Malzahar Build Guide by Furber

Welcome! (Explaination of why this is Archived)

Hello, this is my build/guide for Malzahar in Dominion mode. Since I already have a big Malzahar guide, I figured it would be pointless trying to recreate the whole thing just for dominion, so instead I have a side guide for Dominion.

Note: Dominion really hasnt been out for that long, so this stuff is still kinda experimental. Comments and feedback are appreciated.

Forward comments/votes to this guide

Also, the guide for the champion is located on that guide, so if you need to learn more about how to play Malzahar, use that guide.


Success!
Always remember, builds are never set in stone. This is success I've had using this build, and a few modified variations of this build.

Item Choice

As you can see, the item build is quite different from my SR item build.

I usually try to solo bot (He can also go top and do just fine, however I prefer to go bot for his pushing potential). So to get good base stats, I pick up Boots of Speed, a Ruby Crystal, and a Sapphire Crystal. This should provide you with enough hp and mp to do well against your opponent in bot. The boots are important because it is very important to be able to move quickly in this mode. I also grab hp pot x2 and mp pot x2. I figure you get money so quickly in this mode, that you might as well spend all your starting money to improve your early game as much as possible. What ends up happening often is that, if i do manage to kill my opponent, I'll be at low hp and/or low mp. The potions really help you keep pushing. A kill really only helps in dominion if you cap a point as a result of the kill, or defend a point.

So right now you've got:
x2 x2

Next I go straight for speed, taking Boots of Swiftness. This will help you react quickly to enemies that may try to back door your top right/left point. Also it always helps to move faster, you will chase better and escape better. Other options for boots include , , . After that, I make my 2 crystals into a catalyst the protectorCatalyst of the Protector. Next, I build a Rylai's Scepter. Now I know I put a lot in my other guide bashing Rylai's. Well, it's mainly because in SR, your main presence in team fights is your nuke. While ulting, Rylai's does jack ****. You're 'slowing' them while suppressed, this obviously does nothing. However, in dominion, you will be doing a lot of fighting without your ult. You can't just chill on a turret until your ult is off CD, you need to be versatile and go around doing what needs to be done. This means you're going to need not only a little bulk, but also the slowing from Rylai's, although it is very little (all 15% slow because his abilities are AoE/Multi-target), it can prove quite helpful in a skirmish. This slow combined with your should allow you to have an OK amount of survivability too, which is helpful because in dominion, you can't just sit behind the tank and wait for him to initiate the fight. You will have to be going out and fighting all over the map.

Now you should have this:
catalyst the protector

Odds are, Crowd Control will be a big threat against you. Unlike SR, you can't always just rely on great positioning to keep you from being CC'd, and ofc you wont have a BV to help either. For that reason, I take a Moonflair Spellblade. This item is great for it's CC reduction, and it gives AP which is always welcome to malzahar. If by chance, the enemy team does not have a lot of CC, then don't bother getting the . I feel that CDR is a huge thing of importance for Mages especially in Dominion. In a skirmish, a mage is useless while his/her abilities are on CD. For this reason, I build a Morello's Evil Tome. This is the best CDR item, it also gives you good AP and some Mp5, for a relatively cheap price. You should probably build the Fiendish Codex first, then the Blasting Wand.

By this point, your build should be looking like:
catalyst the protector

You will be very versatile with this build, doing good damage (although not as high as with my SR build) on a pretty low CD, and you should be pretty good as far as survivability. By this point, some of the enemy champions may be approaching god mode (Jax for instance). You will need some serious survivability if you're going to live through something like that, so I build a Zhonya's Hourglass. I get it for the same reason's I get it in my SR build, awesome active ability that can really save your ***, and good AP + armor.
My last item is the Rabadon's Deathcap for the big AP boost. I took a look at this build and thought to myself 'hmmm, why is the deathcap pushed so far back? It's usually such a staple of all mage builds, and usually the sooner you get it the better (except I dont rush it)'. However, in dominion mode, just maxing AP isnt the smartest choice. You need to be more versatile, maxing AP can come later. If you find yourself in need of more survival, then you can build an Odyn's Veil for a great boost in MR. If the enemy's physical damage is what's threatening you, then you can get a Frozen Heart.

