Welcome to my Malzahar Build. Malzahar is by far my favorite champion to play and since I have come up with my own way of building and playing him, I figured that I would make a build for him.

Masteries

As for my masteries, I went for a standard caster build putting points in mana regen and maximum mana, as well as a point in blink of an eye to help with flash, my summoner spell choice that I will explain later.

Skills and Skill Sequence

Summon Voidling: (Passive): After casting 5 spells, Malzahar summons an uncontrollable Voidling to engage enemy units for 21 seconds. Voidlings have 200 + 50 x lvl Health and 20 + 5 x lvl Damage.

Voidlings Grow after 7 seconds (+50% Damage/Armor), and Frenzy after 14 seconds (+100% Attack Speed).


This passive is pretty cool, but not really THAT useful. While I have killed many people with the voidling, at this point it is impossible to control it so getting it to attack someone is difficult. Also, if you plan on hiding in the brush, your faithful voidling will be sure to give away your position as it does not cloak when you are in a bush, instead it will stand outside of the bush in plain sight. Enjoy my friends. I don't recommend, especially early game, trying to spam moves to get a voidling to come out, because Malzahar's mana can be a real problem early game.

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.

* Cooldown: 10 seconds
* Range: 900


This move is very challenging to learn how to use well, but when you do, it can be a huge asset in team fights late game and an amazing harassing move early game. One of the major things you can do with this skill is lead your enemy. Because it has a delay, the best place I find to put it is a little bit behind them, because you running towards them will typically trigger them to panic and run back behind minions and if you timed it right, directly into your CoTV. It takes some practice but it's an amazing skill.

Null Zone: (Active): Malzahar creates a zone of negative energy for 5 seconds. The zone deals magic damage per second equal to a percent of the enemies HP to enemies inside it, with a minimum flat amount.

* Cooldown: 16 seconds
* Range: 800

This is a skill that I personally don't use that often. Many people like to skill this up early and use it, somewhat like Morgana's simlar move, however that is not my style. Personally I think that if I'm going to kill someone, I'm going to do it with my ult, malefic visions, and CoTV. While its nice late game for minions and group battles, early-mid game, I am not a fan of it. I skill this up late for that reason. If you disagree, you may skill it up however you like and spam it to your heart's content. It is just not my play style.

Malefic Visions: (Active): Malzahar infects his target's mind with cruel visions of their own demise, dealing damage each second. If the target dies while afflicted by the visions, they pass the curse on to a nearby enemy unit and restore mana to Malzahar.

* Range: 600


Ahhhhh, one of my favorite moves in the game. This is the move that typically makes me laugh the hardest in any game when I watch it jump onto an enemy and their health drops like a rock. This move is your greatest farming asset, and if you play it right, an amazing harassing asset as well. This skill will jump from target to target as that enemy dies, however in the beginning of the game, when it is at rank 1 or 2, it does minimal damage to minions and needs some help. This skill I do not recommend using on minions until at least rank 3. This move also gives you mana back every time that it jumps, so its good to use on minions waves when its powerful enough as it can regen SOME mana. I say SOME because it isn't a massive regen, but it will give some of it back. This is another move that takes some skill to master and be effective with but it's incredibly fun to use and harass enemy champs with.

Nether Grasp: (Active): Malzahar grips his target in an engulfing void of energy, dealing damage each half second while stunning for 2.5 seconds.

* Cost: 150 mana.
* Range: 575

I remember seeing this move when Malzahar was announced and thinking, "man that's overpowered". Well, it's not, but it's damn powerful when used right. This is a move that is INCREDIBLY situational and again hard to use well. Because it is only used on one person and is channeled, it leaves you vulnerable. You need to learn with this move when and when not to use it to get that kill. This move, as well as the other ones take experience with the champion to learn how to use well. There are some interesting combo's with this move that I like to use.

My combo is usually Flash (If necessary to get to target)---> Nether Grasp---> Ignite---> Malefic Visions---> and then lead and hopefully finish them off or get them low with CoTV. Typically by level 6 I can get a kill on a squishy like Ashe pretty easily, especially if I'm mid. Come up with your own combo's to see what works, you never know what you may find that works better for you.

