Malphite Build Guide by PsiGuard

Introduction

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the awesome banner!

Hi, I'm PsiGuard and welcome to my Malphite guide. I've been playing League of Legends since November 2010 in Season 1, initially with my level 30 brothers in premade normal games, but now typically with my friends from Mobafire when I'm not soloqueueing. I began my ranked journey in Season 2 maining Lux and Kennen, but later switched to main jungle since a lot of my friends played mid. I reached gold near the end of Season 2 and shortly into Season 3 rose to a new top elo of 1823. This season I've reached a top ranking of Platinum I maining jungle.

Despite maining jungle, Malphite is still one of my favorite champions in the game. I find him immensely fun to play, rewarding when used well and one of the most dangerous picks in the game, regardless of lane matchup. He is definitely my favorite and most consistent top laner and I have been able to stand up to platinum and diamond top laners and still win (or sometimes just stalemate) the lane. While there are better Malphite players than me and definitely some better top laners out there, this guide should be able to get you pretty far in your top lane Malphite play.


Malphite is one of the quintessential tanks of League of Legends. His kit rewards and synergizes with defensive items and his abilities serve to initiate team fights and disrupt the enemy team while remaining in the fray. In laning phase, Malphite has a ranged harass ability, Seismic Shard, which allows him to poke, chase, escape and even last-hit from range as long as he has the mana to do so. Ground Slam is a very effective tool for trading with enemy AD champions, especially those reliant on attack speed, and can push minion waves rather quickly. Malphite's passive, Granite Shield, allows him to take a lot of punishment in lane without being forced to recall or killed. After he reaches level 6, Malphite gains some 1v1 kill potential, but becomes an amazing asset with an allied jungler gank. Unstoppable Force is one of the most powerful CC abilities in the game and can set up some very easy kills with the help of a jungler.

Later in the game, Malphite serves the classic tank and initiator role. By this time he will have several defensive items that allow him to deal respectable damage and absorb a lot more. He can initiate a fight with Unstoppable Force

Legend

(for any abbreviations you don't understand)

Masteries

This setup is designed to give you a ton of defensive stats to strengthen your trading ability in lane and prepare you for your late game tanking role. It's worth noting that all of the defensive masteries increase the potency of Granite Shield as well, giving you a very useful tool for withstanding harass early game, and allowing you to tank effectively later on.

Summoner's Wrath is taken for the bonus 5 AD and AP when Ignite is on cooldown, which actually makes a pretty big difference since it'll improve the damage on your Seismic Shard, Unstoppable Force and autoattacks when going for a kill.

Hardiness , Durability and Veteran's Scars all improve your early game durability, making you more resistant to damage in lane. They also have a pretty big impact on the effectiveness of your Granite Shield.

Feel free to take Relentless or Tenacious if either mastery is very strong against the enemy top laner or team comp, but most of the time these masteries won't be necessary on a tank since the enemy team won't be able to waste much CC on you without taking free damage from your carries. Good Hands is also a decent option if that's your preference.

This is a slightly altered setup to use when taking Teleport instead of Ignite. Since you'll be going for more map presence than lane dominance, Mastermind is a great pickup to lower the cooldown of Teleport and Flash. This will get your Teleport up more often so you can gank other lanes in laning phase, make plays for dragon and split-push late game. Since Summoner's Wrath won't be necessary, we can put that point into Defender for some more resistances in bigger skirmishes, which also works nicely with your team-oriented focus.

Runes

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Even though Malphite is a tank, he needs his spells to do some damage if you want to compete in lane. These marks will give your spells a surprising punch when harassing, trading or bursting down opponents.

