Okay so on Sunday I bought Malzahar after saving up 6300 ip. Then it turns out the day after I buy Malzahar its his free week, which really sucks because now I have to play find the champ the fastest like every match. Anyways so yeah I bought Malzahar and was debating on how to build, so I thought I'd come to the forums and get some suggestions.

So Far, this what I've been doing

1. Rod of Ages
2. Ionian Boots of Lucidity
3. Rylai's Crystal Sceptor
4. Rabadon's Death Cap
5. Void Staff

I haven't had a match that lasted longer than those items

With the addition of Morello's Evil Tome this is what i'm thinking about doing

1. Morello's Evil Tome
2. Sorcerer's Shoes
3. Rylai's Crystal Sceptor or Rod of Ages
4. Rabadon's Death Cap
5. Void Staff
6. Will of the Ancients or Archangel Staff

Also My Masteries are 10/0/20, all suggestions would be appreciated.

I run:

1: Hextech Revolver (the spell vamp keeps you in lane a lot longer, as I tend to ride the malefic visions wave and don't run out of mana that often until midgame.)
2: Sorceror's Shoes: Really, I rotate the shoe slot often based on how the game is going, even using Mercury's Treads when I'm laning against multiple disablers.
3: Rabadon's Deathcap: Big damage boost, and the sooner you can get this together the better. I frequently don't finish the boots until I've got the Deathcap, if I'm not needing the speed,.
4: The Tear. Start building a large mana supply, so you can spam your bursts for midgame and beyond.
5: Rylai's Crystal Scepter: The Scepter is very nice, as the slow will really help win team fights, and make it harder for people to escape you.
6: Archangel's Staff: Finish off the tear to this and get another big AP upgrade.
7: Banshee's Veil/Void Staff: If I find myself being focused, the veil gives you a bit more survivability. If not, the Void Staff is just more damage, which is always good.
8: Hextech Gunblade. End of game gold dump. I rarely get this far.

I'm sure there are better builds, but I find this to be a decent start. Really, the trick is to customize your build on the fly, based on what you're facing.

bump

I tried him a long time back before his Ult range was buffed. Tried again this morning.

I found
meki + 2hp pots
tear
sorc/merc boots
rylais
will of the ancients
archangels

That works nicely for me apart from my 2nd game i was against 4 melee that loved targetting me..

Tons of builds work for him, and all of them just depend on how good your enemies are.

Scenario 1: The enemy team feeds you very quickly, and is unable to farm up much damage to kill you with. Well, obviously you'll go with something like

Mejais
Boots1
Deathcap
Sorc shoes/Lucidity(preference)
ArchAngelsx3

A build like should never work in a normal game though, because Malzahar has no escape mechanism and moves a little slow. If you want to keep pumping out the dps in fights you'll need to hang around the edges of the battle and keep spamming your skills. However...if you become enough of a threat they will do what they can to kill you. This is true for most champions really, but not every champion has an ability that screams HIT ME NAO like his ultimate does to the remaining champions on their team that aren't suppressed because now you can't move. The ideal build imo is something that gives you a good combination of dps, hp, and whatever defensive stats you're wanting.

At least 1 of the following for hp:
Rod of Ages
Rylais

Follow that up with boots of choice and then a deathcap. Throw a mejais on wherever it fits best in the order if you think you can get away with one.

Now you're build looks like:
RoA/Rylais
Boots2
Deathcap
Mejais?

Next acess the situation: How much damage are you taking in fights? From here you need to build something for mana. If a physical carry is just tearing you a new one...Then it looks like a glacial shroud for you...I'll finish this post later, or other forum goers will pick it apart and fix it for you but i'm about to pass out and i'm gonna get some sleep..sorry..xD I think the point I'm trying to get at is just build for the situation...but always remember somewhere in there to get your deathcap, some hp, some mana, and some spell pen.

The Malzahar build I use is nearly OP. The only thing that makes it not OP is the cost. It WILL take you the entire game to farm, and 7/10 times you won't complete it before the end. This build is very very powerful and will enable you to carry your team as Malzahar and not die, as long as you play smart.

