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Playing Against Malzahar
MidPatch 16.2.1
What They Do
A lane-pushing specialist and anti-carry. Malzahar uses and to shove waves endlessly and looks to lockdown priority targets with to set up easy kills for his team.
Abilities (What to Watch For)
| Ability | What You'll See | What It Means For You |
|---|---|---|
| A purple bubble shield surrounding him. | Provides 90% damage reduction and CC immunity. You MUST pop this with an auto-attack or a low-value spell before trying to use your main combo. | |
| Two purple portals that fire a beam between them. | Deals damage and silences. It also refreshes the duration of on any target hit. Sidestep vertically to avoid the line. | |
| Small purple crab-like creatures (Voidlings). | These are his primary source of early DPS and waveclear. They die to a single auto-attack or any AOE spell. Kill them immediately to stop his push. | |
| Purple misty effects on a unit's head. | A point-and-click damage-over-time spell. If the target dies, the effect jumps to the nearest unit and restores Malzahar's mana. Stay away from low HP minions. | |
| A continuous purple beam connecting Malzahar to his target. | A 2.5s suppress that leaves a damaging zone on the ground. He is stationary while channeling. This can only be broken by QSS or an ally CC'ing Malzahar. |
Respect
- !The Flash + combo→It is a point-and-click 2.5s suppression. If his jungler is nearby and he has Flash, you are dead if you step into his range.
- !chaining→If you stand near low-health minions, will jump to you, dealing significant poke and drawing aggro.
- !shield→It ignores your first CC or burst spell. Attempting to all-in while his shield is up will result in you wasting your most important cooldowns.
- !Vision-refreshing →If he hits while you have on you, the DoT timer resets, effectively doubling the damage you take.
Punish
- +is broken→The shield has a long cooldown (30-10s). Once popped, he is extremely squishy and has zero mobility or self-peel until .
- +voidlings are active→Kill them instantly. They are worth gold/XP and without them, Malzahar cannot push the wave or trade effectively.
- +Pre-Level 6→Malzahar has very low kill pressure early and high mana costs. Bully him hard and force him to use spells on the wave rather than you.
- +He is channeling →He is a sitting duck. If you aren't the one suppressed, hit him with any hard CC to cancel his ultimate and save your teammate.
Laning Tips
- •Always pop with a long-range auto-attack before your jungler arrives for a gank.
- •Do not stand next to your caster minions when they are low health to avoid the bounce.
- •If he uses , use one AOE ability to clear all voidlings instantly; this ruins his mana efficiency.
- •Buy Quicksilver Sash (QSS) if you are an AD champion. It is the only way to escape once it starts.
- •Malzahar wants to stay in lane and farm. Shove him under tower early as he struggles to last hit under pressure without using all his mana.
- •Watch his mana bar. If he fails to get resets/jumps, he will run out of mana very quickly in the early game.
Teamfight Warning
- ⚠Malzahar will look to peel for his carry by using on any diver. Don't dive unless you have a way to cleanse the suppress.
- ⚠The zone under his deals % max HP damage. Even if you use QSS, you must walk out of the purple pool immediately.
- ⚠His silence is a massive AOE. Don't clump up in choke points or your whole team will be unable to cast spells.
- ⚠Keep his down with incidental AOE damage or poke so he can't walk up safely to ult your carries.
- ⚠Check for his Liandry's Torment. The burn will keep his damage ticking for a long time, preventing you from backing or regenerating.
AI-generated counterplay guide • Patch 16.2.1 • Cached