Note : Malene's (A) and (B) abilities have separate cooldowns in either form. Example : Using Light (A) will not put Dark (A) on cooldown when Malene uses Enchanted Transformation.

Masked Ball - Malene's ultimate Enchanted Transformation is available at Level 1. It has 4 levels instead of the usual 3. Malene's basic attacks also deal bonus Crystal damage so abusing Aftershock and Alternating Current is ideal for her.

Light Ribbons / Shadow Tendrils - Malene's (A) is her basic poke and kill set-up. Use her Light Ribbons to root the enemy first, then engage a fight with them or allow your team to jump onto them. You can also use it to root enemies and run away with your (B). Shadow Tendrils will be used more in teamfights and clearing minion waves. The tendrils go through all enemies so in big fights this will deal a lot of damage once you get some CP going. Be sure to keep changing form so you can keep using both of these abilities.
- Light Ribbons : Ribbons root a target to either escape or initiate a fight.
- Shadow Tendrils : Three Tendrils deal Crystal Damage to all enemies within path.


Royal Amnesty / Wicked Escapade - These are Malene's escape and chase abilities. Royal Amnesty is used to catch up to an enemy or to gain speed in order to run and reposition. Wicked Escapade is used to dodge CC, damaging abilities, and ganks.
- Royal Amnesty : Shield and Speed Boost to chase or run.
- Wicked Escapade : Invulnerability and pseudo-stealth for 1.5 seconds. She also leaves a pit that deals damage and slows enemies she passes through while in the form. Activate when an enemy such as Kestrel is about to kill you with One Shot One Kill, or to run out of Ardan's Gauntlet.

Enchanted Transformation - Malene switches to either Light or Dark form, depending on whichever one she currently is and gains new abilities. Her transformation to Light grants her next basic-attack a slow while her Dark transformation grants her bonus damage. Since this ability is on such a low cooldown at no Energy cost she can constantly use this to proc Aftershock and abuse the bonus effects she gets on her basic-attacks.
- Before engaging a fight, start in your Dark form so when switching, you can Slow + Root the enemy first before starting to deal damage.
- This will also reset her basic attack animation, meaning that right after your projectile is in the air, using Enchanted Transformation will make her immediately attack again.

As Malene you want to basically spam your Enchanted Transformation as often as possible to keep the cooldowns of Light Ribbons / Shadow Tendrils and Royal Amnesty / Wicked Escapade as low as possible through ability spamming. ALWAYS basic-attack as that is her main form of consistent damage.

Core Items

Eve of Harvest - The sustain and energy are great for Malene as she is lower ranged, meaning that she can't stay safe in the backline usually in big fights. Works best when you can keep landing your Shadow Tendrils to maximize the area damage.

Dragon's Eye - Malene is great at kiting and staying around edges of fights, so she can easily stack up CP to not only do more damage but heal even more from Eve of Harvest.


Clockwork - As your usual 3rd or 4th item, the amount of Cooldown Reduction you get from spamming abilities is insane and can allow for Malene to cycle combos to maximize damage potential.

Halcyon Chargers - An early purchase because of the Cooldown Reduction and energy pool to help Malene get by before purchasing a Clockwork. Interchangeable with Journey Boots to kite better and have overall more speed in fights if you do not need the initial CDR.

CP Options

Aftershock - This is a good item for her as she can proc this easily by switching forms with Enchanted Transformation and it synergizes with the bonus effects she gets from using Enchanted Transformation. The early CDR will also help lower her cooldowns early on. (10% Max Health Damage + 25% Lifesteal + Slow/Extra Damage)
*Note : I do not recommend buying this now because of her much lowered range, making it harder for her to actually apply on-hit effects vs longer ranged matchups such as vs. Samuel and Celeste.

Alternating Current - Since Malene focuses on using her Basic Attacks with Aftershock and Enchanted Transformation this also works well with giving her more consistent damage.

Shatterglass - A solid amount of CP for her abilities, this can be preferred if you can't keep Dragon's Eye stacks up enough.

