T a b l e O f C o n t e n t s

1. Kaji's Guides 2. Prophet of the Void 3. Introduction 4. Climbing in Ranked 5. Summoner Spells 6. Pros / Cons 7. Unique Abilities 8. Skill Sequence 9. Their Time is Short 10. Items 11. Runes 12. Malzahar Mid ~ Full Gameplay 13. Special Thanks 14. Update Log

Hello and thanks for reading my guide!

I am KajiŌkami, a player that loves playing Malzahar, he is a great champion that can heavily impact games if you play him right.

This guide is made based on the experiences I have had in my many games on the champion, so I hope you guys enjoy it.

If you do like my content, feel free to follow me on Twitch, Twitter or YouTube! You can find the links at the top of my guide!

Enjoy the guide and have fun out there on the fields of justice!






If you want to be able to climb the ladder in ranked here are a few pointers in general (counts for every role and every champion). League of Legends is, and will always be, a team game. This means that you will have to rely on others in order to win games. Some games you can carry your team, some games you will be the one getting carried by your team. Just remember: everyone can have a bad game!

Do's

+ Be positive + Be a teamplayer + Play the vision game + Take objectives + Play mastered champions + Keep your cool

One of the most important parts about being able to win consistently is being positive. If you go into your games with a clear and positive mindset it will not only help you, but also your teammates. Part of playing as a team includes going along with plays your team commits to. Even if you don't 100% agree with the play. By not joining when your team is committed to make the play you just lower the chances of a play succeeding or not! Another very important key to victory is vision! It's not only the support's job to provide vision. It is a team effort, by buying a Control Ward on every opportunity you have, you will help your team out tremendously! Once you have learned to help your team provide vision, the next step is learning to secure objectives, because they win games. Taking turrets or slaying an elemental dragon can help your team get global gold or increased stats! Next thing to keep in mind is to play champions you feel comfortable on, don't force yourself into taking the meta pick if you don't know how to play the champion through and through! Knowing everything there is to know about your champion is very important to consistently win lane! Last but not least: keep your cool! If you are having a bad game, don't start making risky plays or going by yourself. Play safe and rely on your team to help you get back into the game. Same thing goes if your team is playing poorly. Stay calm and don't blame it on them, just keep playing and help them get back into the game.

Don'ts

- Flame - Be negative - Afk farm - Surrender - Chase kills - Be a KDA player

Never flame your teammates, because this will cost you the game more often than not. For example: We've all been there, the enemy jungler seems to have a tent set by your lane and your jungler doesn't visit your lane once. What to do next, flame and blame your jungler? No! Just play safe, don't give away free kills and let your jungler have impact elsewhere on the map. The same goes for being negative, this will just have a bad impact on your teammates. It will affect their play and your chances of winning decrease by a big amount. If a game isn't going according to plan, don't go sit in a sidelane doing nothing but farm all game. Yes, farming is important, but helping your team and assisting on plays is a lot more important! Surrendering is also never an option. If you are behind, just stall out the game until your have caught up with the enemy team or at least until the difference in items and gold doesn't matter as much anymore. A lot of games can be won by just playing smart and waiting for your time, even if you are behind. One more thing to keep in mind: don't chase for kills. Most of the times you keep chasing for a kill you are just wasting your time or worse, getting yourself killed! If an enemy gets away with just a bit of health take this opportunity to take an objective or provide and clear out vision. This will help your team globally a lot more than trying to get that one kill to boost your KDA and risk dying.

Personally I take Flash and Teleport in almost every game I feel that it is the best set of spells you can get for Malzahar.
The reason for taking Teleport is because Malzahar is a champion with great wave clear. By taking Teleport you can keep your lane pressure on the entire laning phase. This can force your opponent in taking bad back timings and cause him to fall behind in cs and experience.
Another benefit of taking Teleport is that you team can go for objectives while you are pushing side lanes, but you will still be able to join them if they need help.



Taking Ghost as a second summoner spell can also be a good choice because it allows you to roam a lot faster.
The low cool down on the summoner spell is also a good reason to consider taking Ghost.



Ignite is an option if you are in a very easy match-up and you want to get ahead really early. But it's definitely not the best summoner spell for Malzahar.

