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Choose Champion Build:
Recommended Items
Runes:
Spells:
Ghost
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Void Shift (PASSIVE)
Malzahar Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Orianna
She can spam you so you can't keep your passive up. She outranges you so you can't poke without losing the trade. She can zone you with just the position of her Ball. And she can block your combo if she times her R well enough. Ask for jungler gank and play safe, you DO NOT want to see her fed. In teamfights try to land your silence when she uses her E, and try to ult when you are out of her range. Positioning is everything!
INTRODUCTION
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MALZAHAR
You're probably here to learn about
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Lore
"The land may melt, the sea may swell, the sky may fall... but they will come!" -
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Many men have gone mad beneath the glare of the Shuriman 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 Runeterra'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.
Trivia
So as you can see
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- Even though
Malzahar (and
Kassadin ) is Shuriman his ties to the Void directs all his focus to the ancient city of Icathia and what lies within it.
Malzahar might be attempting to make Icathia rise again just like
Azir did with the Ancient Shuriman capital.
- It is uncertain whether or not he is aware of the rise of the Ascended. Even if so, making way for the Voidborn takes precedence over a handful of actually mortal demigods that can be overrun by infinite hordes anyway.
Malzahar was brainwashed into believing the Void overrunning Runeterra is an inevitability and this in turned prompted him to become its prophet.
- The one resposible for luring
Malzahar to Icathia might have been the same entity
Aurelion Sol suspects of being commanding all the Void incursions into Runeterra.
You can always use the wikia page to check
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PROS: + Excellent Teamfight Presence via Q,R + Awesome Dueling Power + Easy Waveclear After First Item + Useful Even When Behind + Excellent Objective Control + CC-Immune Passive + Excellent Ganker + Melts Opponents |
CONS: - Very Low Mobility - Prone To Camping - May Push Even When Undesired - Easily Interruptible Ult - Can Die Easily When Focused - Mediocre Roamer - Hard To One-Shot Anyone Unless Ahead - ![]() |
Of course, it's not always bad if an opponents builds
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So this is the basic summoner spell setup we will be taking, there's not much to say about it.
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![]() These are your other alternative replacements to ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Finally ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Unviable Choices: ![]() So ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Ah... ![]() ![]() !!! IMPORTANT NOTICE !!!So the reason this... spell is so infamous to me is because I've seen my lane opponents pick it to "counter" me. So I will say this once: CLEANSE DOESN'T WORK ON NETHER GRASP!!!!. If you ever, EVER see an opponent picking to counter you, or ANY SUPRESS as a matter of fact, spread the word, I beg you: ![]() UPDATE: It seems Riot finally decided to include the fact that it doesn't remove suppression in it's tooltip, but I still see a lot of people making the same mistake so please spread the word... ![]() Last and probably least (along side of cleanse of course) comes ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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SPELLS:
VOID SHIFT (PASSIVE):
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"Innate: Malzahar receives Void Shift if he hasn't taken damage nor been affected by crowd control in the last 30 / 24 / 18 / 12 seconds (at Levels 1 / 6 / 11 / 16). Damage from minions does not interact with Void Shift.
Void Shift phases out
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As many people say, "this passive is
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Void Shift does not reduce true damage at all; true damage just breaks it.
Nocturne's ult,
Paranoia, applies a debuff called shortsight (if i remember the name right). This debuff breaks the passive from global range. Essentially this means
Nocturne is a pretty decent counter to our prophet.
CALL OF THE VOID (Q):
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"Active:
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-Range: 900 units
-Portal Width: 400 units
-Mana Cost: 80 at all ranks
-Cooldown: 6 seconds at all ranks
-Damage: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+70% AP) magic damage
-Silence Duration: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds
This is our spammable long range spell. You will not want to use this much early unless it is to refresh
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Call of the Void has a slight delay, it's very small (0.5s) but still noticeable.
Call of the Void gives vision slightly where it's cast. Use it when heading to unwarded bushes, or even behind Dragon/Baron pit.
- While
Call of the Void damages everything in it's path between the orbs (horizontally), it also has a very very small vertical radius.
- Casting
Call of the Void and then dying will not complete the cast, and as a result, it will not deal damage, denying you many times a kill.