Your final build is:
OR OR

If the game is still going on when you finish the build and you're looking for things to replace with better items, you can consider selling the Moonflair Spellblade for another item. Other than that the other items are pretty much essential for the build to work well.

Important Items To Consider

hextech sweeper

If you are having trouble with stealth champions, get this item. It will reveal them every time you hit them, MV will pretty much perma-reveal them. This item also provides some AP, good HP, and some CDR. Great item to get, but remember it's less useful against teams without stealth.



RoA will give you a good boost to AP, MP, and HP. These stats, however, must build up over time. This means that for a while, your RoA will not be as good as it can be, which sort of gimps the amount that it really helps you. It is still a viable choice though, if you feel like you want to get it instead of then it's a pretty good choice, I used to get it instead of rylai's.

Early

I am anticipating some sort of comment about not getting a deathcap super early in my build. Like I said, I just don't think you can rely on getting super high AP to do well in dominion. Don't get me wrong, more damage is good for malz, but JUST getting damage is not really viable. Like I mentioned earlier, unlike SR, you can't just hang back behind the team and be out of danger. You have to put yourself out there and cap points/defend points/do whatever needs to be done. So if you're super glass cannon, then things might not work out so well.



I've given this item a good few tries and I just don't really feel right getting it. I know many of you do choose to get it, it's a good item for sure, I just don't feel the urge to get it. Spell Vamp will theoretically help malz in a fight, but it seems like whenever I do take damage, spell vamp isnt enough to keep me alive. That or it ends up not mattering because I win the fight anyway and I can just B and get my HP back.

Dominion Tactics - Abilities

Your Voidling is extremely important. I cannot tell you how many times a super aggressive enemy, like , will attack me and I will win the fight because I had a Voidling scratching her face off. Pay attention to it, and remember that its damage is highest in Frenzy mode. Use Malefic Visions to direct it towards your enemy, and you should be able to out damage most enemies. This is a good way to manage a 1v1 fight when your Ult is on CD. Being a game mode where skirmishes are frequent, you will have to know how to fight when your Ult is on CD.




Be knowledgeable of your enemy's kit. If they have a gap closer, bait them into jumping on you, and have CotV ready for when they jump. If you line it up right in front of you, and use it right before they jump, they will get silenced right when they get to you, and this can really mess them up. This is especially good against people like who will most likely use when he attacks you. If you time it right, you will interrupt him when he teleports to you. CotV is also great for stopping enemies from capping your point. With its long range and line AoE, if enemies are grouped on a point to cap it, you can stop them with a CotV.




If you are going to have a 1v1 fight, know that the odds are, you won't be able to just run away from the fight. If you are going to stand your ground and fight, throw a Null Zone down on yourself so melee enemies are forced to stand on it in order to fight you. This can work on ranged enemies too, because often times they will be too busy right clicking on you to realize they are standing in it. Null Zone is also great for stopping enemies from capping a point. Throw it down to interrupt caps, and prevent them from capping from that spot until the NZ goes away. Also, some enemies will take Promote to push their minion wave against you. Null Zone can be good for killing that giant Promote minion.




You will pretty much use Malefic Visions the same way you would in SR. Use it to push minion waves, keep your mana up, and direct the Voidling. It's also a nice way to keep an enemy from capping. Since it is a DoT, they will keep getting hurt by it, so they cant cap a point. Also, since you will get a Rylai's, you can use this to slow enemies down. Keep in mind though that the slow will not be too powerful, since Malefic Visions is considered a multi-target spell.




Nether Grasp will also pretty much do the same thing in dominion. Use it to complete your nuke combo, or just hold down an enemy for a while. Be aware of your surroundings before you decide to ult, because you can very easily be interrupted. To keep this ult available more often, be sure to buy the Evil Tome for super CDR.

Dominion Tactics - Gameplay

Dominion is played quite differently than SR.


