Mid Year Mage Updates - Malzahar rework concept
Hi there. So with upcoming Mid Year Mage Updates, I have decided share my own concepts for some of the champions that are gonna be reworked. In the text below I describe each skill and under you will find my comment about the change I suggest and why do I think it shall work well that way (the text of my comments is wrote by italic letter and closed between parenthesis - just like this). I would like to add, that none of the numerical values are meant to be exact - things needs to be tested and calculated properly - so I write just approximate numerical values - sometimes I even use "x*" instead of number - that means Im totally not sure about numerival value. Well I hope this will help the Riot Developers at least a bit :)
Malzahar:
/passive/ Summon Voidling After casting 4 spells, Malzahar summons an uncontrollable Voidling from every Void Hole to engage enemy units for 21 seconds. Voidling swarms up from Void Hole with 100 + 30 x lvl HP and 15 + 3 x lvl attack damage. For every second of their existance they increase all their stats by 10% and grow at size.
(This Void Hole mechanism shall bring more Voidlings to the battle and eventually turn them into malzahars biggest power.)
/Q/ Null Zone Malzahar creates a zone of negative energy which damages enemies that stand in it. Lasts 5 seconds and after that changes into Void Hole. Player can stack up charges on this skill up to 1/2/3/4/5 - however every subsequent use of Null Zone decrease duration of all Null Zones by 1 second. The areas of Null Zones cant cover. Void Hole last pernamently, only if its destroyed by enemy champion - must stand on it for a short while. Malzahar can only have 5/6/7/8/9 Void Holes in total.
/W/ Call of Void After a short delay a projectil of negative connects all Void Holes and Null Zones within range of 900. All enemy champions hit by the projectil are silenced and magic damage is dealt to them.
(This changes creates interesting connection between Malzahars Q and W. Q shall becomes his main skill - not only he needs it to create Void Holes which are crucial for his other skills, it also provides him a decent aoe damage. W on the other hand becomes quite easy to use combo skill meant to harm enemy champions, without possibility for crazy wave clear. Also Void Holes mechanics - intentionally similar to Rek´Sais tunnel entrance - open an opportunity for baiting enemy players into easy catch with W.)
/E/ Malefic Visions Malzahar infects his target's mind with cruel visions of their demise, dealing damage each second. 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.
(The basic principle of this skill dont need a change I think, however I would change the way damage is dealt by this skill. Perhaps I would decrase the magic damage dealt and focus the power of skill to the Voidlings - they may not only be attracted to affected enemy, but also get movement speed and damage bonus towards him. I would also consider to erase magic damage from this skill at all and add some crowd controll effect - getting inspiration from recent Shens rework, I would make this skill disable basic attack of affected enemy - he shouldnt be able to use it at all, or it shall deal no damage for the time of duration - this shall rekt especially fighters whos sustain is based on succsful basic attacks. Malzahar would be like "Hey, I will confuse your head with this Malefic Visions of mine so much, that you wont be even able to defend yourself against my little friends here - and if they eat you in time, the curse shall move to your ally, so that they can eat him too! Awesome, isnt it?". He wouldnt suffer much from lack of damage - Voidlings and Null Zone shall still provide strong wave clear.)
/R/ Neather Grasp Malzahar channels the essence of the Void to greatly slows enemy champion and deal magic damage to them. Spawns Voidlings from every Void Hole and instantly boost all Voidlings to their maximum stats (210%).
(Even the ultimate shall be focused to rather help Voidlings to shine, instead of just plain single enemy target disposal. Especially in later stages of game, wave of "right away strong" Voidlings can help to push and roam, so Malzahars ultimate can be crucial for his team to perform effective sieges or defensive actions. However that doesnt neccessarily mean that he shall lose his 1v1 potential. Especially in combination with the rest of his kit, Malzahar still should be able to use his power to devour a single opponent in few seconds - Q+W silences target and eventually deals additional damage and basic attack disableing E will attract bunch of boosted Voidlings to eat the poor victim - the effect will be pretty much same as of current Malzahars ultimate, but not in such a simple-stright way. To put it simply - with this change of his kit he will needs to use all his skills to reach the nearly same power of effect as his current ultimate on a single enemy champion. In exchange for that, he will get this tactical advantage hidden in Voidlings.)
