Malphite Build Guide by TheMcDanee

Introduction

Hello!
Wellcome to my guide on playing Malphite the Shard of the Monolith.
In this guide I will try and teach you how to play Malphite well and not bad.
I've seen alot of players being bad as Malphite and that anoys me.

So, I'm here to teach you how to play good and effective.

Let's get going

Patch changes

Patch changes on Malphite will be posted here below.



2012/07/18

• Ground Slam
  ● Armor ratio reduced to 30% from 50%
  ● Now has a 0.2 Ability Power ratio
  ● Attack Speed reduction duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4

These changes to Ground Slam was the only changes on Malphite in the latest patch.
The Armor ratio reduction on it was quite a nerf, but they compensated with buffing it giving it a 0.2 Ap ratio meaning they nerfed armor tank Malphite just a little and buffed AP Malphite, that doesn't mean that full armor isn't viable anymore, it's is still very viable, and AP Malphite just got a little more viable

Pros / Cons

Even Malphite as some strengths and weaknesses, I've listed those who I can think of down below

spaaaaaaace

Pros + Extremely tanky late game + Lot of CC and debuffs + Got Alistar's Headbutt + Pulverize combo in one spell + Deals quite some damage with Ground Slam + Unstoppable Force being one of the BEST initiators in the game

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Cons - Mana hungry early game - Needs the first and preferably second blue buff - Slow in jungle, until level 3 - 4 - Hard to gank without Seismic Shard or Unstoppable Force - Is a rock

Runes

Here are my choises of runes, I'll explain them as we progress down the page.
GREATER MARK OF FORTITUDE
More HP
I take nine Greater Mark of Health, as they will help me with the jungle and my passive will also benefit from it. The shield gets bigger and you'll be able to tank more.




GREATER SEAL OF RESILIENCE
More armor
I take nine Greater Seal of Armor, because Malphite get so much out of them, they will make you even more tanky and make you hit harder with your Ground Slam, and because they are the standard jungle runes.




GREATER GLYPH OF SHIELDING
More magic resist
I take nine Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, becuase most of the time(probably 90%) you will face at least one AP champion, these will help you take less damage from their spells, the reason I don't take the flat mr is that you get more out of mr/level, as you get more mr at level 11 with mr/level then flat mr




GREATER QUINTESSENCE OF RESILIENCE
More armor
I take three Greater Quintessence of Resilience, as they will help me with the jungle and my passive will also benefit from it. You can swith these out with three Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, but I think these suit Malphite alot better.

Optional Runes

Well, as one of the comments stated there are more runes that work with Malphite. I personaly think that the runes above work the best with him, but that's my opinion, wich you can't change.
But here are a few other runes that might work:
GREATER MARK OF ALACRITY
Attack speed
I personally haven't tried these out, but I think that they might work, but the reason that I don't use them is that I feel that the attack speed will get wasted and not be of use later in the game, just because you clear the jungle faster early doesn't mean you should use them, still this is my personal opinion




GREATER SEAL OF RESILIENCE
Armor
I always take nine Greater Seal of Armor, because Malphite get so much out of them, they will make you even more tanky and make you hit harder with your Ground Slam, and because they are the standard jungle runes.




GREATER GLYPH OF SHIELDING
More magic resist
I take nine Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, becuase most of the time(probably 90%) you will face at least one AP champion, these will help you take less damage from their spells, the reason I don't take the flat mr is that you get more out of mr/level, as you get more mr at level 11 with mr/level then flat mr




GREATER QUINTESSENCE OF SWIFTNESS
Like the wind!
These quints are really expensive, but they are worth the cost, as they give you more movement speed, and with the masteries you will have a ****load of movement speed at level 1 without boots, but I still think that the Greater Quintessence of Armor is a better choice as they give more to you

Masteries

The masteries I've selected works well with Malphite's tankieness, these work for other tanks as well.

Items

Well, there are a few ways of building Malphite, in this guide I've decided to involve the two I know best.

The items above are for if you are going up against an heavy AD team, it will make them it nothing on you or hit at all due to attack speed debuffs.

