Malzahar·Top Build

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Malzahar Top build, you should take Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Summon Aery as your keystone, followed by Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Scorch in the primary tree, as well as Cosmic Insight and Magical Footwear in the secondary tree. For rune shards, you want Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense, though it depends on the matchup. Finally, for your items, you should build Blackfire Torch as your first item, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes and Liandry's Torment. For your last 3 items, you should build Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Zhonya's Hourglass and finish with Rabadon's Deathcap. For the skill order, you want to stick with E - Q - W. Right now, this build has 56.0% winrate over 425 matches played.

Optional

Your second option for Malzahar Top build would be to take Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells. The runes that this build takes advantage of are Arcane Comet as your keystone, Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Gathering Storm in the primary tree, and Cosmic Insight with Magical Footwear in the secondary tree. The shards used in this build are Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense. The items for the build are Blackfire Torch, which you should build first, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item and Liandry's Torment as your third item. The rest of the items in order are Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap. The skill order for this build is E - Q - W. In the current patch, this build has a 50.0% win rate over 168 matches.

Alternative

If you're looking for alternatives, you can use Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, with runes being Summon Aery as your keystone, Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Scorch in the primary tree, and Coup de Grace with Presence of Mind in the secondary tree, as well as Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, and Health Scaling as your rune shards. The items that this build incorporates are Malignance as your first item, then Sorcerer's Shoes as a second item and Liandry's Torment as a third item. You want to finish the build with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it E - Q - W. This build is currently sitting at a 48.4% win rate across 122 matches played.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Malzahar Top build in the current patch, try Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, Summon Aery, Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Scorch as your primary rune tree, and Magical Footwear with Cosmic Insight as your secondary tree. Use Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health Scaling as your shards. For items in this build, you want to complete Liandry's Torment as your first item, then finish Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item, and Rylai's Crystal Scepter as third item. The last 3 options are Archangel's Staff, Morellonomicon and Blackfire Torch. The ability order for this build is E - Q - W. As of the current patch, this build has a 62.0% win rate over 79 matches played.

Situational Malzahar Runes and Items

Depending on the context of your game, your matchup, and enemy champions, you might want to consider building some situational items or take specific runes. Carefully examine your team, enemy team, game state , and your matchup to plan your Malzahar build accordingly! For example, when it comes to rune shards, you might want to take either Armor or Magic Resist, depending on which champion you are about to lane against.