LoL Inven Inven Global

Hello, LuckyGnom is here.

Last season I was able to get Diamond on EUW playing mostly Midlane/Top with Malzahar/Ryze. I was able to get 60% winrate as Malzahar with over 500 games played which was the main reason why I climbed.

Here is my OP.GG. This season I tried to become ADC, but failed and now, when I want to get diamond back asap, Im playing Malzahar again.

Each person has own weak and strong sides, you can see it even in a proplayers. Some people excel and playing flashy mechanical demanding champions  and some prefer to outsmart opponents. If you want to play like Froggen, Crown, KurO - Malzahar is a champion for you.

Malzahar playstyle is super straight forward, his abilities are easy to understand and use in a right order. You don't need to have insane mechanics to win with this champion - what you need is to constantly think where you can get advantages on a map and how you can get them, so by the time midgame teamfights come you will be insanely strong.

Biggest difference between Malzahar and other mages like Anivia or Viktor is that your roams are insanely strong and easy to execute both for you and your teammates, which is very good thing to have in soloq.

This is the most cookie cutter style for Malzahar.

You take Corrupting Potion and combined with Inspiration runes you get you a lot of lane sustain. Your Sorcery runes are giving you AP for better lane pushing and let you trade better with Aery, since both your abilities and autoattacks activate it and you auto attack in trades a lot. Plus you get 30cdr on level 10 though your runes and first item.

Your first item will always be Archangel's Staff, this item gives you the most amount of AP while giving you 20% CDR, then only one con for it is that you need to stack it, so don't hesitate to use spells constantly, even when you just run from your base to lane - just do it. Your go to boots are Sorcerer's, because magic penetration is super good on Malzahar.

Rylais+Liandries is a classic damage over time ability power items combo. There is one trick that you can do with them: after your Archangel's you can build Haunting Guise, which will give you damage amplification, then build Rylai's and only after Rylai's end your Liandries. This way you will get as much damage as you can though all the stages of a game. Only one problem that sometimes you will want to get slow as fast as you can, so you will be forced to build Rylai's straigh after Archangels. Example of this situation is playing against something that runs at you: Garen, Volibear, Rammus, maybe Hecarim.

After all this items usually you build Void Staff, but if your opponents do not build Magic Resist you can build Rabadons first. End then item you don't have after it.

This style is good when you are playing against melee champions or when you just want to get kills in lane. It is not always easy to get kills in lane, but your W-E-R-Ignite combo deals a lot of damage, so from time to time you can punish your opponents for making mistakes.

Overall build is the same, but you start with Dorans Ring, which forces you to play a little bit more careful, since you won't have sustain of Corrupting Pot.  On the other hand you gain a lot of AP, because of Absolute Focus so you get more damage on minions, so don't hesitate to just push the lane with your spells.

You aim to get Lost Chapter on your first back, but if you aren't able to do it: just buy second dorans ring and use gold to buy parts of Lost Chapter. After Lost Chapter it is up to you to decide do you want to end Luden's or you want to get Ionian Boots first. I prefer to get boots, because it will lower my Flash/Ignite/Ultimate cooldowns which is what you need to get kills in lane. Also Boots are giving movement speed which helps you to get closer to opponents easier and roam on a map to help your jungler.

All other items are the same as on Basic Malzahar style.

This is a very interesting and now almost forgotten style, still you can see some players use it from time to time, for example Faker. This build relies on a fast power spikes which you should use to get your sidelaners and jungler ahead, if you will fail in it - most likely you will be pretty useless until the very late game.

You start with Dorans Ring and aim to get tear and boots as soon as possible. Tear will not give you more damage on minions, but it will give you a lot of mana, so you can use your spells on minion waves pretty recklessly.

Boots are essential for your build, because you need them to activate Predator while you roam. Interesting thing that if you are forced to recall super early and you don't enough money for tear, you can use trick that I saw Faker doing - get t1 boots + dark seal and use Predator to just get back to lane faster. Best boots for you to get is Sorcerer boots, since you won't have a lot of AP during early and midgame, so to make as much damage as possible you need to penetrate magic resist better.

After tear and boots you build Shurelya's Reverie. Yes, you can end your Archangel's instead and rely only on Predator to roam, but with Shurelya's combined with Predator your speed on roams will be just insane. Also this is why you take Celerity over Absolute Focus, when you will activate Predator and Shurelya's Celerity will give you insane amount of AP.