Pros + Easy to play + Strong wave clear + Great lock-down with ult + Strong combo + Passive spellshield + Great objective clear Malzahar is a very strong and easy to play champion, his kit is pretty straightforward. He provides a decent amount of crowd control with his r, Nether Grasp and he has a silence on his Call of the Void, which can be very valuable in teamfights. Malzahar's ult Nether Grasp is great for locking down an enemy carry and creating picks on solo targets. It's also an incredible tool for setting up ganks. His Malefic Visions combined with Void Swarm is a great tool for clearing waves. Especially once you put a few points in Malefic Visions. Malzahar also has a great passive which gives him a spell shield that makes him immune to crowd control. Malzahar is a great champion for taking dragon and baron nashor because of his Void Swarm, allowing him to let his voidlings tank most of the damage.

Cons - Very squishy - Spell reliant - Easy to gank when passive is down - Has to stand still when using ult - No form of escape Malzahar is a pretty squishy champion, which makes him easy to burst down. Early game his wave clear isn't very strong because he relies on his spells very hard to clear waves. It takes a few points in Malefic Visions for his strong wave clear to come online. Malzahar has no real form of escape, so when you engage it's all or nothing. This also makes him vulnerable to ganks while his passive is down. Nether Grasp can only be cast while standing still, so during this time Malzahar is extremely vulnerable to other champions that aren't locked by Nether Grasp.

PASSIVE

Void Shift (Passive): Malzahar receives void shift if he doesn't take damage from enemy champions or if he isn't affected by crowd control for 30/24/18/12 seconds. With void shift, Malzahar is immune to crowd control and takes 90% reduced damage. Fun fact: damage from neutral monsters does affect void shift! So getting attacked by a jungle camp or dragon / baron nashor will consume the passive.

Q W E R

Call of the Void Q: Malzahar summons two orbs at a target location that, after a short delay, deal magic damage to all enemies caught between the orbs and silencing them. Fun fact: Call of the Void provides vision in a small area around it, so it can be used as a tool to check brushes without vision.

Q W E R

Void Swarm W: Malzahar passively gains a stack of gathering swarm when he uses another ability, up to 2 stacks. When using Void Swarm a voidling spawns at a target location + an extra voidling per stack of gathering swarm. These voidlings deal magic damage with their attacks. Fun fact: voidlings will always focus a target affected by Nether Grasp. If nobody is affected by Nether Grasp, voidlings will focus a target affected by Malefic Visions and deal 300% damage to lane minions affected by Malefic Visions.

Q W E R

Malefic Visions E: Malzahar infects the target enemy's mind, dealing them magic damage over time. Damaging that enemy with Call of the Void or Nether Grasp refreshes the duration of Malefic Visions. If the target dies during the time affected by Malefic Visions, they will pass the ability on to the closest enemy, restoring 2% of Malzahar's maximum mana and refreshing the ability. Fun fact: Malefic Visions cannot be removed.

Q W E R

Nether Grasp R: Malzahar suppresses the target enemy champion for 2.5 seconds, dealing magic damage for the duration. While using Nether Grasp a Null Zone is opened, dealing magic damage to the enemy champion targeted by Nether Grasp and all other enemies within it.

Nether Grasp: your ult is your biggest tool for bursting people down and making plays, so for that reason you will want to put a point in it every chance you get. This means at levels 6 > 11 > 16.

Malefic Visions: this skill is your best wave clearing tool and it provides the most damage. For that reason this skill will be maxed first.

Void Swarm: after you have maxed out Malefic Visions, Void Swarm is next for one simple reason ~ it just increases your damage output tremendously!

Call of the Void: you level up Call of the Void last. The reason here is simple, this skill deals the least damage and because it is a skill shot, it is less reliable to deal damage to enemy champions.

Doran's Ring and Health Potion are going to be the way you want to start almost every game. The AP + bonus health, combined with the mana regeneration you get per minion you kill are very good for your sustain in the early game.

Archangel's Staff is one of the 2 items you should always build first on Malzahar. The reason for going Archangel's Staff is because it evolves into Seraph's Embrace. The shield you get from the active on Seraph's Embrace provides you with a lot of bonus sustain to survive in teamfights. This item is my preferred first item choice!

