Pros / Cons
Laning
Jungling
Ganking
Team Work / Teamfighting
Starting Builds
Early Game Itemizing
Mid Game Itemizing / Essentials
Late Game Itemizing / Situational Items

PROS

CONS

Tons of AoE physical damage Average stats of armor and damage An AD bruiser with high teamfight control Great teamfight pressence Capable of reducing the damage dealt by enemy ADC and bruisers Balanced constant damage Awesome sustain on teamfight due to AoE life steal Very hard to delete

Very squishy early game Item dependant Very bad poke damage Very hard to lane and easy to counterpick Not reliable as a unique tank Not as great initiator as tank Malphite

Try to abuse the most of your passive, Granite Shield. When your passive wears of, retreat for 10 seconds. That will allow you to take a lot of damage without going base. Farm the most you can, since you're item dependant.
Don't try to trade damage early, since you'll have low damage. Best way to get feed is to keep yourself alive and get a gank from the jungler or the mid on lvl 6. Your ultimate Unstoppable Force + your Q Seismic Shard should make easy to get the kill. Your jungler will have some kind of CC aswell, so it will be even easier to score that kill.
But the most important thing is: don't push your lane too much if you aren't warding, or you'll get ganked by the enemy jungler and you may have to recall or you maybe you die. Being under your opponent's level may be so hard to deal with. And if your opponent gets a kill, it will be even harder.
To poke your enemy, use Seismic Shard, but always trying to not fully waste your mana.

Basically I'll level up the skills like this because Brutal Strikes' active gives you armor and damage, and its passive gives AoE similar to Ravenous Hydra. As you'll build AD, this is the fastest skill to clear the jungle. Remember, it gives bonus Armor, so it increases the damage on Ground Slam.
Start with Cloth Armor or Hunter's Machete and 5 Health Potions.
You can start with both Red buff or Blue buff, since your major damage source is your Brutal Strikes. It's better to start in Red buff if you can do it without using Smite, but it's better to get Blue buff if you'll use Smite.

Similar to most Malphite's builds, your main skill for ganking is Seismic Shard, due to its slow. Just use your ultimate if the enemy is on a killing spree or if your team can get more than one kill.

Teamfighting with Malphite isn't hard at all. Just follow these simple steps.

• Wait the tank to initiate. You are an offtank, not a tank. Initiating may be dangerous because it will give the enemy team the chance of fully focusing you and deleting you before you can do anything useful.
• Don't engage with your ultimate Unstoppable Force if you may need it for disrupting some chaneled spells. Use Seismic Shard instead and/or Ghost for engaging faster.
• Stick to the ADC. Activate Brutal Strikes and use Ground Slam + Randuin's Omen to ensure the enemy ADC isn't able to run or either outtrade you.
  Weather you're able to take a lot of damage or to deal it, don't engage without the main damage sources.
• Use your ultimate to prevent your ADC from being bursted by the enemy's assassin or for stopping a chaneled spell, like Absolute Zero or Death Lotus.
  Don't flee from the teamfight if your team can keep fighting. You'll have high deffensive stats, so focusing you first isn't worth the effort.
• Die if that means your ADC can keep fighting. He will be able to deal an impressive punch of damage that you cannot deal, so the other team will regret having focused you. Having the ADC alive will also mean faster lane pushing, so you might get a tower if only your team's ADC is alive while the other's isn't.

Use first build against champions that can harass you but they can't outtrade you. ( Dr. Mundo, Gangplank)

Second build goes for trading with an AD that can equal your damage but not outrade you. ( Renekton, Fiora, Tryndamere, Garen, Xin Zhao)

Third build goes for trading with an AP that can't outtrade you. ( Galio, Leona, Dr. Mundo, Teemo)

Fourth build goes for a lane that you see as impossible to win, it will allow you to farm the most and regain your health and mana for a while. You should have 520 gold before first back to build Philosopher's Stone. Useful for playing against a hard counter ( Vladimir, Rumble, Yorick)

Last build goes for maxing sustaining against champions that can outtrade you. (For example Kayle, Vi, Thresh, Kennen, Vladimir, Rumble)

Boots, Giant's Belt and Philosopher's Stone are a must have. You'll need a little of tankiness on early, that's why Giant's Belt is a must have. Philosopher's Stone is another must have due the lack of mana Malphite has. Then get Warden's Mail, Hexdrinker or Wriggle's Lantern depending of your lane.

If you're gonna camp your lane and farm, a Vampiric Scepter or the Tiamat are great purchases. If not, get tankier fulfilling Randuin's Omen, finishing Maw of Malmortius or gettin a Frozen Mallet or even a Spectre's Cowl if against heavy AP team.

Great damage, 15% lifesteal gives great sustain, and an OP passive that synergizes well with Brutal Strikes' passive. Ravenous Hydra also gives 3 health regen per second, great for staying on lane without going base so much.

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A great tank item to greatly reduce the damage recieved from AD sources. Its active will improve your initiate / disrupt of your Unstoppable Force due to its great AoE slow. It will also increase your Ground Slam's damage and, by getting hit by enemy champions, increase the AS cripple it Ground Slam deal to hit enemies. Try to combine it with Nasus's Wither (or similars Crippling Strike, Barrel Roll, Cripple, etc.) and Frozen Heart's passive to disable the enemy ADC.

