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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Granite Shield (PASSIVE)
Malphite Passive Ability
Introduction
Hey everyone!!! This is my first guide and most likely the only contribution I'll have on this site. In this guide I'd simply like to share my play style with Malphite with you guys, although I got no match histories with him, I am rather confident with my thoughts and play style surrounding Malphite.
As meantioned this is a guide, I'm simply trying stating things I believe are true with Malphite and what you could possibly add to your own Malphite but don't take everything as God's words just simply try add them to your own play style as well.
On a final note, I'd really love to hear your feedback or simply a question on anything you may disagree with, thanks!
Like all champions except for Morgana, Malphite comes with good qualities and bad qualities. So walking into a fight it's good to know what to do in a fight in order to avoid the weaknesses or build items to cover those weaknesses.
- Very durable all game thanks to his Granite Shield - Easy to pick up, not hard to learn - Has an easy gap closer - Great at shutting down ad champions - His ultimate is a strong shut down - Strong iniates - Is a rock |
QWERT |
- Has a hard time early game - Has a hard time against ranged (eg. Teemo) - Needs to be in the middle of everything to be most effective - Is a rock _ _ QWERTY |
With these masteries, I've gone 9/21/0. As I've mentioned, I play Malphite as a full tank, with the 9 in offensive, gives you a small boost in your damage output and the rest in 21 defensive mastery is to fulfill Malphite's duty as a tank. There is also the possibility of 0/21/9 if you're are either jungle or prefer the movement speed over magic penetration. If you do jungle it'd be a good idea to grab Tough Skin , Bladed Armor , Runic Affinity and max out Hardiness instead of splitting it with Resistance .
Marks
Runes
Greater Mark of Attack Damage - I wouldn't recommend these unless you believe the hardest thing about LoL is to last hit
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - The other alternative if last hitting is just too easy for you, and probably the only other Mark rune that I would recommend as to how all of Malphite's skills are magic damage
Seals
Runes
Greater Seal of Scaling Health - If you think that you don't have enough health, then these are your runes, works really well with your Granite Shield as well
Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration - If you play really aggressive with Malphite, then I'd recommend these as it would provide a great amount of mana regen for Malphite early game.
Greater Seal of Armor - Flat armor runes, great for trading hits early game and a small bonus for your Ground Slam
Glyphs
Runes
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Simple, provides a nice boost in Magic Resist that Malphite needs late game
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - CDR for Malphite if you think the timer between casting spells is too long.
Quintessence
Runes
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Magic Resist - Provides a nice amount of MR needed late game.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Also a great choice on Malphite, since all of his skills now scale with AP as well.
Greater Quintessence of Health - Really great quintessence on Malphite, boosting his sustain early game along with the extra hp on Granite Shield
Granite Shield
Malphite is shielded by a layer of rock which absorbs damage upto 10% of his maximum health. If he has not been hit for 10 seconds, this effect recharges
This passive is really awesome throughout the game, works well for tanking harass. Use this to your advantage, you can safely walk up to a minion and last hit while enduring a few hits from your enemy champion and wait for it to recharge. If you decide to jungle Malphite a good thing to do is wait for the shield to recharge before starting on the next neutral camp.Seismic Shard
Using his primal elemental magic, Malphite send a shard of the earth through the ground, dealing damage upon impact and stealing movement speed for 4 seconds
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Mana cost: 70/75/80/85/90
Magic damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+60% of AP)
Movement steal: 14/17/20/23/26%
Probably one of the most effective slows, despite it being a single target, it's not just a slow, it's a steal, meaning you gain speed the amount of speed that you had reduced from your enemy. With this said, it closes gaps between you and your enemy fast. As you've seen above I choose to max this skill 2nd, imo using this as a poke burns your mana real fast.Mana cost: 70/75/80/85/90
Magic damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+60% of AP)
Movement steal: 14/17/20/23/26%
Brutal Strikes
Malphite starts to hit with such force that his attacks deal damage to all units in front of him. Activating Brutal Strikes greatly increases his armor and attack damage for a short amount of time
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Mana cost: 50/55/60/65/70
Passive splash: 30/38/46/54/62%
