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Malzahar Build Guide by Chromuro

Middle An in-depth look inside the Void Prophet's mind [S9]

Middle An in-depth look inside the Void Prophet's mind [S9]

Updated on October 9, 2019
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Chromuro Build Guide By Chromuro 210 9 621,428 Views 27 Comments
210 9 621,428 Views 27 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Chromuro Malzahar Build Guide By Chromuro Updated on October 9, 2019
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1
Mika7 | October 9, 2019 6:18pm
i like it
2
Maintained (201) | May 22, 2019 4:21pm
Hi Chromuro! I'm here to give an in-depth look inside my mind
[see what I did there?]

Anyhow let's start with the review.


Summoner Spells:
  • I like all the summoner spell options you have going there, most guides only have 1-2 options so kudos on that, but I feel like Teleport should be the usual over Ghost. I'm sure that Ghost can have its uses, but it's less useful in the mid lane as opposed to top lane due to the shorter lane, and you already have Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Teleport just way too good of a spell in a lot of situations.
  • Might want to look into Barrier over Exhaust against certain burst/assassins. Some burst champs, like Lux, burst you outside of Exhaust range, and some assassins, like Talon, can dish out most of their damage before you can even press Exhaust on them.

Runes:
  • Inspiration is really good secondary at the moment. I would look into Magical Footwear for your first option. Malzahar enjoys staying in lane and not roaming, so there's no agency in rushing boots. So having 300 gold go into your core items as opposed to boots is pretty nice. Your second option can be Cosmic Insight.
  • What little cooldown reduction you get from the CDR stat shard is not worth the adaptive stat trade-off, and converting it into AP with Transcendence later on isn't worth the trade-off either. Just stick with adaptive force imo.

Items:
  • Morellonomicon should be more situational rather than a "next purchase." Even in your guide, you have a different build route that doesn't involve Morellonomicon.
  • I like the attempt to explore other items to experiment, but it's probably just better to remove Shurelya's Battlesong and Spellbinder, they're not worth building, and probably just include Zhonya's Hourglass under "other nice items."
  • Your possible full build doesn't include boots :(

I really like the whole battle boss theme you have going in your guide. It looks great! Now time for the actual guide content.

Skills:
  • Call of the Void doesn't silence for 2.5 seconds anymore, at least according to the Mobafire tooltip :p
  • Void Swarm can summon up to three voidlings, but if I were to read this section, I would have assumed two would be the maximum amount. You have it right but just adjust the phrasing a bit better. Also the link under explanations doesn't seem to take me to the minions chapter, but that might just be on my end.
  • Talk about how Nether Grasp is one of the few crowd control abilities that can actually stop the enemy jungler from using Smite. Great for objective control.

You go really in-depth into Void Swarm and Malefic Visions later on which is pretty impressive.

Items:
  • I liked the route system, but it needs to be slightly more intuitive. For example, You wouldn't build both Zhonya's Hourglass and Banshee's Veil if you wanted to go a more defensive route. You only need one or the other. Gets even worse with the active items route and passive route.
  • Probably shouldn't have items in the guide that you don't have in your cheat sheet.

Farming as Malz:
  • I love that this chapter exists, it's almost perfect imo. Only thing I would personally change would be adding clips of achieving each method, but that's just me :^)

Combos & Voidlings:
  • Also 2 more great chapters, especially the schematics you have under the voidlings chapter. Those two, along with the previous chapter, have set the bar for the bare minimum that a Malzahar guide should have in my eyes. My only nitpick would be having a bit more vertical spacing between each paragraph

In Game:
    Early Game:
  • Pretty much summarizes what Malzahar could do, but more could be added upon it. You mention focusing on farming and punishing the opponent. If I wanted to try out Malzahar for the first time, how would I find the perfect balance between doing both? Also, since teleport should be your primary spell, you can talk more about utilizing it at this stage of the game. For example, when to use it to get back to lane vs when to save it, or using it to flank/gank/countergank another lane, as your Nether Grasp can very easily force plays.

