Malzahar (Emptylord)

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Malzahar
The Prophet of the Void
Project Type	Relaunch
Project Theme	Current
Project Status	Draft

“	A for-fun rework that attempts to give Malzahar a distinctive gameplay identity - turning him into a minion-mancer.
	— Project description

Current Proposals

• Malefic Vision (Innate)
  • Passive: Malzahar's periodically empowers his attacks to apply Malefic Visions, which deals 80 – 260 (based on level) (+70% AP) bonus magic damage over 4 seconds. If the target dies during this time, they pass Malefic Visions onto the closest enemy and spawn a Voidling.
• Ordained Assault (Q)
  • Active: Malzahar spawns a Volatile Voidling that rolls forward in a line and explodes on contact with an enemy, colliding with terrain or at maximum range, dealing 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+25% AP) magic damage to enemies in an area.
  • Ordained Assault stores 5 charges and can be held to continuously cast the ability. Individual charges are gained quickly.
• Call of the Void (W)
  • Active: Malzahar opens a wide portal to the void at the target location. After a 0.5 second delay, an Colossal Voidling erupts from the ground dealing 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+30% AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies before joining the nearest lane.
  • The Colossal Voidling's attacks deal 25 (+5 × level) (+50% AP) magic damage in an off-centred area as well as knocking back non-champions hit based on proximity as well as granting nearby minions 15% (+5% per 100 AP) bonus damage versus non-champions, including structures.
  • The Colossal Voidling's behaves like a minion and will prioritize objectives, only assisting champions based on the Call For Help mechanic.
• Worm Hole (E)
  • Active: Malzahar opens two portals on parallel pieces of terrain up to 1200 units apart, perpendicular to the way he is facing. Worm Hole will not cast unless a valid target is selected. After a 0.5 second delay, a Burrowing Voidling hurtles between the portals that knocks aside enemies within the area and dealing 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+60% AP) magic damage. The worm takes 3 seconds to pass by, blocking the area.
• Nether Grasp (R)
  • Unknown.

RE: Mid-Year Mage Update

• Goals
• My Solution
• Thought Process
• Second Version

“	Happy About His anti-mobility/anti-assassin niche via Nether Grasp. Fun/unique farming patterns via Malefic Visions. Unhappy About Little opportunity to act outside of not getting into his range. Inherently low agency. Voidlings aren't utilized in AP Malzahar's kit. Goals Feel familiar to Malzahar players; he has a lot of cool spells/visuals, and we don't want to change that. Feel less like a burst caster to everyone. Continue to be low range and low mobility, but he will feel less vulnerable. AP Malzahar players will care about using their Voidlings correctly. AD Malzahar will still be a decent option. Malzahar's kit will have clearer signals for how he could have played better and/or how opponents could have played better against it. Playing Malzahar still won't be a mechanically intense/exhausting experience.
	— David 'Repertoir' Capurro

• Malefic Vision (Innate)
  • Passive: Whenever Malzahar kills an enemy minion or monster, there's a 16.7% / 33% / 50% (based on level) chance of re-purposing them as an allied unit. This is guaranteed for large minions and monsters, but excludes epic monsters. These corrupted units behave as standard minions and will prioritize objectives, with corrupted monsters joining the nearest lane.
• Ordained Assault (Q)

  • 

    6 health; 1 – 6 (based on level) damage; will be prioritized last by structures.

    Active: Malzahar channels for 0.75 seconds, sustaining a portal before him that spews 3 / 3 / 4 / 4 / 5 Infested Razorfins in the target direction. The Razorfins explode on contact with an enemy or reaching maximum range and dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies.
• Call of the Void (W)

  • 

    6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 health; 1 damage from all sources; 1 damage per second from Lightning Rod.

    Active: Malzahar opens a wide portal to the void at the target location. After a 0.5 second delay, an Abhorrent Ironback erupts from the ground dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies.
  • The Abhorrent Ironback's attacks deal 25 (+5 × level) (+100% bonus AD) physical damage in a large, off-centred oval and knocks back non-champions hit based on proximity as well as granting nearby minions 15% (+5% per 100 AP) bonus damage versus non-champions.
  • The Abhorrent Ironback behaves like a minion and will prioritize objectives, only assisting champions based on the Call For Help mechanic.
• Worm Hole (E)

  • File:Baron Nashor Render.png

    Active: Malzahar opens two portals on parallel pieces of terrain up to 1200 units apart, perpendicular to the way he is facing. Worm Hole will not cast unless a valid target is selected. After a 0.5 second delay, a Juvenile Nasher hurtles between the portals dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to and knocking aside enemies within the area. The worm takes 3 seconds to pass by, blocking the area. While impassible, the Juvenile Nasher is classified as a unit and not terrain.
• Nether Grasp (R)
  • Unknown.

Malzahar was very difficult to tackle. The goals want to keep Malzahar's iconic features and gameplay in tact... but while also removing the only reason those abilities are iconic. So, I decided to really play-up the "AP Malzahar players will care about voidlings" goal, as well as playing up his existing sieging niche to the point that he is now the mage you pick if your team lacks pushing/sieging capabilities - something the mage class overall lacks. Consequently, Malzahar's visual theme will shift from a somewhat generic "purple spell effect mage" to void harbinger - so while the overall shapes and casting paradigms of his abilities should feel the same, the visuals will now be a bit more organic.

• New Innate - Converting his current innate into something a little more... well, it's just different.

• Call of the Void - Malzahar's siege unit. I'm considering to move Ironback's aura to a passive on Nether Grasp, perhaps with an Evolution-style choice system where Malzahar can upgrade his units.