Greater Seal of Armor: Cheap, good on any champion, flat armor seals have special synergy with Granite Shield and Ground Slam. Since you will always encounter physical damage in the form of minion aggro, tower shots, autoattacks and often physical damage abilities, you should be using these pretty much all the time.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These glyphs work well in a lot of matchups and scale quite nicely into late game. If you're not against a champion with a lot of early game magic damage, you should be able to get away with scaling runes. Generally you'll want the scaling ones since they allow you to build health and armor items without needing to sink much gold into MR. Some magic damage top laners don't have much damage before level 6 (like Akali), so you can usually afford to use scaling runes in such matchups since they'll almost have caught up to the flat ones by the time you face serious magic damage.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: These are the safest glyphs you can use and are very strong against champions with a lot of early magic damage. Usually this means AP tops, though you may want to use them against other champions who deal magic damage with their abilities such as Poppy or Singed. If you're not sure who the enemy top laner will be, but one of the candidates deals a lot of magic damage, stick with these glyphs to be safe.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Movement speed allows Malphite to effectively stick to a target when trading. Often your enemy will try to kite or retreat while Ground Slam's debuff is in effect, so the extra speed can help you keep up while you hammer him with autoattacks. You can use the MS bonus in tandem with Seismic Shard to chase or escape more effectively. Also nice for dodging skillshots and general mobility.

Greater Quintessence of Armor: You can opt to sacrifice the utility of MS quints in favor of more durability, especially early game. These quints combined with a Cloth Armor start give you a huge amount of early game armor, which is really effective for shutting down strong AD laners like Riven and Xin Zhao.

Summoner Spells

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Flash: I wouldn't play Malphite without this spell. In laning phase, Flash can get you out of tight spots, especially jungler ganks. Often having Flash up can make the difference between an escape and a death. You can also use it offensively to secure kills, especially if your target uses Flash in an escape attempt. Late game, Flash will be useful for long range initiations, using it just before Unstoppable Force. It's also nice to have it available in case you need to blink over a wall to safety if you're caught.

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Ignite: This spell is the key to a strong laning phase. It is the spell that will give you the most kill potential, especially when combined with a jungler gank. Adding ~150 true damage on top of your burst and autoattacks gives Malphite some much needed lane presence. If you plan on winning your lane, this is the spell you're going to want to go with.

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Teleport: This is a great tool for early game ganks and dragon control as well as late game split-pushing. Since you'll be missing Ignite, your laning will be a lot less threatening than normal, so you better be sure to make good use of the spell. If Teleport ends up causing some kills and dragons to happen, it can be worth it. If you're going to spend more time in lane farming and fighting your lane opponent, take Ignite instead. Also make sure to get Enchantment: Distortion and Mastermind for the huge reduction on the cooldown if you do take this spell.

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Abilities

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Granite Shield (passive): Malphite's passive is actually one of the best in the game in my opinion. If you use it correctly, you become immune to all but the most aggressive harass. It's like a health pot on a 10 second cooldown early game, and late game it gives you a free shield to absorb pokes or tank towers. Since Malphite usually builds tank, your passive will get stronger the more items you build.

• Granite Shield scales with health, armor, and magic resist. Survivability items will improve its effectiveness.
• Early game, Granite Shield will protect you from harass and minion aggro; late game, it can tank repeated tower hits after you've built some armor.
• If you're hit by harass, try to avoid damage for the next few seconds until your passive recharges.

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Seismic Shard (Q): A poke, a slow, and a haste, Seismic Shard is Malphite's all-purpose tool. It deals a lot more damage than a tank should be able to deal, and is the perfect ability for chases and escapes. Since it's targeted, it's impossible to dodge and difficult to recover from. This ability combined with Granite Shield makes Malphite a mean harasser in lane. Late game it can be used often for CC and initiation if you don't have your ult.

• Seismic Shard is a very effective counter-harass. Fire one at your opponent when they step forward to harass you and Granite Shield will earn you a small victory.
• Seismic Shard is a strong chasing tool. Use it to slow your opponent and walk up for a Ground Slam. It's also a helpful tool to use when your jungler ganks.
• You can use Seismic Shard to escape enemies. Hit a foe when you're fleeing, and your speed will be boosted while they are slowed.
• Seismic Shard steals a percentage of the target's movement speed, so hitting a fast enemy like Rammus with Powerball will give you a huge speed boost.

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Brutal Strikes (W): This is a respectable steroid. It's simplest use is pushing towers (or even backdooring), but it can also be used at the start of fights for more damage and durability. Don't underestimate this ability, and feel free to use it whenever you enter a fight or push a tower. Its mana cost and cooldown are pretty low.