Armor and AD increase: 20/25/30/35/40%
Duration: 6 seconds
Brutal Strikes real use is for it's splash and later into the game for the bonus armor it provides. In the jungle this skill provides Malphite decent jungling speed if his blue has expired and needs to be more conservative with his mana and the small armor bonus helps as well, so put 1 on Brutal Strikes at level 2 if jungling.Mana cost: 50/55/60/65/70
Passive splash: 30/38/46/54/62%
Armor and AD increase: 20/25/30/35/40%
Duration: 6 seconds
Ground Slam
Malphite smashes the ground sounding out a shockwave that deals base damage and half his armor as damage and reduces the attack speed of enemies for 4 seconds
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Mana cost: 50/55/60/65/60
Magic damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+30% of armor, +20% of AP)
Atk speed reduction: 30/35/40/45/50%
I love this skill, many people underestimate this skill, I would land a clean Ground Slam on a Teemo and he would continue auto attacking me not knowing that I'm attacking faster than him. If you have a Frozen Heart and a Randuin's Omen and slam "e", their ad carry attack speed will be heavily crippled.Mana cost: 50/55/60/65/60
Magic damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+30% of armor, +20% of AP)
Atk speed reduction: 30/35/40/45/50%
Unstoppable Force
Malphite ferociously charges to a location, damaging and knocking them into the air
Cooldown: 130/115/100
Mana cost:100
Magic damage: 200/300/400 (+100% of AP)
Knock-up and stun duration: 1.5 seconds
What can I say? Love using Unstoppable Force, the range on this thing is huge and the AoE is pretty decent, not too big, not too small. The knockup for this can turn teamfights around towards your favor, and the damage on it packs quite a punch. Another thing to take note is that when you use Unstoppable Force and your target location, it works similar to Olaf's Ragnarok, so if you're on your last few pixels of health and that little Veigar surrounds you with Event Horizon, you can simply Unstoppable Force straight through it and also Unstoppable Force can go through trees/walls but sometimes I click from within the blue circle range with the location marker properly on the other side of the wall, I sometimes don't get through? So play abit safe and walk upto the wall, carefully time it and make sure you make the distance as far as possible. Some people may think that because this is an ultimate you shouldn't really be using it to escape, but trust me it's ok with roughly 30% cooldown reduction your Unstoppable Force cooldown is shaved off quite alot. For those who're yet to start ranked, the reason for Malphite being a commonn ban is because of his Unstoppable Force being able to catch enemy team out of position or off guard because of it's range, so abuse this if you get your hands on Malphite.
Mana cost:100
Magic damage: 200/300/400 (+100% of AP)
Knock-up and stun duration: 1.5 seconds
This is the skill order that I thought were most effective for Malphite. Making Ground Slam my first priority, because of the following reasons:
- Can be used to farm
- More mana efficient than Seismic Shard
- Good harass with Seismic Shard being a good gap closer
Flasha Ignite |
QWERT
|
TeleportExhausta |
The items that are provided below are what I personally believe to be possible items for Malphite. I've also provided possible builds for Malphite but remember that you should also adapt to the enemy team and change things around to suit your game style
_
_
_
_
_
_
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__
_
_
_
_
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Ninja Tabi |
___ |
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Sunfire Cape |
___ |
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Frozen heart |
___ |
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Thornmail__________________________________________________________________ |
___ |
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Randuin's Omen |
___ |
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Guardian Angel |
___ |
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Warmog's Armor |
___ |
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Runic Bulwark |
___ |
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Shurelya's Reverie |
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Spirit of the Ancient Golem |
___ |
The following are alternate possible builds for Malphite that are based on the enemy team. If anyone disagrees then gtfo. JJUST KIDDINGGGGG, don't stop reading ): But honestly guys if you disagree with any of the builds below, comment and tell me why and I'll reconsider and I'll also add a note on why it's there from whom if i do, thanks!
HEAVY AD TEAM
Item Sequence
Sunfire Aegis
2700
Abyssal Mask
2400
Thornmail
2700
Runic Bulwark
2950
Randuin's Omen
2700
HEAVY AP TEAM
Item Sequence
Sunfire Aegis
2700
Abyssal Mask
2400
Runic Bulwark
2950
Warmog's Armor
3100
Spirit Visage
2900
NICE AND BALANCED
Item Sequence
Sunfire Aegis
2700
Abyssal Mask
2400
Frozen Heart
2500
Runic Bulwark
2950
Randuin's Omen
2700
I didn't know where to put it so I made a completely new section for this!
