Great guide, but I have a couple of questions.

You state that you usually rush Athene's unholy grail for the mana regen for skill spamming. But if you used malefic visions well enough, wouldn't that just render the effect from the unholy grail ineffective? Wouldn't blue buff also help with your mana problems if you're spamming skills right after their off of cooldown? I find that I have no mana problems if I get RoA, and also, wouldn't RoA give you more AP from the additional AP over time effect, making it offensive as well as defenstive on Malz?

Second thing is Rylai's
I usually build both Rylai's and RoA for the health, so I have 3000+ health late game while still being able to do tons of damage. I know the 35% slow decreases hugely to 15% with Malz's abilities, but couldn't you still use the slow for crowd control in team fights as enemies will try to move off your w?

Still, it's the best Malz guide I've seen nonetheless :)

This is a great guide; got me going on Malz and has been incredibly helpful.

A few points:
-With my seals, I actually go 6 scaling health+ 3 flat mana. Sounds stupid, I know, and it would be except that I usually don't have many mana problems. When I do, it's because I don't get my visions to bounce enough early. The 3 mana seals give me exactly the right amount for 1 more e before being oom, which is very often enough for me to farm back up to full mana. It's just a little more forgiving of the early mistake, and 3 scaling mana regen wouldn't give you the same amount early. In short, it gives me more sustain late game and just enough mana early to not have to b. The mana regen late game I get from other places when needed.
-I've run AP glyphs and they're very strong, but I've found I just prefer the scaling mr. I squish too hard late game without them.
-For when you update for s3, liandry's torment is practically a must now imo. The additional penetration combined with the nerfs to mr make a Void Staff needed far less often, and the % health dmg combined with your ult and DFG makes you absolutely SHRED tanks that build health. Kinda requires you to keep the sorceror's shoes if you dont get void staff though... not sure about the loss of tenacity, it could be veryy painful. Then again, if you're trying to burst their tank down like that, you'll potentially be supressing the majority of their cc, and you're more likely to be farther away from any other cc they have, not to mention their carries, and with more of your team between you.
-Also for s3, Twin Shadows and Athene's give you enough MR you don't HAVE to get a banshee's veil anymore. The ms there might make ms quints unnecessary now too; i haven't decided for sure yet. Yeah, I know the Athene's is making up for the seals decision and with the AP nerf to it I'm looking for a better option, but the CDR, mana and ap is just sooo nice. Great for if you have more than one caster in need of a blue buff too- with that and DFG you wont absolutely require one anymore.
-I think you don't give kat enough credit in your matchups section. She's super easy a lot of the time, but good ones can still eat you up. There's a short time right as you ult that your cd can go off without actually suppressing them; if she shunpos out of range then suddenly she's got her full combo to land on you if you miss with cotv, and you're out your ult. And if she gets ahead, god help you, because she'll get fed as hell off the other lanes, even more than you. When she gets a qss to deal with you, it's probably gg, but that's true of a lot of champs. Maybe consider moving her to easy or moderately easy. Then again, I could just sometimes have trouble because she's one of my least favorites.
-It'd be great if you could add in a few more of the unusual mid matchups too. I've seen a maokai go mid (rarely), and even the occasional cho'gath.
-Maybe mention putting a point or two more into null zone early if going against someone tanky in lane, it can make that ult even more deadly.

As I said at the beginning though, it's a great guide and has helped me a lot. I can't count the number of times I've ctrl-f'ed to find the matchup im going into during loading screen, just in case i forgot something.

I'm much lower Elo (700-1350 usually) player then You are, so take everything with grain of salt, but maybe I can give You something to think about. It got bit too long.

I'm sorry about my awful English as it is not my first language and all of it is learned from internet and american movies, so I have no idea wtf grammar is.

I probably have played Malzahar in about 1000 or so games. I do not keep statistics, but he has been my main from the beginning. I can see that I had 270 ranked games as Malzahar and I played him a lot in normals.
Mostly I agree with Your guide, but in some aspects my experience have been bit different I try to give little overview about those differences, if I do not mention something, it means I found it useful and right. Or I just missed it :).

1. Runes - I'm sorry, but I do not agree with you at all, in my opinion You cannot go mid lane without magic resist (or armor when vs AD). You need early magic resist and actually you also need early armor because trading auto-attacks is very common. Lately I have been using page with magic pene red, flat armor yellow, flat mr blues and ms quints. I also use AP quints and sometimes AP red, but I will never ever switch out flat mr blue runes. vs great bursters (leblanc etc) I would like to go with even more mr.

