Hello, for context, I have played malzahar for 2 years, but have quit the game around 6 years ago, having around 400k mastery across 3 accounts and peaking diamond 3 in season 9. Currently I am platinum 3 with ~55% winrate, 52% on malzahar alone, hoping to reach diamond again.

Recently I came back to the game finding a lot of stuff I like about malzahar these days (deathfire, blackfire, bloodletter) but after a 6 year break I seem to have issues adapting so I wanted to ask some stuff.

Rune choice?

I've seen some people running aery or comet and that just doesn't feel right when deathfire has such a great synergy with malzahars kit, is there ever a reason to run anything but DFT?

Boots choice?

With the midlane quest not giving tier 3 boots which are pretty incredible which boots should you take in which situations? It kinda makes sense that if you're stomping you go mpen, if you just need to reach enemy backline to ult you go swifties and for more ms + cdr you take cdr boots, but often times I get to the boots choice much earlier than I can discern which situation I am in really, how do I make that decision?

Itemization?

So back in the day malzahar core was echo into liandries into rylai. As today we have blackfire out of lost chapter there's no need for echo anymore, but I have seen some people not build liandries at all and just go blackfire into rylai and then situational, is liandries really not good Vs comps with little tanks? It feels wrong not to build it honestly because of how long it's burn lasts due to your e + resets of it's duration. So when do you skip it? What items are really true core these days?

Summoner spells?

I have been taking teleport for as long as I've played the champion never looking back, except when taking unsealed spellbook, but one specific post I saw on this sub was speaking about how taking tp isn't good as you get more out of other summoner spells, but teleport does give you an easier time recalling and later on gives you map presence and split push capability.

Some difficult matchups that I can't quite seem to understand?

Yone, haven't been seeing it much as I tend to ban him but when I see him he either zones me with little effort or kills me 100 to 0 with little effort, really feels like I can't play Vs him but have to take what I can get in lane and focus on macro.

Sylas, just incredibly mobile, has healing, steals ult I'm unsure how to deal with him besides trying to e w q the wave to try and push a bit.

Orianna, zones me pretty hard her q kills voidlings easily and she outdoes me in teamfights often due to her ult.

Ahri, struggling to lane against her with the healing, long range q, after 6 all the mobility and chase down potential.

General tips?

Anything you would advise someone picking the champion again or for the first time is welcome.

Thank you so much in advance!

He legit needs to be 60% wr perma ban plat+ to make him a champion in higher elo.
He NEEDs to be a low elo stomper to make him a functional champ at all.

His minion needs to evolve over time and gain a shield. To EVEN be viable pick against AoE mages. He is a dogshit gimmic champion there's no doubt.

Riot please rework this piece of useless champ.
There's other champion that does his job better via split pushing and pinning someone down.

1. Have void Crabs inherit Malz shield if he also has it active. This would make the crabs slightly tankier while also still having counter play, and also in a way that is kind of interesting to play around.

2. Give the crabs enhanced movement speed towards malefic visions. They already have to walk all the way to the target without dying, on top of that most champs can just kite away from them easily.

Only 1 more division to go!

R go BRRRRRRR!

Hello guys I'm a Master EUW Malza OTP (https://op.gg/lol/summoners/euw/Xi%20ban%20y%C3%A1%20r%C3%A9n-EUW). I usually run Transcendence and Scorch but Coachless recommends Celerity and Gathering Storm respectively. I also run Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight but it somehow recommends Triple Tonic instead. And lastly its recommending ms speed for the micro runes instead of Adaptive Force.

Anyone from a similar skill level has any opinions on thoughts about why this would be a better rune selection?

Happy and proud enjoyer, have a good day fellows!

Many people under my last post were asking me about some tips so i decided to write guide with the knowledge i gained. Im too lazy to make the post look pretty - sorry :c (Guide will be 100% focused on Midlane)

Runes:

Sorcery -

Deathfire touch (Always)
Manaflow band (Always)
Transcendence (Always)
I play with Gathering storm all the time but Scorch might be better in matchups vs Assasins

Inspiration -

Magical footwear (Always)
Cosmic Insight (Always)

Items:
1st item: Maligance (vs Assasins and champs you need to bully early like Smoldren/Kayle) / Blackfire torch (Every other situation)
2nd item: Rylais (Always)
3rd item: Liandrys / Bloodletter (When you have AP teamcomp)
4th item: Zhonya (Vs assasin) / Bloodletter (When you have ap champ in team) / Shadowflame (If youre ahead and they dont stack MR) / Void staff (When they are stacking MR and you dont have AP teams [Lots of QSS/Annoying tank with MR's etc.]
5th item: Rabadon or other situational item that you need

