Many men have gone mad beneath the glare of the Shurima sun, but it was during the night's chilling embrace that Malzahar relinquished his sanity. Malzahar was born a Seer, blessed with the gift of foresight. His talent, though unrefined, promised to be one of Runterra's greatest boons, but destiny plotted him another course; his sensitivity to the roiling tides of fate allowed other, unwelcome things to tug at his subconscious mind. In his dreams, where the veil of separation is thinnest, a sinister thing beckoned. For some time, Malzahar was able to resist its prodding, but with each passing night the voice grew louder, or perhaps deeper, until he could withstand the call no more.

He ventured into the desert without supplies, drawn by the lure of a specious charm. His destination: a lost civilization to the east, known to ancient texts as Icathia. Few believed such a place ever existed, and those who did were certain that the sands had long since devoured whatever remained. When Malzahar's cracked feet finally failed him, he found himself kneeling at the base of a bizarre crumbling obelisk. Beyond it lain the alien geometry of a ruined city and the giant decaying idols of dark and horrific gods. His eyes, seeing what others cannot, and what none should, were filled with the essence of the Void. His once shifting visions of the future were replaced with the immutable promise of Valoran beset by creatures of the Void. Standing alone, but not alone, amidst the echoing dunes, he noticed the familiar voice escape his own lips in a parched rasp, bearing three words whose weight trembled his knees: League of Legends. Now infused with the power of the void itself, Malzahar set off to the north to seek his fate.

"The land may melt, the sea may swell, the sky may fall... but they will come!" –- Malzahar

"I think a Voidling just came out."

Welcome to my guide~!

My guide will provide an in-depth analysis on how to play Malzahar the Prophet of the Void. Malzahar is one of my very first champions that I bought and I have never stopped playing him. I enjoyed very much in pub-stomping. He is an extremely potent champion with high AP ratios, so my build exploits his high AP ratios into a game changing champ. I play a semi-aggressive style, waiting until I get my ultimate and then using it whenever it comes up.

Thing about Malzahar you need to know:

Pros:

High AP ratio damaging spells
Single Nuker who can drop carries in a second.
AoE damage
One of the easiest farmers in the game.
He floats
Sick dance moves
Stomps in the bush
Beast Pet

Cons:

No escape mechanism
Using his ult leaves you vulnerable
Extremely Squishy

Useful Summoner Spells

As Malzahar you NEED to get Flash. Flash is what allows you to 1v1 the mid lane champion using your flash stun, set up ganks for your team, and chase down fleeing enemies.Flash is your most important summoner spell.

Ignite is a decent finisher to your combo, as a couple times, you will find that Malefic visions will leave the enemy champion with 10-100 life at the early levels. Ignite also helps extremely well against Vladimir.

Teleport allows you to gank extremely well. When your teammates are engaged in a fight at top or bot lane, you can teleport to the lane change the battle in your favour.


Summoner Spells you do not want.

Exhaust may be useful but you don't really need to slow the enemy champion when you have a 2.5 second stun

Ghost is optional, but flash definitely outweighs it my a wide margin.

Heal is pretty worthless as it does not provide a large enough heal and has a long cooldown.

You can grab Revive if you keep dying, but its long cooldown is not worth while.

Just no. Don't grab Smite (:

You don't need cleanse as you will already have Zhonya's and a Banshee's

Ideally you can take fortify if you want but you shouldn't

Malzahar doesn't do AD damage

Leave this skill for the supporting cast

Early on, Malzahar doesn't have mana problems due to the mana gain from Malefic Visions.

Summon Voidling

(Innate): After casting 4 spells, Malzahar summons a Voidling for 21 seconds. Voidlings have 200 + (50 x level) health and 20 + (5 x level) damage.

Voidlings Grow after 7 seconds (+50% damage/armor), and Frenzy after 14 seconds (+100% attack speed).
Voidlings attack the target affected by Malzahar's most recently cast Malefic Visions.

After every four spells, Malzahar can summon a voidling pet, to farm and harass for you. It is uncontrollable, but it is attracted to a target if Malefic Visions is casted on them.
If your voidling is up, cast Malefic Visions on the enemy champ as the voidling will go straight for them. They provide a substantial amount of damage so before every team fights, you should have your voidling ready to launched onto the battle field, as casting another 4 spells after your voidling is out will summon another voidling.

Call of the Void

]Active): Malzahar opens up two portals to the Void. After a short delay, power erupts from the portals, dealing damage and silencing all enemies caught between the portals. Also at level you can choose to level up Call of Void instead of Malefic Visions, and spam it to get your voidling ready at the first minion wave.

Cooldown: 9 seconds
Range to center of wall: 900
Wall width: 400 (estimate)
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Magic Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+0.8 per ability power)
Silence Duration: 1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 / 3 seconds

Call of the void can be difficult to land, but when used correctly, you can silence many champions in a row. Late game is a fairly decent amount of damage. Its silence duration allows you to quickly finish an enemy off before they can escape with flash or other abilities. It has an extremely long range, so you can silence melee chasers and ranged before they can use their abilities on you. Once silenced you should unleash Null zone beneath them and proceed to ultimate and finish with Malefic Visions.