The items above are for if you are playing against an balanced team, it will make them it a little less on you, and make their spells bad against you as well

BOOTS
Magic Resist or Armor
You can either chose one of these boots, if they have alot of cc go with Mercury's Treads, if they don't have much AP and CC go with Ninja Tabi


SUNFIRE CAPE
Armor amd Health
After you get this, you will be quite tanky and quite dangerous, you will clear any camp quite fast, and you will be alot more dangerous in teamfights.


FROZEN HEART
Armor and Mana
This will make you so annoying to be around in teamfights, this plus Ground Slam will make anyone have no attack speed


RANDUIN'S OMEN
Armor and a Attack Speed Debuff
This will make you extremely useful for your team in fights, you use Unstoppable Force in, use Ground Slam and activate Randuin's Omen and BAM! No attack speed for them.


SHURELYA'S REVERIE
Movement speed and HP reg
This is another great item for Malphite, use this to escape, chase or initiate.


GUARDIAN ANGEL
Zilean's ult in a box
As you will be in the middle of everything you will probably die a few times, buy a Guardian Angel, you wont be dying anytime soon


BANSHEE'S VEIL
Magic Resist and a Spell shield
This is a great item, as it gives you a spell shield with a 40 sec cooldown, it gives you also health and mana, plus some extra magic resist can't hurt.


FORCE OF NATURE
Magic Resist and Health reg
A nice peace, it gives you alot of health regen and it also gives magic resist.

Optional Items

Well, every champion have a few items that they can use, but don't. Malphite is no different, he have some items that some don't use at all, and some that gets used from time to time.



ABYSSAL SCEPTER
AoE Mr reduction
This is an item you don't see very often on Malphite, mainly because your AP carry should take it. But I think this suits Malphite just fine, especially since you will be in the middle of everything in teamfights, getting the debuff on everyone on their entire team. One thing to remeber: This is a flat debuff, it means it lowers their magic resist with a flat amount, not more not less.


ATMA'S IMPALER
HP based AD and armor
Yet again another unusual item on Malphite, the item it self is quite normal on top laners as Riven, Gangplank and Nasus. It gives you AD based of 1.5% of your max HP, meaning the more HP you get the more AD you get as well, I would only take this if your team has another tank like: Amumu, Alistar(jungle or support) or Rammus as they can tank equally as good and can initiate in their own special way, both Amumu and Alistar work basically the same as Malphite when initiating.


FROZEN MALLET
More HP and a AA based slow
Frozen Mallet is a good item on Malphite, but I don't really like it on him, as you already have your Seismic Shard to catch up. Even tho I don't use it I could consider taking it if you already have a tank as stated above, if that is the case I would take this and Atma's Impaler as they work very well together.


ROD OF AGES
HP, mana and AP per level
A friend of mine recommended Rod of Ages to me, but I don't think it suits the play style that Malphite have, and that it's more suited for champs like Cho'Gath, Annie, Ahri and Swain. You can try it out if you want, leave me a comment on it if you do and let me know if its good.


THORN MAIL
Return AA damage as Magic damage
Aah... The perfect item to counter a annoying carry, or Tryndamere, as it will return 30% of the damage taken on you as Magic Damage, but only Auto Attacks, nothing else. If they haven't goot any lifesteal yet and they are attacking you and you are attacking them they will die of the damage they cause to you that you reflect to them.


WARMOG'S ARMOR
Huge HP boost
This is the item that grants you the most HP in the entire League of Legends, it starts out giving you additional 930 hp, plus another 350(nerfed from 450), it gives you a total of 1280 extra max HP, and they stack. The reason I don't take Warmog's Armor on Malphite is that you get around 3,3k Hp with this build without it, and if you get more HP they will just get an Madred's Bloodrazor, as I stated at Frozen Mallet take this if you have another tank, and take both this, Frozen Mallet and Atma's Impaler as it will put your ad through the roof.

Boots

Well, there are many boots, and not to sound like a girl, but sometimes you just can't choose what to wear. Well, I'm here to help you decide!




BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS
High Heels
These boots give you more movement speed then other boots, except Boots of Mobility out of combat, but they don't do anything else.