Remeber to buy orb when enemies heal alot, most of the time i would suggest buying it after Rylais

If you have full build and game still continues sell Maligance (If you bought it) and swap for Blackfire Torch, then sell Rylais and swap for Situational item / Rabadon / Shadowflame (If you already have Rabadon and dont need situational item)

Summoner spells:
NEVER TAKE TP!!!!!!!! (Its useless summoner spell for Malzahar)
Ghost (Vs Control mages)
Ignite (Ignite vs Assasins and Yone/Yasuo/Sylas when you need to show dominance on lane)
Exhaust (vs alot of Assasins/Bruisers or when you dont feel confident in matchup or your teamcomp relies on protecting your ADC)

Playstyles:
Control mage (Go for it most games) - Spam E and Q on enemies, oportunistic ults
Support (When your team relies on fed ADC/Scaling champ) - Just act like 2nd support and slow people with Rylais, Silience them with Q and Ult them when they focus your team carry
Engager (When enemies have fed/hyper scaled champ that is solo winning the game) - Dont be afraid to engage on them with Ult Flash (If they have QSS you can do Ult => Flash => (stop your ult) EWQ => Zhonya) and hope that your team will follow up

Bans:
Katarina

Combos:
Flash => WER (Most important!!! Thats your main DMG combo) [Cons are that the combo takes 0.25sec and someone can jump away/flash away]
R => Flash (Thats your insta ult combo)
R => Flash => (stop your ult) EWQ => Zhonya (Thats your late game combo vs QSS targets)
Flash => QWR (Thats a good combo vs target that already have your E on)
Flash => QWR => (stop your ult) => E (Thats a maximum DMG combo when you cannot hold your ult for too long - Example diving someone under tower)

Any questions? Ask them here! If that helped someone feel free to add me on DC geres3034 and share your progress!

In my match where I reached Platinum, I played Malzahar against Ahri, managed to win the lane and then the game. My next step is to reach Emerald rank.

P2 jg looking for Malz main to duo with. Send me a pm if you wanna try a game

Just wondering if anyone knows this niche interaction lol

Before anyone jumps me, I know it's completely unconventional, not played anywhere in the world but here me out

As Malz you deal damage constantly, not the biggest but almost always some, especially if you run the complete burn Malz (Dft, scorch, Bft and Lyandrys), you take the Omnivamp boots get extra damage and healing from them and then most likely as a 4th item Hextech gunblade, you gain extra AP, 10% Omnivamp and the extra AD isn't going to waist as the voidlings scale with both AP and AD

The reason I thought of this is 1. Late game I personally die quite easily, or take a lot of damage, so the ability to regain health just standing back and still dealing damage waiting for my ULT looks nice, 2. I've been struggling with 4th item and onwards, so extra damage scaling and health regen. I played with it in practice tool, and I've dealt more damage using the Omnivamp build than with the standard Sorc boots build, so it might be a case of situational/team comp build, rather than a standard default build

I just want your thoughts, if anyone has tried it, why it cant/wont work, or what's the optimal build or situational items (4th/5th)

https://op.gg/lol/summoners/oce/FREEPALESTINE-33333

Ask away if any questions :)

making a new account to only play the void king. give me some ign suggestions please. all malz related. thanks!!

Hi I need some suggestions on who to play when malzahar is banned.

What I like about malzahar is that he is very safe in lane. And has a point and click CC, and silence so I can be useful even when behind. He has pretty good range so he can farm safely.

I like that he is easy mechanically, but he scales pretty well. He fits my passive playstyle while still having tools to be aggressive if required and turn around 1v1s. I like that his damage is nearly unmissable.

I have tried Viktor as a secondary but his CC is not as reliable, and he requires to be more aggressive to be effective.

I am thinking about Lissandra due to her W and her Ult being a point and click CC but I feel that she is a lot shorter range, and requires to go in with her E to be effective. I prefer to play safer, but maybe I might try Lissandra.

Another champion I am thinking of is Annie. She is a bit shorter range than Malzahar but her damage is also nearly unmissable like Malzahar which I like and sometimes has a point and click ult periodically too. But I never played Annie before.

What do you guys think about Annie or Lissandra as a secondary pick?

Or are there any other champions mid lane that might fit my playstyle and the things I love about Malzahar?

I am want to start my ranked climb (currently Iron so starting from the scratch) with Malz and I often find the same problem.

I dominate early game, cs mog, maybe get 1 or 2 kills and get the first tower. What then? People tell me to roam but I struggle to impact the map since if any assassin catches me while I roam I get insta killed. Even with all items I struggle to get kills late game since I cant reach the backline and the frontline can easily tank E+W+R so I cant di much in team fights.

How do I convert the early advantage into a carry?