I simply wanted to point out something about Malphite quickly:
As you can see his attributes point to his "spells" more than the others. So treat him as a mage, try not to auto attack too often unless you're confident you won't lose your target. So for example, Seismic Shard your opponent and chase Ground Slam and continue following, don't auto attack him as he's still running unless your Seismic Shard is still in effect and basically kite. The only time you should attack late game is when you have Brutal Strikes active and in the middle of everything.
I simply wanted to point out something about Malphite quickly:
As you can see his attributes point to his "spells" more than the others. So treat him as a mage, try not to auto attack too often unless you're confident you won't lose your target. So for example, Seismic Shard your opponent and chase Ground Slam and continue following, don't auto attack him as he's still running unless your Seismic Shard is still in effect and basically kite. The only time you should attack late game is when you have Brutal Strikes active and in the middle of everything.
Ward's are a good little stick that gives you vision on an area around where you've placed the ward. Why is it so important? It helps you see ganks ahead of time allowing you to avoid it unless you are too dopey to see the enemy jungler approach (like me). It is no one else's job to ward your lane, your jungler has his own jungle to ward and other lanes their own. If you're not confident in your map awareness then ward the very tip of the bush, but if you have some confidence then place it outside of the bush abit further down allowing you to see enemy jungler from a further distance for the more dangerous gankers ( Rammus). Also get into the habit of buying 1 ward every time you recall it's not just the supports job, it's only 75 gold don't be stingy, wards are very important to winning games.
When to buy:
Oracle's are very important not just for hunting rats but for hunting wards! It's highly recommended you pick it up early if you're jungling as Malphite to clear out enemy wards allowing easier ganks and wasting the enemy's team gold and if you're not jungling, pick it up late game if you're building hardout rock Malphite to clear out the baron and dragon wards.
When to buy:
- Sight ward - Buy these when you are doing well or overextending your lane to see the enemy jungler ahead of time.
- Vision Ward - Buy these when you're in need of a gank.
Oracle's Elixir
As Malphite, imo, he shines the most in top solo lane but can also be a jungler if prefer him in there. Firstly, I'll cover laning and jungling later.
To be able to top lane, the requirements are at least one of 3 things (imo). In this case, Malphite would be able to fit mainly into the "sustain" group and just a hint of snowballing.
The most common start to every lane except support and sometimes jungle. If you take these to top, this means you are confident you can last really well avoiding harass from your laning opponent. Recommend taking these if you are against champions that require a skill shot ( Olaf).
This is for the champions that deal primarily ad damage such as Riven, a good thing to always know who you're against.
Soo when you are at top lane, it's a good thing to start off simply by giving your jungler at least a guard from invaders and if you're kewl, you may help him out by Ground Slam when red/blue buff attacks him to reduce the attack speed saving him a few hits and sprint back to your lane. During laning phase you are to farm. Duh. Farm means to last hit, not to attack as much as possible within the shortest amount of time. You may also use Ground Slam to farm if you wish and play it Morgana and push people against towers so you can Teleport to back up another lane while your lane is abit safe or to cause your lane opponent to lose farm but you'd be overextended and be vulnerable to their jungler and low on mana most of the time. If you wanna go aggressive then poke him, your harass combo would be Seismic Shard then Ground Slam. You may want to practice because sometimes using your Ground Slam too early may cause you to miss them because of it's cast time, and you'll feel like a noob and cry. ): I've mentioned before that try not to put gas on your mana bar and light it up, you don't wanna get ganked and have no mana for your Seismic Shard.
To be able to top lane, the requirements are at least one of 3 things (imo). In this case, Malphite would be able to fit mainly into the "sustain" group and just a hint of snowballing.
Starting Items
The most common start to every lane except support and sometimes jungle. If you take these to top, this means you are confident you can last really well avoiding harass from your laning opponent. Recommend taking these if you are against champions that require a skill shot ( Olaf).
This is for the champions that deal primarily ad damage such as Riven, a good thing to always know who you're against.
Laning
Soo when you are at top lane, it's a good thing to start off simply by giving your jungler at least a guard from invaders and if you're kewl, you may help him out by Ground Slam when red/blue buff attacks him to reduce the attack speed saving him a few hits and sprint back to your lane. During laning phase you are to farm. Duh. Farm means to last hit, not to attack as much as possible within the shortest amount of time. You may also use Ground Slam to farm if you wish and play it Morgana and push people against towers so you can Teleport to back up another lane while your lane is abit safe or to cause your lane opponent to lose farm but you'd be overextended and be vulnerable to their jungler and low on mana most of the time. If you wanna go aggressive then poke him, your harass combo would be Seismic Shard then Ground Slam. You may want to practice because sometimes using your Ground Slam too early may cause you to miss them because of it's cast time, and you'll feel like a noob and cry. ): I've mentioned before that try not to put gas on your mana bar and light it up, you don't wanna get ganked and have no mana for your Seismic Shard.