Spellfire - Mortal Wounds and burn damage against heroes like Krul and Lyra or those who bought Lifesteal items. Can also be used to apply poke before going in for a kill.

Broken Myth - When the enemy builds defensively, use this to ignore a portion of their defenses and keep doing damage. Buy this later into the game as a 3rd or 4th item.

Frostburn - If you need some help with kiting and providing utility for your team to collapse on then this will help. Also allows for better chasing power since you can outrun whoever you're killing.


Defense

Aegis - The anti-cc with Reflex Block will add even more defense to Malene as she has both versions of her (B) to keep her alive against CC heavy teams. With her Wicked Escapade she has two free passes basically.

Metal Jacket / Atlas Pauldron - Both deal with WP carries such as Ringo and Rona. Metal Jacket is better suited for ranged carries while Atlas Pauldron will do best against Attack Speed reliant heroes who can jump on top of you.
With the new Atlas Pauldron changes, it is now much more effective at stopping WP carries that can jump onto you.

Celestial Shroud - If you're against enemies that rely on landing a certain combo / ability in order to kill you afterwards or a team that can quickly follow up with CC + debuffs, buying this will help you survive. Since it only grants Shield, I personally do not like buying this as it leaves you open to WP damage as well as not being a consistent defensive tool.

Slumbering Husk - You will almost always buy this item because of the great defensive stats and passive to mitigate burst damage. As stated above, Aegis can be preferred for messy teamfights with crowd control being thrown everywhere.

*Note - This is basically an archive of changes to Malene over the patches. I just want to keep them here as a reference, so there is basically no use for them usually.

Patch 3.3 - As expected of SEMC, Malene has been nerfed fairly hard with the most recent patch.

- Light Ribbons : Damage 60/115/170/225/280 → 60/105/150/195/240

- Enchanted Transformation : Cooldown 5/4/3/2 → 6/5/4/3

- Light Form Slow : 30/45/60/75% → 30/40/50/60%

- Shadow Form Damage : 60/120/180/240 → 60/100/140/180

These changes won't be extremely detrimental, but her burst combo will be harder to pull off with damage and cooldown nerfs.

Patch 3.4 - Oh boy, even more nerfs.

- Enchanted Transformation
- Damage 60/100/140/180 → 40/80/120/160
Crystal Ratio 100% → 80%
- Cooldown Ratio 6/5/4/3 → 7/6/5/4s

Patch 3.5 - Another set of nerfs. Luckily, these only affect cooldowns.

- Light Ribbons
- Cooldown
14/13/12/11/10 → 16/15/14/13/12

- Shadow Tendrils
- Cooldown
8/7.5/7/6.5/6 → 10/9.5/9/8.5/8

- Royal Amnesty
- Cooldown
15/14/13/12/11 → 17/16/15/14/13

Patch 3.8 - I seriously don't know who is balancing the game, but they're doing an absolutely terrible job.

- STATS
- Attack Range
6.2 → 5.8
*Note - With a range nerf, in harder lane matchups (out-ranged, poke) it could be better to not build Aftershock and instead buy a regular CP item such as Spellfire or Shatterglass.

- Enchanted Transformation (LIGHT)
- Slow
30/40/50/60% → 25/30/35/40%

- Slow Duration
1.25s → 1s

Patch 3.10 - Oh my god they're actually buffing Malene to compensate for her reduced basic attack range and inability to play vs. competent ranged players?! Did someone hijack SEMC?

- Light Ribbons

- Root Duration
0.7/0.8/0.9/1/1.2 → 1/1/1/1/1.5
- Damage
- Crystal Ratio
120% → 100%
*Note - The CP ratio nerf is made up for by the root duration buff. This is extremely helpful for not only catching out enemies, but for kiting as well.

- Shadow Tendrils)

- Damage
35/60/85/110/135 → 30/60/90/120/150
- Crystal Ratio
55% → 60%

- Royal Amnesty

- Barrier
60/105/150/195/285 → 75/120/165/210/300
- Bonus Movement Speed
1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 → 0.8/1/1.2/1.4/1.8

- Wicked Escapade

- Cooldown
22/21/20/19/16 → 20/19/18/17/14