Just a straight up way I think Malphite should be built for surviving and keeping his damage up for trades in top lane.

I only put these runes for people who are just starting to play Malphite and don't know whether they want to jungle or lane with him. With these runes, you can pretty much do both but it's more suitable for jungling.

The mana regen per level runes are only there if you're having a hard time conserving your mana like a ****** and don't wanna buy a chalice for early laning phase.

Build includes Malphite's standard items:
Frozen Heart, Shurelya's, Randuin's etc.

The piece by piece **** is to help people start building situationally. The double cloth armor is something you should actually pick up if you're laning against an ad top. If you're going against ap but are still farming effectively from some miracle, buy 1 cloth armor and 1 null-magic mantle instead. The 2nd cloth armor or the magic mantle will eventually be built into boots (2nd cloth = tabis and magic mantle = Merc Treads).
The chain vest is to negate an ad's damage and keep your damage piling with your e. So even if you're up against an ap, chain vest will help you still trade efficiently.
You won't always want to get Merc Treads, but you usually will. If you think you can snowball and don't need the Tenacity it provides, then feel free to buy Ninja Tabis instead.
Pick up the Glacial Shroud next for obvious reasons and buy a Giant's Belt.
Pick up that Warmog's asap so you can build the extra health and negate the burst you'll recieve from ap champs.
Okay usually you'd upgrade your two gp10 items next. This is entirely different lol. Sell the Philo stone first and buy a Thornmail as soon as you can. 100 armor would help your ad negation and your damage output. Plus you'd be able to 1v1 any ad on their team if either you or they get caught somewhere on the map.
Next is Force of Nature of AP champs are a serious problem. If not, upgrade that Heart of Gold into a Randuin's.
Finally grab a Force of Nature and you're all set for anything.

This guide is just how I feel like playing malphite. He kinda counters any ad champ in top lane so that's always good. Turn your lane into a farm lane since he relies heavily on mana with a low mana pool.
In late and end game you'll be able to initiate any fight as long as your team can follow up. Your support can handle using Shurelya's for your team and you can stack all that attack speed slow once you ult. Ult --> Randuin's --> E --> single out someone with pancakes.
Btw, I don't give a **** if you got **** to say about my build so feel free to judge. Prolly won't even check it lol. That's it I guess..