Welcome to my Malzahar guide!

I am BreakfastMC on the NA server. I claim no great accomplishments in this game, but I have been playing with great love of the game since Season 5. I also watch A LOT of the Korean pro games in the LCK. What I want is to give people playing in the lower ELO's some advice, specifically from Mid-Lane, on how to impact not just your lane, but all lanes (even helping your jungler out). And his name is Malzahar.

Malzahar is a Mage played most often in the Mid-Lane, but has been recently been getting some love in Bot-Lane as Support, and of course AD-Malzahar Jungle (though AD Malz is probably dead now that Patch 7.11 changed the voidlings damage to Magic instead of AD).

Void News

• June 1, 2017 Patch 7.11 introduced a mini-rework to Malzahar and has made him playable again in mid-lane! With this patch, and the abundance of Doran's Shield, Malzahar will have tougher laning matchups (like Zed or Talon's who start with Doran's Shield) where they will be harder to bully. Doran's Shield and the mini-rework nerf to his Void Swarm are also both nerfs to bot lane support Malzahar (with even ADC's taking Doran's Shield).

Why Choose Malzahar?

Have you played squishy mage, win lane, then get assassinated by a fed champion from another lane?
Play Malzahar.

• Your silence from Call of the Void denies the enemies combo as their energy is sucked away into the void.
• Your E Malefic Visions gets you kills (sometimes Double or TRIPLE kills) even after you die.
• Your ULT Nether Grasp gives your team time to kill the 1v5 noob as you dance on their corpse.

Have you been frustrated by lack of ganks from your jungler, or how ineffective they are?
Play Malzahar.

• You don't need your jungler to get kills. You are Malzahar, and you have Void Swarm to keep you company and help you out.
• You are the ganker with your ult Nether Grasp. Even when someone visits your lane and it SEEMS like they are ganking your lane, they are wrong.
• You land your combo and your Void Swarm chases down your opponent in terror of dying while you casually continue to farm as if nothing is happening. It is very important when this happens to miss some CS as an offering to the void.
  

Have you ever muted your team, but worry about communication with them and missing out on that?
Play Malzahar.

• You're ULT Nether Grasp is the most obvious "mess up that @#$!" signal you could ever give.
• You start fights. You end fights. You are the carry, the solo master of the void, and you don't listen to anyone but the void when wrecking people's faces on Summoner's Rift.
• You only need pings. Ping like it is going out of style, it is far more effective than chat. Ping's are from the void. Pings are your voice, your prayer, your canticle to be worshiped on the rift!

Have you looked at your CS at 10 min and DEMANDED OF THE GODS FOR AN ANSWER TO WHY YOU ARE SO BAD AT THIS?!
Play Malzahar.

• Your Malefic Visions + Voidlings Void Swarm CS for you (you might actually need some well-timed autos, but LESS than if you did not have this in your kit).
• You mess with your lane opponents CS so you are always ahead.
• Your missed CS are now offerings to the void.

If you have:

1. Perfect positioning
2. Amazing teammates
3. and Everything goes so well you are going to win by 20 min

"Without question" you are probably building Morellonomicon, and by all means look at other guides based on Morellonomicon for Malzahar.

This guide assumes none of those 3 things are true in the low ELO's. If you are in ELO Hell, keep reading. If you are in a higher ELO, this guide may give you some ideas, but I doubt you are even reading this guide.

For us low ELO scrubs:

• We make mistakes
• We misposition
• We misjudge something (how fed our opponent is a classic one). "What, they already have X kills??? Who the $#@! fed them???"
• Unreliable peel from tank/ally with CC (because we have all been there where the tank is chasing a kill while the rest of their team wipes you and your allies out, and they are the only ones left and DON'T EVEN GET THE KILL.)

We need a buffer to compensate for all errors! ROA is our saviour. Even Catalyst of Aeons provides a the benefit of Eternity buffer with its advantages of lane sustain (spending mana means you get health!)

Proof is in the pudding

Seaons 7: BRONZE 5 to SILVER 5!

So now I'm missing CDR, What then?
Since we are not building Morellonomicon, and not getting its 20% CDR, we need to look at where we are going to get our CDR.

.		Mandatory		.
.	> 6X Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction Provides 10% CDR at Level 18 >I had removed them from my Rune Page for a while, until I realized how much I missed them. For the play style we are going for, it is very important to have these runes. >I will play with adding additional CDR Runes at some point to see if I spare combat stats for more CDR.	.	> 10% CDR and Reduces Summoner Cooldown's by 10% > With the Rod of Ages build, I always build Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Yes it reduces your damage, but with the Rod of Ages build you are building more sustain so you can stay in the fight longer, get more rotations of your spells, and make sure you win those team fights!!! > Not just that, but both Ghost and Flash are up 10% more! This is an incredible advantage for Malzahar, as both of his summoners let him be much more effective in any fight.	.

.		CHOOSE 1		.
.	> 10% CDR (get vs AD Heavy Team) > Facing an enemy team comp with Riven, Yasuo, and Nocturne? You will want that sweet, sweet armour from Zhonya's Hourglass > The active Stasis it provides denies a burst combo is just the thing to help Malzahar stay alive! (just don't forget about it)	.	> 10% CDR (get vs AP Heavy Team) > Facing an enemy team comp with a Heimerdinger, Swain, and Lux? You want Banshee's Veil. > Grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds.	.

Where's the Magic Penetration?

Since we are building Ionian Boots of Lucidity we need to get Magic Penetration elsewhere. Buying an early Haunting Guise is very important to get optimal damage, especially ulting squishy targets. Buy this after Rod of Ages and Ionian Boots of Lucidity. You don't have to rush Liandry's Torment, as you may need Armor or MR from Banshee's Veil or Zhonya's Hourglass, and the defensive bonuses from both items is better than the offensive benefits of Liandry's.

Always place a Stealth Ward at either starting buff (Season 7 changes means the jungler ALWAYS starts at 1 of their 2 buffs).

This is where you and your team should ward when you start Red Side:

Blue Sentinel

Red Brambleback


This is where you and your team should ward when you start Blue Side:
Red Brambleback

Why?

The most obvious one is: your teammates are not going to do it, but it is very valuable to know where the enemy jungler starts. Playing LOL is all about knowledge, the more you have, the better decisions you can make.

When you go into ward Level 1, Malzahar's Void Shift means that ANY CC you encounter will be null and void:

• Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab
• Thresh's Death Sentence
• Morgana's Dark Binding
• Nami's Aqua Prison

These are all forms of Level 1 CC (there are many others, this is just a few) that you might encounter when you go to the enemy Blue or Red buff, and they do nothing to you as they hit Void Shift and you walk away without even needing to flash. NOTE: If you take an auto-attack first, it will disable your Void Shift, and you will need to back out immediately.

What other champion is immune to CC at level 1 automatically as a passive??? NONE.

NOTE: This is basically still correct, but need to update now that Patch 7.11 has hit the rift on the rotation to correctly use your Malefic Visions and Void Swarm while optimizing the number of Gathering Storm stacks.

Be the first to lane. Position aggressively and start autoing the minions before the 2 waves even meet. You are establishing your lane dominance, and trying to get to level 2 and 3 first (I will explain why at the end of this section). I have already said it, but you will miss some CS. The idea is that you also cause your lane opponent to miss CS by shoving the wave aggressively.


This is a great example of how to really mess up CSing. BUT I have the push and control of the lane. Ahri is stuck trying to keep the wave from being pushed under her turret.

Your combo for pushing lane will be:
Malefic Visions, then casting it a second time to get 2 stacks of Gathering Storm and then Void Swarm. Once you hit Level 3 you will use Call of the Void if you have the mana. Remember that Malefic Visions gives you back mana when a minion dies with it still active on the minion. THIS is one of the ways Malzahar sustains in lane, AND a reason why I try to limit using Call of the Void to make sure I have enough just for the E+W combo.

Here is Malefic Visions+ Void Swarm and at the end I use Call of the Void to quickly kill the last minions (pre-Patch 7.11 Malzahar mini-rework and Voidling changes.


Why I used mana to cast Call of the Void above:

• To quickly kill the last minions and push my minions under enemy turret to make it harder for Ahri to CS
• Push Ahri back to stop her from CSing, or even catch her in Call of the Void as harass
• Hope that if Ahri is in range when the last minion dies, Malefic Visions will jump to her and do dmg (and maybe setup a combo if W (Void Swarm) is available)

A different game above vs Ahri once I hit level 3 with 2 Stacks of Gathering Storm when I summon 3 Voidlings with Void Swarm

What is amazing about the push/shove lane strategy is the enemy jungler will NEVER (at lower ELO's) be there before you hit level 3. ESPECIALLY with the XP changes that happened in Patch 7.1, the strategy of pushing/shoving your lane early is really safe with Malzahar.

Why Get to Level 2 First?
You have probably played games where you felt like your lane opponent was oppressive, and made it really hard for you to CS. Maybe even chunked you out. Champions in LOL have different power spikes that they can take advantage of, but what is generally agreed upon is that having 2 abilities is better than having 1. If your lane opponent is only Level 1, but you have Level 2, you combo with Malefic Visions and Void Swarm and they will have a really hard time trying to prevent the push. Even if they get their Level 2 ability 5 seconds later, it is often too late! You have the push, and control of the wave, and you have started to take steps to winning the game. Even against what look like hard lanes [ex. vs Ziggs) turn in your favour if you can get there first!

Once you hit Level 6, it is time to roam. You might ask, "I can roam with any champion!" You would be right. BUT this is why Malzahar is incredible at it:

• Point and click ultimate Nether Grasp where all you have to do is show up in bot or top, click a button and sit there, while your fellow summoner's kill the target. Because of the numbers in bot, it is stronger to roam there, but depending what top lane looks like, you may decide to roam top (more on when to roam later).
• Ability to push the %@^# out of your lane right to turret. With Malefic Visions and Void Swarm plus your Call of the Void, it takes 10 seconds (or less even early on) to push the wave from crashing in mid, to being pushed right into their turret.
• Laugh at your enemy as they fail to CS under their turret. THIS HELPS WITH ROAMING because: Your opponent will take minion dmg trying to CS. They will have less gold. They will have NO PRESSURE in your lane. TIME TO ROAM LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

Here I use Ghost to roam down river and then Flash+ Nether Grasp the enemies ADC Ashe


While sometimes you want to get off a much longer combo, this is an example where you can just setup the kill for the bot lane.

There is also something you may not notice immediately: Poppy uses her Heroic Charge to disrupt Nether Grasp, BUT IT DOESN'T WORK - Void Shift in the house and here to serve your every need.

This is a great example of low ELO players failing to stop Malzahar, because:

• They did not ward enough
• They did not use their combo to get through Void Shift. Poppy above should have used Hammer Shock, or auto attack, to take down Void Shift, and THEN used Heroic Charge.
• The enemy mid laner did not ping MIA. Their team will now rage at their mid laner and be tilted.
• Malzahar! Malzahar!! Malzahar!!!!!!!!!

Everyone needs to work on positioning. EVERYONE! Just because Malzahar thinks being mortal is a weakness, we know it is simply a learning experience as life is all about improving. Let's improve!

Malzahar is a Mid-Range Mage, and so must walk-the-line between being too close, and too far. Unlike long-range poke mages like Xerath, Vel'Koz, and Ziggs, Malzahar will at some point have to put himself in danger to do his thing. This is where Void Shift is amazing. The first ability/cc and damage you take you are immune to. Ashe trying to pick you off with her Enchanted Crystal Arrow? *tinkle* I think its broken. Malphite wants to Unstoppable Force your face? Oh, did someone fall? Here, let me help you up.

A good player will try to poke to remove your Void Shift. Your job is to avoid that poke. It won't always happen, but keeping up the globe that makes you immune to cc is priceless once you go into a teamfight.

Where should you be? Max range of your Call of the Void (900 range). You want to be poking at the team, trying to catch someone too far extended with this ability, and if the stars align, then cthulhu will ri...wait, wait, I mean your team will engage on the target and they will have no escape! It takes practice to get the distance right to not overextend, but always err on the side of caution when there are members of the enemy team staring you down. Cast it max so if they want to advance, they have to WALK INTO IT!



Riven and Poppy want to engage, while Syndra wants to poke. All them are forced to move forward into Call of the Void and are silenced, so have to back off.

Abilities
Passive	Void Shift
	Malzahar skirts the line between dimensions, activating Void Shift after avoiding direct damage for 30 / 24 / 18 / 12 seconds. During Void Shift, Malzahar takes 90% reduced damage and is immune to crowd control. Malzahar loses Void Shift 0.25 second after taking damage from a non-minion source or blocking a crowd control effect.
Q	Call of the Void
	Cooldown: 6 Cost: 80 Range: 900 Malzahar opens two portals to the void. After a 0.25 cast time and a 0.4 second delay, the portals fire projectiles which deal 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+80% of ability power) magic damage and silence champions for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds.
W	Void Swarm
	Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 Cost: 40 Range: 450 Malzahar gains a stack of Gathering Swarm when he casts other abilities (max 2). On cast, Malzahar summons a Voidling, plus an additional Voidling per stack of Gathering Swarm (max 3 per cast). Voidlings will fight nearby enemies for 8 / 8 / 9 / 9 / 10 seconds. Voidling attacks deal 5-64.5 (at levels 1-18) (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) plus 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 / 20 (+20% of ability power) (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) magic damage (50% damage against monsters). Voidlings prefer to attack targets afflicted by Malefic Visions or Nether Grasp and deal 300% damage to minions affected by Malefic Visions. Voidlings have 65-201 health, 16-50 armor and 8-25 magic resist (at levels 1-18). Turret and champion basic attacks kill Voidlings instantly, regardless of health. Voidlings have 400 movement speed and give a bounty of 2 gold when killed.
E	Malefic Visions
	Cooldown: 15 / 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 Range: 650 Malzahar infects his target's mind, dealing 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+80% of ability power) magic damage over 4 seconds. If the target dies during this time, the visions pass to a nearby enemy and Malzahar gains 2% of his maximum Mana. Damaging a target with Call of the Void or Nether Grasp will refresh the duration of Malefic Visions.
R	Nether Grasp
	Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 Cost: 100 Range: 700 Malzahar suppresses a target champion for 2.5 seconds, dealing 125 / 225 / 325 (+110% of ability power) to the target and creating a zone of negative energy around them for 5 seconds, which deals 10 / 15 / 20% (+2.5% per 100 ability power) maximum health as magic damage over the duration to all targets in the Null Zone for the duration.

Masteries

			Sorcery is a must on most mages, including Malzahar.
			Feast helps a lot with lane sustain, but since we are being aggressive, you could take Fresh Blood , but I rarely do unless the lane matchup is HEAVILY in my favour (vs a melee champion-which I rarely get, or take, as a matchup with Malzahar).
			Natural Talent is the only Tier 3 option worth it.
			Battle Trance is really interesting. It takes time to get to its full maximum dmg, BUT Malzahar is not burst Mage, he is all about the poke and consistent dmg in a team fight. It keeps you safer in lane from extra dmg if you took Double Edged Sword , and also means you have more dmg early on unlike Bounty Hunter (and there is no guarantee you are the one picking up the kills).
			Piercing Thoughts because most of your dmg is AP.
			Deathfire Touch because as before, you do consistent dmg over time like Malefic Visions, and this helps BEFORE a team fight to poke down the enemy, and in a team fight as you are forced to move forward and back while you you change targets.
			Savagery because of Malefic Visions and Void Swarm your timing for your autos can sometimes be tricky. This helps increase your CS.
			Secret Stash makes those Health Potion's give you mana, which means you get to stay in lane and push for one more wave.
			Merciless because you get kills with this. You will poke down your lane opponent, and then suddenly a minion dies that has Malefic Visions and it jumps to your opponent, and they are taking extra dmg.
			Dangerous Game because you will need it in a team fight, or turret dive. It will save you a death or three.

Spells
Standard/Roaming:
	Flash is mandatory. "Without question."
	Roaming. Dodging skill shots like Jhin's Curtain Call or Xerath's Rite of the Arcane.
Vs Bad Match-Ups/High Mobiltiy Champions/Burst Teams:
	Flash is mandatory. "Without question."
	This is a good option for players who are uncomfortable playing with Ghost as Barrier is a combat summoner that can be used even when locked down by CC, and can save your life. What you lose is the ability to impact the other lanes as easily.