Luden's Tempest is the second choice you have as a first item. Luden's Tempest is an equally good option to buy first, it just depends on your play-style. The reason for going Luden's Tempest is that it offers you more burst and it helps you clear out waves even faster with the passive.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a solid item on Malzahar. It gives you bonus health, which can be a really useful stat seeing to help you survive becausee you don't have any abilities to help you escape when enemies are collapsing on you or when you are getting ganked. Furthermore it's passive is really good for chasing people down because of the slow it provides. In patch 8.9. Rylai's Crystal Scepter go a small buff on the amount of ability power it gives.

Liandry's Torment is an incredibly strong item on Malzahar becuase of the damage over time it deals, which synergises perfectly with his abilities. Since the ap item changes the flat amount of magic penetration has been removed. Now the burn damage has been finetuned some more to make it feel even better on champions like Malzahar.

These are the boots you should build in most of your games because it will help you cap out your maximum cooldown reduction + the bonus cooldown on summoner spells is very useful since your Flash + Nether Grasp is such a strong combo.

When you cap out your maximum cooldown reduction with a Zhonya's Hourglass or a Banshee's Veil you should go for Sorcerer's Shoes. The extra damage on your burst is very nice and they will help you burst down the squishies even faster.

Morellonomicon is a very good item on Malzahar, even after the ap item changes. Although it's not a first or second item rush anymore. The magic penetration it gives you now is nice, but the most important change is that they removed the mana (which you don't need anymore because of Archangel's Staff or Luden's Tempest) and focused more on the grievous wounds. This is very good on Malzahar because he is a champion that deals a lot of damage over time, which means that you can cut the healing of your enemies for a very long time. This is especially useful against champions like Swain.

When the enemy team is buying a lot of magic resistance, you will most likely have to buy Void Staff to negate as much magic resistance as possible. Generally, you want to build this when at least 2 players on their team have magic resistance items. If for example their toplaner has Spirit Visage + Mercury's Treads and their midlaner bought Banshee's Veil and Mercury's Treads it could be a very good idea to buy Void Staff.

Since the ap item changes Rabadon's Deathcap has moved up a little on the viability list. This is because of the fact that the bonus ap increase grew from 35% to 40%, making it a good item to build when you are snowballing and want burst down squishies even faster!

Zhonya's Hourglass can be a very smart choice when you are going up against an enemy team with a lot of attack damage or when you are laning against a champion like Talon, Zed or Yasuo. The bonus armor and the invulnerability can help you survive a lot better in these kinds of situations.

Shurelya's Battlesong is a perfect choice if you manage to get a very early lead and you want to snowball this lead by helping your other lanes get ahead. Just use your active and the enemies won't be able to escape your Nether Grasp unless they blow their Flash.

Banshee's Veil can be a great option to finish of your build. If the enemy team is heavy on ap or has a lot of cc, Banshee's Veil is the item to go. The spell shield every 40 seconds van be very useful because it gives you even more tools to survive apart from your passive.

First things first: because of the new runes system there are now so many different building paths, depending on your playstyle, that it can become hard to choose.

In this chapter I will go over the runes that I think are best on Malzahar.

Summon Aery is the best keystone to build on Malzahar because of how easy it is to proc with Malefic Visions. The later in the game, the lower the cool down on Summon Aery becomes. This can cause Malefic Visions to proc twice on the same enemy with one cast. Update: on patch 8.16 the early game damage on Summon Aery get nerfed, but the late game damage is still the same. So in all this isn't a problem as Malzahar, because you will deal most of your damage later into the game.

Manaflow Band is a great rune on Malzahar because you will naturally be spamming your abilities as much as possible, especially Malefic Visions and Void Swarm. The bonus mana and mana regen increase Manaflow Band provides are very good tools to ensure you don't run out of mana.

As said before, you want to use your abilities as much as possible on Malzahar, so by taking Transcendence you will cap out your max cool down reduction if you go for the standard build, which provides you 30% cdr with Seraph's Embrace and boots of lucidity.

Malzahar can be a real damage threat in late game teamfights if you can land a good Nether Grasp + Malefic Visions on a target enemy. To make sure you deal the most damage you can due late game you should take Gathering Storm as is helps you scale in to the late game.

Cosmic Insight is the rune you should go for if you want to be able to use your abilities as often as possible. Apart from giving you 5% CDR at the start of the game and + 5% max CDR, it also provides a lot of utility because it gives you faster summoner spell and active item cooldowns. Meaning you have your Teleport, Flash and, in some games, your Zhonya's Hourglass available 5% faster.

