Talk:Malzahar/@comment-1920550-20140527140955/@comment-20434720-20140802055521

"Burst" damage isn't what Malzahar is about. He's one of those delayed-gratification champions who sacrifices instant damage for greater overall damage.

Silence is one of the most frustrating CCs to go up against because it's allowed to have ridiculously long durations - say, for example, 3 seconds, the longest remaining silence in the game. And it's AOE. Saying all his cc is his ultimate is just ignorant.

Furthermore, while he certainly has the capability to turn his lane into a farm lane and play safe, that isn't normally what he has to do. His E is targeted, has a 0.8 AP ratio, a huge base damage, and often sicks a mildly OP voidling on them. Don't tell me that's not good for zoning. There's also simply the fact that post-6 he can 100-0 anyone but galio, and even galio has to play carefully if his W is down.

His nuke isn't instant, this is true. It doesn't need to be, and the only way he's half-balanced is because of this (imagine "hurr durr my W does AOE 80% max HP instant"). But if you've ever caught a squishy support building selfishly (trying to go frost queen's claim into deathcap or something like that), and you start Q up, instantly place W, follow up with E, and immediately ult right as soon as Q damage lands and all the damage ticks line up, it's 2/3 of their health instantly gone. It's an amazing feeling. Half a second later they're gone completely.

But where I disagree most is in your statement that he falls off late game. Malzahar "falls off late game" is said by the same people who say AD Sion "falls off late game": it really depends on the way you look at it. His damage will ALWAYS be relevant, even AD malzahar has a 3 second AOE silence and 40% max HP total damage on his W, AP Malzahar has good scalings to boot. The only thing Malzahar is missing that other "super duper good late game" champions have is mobility and range. He has a strong teamfight, strong 1v1, strong waveclear (if his W damage wasn't capped against minions he could hold indefinitely against 3 lanes of super minions). Stick with your team, get a Rylai's/Twin shadows, and you will be just as good as any other mage late game, even better in many situations (your Q literally has the same base / scaling damage as an Orianna ult, except it also has a 3 second silence, and your W will literally bring an entire team to its knees).