Hey guys, I'm Default. I've been pretty much onetricking Malthael for a very long time. when his rework came out in February, I was still Silver 5 in both HL and TL. I was already level 84 with Malthael before the rework but when it came out I just realized how great he is at carrying games in HL and started grinding. in 3 months I've climbed from silver 5 to masters, and been sitting comfortably there for the last few seasons (topping 7k points this season). currently level 267 with a 64% winrate on over a hundred HL games with him this season.

Trait - Reaper's Mark

Used to be a huge threat for high health enemies, now it's merely an enabler for Malthael's other abilities. it does not deal much damage and you shouldn't talent into it. however, being able to apply it is the most important thing you need to be able to do as Malthael, and later in this guide I'll list some tricks that help you do that consistently.



Q - Soul Rip

Malthael's bread and butter. his best source of damage and self sustain.
the easiest way to treat it is like an aura that just deals damage and heals you as long as you hold Q, but even though it is pretty much how it works, there is room for higher skilled usage. good Malthael players will treat it like a skillshot. if the enemy is protected or out of Q range it's better to just release the Q key for a second so you can re-position or wait the protected out. it's small things like this that end up making a lot of difference.
with the not-so-recent nerfs, they changed the ability's mana cost from 20 to 25. it means holding Q at all times will result in running out of mana very quickly and having to tap/B more often.



W - Wraith Strike

Malthael's highest skill-cap ability. not using it right is what separates a good Malthael from a great Malthael. it's a fairly big ranged blink that positions you perfectly for a bodyblock, re-applies your trait and has a very low cooldown of 5 seconds. the only problem is that you need to have the enemy marked in order to use it. and that's Malthael's biggest weakness. if the enemy is not marked Malthael has little to no mobility and can deal no damage.



E - Death Shroud

The best way to apply Reaper's Mark from afar. Malthael's most important cooldown. when you can't risk walking into melee range in a fight, when someone is trying to gank you, when someone is chasing you and sometimes when trying to chase, Death shroud is going to be your best friend. the ability is pretty mana heavy and it's pretty much useless for PvE so using it for waveclear is usually a big no no.



A - Cleave

Not quite an ability, but I thought I should mention it. Malthael's aa DPS is a joke. it's the same as Li Li or Uther and lower than Brightwing or Morales. it means that Malthael's damage to buildings is irrelevant, which means that Malthael is pretty bad at pushing. however, the cleave makes it very important for every single thing Malthael does from clearing camps or minions to positioning in teamfights. aa should be treated as a smaller E on a 1.1s cooldown that costs no mana. it's very important to position yourself in a way that makes your aa hit as many enemies as possible, whether it is trying to mark as many enemy heroes with your cleave in a teamfight or maximizing your waveclear / camp clearing potential.



R

I will talk about the ults in the "Talents" part of the guide.

As you might already know, Malthael's build variety isn't very large, he practically only has 1 viable build (Q), but his talents can be changed to adjust against the enemy team comp.

Level 1


Death's reach: The talent itself isn't that bad, but when matched against such great talents like the other two, it just doesn't stand a chance.

On a Pale Horse: An amazing talent that takes a very strong part of Malthael - his waveclear and camp taking speed, and makes it even stronger! being able to rotate that fast as a hero with so much waveclear makes Malthael a macro GOD. the only problem for me with this talent is that it makes him significantly weaker in teamfights or 1v1.

Fear the Reaper: My personal favorite talent on this tier. it makes Malthael like 60% better at PvP since it practically gives him another gap closer. It makes him able to escape situations he would never be able to without it, it helps him chase heroes that are just out of aa range, and it helps him kite melee heroes in the solo lane and win matchups he would never be able to win without it like Greymane or Thrall. I seriously love this talent and I take it about 90% of the time because it fits my playstyle much better.


Level 4


Die Alone:By far the best talent on this tier, makes Malthael an absolute BEAST at 1v1 and enables him to win the vast majority of 1v1 matchups. also has great synergy with Last Rites because it helps a lot at focusing one target down and finishing it off with your ult. without this talent Malthael is much weaker in the solo lane. people don't realize how strong Malthael is at flanking the healer and finishing them off with Last Rites since they think Malthael is only good against tanks.

Throwing Shade: The talent is pretty cute and it lets Malthael mark people from far away way easier, but there's just no way in the world it competes with Die Alone.

Black Harvest: Used to be the go-to talent Malthael had to take when his trait still dealt damage, but now it's just not worth it.


