Talk:Malzahar/@comment-25660105-20141210015848

Not gonna lie, Malzahar is one of the champions who I would, given the opportunity, remove from the game completely without a second thought. Not that I think he's OP or anything. As I post this comment, he currently stands as a Tier 4 Champion (Tier 1 being the most used, and Tier 5 being the least.) Obviously, if he were OP, he'd be in tier 1 or 2, possibly tier 3 because the meta system is a good way of checking power, but it is imperfect due to how ever-chaning it is. I wanna stress that as I post this, so I will type it in all capitals: I DO NOT THINK MALZAHAR IS OVERPOWERED.

I do, however, find him insanely annoying. He is one of the match-ups I dread seeing in lane. Look at the current-flavor champions for the mid-lane. Katarina, Zed, Fizz, Akali, Ahri, Yasuo, Talon, etc. They all have trouble against Malzahar. It's easy to say "just buy a Quicksilver Sash". Easier said than done. Many of these champions have core items that they -need-. Katarina needs her DFG or her Haunting Guise, depending on how you prefer to build her (won't get into that debate), Akali needs her Hextech Gunblade, Fizz needs his Lich Bane, etc. Not to mention most midlaners are AP, and there is no AP item that can be built from Quicksilver Sash, so you're left with a slot that you could have filled with an item you actually -need-, and it's going to make you get those items that you need much more slowly. It's a little better with AD midlaners, with the exception of Yasuo, because Mercurial Scimtar is a reliable item for them. Would Talon prefer to have his tiamat early and build it into a Hydra? Absolutely. Is his mid game going to suffer if he builds his Quicksilver Sash into a Mercurial Scimtar? No.

The other suggestion I hear a lot is "just avoid his spells". Malzahar's spells have massive AOE, and they're not easy to avoid, at least in my experience. He has so much harass, and it's not fun at all. When you do that, I always end up hugging my turret and missing too much CS, then he hits level 6, and I can't do anything.

So again, Malzahar isn't OP. He has an item that counters him completely, he has shorter range than most AP mages, and he has no escape. I just don't think he's fun to play against, which is why, given the opportunity, I would not hestitate to remove him from the game completely. I know I never will have that opportunity though. No champion will ever be removed from the game.