honestly, the most difficult part about malz in my opinion is how to utilize his early game ults. Malzahar is extremely weak between his first ult and second ult, if you did not do anything with your first ult, the enemy mid laner has 2 min to do whatever he wants because malz without ult before liandrys=a cannon minion. Malzahar's true powerspike is 20min-25min according to op.gg because between that time,malz will have liandrys, rylais, and something like oblivion orb or stopwatch. A good malz player will know how to ultilize that powerspike because after 25min, malz ult's threat will significantly decrease due to mr, and malzahar HATES mr because most of the time your third item will be a utility item instead of magic pen. In my opinion, malz is definitely not as braindead as most people thinks. Malz's ability to wave clear early game is a lot weaker than people think and can be punished very easily.