User blog comment:Chase999/Malzahar, what rework route should Riot take AP or AD?/@comment-26815373-20160212022727

So... here is what I think of.

He is ostensibly a mage. He should scale heavily with AP. However, you mention him being a 'minion-mancer' a sub-class of champions who utilize pets. Thing is, Malz rarely has more than 2 at any given time barring URF shenanigans.

If Riot really wanted to play up this 'voidling master' fantasy, IMO, they should have him somehow be able to get more voidlings onto the field. Personally, I think having his used on  to summon 3 or so voidlings would be cool and flavorful. The problem then becomes balancing.

Such an effect would help AD Malz gets more damage even with low AP if he successfully combos his spells together (resulting in 3+ voidlings at a time) but AP Malz, who already has good damage due to his scalings and ratios, gets the same amount of voidlings. AD Malz would be good, but AP would still be better - which is the case now, isn't it?

IDK, I'm not a Malz main, but I think it would become problematic. I remember once seeing Scarizard (I think...) talking about how they (Riot) wanted to emphasize Zyra's plants, and give her more pet-based DPS (effectively making her a better minion-mancer). But the Zyra players wanted none of it. They like her AP burst capability, and would not have it diminished, even though Riot's intention was more flavorful and thematically appropriate.