Malzahar Build Guide : Malzahar - Fear the Void :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

Introduction

Hello guys,
this is my first published guide for my favorite champion ! =)

I play Malzahar since I'm a level 14 summoner. I tested out several builds and items and even bought an extra set of runes for him, just for the purpose of testing. And I have to say - it was worth it! That is basically the reason why I'm creating a build in MOBAfire - I want to share everything with you. I hope you enjoy!

PS: I really like math, so don't be surprised if I justify my choices with a lot of math. But if you are not interested in that, feel free to skip those parts :)

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ High burst damage.
+ Very strong late game, due to his .
+ You can farm kind of well under heavy pleasure by using .
+ Awesome voice and dance!

Cons

- Very squishy.
- You are very vulnerable after using your full combo.
- Stuns, etc will stop your channeled ultimate.
- His only stun kinda stuns himself, too.

Skill Explanation

Your passive:

Summon Voidling

After casting 4 spells, Malzahar summons an uncontrollable Voidling to engage enemy units for 21 seconds. Your Voidling will get stronger every seven seconds.
Voidlings attack the target affected by Malzahar's most recently cast Malefic Visions.

Your passive can and will scare your enemy. You can tell him to attack a target by infecting it with . If you opponent isn't ready to encounter a Voidling and your at once, they will most likely lose about 30% of their HP (early game!).

I tend to use my three times at the start of the game, s I can get a Voidling out as soon as I need one.

Your Q skill:

Call of the Void

Malzahar opens up two portals. After some time, every enemy caught between those will take damage. Additionally they will be silenced.

This skill has an awesome range and therefore can be used to harass your opponent. This skill gets deadly if you use it followed by other skills, because the silence prevents your opponent from using escaping abilities ( for example).
can be hard to aim. Because of this, I recommend to set this ability to auto smartcast in the key bindings (you do this by unbinding Q for your first ability and adding Q as a secondary smartcast key for your first ability. Just search around in the key binding options :) ). This helps you to quickly use by pressing Q once, without the need of clicking.

Your W skill:

Null Zone

Malzahar creates a zone of negative energy for 5 seconds. The zone deals magic damage to enemies that stand in it for percentage of their max health each second. (damage to monsters is capped)

This ability scales very good into lategame, because everyone will have al lot of HP. I usually try to use in combination of . This will enable your to deal maximum damage to your enemy.
The 'advantage' of this ability is the seemingly low damage against minions, because it attacks them with a percentage of their HP. Many players will see this and run into your , thinking they will also get hit by low damage.
As with , I enable auto smartcast for this ability, too. You don't have to aim exactly at a target (unlike for example), which makes the clicking really unnecessary.

Your E Skill:

Malefic Visions

Malzahar infects his target's mind, dealing magic damage every half seconds for 4 seconds. If the target dies while afflicted by the visions, they pass the curse on to a nearby enemy unit, refreshing the duration and restoring mana to Malzahar. Malzahar's Voidlings are attracted to affected units.

is a great farming tool, which will not only guarantee last hits for 90% of the time, it will also refund some mana back to you. There is not much to say about this skill, except only a few players seem to know how this skill works. This can result in free damage to them :)

Your R Skill:

Nether Grasp

Malzahar channels an enemy unit for 2,5 seconds. The target is suppressed for the duration.

Oh, how I love Nether Gasp. It enables you easy ganking with your jungler, by using and your ultimate.
It can also be used to cancel the ultimate of other people (Katarinas for example).

Oh, one last note: You can use while channeling your ultimate. I wouldn't suggest using , moving, or using when your target is out of range. This will cancel your ultimate!

How To Kill Someone

I suggest using first, to disable your targets escape mechanisms. Shortly after use your . This is followed by and our lovely . Always try to use when your target in standing on your . This will maximize your damage. You can also use your while you are channeling your ultimate, but don't use it if your target is out of range! This will immediately cancel your ultimate.

Pictures say more than 1000 words....

-> -> -> (-> )

Masteries

I take a 21/0/9 setup for . I played around with many mastery setups for and 21/0/9 seems to be fitting best on him. But since I want to share everything with you, I will also provide you with another setup for him :)

Offense
everywhere you like to. 3 points in will help you to last hit minions better and it can also be used to harass your opponent a little bit better. will strengthen your spells a bit and can also help you to last hit minions a little bit easier.

gives me some nice free CDR and enables me to take Arcane Knowlegde.

, , and will basically help you to ensure you a kill when using your full combo on someone.

My last 9 points go into the utility tree. I take and Enhanced Recall because those two masteries can save your life! The other two points go into , because is a waste on everyone except .

is a very good mastery for chasing and retreating (and there isn't really that much else we could take). My last point goes into , in case I ever get a buff.

Utility
Offense section.