• Activate Brutal Strikes before using Ground Slam to boost your armor, and therefore the damage of Ground Slam.
• Brutal Strikes only costs 50 mana at level one. Don't be afraid to use it if you're expecting some physical damage to come your way.
• Brutal Strikes works great for pushing or diving towers. Activate it when you take tower aggro to raise your armor and AD.
• Activate Brutal Strikes just after using Unstoppable Force to initiate a fight. This will let you tank better, improve your Ground Slam, and let you do heavy damage with your auto attacks.

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Ground Slam (E): This AoE spell is great for farming, but also acts like a Frozen Heart on a short cooldown. It's a hard counter to AD champions, and a pain in the neck for melee DPS. Constantly using this ability in fights will send the enemy carries running, hurt and crippled, while your team mates clean them up. You can also use this spell early game to counter any melee harassment.

• Ground Slam scales with armor, so it will start hurting after you get Sunfire Cape.
• Ground Slam isn't just a damage ability, it slows nearby enemy attack speeds. Use Ground Slam in conjunction with items like Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart to severely cripple enemy attack speed champions.
• Using Ground Slam with the passive from Brutal Strikes will allow you to farm creeps and push lanes quite quickly.
• Ground Slam leaves an imprint of the Riot Games Fist on the ground.

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Unstoppable Force (R): Undoubtedly Malphite's strongest ability, and one of the best initiators in the game, Unstoppable Force dashes quite far to knock up and damage enemies at a target location. Use this ability to initiate team fights, ganks and tower dives. Once you hit level 6, your zone will get a lot larger in lane because of this ability. If you keep your enemy low, you can completely starve them of farm and/or suddenly charge them and pick up the kill, even under the tower if you like. Having Flash off cooldown will effectively double your zone.

• The knockup component of Unstoppable Force isn't reduced by tenacity.
• Since Unstoppable Force is both a dash and a heavy CC, it's great for initiating ganks or team fights. Wait for enemies to group together for maximum effect.
• Unstoppable Force can be used to turn the tables on Jarvan IV when he uses Cataclysm. It's also great for interrupting channelled abilities like Death Lotus, Crowstorm, Absolute Zero and Requiem.
• Don't use your ultimate too hastily in lane. If you can, save the cooldown for when your target uses an escape spell like Flash, then use Unstoppable Force to follow them.
• Unstoppable Force can be used to dash through walls. Use it to surprise an enemy in the jungle, or interrupt a team trying to take dragon or baron. In an emergency, you can also use it to dash away from enemies, though try not to rely on this too often.

Skill Sequence

The order in which you should level up Malphite's abilities really depends on the matchup. In general, there are two main skill orders you should follow. Unstoppable Force is always first priority because it's the strongest skill in Malphite's arsenal and provides a lot of burst damage. Brutal Strikes has the lowest early game benefit and works best when you have armor items already, so it's prioritized last.

This sequence offers a strong poke and high mobility harass. It works great against champions with low health sustain, especially ranged champions. Seismic Shard will allow you to harass your opponent as long as you have mana, allowing you to zone them from farming without unintentionally pushing the lane. If you have an early game advantage in your matchup, you can even use the high % slow to followup with a Ground Slam and some autoattacks.



This sequence prioritizes Ground Slam over Seismic Shard. You'll want to use this against champions that are going to be in your face a lot. High levels of Ground Slam will allow you to win trades with most melee champions that rely on autoattacks to deal damage. Your ranged poke will be rather weak, but against a champion like Tryndamere, you can zone him from farming without needing the ranged harass. Seismic Shard still serves as a mild slow/haste, but won't be very potent until mid game. This is also a great skill sequence against strong pushers, since you can use Ground Slam to quickly clear minions before they hit your tower.

Itemization

Crystalline Flask gives you a nice mix of health and mana sustain that refreshes upon returning to base, making it a very cost-efficient sustain tool in easy to moderate matchups. You can choose to limit your sustain by buying a Sight Ward in order to avoid early ganks, or you can go for three Health Potions for higher sustain, perhaps against a jungler with weaker early game ganks like Malphite.

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If your opponent deals almost entirely physical damage and can be shut down with a lot of early armor, Cloth Armor might be a good option for a starting item. 15 extra armor combined with 5 Health Potions gives you a ton of effective health for early laning. This start is really strong against powerful early game AD laners like Xin Zhao, Riven and Fiora. You can build the Cloth Armor straight into a Warden's Mail or Ninja Tabi pretty quickly, so it won't go to waste.

