Malady: Thoughts, Upgrade Options, and a New Item
Malady is one of my favorite items in the game right now, as
well as being one of the most unique.
The item however, falls into a very secluded niche (considered
"acceptable" for 2-3 heroes) and lacks strength needed to hit that
mid game power surge or the late game power of legendary tier items. So here are a few thoughts on ways to tweak
Malady, provide a potential upgrade to it, and create a new hero playstyle in
the process.
Malady: The Current Version
Current problems.
+ Malady is an Auto Attack item designed to be used by AP
damage champions, however very few AP damage champions are designed to rely on
their Auto Attacks.
+ Malady lacks early game power compared to high AP
items. (AS being the second item AD
carries go for)
+ Malady takes too long to stack as it is only on Auto
Attacks (compared with Black Cleaver which is on any physical damage).
+ Malady has no synergy with any sort of sustain or
survival, which is generally a necessary part, or at least an extremely useful
part, of any build having reliance on Auto Attacks
+ Malady lacks the power of Legendary tier items when it
comes to late game finishing touches.
Don't get me wrong, Malady has useful features: scaling
damage, high penetration, great stat vs. cost efficiency. The problem is that it fills a very niche
pocket, lacking synergy with all but a small handful of champions as well as
lacking synergy with other items/in builds and not being powerful enough in and
of itself to be a late game purchase.
I've come up with a few options/tweaks to Malady that I
think would benefit the item and make it desirable to a wider range of
champions. My focus on increasing the
laning presence it offers while providing an upgrade to transition it into the
later stages of the game.
Before getting into the tweaks, I just want to list a few of
the champions that these ideas will be more geared towards. Kayle, Teemo, Varus, Twisted Fate, Orianna,
and maybe a few others that have slipped my mind, all have skills or passives
that add magic damage to their auto attacks.
An improved Malady could allow for more of these heroes to have viable
Auto Attack based builds. Potentially,
this could open up the standard ADC role to be played by an AP Auto Attack
champion (both providing the needed sustained ranged damage role) and allow for
more options in the other lanes, especially for AD casters.
-------- Malady ---------
Dagger + Dagger + Amp Tome + Combine
400 + 400
+ 435 +
800 = 2,035 Total Cost
Provides
- 20 AP, 35 AS
- Reduce MR by 4 on dealing magic damage, up to 6 stacks
- Deal 15 + .1 AP magic damage on hit, heals for the damage
dealt (After MR reduction)
---------------- New Upgrade: Siphon ---------------
Malady + Amp Tome + Combine Cost
2,035 + 435
+ 630 = 3,100 Total Cost
Provides
- 50 AP, 45 AS
- Reduce MR by 5 on dealing magic damage, up to 6 stacks.
- Deal 20 + .15 AP magic damage, heals for the damage dealt
(After MR reduction)
Minor Variations
- Increase/Decrease AP/AS stats by 5-10
- Leave Passive at 15 + .1 AP magic damage
- Set the life leech to half the damage dealt
- Instead of leaching off of Malady's damage, could provide
10-20% leech off of all non-spell magic damage (on hit effects).
Purpose
- Provides a form of sustain/survivability on auto attacks
that will scale with increasing AP, comparable to what an ADC gains from
Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King.
- Lowers the stats of Malady to compensate for this new
feature while the upgrade provides greater stats to increase it's late game
viability.
- Applying stacks on magic damage allows for more AP champs
to make use of its penetration as it will be applied at a faster rate as well
as from a potentially safer distance similar to Black Cleaver.
---------- Malady
----------
Dagger + Amp Tome + Combine Cost
400 + 435
+ 800 =
1,635 Total Cost
Provides
- 20 AS, 20 AP
- Reduce MR by 3 on dealing magic damage, up to 6 stacks
- Deal 5 + .1 AP magic damage.
-------- New Item: Siphon ---------
Malady + Hextech Revolver + Combine Cost
1,635 + 1,200 +
265 = 3,100 Total Cost
Provides
- 30 AS, 65 AP
- Reduce MR by 5 on dealing magic damage, up to 6 stacks
- Deal 20 + .15 AP magic damage, heal for the damage dealt
Minor Variations
- Increase/Decrease AP/AS stats by 5-10
- Leave Passive at 15 + .1 AP magic damage
- Set the life leech to half the damage dealt
- Instead of leaching off of Malady's damage, could provide
10-20% leech off of all non-spell magic damage (on hit effects).