    Late Game:
  • Saying that late game turns the game into an ARAM play-style is very inaccurate, and a lot of the times it is the wrong play. There are many different strategies involving the late game. Some include: 1-4 siege, 1-3-1 siege, Baron baiting, Dragon baiting, etc. Teleport can help you execute some of these strategies. Try talking more about these different kinds of strategies.
  • "use your Nether Grasp to lockdown the priority target (most likely the enemy ADC)." Keep in mind that this would be impossible to do a lot of the times without leaving your back-line. A new Malzahar player could read this, trying doing exactly this, and probably get himself killed.

Overall a great guide in terms of content and style, but a few mistakes that really keep the guide from shining as bright as it could.
1
Chromuro (47) | May 23, 2019 10:23am
hehe 10/10 for the pun, I would look inside something in-depth again

Now the answers :D

Summoner Spells and runes
About Ghost-> Teleport and precision->inspiration I already know, those are the optimal choices when playing malz. I took ghost as my usual SS since it was the best fit for me at the time, but since recently I don't play as much malzahar I could do a quick "feel test" to see if I like more teleport now. About the secondary tree I'm a bit more resilient to change it since I like it a lot more over the inspiration tree thanks to its great power in late game (even an assist chain can nearly reset your ult) while providing mana to fight with, GdG is... obligatory since there is anything else inside the precision tree. Surely I can add it as an option, there is nothing to stop me to do so lul

About Barrier and the AP shard, for the first one sure, it's not a bad idea and your reasoning makes sense, so I can add it; about the AP shard eeeeeh I just have a sweet spot for the Transcendence+time shard, even if I know that it's slow AF. Maybe I could suggest it together with Gathering Storm, a thing that I was considering adding, what do you think about it?

Items
Yeah, Morellonomicon is still there because in the previous item chapter interaction it was one of the "important" items, so I just forgot to declass it. About Shurelya's Battlesong I can agree, but Spellbinder has its use; I don't build it that often, but it helps a lot in really prolonged games. Zhonya's Hourglass is enough nice to enter in the "other nice items club".

Shoes are for losers, for those champions that get a "-5 MS" nerf and for those who forget to put them in the complete build after a year.



About the BB theme you have to thank Jovy, she did an absolutely great job :D



Answers pt.2, the revenge:

Skills:
Apparently Call of the Void never silenced for 2.5 seconds, it has been a 2 second silence since 6.9, when I wasn't even playing LoL, and before it was max 3 sec., the only possible answer is: me big dum dum that can't read.

I remember that phrase, I knew that it was phrased weirdly, but then forgot about it, I'll try to reword it. About the broken link it seems that when I passed from the chapter layout to the mono-chapter one I forgot to update it, mb.

I never thought about that with Nether Grasp, like it makes sense but I didn't think about it, so adding it asap lol

Items
Sigh unfortunately I know, I can't find a layout that I like and that people can understand from it. I tried with a more "only categorizing items by group" instead of creating a real route, but I can understand the confusion. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

If you mean RoA it's in the second build, the spellbook one :p

In game
Everything can be summed up with "this usually is one of my weakest chapters" (together with the pros/cons one, that someone had the care to point to me already), so all of your suggestions are more than welcome and I'll try to integrate all of them.

I really appreciate that you spent so much time writing all of this, thank you very much for all the compliments and even more thank you for your precious feedback, this will help me quite a lot! :D
1
Maintained (201) | May 23, 2019 12:30pm
Chromuro wrote:
About Ghost-> Teleport and precision->inspiration I already know, those are the optimal choices when playing malz. I took ghost as my usual SS since it was the best fit for me


Gentle reminder that the guide is for those reading the guide, not those writing them :P

Gathering Storm is definitely a viable choice, it out-scales Scorch after 20 minutes and it does more damage than Scorch in an all-in combo or extended trade. So it depends on how the first 20 minutes of your games tend to go. Even if you don't take Gathering Storm, you wouldn't take the CDR stat shard, since it gives you negligible benefits early on, and you can easily get 40% CDR before the CDR stat shard really starts shining. Keep in mind you need to be level 18 to get the 10% CDR, and most games never even get to that stage.