2. Masteries - I myself prefer bit different ones because of my low skill. In offense I take Brute Force and Butcher, it makes my lasthit's easier. Much easier. It is important for low-skill people like me. I really do not care about Mental Force, because those 1-4 AP's are not helping me as much as getting more lasthit's do. I totally skip Havoc, In my opinion its bit underwhelming. 1,5% is just 15 additional damage if you burst for 1000 damage. Instead of utility I prefer to go for defense. I take 9 in defense and put those: 2 to magic resist and 2 for reduced minion damage from first line. Why? I do poke a lot with autoattacks and enemy minions tend to get bit angry when I do that and magic resist is generally very good in mid lane. I guess 9 in utility would also work, but its preference from my play and build-style

3. I would never go top lane Malzahar. Malzahar is not mobile enough to survive top.

4. Summoner's - I agree, from the early era's I remember that going flash/ghost or flash/teleport sometimes helped a lot. Now-days I almost exclusively run flash/ignite. Good You mentioned it, I think considering low mobility of Malzahar it's good idea to pick also ghost or teleport till You get better grasp about game flow for Malzahar.

5. Items -
Rabadon - Can't argue about hat. This is most important item. Core.
DFG - I used to build it a lot. Not really after nerf. Not core for me anymore.
Void Staff - I build void 1-2 games out of 10. Why? Because people just do not build magic resist in low Elo. Maybe it's good to mention. If they have 60 mr and You already take out 30 of it with boots/runes, then void staff is bit underwhelming. Core item, if your potential target has magic resist.


I mainly build Malzahar in three different paths. There are more options, but those three paths are most common for me. In my experience you should never ask what to build, instead you should focus on why to build it. So I try to explain

I always start boots + 3 hp potions no exceptions (maybe will change with s3 items)
1) Regular build – Catalyst to RoA ASAP, upgrade boots, build hat, then defense (GA/Rylais)
2) I need to survive – rush chalice + 2 doran rings, upgrade boots, build hat, upgrade chalice, build GA. Use this build with Amumu or other manahunrgy jungler, you do not need blue for laning, just for teamfights
3) fu Talon – 2x doran ring, ninja tabi, chain vest, hat, zhonya, ga. Yell to your jungler, you need every blue and then some more. Talon did I mention that I have runepage with 32 additional armor in level 1? (I have actually never used it  vs Talon)

Banshee’s Veil - In my opinion it’s just too expensive. I never build it. I think it’s one of those “trap” items. There are better options for MR (chalice) and defense (GA)

Abyssal – After recent nerf I started to build it less. It’s range is bit short and sometimes someone else (jungler or top) builds it.

Rylais – It’s not for slow. It is for AP/HP. I build it when I had no luck with early RoA. You need RoA fast, or not at all, pre 20 minutes.

Archangel – „You will already have insanely high mana regen late game anyway“ – No, I do not. I have enough mana for laning because of e, but in teamfights I run dry from time to time, even with upgraded chalice. You need blue for late-game. I agree, this item is pretty bad. Maybe s3 changes make it useful.

Chalice – Core for me. When upgraded it’s best early item. Magic resist is king, upgraded it gives 90 AP and also tons of mana regen. Rushing it early allows me to not use mana regen runes/masteries so I can get more tankiness that I need for first levels.

Morello’s Tome – I never build it. I go Chalice over it.

6. Tactics
“Just make sure the brushes are warded.“ As I’m low Elo with no map awareness with every back I buy 2-4 wards and ward both sides, bit outside of brush. Malza has no mobility and warding brush will not give you early enough warning. Also You really do need to see when enemy jungler enters your jungle, I usually put my river wards near jungle entrances. Brush wards are just selfish.
Now I push like mad man.

7. Matchups
This we could probably argue for year or two. I will not comment every champion separately or it takes another guide.

In my opinion hard counters to Malza mid are: Orianna, Annie, Zyra, Malphite, Cho

Heimer is harder than easy and Galio is usually easy to very easy. I don’t know why. Maybe because of bad skills at low Elo.

Kassadin is extremely easy to lane vs, but extremely hard to prevent from ganking. My warding + push hard tactics usually works to keep him in check and I do try to follow him to lane. Bad part it when I reach that lane he already got kill (or triple)

Leblanc – My build-order 2 and I just out-scale her. Upgrade boots faster for easier skill-shot dodge.

Talon – look build-order 3. gg Talon, btw Talon did u notice you have Olaf top and Nocturne jungle (happens a lot in low elo)


Thank You.