.

Let's for a second look at this champion, not in the "reworked Malzahar" way – but in "new champion" way. Passive – new passive, the super banshee veil is really cool mechanics for many reasons. Either you want to jungle, mid, top, bot, AP or AD – it's usefull. You are the ganker, or you are ganked – this passive is one of best and most versatile ingame passive I have seen. What it lacks is synergy with other skills. Let's say we are making this champion to be minion-herder – it would be so much more fun, to actually link this passive to minions somehow. Let's say that while voidlings "eat" someting – it regenerates and boosts passive ability. That will skew gameplay more towards herding the minions than anything else, and will make this champion truly unique, without giving him "free banshee veil"! Q – old Q was really powerfull tool in old Malzahar repertuar. To quote "it's less of a random killing machine, more of a personal statement" ;). New Q lacks synergy with this "new champion". It ain't so menacing as before, but it's faster and easier to throw now and then. The build-in silence with potentially avalible herd of voidlings makes it for very frustrating expirience for enemy champion, what makes whole reworked Malzahar unneseserily toxic. And that's just the begining. In place of tweaked old-new Q, I would love to see some attack, that would build synergy with voidlings. Let's say ranged attack, that will mark enemy creep/player for short amount of time. If enemy will be killed by voidling while duration lasts, it would trigger some bonus effect for the voidling – make it grow, or reset the minion timer (so it can live longer) or any other cool thing you can imagine. W – I really like new W. I think it's a great core for a new character. Not Malzahar OFC – I don't see this as Malzahar at all, but it's really cool mechanic indeed! E – I understand why E was only slightly tweaked, but I think that we can do better. Let's say that this "new character" would stick to void/deamon aestethics. I would change E into "on-ground" skill, let's call it "lure of the void". Champion would throw small spot on ground, that would keep moving toward closest enemy slowing it down and voidlings would get bonus while attacking those affected by E, while being attracted to them at the same time. New E wouldn't do DMG on it's own, but would be indirect way to controll spawns. With changed Q it won't oversaturate "toxicity" of a champ, while beeing powerfull tool in keeping in bay enemy champions and own voidlings alike. R – oh yeah... this new champ definatly needs new R. Do You remeber when old Malzahar was "1 button killer" that was actually result of making 3 skill combo to look like it? New R is actually "1 button killer" if you have enough minion (and you should) – talking about toxic gameplay, eh? It's like making bad situation heavily worse. I would change R into some other kind of "game-changer". Let's say champion spawns voidling queen to ride on. Normally mobility is not his strenght, but now he will be really mobile. Maybe not much stronger, let's say that this voidling queen doesn't do much DMG, but she womits void on enemies while attacking... void that works simillar to E (lure of the void kind of E)... which make all the smaller voidligs to be more inclined to attack what player attacks. Let's say she lasts for few seconds only, has a long cooldown and she takes all the voidlings down with her, but while she's up, voidling do not disapear because of time-cap.

I think that would flesh out new mechanics and would avoid old Malzahar burden, while making new and coherent champion. If we could spare classic Malzahar on the process – that would be great. I would really love to keep him as my main :D.

If You thinking how to change classic Malzahar then? Great! There is some potential for changes without breaking what he is as well. At least my suggestions :P Passive – I think severe nerfing voidlings and make them spawn after 3 not 4 spells would do the trick. That would make them more constant addition to Malza gameplay, without boom effect that is actually unnecessary for this champ (at least in current iteration). Q – classic Q is perfect – strong, punishing (both ways – cooldown/mana wise punishing if used poorly) and gives Malzahar opportunity to "play the ground from beneath enemy feet". W – old W needs some tweaking. I would toy with idea to make it mobile, while knowing it would probably destroy Malzahar gameplay. But still – I would love to try it. Let say, that W would slowly move towards malefic visions, constantly trying to have infected enemy on its center. Drop on it sweet sweet animation of deamon arms and hands reaching out of the void on ground around it, to actually drag the W around the place, towards active E and we have a winner ;). But that could change Malzahar into one trick champ (everything revolve around E) and break this awesome situation, that gives him ability to play ground against enemy (that no other champ has to this extent). On the other hand – it would be awesome to give voidlings boost while they stand on W, making them as usefull as they are now. That would make W less of a "last skill to pick", more of a "though choice" to make while leveling – do I want burn ground and minion hunt my enemy, or do I want to munch his creeps and minion hunt them that way? With some tweaking it could build up into 2 different lvleling styles for Malzahar – safe (E + bigger distance + mana regen) or agressive (W + much bigger DMG). E – it's perfect – nothing to see here ;). R – old R still have good synergy with classic Malzahar. The only thing I would toy with, is a concept to pull enemy while Malzahar is sucking him/her and push away when he's done. Let's say Malza is ulting enemy and it slowly slides towars Malzahar – if he breaks the stun, he runs slightly slower while still affected (in range). If he do not break the stun and is close enough to slide really close to Malzahar, he will be pushed away drasticly with the end of the R. That could make Malzahar ult a skill with raised awarness of map situation (do I want to flash behind enemy, suck him close and push away toward my tower? Or maybe I want to suck enemy right into traps?)

Hope You've enjoyed this wall of text and found it amusing or at least entertainingly wrong and funny ;)