Level 7


Cold Hand: My go-to talent on this tier, makes Malthael much better at chasing, kiting and running away. it takes something that Malthael was already good at - sticking to his target, and makes him almost impossible to escape from once he gets his mark on you. it's also the only CC Malthael has to offer and it has amazing synergy with talents like Executioner because it's a slow with a 100% uptime.

Massacre: A very strong talent that makes it much easier to spread your mark in teamfights and gives you more waveclear and helps you mark ranged enemies in the solo lane.

Touch of Death: This talent is also very strong, but it's situational. being able to deny 50% healing from the entire enemy team for 4 seconds is insane, and is a must pick against heroes like Whitemane. it's also very good against bruisers or assassins with self sustain like Yrel, Leoric, Gul'dan, Mal'Ganis and Blaze. it also has great synergy with both of Malthael's ults.

Level 10


Tormented Souls: Used to be Malthael's most powerful ability, press R to win the fight, but now, with the removal of the armor, the trait damage nerf, the E width buff and the "new" cleave aa, Malthael no longer needs Tormented Souls to mark the enemy team in teamfights. It can work against comps that have good counters to Last Rites since it's still a good way to mark enemies from afar, but it usually doesn't justify not picking Last Rites.

Last Rites: A great ultimate that gives Malthael something he lacks a lot - burst damage. it makes Malthael able to secure kills very well and punish over-staying tanks like no other ability can. the most important thing to do with this ult is to keep in mind all of the enemy team's defensive cooldowns before using it. the best way to use this ult is to use it 2 seconds before the target falls down to 33% hp. you should calculate the amount of damage you and your team are going to be able to put on the target in those 2 seconds but also keep in mind heals and shields the enemy team might have available.


Level 13


Soul Siphon: A very simple talent that gives you a little bit more healing against heroes. it seems nice but it just mathematically doesn't deny as much damage as the other talents, so you should only pick it against tanky comps that don't have much predictable CC and not a lot of spell damage or a lot of physical damage. it's the worst talent on this tier in my opinion but it's still viable.

Ethereal Existence: Great talent against teams that have a lot of physical damage.

Inevitable End: The best talent on this tier, helps Malthael escape and chase in scenarios he would never be able to do that. also helps him survive getting stunlocked and ults like Ring of Frost, Temporal Loop and such.

Shroud of Wisdom: The second best talent in this tier, makes Malthael insanely tanky and is a must have against ults like Pyroblast and against enemy teams with a lot of spell damage in general.


Level 16


Soul Collector: The only viable talent on this tier, gives Malthael 33% more sustain and DPS from his Q, and the range buff is also amazing. probably Malthael's most noticeable power-spike.

Mortality: Sounds good on paper but even with the aoe from Massacre it just doesn't give Malthael as much damage as Soul Collector and doesn't help with his sustain.

Memento Mori: No longer viable since Reaper's Mark doesn't deal that much damage anymore and since Black Harvest is not an option anymore.


Level 20


Reaper of Souls: Haven't had much experience with this talent tbh but it's just bad because it simply doesn't make sense since people don't usually die in the duration of Tormented Souls, but after.

Angel of Death: A clear case of a "win more" talent. the cooldown reduction on Last Rites and the healing is nice, but it's very situational since it's not the most reliable source of healing because if there isn't a low health tank or the enemy team has a defensive ability to dodge Last Rites, or even if the target dies before Last Rites goes off you just get no healing.

Final Curtain: also a talent that used to be way better when Malthael didn't have his cleaving basic attack. it's still pretty strong, but there's just no way in hell it competes against No One Can Stop Death.

No One Can Stop Death: This talent is amazing. as long as you don't die more than once every 3 minutes, you have no death timer in the late game, which is when the death timers are the longest. this talent lets you play really aggressively and has amazing synergy with Last Rites because you can just dive in 1v5 to finish off a 50% hp target with Last Rites right before you die (you did just dive 1v5 and there's no saving you) and then come back to life for a 5v4. this talent wins games. let's say your team got almost wiped and only 2 are alive, the ability to come back to life would turn it into a 3v5 instead of a 2v5 which might be the difference between being able to defend the core or not. it also just helps when you feed :)

Solo laning

Soul Rip's mana cost nerf hit Malthael very hard in terms of mana management. if you don't treat it carefully you'll have to go back to base or use the tap way before you actually needed to.
the easiest way to fix it would be not using Q on minions if you're low on mana when you don't need the healing or having to clear the wave fast, your basic attacks can clear a wave relatively fast too.
In lane, try to always get your mark on the enemy hero and a few minions before using Q to get the most value out of it. avoid using Q if only 3 or less minions are marked.
Also don't ever use Death Shroud for waveclear since it doesn't help much, it costs a lot of mana and it makes it easier to gank you when it's off cooldown.