Malzahar

Malzahar is the cruellest mage on this roster for one reason: his ultimate cannot miss. You click, the target is suppressed, and they watch their health bar drain without the right to press a single key. Around that tool sits a kit that controls a lane with no effort: an area silence, a pool that punishes anyone who stands in it, and an infection that hops from minion to minion.

That comfort has a price. Nether Grasp locks you down as hard as it locks your victim: thrown at the wrong moment, it serves you up to the rest of their team. And once it's gone you're just a slow mage with no escape, whose remaining spells need time to hurt.

Your wave pressure is indecent. Malefic Visions placed on a doomed minion spreads when its host dies and hands you mana back on the way, so you clear a whole lane almost for free and leave to help elsewhere. Call of the Void silences across an uncomfortably wide line, which cuts an enemy engage in half. And the void beings your casting summons keep pushing the wave and chewing on the tower while you're busy somewhere else.

The weaknesses are short and brutal. Your entire threat rides on a short-range suppression, which means walking forward to use it. Any cleanse effect or tenacity item unravels the whole sequence. You have no mobility, no shield, and a jungler who shows up mid channel turns your kill into a double kill for him.

Max Malefic Visions first and cast it on minions, not on the champion. Put the infection on a low-health caster minion: it kills it, jumps to the next one, and you get back enough mana to do it again. Within a few waves you're farming for free while your opponent burns their bar just to keep up.

Hold Call of the Void for two moments: when the enemy steps up for a minion inside the line of your portals, and when a jungler appears, because the silence buys the second that saves you. Nether Grasp is not a solo opener. Chip the health down with Visions and Null Zone, then click when you know the bar isn't coming back up.

Your first spike is the ultimate level and it lands instantly: any target already chipped dies if you drop the pool underneath before you suppress. From there, stop playing the lane and start shoving it, then go sell the same sequence on a side lane, because you kill as fast as an assassin without needing any precision at all.

The second spike comes with the item that stretches your slows and the one that stacks raw power. Visions stop being poke and become a death threat on squishies, while Null Zone, which burns based on the health of whoever stands in it, suddenly punishes the health-stacking front line too.

Your place is at the back, on a flank, never in the middle of the pile. Open with Call of the Void across the path the engaging enemies have to walk: a silence on the initiator as they commit is worth more than any damage you could deal afterwards. Then drop the pool on the ground their front line must cross, never behind it.

Save Nether Grasp for a single target chosen before the fight starts, and make sure your team can punish them while you hold them. Suppressing a fragile carry while your allies are hitting somebody else is a waste, and it leaves you rooted in place within reach of everyone. Against a team with cleanse effects, pick the target who didn't buy one.