Malzahar has great wave clear as the game goes on, but early in the game he can struggle a little bit. That is where Minion Dematerializer comes in. This rune will help you manage your waves better early on + it increases your damage dealt to the selected type of minions you use it on. Another perk of taking Minion Dematerializer is that you can force your opponents to stay in lane and deal with the wave while you buy time for yourself to roam and help your team elsewhere on the map.

This preseason has brought something new and, in my opinion, very useful to the rune-page crafting: the option to pick you own bonus stats. There are 3 tiers, each with 3 options.

Tier 1 ~ Offense + 6 AD or 10 AP + 9% Attack Speed + 1 - 10% CDR (level 1 - 18)

Tier 2 ~ Flex + 6 AD or 10 AP + 5 armor + 6 magic resistance

Tier 3 ~ Defense + 15 - 90 HP (level 1 - 18) + 5 armor + 6 magic resistance

I will tell you my personal view on these stats for Malzahar. These bonus stats should be your pick no matter what the rune page you are going to run is.

Tier 1 ~ Offense: adaptive stats, which in the case of Malzahar will be + 10 AP. The reason behind picking the increased AP as a bonus stat is very simple. There is already enough cooldown reduction in your runes and items, so you don't have to take the increase here. The flat AP will help you clear a little better in the early stages of the game before you have your items.

Tier 2 ~ Flex: adaptive stats, same explanation as above!

Tier 3 ~ Defense: here you will pick the 15 - 90 HP (level 1 - 18) for one simple reason: bonus health is the stat you will be getting the most value out of as Malzahar. It complements well with the items you build.







These videos are replays of some games I streamed.
They contain, in my opinion, everything you need to know about Malzahar mid gameplay.
I will be uploading new videos when I get new material!

Play Video

Play Video

~ Thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide! ~

• 05-06-2018: published guide (chapter 1 - 8).
• 06-06-2018: added chapter 9 ~ Runes.
• 14-06-2018: updated guide for patch 8.12.
• 19-06-2018: added chapter 10 ~ Malzahar Mid ~ Full Gameplay video.
• 27-06-2018: updated guide for patch 8.13.
• 01-07-2018: added chapter 9 ~ Items, moved other chapters.
• 10-07-2018: added new video to chapter 10 ~ Malzahar Mid ~ Full Gameplay.
• 23-07-2018: updated guide for patch 8.14 + added custom table of content.
• 01-08-2018: updated guide for patch 8.15.
• 08-08-2018: much needed lay-out update!
• 16-08-2018: updated guide for patch 8.16.
• 04-09-2018: updated guide for patch 8.17.
• 18-09-2018: updated guide for patch 8.18.
• 03-10-2018: updated guide for patch 8.19.
• 15-10-2018: updated guide for patch 8.20.
• 24-10-2018: updated guide for patch 8.21.
• 29-10-2018: added link to other guides in new chapter.
• 07-11-2018: updated guide for patch 8.22 + added link to newest guide Thresh support.
• 01-12-2018: updated guide for preseason (patch 8.23) + added segment on bonus stats.
• 05-12-2018: updated guide for patch 8.24.
• 12-01-2019: updated guide for patch 9.1.
• 25-02-2019: updated guide for patch 9.4.
• 16-03-2019: updated guide for patch 9.5.
• 30-03-2019: updated guide for patch 9.6.
• 27-04-2019: updated guide for patch 9.8.
• 04/05/2019: updated guide for patch 9.9.
• 15-05-2019: updated guide for patch 9.10.
• 26-06-2019: updated guide for patch 9.13.
• 02-10-2019: updated guide for patch 9.19.
• 21-10-2019: updated guide for patch 9.20.
• 04-11-2019: updated guide for patch 9.21.
• 06-11-2019: updated guide for patch 9.22.
• 25-11-2019: updated guide for patch 9.23.
• 22-01-2020: updated guide for patch 10.1.
• 27-01-2020: updated guide for patch 10.2.
• 10-02-2020: updated guide for patch 10.3.
• 29-03-2020: updated guide for patch 10.6.
• 20-10-2020: updated guide for patch 10.21.
• 29-10-2020: updated guide for patch 10.22.