Doran's Shield is a great counter to autoattackers since it blocks 6 damage from autoattacks as well as giving health, armor and sustain -- all good stats for laning against strong AD champions. Since the passive is UNIQUE, stacking it isn't a good idea, but getting one early can really help your early game if you're taking a lot of autoattack damage.

Chalice of Harmony is a nice item if you're against a champion with a lot of magic damage, generally an AP top. It's pretty cheap to build and gives you some MR and a lot of mana sustain for its price. It also allows you to build two Null-Magic Mantles early if you're having trouble in lane, building one into Mercury's Treads and the other into Chalice of Harmony.

Doran's Ring is a pretty good early game item to give you some more lane pressure, particularly against tank or AP opponents for which you need a lot of poke to compete with. You can pair one or two of these with a Chalice of Harmony for a lot of mana sustain and some AP for your Seismic Shard. If you don't need to buy Doran's Ring, then don't blow money on it, but if you need a quick edge in your lane, this can be a good place to get it.

Ninja Tabi are fairly standard boots on Malphite (at least in ranked or normal draft) since you'll generally be laning against an AD top. The early armor and autoattack damage reduction is very strong against physical damage dealers, especially autoattackers. Since these boots are quite cheap compared to most others, you can finish them rather quickly.

Mercury's Treads are great on a lot of melee champions due to their tendency to be CC'd and kited. These are good boots if you're laning against a top laner with mixed damage, strong magic damage and/or some kind of CC that can make your life difficult. Generally you'll use these to combat magic damage from AP top laners or magic damage tanks like Singed.

Sorcerer's Shoes are your aggressive option. If you really don't need the defensive stats from the other two boot options, you can get some magic pen to increase the damage output from your abilities and items like Sunfire Cape. Generally these are used to dominate easy matchups wherein you can afford to build magic pen instead of early durability. You can also consider them against AP top laners with little to no CC, as long as you can do without the magic resistance from Mercury's Treads.

Enchantment: Distortion is my preferred enchantment whenever I take Teleport and Flash. It significantly reduces the cooldown of both of these spells, dropping their down-time by 25% (75 seconds). That means your Teleport will be up more often to gank or join team fights and your Flash will be up more often for initiation or escapes. Some people like to run Enchantment: Homeguard so you can Teleport from base with increased movement speed, but I find that 25% CDR on both summoner spells outweighs that situational use. Not to mention that a lot of the time you'll be using Teleport to join team fights while you're laning or split-pushing, not when you're sitting at base.

Enchantment: Homeguard is a good enchantment on every champion, though it's only great in specific situations. If your team has lost a lot of towers and you're fighting close to your base, it can help you heal and get back to the action more quickly before you lose a tower or a team fight. I find it's generally more of an impulse buy than anything I'd plan for. If there isn't much action around your base, I wouldn't bother with this enchantment until your inventory is full.

Sunfire Cape is an item I get almost every game, quite often as my first complete item. The mix of health and armor gives you a nice blend of survivability while the aura gives you stronger pushing power and more damage in fights. In team fights, you generally will take a long time to actually die, even while you're standing amid five enemy champions. As a strong tank, you can get a lot of worth out of the Sunfire Cape aura both in terms of durability and damage. It's also pretty handy in a duel since you can mitigate a lot of damage from your opponent while your damage aura wears them down.

Iceborn Gauntlet gives a perfect mix of stats for an aggressive Malphite. Mana allows you to cast more spells, CDR lets you cast them more often, armor makes you durable and fuels Ground Slam, AP fuels Seismic Shard and Unstoppable Force and the passive gives you stronger AoE damage and some followup CC after you use your ultimate. It's a great item on Malphite and I tend to buy it at some point if I can afford to. Since it doesn't give as much armor as other items and otherwise has no defensive benefits, don't buy this if you're behind and need as much survivability as possible.

Randuin's Omen gives you an extra CC to use after initiation, opening up a wide window for your team to follow up before your opponents recover. It also creates a major issue for enemy autoattackers since focusing you will further lower their DPS and even slow them. Sometimes the passive slow can actually cause the enemy AD carry to lose their positioning since their movespeed drops as they try to DPS you. It's currently the most effective defensive item against physical damage, especially Blade of the Ruined King users, so you'll usually want to build it at some point unless the enemy AD carry is weak.