I'm glad the review helped you. :)
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1
Sylvelinn (1) | May 15, 2019 7:06am
Who said Malzahar is not a great teamfighter?!? Permanent silence and slow from his Q which has 3.6 sec cd at 40% CDR and silences for 2 sec at max rank, plus the ability to lock down specific target with his R(less than a mintute CD @40CDR) and insane damage. In my opinion Malzahar is one of the best teamfighters in the game. Even when behind in CS and kills, he still brings tons of pressure to the enemy team with his toolkit. Not to mention the insane amount of damage he can deal if he's ahead. Yes, you can easely counter him with QSS, but that still means that enemies have to spend 1300g and postpone buying other items.
1
Chromuro (47) | May 15, 2019 8:26am
Mh, maybe I didn't express myself in a right way, I'll try to explain better my train of thoughts: after you did your spell rotation you can't do anything active inside a teamfight (moreover when you have your R down, that anyways locks you into position and you can't do anything during the channel) if not to wait for the spells to come up again; when they come up again, everyone will be in a different position and there is the possibility that you can't effectively target again the same enemies because in those 3.6 seconds everyone could be out of reach (yeah, it's spammable, but the range isn't the best) or they could be on top of you. Malzahar is really dependant on the various moments you fight, everything must be at a certain way to work efficiently; having of medium range soft CCs or spammable skills doesn't make up for this dependancy.

I could take an example that I think it's a better teamfighter than malz, Xerath: xer can be always active in a teamfight mostly thanks to his Q since it has a longer range and a low CD, then he has a self-peel in form of his E (I think, I can't remember now if it was his W or his E).
Another immobile mage? Cassiopeia. Even if she lacks hard CCs like malzahar she has a built-in slow (thing that with malz you don't have since you have to rely on rylai's) that grounds units, crippling them and making it a form of self-peel. Then she can always fight thanks to her Q+E that literally shreds anyone.

Do you see where I'm going? Malz is an immobile mage that doesn't have any reliable source of peel (out of his R, but I don't call a peel skill that has a 60 seconds cd "reliable"), obliging him to a backline position or else... he explodes. Sure, you can put a lot of pressure with your Q, but as I said before malz kit tries to counteract this possible pressure. That's what I meant when I said that he isn't a great teamfighter, he's a lot "dump everything and run away" imo

About damage... meh, just personal opinion here, but honestly malz damage isn't anymore what he used to be after repeated nerfs, you really need to get a lot ahead to be of relevance. And anyway your damage falls off pretty quickly in late game, you need to close the game before 25 min or else you'll feel the wrath of the enemy team lol

And finally QSS, sure they postpone their items, but a 1300 gold purchase isn't a great deal if it's needed to remove a great threath as malz ult. It's quite depressing when the only possible targets for your ult are a leona or a really behind irelia, trust me.

Anyway, I hope now it's more clear what I meant, if you think of a way I could replace that phrase tell me, I'm open to suggestions!