Null Zone

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

Cooldown: 16 seconds
Range to center of AoE: 800
Radius of AoE: 250 (estimate)
Cost: 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 mana
Magic Damage: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 % (+1% per 80 ability power) per second

Null Zone is an AOE damaging spell with decent sized radius. It does a % of your targets hp per second and scales with 1% for every 80 AP. With my build you can see Null zone doing about 13-17% of their max hp per second. In team fights try to land Null Zone after your team has used your CC's the other team in place to maximize damage. Using Nether Grasp on a target sitting under Null Zone, maximizes your damage and is almost a guaranteed kill late game.


Malefic Visions

(Active): Malzahar infects his target's mind with cruel visions of their own demise, dealing magic damage each second 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.

Range: 650
Cost: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 mana
Cooldown: 15 / 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 seconds
Magic Damage: 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+0.8 per ability power)
Mana Restored: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26

Malefic Vision's is my favourite spell in Malzahar's arsenal. Malefic Visions is a Damage over time spell that when a target dies under its duration it will jump to a new target. It is extremely effective at clearing minion waves at rank level 2. After every jump Malefic Visions will restore a small portion of mana back allowing you to efficiently cast this spell over and over again. Assuming the positioning of the enemy champion, Malefic Visions will using jump onto them from the creeps allowing you to deal damage from over 900 range away. a The voidling pet that you summon will be attracted to whatever target is under the duration allowing you to harass. In team fights it has such short cooldown, so be sure to cast it on every champion on the other team.


Nether Grasp

(Active): Malzahar grips his target in an engulfing void of energy, dealing magic damage every half second while stunning and suppressing them for 2.5 seconds.

Cost: 150 mana
Range: 700
Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 seconds
Magic Damage: 250 / 400 / 550 (+1.5 per ability power)

Nether Grasp is Malzahar's main nuke. It does extremely high damage over time and stuns your target for 2.5 seconds. Your ultimate is what inspires the hate against Malzahar so be sure to use it early and often. When combined with Null Zone you can drop most champions at level 6 from a fair amount of life.

Before using your ultimate try to either,
1) Silence the enemy so they can not get away using spells such as flash.
2) Use Malefic Visions to get your voidling attracted towards the target.
3) Use the flash stun.

What is the Flash stun?

If you see that your enemy is at low life and you think you can kill them with Nether Grasp + Null Zone combo, chances are, as you approach them they'll immediately back away. Using Flash lets you catch up to your fleeing target and put them into range of your ultimate. Immediately after using flash, drop your Null zone and little bit ahead or to the left or right and then follow it up with Nether Grasp.

I have gotten so many kills on unsuspecting champs using this technique. Once you learn how to use this effectively getting kills should be no problem.

I go 9/0/21 taking standard caster masteries including increased cooldown reduction, magic penatration. Quickness and Presence of the Master allow you to use Malzahar's flash stun (more on this later) effectively and often.

9x
9x
9x
3x

Greater Mark of Insight because when combined with Archaic Knowledge in the masteries page, Malzahar will be able have 23.5% magic penetration. Allowing you to effectively own a lane with Malefic Visions.

Greater Seal of Force seems like the better option for Malzahar. As you know AP per level provides a higher benefit at level 18 than flat AP runes and with Malzahar you usually be @ mid lane in which you can reach ~level 10 quickly. (When the AP per levels provide a better bonus than flat AP.

Glyph of Celerity provides an ample amount of cooldown reduction for the late game. I grab Cooldown Reduction per level as the CDR surpasses flat CDR at level 10 and it is when you need it most. I choose not to get any more AP runes as with my build you will have more than enough AP to quickly drop any champion.

Greater Quintessence of Potency seemed too hard to pass up over AP per level Quintessences. Having +15 AP at level one combine with Doran's Ring gives a total of 31 AP (1 from Seals) allows you to dominate other casters because of Malzahar's high AP ratios for all of his spells.

Ahh items are what make Malzahar truly shine.

I take advantage of Malzahar's High AP Ratios, and build him similar to an Infinity Edge Rush for an AD Carry.

Standard Build ( in order that you should get)



Item Breakdown:

Mejai's Soulstealer is one of my most favourite items to get as Malzahar. Most games I usually keep around 12-20 stacks making it the best AP for cost item out there. I get it often because at level 6 you can usually get a kill and then let the snowballing begin. If you are uncomfortable with a snowball item, consider rushing straight to Rabadon's Deathcap.

Rabadon's Deathcap is Malzahar's bread and butter. I feel with Malzahar you need to take advantage of his high AP ratios. An early Rabadon's allows you to drop most champions after level 6 and get those stacks going. If you have been diligently farming you should be able to get Rabadon's at about ~18 minutes.

Void Staff's provides a decent about of AP for its cost, and its real bonus is the 40% magic penetration. With Void staff, Sorcerer's Shoes and Runes, you can drop any champion whether it be squishy or tank at the mid game.