Warmog's Armor offers a lot of balanced survivability that will defend you against all damage types. Health is also the only defense against true damage nukes such as Reckless Swing and Feast. It's generally not an item I recommend rushing anymore since it has an obvious build path during which your opponent can build Blade of the Ruined King, however it does offer a good mid-late game health boost once you have a couple armor items. It also gives you some good health regen to sustain you between fights, especially against poke comps that will try to wear down your health rather than engage directly.

Thornmail is actually pretty weak as a defensive item, but for Malphite it offers a ton of cheap damage through its passive damage return and significant armor boost. It'll increase Ground Slam's damage by 30 points, or 42 if you use Brutal Strikes first. Since AD carries deal monstrous amounts of damage late game, a late Thornmail will reflect a lot of damage back on them, making it a surprisingly effective late game item.

Abyssal Scepter gives you AP for Seismic Shard and Unstoppable Force while also providing you with some useful MR and an MR reduction aura, which is both supportive for your magic-using allies and helps you deal a bit more damage with your spells, especially against squishy enemies (like carries) who don't have much MR in their builds. It's a good option to get relatively early if you're laning against an AP top, though you should try to finish Sunfire Cape first if possible. The MR reduction aura will also work nicely with Sunfire's damage aura.

Spirit Visage is a great MR item with a lot of CDR, though it's not usually necessary unless you're against heavy magic damage such as Ryze mid and Elise top. I prefer Abyssal Scepter over this item since Abyssal gives strong offensive stats while Spirit Visage's self-healing buff is mostly wasted. It can be nice after you've finished Warmog's Armor, but otherwise it's pretty much useless. Since it does give a ton of CDR it's still a great MR option if you need a second Negatron Cloak item, but you should look to build Iceborn Gauntlet instead if you can get away with it.

Runic Bulwark is an incredible item, especially against magic damage, but since it's pretty cheap and team-oriented, you'll usually see it on junglers and supports. If your jungler and support aren't building it, you might want to pick it up in mid-game, especially against teams with a lot of magical AoE damage. 25 MR for your teammates may not seem all that useful, but overall it gives 145 MR (spread among you and your teammates) if you're within range of your whole team. Since the aura doesn't stack and it doesn't help Malphite very much, you generally won't need to build it unless no one else on your team is building it.

Frozen Heart isn't quite as necessary anymore since Iceborn Gauntlet provides very similar stats, but it's still a defensive alternative if you need the AS reduction aura and additional armor more than the AP and AoE slow. Between Ground Slam, Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart, you can severely debilitate AD-heavy teams. If you need to shut down some strong AD champions who rely on attack speed, consider picking this up.

Athene's Unholy Grail isn't an item I look to build often, but it's worth a mention. Mana sustain, CDR and AP give you strong poke with Seismic Shard as well as getting your Ground Slam and Unstoppable Force off cooldown sooner. It also gives some MR, though not as much as the other MR options. You might want to upgrade Chalice of Harmony later in the game if you want quick access to CDR and MR, though generally I recommend selling the chalice and buying a stronger tank item if you can.

Laning Phase

As a solo top, your job is to get as much gold and experience as possible, zone/kill your opponent and make sure you don't waste too much of your jungler's time. If you manage not to fall behind your lane opponent (in gold and experience), you hold your tower for a reasonable amount of time and you don't force your jungler to babysit you the entire laning phase, you've probably done a decent job. Winning a lane requires more than just careful play though, you have to harass appropriately, fight for a CS advantage and control your opponents decisions as much as possible. Malphite works great as a counterpick to a lot of AD laners, so abusing that advantage is often key to putting your team in a good spot for mid game.


Use Seismic Shard to harass your opponent from a distance. A lot of laners can't actually trade back since they'll be slowed and many lack ranged abilities with which to counter-harass. When your opponent closes to melee range, hit them back with your Q and Ground Slam if they're close enough. Usually you can get away with throwing a few autoattacks in afterwards since their attack speed will be slowed, but make sure you don't take too much minion aggro doing so. After a (hopefully successful) trade, play a little passively and farm for a few seconds until your Q, E and passive refresh. Make sure you choose appropriate times to trade and don't miss CS because of your aggression (or if you do miss some last-hits, make sure your opponent misses a lot more).