Some of you might ask themselves now, why I am taking over and . Well, let's look at some facts:
Since has two AoE skills and one DoT skill, will only offer 1% spell vamp (3/3=1). This results in 1 HP per 100 damage, which isn't worth those tree mastery points in my opinion.
will add 0,4% of your maximum mana to your life regeneration. This equals to about 12 HP per 5, if you have ~3000 mana. This isn't worth either.
on the other hand offers 2 gold per 10 seconds. This equals to 12 gold per minute. This doesn't sound much to you? Well, you can buy yourself a brand new , if the game lasts longer than ~36:30 minutes. In my opinion, those 20 AP are worth more than spell vamp, which is lover than your base HP regeneration, or 2 bonus HP per second (assuming your build is complete).

Next up is . It helps you to stay at the same level of your opponent, if you have a hard time to get your last hits, but it also helps to extend your advantage if you are doing well.

gives you some nice free CDR (= 10% in total, just because of your masteries!) and helps you to use those summoner spells faster.

Those two mastery pages are very different, aren't they? Please feel free to change some mastery points. You also don't have to take what I offer you, if you disagree. Feel free to experiment, I did that too =) Eventually you will find something which fits your own play style.

Runes

Let's have a look on my rune setup, shall we? =)

I use to give me some early game advantage. Together with your boots you will have 28,5 flag magic penetration.

are better than Greater Seal of Replenishment at around level 5-6. I take there, because I literally never had mana problems before level 5.

I take for my glyphs on .

I take , to get a nice early game advantage. It's as simple as that :)

Alternative runes

In this section, I will show you some alternative runes for . Those runes are not awful on him, but if you happen to not have the ones I showed above, but you have some of the below, feel free to take them instead :D

Marks:
No, there aren't any 'good' marks for casters except , sorry =(

Seals:
9 will give you ~16 AP at level 18. Decide for yourself if it is worth for you. You can take these if you have no mana problems at all.

provide you with some armor. They can help you if your mid opponent is a or if you get ganked.

Glyphs:
I used to go all out with CDR on : I used take on him along with my utility setup. But after some time I managed to get used to longer cooldowns on , so I don't use them anymore.
But from what I can tell, 9 will shorten your cooldowns for your Q, W and E for roughly 1 second each, and your ultimates cooldown by 6 seconds.

/ lower the damage of other casters, which means you will be able to stay in lane longer.

Quintessences:
gives you more movement speed. I hope I don't have to explain that much for those runes :D

Summoner Spells

I prefer to take and on . helps to kill opponents in the early stages of the game, but it also helps you against those annoying self-healing champions.

If you don't like , you can easily exchange it with .

/ +

Viable Builds And Items

Normal build

Survival Build

Both builds should provide you with some survivability and a lot of AP. is essential in my opinion, because it can deny your opponents from interrupting your . Oh and you shouldn't encounter too many mana problems if you use one of those builds.

Please remember, there is no straight up perfect build which will work in every game. Always buy for the situation!

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you choose to use , it can sometimes happen that you nuke someone outside of your items range!

Other Viable Items

The items listed below are not bad. I just prefer other items over them.

Will of the ancients provides you with 20% spell vamp and 80 AP. It will help your allies, too! But note that your Q, W and E will only have 6,7% (=6,7 HP per 100 damage) spell vamp. Consider this if you plan to get this item.

This item provides you with a nice chunk of CDR (20%), mana regeneration and some AP. The AP is decent and we don't really need more mana regeneration. But the CDR is still nice :)

This is a slightly weaker version of , but it gives you a really nice active which can help you to destroy those annoying tanky opponents. I would take this item, too, but I don't want to change any items from my build and it seems like my brain is not able to handle two item actives X.X

You are addicted to CDR? Take these and your spells cooldown will be about ~2 seconds shorter, but you will have less magic penetration.

The enemy team has too much CC or even another ? Just take this item and you will be save.

NOT Viable Items

I don't recommend taking any of the items shown below.

This item sounds good on paper, but it isn't that great actually. It's effect doesn't stack, which means you would have to stop casting after every spell (which you shouldn't as ).

If you get to the point where there is a really fed AD champion, you should probably go with instead. You are squishy, the 30% reflected damage won't do much, but the AP, DEF and active of will.

Archangel's Staff vs Rod Of Ages vs Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Those three items are very similar to each other. I felt like I should explain those items a little bit more in detail:

Archangel's Staff provides you with: 350 to 1350 mana, 25 mana regeneration/5 and ~75 to ~130+ AP. It costs 2855 gold.

Rod of Ages provides you with 725 mana, 630 HP and 80 AP. Additionally it keeps the passive of Catalyst the protector. It costs 3035 gold.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter provides you with 500 HP and 80 AP. The passive slows your enemy by 15% (your Q and W are AoE abilities and your E is a DoT ability) for 1,5 seconds. It costs 3105 gold.

