The weird thing aboul Malth is that they seemed to have re-worked some parts of him, and forgotten others.
Like, when he was originally given Tormented souls, he didn’t have cleave on his AA. Now that he does, a heroic that does nothing but apply your trait doesn’t make much sense.
His quest was always worthless but was never changed, his spell armor wants you to predict damage 2 seconds ahead of time etc.
Yea im all for that ult getting reworked into something better. Or remove it and add a new heroic that fits how he is now.
Old Tormented Souls with its old armor bonus would probably fit current Malthael quite well. It would give him a means of actually diving in and doing more than being put in the corner with a dunce hat slapped upon his head.
I suppose him and Valeera could share a table in needing a touch up on talents and some other things. Maybe not quite that far, but not that far off either.
He is far enough that other heroes judge him though:
as most of hots guide, this is old but if you genuenly wondering why people play Malth, watch this.
They might have changed a lot of stuff but concept still remain the same.
(42) Why the Pros Play Malthael. (An analysis of Pro Play) - YouTube
Newer video guide.
It s still same concept. If you play him like another bruiser you are just playing him wrong. if play him right in right situation he is almost unstoppable.
Why the pros play Malthael. (2020 CCL)
Ya’ll remember when Malthael’s trait could be applied to non-hero units? Good times watching angel, demon, dragon knight, and everything with health bars thicker than a bowl of oatmeal drain comically fast when the fanciest edge lord was throwing shade at them.
I do play Malthael. I think I’m a bit over Lvl 50 with him. I wouldn’t comment on a hero I don’t play.
You can pick Malthael when the matchup makes sense. Here my team wanted to give up because the opponent had ChoGall+ Auriel. I outplayed Artanis then kept rotating to help them, while still keeping us up on XP.
But here’s the thing, Malthael doesn’t have a lot of good matchups. Here, the solo was Artanis, and the 4 man can’t really rotate, so I win. But almost anything else would not go so well. I’d win against Ragnaros or Dehaka, but people who pick them for the solo on Braxis don’t know what they’re doing.
A hero who is almost unstoppable gets played a lot. So if that was true, Malthael would show up a lot (pick or ban) at all levels. But he doesn’t.
For most other bruisers, I don’t need “The right situation” I can just pick them and they’re always good.
It still does, but the damage was nerfed. He used to be able to burn the immortal by himself while his team defended. (I think Tychus also used to have a thing where he would deal double minigun damage to the protector)
The worse part about playing Malth is pushing a structure with your team. You are completely useless. Even worse when pushing core.
I want Malthael to have something similar to what Blaze got that made him good, not a full rework.
Last Rights is good, I just wished it would go through “Protected” but Tormented souls needs a bit of it’s Armor Back because one good CC and you are gone forever. And dont even get me started on TS level 20 upgrade. the only way I make TS good is if you combine Death’s Reach > Massacre > and finally Mortality which at that point it is already too late.
They nerfed “die alone” when the other level 2 talents where bad but they never bothered buffing it again despite being something you get very little value in a teamfight.
In addition keep in mind that unlike other Bruisers that would get their sustained by passives or auto triggers Malthael has to keep pressing that Q or else he dies.
Like I said, all I want for him is a tiny tune up like Blaze got which helped it be a good contender instead of a stressful character.
I don’t think Malthael is bad. I think he is strong in lane however he is squishier than most bruisers so I don’t think he fits into all comps in regards to team fights.
If you need an off tank he’s not your guy. I do think he could use some talent adjustments as stated his level 20 tormented souls is counter intuitive, as the main reason to pick that ult is the extra W’s and extending the duration delays you getting the W on it’s expiry.
Well, not exactly. Like Tyrael, he goes mana hungry if you spam his abilities on minion waves. But because he has cleave on his AA, you just need to cleave waves and only use Q if you need to fast clear or if you need health. Ii you have no reason to want to clear a wave ASAP, just don’t press Q. And of course, don’t use E on minion waves, it’s just a waste.
While I’m all for Malthael getting buffs, LR going through protected would remove the ability’s main counterplay. Only Blaze and Yrel, some situationally Alextraza and Chen, could still do anything about it.
Worse talent in the game.
After playing Malth for a while, I started getting value from it in Teamfights by knowing my Q range to hit only 1 target, or just simply by only putting my trait on one hero.
It’s so good in the solo lane that they can’t really buff it. But on any bruiser against which it doesn’t work, you lose.
I forgot or don’t notice due to it having been reduced quite a bit. I do not play him like I used to as he is a hero that is comparable to listening to the in laws yammer about something fifty years ago. Yes, it is bearable, but I would much rather do (or play) someone else. I’ve played Valeera more recently and frequently than him.
Malthael A.I is just…kinda there. He’s like Jason Voorhees in that so long as you can move faster than a shuffle and have common sense he isn’t much of a threat. The Malth bot’s essentially a pulse checker in that if someone dies to it they most likely were asking to eat a respawn timer.