After Shurelya's Reverie you end your Archangels and get Rabadons. Of course you can go into a standart Rylais+Liandries combo, but with them your AP numbers will be pretty low. Rabadon's Deathcap migh cost a lot of money, but don't forget that Shurelya costs almost no money, so you can afford to get Deathcap as 3rd item.

One more thing that should be noted about this build is that you can try to replace Shurelya with Spellbinder. This item will give you way more damage by itself and his active ability will give a lot of movement speed. Only one problem about it is that it costs more gold, so your roams will come online a little bit later. Try both item builds and decide what you like more.

This is a part that I almost never see in guides and I think that this part is the most important in guides. You can build whatever items you like, but if you don't understand playstyle in which your champion excels - you won't get good results with him.

Malzahar isn't the best laning champion. Yes, he is very safe due to his passive, so you can blind pick him and expect to not lose your tower. This is why proplayers usually play Basic Malzahar style. Your goal with it is to just farm as good as you can, maybe giving lane pressure early in hard matchups that outrange or outdamage you, but clearing waves under your tower with your spells. After you get level6 and some AP you will be able to clear waves faster, usually using your E on the ranged minion, waiting a little bit, then using Q on this minion and 2 near him and then just pressing W letting your Voidlings to kill what left of the minion wave.

Biggest Malzahar problem is that he is very short ranged mage, so it is very hard to get kills with him. You can try to play Laning Malzahar style and this style is very good in some matchups, but when you will get closer to higher elos this style will be more and more situational. This is where you will start focus more on roaming, instead of trying to win your lane.

Overall Malzahar playstyle is super easy. Focus on a farming, don't try to get kills. Farm as good as you can, if you don't have waves to farm - farm  Raptors. After you will get some AP you will be able to clear waves super fast, this is where you start watching what your jungler does - help him when he fights in river, sometimes help him when he invades (if you think his invade was a good idea), help him in his own jungle. Your dream is 200 farm at 20 minutes, but if you cleared your wave super fast and have a lot of free time don't just stand in lane or try to harras your opponent - go ward opponents jungle or river, go help your jungler, go help your sidelanes if they are super pushed in.

Great farming, while helping your team, while not dying at all is how you win games with Malzahar.

In my opinion you can play with Malzahar with just damage items. Malzahar has a lot of HP from items compared to classic midlaner, he also have his passive and he doesn't need to be in a middle of fight - he can just cast his e-w and cast q from a far away, voidlings will do all the damage for you.

Sometimes, you will be in a super hard lane that can get on you super easy like Yasuo, Irelia or that outrange and out clear you like Azir, Velkoz. This is where you might consider building some situational items.

Mercs - good against AP lanes that outrange you. Just get double dorans ring for mana sustain and get mercs right after.

Ninja tabis - good against AD assasins or bruisers. Idea is the same, get double dorans into tabis.
Swiftness - super situational, good against skill shot reliant champions like Velkoz, Ziggs or champions that use Glacial Augment like Veigar, Zilean. You can use Mercs in this matchups too.

Zhonyas - good against AD assasins or Fizz. Usually needed if you play against 2 assasins or more, for example Khazix+Fizz.

Banshees - you don't really need this item, because your passive is a banshees, but if you are against a lot of CC like Sejuani+Lissandra+Varus you might consider it.

RoA - building this item means "let me scale to 5 items or more". This item migh be good against teams that have a lot of burst damage, like 4-5 champions. Try not to build it tho.

Morellonomicon - sometimes you will face Mundo/Vladimir/Volibear/Soraka, sometimes even everyone of them at the same time and your ADcarry will just refuse to build Executioners Calling. Just buy Morellonomicon, it will help more than rabadons.

Twin Shadows - overall useless item for you, but if you are playing against champions that rely on flanking, like Fiddlesticks and your team is about teamfights - try using this item. When you are sieging use this item's Active while being a little bit behind your team, usually it will reveal champions that want to flank.

Dark Seal - most of the times double dorans is better than dorans+dark seal, but if you went with Corrupting Potion and Warp Tonic and you force to base early - buy Dark Seal , it will make your healing even bigger.

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