Zoning is an important skill to learn for any laner, especially if you want to actually create an advantage top lane. You can zone your opponent from the minion wave by first harassing them to a point where they don't want to engage you directly, then positioning yourself between them and your dying minions. If you've been harassing well, simply using your presence, keeping up your farm and occasionally throwing out a Seismic Shard can really compound any small advantage you've created.

Wave control is also a key element of laning and often separates decent laners with annoyingly strong ones. Getting a feel for the flow of the minion wave and how to manipulate it can create zoning opportunities, keep you safe from ganks and allow you to apply pressure to the lane at appropriate times. Generally you want to "freeze" the minion wave just out of range of your tower, which gives you the easiest access to farm with the quickest escape route while your opponent will be extending to CS, leaving them more vulnerable to ganks from your jungler. When you kill your opponent, you force them out of lane or you don't fear a gank from their jungler and you want to apply some pressure, push the lane to their tower quickly. The tower killing your minions will make it more difficult for your opponent to CS and will usually reduce their inclination to attempt any trades or harass. Be careful when you do so, since it gives the enemy a chance to freeze the lane at their tower. Usually recalling after a successful push isn't a bad idea since by the time you get back to lane, your opponent will have pushed the wave back to a more workable position.

Ways to push your lane:

1. Aoe clears (In Malphite's case, this means Ground Slam.)
2. Autoattacking enemy champion (This draws aggro to you instead of your allied minions. Using spells to harass, however, will not draw aggro.)
3. Intercepting minion wave (Also draws minion aggro. You may want to do this to prevent the wave from hitting your tower.)
4. Wave hits your tower (The tower pushes back the wave by clearing it quickly than if you were last-hitting.)
5. Autoattacking repeatedly between last-hits (This is the least mana intensive way to push your lane.)
6. Last-hitting without interference (This is more of a subtle one that some people miss. Last-hitting a wave of minions pushes it very slowly. If you are farming and your opponent is not, you will start to push towards them.)

Keep these factors in mind when attempting to freeze your lane or push it rapidly. Usually whenever you trade with your lane opponent, the wave will start to push in one direction or the other. You can use your positioning to force your opponent to push if they are forced to use AoE abilities around minions to trade, but keep in mind that they may do the same to you.


Warding is the best way to foresee and escape ganks from the enemy jungler or mid laner. In laning phase, there are only a few warding spots you'll need to worry about. Typically there are three routes that the enemy jungler or mid laner can take to get to you unless they have a long range teleport/jump/dash ability like Paranoia, Destiny or Grand Skyfall.

1. Direct river gank: This route can be covered by warding close to blue team's ramp up to blue buff. If the enemy jungler has a dash ability that can scale the wall, you may want to move the ward a little close to your lane to make sure he can't slip past it.

2. Tribush gank: While often this kind of gank also comes from the river, sometimes the enemy jungler or mid laner will come through red/purple team's jungle behind baron pit. This gank is more common if you are on blue team since the tribush is directly accessible from red/purple team's jungle. It's still dangerous if you're on red/purple team though, since the jungler may take the time to go all the way around through your own jungle to get behind you. Warding inside the tri-bush is the best way to avoid these ganks, though if you're on red/purple team you might be okay with a just a ward by the entrance to blue team's blue buff jungle as long as your mid or jungler has your team's wraith camp warded so the enemy jungler
or mid laner can't sneak into your jungle through there.

3. Lane gank: This is often the most difficult gank to pull off, but it can be very effective since the side brush in top lane is not often warded. To execute this kind of gank, your lane opponent will usually push the wave to your tower while his jungler sneaks from his lane into the side brush at the edge of the map. When the wave resets, your lane opponent will often try to bait you into blowing cooldowns in a trade near the brush, then the jungler will jump out for an easy 2v1 kill. Avoiding this gank can be difficult since the only sure-fire ways to prevent it are to keep the far lane brush warded (which costs you gold) or to keep your lane pushed beyond that point (which costs you lane presence). Sometimes you can "smell" a lane gank if your lane opponent starts behaving more boldly or tries to bait you into moving towards the lane brush, especially if he pushed to your tower recently.