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Good items to reduce magical damage. You don't want to be bursted before being able to deal some great amount of damage in a teamfight, that's those items purpose. Spectre's Cowl will also improve your by giving you a slight HP regain bonus after being hit by an enemy champion.

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Skyrmishing will greatly waste your mana, and Malphite's mana regen per 5 on lvl 18 is just 10,8. That means 2,16 mana regen per second. Awful. That's why you need to increase your mana regen. Eleisa's Miracle increases mana regen per second by 3, so you'll have 5,16 mana regen per second on lvl 18. That's not much, but is better than nothing. Try to not spam if you don't have blue. Even if you have blue buff, DON'T SPAM BLINDLY, or you'll burn all your mana so fast. Eleisa's Miracle also gives 2 health regen per second, great for staying on lane without going base so much. Furthermore, it has a passive thet when you have leveled up 3 times with this item on, it will disappear, but its stats will remain. It's so useful for freeing a space in your inventory.

GENERAL ITEMS

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Best tenacity item against an AD team since it gives AD, AS, CDr and movement speed.

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Great item for his great AS and life steal, and both active and passive, which allow you to get a lot of sustain and deal a lot of damage to a tank.

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ANTI AD
(When there is an ADC and they have some other AD sources, as an AD bruiser ( Renekton, Nasus, Garen, etc. or an AD assassin Talon, Zed, Kha'Zix, etc.)

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Recommended against AD teams that have two or more AS reliants. (for example: Every single ADC, Master Yi, Tryndamere, etc.)

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Useful against multiple AD bruisers, since the slow decreases their mobility, in which they're reliant (for example: Darius, Garen, Renekton, AD Sion). Great item to get instead of Blade of the Ruined King since it provides great AoE damage, AoE slow and Armor.

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Great item if you're stacking health, with 4000HP it will grant you 60AD. It gives you also some armor, great against AD teams. Grants better stats than Wriggle's Lantern except for lifesteal.

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A great jungling item against an AD team, but isn't that great on teamfights. Better AD and Armor stats are provided by Atma's Impaler, except for life steal, for 300 gold more.

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Great item for full tanks, but loses potential in an AD offtank, since its damage is based on Auto-Atacks. If you like the average stats of Armor and HP, you should better get Randuin's Omen.

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This item is only useful on two situations. First, an Auto-Atack dependant bruiser is so fed that can deal to you 700 per hit, taking into account your Armor (he is usually Master Yi, but might also be Xin Zhao, an Tryndamere or ever the enemy ADC that is out of control and so overfed). Second is that the enemy team is getting Armor Penetration (for example: Last Whisper, Black Cleaver) and you want to punish them. Building Armor Penetration sacrifies other stats, such as HP, Armor and MR, so you'll be dealing them a so big damage compared to what you recieve.

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Even it doesn't give armor, it's the second item with more HP, just after Warmog's Armor. Getting HP obviously allows you to take more damage. His passive is also just OP to stick onto a target.

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Just as Frozen Mallet, it doesn't give Armor but HP instead. It's also useful for it's very high health restoration bonus, 0,2% of your maximum HP per second. Just having Randuin's Omen + Frozen Mallet + Warmog's Armor, your health restoration will be 12,2 per second (not taking into account any rune or mastery). Just amazing.

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ANTI AP
(When they've got 2 or 3 champions that hit hard with magic damage)

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This item is very useful against heavy AP composition. It has average overall stats, providing 45 Flat Movement Speed, 25 Magic Resist and 35% of tenacity. With Tenacious passive, stacking up to 50% tenacity, reducing most CC duration to its half.

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Great item against an AP Assassins, as Ahri, Syndra, Kassadin, etc.. because it gives a shield that protects from 400 Magic damage. Its stats are also amazing: 60 AD, 40 MR, and 1 AD per every 2% of missing health.

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A great MR tank item (the best from my point of view), it gives an amazing 55 MR, some decent 400 HP and improves your health regeneration by 4 per second. It also improves all your healing sources by a 20% (Healing spells, Health regeneration, Life Steal, Spell Vamp and other healing methods)

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Not a deffensive item, but so useful against AP champions. It will add you burst damage, being able to outtrade almost any AP (If they aren't so fed).

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Great anti AP item. It gives 450 HP and 55 MR, a shield that covers you from a spell and 4,5 life regen per second during 10 seconds after being hit by an enemy champion. One of the best MR items nowadays.

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Great overall offensive item against hard CC, as Fiddlesticks's Ferrify. Its active is similar to Cleanse: Removes instantly all CC, and gives a 50% Movement Speed buff for 1 second. It also provides 60 AD and 45 MR, so it has great overall stats.

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Useful item for buffing your AS, and MR, because gives 42% AS and 50 MR on max passive stacks. It deals 42 magic damage on hit. It loses its real power if you are just skirmishing.

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Great deffensive item, since it gives 1000 HP. Useful against AP since it makes you able to sustain a high burst.

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Similar to Warmog's Armor, since it gives 700 HP. It's also great for sticking to a target.