- Keep the 12% spell vamp from Hextech Revolver
Problems
- Drops the 12% spell vamp, replacing it with the new
heal. (Item stats in LoL when upgrading
are not lost or "morphed" into other stats)
Purpose
- Lowers the cost of Malady as well as what it provides to a
first back purchase, along the lines of Stinger, Sheen, or Haunting Guise.
- Creates another, different option for Hextech Revolver to
build into.
- Players can choose to pick up the sustain from Hextech or
the auto attack potential of Malady.
- Upgrade provides a form of sustain/survivability on auto
attacks that will scale with increasing AP, comparable to what an ADC gains
from Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King.
- Applying stacks on magic damage allows for more AP champs
to make use of its penetration as it will be applied at a faster rate as well
as from a potentially safer distance similar to Black Cleaver.
Option 3: Malady Downgrade + New Item - Sever
------------ Malady ------------
Dagger + Amp Tome + Combine Cost
400 + 435
+ 400 = 1,235 Total Cost
Provides
- 25 AS, 20 AP
- Reduce MR by 4 on magic damage dealt, up to 6 stacks
----------- New Item:
Sever -----------
Dagger + Blasting Wand + Combine Cost
400 + 860 +
500 = 1,760 Total Cost
Provides
- 15% AS, 40 AP
- Basic Attacks place a mark on target, on 3 stacks, deals
20 + .35 AP magic damage and heals for that amount.
--------- New Item:
Siphon ---------------
Malady + Sever + Combine Cost
1,235 + 1,760 + 405 = 3,300 Total Cost
Provides
- 50 AS, 60 AP
- Reduce MR by 5 on dealing magic damage, up to 6 stacks
- Deal 20 + .15 AP magic damage per hit and heal for that
amount
Minor Variations
- Increase/Decrease AP/AS stats by 5-10
- Decrease the passive to 15 + .1 AP magic damage
- Leave the passive on third stack, but in increase the
burst damage to roughly 60 + .45 AP magic damage.
- Set the life leech to half the damage dealt
- Instead of leaching off of Malady's damage, could provide
10-20% leech off of all non-spell magic damage (on hit effects).
Purpose
- Lowers the cost of Malady as well as what it provides to a
first back purchase, along the lines of Stinger, Sheen, or Haunting Guise.
- Creates a new item to provide AP champions with a form of
sustain outside of Hextech Revolver and increasing their Basic Attack
potential.
- Players can choose to pick up the cheaper Malady for the
penetration or the more expensive Sever for the sustain.
- Upgrade provides a form of sustain/survivability on auto
attacks that will scale with increasing AP, comparable to what an ADC gains
from Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King.
- Applying stacks on magic damage allows for more AP champs
to make use of its penetration as it will be applied at a faster rate as well
as from a potentially safer distance similar to Black Cleaver.
Option 4: Option 1 and New Item: Sever
----------- New Item:
Sever -------------
Recurve Bow + Blasting Wand + Amp Tome + Combine Cost
950
+ 860 +
435 + 800
= 3,045 Total Cost
or
Recurve Bow + Needlessly Large Rod + Combine Cost
950
+ 1600 + 600
= 3,050 Total Cost
Provides
- 35 AS, 80 AP
- Basic Attacks place a mark on target, on 3 stacks, deals
25 + .45 AP magic damage and heals for that amount.
Minor Variations
- Malady from Option 1 would no longer heal, but the cost
would decrease or the stats would go up.
- AS/AP could increase/decrease by 5-10
- Set the life leech to half the damage dealt
- Instead of leaching off of Sever's damage, could provide
10-20% leech off of all non-spell magic damage (on hit effects).
Purpose
- Provides 2 items for the viability of AP Auto Attack
builds.
- Provides a form of sustain/survivability on auto attacks
that will scale with increasing AP, comparable to what an ADC gains from
Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King.
Problems
- Having two scaling AP Auto Attack items might provide too
much damage in comparison to your standard ADC, though there would be no Crit
modifiers.
Summarizing
Well, these are my thoughts on upgrading/tweaking
Malady. Adding in a sustain feature to
Malady would make it more enticing to a wider selection of champions as well as
providing a backbone for new build opportunities and playstyles. I'm certain there is a lot of tweaking that
needs to be done, but I'm hoping the concept(s) are solid.