BOOTS OF MOBILITY
Adidas
These will give you the most movement speed from boots, tho only when you are not in combat, when you are in combat you will move as fast as anyone else, unless they have other items that give movement speed




BERSERKER'S GREAVES
Riding boots
These will boost your attack speed more then a Zeal but not more then a Phantom Dancer.




IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY
Sandals
These gives cooldown reduction, which is quite good on Malphite, but I haven't tried it out so I don't know.




SORCERER'S SHOES
Rain shoes
These will make your abilites hit harder as they gives you Magic penetration, have never tried it out, don't know if it works.

Summoner Spells

There are a few summoner spells that work with Malphite in the jungle, I use Ghost and Smite, I take Ghost over Flash because I think that you have more use of Ghost as it works over a bigger duration and not start and end in an instant like flash does. It might not move you through walls but it will help you cover a bigger distant alot faster.

Here are the rest I think can work.

FLASH
Blink through walls
I don't use Flash, but it is viable to use Flash on Malphite if you jungle, it helps you gank and it can save a teammate or kill an enemy


EXHAUST
Feeling tired?
Exhaust is another good spell that work on Malphite, but I don't feel like it's necessary, since you already got a slow and it gives you movement speed as well.


HEAL
Noob heal
I don't use Heal, and I don't think you should use it either, it's no good in the jungle and doesn't help you gank or whatsoever, leave it to the AD carry.


TELEPORT
Teleport, what else?
Teleport is much better for a solo top rather then a jungler, if you go solo top take that instead of Smite

An overview of his skills

Here I will be explaining all of his skills to you, so you know what this rock can do ;)


GRANITE SHIELD
Passive hp based shield
(Innate): Malphite's skin innately produces a layer of rock as a shield which absorbs damage of up to 10% of his maximum health. The shield will recharge if Malphite has not received damage in the last 10 seconds. This is Malphite's passive, it scales well with HP and it makes you an incredible tower diver, as the shield scales with 10% of your max HP, with this build it will give you a shield that absorbs ~330 damage



SEISMIC SHARD
A rolling stone
(Active): Malphite sends a shard of the earth through the ground at his target, dealing magic damage upon impact and slowing them for 4 seconds. Additionally, Malphite will increase his own movement speed for 4 seconds by the same amount of flat movement speed that the target lost.
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Range: 625
This is a great chase and escape ability, not only does it slow down the target but it steals movement speed from it and gives to you, meaning you can use this to escape or chase very well, it can even help you get from bot lane through the jungle to top lane very fast, dont underestimate it!


BRUTAL STRIKES
Feeling brutal?
(Passive): Malphite's autoattacks will splash, dealing a percentage of his attack damage to nearby enemies.
Splash radius from target: 200
Splash Damage: 30 / 38 / 46 / 54 / 62%
(Active): Increases Malphite's armor and attack damage by a percentage for 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 14 seconds
This steroid is huge, making you take almost no damage and deal a **** ton of damage, making you a huge threat, use this when taking down towers, baron, dragon, jungling and ganking, it works every where!


GROUND SLAM
They wont hit so fast after this
(Active): Malphite slams the ground, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies and reducing their attack speed for 4 seconds.
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Radius of AoE: 400
This is one of Malphite's signature abilities, not does it only slow your enemies attack speed it also deals a huge ammount of damage, this will reduce the attack speed from everything except towers ofc, nothing can reduce the attack speed of towers, it works against baron if I remember correctly, but I do know that it reduces the attack speed of all the jungle creeps and all champions.


UNSTOPPABLE FORCE
INCOMING!
(Active): Malphite charges to the target location, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the area, knocking them into the air and stunning them for 1.5 seconds. Malphite cannot be interrupted during his charge by anything except his own death.
Cost: 100 mana
Range to center of AoE: 1000
Radius of AoE: 325
Malphite's legendary game changer ult, use this correctly and you can win a lost game, or if you use it wrong it can cost you a game that you could have easily won. With this you can steal baron, dragon or save alies, kill enemies, scare enemies and run through walls.

Skill Sequence

If you are going to play Malphite you have to know when to level which spell.

Here is how you level your spells if you are against 3-4 ad champs.

And here is how you level your spells against a balanced team.