As you can see, and have the same amount of AP. Note that a provides you with 80 AP, too, and it only costs about the half.
But let me explain why isn't even in the viable item section. The 500 HP sound nice, together with it's passive and the 80 AP. But let's be realistic, how long do you need to activate your full combo? Two seconds maybe? A 15% slow for 1,5 seconds won't help, and the effect doesn't stack. To get the full potential out of the item, you would have to stop casting after every ability for 1,5 seconds. But we don't have the time to ;-) In short words: is bad on .

Well, now there are only and left. Let's compare those items! Let's say you would take a instead of an . You would have 625 less mana, 630 extra HP and about ~45 AP less.
In general you won't need extra 625 HP, because you should stay at a distance to your opponents and you will still have your . But sometimes you need those HP badly: You might have a stealth enemy, who can kill you really fast (, ,...). There could also be a burst / anti AP champion who can kill you in a matter of seconds (hi ).

Early Game Tipps

Here are some tipps for the early game:

- Your refunds some mana, but this doesn't mean you can just spam your abilities. You will bite your own a** if an enemy gets away with low health, because you didn't have enough mana for another ability.

- is a weak early game champion. A can easily deny your last hit on minions. In such cases, you might want to ask your jungler for a gank before you end up with 13 minion kills at minute 12 ;-)

- Place a ward in one of the two bushes around your mid lane. This bush will now be your 'save' bush. This means you should stay in the direction of that bush. You will see when you are going to be ganked and you will have enough time to retreat if you get ganked from the other bush.

- Don't take your too early. Take them in the mid game instead.

- There is nothing wrong with stacking up to three if you have problems in your lane.

- Only push your lane if you want to be ganked and killed.

Items / Champions You Don't Like

This item will cancel the suppression of your . Avoid nuking someone with this item.

This is a 'weaker' version of .

Spell shields can also make some of your abilities useless. , and have such spell shields for example. Oh and don't forget about s annoying .

Veigar is a very strong anti-AP champion. He can nuke you down in a matter of seconds. You might consider taking an early and .

Your Role In Team Fights

Your role in a team fight is pretty easy: Kill the opponent with the highest damage output and try to survive. Remember that you are very vulnerable when all your skills are on cooldown. When you survive long enough after your 'nuke', focus the next guy who is making your team trouble.

Dominion Build / Skill Order

You can either to top or bottom. Start off with a , and two potions of your preferred kind.
If you go top, take your earlier, but if you go bot, you can deny them for a bit.

Core build

Sometimes it's also worth taking a catalyst the protector. Since you will level up very fast, you will have a nice advantage all game long.

Please note that I don't get a in dominion. You will have enough mana regeneration and you will most likely die before your mana gets low. If you really need that mana, take a catalyst the protector instead.

NOTE: The is not shown in the build above, because it will somehow convert my whole guide into a Dominion-only guide. I'm really sorry for that!

Skill Order

>>>

I think it is better to maximize kind of fast, because everyone will get stronger very fast and the extra levels help me more than .

Thanks For Reading!

Thank you for reading my guide! :)

It took me about 15 hours in total (viewed 126+ times), because I wasn't satisfied with some things I wrote and I recreated them from scratch. If you find a grammatical mistake, feel free to write it down in the comments. My native language is not English (as you might have noticed by my poor English) and I appreciate any help I can get =D

Oh and please, don't troll downvote without even reading and trying the whole guide, thanks.

Hey, this guide works!

Special Thanks:

One big "Thank you!" goes to jhoijhoi, who made a guide to create a guide. It really helped me with that confusing BBcode.

Another "Thank you!" goes to the forgotten Malzahar player who crushed me so hard when I was playing as Kassadin. I wouldn't have bought Malzahar without you =)

And my final "Thank you!" goes to my friends, who encouraged me to reinstall League of Legends =)

Well, that's it from my side, I hope you enjoyed reading!

Greetings,
~ Darkness4910

Change log

13. March 2012: Guide released.
14. March 2012: Change log added, fixed some grammatical issues.
16. March 2012: "NOT Viable Items" added.

Malzahar - Fear the Void

Malzahar - Fear the Void

Choose Champion Build:

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Ability Order

Void Shift (PASSIVE)

Call of the Void (Q)

Void Swarm (W)

Malefic Visions (E)

Nether Grasp (R)

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Ability Order

Void Shift (PASSIVE)

Call of the Void (Q)

Void Swarm (W)

Malefic Visions (E)

Nether Grasp (R)

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Ability Order

Void Shift (PASSIVE)

Call of the Void (Q)

Void Swarm (W)

Malefic Visions (E)

Nether Grasp (R)

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Skill Explanation

How To Kill Someone

Masteries

Runes

Alternative runes

Summoner Spells

Viable Builds And Items

Other Viable Items

NOT Viable Items

Archangel's Staff vs Rod Of Ages vs Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Early Game Tipps

Items / Champions You Don't Like

Your Role In Team Fights

Dominion Build / Skill Order

Skill Order

Thanks For Reading!

Special Thanks:

Change log

League of Legends Champions: