What's up everyone? wRAth here with a new guide for all of you. If, for some reason, you do not know already, this is for Malzahar. Why Malzahar?

He's boss. 'Nuff said.

If you want to learn all about Malzahar, including how to build him, how to use his ability combo properly, and more, look no further.

Be sure to leave any comments and constructive criticism below, and be sure to vote :)

ENJOY! =D

Just to clarify, since the team names do not seem to show (unless something is just up on my side):

Team 1: Flat Magic Resist Reduction (for squishier enemies)
Team 2: Percent Magic Penetration (for tankier enemies)

The difference between the item builds are either Abyssal Scepter or Void Staff, depending on the build. If you have squishier enemies, you should get the Abyssal Scepter, since you gain the MRes for yourself and the MRR aura (which is not as potent to a single enemy as Void Staff, but if they are mostly squishy, this should be no issue). For tankier enemies, since you will want the more potent MPen, get the Void Staff.

Please see the "Items" section below for more information about this item build and purchasing order, and why I get the items that I do.

Abbreviated Terms
CC = Crowd Control (Stun, fear, slow, snare, etc)
AP = Ability Power
AD = Attack Damage
MPen = Magic Penetration
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
OOM = Out of Mana
HP = Health/Health Points/Hit Points
DoT = Damage Over Time
AoE = Area of Effect
MRR = Magic Resistance Reduction
MRes = Magic Resistance

Pros
-Terrific farmer
-Ranged
-Deals extreme amounts of damage with his abilities, on low cooldowns
-Stun
-Great in teamfights for AoE % of max HP Null Zone and AoE silence
-Great anti-tank for the % of max HP damage with his Null Zone
-Can restore his own mana using Malefic Visions
-Amazing mid and ganker for the above reasons
-Has a pet (Voidling) that actually deals nice damage and is easy to obtain
-Boss.

Malzahar is one of the BEST farmers in the game. Not only does Malefic Visions deal a lot of damage and have a low cooldown, but if the enemy it is on dies, it passes to the nearest enemy if one is in range, and applies the DoT as if it were a new Malefic Visions being casted. If this is not enough, it also refunds a nice amount of mana every kill it gets. What does this mean?

It means, even at level 2, when you first learn Malefic Visions, you can pop one on a wave of minions, standard attack them a few times, and you get the last hit. And then it pops onto the next minion. And so on.

If you get a few of these on a wave of minions, they will die almost instantly, with you reaping in the gold from all of the last hits. In combination with your Voidling, which is attracted to Malefic Visions, and as such will hit whichever minion has a Malefic Visions on him, you will dominate the scoreboard in Creep Score.

If you need a little extra oomph for your Malefic Visions to successfully bounce around, especially early game when you don't have much damage from your Malefic Visions due to low AP, pop a Null Zone under the wave. This way, not only are they getting damage from your minions, your Malefic Visions, and possibly your standard attack and Voidling, but also now the Null Zone, which drops a % of their max HP. And don't worry, if you successfully take out the minions (which you will), you will be refunded most (if not all and more, depending on how many minions were in the group) of the mana it cost to cast these spells, thanks to your Malefic Visions bouncing around.

This is also helpful if you want to push a lane, just Null Zone, Malefic Visions, and you are at their tower before you know it.

However, as said before in the previous section, you have to be careful with your farming if you do not want to push a lane. Quoted from that section, "Since you farm so well and eliminate waves of creeps quickly, you will push lanes quicker; if you are mid, this will result in a harder time for your jungler (if existent) to gank, and it will be slightly harder to pick up creep kills while at their tower, as well as staying in the XP zone. This is why you need to try to control your lane well, and let their minions push a little before you begin popping your abilities to farm (see "Farming" section below). This way, the enemy will be pushing equally, but with much more force, and you have the ability to turn that around and push hard whenever needed."

To avoid this situation, do exactly as just mentioned before: wait for their minions to push a little bit, then start farming with your abilities, and rinse and repeat. You always have to ability to push harder if need be.

All this gold you will be farming, from early to late game, will help you buy your items quickly, and have an edge over your enemies. Which is nice, right?

And this, my friends, is why I like to call Malzahar the "Young Money" of League of Legends. :]

Yes, I decided to dedicate a whole section to this little bugger. Why? There is so much to say about the amazing Voidling :)

Your Voidling spawns after 4 ability casts, and lasts for 21 seconds unless killed. It is attracted to Malefic Visions, meaning if there is an enemy with Malefic Visions on it near the Voidling, it will attack it.

As mentioned in the previous section, "Farming", your Voidling is a terrific help in farming. When you cast a few Malefic Visions and possibly Null Zones on a wave of minions, he will magically appear and attack whichever minion has a Malefic Visions on it, ensuring that it will die, refund some mana to you, and pass on to the next unlucky victim. The Voidling just lets you wipe out minions waves that much faster :]

As well, Voidlings help when ganking and attacking in teamfights. Remember, it spawns after 4 ability casts. And remember, you have 4 abilities. This means, no matter what, if you just spawned a Voilding and need all 4 more casts to get your new one, or you only need 1 more, you will get it if you perform a skill combo (see the sections titled "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" and "Skill Combo/Ultimate Usage Videos" for more information on your skill combo). And don't underestimate these guys, they actually deal a nice amount of damage: 20 + 5 x level damage per hit, and Voidlings Grow after 7 seconds (+50% Damage/Armor), and Frenzy after 14 seconds (+100% Attack Speed), to be exact. This results in your enemies crying.

Don't believe me? Watch the videos, and note how a Voidling spawns in the video in which I perform a full skill combo (first video).

I must say, Malz's Voidling is one of my favorite passives in the game =] It actually finished off kills for me before that I would've not otherwise gotten! =D

Beginning Game Voidling Spawn

Generally, what you want to do is cast your Q, which you learn at level one, three times while still at base, before you leave. This way, when a level 1 fight starts, or just right once you get to lane, your voidling will spawn on the next ability cast. This is great for extra harass early game, in particular. And it doesn't cost you anything, right?

You are a VITAL part of your team in and out of teamfights. Why?

I go mid with Malzahar. Why?

-He deals a ton of damage.

-Great ganker as mentioned earlier and will mention in this section as well.

-Great farmer.

-Can push easily if being pushed/need be.

-Great harasser.

Harassing is easy mode for Malz. How do you harass with Malz, you ask? Your Q is a silence and long range. Just pop it when they get close enough to force them to run back (due to the silence) and get some damage dealt to them as well. Null Zone is also a great tool for harrasing: if there is an area where you don't want your enemies to stand, for instance, in front of a tower...just pop a Null Zone under them and they will be forced to either stay and lose a large chunk of their health and possibly die, or move back. Also, your Malefic Visions have a relatively short cooldown, even early game, and doesn't cost that much mana, so you can pop a few of those on your enemies for some nice DoT. When your Voidling spawns, that will deal a nice amount of damage to them as well, if they get close enough.

Please see the section titled "Farming" to learn how to farm with Malzahar, one of the best farmers in the game.

Of course, when your get your ulti is when the harassing phase turns into the killing phase. Please see the sections titled "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" and "Skill Combo/Ultimate Usage Videos" to learn and see in action how to kill using your combo with your ultimate.

All of this is what you are looking for in a mid, right? Amazing farming, damage output, and harassing abilities. You also gain a level advantage against most of the other enemies, so when you gank and attack people, it will hurt them a lot more than they can hurt you. However, if you chose to side lane, he works there too, and you can harass and make enemies cry there just as well. But, then you won't have the level advantage as well as the easy opportunity to gank when needed.

This ties in with ganking. You deal a lot of damage, and along with your level advantage, you will laugh at how quickly enemies die.

Malz is an amazing ganker, as mentioned previously, due to his silence and stun. Along with your teammates, you can gank enemies so easily it is not even funny.

How do you initiate a gank? When you get to your enemies, you generally want to wait for them to push a little. Then, when you think the time is right (up to the discretion of you and your teammates, you WILL know when the time is right), UNLEASH YOUR SKILL COMBO! Please, once again, see the sections titled "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" and "Skill Combo/Ultimate Usage Videos" to learn how to use your skill combo.

Greater Mark of Insight : All of Malz's abilities are dealt as magic damage, and as such you want magic penetration. This extra MPen is very helpful along with your masteries (if you follow my setup) and the MPen and MRR from this item build. All of the MPen and MRR will allow you to slice through enemies easier than a sword can slice through air.

Why 21-0-9 you ask? Well, let's take a journey to words below these...

Summon Voidling : This passive is crazy good. Please read the section titled "Your Voidling and You" to learn all about this little guy. But basically, it spawns after 4 spell casts, and deals nice damage. It also is attracted to Malefic Visions. Please read the section previously mentioned to learn more about the Voidling.

Call of the Void : This is your long range silence. As mentioned in the section "Team Work/Your Purpose On Your Team", your silence is great for teamfights, as it is an AoE, meaning it can silence a whole group of enemies at once if you aim it correctly. This can be battle-changing, as it can prevent enemies from casting abilities that might otherwise change the whole flow of the battle against your team.

The silence is also great if you are escaping, as you can silence the enemies from behind you and deal damage while you are running away (also known as kiting) so they cannot cast on you. This can also be used to protect allies who are getting attacked.

Likewise, you can use this ability for chasing certain champions. For instance, enemies that have an easy escape ability, such as Katarina's Shunpo or Kassadin's Riftwalk, can be stopped from escaping you due to your silence, allowing you/your teammates to go in and kill them.

For all of these reasons of the silence's benefit, I learn this ability first, in case I need to silence an enemy if they are giving me trouble or I am getting level 1 ganked. However, I only learn this ability for the silence first, and I max it second, since your Malefic Visions deals more damage with the same additional AP (+0.8 of total AP) bonus, has a lower cooldown, and attracts Voidlings; yet I level it before Null Zone since Null Zone can be easily avoided if not used in conjunction with your ultimate, leveling it up only increases % max HP drop per sec by 1%, and maxing Call of the Void first is much more important due to the longer silence duration per level, which reaches a whopping 3 seconds at level 5. It also is runner up in base damage to Malefic Visions, and only has a slightly longer cooldown.

Thank you to Furber for reminding me to level this 2nd, as the silence duration increases each level up ^_^.

Null Zone : This is an amazing AoE % of max HP damage dealing ability. It lasts for 5 seconds, and deals a portion of the victim's maximum HP per second that they are standing on it. This can theoretically damage a whole team, if they don't notice it right when you put it under them, and/or if they are idiotic enough to all stand on the circle ^_^. This ability is what also makes you a great anti-tank, since it is not base damage but % of the enemy's max HP damage.


For instance, if you use it on a Veigar with 2000 health when the ability is at level 5 with no additional AP bonus damage, and the Veigar stood on the Zone for all 5 seconds, it would deal 9% of his max HP per second for 5 seconds = 45% of his max HP = 900 damage.

Likewise, against, say, a Shen with 4000 health, when the ability is at level 5 with no additional AP bonus damage, and the Shen stood on the Zone for all 5 seconds, it would deal 9% of his max HP per second for 5 seconds = 45% of his max HP = 1800 damage.

THIS is what makes Malz such an amazing anti-tank.

This of course does not account for magic resistance; however, you will have a lot of magic penetration and magic resistance reduction if you follow the item build in this guide.

When using your ultimate, you want to try to stun your target while they are on top of the Null Zone, as a large portion of, if not most of the damage dealt to them will actually be coming from this ability late game against beefier enemies.

For these reasons, I learn this ability once before my ultimate, and max it out last, since, as mentioned before, Null Zone can be easily avoided if not used in conjunction with your ultimate, leveling it up only increases % max HP drop per sec by 1%, and maxing Call of the Void and Malefic Visions first is much more important, for multiple reasons. The cooldown on Null Zone is also the longest from your Q, W, and E. Also, enemies generally tend to get beefier later game, so leveling up this ability once this occurs, so you can deal more overall damage to them with the Null Zone (since they would have more max HP) makes sense.

Thanks to Furber once more for reminding me of that vital information that I surpassed -- that champs get bulkier the longer the game progresses :P.

Malefic Visions : Please see the section titled "Farming" for more information on this ability. This is your core damage dealer when you aren't using your ultimate, your harasser, and your farmer. In the section called "Laning/Ganking", I talk about how to harass with this ability; in the section named "Farming", I discuss how this ability works for farming. Please read those sections if you haven't already. Malefic Visions also attract Voidlings to them, so if your Voidling is up and an enemy has a Malefic Vision on it, it will attack that enemy. Malefic Visions also bounce to the nearest in-range enemy once the one it was on died (within the 4 seconds it stays on them). Each bounce refunds you some mana, all which makes Malzahar a terrific farmer.

I learn this skill second but max it out first due to it being the lowest cooldown ability and most damaging other than your ultimate that has a set amount of damage (unlike Null Zone, which depends on the enemy it is being placed on/underneath). It is also your farming tool and main harasser.

Nether Grasp : Wow, is this ultimate awesome. It stuns AND suppresses your target for a flippin 2.5 seconds, as well as deals 250 / 400 / 550 (+1.5 per Ability Power) damage (a lot of damage).

This is what makes you the victor in most, if not every, 1v1 situation -- just use your ulti when they are silenced, with a Null Zone underneath them, and they will be as done as burnt waffles in a toaster, especially later game when you are nearly done, if not already finished with your item build.

Please see the section titled "Skill Combo/Ultimate Usage Videos" for videos on how to use your ultimate, with your skill combo and without.

Learn this ability when you can.

Call of the Void

NOTE: Please ignore the item builds in these videos, as they were totally different from this one; I was just testing out some items on Malzahar. These videos are solely for the purpose of watching the skill combo and Malz's ultimate in certain situations in action.

Thank you to Jet for assisting me in determining the optimal item build for Malzahar.

Here is where I will tell you when to get what items, explain why I use the items that I use, and the effects of them on Malzahar.

NOTE: The only difference between the two item builds, as mentioned earlier, in the section titled "Team 1 vs Team 2 Malzahar Item Builds", is either getting an Abyssal Scepter OR Void Staff. If you have squishier enemies, you should get the Abyssal Scepter, since you gain the MRes for yourself and the MRR aura (which is not as potent to a single enemy as Void Staff, but if they are mostly squishy, this should be no issue). For tankier enemies, since you will want the more potent MPen, get the Void Staff. Any item in blue refers to the Squishier Enemies Item Build, whereas any item in green refers to the Tankier Enemies Item Build. Please only get the items for the build that you are following.

ANOTHER NOTE: Try to buy Elixirs of Brilliance whenever you recall right before you know a teamfight is going to happen and you have the extra gold, or if you just built or bought an item and have some gold to spend. You can even buy one of these elixirs if you recall and don't have enough gold for any other items that you want to get yet (just don't go overboard on the elixirs, as you still need enough gold to buy your main items). The elixir gives you some more AP and some CDR, which, for a measly 250 gold, doesn't hurt at all. This is especially helpful early game, where that 25 or so AP plus the CDR has a huge effect, when your AP is low and CDR is measly.

NOTE: THESE ITEMS CAN REPLACE ANY ITEM IN AN ABOVE BUILD THAT YOU CHOOSE. THINK WISELY, HOWEVER, OF WHAT ITEM(S) YOU CHOOSE TO REPLACE WITH THESE SITUATIONAL ITEMS. IF YOU DO NOT NEED THESE ITEMS TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES, DON'T BUY THEM.

Quicksilver Sash : This item is good against enemies with a lot of CC (Kennen, Morgana, Lux, Vlad, etc) if you do not have cleanse with you (or even if you do -- double cleanse FTW!). It is cheap and has a cleanse-like active. It removes ALL debuffs from your character. Yes, this includes things that cleanse won't remove, such as damaging debuffs like Vlad's ulti, Malz's ulti, EVERY single debuff to you. Just use the active and get out of there, flash if need be as well if you took it with you as a summoner spell. Keep in mind, if they CC/debuff you again right after you use the active, it won't have a reduced effect as it does with Cleanse. BE CAREFUL OF THAT. This item also gives a good amount of MRes, which is nice against these types of enemies, as well as helping you take less damage when getting focused while ulti-ing in a teamfight, etc.

Mercury's Treads : This item is also great against a team of CCers, just keep in mind it would supplement your sorc boots, so you will have slightly less MPen. It might be worth it to have slightly less MPen, however, if it means that you can get CC reduction against a team full of CC that could mess you up otherwise.

Mejai's Soulstealer : Nothing else at this price (let alone most other items) can provide this much AP. Plus, with the deathcap, not even including the bonus % AP masteries, the total 180 AP from this item with full stacks turns into 234 total AP. And getting stacks, especially with Malz, isn't as hard as it may seem. Your abilities are so devastating early through late game that you are guaranteed to get a lot of kills and assists. And if you lose some, just get them back! Once you get full stacks, you get 15% CDR, which, with you CDR glyphs, and blue pot and blue buff when you can grab them, will allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. This includes spamming your skill combo with your ultimate.

However, this is NOT the most reliable item, use at your own risk. If you are having a good game, try to pick it up early. If not, don't bother risking to lose an item slot and a lot of AP and some gold.

SOME OF MY SCORES WITH MALZAHAR USING THIS GUIDE:

I uploaded this guide there a while back. If you like this guide and wanna support me by checking it out, voting, and commenting, please feel free to :) Click the image below! :D

I hope you took the time to read through my guide. Please vote and comment, and try out my build and all of the tips that I give in my guide. I hope it will give you new insight into Malzahar, and hopefully you will own with him as much as I do (or more :O). Any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or PM me and I will get right back to you. Thanks, and have FUN!

If you want to take the time to check out my other guides, feel free to! Click the stamps to see the corresponding champion's guide!

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