To jungle more efficiently you would need your skills in this order instead, similar to top lane, just a little different skill order for the first few levels.
Jungling Malphite has only one choice of starting item: With the start of season 3, I've tested Malphite in the new jungle and it is the only starting item as jungle Malphite can only take with the removal of Regrowth Pendant. You can also start with Cloth Armor but with a Hunter's Machete you'll have a slightly higher % of health if you need to gank in between but have a slower clear speed. With this new item, I recommend you turning it into a Spirit of the Ancient Golem replacing Randuin's Omen with it and grabbing a Ninja Tabi instead of Mercury's Treads.
Jungling Malphite, as I've mentioned before Malphite can jungle but shines best at top. Similar to top lane, there are pre-requisites that need to be filled in order to be a successful jungler: Out of those three, Malphite fits into speed and sustain because as mentioned Malphite's ganks aren't the most reliable. So choosing Malphite as a jungler would mean that you are confident that your team has a strong laning phase ( Riven) and won't require many ganks. Another thing I'd also take into consideration is whether your mid lane needs blue buff or not, for example: if your mid lane champion is Xerath then I wouldn't recommend picking Malphite as a jungling but if your mid lane champion is Katarina then it's cool to pick Malphite. Why? Malphite may be able to jungle without blue buff because he can just auto attack with his Brutal Strikes passive, but that wouldn't allow Malphite to jungle at his maximum speed and make up for his inability to gank well.
When jungling there is only one route that you may take, and it's the most common:
Although I'm not the most expert in the jungle, ALWAYS check each lane, in between killing each camp. For example:
Jungling Malphite has only one choice of starting item: With the start of season 3, I've tested Malphite in the new jungle and it is the only starting item as jungle Malphite can only take with the removal of Regrowth Pendant. You can also start with Cloth Armor but with a Hunter's Machete you'll have a slightly higher % of health if you need to gank in between but have a slower clear speed. With this new item, I recommend you turning it into a Spirit of the Ancient Golem replacing Randuin's Omen with it and grabbing a Ninja Tabi instead of Mercury's Treads.
Jungling Malphite, as I've mentioned before Malphite can jungle but shines best at top. Similar to top lane, there are pre-requisites that need to be filled in order to be a successful jungler: Out of those three, Malphite fits into speed and sustain because as mentioned Malphite's ganks aren't the most reliable. So choosing Malphite as a jungler would mean that you are confident that your team has a strong laning phase ( Riven) and won't require many ganks. Another thing I'd also take into consideration is whether your mid lane needs blue buff or not, for example: if your mid lane champion is Xerath then I wouldn't recommend picking Malphite as a jungling but if your mid lane champion is Katarina then it's cool to pick Malphite. Why? Malphite may be able to jungle without blue buff because he can just auto attack with his Brutal Strikes passive, but that wouldn't allow Malphite to jungle at his maximum speed and make up for his inability to gank well.
When jungling there is only one route that you may take, and it's the most common:
- Wolves
- Blue buff
- Wraiths
- Golems
- Red buff
Important!
Although I'm not the most expert in the jungle, ALWAYS check each lane, in between killing each camp. For example:
- Kill wolves
- Quick look at mini map and champion health bars
- Kill Wraiths
- Quick look at mini map and champion health bars
- Etc.
- That lane member to feel safe when farming
- The enemy laner to be more cautious backing off the easily edible ally
Your role is a tank. How I've built him. And as a tank there are 2 roles. A tank or a wall, I'll explain these eventually.
When you're against your laning opponent and your jungling buddy comes to gank, most likely they'd expect you to initiate. To initiate, where I'm from, is to purposely "punch on" with your opponent. Most likely, cripple him in some way to make it easier for your jungler to gank because of Malphite's Seismic Shard and Unstoppable Force. Another good thing to know is who is your jungler, this is to decide who gets the kill, if it's someone that could possibly carry a game Darius then give him the kill, but if it's Maokai you're probably better off with the kill.
When you're jungling as Malphite, you will need to slow the enemy champion at the very moment you run in to gank, as it will give time for your Seismic Shard to come off cooldown again if you need to use it again. If you're level 6, initiating with your Unstoppable Force would be better, and slow the enemy when they land. And as mentioned above, think about who gets the kill before jumping in.