Zhonya's Hourglass is your main survivability item for late game. It provides a decent amount of armor, a great amount of AP and a 3 second invulnerability. Once you have used your full spell combo, and you decided to use your ultimate on some poor champion, feel free to pop Zhonya's after your ultimate has finished. Using your ultimate in a team fight leaves you extremely vulnerable to anti-carries or anti mages, namely Veigar and Poppy. With Zhonya's popped, you should be there standing brightly and beautifully waiting for your cooldowns to reset and bring the hurt again.

Getting a Banshee's Veil allows you to survive the initial CC's in a team fight. If find that you cannot survive the initial phase of team fights then you should grab a Banshee's Veil. It is well worth its cost and item slot because it allows you a higher chance of unleashing your whole spell combo on the enemy team.

Situational Items:

If faced with a team stacked with AP, you should consider grabbed an Abyssal Scepter for the Magic Resist instead of the Void Staff. Voidstaff would only penetrate 40% of an already low on Magic Resist champion.

If you have trouble managing Malzahar's mana, you could choose to grab an Archangel's before the Rabadon's Deathcap. It gives an exceptional amount of AP late game once you charge it up through the whole game.

Oh what a Malzahar with two lives. Guardian Angel is an option item you can grab. With Zhonya's and Guardians you have three saving graces.\

If you are absolutely ripping their team up. You can grab a second Rabadon's and try to hit that 1000 AP barrier.

At the start of the game, I grab a Doran's Ring and Malefic Visions as my first level one ability. Doran's ring and Malefic Visions provide enough mana regen and survivability for any lane. At level one, you will need to last hit, as Malefic Visions does not do enough damage to farm for you. When you reach level 4-5, you should definitely start harassing the enemy champion with Malefic Visions or Call of the Void, so when you hit level 6, you can easily flash stun followed by ignite for a guaranteed kill.

Keep a good awareness of where your enermies are at all times as an over extending Malzahar is usually a dead Malzahar.

Okay, by now you probably gotten past the early game and entering the mid game phase. If you have been farming well, you should have gotten your Mejai's Soulstealer and Rabadon's Deathcap OR Rabadon's Death and Void Staff ( you if want to avoid snowball items) around 20-26 minutes into the game. This is where Malzahar shines, when you have the AP, Magic Penetration and levels to start dropping team fights. You should start ganking if you have not begun to do so, as Malzahar is an extremely solid ganker if you employ the flash stun technique as illustrated in the previous champers.

How to Gank

Coordinate with your team and wait off in the brush and let the other team push the lane, and when you are ready it should look like this

---> ---> --->

follow through with and

Once you have done this your team should be should be able to follow through for clean up.

Tips you need to know before engaging team fights.

1) The Blue Buff
Grab the blue buff from the Blue Golem. The blue buff will help Malzahar immensely when team fighting, Malzahar has extremely high burst damaging spells, with extended cool down reduction and unlimited mana, you can expect to dominate team fights.

2) Warding and YOU
Sight Ward Learning to ward the map, will be your best friend you'll ever have in a game. Wards allow your team to establish better position for team fights. Establish locations favourable to your team composition makes all the difference in winning games.



Red Locations: Are for finding the whereabouts of the other team, protecting your jungle and setting up ganks in game.

Green Locations: You want to ward these areas in early game, so you can ward off ganks and escape safely.

Black Locations: Are for situational purposes such as backdooring.

3) Knowing the brush, inside and out
Knowing how to utilizing the brush, is an amazing skill you should have. When escaping from an enemy champion or getting ready to gank, head immediately towards the brush. This forces him to come to you which is exactly what Malzahar wants. As soon as he enters with Call of the Void, and follow up with Null Zone and Nether Grasp. You should result with a dead champion lying beside you, unless he's extremely tanky.

The Team Fights

Alright so you think you're ready to start team fighting? But first there are several things to go over.

First: Positioning & Entering

Positioning and entering is key for Malzahar, it makes all the difference in allowing you to safely use your ultimate. First off look at your team composition, if you have really strong initiators that can Crowd Control and tank such as:




then you should almost right behind these tanks. You might think that if you stay in the back , you'd be safer when they initiate, but no you HAVE to be near them, as using Call of The Void and Null Zone immediately after their initiators will help maximize damage, and stun the carry of the under team ASAP. If you get focused after laying down Call of the Void and Null Zone quickly Zhonya's Hourglass. Once its duration, lay down another Null Zone and Nether Grasp that pesky champion that has been oh so waiting for you.

However

If you team is lacking that required initiator, then you should position yourself in the back of the team, behind walls or trees, or in the brush. Wait for your team or the other to start initiating. As soon as you see the enemy carry or AP carry, head immediately for him and stun lock for an easier team on your team. If you are unable to get to him, flash through a wall or tree so that you end up beside their carry and unleash the Void.

Second: What To Do Next? Unleash the Void.

I would like to thank my friends for constructive criticism LOL thanks guys~!
And I would like to credit game replays for the map of the warding locations.