Talk:Malzahar/@comment-24309189-20140922041323/@comment-3463132-20140922175131

Well, a lot of that is player skill and your definition of 1v1.

As a Lux player I could beat on and eventually kill Malz without ever coming into range of his abilities, same with Orianna, Vel'Koz, and maybe Syndra players. Still 1v1, but not exactly a straight-up fight. For straight-up duels Malz's biggest problem is CC that isn't instant, Annie can powerblast you just as effectively as you can her, and her stun can have a short delay to knock you out of your ult, assuming you don't just die outright. Ahri can also do this, if she launches her charm and you ult before it hits you're boned beyond belief. Same with Ori and Vel again, that delayed CC can stop you more thoroughly then a QSS ever could.

Malz certainly is one of the better 1v1 mages, but a QSS does wreck his shit. Most of Malz's power comes from him being like Warwick, free damage with no reprisal. Silence the enemy then kill them while they're unable to fight back. If the enemy manages to buy QSS then they can burst you before you can burst them, as Malz typically will take the full 2.5 seconds of his ult to kill the target. Not to mention any of them that packs CC will stop your ult entirely once free. This puts you in a bad position as your ult is down, your spells were used and the enemy is literally right in your face.

Malz's problem isn't that QSS nullifies his ultimate, his problem is he has a hard time killing people that can fight back- particularly when he can't.