• Worm Hole - Now you're thinking with portals. The intent of this ability was to preserve Malzahar's perpendicular ability but play-up its usefulness for a champion that wants to siege - WALLS! It also contributes toward his anti-assassin/anti-mobility gimmick that Riot likes. The ability would utilize a casting mechanic similar to Magical Journey, where the ability's width is calculated intelligently and will not cast unless a valid selection is made.

Exploration

I'm considering to implement some reward for destroying structures, similar to Shurima's Legacy. Continuing with the corrupted brawler theme, I'm thinking of having a creature burrow into the husk of destroy towers and breaking off useful parts to form a "living turret", of sorts. A corrupted, turret-Ocklepods would create mobile watchtowers that function to provide sight; while a corrupted plundercrab could utilize the turret's weapon for offensive purposes. Would this actually be an interesting addition? Would Malzahar's pushing be too snowbally? I'm currently considering to turn his Ordained Assault into an ammunition system, where Malzahar will continually spawn voidlings and activating Q commands one/all of them to attack his target. Stored voidlings would either be untargetable drones (following him around more for visceral reasons than gameplay reasons - i.e. so you feel like an overlord), or would join the nearest wave like Zz'Rot Portal - the latter of which I'm more interested in. I'm even tempted to revert Ordained Assault entirely to Malefic Visions-esque gameplay.

• Passive: Malzahar periodically spawns voidlings that join the nearest minion wave, pressing forward.
• Active: Malzahar marks the target enemy, commanding all nearby voidlings to attack the target. The mark will transfer to a nearby target on-kill.

• Nether Grasp - I'm not sure what to do here. It could be as simple as Null Zone: Malzahar ordains an area of immobility, but I feel like Nether Grasp's stare-down is part of what makes Malzahar iconic - but how do you keep this while increasing the champion's agency (i.e. interaction with his enemy beyond "don't come in range")?

Ditched Abilities

• Malefic Vision (Innate)
  • Passive: Malzahar corrupts the ground beneath enemy units that die within 3 seconds of being damaged by him, which rapidly spreads to cover a 250 / 350 / 550 / 850 (based on level)-radius area over 3 seconds. Malzahar's attacks deal 4% (+1% per 100 AP) maximum health as bonus magic damage while standing on Malefic Ground, with his voidlings dealing 40% as much.
• Ordained Assault (Q)

  • 

    6 health; 1 – 6 (based on level) damage; will be prioritized last by structures.

    Active: Malzahar summons a Infested Razorfin to attack the target, dealing up to X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP)(+X% bonus AD) magic damage to the target over 4 seconds. If Ordained Assault's target is slain, Malzahar restores mana cost (+3% of maximum mana) and half the cooldown is refunded.

• New Innate - Perhaps the biggest shift in playstyle from his original kit. The name now refers to Malzahar's prophetic vision of Runeterra, rather than plaguing his enemy with visions. While "space AIDS" is highly iconic among the community, I felt like a creep-growth mechanic really complements a champion that you want to encourage pushing on. The fact the area buffs Malzahar rather than debuffs his target forces Malzahar to constantly push - or, rather, only rewards him for moving forward.

• Ordained Assault - An ode to Malzahar's existing I+E combo, although I admit it's not overall interesting. It almost boils down to Decrepify that you can attack to stop it hurting you, rather than having a leash range.

• Malefic Vision (Innate)
  • Passive: Every third basic ability is empowered with voidspawn.
• Ordained Assault (Q)
  • Active: Malzahar channels for 0.75 seconds, sustaining a portal before him that spits out 3 / 3 / 4 / 4 / 5 bolts of void energy in the target direction. The bolts explode on contact with an enemy or reaching maximum range and deal X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies, which is increased versus minions.

  • File:Razorfin.png

    6 health; 1 – 6 (based on level) damage; will be prioritized last by structures.

    Malefic Vision: The portal spews out Infested Razorfins instead, which persist for 15 seconds after shedding their entry residue (exploding). Infested Razorfins deal 12.5 (+2.5 × level) (+50% bonus AD) physical damage on their attacks and will first prioritize the enemy they collided with, followed by Zyra's plant priority.
• Call of the Void (W)
  • Base ability unchanged.

  • 

    6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 health; 1 damage from all sources; 1 damage per second from Lightning Rod.

    Malefic Vision: After a 1 second delay, an Abhorrent Ironback erupts from the ground dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to surrounding enemies and joins the nearest lane. The Abhorrent Ironback's attacks deal 25 (+5 × level) (+100% bonus AD) physical damage in a large, off-centred oval and knocks back non-champions hit based on proximity as well as granting nearby minions 15% (+5% per 100 AP) bonus damage versus non-champions.
  • The Abhorrent Ironback behaves like a minion and will prioritize objectives, only assisting champions based on the Call For Help mechanic.
• Worm Hole (E)

  • File:Baron Nashor Render.png

    Active: Malzahar opens two portals on parallel pieces of terrain up to 1200 units apart, perpendicular to the way he is facing. Worm Hole will not cast unless a valid target is selected. After a 0.5 second delay, a flare of void energy passes between the portals dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage and briefly silencing enemies.
  • Malefic Vision: Instead of a flare, a Juvenile Nasher hurtles between the portals dealing X / X / X / X / X (+X% AP) magic damage to and knocking aside enemies within the area. The worm takes 3 seconds to pass by, blocking the area. While impassible, the Juvenile Nasher is classified as a unit and not terrain.
• Nether Grasp (R)
  • Unknown.