VOID SWARM (W):
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"Passive: Malzahar stores a charge of Void Swarm periodically, up to a maximum of 2 at once.
Active: Malzahar spawns a Voidling at the target location for 12 seconds, that deals physical damage plus bonus magic damage on its attacks. Voidlings deal 50% damage to monsters, and 300% damage against minions affected by
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-Cast Range: 450 units
-Range Between
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-Mana Cost: 40 at all ranks
-Static Cooldown: 1 second
-Recharge Rate: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 seconds
-Spawn Time: 0.35 seconds at all ranks
-Damage: (30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 (+40% bonus AD) physical damage) + (10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+20% AP) magic damage)
-Damage vs Monsters: (15 / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25 (+20% bonus AD) physical damage) + (5 / 7.5 / 10 / 12.5 / 15 (+10% AP) magic damage)
-Damage vs Minions affected by
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First things first, static cooldown essentially means that if you have 2 charges you can use them on a 1-second delay, and it cannot be reduced by Cooldown Reduction. So on to
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- Your voidlings have "2 hp" which means they can take up to 2 champion basic attacks and spells before they die. Minions deal 0.5 damage on them, which means that it takes 6 minion basic attacks to kill a voidling. They also instantly die from turret shots. This hp is also affected by various on-hit effects (like Statik Shiv), dealing 2 full damage.
- Their attacks can be dodged (
Jax's
Counter Strike) and blocked (
Pantheon's
Aegis Protection). They can also be disarmed (
Quinn's
Blinding Assault), which means they can't attack, and blinded (
Teemo's
Blinding Dart).
- They have an attack speed of 0.831, 30 armor, 50 magic resist and a movement speed of 451.
- Their priority targets are:
- Target of
Nether Grasp.
- Champions within the Null Zone from
Nether Grasp
- Champions affected by
Malefic Visions.
- Minions affected by
Malefic Visions.
Malzahar.
- Target of
- Procs on-hit effects and
Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
- When voidlings reach 600 units away from
Malzahar, they get slower for every 100 units farther away from
Malzahar they are. This means that as they get farther, they also get slower.
MALEFIC VISIONS (E):
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Active:
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-Range: 650 units
-Mana Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
-Cooldown: 15 / 13 / 11 / 9 / 7
-Damage over 4 seconds: 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+70% of AP) magic damage
Ah...
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- Malefic Visions stays on its target even after your death. If they kill any unit while you are dead, you will gain full gold and experience, and the Visions will chain on to the next target.
- Each tick of
Malefic Visions will proc
Deathfire Touch ,
Rylai's Crystal Scepter and
Liandry's Torment, making for a deadly combination.
NETHER GRASP (R):
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"Active:
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-Range: 700 units
-Mana Cost: 100 at all ranks
-Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 seconds
-Damage: 5 / 7 / 9 (+ 1.5 per 100 AP)% of enemies maximum HP in magic damage per second
-Suppression Duration: 2.5 seconds at all ranks
The strongest form of hard CC to ever exist on league and Riot decided that
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Nether Grasp can be removed by
Quicksilver Sash, but it can also be removed by
Gangplank's
Remove Scurvy,
Alistar's
Unbreakable Will and
Olaf's
Ragnarok.
- Note that using
Nether Grasp on
Alistar after he ults, will still suppress him. The same is not true for
Olaf.
- Note that using
- Removing
Nether Grasp, or hitting any kind of spell shield, will not trigger the suppression, but it will create the Null Zone.
Nether Grasp is channeled which means that moving, attacking, using any other spell or getting (hard) CC'd will break the channel.
Malzahar however can still cast Summoner Spells (except
Flash and
Teleport) and Items (except
Zhonya's Hourglass and
Seraph's Embrace) while channeling provided he is in range to do so.
- Null Zone lasts 5 seconds.
- Knock Down essentially means that any unit targeted will stop every movement command. In other words
Nether Grasp stops dashes before they finish, and also brings airborne units (knocked up) back down.
