Hello and welcome to my first guide on mobafire. Here i will show you my way of playing a very powerful but sort of a glass cannon Malzahar

Pros:
Extremely great 1v1 power.
Wonderful farming capabilities.
Anti-tank (Thanks to Null Zone)
Amazing AP Scaling (80% AP on Q and E and 130% on R).


Cons:
Very squishy.
Vulnerable to CC, especially when in Nether Grasp.
No escape mechanism.

Obviously take these because they are great for all AP casters.

Some of you might wonder why I get these on an AP caster, but I just think it makes you a little less squishy against those AD carries.

More AP, why not? Especially late game. It gives ~27 AP at level 18 with 9 of them. And with Rabadon's Deathcap it gives ~36 AP awesome!

Again, wonderful on any AP caster

Unlike most AP casters i don't go 21/0/9, why you may ask? Well, Malzahar is very mana starved without Blue Buff. And the utility tree gives just that stuff help him with his problems. And it gives Runic Affinity which helps you very much because you should always be having Blue Buff

I like to max Malefic Visions first because how great it is at farming.
And Call of the Void second because it hits twice for INSANE damage.
Null Zone comes last because by this time the tank will have insane amounts of HP which you can take down almost instantly.

Core Items

Rabadon's Deathcap The most necessary item on an AP caster.

Will of the Ancients A SUPER AMAZING ITEM. You can throw your Malefic Visions on a minion wave and BAM all your health is back. Also amazing when you're in a fight, and you're losing, chuck your Nether Grasp on your enemy and they cant do anything while you get tons of HP.

Void Staff Synergizes greatly with your marks and your boots and gives you more AP, because you can always use more AP.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Wonderful item for chasing AND surviving, 2 in 1! And even more AP.

Sorcerer's Shoes Even more magic pen to go along with your marks and a Void Staff

Banshee's Veil An amazing item for Malzahar As it gives him more survivabilty. Also the passive protects you from any CC that may knock you out of your ult.

Optional Items

Mejai's Soulstealer Grab this item only if your doing really well early game and dominating your enemy.

Rod of Ages Great item if you need more survivability, and even more AP!

Deathfire Grasp Now this item is really good for Malzahar as it compliments greatly with his Null Zone. I grab this when there is a really tanky tank on their team. You would drop a Null Zone under his feet Nether Grasp him and while he is within your grasp shoot this bad boys Active at him and watch his health turn into a big red bar.

Summon Voidling [Passive]

After casting 4 spells, Malzahar summons a voidling for 21 seconds. Voidlings have 200 + (50 × level) health and 20 + (5 × level) + (+1.0 per bonus attack damage) attack damage (bonus autoattack damage isn't noticed in tooltip or voidling's stats, but it affects damage done by voidling). The voidlings benefit from Malzahar's armor penetration.

Voidlings grow after 7 seconds (+50% base damage and armor), and Frenzy after 14 seconds (increased attack speed).

A really nice passive, but not one of the best. To quickly sum it up it summons an UNCONTROLLABLE little crawly critter after casting 4 spells. This critter follows you around and attacks whatever it feels like, but it will focus the unit that currently has Malefic Visions on it. If there are two units with Malefic Visions then it will simply attack the most recent one. This is a really good skill for farming minions waves, destroying turrets, and 1v1 fights.

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Call of the Void [Q]

Cooldown: 9 seconds
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana

Malzahar opens up two portals to the Void. After a short delay, power erupts from them, dealing 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+0.8 per ability power) magic damage and silencing all enemies caught between the portals for 1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 / 3 seconds.

This skill places down two purples ball which shoots purple spiral lasers (awesome right?). The great thing about this skill is not only its great range, but how it can hit twice! So at max if you hit your target with both lasers they will take around 600 damage without any items! This skill is great at harassing because of its range and it is also good in team fight because of the AoE silence.

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Null Zone [W]

Cooldown: 14 seconds
Cost:90 / 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 mana

Malzahar creates a zone of negative energy for 5 seconds. The zone deals 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8% (+1% per 100 ability power) of their health in magic damage each second to all enemies that stand in it.

Not my favorite skill that he has, but it is wonderful against tanks and for maximum damage while in Nether Grasp because they will easily take 3-4 seconds of this if you ult them while they are in it. Plus while at late game you should have ~500 AP (If you are fed, of course) it does 13% of their health each second! Meaning if the get stuck in for the full duration that's 65% of their health gone!

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Malefic Visions [E]

Range: 650
Cooldown: 15 / 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 seconds
Cost: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 mana

Malzahar infects his target's mind, dealing 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+0.8 per ability power) magic damage over 4 seconds. If the target dies while afflicted by the visions, they pass the curse on to a nearby enemy unit, refreshing the duration and restoring 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 mana to Malzahar. Malzahar's Voidlings are attracted to affected units.

Definitely my favorite of his non-ult skills. This skill is not only great for minion farming but also for last hitting those people that get away from you with 10 HP. I can not tell you how many times I've gotten kills dropping this on a fleeing enemy or even bouncing it off of a minion onto a fleeing enemy. I've even been up against a Malzahar where i threw this on his voidling and it died and jumped onto him, killing him.

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Nether Grasp [R]

Range: 700
Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 seconds
Cost: 150 mana

Malzahar grips his target in an engulfing void of energy and begins channeling, dealing 250 / 400 / 550 (+1.3 per ability power) magic damage while suppressing the target for up to 2.5 seconds.

Definitely one of my favorite ultimate's because of the fact that it does 250 / 400 / 550 (+130% AP) damage and they cant do anything about it (in most cases) AND that you can use your summoner spells while in it, like ignite. Only down side to this is that you also cant move while in this meaning that you are very vulnerable to damage. Another downside is that pesky Quicksilver Sash. Its just like Gangplank's Remove Scurvy except without the healing, If they use this on you they are free to attack you or even get out of range and take no more damage.

Please comment and vote, and if you vote down PLEASE OH PLEASE tell me what I should improve.

1/30/12- Guide published. *shivers*