As you can see, in both cases I max out Ground Slam first, as it's your main damage source, it is also your best jungling ability and a decent ganking ability.
A difference between both builds is that if I'm up against a heavy AD team I tend to max Brutal Strikesas when you activate it, it gives you more AD and armor, both are good when ganking, but if you are facing a more balanced team, you can chose either, but if they have 3 or more ap, max Seismic Shard before Brutal Strikes, as it works better against AP carries then AD carries.

Walls to run through

Well, I've spent some time to take some photos of where you can use your ult to go through, there are alot of images so prepare for a long, and I mean a long chapter.

These pictures shows where you will land as well.














There, that was all of them, the last one is a really good one, use it if your lane has been pushed to your tower, it will surprise the laner alot, they won't be expecting you running through a wall to gank

Jungling

Here is a list of how to jungle with Malphite, I will soon add a video or a LoLreplay on me jungling in ranked with this guide.

• Buy Regrowth Pendant + 1 Health Potion
• Go to blue ask for pull from mid lane and damage from top or bot
• Gank
• Take wraiths >> Red >> Golems
• Go B
• Look for gank
• Take Wolves >> Wraiths >> Golems (Give blue to mid or take it yourself
• Gank or B
• Ward Dragon/Baron when necesary
• Counter jungle a little
• Gank

Remeber to use your health potions when you get low on hp, ward dragon/baron and your jungle etc. and gank a lot!

Counter Jungling

When you are playing Malphite you can counter jungle quite easy, as your Ground Slam will deal quite a lot of damage to creeps early game, in mid and late game as well.
There are a few champions that you should steal jungle from and there are a few that you should not try to counter jungle.

LEE SIN
Medium - Hard
You should try and counter jungle Lee Sin whenever he is on a lane and ganking, when counter jungling him you should beware that he is quite dangerous 1 v 1 and he clears his jungle quite fast. You can take his wraiths, but leave one small there.


SHYVANA
Hard
If you are going to try and counter jungle Shyvana you have to be 100% sure that she is busy ganking or just died, she is in the top 3 fastest junglers and she is also extremely dangerous low levels, and even more of a threat mid and late game, the best you can do is to gank alot and make sure that you get your blue and red buff.


SKARNER
Medium
When they have a Skarner on their team, you should really pay attention, is he ganking a lot? Then you should punish him by stealing his jungle, but you should still gank... If he is not ganking very much, you should punish him again by ganking as much as you can, this will force him to come out of the jungle and gank, then you can go and steal his jungle.


NOCTURNE
Medium - Hard
Nocturne is a quite strong jungler, he is not in Shyvana's league, but he is still very strong, I would recommend not to try and counter jungle him, as if he finds you in his jungle he will probably kill you, and since that his Shroud of Darkness is a spell shield, either your Ground Slam or Seismic Shard will go to waste, he has also got an fear, which makes him extremely annoying as he can probably always catch you.


WARWICK
Easy - Medium
Warwick is quite a slow jungler actually, which makes counter jungle quite easy against him, but he is also great in 1 v 1, so don't get your hopes up, his ult Infinite Duress is a quite long suppress and it deal quite some damage, his passive makes him quite fast if you happen to get low on hp in his jungle. So I would recommend that you only counter jungle him when he is going for their blue and you are almost full health.


ALISTAR
Easy
The cow, from my experience he isn't that fast in the jungle, and is quite prone to getting counter jungled, he is one of those junglers who needs to gank a lot to keep up in level, when he is ganking, steal his jungle. Simple, isn't it? Just stay away from him if he catches you in his jungle, as he got two annoying CC spells, and when you are stunned from both, his teammates can come and kill you, making you a dead rock.

Wards

Wards will help you steal jungle creeps from the other jungler, steal baron/dragon, escape, gank and prety much let you move freely in late game.
Here is a map of where to place wards.
FYI: I did not create this map, all the cred of this map will have to be directed to this guy, Apotheosis.

• Yellow: Vital to protect the jungler on your team
• Blue: For protection depending on which lane you're on
• Red: To guard Dragon and Baron
• Orange: In order to Counter-Jungle

Ganking

This is a new chapter dedicated entierly on ganking your enemies and when to gank.

