Malzahar/Strategy

Skill usage

 * can by spamming abilities at spawn. This can be useful at beginning of game by using an ability to quickly decimate the enemy minions in your lane.
 * Never underestimate . It is extremely effective at turning team fights, both damaging, and silencing as many enemies as possible. It can also deal half damage and silence through a spell-shield if both beams hit at different times (i.e. not right in the middle)
 * Casting on an enemy creep that is about to die is a good way to farm minion kills or harass safely because of its chain reaction.
 * At rank 5, with about 100 Ability Power, it can completely kill both melee and caster minions at full health.
 * will still gain gold and xp from anywhere on the map if finishes off the minions. This is useful both to avoid being denied and to continue to farm aggressively all game long.
 * Leveling up early in the game is a great way to harass enemy champions without using any mana. Simply cast it on a wave of minions near the enemy champion and auto-attack the infected minion until it spreads to the champion. This results in around 50 gold, almost no mana lost (you might have gained mana), and the enemy champion being out of 100-200 HP. At rank 1 it takes 6 minion kills to fully refund the mana cost. At all other ranks it takes 5 minion kills to fully refund the mana cost.
 * Against a single target (champion), is  most mana-efficient damage ability even if it doesn't jump, and is his only harassment method that won't push his lane.
 * There is a bug where two nearby will not both propagate. Try to avoid casting a second copy in big minion waves.
 * is very good at harassing enemies under a turret. and  both have excellent range, and can be used to harass or finish off enemies under a turret.  and  both take a second before they deal their damage, allowing you to get back out of turret range.
 * has a suppression effect; it disables the use of Summoner spells and is not affected by CC reduction like . However, the suppression effect of his ultimate can be canceled by or.
 * During a team fight use to disable any high DPS or healers for your team to pick off quick. When carefully aimed it can be used through some walls in Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline.
 * A combo of, , , , and will kill all but the toughest champions which makes  a great 1v1 champion.
 * deals a percentage of the target's max health, meaning that late game can deal tons of damage when multiple enemies stand on his.
 * As summons two portals, an enemy in the center of the target area can take double damage from a single cast.
 * does not have to be used to kill an enemy, but can disable an enemy instead.
 * is a great way of zoning enemies as they realize it takes away a percentage of their health.
 * is a great pusher with his and either with his  or his . This allows  to help lanes in trouble by pushing his own and with his combo at lvl 6 can ensure a kill.

Build usage

 * is a great item for considering he has no real escape mechanism or crowd control other than  and.
 * Using a is another good idea for more survivability and prevents your ultimate  from being interrupted by an enemy with a stun or silence.
 * offers both Spell Vamp and Ability Power, which benefits.
 * Farming minions waves with and  can restore a lot of mana and restore HP.
 * is a useful item, giving you a lot of magic penetration, allowing all your abilities to deal more damage. Also use items such as, , and.
 * You cannot use the active in conjunction with  - it will interrupt the spell.
 * can be built as a pusher as well. With his Voidling, he is able to put out a considerable amount of damage on turrets. Don't be afraid to buy if you are feeling confident enough to push.
 * is a must for because all of his spell have high AP ratios.

Countering

 * and might give an enemy  second thoughts about trying to suppress you with .  also blocks the suppress through  and.
 * Keep in mind, however, that the spell will still be damaging you even while out of the suppression. To break the tether, you must get out of the spell's range.
 * Also, keep in mind that while will block the suppression effect, it can not be activated during the suppression - unlike.
 * abilities deal magic damage so getting more than 100 magic resist can severely hinder the amount of damage he puts out.
 * Take care when going 1v1 against an enemy as  is usually used to combo with  and . Usually this will be a kill for.
 * Save a disable for when uses his.
 * If you see one of your allies under the effect of you can stun or silence the enemy  out of the channeling and turn it into a 2v1 fight.
 * If you play as a tank, Take care not to stand above for too long or else the spell will devastate your health and can sometimes kill you if you're not too careful as it deals a percentage of your health.