Runes

Skill Order

Why Max E Malefic Visions first?
We want to reduce its cooldown. Unlike Q Call of the Void, which has a set 6 second cooldown, Malefic Visions's cooldown is 15/13/11/9/7 seconds at Ranks 1/2/3/4/5.

Sometimes you will want to join your jungler for an invade, your support warding Dragon/River/Buffs. Sometimes you find the enemy jungler. You are have the jump. Now is the time to kill!

If you keep your lane pushed, it gives your jungler an advantage: invading the enemy jungle.

This is where you need to keep track of your own jungler, expecially when they go to try and steal Raptors or Red Sentinel/ Blue Sentinel

Sometimes you end up in those situations where it is you, or them, and no one else is going to help. I will be posting any exciting 1v1's with Malzahar I get myself into!

1)

Vs Darius

I feel like the player here was having a case of the overconfidents, and did not play this out so well. At the same time I DID play this 1v1 above average, especially when I moved away so the Hemorrhage stacks wore off before reengaging him.
2)

Vs Aatrox

Aatrox did not wait for my passive to fully disappear after using E and Qing in. I probably still would have won even if he did. I am loving the fighter/bruisers trying to 1v1 a ROA Malzahar with Nether Grasp up. They are never going to win unless they are VERY fed.

Final words to the void as I end this guide:
Treat your teammates with respect. They might feed. They might rage. They might just be awful at the game. So play Malzahar (and maybe mute all your teammates).

Resources

EZGIF.COM: Convert videos to gif
IMGUR.COM: Host of my gifs and images
CANVA.COM: Used to create banners
FOXY'S TABLES GUIDE: Would not have made the guide as awesome as it is without Foxy Riven's Guide!

Updates

I will be adding and expanding sections:

• Warding (Blue Side)
• Roaming the Jungle
• Items
• Early/Mid/Late Game
• Top Lane Malzahar

Jan 16, 2017

• Added Combo for Malefic Visions+ Void Swarm in detail under Level 1/2 Lane Shove
• Added Abilities section (Still WIP)
• Updated To-Hit CDR 30% and the reasons to take either Zhonya's Hourglass or Abyssal Mask
• Update Order to Max in Skill Sequence section.

Jan 17, 2017

• Updated Skill Sequence Why Max E

Jan 18, 2017

• Reworked format in To Hit CDR 30% section to make it easier to read at a glance.
• Put Masteries details into a different colored table to make it easier to read through.
• Formatted all gifs/images to fill the full width.

Jan 21, 2017

• Spell checking and tidying up language
• Added at end of Level 1/2 Lane Shove section, Why Get to Level 2 First?

Mar, 13, 2017

• Added 1 v 1 Me Bro! section.
• Added Abilities, Masteries, Spells, Runes and Skill Order section by combining the aforementioned sections together into one.

Mar, 14, 2017

• Added links to top of section Abilities, Masteries, Spells, Runes and Skill Order to more easily navigate the new combined section.
• Updated and formatted Abilities in Abilities, Masteries, Spells, Runes and Skill Order.

Mar, 15, 2017

• Created new section The End combining previous sections Summary, Resources/Thank You and Updates/Revisions.
• Formatted videos to page width in 1 v 1 Me Bro! section and added Aatrox 1v1.

May 3, 2017

• Updated To-hit 30% CDR to include Banshee's Veil and remove Abyssal Mask

June 1, 2017

• Updated Abilities to update Malzahar's mini-rework for Patch 7.11
• Need to update Level 1/2 Lane Shove and added note to this extent

June 2, 2017

• Added Void News for information and quick bits of information when new patches come out on what affects they might have Malzahar's gameplay
• Combined former section Why Choose Malzahar? into Welcome, Void News, and Why Choose Malzahar?
• Added new GIF for Level 3 Lane Shove in Level 1/2/3 Lane Shove on Patch 7.11

Oct 23, 2017

• Updated ROA vs Morellonomicon with Proof is in the Pudding displaying about a week of Ranked Malzahar games.
• Updated To-Hit CDR 30% with Where's the Magic Penetration?.
• Updated Abilities, Masteries, Spells, Runes and Skill Order
  to Patch 7.12 numbers for Malzahar's Call of the Void and Nether Grasp
• Updated Build Order. Prioritized Haunting Guise as third item (component for Liandry's Torment) to get earlier Magic Pen.