Lord Malakai

Lord Malakai
Information
Enemy Types	Boss
Lane Type	Free-Roaming
Appearances	Malakai's Manor Expeditions 6th wave
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An ancient vampiric lord who feasts on the essence of the living and the one responsible for the Hunter's bloody curse and powers, Lord Malakai is a boss only encountered in Malakai's Manor within Expeditions gamemode.

Credits to this image from the Protobot Database for a good amount of info that this article uses.

Behavior and Mechanics

Lord Malakai's Introduction Cutscene

• Malakai is a free-roaming boss, meaning that the boss is free to travel or be lured to anywhere in the map as the fight will be mostly centered around surviving his abilities. He will always try to move towards the nearest player as they are his primary targets.
• Malakai will always spawn in front of his giant statue within the crypt (the room containing "Malakai's Shield" and "Malakai's Mace" spawn lanes) at the start of the fight.
• Malakai has 73.418% damage resistance, making him one of the most tankiest boss. However, Malakai takes double damage when attacked in his rear (though that does not count as a Weak Point).
• Malakai is untargetable by towers and immune to defense damage. He is also unaffected by crowd control effects.
• Malakai's attacks are able to damage cores and move towers or blockades.

Close-combat Attacks

Malakai will perform these attacks randomly whenever a hero is right in front of him. Each of these attacks is guaranteed to deal knockback which can't be negated by Tenacity.

• Basic melee attacks - Malakai bashes any heroes with his mace knocking them back. While he can strike left or right; there are no notable differences between these attacks.
• Mace extension attack - Works similar to Malakai's basic melee attacks with the addition of the mace also able to deal some damage when retracting. However, heroes will have be in specifically close positions to even be hit from the retracting damage.
• Ground smash attack - Malakai slams his mace onto the ground knocking heroes back and producing a moderate AoE shockwave of debris. Any hero caught within the AoE will be stunned for 4 seconds. This is the only stun effect that can be negated by Tenacity.
• Shield bash Attack - Malakai bashes heroes with his shield knocking them back. Any towers/blockade struck will also be moved as well.
• Spinning Attack - Malakai spins in two rotations, dealing damaging knockback twice to any heroes/tower caught within his spin. At the end of the spin, a third damaging knockback will be dealt to any heroes still close enough to the boss.

Basic melee attack (right strike).	Basic melee attack (left strike).	Mace extension attack.
Ground smash attack.	Shield bash attack.	Spinning attack.

Other Abilities

Aside from close combats, Malakai will also periodically perform these moves and abilities to support his attacks.

• Shield charge attack - Whenever there's distance between a hero and the boss, Malakai will eventually raise his shield and start charging towards the targeted hero as a catch up, only stopping when collided with the most frontal object collision (i.e. hero or environmental). Any nearby heroes or defenses that's not right in front will get swept to the side. Damages dealt by this attack are minimal.
• Homing projectile attack - Among close-combat attacks, Malakai will fire (magical damage) projectiles at heroes several times in intervals. These homing projectiles are able to pass through any terrains, essentially making sure the heroes get hit. The number of projectiles fired will depend on how many heroes are present within the map. They can be reflected by Reflect Beam.
• Damage-related buffings - Periodically, Malakai will apply a buff to himself and any nearby enemies, increasing attack damage by 20% and reducing damage taken by 25%. The effect roughly lasts for about 12 seconds.

Shield charge attack.

Homing projectile attack.

Applying damage-related buffs.

Strategy

It is recommended to use Hero Damage-based builds on Malakai as they are more effective in consistent dps.
Using Obelisk with Empowering Blasphemy or Flame/Water Aura with Empowering Aura shard will also help increase damage done to the boss. And furthermore, Malakai can also be affected by debuffs (which increases his damage taken) from;

• Sundering Blow shard.
• Blessing of Poisons locked mod (from Ring of Poison).
• Ignite elemental combo.
• Melting Point Shard (for Countess)
• Incendiary Rocket (for Engineer's Bunker Buster)
• Wither Bubble shard (For Adept's Arcane Bubble)
• Initiate's Crippling Chi Wave
• Gunwitch's Book Drop (The Gunwitch that used bookdrop needs to stay active on field).
• Attacks from a Mystic with 100% Appeasement.
• Dragolich's Ghost Wail.
• Jackalope's Curse.

When fighting Malakai it is generally best to avoid these two scenarios:

• All heroes dying with none active on field due to respawn timer. When that happens, the nearest core will become his next immediate target and it'll be game over unless a hero manages to respawn back in time.

• Luring Malakai to areas where clumps of defenses (Like Towers or Blockades) are built. Due to the boss' ability to move defenses, the disruption of tower placements will completely mess up whatever strategies being used. If Malakai also happens to be at areas where there's a turtle build, it is most likely the core will be caught in his attack as well.

History

• December 12th 2023 : Introduced.