Start with Meki+hp pots for Vision spam (Vision mana return+meki mana/regen is very powerful...most offensive start there is, imo)
T1 Boots
Upgrade Meki to Tear of the Goddess
Farm for Blasting Wand and NLR
Make a Deathcap and Archangels
Get Boots of Lucidity when Move Speed and CDR becomes necessary (I get it following hat and angels)
THEN choose the following in whatever order you deem necessary:
Rylai's Scepter
Zonya's Hourglass
Abbyssal Scepter


This build gives you +HP, +Armor, +Magic Resist. As well as a lot of AP. At the end, you will be around 700-800 AP, 2300-2500 hp, 80-110 armor/magic resist. In the likely event you don't complete it, after angels and hat, you will be at around 375 AP, which is still really good. So you will still be really strong with even a partial build.

If, for any reason you don't need armor or magic resist, substitute the item for a Void Staff, which will provide greater net DPS than either item. Good luck, happy hunting.


**EDIT**
I use CDR glyphs and quints to offset the lack of CDR on the items. I get 3% CDR from masteries, 15% Magic Pen from masteries, Magic Pen marks, and flat Mana/Regen seals. You won't need scaling Mana/Regen seals since your mana regen is already through the roof with Visions. That's also the reason I use CDR boots. With the new changes to CDR values, you will be at about 33% CDR at lvl18. The 7% off cap will not make a difference, because you will be hitting them so hard.

i main malzahar (i also bought him the day before he was free last, and that was before they fixed the maelific visions bug), and this is the build i go;

-start Tear of Godess with Meki Pendant, and HP Potion, and Mana Potion. finish ToG on next trip back
-Sorceror Shoes
-Archangels
-Rabadons Deathcap, blasting wand first if you are at 860-999gold, doing badly or just impatient, otherwise keep saving for Needlessly Large Rod
-Rylais Crystal Sceptor
-Archangels
-Archangels

it may seem fairly simple, but the extra %9 of your AP from the three AAs is always useful

generally the game ends before the second archangels is finished

i'm sorry guys but i've been playing malzahar since he was released and your just gimping yourself with archangels. rushing tear of the goddess? for the love of the game why? malz has built in mana regen....add some mana per lvl per 5 yellows and with proper malefic visions management you never need to be worried.

the problem with archangels is that in every slot aside from boots and rabadons malz's items should have 2 of 3 things: AP, CDR, and survivability.

going tear takes away from ramping up your tankiness and your cdr early on when you need those stats most. go ROA with your initial buy being a blasting wand....running out of mana? then learn how to handle malz's dot. i never ever need mana regen items on him. when i mid against another malz who goes tear first i wreck his face.

go ahead and check my last malz game....24/3/16...that was versus another aggressive malz who went tear first. thats usually how it goes.

my build is as follows:

ROA
boots usually merc treads unless they're low on cc then the speed 3 boots so you can exploit when a squishy gets out of position faster.
Rabadon's Deathcap

then its situational....heavy AP users? abyssal and void staff

lots of AD users who are closing with you? frozen heart goes a long way with ROA in allwoing you to drop your void zone and silence on top of yourself.

spellvamp? while it may help early game it ******s your progress in two ways....1. you put off building ROA and deathcap and 2. its return diminishes greatly late game meaning its in a slot better used for something else. just buy pots.

when you have good tanks morello's is ideal...if you want the extra nuke then deathfire grasp is ok too for your cdr item.

i usually stack resist/ap items rather than going with more health from rylais...a lot of champs go madreds these days and that early abyssal can keep you pumping out the damage longer than the health will. i'm not against it just personally never find it really helpfull.

my starting item is usually the ring since it has almost the same amount of mp5 that meki does plus health plus AP. its everything you need for good mid dominance...then i just back after wearing down the opposing laner and grab pots plus whatever ele you got the cash for...either boots or wand.