Note: Beware of stealth champions like Evelynn. She can bypass your Sight Wards without being seen, so you'll have to invest in Vision Wards to ensure you don't get ganked unexpectedly.


When your jungler is trying to gank your lane, the worst thing you can do is telegraph your intentions. Telegraphing a gank is when the laner unintentionally signals to his opponent that the jungler is nearby through a sudden change in playstyle. Usually this manifests in the form of reckless aggression whenever the allied jungler is set to gank. When accepting a gank, first inform your jungler of the enemy ward placement if you've been paying attention to where your opponent has placed wards (or if they placed any at all). If your jungler seems to be in position unseen, either bait an engage from your lane opponent (careful of telegraphing), initiate with Unstoppable Force or signal your jungler to engage first if they have some CC to start with (usually an Exhaust, red buff or stun spell will do). Don't be afraid of tower diving with Malphite if you can safely land a kill and get out alive. Remember to use Ignite to finish off a low opponent if they would escape otherwise.

Team fights

Team fights are fairly simple as Malphite. When the enemy overextends or groups up, initiate with Unstoppable Force, catching as many targets as possible and making sure you hit at least one priority target, hopefully the most dangerous carry. Activate Brutal Strikes and use Ground Slam (use Randuin's Omen after this if you have it). Target your team's desired target to focus, often the ranged DPS, and use Seismic Shard to slow them. By this point, the enemy team will have taken a fair amount of damage from your burst and will have hopefully blown a few important spells on you. While you're tanking their initial focus and dealing an annoying amount of damage, your team will rush in, your AP will burst down one of their carries while your AD will be hammering at anything close to him. In a long team fight, try to protect your carries by blocking CC and skillshots, while debuffing the enemies with your abilities and items. Make sure you're autoattacking since it actually contributes a lot of damage.

If your team is victorious, use Seismic Shard to slow down any fleeing champions for your team to finish off. Flash in for a last hit if appropriate. Your team can then choose to push, dragon, baron, take buffs, or recall to base and shop. Team fights near the enemy tower usually call for a push, while a victory in the jungle may leave dragon or baron unguarded. Keep an eye on the enemy death timers when deciding which objective to pursue, since they increase throughout the game. If it's still relatively early in the game, the enemy team can be back to fight you again in as little as 30 seconds.

In the event your team is losing the fight, ping the retreat and slow down dangerous champions with Seismic Shard. You can use Flash to escape if necessary, but make sure you don't leave behind your carries if you can still help them. Don't forget to use any item actives like Randuin's Omen, Shurelya's Reverie or Twin Shadows if you have them. If you haven't used your ultimate, USE IT if it will help your carries escape, even if it means dashing back into the fray. The death of a tank is worth the survival of a carry, just make sure you don't suicide if you don't need to.

Closing Statements

Thank you for reading my Malphite guide, I hope that some parts of it prove useful to you. If you appreciated my guide or approve of my build, feel free to hit the Like button up top. Please so leave any comments, questions or suggestions below and I will try to get back to you. I appreciate criticism, as long as it's constructive.

I look forward to reading your comments, and good luck in your future Malphite games!

Special Thanks

Since I got this section started quite late, please don't hesitate to remind me if you've made a significant contribution in the past. I'll make sure to add you here.

I'd like to thank the following people who have made significant contributions to my guide and have helped me to both improve the guide and my own understanding of build mechanics.

throatslasher: For criticism, prompting and straightforward advice that resulted in a major overhaul, including improved builds and the refined itemization section. Also for allowing me to spectate and ask questions about his quite formidable Malphite play. :)

jhoijhoi: For long initial reviews and continued support and criticism over the development of my guide. I'd also like to thank her for her insights into coding and guide aesthetics that have helped to improve the look and organization of all my guides over time.

wRAthoFVuLk: For being my duo queue partner and letting me bounce ideas off of him when refining my builds.

And to all those who made minor contributions to my guide and pointed out mistakes I missed. I really appreciate your help and I'm sorry I can't take the time to thank you all personally.

And finally a thank you to all the voters and Scouts that encouraged me via their support to continue to improve this guide, even when it had a lot more mistakes than it does now. :P