When 2 teams are standing off and your Nidalee is making it rain spears and the enemy Dr. Mundo is making it rain cleavers, and you think the enemy team is low enough for your team to kill, there are 2 ways to initiate:
Laning
When you're against your laning opponent and your jungling buddy comes to gank, most likely they'd expect you to initiate. To initiate, where I'm from, is to purposely "punch on" with your opponent. Most likely, cripple him in some way to make it easier for your jungler to gank because of Malphite's Seismic Shard and Unstoppable Force. Another good thing to know is who is your jungler, this is to decide who gets the kill, if it's someone that could possibly carry a game Darius then give him the kill, but if it's Maokai you're probably better off with the kill.
Jungling
When you're jungling as Malphite, you will need to slow the enemy champion at the very moment you run in to gank, as it will give time for your Seismic Shard to come off cooldown again if you need to use it again. If you're level 6, initiating with your Unstoppable Force would be better, and slow the enemy when they land. And as mentioned above, think about who gets the kill before jumping in.
Teamfights
When 2 teams are standing off and your Nidalee is making it rain spears and the enemy Dr. Mundo is making it rain cleavers, and you think the enemy team is low enough for your team to kill, there are 2 ways to initiate:
- The enemy team is out of position and clump up and aren't too far from your team, as I've just stated don't throw them up just because they're all clumped up and Flash and Unstoppable Force, most of the time the range on your Unstoppable Force should be long enough gap closer for your team to start throwing out the big guns, but if it's a Flash and Unstoppable Force you could place yourself out of position and your team unable to make up the distance. If the enemy team are all of these then go Unstoppable Force, your goal is to hit as many as possible, not just the carry. The more you knockup, the less team contribution the enemy can do.
- The enemy team is too spread out for you to do the first option, but the enemy team is low to the point where you think they're going to all back off and heal up, then you sprint at them and if they decide to fight, use your Brutal Strikes. During the fight keep an eye out for people that clump up together, aim for a minimum of 3 people. After you've used your Unstoppable Force, there is once again 2 more choices. You play either aggressive sprinting at the carry and force him to attack you or you play wall and making it hard for the other team to get to your carry, it's probably smarter to look at both team's carry and see which is more worth it.
Well this guide has been sitting here for a long time now and I recently stumbled across it again and decided to finish it since I've got so much time to spare these days. Hope this helps any Malphite players out there, but even after publishing it I feel as if I've forgotten to add something but I'm sure it'll come to me someday. If there's any errors you guys may spot, please report them to me and if there's any question about my guide, build, grammar, anything! Then just say it, I don't bite. And thanks for giving up time to read my guide if you did!
Would like to thank jhoijhoi for her "how to make a guide" guide.
I would also like to thank "totallynotn00b" Lb's guide which I took a similar format to his skill chapter which I think he changed and I don't know who's Rumble guide which I took the items format from and used it for my summoner spells!
Would like to thank jhoijhoi for her "how to make a guide" guide.
I would also like to thank "totallynotn00b" Lb's guide which I took a similar format to his skill chapter which I think he changed and I don't know who's Rumble guide which I took the items format from and used it for my summoner spells!
26/11/12 - Looked over and changed a few of the texts. Also changed the "items" format because I didn't like how it first looked. Completely removed: Banshee's Veil, Quicksilver Sash, completely removed AD and AP Malphite choices. Added a note in "Jungling".
7/12/2012 - Not too long after season 3, it's still too early to say so another change will come soon. Chapters changed are jungle and masteries, soon to come are items. Too tired right now.
8/12/2012 - Quick update to the rune name changes.
14/12/2012 - Finally all up to date with season 3! Changed the recommended items, changed the sample builds, small update to the wards section.
01/03/2013 - Did a quick check on everything, fixed the little errors and changed some wording along with some outdated info, minor item updates and all the images should be up and running.
7/12/2012 - Not too long after season 3, it's still too early to say so another change will come soon. Chapters changed are jungle and masteries, soon to come are items. Too tired right now.
8/12/2012 - Quick update to the rune name changes.
14/12/2012 - Finally all up to date with season 3! Changed the recommended items, changed the sample builds, small update to the wards section.
01/03/2013 - Did a quick check on everything, fixed the little errors and changed some wording along with some outdated info, minor item updates and all the images should be up and running.
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