Yrel’s about the only hero I play regularly where a Malth bot is of some concern, but all it takes to get out of that situation is to thump him upside the head with the holy goat’s hammer to then walk in the opposite direction.
Malth has a few niches, one is that he absolutely dominates the solo lane with cold hand + die alone, and two is that he speedruns camps almost as quickly as Sonya. Also has amazing synergy with CDR like Ana for lategame teamfights thanks to %damage and %healing
In regards to L1 Talents… I take the one for longer W Range and find it valuable for my play of him… it makes a lotta difference for me in ability to try to stick to fleeing targets so a lot less of them get away from me than would get away from me otherwise.
In regards to level 1 talents, when I do play as Malth, it is either One a Pale Horse or Fear the Reaper.
The A.I just…get in and throw hands, so Death’s Reach is not as useful as the other two against them most of the time. OaPH is good if I am the only willing or can soak lanes and FtR is good if the A.I is above Adept and/or has heroes that I can barely do more than stare at them creepily behind friendly gates like a Michael Myers wannabe.
Being that he is about as durable as a wet noodle, once Malth’s health goes low, the bots start swarming him like certain cgi seagulls that constantly yell out ‘Mine!’ while trying to past tense him further than he already is. So being able to just glide away menacingly is useful.
Interesting thing about Fear the Reaper is that it could possibly allow counter play against some abilities such as Blaze’s charge, so there’s more than movement speed to it.
I don’t quite remember if I had seen Malthael walk through Tassadar’s wall but I wouldn’t discount that possibility either because it is essentially a line containing several units which have their own radius values, with small indentations around overlap points (not a perfect rectangle, no smooth surface). I’m skeptical that it may be classified differently because Diablo can smash you against it, which is possible with structures only.
I’ve seen Blaze pass through Dehaka’s W a couple of times long time ago but not sure if it is still a thing.
As for Death’s Reach, I consider it defensive utility much more than an offensive tool. It makes good work out of people chasing you and if smart it may even allow you to avoid melee and mid range attacks from pursuers just by doing a 180° flip over them whenever the cooldown becomes available. All this time killing your opponent, but very slowly through your DOT.
You’re essentially kiting the opponent and if you’ve ever played wow you may have an idea of the concept. It’s not very effective in hots unless you find someone dumb enough to allow themselves repeatedly be dragged across a bush.
I find myself chasing them almost as much as i do when playing maiev
Yep, the A.I can at times be super skittish/confused. Especially if everyone is doing a good job in soaking/laning/loitering/being public menaces. The bots then just get confused as they cannot figure out where to go so they wind up playing a game of peak-a-boo.
Which is extremely frustrating on Kel’Thuzad and other heroes that have to engage the enemy to come online.
You should try Fear the Reaper then.
Activate to increase Movement Speed by 25% and pass through other units for 4 seconds.
It also lets you chase enemies, but on top of that you now have an escape mechanism that ignores body block. So you both secure more kills and die less. And it allows you to catch up to targets that are just out of Last Rites range, Hit them with R then quickly walk away.
Talents that do more than one thing are usually very valuable.
Dehaka’s W allows him to move through units. So everyone passes through him while it’s active.
By “pass” I meant slipping through a body without it counting as an impact, not triggering other bonuses (stun, damage, armor, cdr). Primarily it helps you avoid ton of damage against Blaze, but I don’t suppose either would work against Diablo’s point and click charge. You would otherwise also be immune to other point and click or projectile damage spells.
Diablo’s charge doesn’t require physical contact, only proximity
Target enemy is considered hit when Diablo is within 3 range of them.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff to learn and discover just by reading spell properties on hots wiki hero pages.
Sadly I don’t have a high quality RL Brain in my head, so i’m shamelessly biased towards Talents that don’t add more buttons to have to manage, and when I do have more buttons to manage try to limit myself to stuff that is just situational ‘set and forget’ stuff that doesn’t overload my brain too much, like Khara’s Air Ally and my fav Talent on Orphea that enables Chomp to choose if he comes from Orphea or from outta a Dread Eruption area. It doesn’t matter how good a Talent is if I can’t use it worth buggers sadly, so I prioritize ‘able to not suck at using’ over ‘power level’ of a Talent Choice. One of the reasons i’ll never be a big fish at this or any other game… 
Also, though i’m not in disagreement in Tormented Souls being in a awkward spot post Malth free Cleave on AA, I feel like I can be effective at using it, whereas I can’t seem to ever figure out how to wrap my head around Last Rites no matter how hard I try, so again I Prioritize choosing based on ability to use over which actually performs better in power level. This is one of the reasons why I hate Metas, cause they are prone to trying to FORCE me to use stuff I can’t not suck at using no matter how hard I ever try, then how am I ever supposed to enjoy myself? 
I try to justify myself at least partially that if people like me didn’t ever run stuff that is deemed ‘suck’, how will Data Sample Size showing it underperforming ever get generated? 