How to win lane as Malzahar against Hwei · 49.26% win rate over 3,309 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Hwei | Hwei's QQ and QE lines out-range your auto and Malefic Visions harass, so he pokes you freely at level 1. |
| Level 2 | Hwei | His QE (Severing Bolt) and paint zone punish you as you last-hit under his superior range. |
| Level 3 | Hwei | With all three subjects online his combo poke chunks you before your voidlings and E can trade back. |
| Levels 4-5 | Hwei | He stacks poke and zones you off the wave with W paint and the E disruption pool, holding the range gap. |
| Level 6 | Malzahar | Your R suppresses the immobile Hwei and, chained with E and voidlings, kills him before he can EE or ER out. |
| First item | Malzahar | Your first-item burst plus DoT lets a landed R delete a squishy Hwei on cooldown. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | Fully itemized it comes down to whether you reach R range before his poke and R zone win the spacing. |
You lose the first five levels of poke and there is no fixing that with mechanics. Hwei's Q subjects out-range your auto and your Malefic Visions harass, so respect the QE zap and the slow QQ lines and do not walk into his paint. Farm with E and voidling shove, keep your health above his combo threshold, and accept that you will be down some HP heading into six. Do not flash-poke back; you win by surviving to your spike, not by trading kits you cannot win.
The full Malzahar vs Hwei report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Hwei vs Malzahar guide →
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