Malzahar

This is my first build ever, and i've decided to go with Malzahar as i've played him a lot and found him extremely fun to play, but also difficult to master. so i've decided to build this guide as i build him.

Update
there has been some updates, and i've played malz a lot more, so things in the build have changed a lot.

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Pros

Lane Pusher
Can solo lane easily - even double lane, if necessary
Nether Grasp ultimate, very good for ganking/chasing and some times for initiating*
Malefic visions, making him able to stay in lanes longer
Malefic visions ignite-like uses
AOE damage with both Null Zone and Call of the void
AOE silencing abilities with call of the void

Cons

Squishy
Mana problems early game
Ultimate can easily be interrupted
Call of the Void takes a lot of practice to aim
if focused, easily dead
No escape like abilities

*will explain in item chapter

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Abilities

Summon Voidling "passive"
now this is an excellent passive that goes extremely well with Malefic Visions this summons a minion which is not only strong, but can tank turrets for quite some time, which can become very useful when pushing. though you cannot control this minion directly, you can control it with the malefic visions, as it automatically attacks the one infected. as said before it is strong/has good damage, which can be good at harassing your enemy, by infecting them, and then letting your minion attack. it should be noted that you summon it after 3 spells.

Call of The Void
This skill has an amazing damage, and needs to be spammed in teamfights with its great damage and SILENCE, and should be used when keeping enemies away from you, to prevent them from getting their stuns, taunts and more onto you with the silence. Its also a great skill when killing minion waves, drop malefic visions on the minion with the lowest hp, and the sweep all of them with a call of the void. it is hard to learn the way to place it, but once you get used to it, its an irreplaceable skill.

Null Zone
Now null zone is not as many new malz players think, a minion killer with its aoe damage over time, but can be used on minions late game when mana isn't a problem anymore. this is used primarily on champions, to help malz' ultimate nether grasp the reason that this is so effective is that, null zone does little burst damage, but when constrained in the null zone, it atually does quite a lot of damage. so here the summoner spells can come in handy. if you chooseflash instead ofghost, you can do a nice combo of flashing, using null zone, because the enemy will most likely be fleeing as it looks like something going down, so you flash closer and grab him with nether grasp, and constrain him there either for your mates to kill or finish up yourself. this is very effective if you lay down Call of the void and malefic visions on the enemy beforehand. but as the game progresses, team fight null zones are quite the gamebreaker.

Malefic Visions
Anyone ever playing Malz should know that this is his best skill of all, the one that makes him an excellent champion. malefic visions can be put on any minions or champions, and does damage over time, and "infects" the target. now the golden thing about this skill is that when you infect your target minion or champion, and it dies, the infection of malefic visions jumps to the nearest enemy champion or minion, and refreshes its duration time. now when the infection "jumps" to another enemy you gain mana, and you are going to rely on this a lot, to keep you laning the longest possible time. i usually lane with my mate, and if he doesn't know malz i tell him about malefic visions, so that he focuses the infected minions. i drop the infection on the minion with lowest health, and auto-attack it till it dies, and the infection jumps, and i continue this procedure as long as im laning, though at times its good to drop the infection directly on the enemy champion for harassing, even though the infection could jump him, without targeting him directly. the skill is also great for ignite like uses. like when a low-hp enemy is fleeing, or when someone like mundo uses his ult.

Nether Grasp "ultimate"
Now Nether Grasp, one of the most annoying ultimates, if used right. basically it constrains an enemy champion for a lot of time, damaging them. this is good for chasing, ganking, 1v1'ing all kinds of ing. there shouldn't be much to say about this one. in team fights constrain the enemy team's main damage source, so that he isn't able to do any damage, for enough time for your team to take him out. now note that cleanse can interrupt your ultimate, and that you can't use any other spells than ignite while it is being used, so you have to lay down your abilities beforehand.

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Summoner Spells

Ghost/Flash
Now ghost. i use ghost some times, because it offers a lot that malzahar can need in situations. map mobility, an escape from ganking, a fleeing instrument and chasing enemies, is what i come to think of. now flash is good for some of these, like fleeing, escape ganking chasing, but it doesn't have the map mobility i like. what it instead offers, is a way to perform your Flash -> Malefic visions -> Call of the Void -> Null Zone -> Nether Grasp -> (Call of the Void(if he's not already dead)) combo, with more ease and perfection, but this requires a lot of skill, and a lot of practicing. i choose to go with flash, because ganking with malzahar is obviously extremely effective, because of his ultimate, and therefore a little flash from the brush, and then the combo would get you an easy kill.
Ignite
i choose ignite because it gives me an edge.if i use malefic visions and ignite, on an enemy champion with low hp, it is almost always a kill. it's good if you are out of mana, and the enemy champ is low hp, and so on, i think you get it. also it is absolutely deadly with your nether grasp combo, as you can put it on your enemy while he is being constrained, doing a massive amount of damage.

