The Prophet of the Void foresees the destruction of Runeterra and for that, he must eliminate the threats that lie in front of him. Malzahar is a mid lane champion that has been one of the best beginner champions to learn because of how easy his kit can be utilized. While Malzahar has a very basic kit, he is also a popular choice in competitive play because of the utility he brings to the team and is one of the best mid lane CC champions in the game. Let’s take a look at how we can play this champion in an advanced-level by following this Malzahar guide.
What The Prophet Saw That Day
Malzahar was a Shuriman seer who could see the threads of fate clearer than any man in Runeterra. While this power was seen as something that could save Runeterra from any ill-fate, it was a power that the void took advantage of to corrupt his mind. Malzahar’s will was strong but the continuous whispers proved to be irresistible as his sanity was lured into venturing into Icathia, where he saw the darkness of the void. As Malzahar finally got out, he had already changed and became a servant of the void.
Malzahar is a popular mid lane choice because he doesn’t have any complicated skills that need a high learning curve to achieve. However, because of the reliability of his kit, he remained a relevant champion choice even in higher tier games and is used even by the best mid laners in history. In competitive play, Malzahar is a champion that can easily catch out high-priority targets or bait usage of CC-denying items or skills. In this Malzahar guide, we’ll get to know how to fully utilize his skills like a pro.
Malzahar General Gameplay
Malzahar has a pretty straightforward gameplay mostly consisting of point-and-click abilities. He only has one skill-shot so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how to play Malzahar on a casual level. This Malzahar guide aims to introduce some of the advanced ways you can use these abilities and how you want to use it in certain situations for higher elos. Even point-and-click abilities need to be studied in terms of proper usage if you want to be able to use this champion against more advanced champions.
Malzahar Guide – Skill and Rotations
Malzahar has a pretty simple kit. His goal is to harass the enemy as much as possible and become a reliable CC machine once he reaches level 6. Because Malzahar only offers a decent amount of damage, he isn’t considered a traditional carry as he is very vulnerable and immobile. However, he is one of the very few immobile mid laners that like to flash into a fight to initiate a teamfight or go for a quick assassination. He relies deeply on his ability to apply DoT and Crowd Control effects on important targets which will be explained further in this Malzahar guide.
Passive: Void Shift
Innate – Malzahar stores a charge of Void Shift if he hasn’t received damage from non-minions or have been affected by crowd control effects in the last few seconds.
Void Shift distorts Malzahar, reducing the damage he takes by 90% and becomes immune to crowd control effects when he gets hit by an attack, ability which lingers for 0.25 seconds.
Void Shift is Malzahar’s main survival ability and his main lifeline. This ability keeps Malzahar from being assassinated and allows him to jump into battle even if he doesn’t have high mobility. Malzahar doesn’t have any disengage ability nor mobility so he becomes easy prey to assassins or pretty much any champion that can jump in front of him. Make sure that you have this ability up before engaging in a fight or trying to explore areas that you don’t have vision without a buddy to keep you safe.
Q: Call of the Void
Active – Malzahar summons two void portals 200 units apart which shoots a beam of void energy in between after a 0.4 second delay which reveals the target area and deals magic damage to all enemies that were hit by the beam. Enemies hit by the beam are also silenced for a short duration.
Call of the Void is Malzahar’s only true skill shot. This is also his main harass ability. This ability is often used in combination with Malefic Visions as this resets the duration of Malefic Visions’ DoT. When using this ability, try to aim for both the enemy champion and the minion afflicted by Malefic Visions to maximize damage even if the ability doesn’t hit the enemy. You can adjust where you can place the skill so this ability is best used without Quick Cast as it allows you to hit the skill more accurately. Having Quick Cast off doesn’t make you any less of a player.
W: Void Swarm
Passive – Malzahar gains a stack of Zz’rot Swarm whenever he casts an ability up to a maximum of 2 stacks.
Active – Malzahar consumes all stacks of Zz’rot Swarm and summons a Voidling at a target area after a 0.5 second delay. This ability will summon an additional Voidling for each stack of Zz’rot Swarm consumed by this ability.
Voidlings’ attacks deal magic damage to the enemies. This damage is reduced by 50% when targeting Epic Monsters and is increased by 200% when attacking a minion afflicted by Malefic Visions.
Void Swarm is a useful ability that you should always have up since it helps clear waves faster or harass enemy champions. Always save up the maximum stacks and aim this ability near the enemy champion to force them out of the lane or lure them into killing the voidlings which you can follow up with a quick Call of the Void for good damage. Voidlings will attack enemies afflicted by Malefic Visions so use this to your advantage.
E: Malefic Visions
Active – Malzahar afflicts the target with the visions of the void, dealing magic damage to the enemy every 0.5 seconds for 4 seconds, which refreshes when the target is hit by Call of the Void or Nether Grasp.
If the target dies while afflicted by Malefic Visions, they spread the affliction to the nearest enemy unit and restores 2% of Malzahar’s maximum mana.