SKILL SEQUENCE
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OR
The 2 skill sequences are pretty much the same except levels 2-3. If you're facing someone melee take
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COMBOS
So your main combo is when you hit 6: Get in range and cast: W -> E -> W -> R ->
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EARLY GAME:
Going in the lane for the first time, focus on your farming more than trading with your rival. Generally, only E him when he tries to pop your passive. Retain from using E on minions, because that pushes the lane, and even if you do kill all minions with it, you still won't get all your mana back, at least not without
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MID GAME:
So you hit level 6. And you also have your
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LATE GAME:
So far you managed to take some towers, get some kills, and hopefully amassed a dragon lead. The reason of why I'm so crazy about dragons is probably because, besides the obvious "you have more buffs than your opponents", my dragons affect my playstyle come late game to a large degree. I can't list every possible combination, but here is how you can use dragons as
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-INFERNAL DRAKE: This one gives you 8 / 16 / 24 % extra AD and AP. In other words it gives you raw stats. Since it's a percentage it's much more powerful in the late game. Generally they are used for teaamfighting power. You should look to do just that, stay near your team, and fight as much as you can. When teamfighting, try to focus the one who deals the most damage and doesn't have, or has used
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-OCEAN DRAKE: This one gives you 4 / 8 / 12 % of your missing health and mana every 5 seconds if not damaged by champions or turrets for the past 8 seconds. In other words it gives you poke resistance, and poking resources. You should look to follow your team as they push and try to poke the opponents, mainly with
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-MOUNTAIN DRAKE: This one gives you 10 / 20 / 30 % additional damage as true damage versus turrets and epic monsters. In other words objective power. Try to lead your team's pushes by hitting the towers and capitalizing on enemy mistakes. Also look to safely solo the remaining elemental drakes when possible. Look to contest Baron Nashor, and use it for a final push to victory.
-CLOUD DRAKE: This one gives you 25 / 50 / 75 out of combat movement speed, or roaming potential. With this drake, you can go to other lanes and push with a simple Q -> E and return. You can also scout the map (always safely) and find any missing champions (never search when more than one enemy is missing). You have to outmaneuver your opponents gaining vision and splitpushing. This dragon allows you to play much more sneaky and sometimes you can even flank the enemy team. Capitalize on their mistakes and you will win.
ELDER DRAKE: This one increases your other elemental drake bonuses by 50% as well as a (45 x number of Elder Dragons killed) + (45 for every elemental drake killed) true damage buff on every spell and basic attack. A strong dragon, there is no real way of playing with it other than just enhancing any of the above strategies. You can also try to take baron, with the true damage, you should have the upper hand.
Now of course, you shouldn't try to do just one of the above, you could possibly have any combination of the above. Other times maybe you don't have the right team to splitpush or siege for example. Just take the above as a general guide. In teamfights, as stated above, focus the main damage dealer with your ult and voidlings but be careful of your positioning as it can cost you a timely death. You have two choices with your ult: Use it as early as you can on a key target out of position, or wait for the teamfight to play out casting your basic abilities, and using ult near the end, either when chasing or when an ally is in need. The first occurs much more frequently so don't hesitate to do so, with around 38% Cooldown Reduction mabe you will be able to ult a second time in a teamfight. Other than that, when contesting for objectives, look to scare the enemies away rather than help with the objective, and always ult the enemy jungler.
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-Tuesday 24 January 2017: Reached 5.000 Views! Thanks for the support guys!
-Wednesday 25 January 2017: Updated for Patch 7.2. Some changes to matchups, added a few new ones.
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-Sunday 29 January 2017: Reached 20.000 views, thanks a lot, you guys are awesome.
-Thursday 9 February 2017: Updated for Patch 7.3. Updated
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-Wednesday 1 March 2017: Updated for Patch 7.4. Upped
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-Thursday 9 March 2017: Reached 100.000 views, I appreciate every single one of you who reads this guide!
-Saturday 11 March 2017: Updated for Patch 7.5. Changed Resolve Keystone Masteries Section due to the new
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-Saturday 25 March 2017: Updated for Patch 7.6. Slightly upped
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-Saturday 1 April 2017: Reached 150.000 views, I will keep working to make this guide better for everyone.
-Sunday 9 April 2017: Updated for Patch 7.7. Changed
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-Sunday 9 April 2017: Updated for Patch 7.8. Updated Tier 4 Ferocity Mastery choices and explanation. Also updated
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-Sunday 9 April 2017: Updated for Patch 7.22. I will shortly put a more detailed runes section shortly in the future, and also change some of the others chapters of the guide.
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