This build is meant for a solo top/bot Malphite with intentions to tank for the team, but still remain a conciderable damage threat with primarily magic damage. Malphite works good for this job mainly because of abilities and passive allowing him to build a very tanky build, while still adding up to his damage.

Of course, this build does not counter everything, the amount of armor involved and the addition to Ninja Tabi's make Malphite very durable against enemy AD carries, but often leaves him vulnerable to AP damage.

This build will however make you a durable tank with both great damage, armor and health, focusing on staying alive long enough to be able to smash (literally!) your enemies late game.

x3 Greater Quintessence of Fortune
Armor is good for Malphite, but health also scales extremely well with his passive. This will give you the extra durability you need to survive in a solo lane.
x9 Greater Seal of Resilience
Armor is important for Malphite as it scales well with Brutal Strikes active and Ground Slam's damage. It also gives you additional early survivability.
x9 Greater Mark of Resilience
Same as above, armor scales well with Malphite and there's no reason not to stack this.
x9 Greater Glyph of Shielding
This will help your survivability late game against AP damage, most certainly AoE damage since you won't be focused as much as your teammates. You still are a tank and need to have stats like one!

The mastery build isn't very strange, just make sure to take health, armor and magic resist, then mana and mana regeneration to remain in lane and fights longer.

Personally I grab Summoners Insight and Wrath to empower my Exhaust and Flash.


But two points in Swiftness also works very well.

I've tried a couple different starting items and combinations, but the best one so far has to be Doran's Shield. This has everything a healthy Malphite need to remain durable and fearful.



Boots of Speed must follow and is extremely important for any champion.



Philosophers Stone gives you that sustainability that a solo laner need, with a gold bonus to help you get the more expensive items.




Upgrade your boots to either Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads depending on the enemy team. My recommendation is Ninja Tabi's for more armor.



Heart of Gold should be your next priority, granting health and an additional gold bonus adding to your Philosophers Stone.



Sunfire Cape is the first true item you're getting. Health and armor is om nom nom for Malphite and the damage aura will keep your farming and overall damage in good shape.



Sheen is your source for damage and will increase your damage severely, not only through the extra physical damage, but with ability power and some well-needed mana.



With your bonus gold and solo farm, you should now aim to upgrade your Sheen into Trinity Force. This is the pinnacle of your damage and versatility, giving you pretty much anything you could possibly need except armor.



Now that you're a decent threat and tank, you need to look like a real tank. Upgrading your Heart of Gold into Randuins Omen will fix just that. Health, armor, health regeneration and even a hint of cooldown reduction on top of an amazing active that scales well with your chunk of armor.



Your Philosophers Stone should be upgraded to a Shurelyas Reverie for its bonus health and incredible speed buff. If you haven't gotten Mercury Treads and you find yourself caught in a lot of CC (stuns, disables and slows), then Eleisas Miracle is also an option.




To max out your tanking capabilities, you should now sell your Doran's Shield for a pure tanking item. Guardian Angel's revive may not pay off, but its combined armor and magic resist will not only make you a lot more durable against any damage, but also maximize the duration of Randuins Omen's active.
Warmogs Armor is also an option, increasing that health to enormous amounts to ensure your passive does its job.
Force of Nature or Thornmail are situational items that you should only get when you -know- you will take a lot of AP or AD damage.

Any of these four items work extremely well with Malphite and are all worth giving a try.



Don't be afraid to pick up a potion from time to time, especially Mana Potions since Malphite uses quite a bit of mana. I recommend you don't get potions until after you have your Philosophers Stone.

This order does not neccessarily need to be followed precisely as I tell, depending on the enemies you are up against and sometimes what teammates you have.
What I'm focusing on is Seismic Shard for early game harrass and escape and Ground Slam for late game AoE damage in teamfights, but still keeping them fairly the same rank to keep the versatility.


Granite Shield is Malphites passive and is the reason why he is such a great tank and survivalist. In your lane you can push your limits and have greater chance of survival due to this amazing passive.


- Lvl 1, 4, 5, 9, 13

Seismic Shard has the most base damage of your non-ultimate abilities and is great for not only harrassing, but chasing and escaping. Remember that this ability -steals- the targets movement speed, so your movement speed is increased by the amount your target is slowed.


- Lvl 3, 14, 15, 17, 18

Brutal Strikes grants your basic attacks some AoE splash damage and works well with Sheen. The active part of this ability grants you a bonus percentage to armor and attack damage, again working well with your highly stacked armor. While this ability isn't that powerful early, it will be very helpful in late game, increasing your already high armor to insane amounts. Also notice that the extra armor from this active counts towards extra damage to your Ground Slam.


- Lvl 2, 7, 8, 10, 12

Ground Slam is your short range AoE nuke and is your main damage output late game, additonally reducing the attack speed of enemies hit. Ability power does not affect this ability - armor does instead. Half of your armor is converted into damage to Ground Slam, making this ability dreadfully more dangerous as you stack more armor.


- Lvl 6, 11, 16

Unstoppable Force is Malphites ultimate and wins teamfights if used right, it deals magic damage and stuns enemies in a decently large area. The charge from this ability will get you right on top of your enemies and you should use Brutal Strikes followed by a Ground Slam. This combo deals huge chunks of damage, stuns and reduces enemy attack speed. Not to mention you will be in perfect position to use Randuins Omen. This ultimate should (almost) never be used at a single or even two targets due to it having a huge impact on the bigger fights. Patience and observation will grant you the best opportunity to unleash this ultimate, either to initiate on the enemy or to counter-attack the enemy initiation.

Exhaust is my favorite summoner spell and often follows with my builds and combinations. Try to prioritize using this ability defensively by nullifying enemies with high damage or about to/are using a very deadly ability. Will perhaps help you grab a kill in your lane or escape certain death.



I usually take Ghost, but for initiators I always take Flash. This will help your laning survivability early game and initiate longer distances or through impassable terrain. Initiating is all about doing things first and not letting the enemy have time to react, this ability helps enormously.


I do not recommend any other summoner spell for Malphite. Heal scales poorly late game, which this build disencourage.

In the end, this build is focusing primarily on late game dominance, requiring quite a long time in your lane. If your tower falls, this build will be very shaky and probably won't work as intended. But if you can keep yourself and your tower alive, with a decent jungler you will buy enough time to get the items you need to start bashing skulls open.

Constructive feedback is highly appreciated since this is my first official build.
Have fun!