^Title.
I'm not sure exactly why, just kind of interested in trying him out. Maybe just the prospect of buying the upcoming Zz'rot Portal item on him for thematic reasons.
I'll probably test him out on the PBE later today, but until then does anyone have any tips? Core items, leveling sequence, playstyle, etc., etc., anything people who are more experienced with Malzahar feel like sharing.
Max E, it is amazing harass in lane.
You need to get a first item mana item. After that, you want spellpen boots and pure ap. I usually go 
, with either 
or 
for my last item.
Malzahar has amazing aoe damage, and if fed, can hold off 2 waves of supers easily. While you have great burst from your ult, its range is low enough that using it in a teamfight can be suicide, and it is easily interrupted. You instead want to skirt the fight and take advantage of your huge aoe damage.
You can use item actives and summoners while ulting( as long as you do not move/become untargetable )
If they enemy QSS's your ult, the suppress is removed but the damage continues until they are out of range.
It's not like hes hard to understand
I max E, put a point in to W, then max Q second. E is amazing harass as its cast range is comparable to every mid laner's AA range. I typically start with a sapphire and can grab a catalyst on first back, meaning i can out sustain in lane most of the time just off of its level-up proc and my E doing nearly an extra ignites worth of damage each time I add a point to it. From there its an easy sorc boots on next trip to the fountain, which allows you to not only clear waves super fast with a Q - E on the waves, but really put the hurt on the other laner if they try to punish you for it - you'd be surprised at how often they will stay in range of a minion dying of the space aids and catch it themselves - Once you have sorc boots and ulti its pretty easy to roam and force out other laners, even if you dont pick up a kill/assist. Naturally I finish the Rod of Ages ASAP after sorc boots, but it can be more useful to pick up that +30ap/+10% cdr tome before you drop the 1600g on finishing rod if you happen to fall behind in lane, or the need to help your top/bot lanes outweighs the need to kill the mid laner. Once you have the Rod + Sorc boots, youre pretty much set. From there I tend to build to the situation. If the enemy team is tanky or you notice a carry is building towards MR, Voidstaff is a great next item. I typically prefer Liandry's for its synergy with Rod, my E poke, and Sorc boots penetration. Now that you'll have health, pen, and plenty of damage over time, Rabadons is the obvious next purchase. Because malzahar is a mid-game oriented champion, the large boost of AP you get will help propel you in to late game as the other champions health/resists begin to out scale your typical damage output.
When you want to rekt someone foolish enough to try and take you out, drop a nice E - Q combo on them. IF the silence lands, I will drop the W underneath them and use the ultimate, followed by another E as the channel wears off for an ez game ez life. IF the silence doesnt land, just keep running and dropping your E on them until they realize they wont win an engage anymore at that point. ^^ and for all of this it is EXTREMELY useful to be smartcasting everything.
Oh and if you can while in lane phase, throw an auto attack, smartcast E, and follow with another auto attack every time you poke. Malzahar's auto attacks are nothing to laugh at, and if you want you can even try the AD malz build that works incredibly well. I always use it against Diana in lane, because she begins to outscale Malz incredibly well after level 9 if you go straight AP.
try to use 2-3 spells in the fountain when you first spawn to get the voidling out faster in lane for early damage (i start with Q but max E first). if you're playing Malzahar AD, this is extremely useful every time you go back to the fountain, if playing AP the extra damage definitely doesn't hurt. i like building RoA first with regular boots bought at some point in the build path followed by death cap (or zhonya's if playing against an ad assassin). from there it will probably depend on the opponent but i like building rylais regardless of whether or not i build liandry's because the slow on W keeps them in it slightly longer and the slow on E helps the voidlings catch up. i like playing malzahar as a bruiser mage. depending on how i build him, i will wind up with quite a bit of hp (RoA + ryliandry's = 1350 bonus hp) and decent ap. He can take dragon pretty easily (he can solo it with blue buff if you let the voidlings take the damage and stand away from the aoe of dragon's attacks) and it benefits him more than some champions because voidlings have 100% bonus AD scaling meaning he gets the 8% (soon to be 6%) AD bonus twice and still benefits from the AP bonus if you're playing AP malzahar (also benefits quite a bit from baron because of the 40 bonus AD as well). take the advice with a grain of salt, because i'm unranked
I don't really play Malzahar, but I can say, once you play him Mid-Lane a few times, try him as AD-Top-Blue-Build. By blue build, I mean getting the TotG-AD item, CDR, and then just going slight Tanky, and still building AD and other resistances to help his survivability. Not trolling, I've seen it happen. Cheers!
Liandry's first item. Then Rylai's. This will double the DoT damage you do while doing more DoT damage. Build a Rabadon's after that. Probably CDR boots or SpellPen boots.
Don't invest in a mana regen item.
Max E. Then W. Then Q.