Malefic Visions is Malzahar’s core ability since it affects all of his other abilities. During the laning phase, this ability is cast onto minions with at least low HP so that it can spread to nearby enemies. Usually, this ability is used together with Void Swarm or Call of the Void to ensure that the affliction spreads before the ability times out. When using it against champions, you want to afflict the target for at least 2 seconds before refreshing it with Call of the Void or Nether Grasp to maximum the amount of DoT that they take.
R: Nether Grasp
Active – Malzahar forms a tether between him and a target enemy champion, knocking them down. Malzahar suppresses the unit for 2.5 seconds, dealing magic damage every 0.25 seconds, and revealing the surrounding area.
Malzahar continues dealing damage as long as the tether persists even if the enemy removes the suppression.
When Nether Grasp is activated, a Null Zone is summoned underneath the target’s location which deals magic damage every 0.5 seconds for 5 seconds to all enemies that are standing on top of it.
The Null Zone will remain in the area until it expires even if the Nether Grasp has been interrupted.
Nether Grasp is Malzahar’s scariest ability as it deals a ton of magic damage to the enemy unit and suppresses them, making them vulnerable to enemy attacks. Keep in mind that Nether Grasp can easily be removed by Crowd Control removal items or abilities. Before using Nether Grasp, hit the target with all of your other abilities first in order of: Void Swarm, Malefic Visions, and Call of the Void. This will maximize the amount of DoT that the enemy takes and will ensure that the target’s HP bar goes down quickly.
Malzahar Guide -Items and Builds
Moving on from the Skills and Abilities Malzahar guide, we go to the items and builds where we’ll discuss the best gear that you can equip on this champion to increase his damaging abilities. We’ve discussed in this Malzahar guide that this champion is played in the mid lane so we’ll try to tackle items that work best in the said role.
Starting Items
Doran’s Ring – The best starting item for most Ability Power-based champions. This helps Malzahar regenerate his mana faster and offer a bit of survivability with the added HP and also give him an easier time killing minions during the laning phase.
Core Items
Liandry’s Anguish (Mythic) – The King of DoT Abilities will never turn away from additional sources of DoT. Liandry’s Anguish burns the target affected by his abilities for a portion of their max HP and also reduces their Magic Resistance by up to 15% over time. This increases Malzahar’s deadliness and make him more effective even against tankier enemies.
Rylai’s Crystal Scepter – This item slows enemies which makes it easier to hit them with Call of the Void or get chased down by Voidlings. The slow is easily applied using Malefic Visions so make sure to keep this in mind when applying your combos.
Recommended Items
Demonic Embrace – Another item that adds DoT burn damage. This is basically smaller version of Liandry’s Anguish because it deals magic damage per Max HP percentage. In addition, the longer you stay in battle, the more resistances you gain which is a welcome boost for immobile champs.
Zhonya’s Hourglass – Zhonya’s Hourglass is the best defensive item for AP-based champions because of the stasis. As mentioned previously in this Malzahar guide, this champion is easily killed by assassins or champions that can jump in front of him. This will reduce the chances of him being bursted down.
Void Staff – Magic Penetration is a very important stat especially when you’re starting to get a lot of attention from the enemy team. You should rush this when the enemy team has a lot of Magic Resist.
Morellonomicon – Mage’s primary Grievous Wounds item. This items offers a good amount of HP and Ability Power too. Buy this item when the enemy’s healing becomes too much of a problem for your team.
Mejai’s Soulstealer – An item to get when you’re significantly ahead or when there’s no assassination threat from the enemy team. This item will increase the damage you do every time you get a kill or assist.
Malzahar Guide – Runes
Primary: Sorcery
Keystone: Summon Aery – Attaches Aery to an enemy you damage which you can easily apply using Malefic Visions. It scales well with Malzahar’s items since he builds a lot of Ability Power.
Manaflow Band – Mana is a very important resource for Malzahar since he likes to spam his abilities a lot. This rune will permanently increase his mana.
Transcendence – Ability Haste is important to reduce the cooldown of your ultimate ability. Champion takedowns will also reduce the cooldown on your abilities by 20%.
Gathering Storm – The longer the game goes, the more Ability Power you can. Scaling is important since Malzahar falls off in the damage graph really quickly. Adjust by building more AP.
Secondary: Inspiration
Magical Footwear – Building items as quickly as possible is the meta in Season 11. Boots cost 300 gold which is worth one basic item ingredient for one of your more important items.
Biscuit Delivery – Biscuits work in two ways. You can use it to increase your survivability in lane and mana generation. A more practical application is saving the biscuits and selling them later on in the game to help you buy more items.
Malzahar Overview
In this Malzahar guide, we saw the potential of Malzahar as a consistent damage dealer. He deals a lot of DoT which may seem unfavorable because of the prominence of Burst Damage dealers but his CC kit makes him a really powerful teamfighter. When using this champion, you might want to check if your team composition has enough damage deals and not enough CC. This is also a great champion to introduce to a friend that has just started playing League of Legends and wants to try out the Mid Lane. This is one of the Most Fun Champions to try out.
How to counter Malzahar?
Malzahar is easily countered by CC-removal items. Using Quicksilver items will definitely shut down 50% of his threat.