[14.13] Diamond Jungle Malzahar - The Void's Legion (2024)

Early

In the early game, your goals are to

• Complete your first clear.
  
• Rush farm for level 6.
  
• Take grubs and the dragon.
  

Objectives are the win condition: Kills are cool and all, but the games where you get all the grubs and all the dragons and the herald are the games you are most likely to win. All thoughts should be focused on how to secure the objectives no matter what, often through securing a lane kill through a gank.

Avoid Using Malefic Vision on Most Camps: Until later in the game, Malefic Visions costs so much mana and deals such little damage that it's often better to just wait. The missing-mana regeneration from the jungle item will keep Malz topped off without Malefic. Though, Krugs and Raptors are still worthwhile to use Malefic on due to all the potential bouncing.

Gank Wisely: Refer back to the Ganking section of the guide to get good tips for a successful gank.

Use Call of the Void to Scout: Many unscrupulous fellows will try to kill Malz in the jungle. Since Call of the Void provides such strong vision, it can be used regularly to check around bushes or corners in case of a threat.

Unsealed Spellbook has an Overwhelming Variety: For early summoners however, you should primarily be replacing Flash with Ghost. In certain circ*mstances, you can consider Clarity or [[teleport] if either will help you set up for an objective in the near future.

Biscuits Regenerate Based on Missing Health / Mana: That means they should be used when low on either. Additionally, they restore based at the time of consumption. That means eating a biscuit, followed by spending more mana, will not increase the regeneration.

Keep a Control Ward Handy: Malzahar is not as dependent on gold as many other junglers, so there is no excuse to be lacking a control ward at pretty much any point. They are the ultimate objective securer.

Mid

As the laning phase ends, the raw utility in the build shines

• Disrupt at critical moments
  
• Keep control wards handy
  
• Stick with teammates

Objectives Win Games: this is difficult to overstate.

Focus on Picks and Peel: Malzahar Jungle effectively plays like a second support, and every spell should be focused on maximizing disruption through silences, suppresses, slows, and skillshot-voidling-blocking.

Silence then Suppress: It's often preferable to start with a silence instead of ulting immediately, because a silence can always be followed into an ult but not the other way around.

Preserve Void Shift Against Monsters: At this point, Voidlings can do almost all the tankin against camps. Try to avoid taking a monster hit too quickly before a gank, or you won't have Void Shift up in time for it.

Let Voidlings Finish Off Monsters: Where possible, let the Voidlings just clean up the camp while you move onto more important things. Voidlings are particularly ravenous against Scuttle. There's no need to overkill the monsters. This skill takes practice though, and you'll likely start off accidentally letting Gromp live with one hp at times. Not that I'd know...

Unsealed Spellbook Continues its Usefulness: Big candidates for swapping are Heal, Exhaust, and Barrier which can largely be used interchangeably. Clarity and Teleport also continue their overall usefulness for setting up objectives. Largely avoid swapping to Ignite or Exhaust outside of some very specific situations.

Void Shift Stops the Honeyfruit Slow: Malz is one speedy fruit eater! Gorge up!

Smite Has No Unsealed Spellbook Swapping Cooldown: This means if, for example, you have Smite replaced with Heal, and you use Heal, Smite will immediately be available to use rather than having a 10-second lockout like all the other summoner spells!

Check Regularly for QSS: If you've ulted the same person at least twice, be sure to regularly check for an incoming QSS purchase. It feels awful to ult someone, only to suddenly be punched in the face anyway. However, a QSS is not helpful against your silences since it's difficult to time, so you still have one disable on hand.

Enemies Cannot Use Smite While Suppressed: However, you still can! This is one of the things that makes Malzahar so good at securing objectives because they are in such a strong position to win the smite duel.

Late

In the late game, it's more of the same, but better.

• Peel for fed members on your team.
  
• Dance around the outskirts of teamfights.
  
• Cast a nonstop barrage of inhibiting spells.
  
• Save your flash-ult when possible for when you absolutely know that it will gain your team an inhibitor, baron, or nexus; Avoid using it just to get kills.

More of the Same: However, in the late game, every pick and every death is more impactful. Be on guard and adjust itemization to stay alive.

Don't be Afraid to Let Go of Your Ult: It's on a relatively short cooldown, and survival is more important than the extra damage. You also can let it go early if a teammate combos their own hard CC on it.

More Control Wards: Many teammates will start having trouble fitting control wards into their inventories. However, Malzahar Jungle often has ample inventory space to keep purchasing more and more.

Unsealed Spellbook Practically Replaces Smite: Any of the summoners are good at this point besides Ignite and Cleanse, which tend to be really situational. Be careful with Exhaust however because you can't discard it on a whim.