Weird Picks #73: Malzahar Support

Support Malzahar is one of those things that in theory, was always possible as a result of his powerful ultimate. However, it wasn't until recently that he started gaining notoriety in the lane dominance meta. By pushing his lane early, the level 2 power spike advantage far exceeds any potential creeps he might steal along the way.

As a result of this and more, high division players (especially in Korea) are pouncing on this champion as a fun and powerful support pick.

Weird Pick #73

Malzahar Support

January 2017

Introduction

How to Play

Primary Runes: Deathfire Touch, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, Scorch
Secondary Runes: Second Wind, Bone Plating
Abilities: W, E, E, Q then prioritize R > E > Q > W
Summoner Spells: Flash + Ignite
Starting Items: World Atlas + 3 Potions
Core Items: Sightstone
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Redemption
Liandry's Torment
Void Staff

Why It Works

Rune Synergy

Malzahar is one of the few AP champions who can genuinely pick between Deathfire Touch and Electrocute without strongly favoring the burst option, because his damage arrives as a long tick rather than one hit. That suits his E, which spreads damage across a whole wave and, combined with the keystone, deals insane amounts of damage at rank 1.

Easy Lane Pushing
Against lanes that like to push early or with marksmen with early game power spikes (AKA everybody), Malzahar does phenomenal with a single point in his Void Swarm (W). If the enemy support tries to play aggressive and zone, Malzahar can also quickly spawn voidlings for free champion damage. If not, punching his double voidling spawn on the second wave is a guaranteed early level up.

Safe Laning Phase
Although it's fairly simple to take off Malzahar's passive shield, while he has it up he's guaranteed a win on any trade he makes, especially early game. As a result, he can easily bully and zone until the shield drops, wait a little bit, and then get right back to what he does best.

Lockdown Ultimate
Last but not least is arguably the best part of Malzahar's kit, the point and click suppression with percentage damage. This spell is one of the strongest 2v2 ultimates in the game, and it's no surprise that it can kill squishies with ease. As a result, enemy marksmen will be forced to build an early quicksilver sash or face snowballing without jungle ganks. This greatly delays their power spike, as most marksmen need at least two items before they can get the ball rolling, both of which don't help them against Malzahar's kit.

Potential Pitfalls

Weak Against Long Range Poke
Malzahar is reliant on keeping his spellshield up while getting into trades. As a result, long range poke may take down his passive way before he's in range. This causes him to lose a great deal of effectiveness.

Weak Against High Crowd Control Teams
Obviously the enemy team is going to need some way to stop your ultimate, but if they're packing a good deal of crowd control, the marksman may not need to build quicksilver sash early and just rely on his team to save him.

Prone to Jungle Ganks
As a damage-based kite champion, Malzahar can certainly turn around jungle ganks in his own lane's favor. However, by pushing the lane early he makes bot prone to getting camped by the enemy jungler, especially since his 2v2 is oppressive, but he has relatively little in the way of escapes.

Conclusions

Malzahar support is a pick that is rapidly gaining popularity for a good reason, and I personally think it's incredibly strong right now. I'm now a Malzahar support main and don't know why I ever doubted it.

Suggested Rating: Tier 1