I really love playing Malzahar, and I've looked for ranked games to watch with him in them...but have found "extremely" few. I'd like to see Malzahar come into competitions more often. I think two things generally keep him back.

1. Quicksilver Sash: shuts down his ult...big time.

2. Low survivability + No escapes: He has no defenses other then his ult and no escapes other then summoner spells.

I'm not sure how to fix the sash thing, but giving him some survivability could be quite easy. The ability I see most easily able to attach this to would be Null Zone, as his q already has the silence and his e has the mana return, his W, null zone, has no addition to it. Adding a buff to Malzahar while he's standing in Null Zone would be the best approach, lowering the amount damage he takes while standing in it or maybe giving him health regain? Something added to this ability I see as key.

there is one thing they can do to make malz much better overall and thats attach a decent slow onto null zone that goes up per rank.

benefits of this:

-more teamfight utility
-would finally be able to slow down people chasing him since he has no escapes or to catch people by slowing them
-a lot of null zone's damage is missed because people can either just run out of it or they must be under the effect of your ult for it to really work, this would keep them in it tad longer

This ^
I see 2 problems with malzahar, 1 his null zone is good but nobody is retarded to stand on it all the time, and he can´t be morgana snaring you on top of it unless he has his ult so yes, they should add a decent slow to his null zone to give him an escape ability and max the utility of null zone a little bit.
And the second problem I see is his ult, it is 100% countered by QQS, a lot of people can say that warwick has the same problem but warwick doesnt relies on his ultimate, while malzahar does. Also, his ultimate is strong for a duel but it ****s completly malz on a teamfight, why? because yeah he can supress you, but he supress himself as well since he cant do anything other than stand there while puking purple, making him an easy target. Riot should tweak his ultimate so he can cast it and be able to move but silencing his abilities for the duration.

Idea: in null zone, enemy activated items and summoned spells can't be used.

His ult can still be countered, but if he can ult on his null zone, it can't be dashed away... Although another enemy can save them by stunning/silencing you.

I like the slow for the null zone idea. Would help lots. I had posted a few ideas about what could be done to make him more competitive.

In today's meta Malzahar lacks the viability he had when he first was released. I have some ideas to get him back into the scene. His damage is fine, but I will go into what his abilities needs to be viable again.

Passive - Fine

Q- Call of the Void- This is where I will address his lack of mobility that most people complain about. I think if this move strikes an enemy champion Malzahar should gain a short burst of movement speed, rewarding him for landing it. He is so easy to gank and chase down, this will make it easier to escape if the move is landed, or chase someone down.

W- Void Pool- Great move. I personally think it should slow enemies inside the pool for a small percentage. Why? Everyone says Malzahar lacks teamfight. With my buff to call of the void, and the void pool slow he can contribute more in a teamfight without his ulti. If you can keep tankier people inside the pool longer you can do more damage sort of like a counterpick to tankier team comps. In the era with tanky bruisers this makes him a good choice since the pool does HP % base dmg,

E- Perfect

R- Nether Grasp- Greatest asset, Greatest weakness. I would really like this move to be immune to CC, but he would still take dmg, but thats probably a bit much to ask. I think you should be able to QSS it, but it would only brake the suppress and not the tether. If you move outside of the range of the tether then it would break, stopping the dmg. Its just so easily broken. Cho gaths rupture stops it olafs ult,, silences taunts, slows etc. Its really annoying. I feel like everything stops it and I would like that to be looked at.

His damage is fine he just needs help to make him viable in competitive play. Phreak said in the Champion Spotlight for Malzahar that position him was key. Updating his kit a bit can allow him to not be eaten up quickly in a teamfight and contribute more even without his ulti, but still allowing him to Duel like a boss.Riot please help out my fav champ.

He is considerably good at bullying lane, and DAT DRAIN. I would too like a slow, but it doesn't need to be an op one considering how much dmg his abilities do already. Something around vlad's (pool) slow. Not op, but enough to escape most situations.

bump

Aside from QSS, Malz has at least 1 major problem: his W doesn't fit in with his kit very well. Even his intended W+R combo only holds the enemy in the pool for half of its duration. His W isn't even good for farming minions. He relies heavily on the CC of his teammates in order for one of his abilities to be of any use, and that's kind of lame.

So I thought of a simple buff: if Voidlings attack enemies that are standing on Null Zone, it applies a decent slow. This does a lot of things: it makes his passive/W fit into his kit better, it gives him a buff that requires a bit of thought/planning to pull off well, and it helps with his horrendous chasing/escaping ability.

Malz's damage is fine, but, if his functionality were to change, here are some suggestions:

(note, these are all options... I'm suggesting any 1 or 2... Not all at once.)

1- while ulting, he "slips into the void" becoming untagetable. GP can still eat an orange, people can still defensively escape... But unlike MF and Nunu... He doesn't do huge damage in a huge AOE. IMO, it should be a longer suppress with the same damage spread out over maybe 4 seconds instead of 2.5

2- add either a slow to his puddle or a survivability buff while he stands in it.

3- allow his Q to be aimed like viktor's... The auto angle is pretty inconvenient. Being able to cast it in a line out or unpredictable angles would help him threaten a larger area.

4- replace his Q entirely with some defensive/escape ability or passive aura. Or perhaps turn it into a wall that knocks people back... To either escape or prevent escapes.