tl;dr being a "not that great teamfighter" doesn't mean that he's bad, but surely he isn't the best
1
Sylvelinn (1) | May 15, 2019 2:18pm
I still don't see how Xerath is more active teamfighter since his Q needs to charge in order to reach max range and his other spells have much longer CD. Yes he has stun in the form of his E, but first you have to land it and second - you need more range for a longer stun. Actually his entire kit relies on skillshots. And yeah, 2 sec AoE silence on short CD is not a reliable peel at all. I don't know why, but you kinda make it sound like Malz, has nothing to do in teamfights after one combo, so he just sits behind the frontline picking his nose. How many control mages expose themselfs in the frontline? Yes you need to be careful when positioning yourself in teamfights with Malzahar, but the same goes for any mage. And what kind of player does not reposition themselfs when the enemy team does.... "oh they are running away, I'll just pick a champ with longer range". And not to mention the fact that Malzahar is easier to master compared to other mid laners because he does not relly so heavily on skillshots.
What sort of pressure does Cassiopeia and Xerath bring when they can't get a lead on the enemy team?
And QSS not a big deal?!? If the enemy has a lead - yes, but if they are even or even behind - it kinda is a big deal because they'll need more time to reach their item spikes, which gives your team the opportunity to get ahead or even close the game. So yeah - anything that prevents or delays the enemy from reaching their full potential is a big deal.
Now, I know that you are expressing personal opinion, but - no offense - you need to back up that opinion with arguments better than "short range - they'll run away" or "one item - not a big deal".
Anyway, best regards and GL & HF on the Summoner's Rift.
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2
picoforever (1) | October 2, 2018 4:45am
Very nice guide! Well done
1
Chromuro (47) | October 2, 2018 7:51am
Hi! Thank you for the upvote and for the nice words :D
2
Rermo99 (7) | October 2, 2018 4:41am
Wow it improved a lot since the publication! Seriously I begin to think your guide is better than mine xD
Very good job on the look and the content is amazing. Everything is great about your guide, I'm happy to share the top of the list with your guide xP
I would upvote a second time if I could.
1
Chromuro (47) | October 2, 2018 7:51am
Hey! Thank you for your kind words <3
Yes, it has come a long way since its publication, but there is still a lot of room for improvements and that's why I still think that the first spot needs to be yours ;D
1
Rermo99 (7) | October 2, 2018 11:35am
I don't even have any section about the summoner's spells, I have only have a few matchup explained and I still haven't done the chapter I always wanted to do about the voidling xD my guide is far from completed but thanks for the support!
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1
IonicWind | June 2, 2018 6:16am
Great guide!! I feel like it just needs an Banshee's Veil optional/situational path
2
Chromuro (47) | June 2, 2018 6:28am
Thank you! :D
Yeah, I don't really like Banshee's Veil on malzahar since the item passive doesn't interact separatedly with malz passive, but it is always a good source of MR/AP, so I'll put it right now (since I have already the editor open lol)
1
IonicWind | June 2, 2018 6:57am
TY I think this guide is perfect for this patch GJ
1
Witwickies (2) | May 17, 2018 5:29am
Hello :)
First of all, great guide! I see you put a lot of work into this ^^ I would also ask you one question - what do you think about rushing Shurelia as first item? It has really low cooldown and if you combine it with celerity rune then Malzahar's all-in can be soooo dangerous ;) In the other hand it doesn't give any mana, so some issues may occur :/
2
Chromuro (47) | May 17, 2018 6:17am
Hi and thank you for the kind words!
So, shurelya's first item... I saw that a lot during this MSI (if you didn't see, try to look at pobelter's malzahar here; it's a completely different item build focused more on raw power and utility) where they take first tear of goddess for the mana and then first complete item shurelya's. I'm not really fond of it, I must be honest: yes, it synergize with celerity (I wrote it literally today lol), but if you don't use it literally when you are in the face of your enemy the effective burst time is really limited. Moreover it just came in mind that celerity is one of the "adaptive stats" runes: that means that all the bonus that you get from shurelya's goes to AD instead of AP.
Quick math: Malz's base AD is 55+the AD he gets from S+P tree+the AD he gets from levelling up (I don't know the precise number, sorry) -> at least 63 AD
Doran's ring gives 15 AP+40 AP from shurelya's -> 55 AP
So if you try to take shurelya's as first item (with this build, mind this), you would just get more damage on your AA (or on your voidlings AA, but you lose time casting them, reducing even more the burst time)(I know, with an amp tome there isn't any problem, but I want just to take this isolated case).
In the end, if you take shurelya's first item it is only for its active on its own; then as you stated it doesn't give mana or mana regen, so laning phase would be tricky.
All of this doesn't stop you to take it as second or third item: after the lost chapter item (luden's, archangel or glp) you have enough mana and AP to overcome the adaptive stats problem, so you can float at the speed of sound AND do damage with your skills.
I hope everything is clear and helpful and I hope it answers your question :D
1
Witwickies (2) | May 17, 2018 6:45am
Woow, thanks a lot for this fast reply ;) I wouldn't even consider possibility of getting AD from celerity in this case. I am certainly going to look at Pobelter's build ^^ Good lack in fields of justice! ^^
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1
Rermo99 (7) | May 16, 2018 9:12am
Very good guide mate! Good choice on the presence of mind, I personally was so stuck on it's synergy with lux that I didn't even thought of using it on any other champ xD
If you need any tip for your guide I'll be happy to help anytime :P
2
Chromuro (47) | May 17, 2018 3:50am
Thank you! Yeah, presence of mind is particularly powerfull on champs that already have partial ult reset, but it's so good that it has become one of my "when in doubt, use this" rune.
And obviously thank you for your offer, I'll remember it :D
1
f-town | May 14, 2018 3:17pm
excellent guide...gotta love the Malz :)
1
Chromuro (47) | May 17, 2018 3:50am
Thank you! Yup, malzahar is love, malzahar is life ;)
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