Other Spells you could pick
Exhaust = i dont think an explanation is needed here
Teleport = Malzahar is an excellent laner/minion killer. a turret in need, a fine little teleport and the minions and the champions that may be will be pushed back. also good if double laning, but i still choose to go with the flash-ignite combo

Summoner spells not to take
Clarity = even though Malz uses mana, he does not need clarity at all. with the item build provided here, and clever use of malefic visions, mana should not be a problem at all.
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Items

HUGE UPDATE
Now i've decided to rewrite the entirety of my item build part, because with more experience and Morello's Evil Tome a lot of things have changed about the way you can build him.

Now start out with the Meki Pendant for increased mana regen, which can be used just as well as the mana crystal i had chosen before, but remember to spend your mana wisely, because you are as said before VERY mana hungry. you are going to lane with this and a couple of hp-pots, which makes you stay in the lane for quite a while. do NOT lay your malefic visions straight upon an enemy. the effect that you are laying upon him could get you minion kills and mana AND THEN hit him, so remember that.
as you lane for a long time, harassing here and there, trying not to get hit at all, staying out of combat line (for enemy harassers you've got yourselves a couple of pots) you go back when at low hp and mana, and if you played well your gold amount should be around 1000 - 1800 i usually get back with about 1300-1400 gold. now you go buy fiendish codex and boots of speed if you've got enough gold. this gives you an edge when harassing and even going for someone, because when you hit level 6, you are going to be taking somebody down. then as soon as you can, build the rest of the tome
now the rest of the game goes on and you build your sorcerers boots and your rod of ages buying the mana crystal first, because, when you get the mana crystal/catalyst combined with Morellos Evil Tome your mana problems are pretty much gone, and the extreme squishiness has been laid off a bit.
at this point i either get a Mejais Soul Stealer or a Rabadons Deathcap, which i decide based on the team i am fighting against. if im getting a lot of kills, and the enemy team is stupid enough to not even focus me, im getting a soul stealer, and then on to Rabadons. and if im not doing extremely well, like 4 deaths mid-game, im gonna go straight to Rabadons. some people that play malz, focus a lot on getting the squshiness away from him, and making him beefy with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, but if you play Malz well enough you are not going to need that. because if you go straight to the AP you can do crazy amounts of damage. just stay away from the team fight - all of your skills are ranged, use that opportunity to stand out of enemy range in team fights laying down crazy damage on the entire team.
then to the hourglass, because well.. when you have these items you are going to be a main threat, and if they focus you, you can just go golden for a couple of seconds while your team takes care of the enemies. and then the AP of course.
now for the last item you must decide what you need. more damage? archangels staff. more hp'izzle? Rylai's Crystal Scepter. lots of magic resist on the other team? void staff.

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ganking 3v3

now as you can see on this twisted treeline 3v3 map i have tried poorly to draw some black lines with some yellow/orange in the end. these black lines represent some of the ways you can gank. The yellow/orange line is where to flash, now let me explain. if we take the route following from the upper lane to the right bush in the jungle and take a scenario of the 2 enemies are in the middle laning with your 2 mates, you are going to want to cast a Call of the void, if you've got time cast malefic visions, flash out in front of them as they flee, lay down null zone, just a tad more to the right, because normally you are not going to get them within the amount of time they are in there, and then of course drop nether grasp on them (if the one you focused isn't dead try to drop call of the void again).
now there is also a lot of things to worry about when choosing the one you want to focus. if you've got a very standard team of 2 enemies like a tank and a dps, or basically just a tank and someone that damages a lot, but is squishy you need to be the one taking down the squishy damage, as if you take him with nether grasp the other enemy is not able to do enough damage to turn the tide of the fight. your teammates will now either help finish off your target, if he for an example has a little too much health, but primarily they will try as much as possible to stop the other enemy from fleeing, but remember that 1 kill is better than 2 enemies with low health.
UPDATE
i've made some changes to my build, which makes Malz a LOT more squishy than before, so flashing out behind your enemy would be pure suicidie in a lot of situations. now what you want to do is you want to still flash in range of your enemy, but instead you want to keep yourself safe by flashing so that the ones you are ganking with can run towards the enemies keeping you safe.
now i've also drawn a route from the solo lane, up through the upper jungle to basically gank your own lane. now this can be done by yourself just, if your enemy is one of those squishies, or you can call a mate up to damage the enemy while he is in nether grasp. this can be very successfull done, but also if you fail, you are most likely to be called an idiot, so you have to see how much you damage your enemy with a simple call of the void, and then decide if he is squishy enough.


The build isn't finished yet, and i will keep updating it, when constructive criticism is given, or i find a better way to build him. i will also update with some tips on where to be in team battles with more. and this guide is far from polished, so i am happy when i get comments about small things.
until then i hope you find this guide helping, and you will try it.
get out there and flame noobs.