Talk:Malzahar/@comment-4514934-20111010234107/@comment-4344970-20111011061256

He is a really solid mage, but you have to be aware that playing him in general requires some finesse and good reaction times, moreso than many other mages. He can also only really nuke one person despite all of his abilities being AoE. You also have to control your lane well because all of Malzahar's abilities push the lane.

Malzahar has both a silence and a suppression which are both wonderful CC's but the silence takes some getting used to in order to properly land it. the suppression is his ultimate, and it's a channel, so you have to use it last, otherwise you waste it. The full combo is Q to get rid of flash, W where they're going to go, flash in, E, and then R them while they're sitting in your W (this is crucial), and ignite them if you have it. With Ignite it's important to note that it's a shorter range than your ultimate, if you ult at max range and use ignite the channel will break. You can E after the channel ends, it would just be harder to land because they would probably flash if you hadn't killed them already. It all has to be cast very quickly which is why smartcast is optimal, it's an easy combo to mess up. It will also probably not kill anyone at full health.

E is your most reliable harass and main farming ability so it should be maxed first. Q second, W last, and ultimate whenever you can. In lane you want to farm as much as possible, drop your E on dying minions to refund mana, and also harass with it whenever the opportunity arises.

During team fights your positioning has to be very specific so your Q is at the right angle to silence the correct targets. Whenever someone gets immobilized by CC drop your W, since it does percentage based damage, (one of the only champions that has this btw) people will melt, especially tanks if they haven't gotten much MR yet.

The build I use is Doran's Ring (boots+3 pots if i'm up against Brand or Xerath or someone who'll i need to juke or dodge skillshots)>Catalyst>Sorc Shoes>RoA>Deathcap, and the rest is situational. For summoners I take Flash and Ignite because I'm still learning him myself, it's just much easier to secure kills. Once you find that you don't need it you will get more out of Flash+Ghost.