Summary:
First off, you should try to go bottom. As I'm sure you know, Malzahar is a great pusher. He also handles 1v1 situations very well. Be sure to last hit! I know that farming is not as important in Dominion as it is in SR, but it definitely will help a lot if you take some time to get more munnies. Typically, I play about half aggressive, half passive. This way I can take my time and get some gold off the creeps, but I can also establish lane dominance (hopefully).


Troublesome Champions:
A few champions that I have had trouble with so far include: Yorick, Kassadin, Singed. Of course, it's really only a problem if they are played well, but when that does occur then you may want to either swap with someone else and go top, or do your best just to hold your point. Yorick is troublesome because he is an incredible pusher, and duelist. If you try to go up against him and hope to out damage him, you will likely be disappointed, he boasts good damage with all his ghouls and their benefits to him. Kassadin is problematic against pretty much all mages. With his Null Sphere point-and-click silence, it is hard to manage fighting against him. He can easily be played extremely aggressively with Rift Walk. Again, you may want to ask an AD to go up against Kass and then go top. Singed is Singed. You can do your best to avoid his Flip, but if you do ever get hit by it, it will screw you over alot. His poison does a ton of damage even if you only get hit by it for a bit. Just avoid him while he's ulting. I'm not sure who exactly counters Singed, maybe a long range AD like Caitlyn, but yeah, you should probably switch with some one.


Farming:
Once you have enough AP and you're high enough lvl so that your CotV does great damage, you can use CotV + MV to clear a wave of creeps. Line your self up so that CotV will hit all three creeps, then put MV on one of the casters, it will bounce through to the large minion and hopefully kill it too. I will upload a picture of lining this up, maybe it will be easier to understand, but this is the best way to quickly push a lane.


Defending a Point:
Malzahar can be great for defending against a single enemy, and some times even more than 1. Whenever an enemy starts capping a point, use CotV or a Null Zone from a distance to interrupt them, as well as damage them ofc. Remember though, that enemy champions aren't the only threat to capping your points. A wise tactic in dominion is to push a large creep wave up onto an enemy point. The enemy will either frantically try to clear the creeps, leaving you open to attack your opponent. Or they will try to attack you, and lose their point to minions, at which time you can freely attack them without fear of turret aggro. To prevent this from happening to you, you must clear creep waves asap, once they are in range for CotV and/or MV, kill the wave as fast as you can, then resume defending against the enemy champion(s).


Trying to Take a Point From an Enemy:
If you are taking your time, then the best way to take a point is by pushing minions to it. Malzahar, being the great pusher he is, should be able to clear creep waves almost instantly and keep your minion train steadily moving towards the enemy's point. Your opponent may try to prevent you from pushing, in this case you should be aggressive against him. Keep in mind that if you have a lot of minions around you, your opponent will get minion aggro if he tries to fight you. Minion damage can be seriously underestimated, use this to your advantage and see if you can bait your enemy into fighting you in your own creep wave. If your enemy stays at his point, then just keep pushing the minions to his point. Once you get there, the enemy will be stuck in the predicament that I mentioned earlier. Your enemy will either frantically try to clear the creeps, leaving you open to attack your opponent. Or they will try to attack you, and lose their point to minions, at which time you can freely attack them without fear of turret aggro. Remember that, although kills will certainly help you, they are not the main objective of this game. If your opponent flees his point, just cap the point, don't spend a lot of time trying to chase some one down, it ends up wasting time.

If you are pushed for time, you may have to take a point by yourself. Malzahar is a great offensive mage. With his good range, you should be able to fight an enemy pretty well from a distance. Poke enemies on their point with Call of the Void. Keep their minion waves down with the CotV + MV combo. If you are taking a while getting the point, perhaps your own minion wave will build up. However, sometimes in a tight game, you need to be quick about taking points. One of the best ways to fight an enemy who is defending a point is to try to bait them off their turret. This will take away their advantage of that turret aggro. It is generally a good idea to not have turret aggro while you're ulting, other wise you just have to sit there and eat the turret shots while you are using Nether Grasp. Sometimes this is inevitable though, so once you finish your nuke be sure to cap the point quick so the turret will stop shooting you.