What is going on with Malzahar support in League?
By Xing Li
Malzahar has become a top-tier support in the current meta. What changed in the meta that made him so viable in League of Legends?
Malzahar, the Prophet of the Void, has been in the competitive League of Legends meta for some time. Usually, in the mid lane, he has the ability to push minions, lock down champions, and cause chaos in the middle of team fights.
But that’s not where he’s being played now. Instead, with the evolving bot lane meta, we are seeing Malzahar at Support.
You read that right.
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So what’s going on? That’s the other surprising thing; Malzahar hasn’t changed as much as his voidlings have. His pets are determining how he fits into the professional meta.
What changed
One of the major changes Riot made to Malzahar actually affected his ability to shove waves. His W, Void Swarm, used to spawn a single voidling that would attack anything in its path. The special part came when the voidlings succeeded in taking something down, like an enemy minion. In what might be a flashback to Ridley Scott’s Alien, when a voidling got a kill or assist, an additional voidling would pop out. This could happen over and over until the voidlings turned into a minion-eating swarm.
This is great in the mid lane where Malzahar could shove a wave and roam. But at support, you don’t want to be taking farm away from the AD carry. This small voidling change made support Malzahar much more viable by reducing the possibility of voidlings to last-hit minions.
The other big change has been an overall shift in both competitive and casual play to mage supports who deal damage. Not only are champions like Malzahar, Zyra, and Karma threats to bully lanes and out-damage ADCs, they provide great initiation and protection for their own team. That means they don’t have to sacrifice damage for utility as much as supports traditionally have. And with tanks entrenched in the top lane, that reduces the need for supports like Braum and Alistar (RIP).
Next: League Links: A unique idea on how to rework Galio
Malzahar has been nerfed in the last few patches but that shouldn’t stop you from trying out the Prophet of the Void if you get auto-filled to Support!