Use Call of the Void and Nether Grasp to renew the duration of Malefic Visions on enemies.
Wait to cast Void Swarm until there are nearby enemies for the Voidling to attack or kill.
Avoiding damage in lane maximizes the uptime on Void Shift, increasing Malzahar's safety dramatically.
Skarner can't harm you very much outside of short range, so stay away from him!
Skarner is especially dangerous when inside Crystal Spire zones his team controls. Try to capture them ahead of time if a fight may break out around them.
Skarner's Move Speed is increased as long as his shield, Crystalline Exoskeleton, persists. Attack him to lower his speed.
The stat comparisons shown here feature some vital Malzahar versus Skarner counter stats that can help you explain the differences and similarities between the two. As an example, Malzahar’s KDA ratio ([kills + assists] / deaths) of NaN is more than Skarner’s ratio of NaN, demonstrating that Malzahar may be more central to his team's team fighting effectiveness than Skarner..
Malzahar often has a similar longest kill spree as his opponent does. Typically, he receives less damage than Skarner. This commonly reflects differing health capacities, yet it can also illustrate that the one champ has less mobility and thus is not able to escape additional harm when poked or engaged.
Both League champs are great champions. Both champs have their pros and cons. In League's current meta, Malzahar usually wins when facing off against Skarner, with a 56.0% win rate. Thus, Malzahar makes a fantastic counter to Skarner.
While Malzahar does have a much higher winrate compared to Skarner, when facing one another, Malzahar also has a greater learning curve that makes him a more difficult champion to pick up and master. You should be be fine when picking Malzahar into Skarner.
Additionally, Malzahar also has a good amount of utility and CC, a similar amount to Skarner. This makes her just as valuable during teamfights, especially when fighting champions with a lot of burst damage.
While there isn't a single best champion in League of Legends, in Malzahar vs Skarner matchups, Malzahar is the better champion with a noticably higher win rate, more champion depth, and a similar amount of utility to help out your team members during teamfights.
Malzahar is a great counter for Skarner. Focus your strategy on increasing your gold and cs and taking out objectives. If you do that, you should be able to stand on your own as Malzahar against Skarner.
If you would like to truly master Malzahar to counter Skarner during both the early game and mid / late game phases of League of Legends, you should keep reading to pick up a few extra lessons on this matchup. If you mind the build and tips presented above, you should increase your win rate by a lot and be closer to League of Legends pro players.
Malzahar often gets much more CS as Skarner. Champions who on average don't take much CS usualy don't need much CS to be effective, such as support champions. They are able to scale properly off of their skills, stats, and first items alone. Yet, champs with a lot of CS, such as hyper-carries, typically have to have many items to be effective. In either situation, try to exceed the values shown on this page to do well.
The best items to prioritize in your Malzahar versus Skarner build include Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Malignance, and Liandry's Torment. When Malzahar bought at least these three pieces in his build, he performed a lot better versus Skarner than with many other commonly used builds. In fact, Malzahar boasted an average winrate of 56.0% when playing against Skarner with these items in his kit.
To have the best probability of defeating Skarner as Malzahar, Malzahar players should take the Summon Aery, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, Scorch, Magical Footwear, and Cosmic Insight runes from the Sorcery and Inspiration rune sets. Of all the rune sets that we analyzed for Malzahar vs Skarner counterpicks, this combo of runes resulted in the highest win rate. Notably, these runes gave a 56.0% winrate overall.
By default, tips, stats, and builds on how to beat Skarner as Malzahar are displayed for all skill levels, merged. To scope the stats and builds to an individual skill level, you should use the selection menu located at the top of this page.