Monday, February 11, 2013

Math: Malzahar

Malzahar is a champion dear to my heart. He's the reason I became enamored with League of Legends, and despite the fact he's only rarely been competitive I still consider him one of my favorite champions.

I was curious how well Malzahar might work in today's Health stacking meta, so I put together a few spreadsheets to examine the question. The spreadsheets model the ideal case where all of Malzahar's abilities, most importantly Null Zone and Nethergrasp, do their maximum damage.

The first and most obvious takeaway is that Malzahar represents a significant threat to any tank he can lock into his Null Zone, provided he has a Deathfire Grasp. Even with 3500 Health and 210 Magic Resistance, the amount of Ability Power Malzahar needs to potentially eliminate a tank or bruiser outright is well within the bounds of reason.

This is important, not because we would expect Malzahar to flawlessly one shot tanks all the time, but because it illustrates how much of a threat he poses even to tanky champions. In the idea case, Malzahar needs as little as 340 Ability Power to crush a thoroughly decked out bruiser or tank. With the core of items required to do so only filling four slots, Malzahar has plenty of room to build defensively.

Is Malzahar a viable pick to focus down a scary bruiser or tank? I don't know, but it's something I'll have to test out the next time I have the opportunity.


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