Another option which works scary well if you time it right is Null Zone ---> Nether Grasp. It has to be done very quickly but if done, this combo is absolutely devastating, give it a try.


Summoner Spells

I love flash, I use it on almost every character I play. It's a great escape method, especially for Malzahar who has no way to get away at all.
Ignite is another spell as Malzahar I like to use in combination with Malefic visions for the nice DoT. This move is pretty self-explanatory.

Playing as Malzahar

For both laning and Solo mid, start with a Doran's Ring and a health pot for the early AP and Health so you can stay in the lane longer.

Solo Mid

At levels 1-6 your main priority is to farm minions, last hit them for gold and harass the **** out of your enemy. Lead them with CoTV and if they get to close throw a MV on them to scare em off and drop their health a bit. Try and stay in lane as long as you can so when you do go back you can pick up your hextech or boots, depending on your play style. I prefer hextech to have the AP and early spell vamp advantage over movement which will come later.

Laning


Try to find a melee with a stun or a slow to lane with; this makes hitting the enemy with your CoTV a lot easier and makes a MV-->CoTV combo a lot easier to land. Same as Solo Mid, you want to harass, last hit and make sure you stay in lane as long as you can so you can get either boots or hextech.

As the game progresses on to levels 7-13, you want to start going to help other lanes and maybe gank. This is a great time to pop your Ult combo that I went over earlier. Hide in a bush, flash and stun them. If your teammates help you and if you have some sort of slow like exhaust, it should be an automatic kill. Around this time you should be close to getting, if not already have Mejai's Soulstealer.


The reason I choose to get this now is because it allows you to have a few early game deaths and not lose stacks so early. It gives you a bit of breathing room, but once you have it, you will need to learn to play a lot more defensively. You are a caster with not a LOT of health, so be aware of everything around you, and know your escape route.

Side Note


Mana can be a HUGE problem for Malzahar. In early game, don't spam everything you have to try and get the kill because then you will be in your lane and be pretty much useless. The point of early game is to stay as long as you can, harass when you see an open opportunity. Use Malefic visions to your advantage when its ranked higher to get some mana back, even if you need to push it along with some auto-attacks.


Item Choices

My item choices I've notice differ a lot from other Malzahar builds. Some people may criticize that getting a Mejai's is risky on a champion with not a lot of escape mechanism's and this is very true, it is risky. However the way I see it, the pro's outweigh the con's. In almost every game I have as him, I could have anywhere from 6-13 stacks and still be at over 400 AP. With an Ultimate that does 100% of your ability power and 80% for CoTV and MV, that AP does some HEAVY damage. The soulstealer just gives you that edge in my opinion. The whole build doesn't rely HEAVILY on it, but having 6+ stacks of it helps a great deal.


Runes

I chose runes of Force over straight AP because the AP scales better. I like to have the increasing amounts per level, I think it helps overall with this build and has a better end product especially for lengthy games. Along side the Magic Pen. runes it makes for a nice base for Malzahar to build on throughout a game.

Another option for a seal's would be to get Greater Seal of Vitality for the extra health. This is completely up to you and how you'd like to play him.


Playing AGAINST Malzahar

If you ever find yourself against Malzahar and want a few tips on how to counter him, I have a few I'd be glad to share. Malzahar is a very squishy champion with no way to get away besides flash so:


1. A stun or a slow will mean almost certain death to an enemy Malzahar if they are alone. With help, they might be able to turn it around with his silence and DoT so be careful. As with any gank, know what you are getting yourself into and be aware of the map. Don't let anything take you by suprise.


2. When a Malzahar tries to lead you with Call of the Void, try to run forward instead of backwards towards your turret. 9 out of 10 times, the panic that you get from this move causes you to actually take damage. If you focus on what he is trying to do, countering it could mean him being closer to you and wasting more of his mana which could end up giving you the advantage.

3. Stay away from minion mobs that are low and have Malefic Visions on them. Don't be THAT GUY who gets hit by MV because you weren't paying attention.

Anything else is just common sense that you need for any LoL game.


End


If you have an questions, or comments please feel free. If you rate my build, please leave a reason why, it's always nice to see feedback, whether it's good or bad =). Thanks a lot, and enjoy the Mad Prophet.