When to gank:

• Just after you have taken blue you should check for a lane to gank, preferably bot if you are on the purple side or top if you are on the blue side.
• After you have gone B after A: a succesful gank or B: you have taken wraiths and red.
• After you have ganked bot go gank mid, then gank top.
• When you reach level six you can do more advance ganks, see images on above, it will also help you tower dive if you still have Unstoppable Force

How to gank:

• Ping the lane and say: Coming [insert lane here] for a gank, dont push and be ready.
• If the lane is pushed away from your lane bush(bot or top) go from your tower into that bush and wait for the other team to get close then scare the **** out of them.
• PRE 6: >> AA >> >> AA >> >> AA >>
  
• POST 6: >> >> AA >> >> AA >> >> AA >>
  
• You can also gank a lane that has been pushed almost to your tower from behind, tho this should only be done after level 6 as it will be much easier and more suprising.
• FROM BEHIND: >> >> >> AA >> >> AA >>
  
  Prioreties
  • If the enemy is pushing a lane that lane gets higher priority then your jungle.
  • Dragon has always higher priority then your jungle unless you can't contest it, the same for baron.
  • Your top lane (just an example) has gone B, so have their, you can then push that tower, but first ask your lane if it's ok, other wise jungle or gank
  • Teamfights always have a higher priority then your jungle, if you see a fight going on, get there as fast as possible!
  
  Here is a chart that will help you with prioritizing:
  
  Jungle < Gank
  Gank < Fight
  Dragon = Tower
  Baron > Dragon
  Baron > Tower
  Teamfight = Baron
  Push after Teamfight = Baron after Teamfight (it really depends on the situation, can you end? then push, other wise baron imo)
  
  As you can see the jungle is basically your lowest priority, so don't say that you have to prioritize jungle before a gank, it can help having blue or red but you can gank without buffs.

Teamfights and your duties

When you get into a teamfight, you should be the one soaking so much damage as possible.

How to initiate a teamfight:

1. Tell your team.
2. Make sure that they are ready and good to go.
3. Activate Shurelya's Reverie if you have it, it's to move your team faster to the other team.
4. Engage with Unstoppable Force and directly when they land use Ground Slam and then wait 3 - 4 seconds then activate Randuin's Omen for maximum effect.
5. Focus on stopping them from hurting your carries to much.
6. Try and disable their carries.
7. Be so annoying as possible.

How to turn a teamfight to your favor:

1. Use Unstoppable Force, Ground Slam and Randuin's Omen, that should make it so that your team can deal more damage then theirs.
2. Again, be so annoying as possible and soak as much damage as possible.
3. Disable their carries, defending yours is the top lanes job.
4. Slow down anyone trying to escape, but DON'T leave your team without you!

Your duties in a teamfight is to disable their team, make sure that your team is killing their team, not the opposite, and to soak as much damage as you can take, the more the better, not for you of course, but you get the point, the more damage put on you is the less damage on your carries.

Summary

So, now we have come to the end my friends.
Here is a summary of Malphite

• He is quite tanky.
• He has some good cc.
• If done right, you can tank the whole other team.
• Good against attack speed based champions.
• If done wrong, he is good to nothing.
• Got a good jungle clearing speed.
• Good ganks.

Hall of fame

Here I will be posting pictures of my stats from games, both ranked and normal.
If you want you can send me a link to your image and I'll post it here, all I'll need is the name and who to cred.

And by the way, this guide made it to number 6 in the top 10 Malphite guides. Thanks for the support!

Credits and the end

I would like to thank Amazing Monkey, Zell and IceCreamy. For answering my questions on the forum and recommending a few changes in my guide. Zell also pointed out a few things that needed to be changed, so now that's done

And the one I would like to thank the most is yet again jhoijhoi. For an amazing guide with a lot of help, without him, this guide would have looked completely different.
I would also like to thank Apotheosis for his warding map, thanks :)

Thanks for the help!

And I thank you for reading and voting on this guide, I'm open to all constructive criticism.

Changelog

2012/07/27 - Added chapter banners for all the chapters, added a new chapter - Patch Changes

2012/07/05 - Added Ganking, Boots, Warding and remade jungle sections