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Malphite Build Guide by Federals1

Top [26.13] Challenger Malphite Top Guide

Top [26.13] Challenger Malphite Top Guide

Updated on June 30, 2026
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Federals1 Build Guide By Federals1 17,565 Views 1 Comments
17,565 Views 1 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Federals1 Malphite Build Guide By Federals1 Updated on June 30, 2026
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Runes: POKE RUNE PAGE

1 2 3 4 5
Sorcery
Arcane Comet
Manaflow Band
Transcendence
Scorch

Resolve
Conditioning
Overgrowth
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2
STANDARD
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Items

SOLID 2/3 CORE ITEM COMBINATIONS

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

[26.13] Challenger Malphite Top Guide

By Federals1

When you click the link it will take you to the matchup spreadsheet for Malphite, with every single possible matchup. The matchup spreadsheets isn't 100% complete yet as I need to place the tips and tricks, but the level up order, runes and summoner spells, matchup difficulty, and build path are all done.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BBUa440Y4nLPsOyLeh7Yz9QrpJoinigGi6VqjO0h4dI/edit?usp=sharing
ABOUT ME/ FUTURE GUIDES

ABOUT ME


On League I go by Federals1, and since 2018 I have hit challenger with at least 900 lp every single season.



I have also hit Challenger on EUW



I was also the number 1 Darius in the world in season 9.



Over the years have gotten top 10/5 on Volibear, Dr. Mundo, Sett, Garen, Malphite, Olaf, Aatrox and Mordekaiser. Most of the time I will play on my main account, so you can check out what I do there.

I will be livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/federals123 , so if you want to check it out and see how it's going be sure to tune in! I will be answering any questions and trying to give my thought process while playing, giving general tips and such. I hope if you end up checking it you will enjoy your time.



FUTURE GUIDES


I will be making more guides in the future, some already being in the works. My goal is to make a guide for every single champion I am extremely confident with, and ones I've been playing for a very long time where I have unique insights to share.
I am currently working on multiple guides but I cannot give an exact date when they will be out. I will post them gradually as I finish them, so if you want to see when they are out for a new champion you can follow and be up to date. To make sure they are done quicker not all of them will them will have a matchup spreadsheet at the start, that alone takes me a week by itself, it's massive.
SIX ACCOUNTS IN CHALLENGER AT ONCE
When season 15 began I decided to challenge myself by going for the most accounts in Challenger at once a single person has ever had, and I have broken that record.

In the picture you can see that I have managed to get six accounts in Challenger AT ONCE, as well as having an extra GrandMaster account at the same time. These accounts are mine and no one else's. It took quite a while, but I am very happy with this acomplishment. I streamed almost the entire climb, and I had a lot of fun! (no like, for real, like legit fun not ironically)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EARLY GAME
In the super early game you are rather weak. There's a lot of matchups that can bully you pretty easily until you get 1 or 2 recalls off to get some items. You aren't very tanky and you just want to sit back and try to farm up. If you are in a matchup where you want to max your Q and poke hard like into a Vayne or Quinn, it's not going to be a huge issue. However, even into these matchups, the first 4 levels or so can be tough to lane. It's not super hard, just respect the damage and power they have. If you survive in those first 4 levels, you're good to go. You can use your Q to slowly poke down the enemy until they die. Before your first recall you will always run out of mana before you kill your opponent, but that's not really an issue. You can recall and get your mana back and then Teleport back to lane. You can also buy an early Tear or Sapphire Crystal to make sure you don't really have mana issues anymore. Vs most squishies that extra bit of mana ensures they always die before you run out mana.

A lot of matchups will go like this: You spam your Q until they die while not interacting with them in any other way really. Not all of them will be like this, but a lot of them will. Malphite is also not as weak as you'd think into magic damage dealers. This might seem sort of strange as he's mostly picked to counter physical damage dealing champions, but he can hold his own vs champions like Akali, Kennen or Gwen. The trick is to rush Kaenic Rookern in these matchups. That item will allow you to not only survive these lanes, but actually BULLY these champions once you get Kaenic . If you happen to lane one of the matchups you hard counter like Tryndamere or Kled, you will devour them. There is close to nothing they can do to beat you, you statcheck them in melee range, you deny them any chance to snowball, and you are usually better in teamfights. Not every AD melee matchup will be like this though, so make sure you adapt your build, level up order and runes for each matchup. Sometimes you need to rush Thornmail, sometimes Frozen Heart is good as a rush item, even an AP item like Malignance might be good to rush in some matchups, always adapt.

However, Malphite can also be counterpicked very easily. For one, any champion that has a ton of sustain will usually beat you. A champion like Nasus can get stacks on his Q very easily because he will outheal your poke. Dr. Mundo is another champion that isn't threatened by Malphite at all. He can scale freely very easily because you never have the damage to kill him. The only thing you can really do is try to roam around the map and get picks with your ultimate . If you don't do that, then he scales completely for free. Sylas is another amazing counter. He can steal your ultimate and use it for himself.

Almost every other tank will beat Malphite, so stuff like Ornn, Maokai, K'Sante, etc. will have a pretty easy time into Malphite. You can't poke them down and they usually win the extended trades, and if they do mixed damage you will need to buy both armor and magic resist if you want to try to win the fights vs them.
MID GAME

PERMANENTLY TEAMFIGHT WITH MALPHITE YOU DO NOT WANT TO SPLIT PUSH LIKE EVER!!


Malphite is NOT a split pusher. He can hit towers but he's rather weak at doing it. What you want to do in the mid game is take the side lane waves and then look to teamfight a lot and also constantly look for picks with your ultimate . This stage of the game is when you are the tankiest by far. Most carries won't have their % armor or magic pen items yet, so you need to abuse this window. The moment they get their % pen your tankiness goes down significantly.

If you happen to fight an enemy that wants to constantly split push like Fiora, Tryndamere, Trundle, etc. push out the side lane first and THEN go to teamfights. If they get to your tower while you try to force a fight they will usually melt it very quickly, so make sure the waves are pushed out before you go. It's not ideal if you need to always deal with a split pusher, but if no one else on your team can do anything about it, you need to go and clear the waves and then move to teamfights.

You will usually be the one that engages fights first. When you pop your ultimate , your team knows it's go time and you need to make sure you don't waste it and use it for the high priority targets. For example, if the enemy Soraka is keeping everyone alive you want to try to get her with your ultimate and not the frontline tank. In the higher ranks a lot of enemies save their Flash or a crucial ability/item to dodge out your ultimate , so what you can do is literally walk up to them to ensure they can't dodge it. I'm being 100% serious by the way. Malphite's ultimate is gonna be cast instantly if you use in in melee range. Normally the enemy can see you dashing to them, but in melee range they have no time to react to it, so they either use the spell/item they've been saving to try to dodge it early, in which case you just wait until the spell/item is cast, or you just use your ult in melee range and they get hit by it ways. No matter what it's a lose-lose situation for them. There's some cases where this isn't exactly possible because you will be perma cc'd by the enemy team, but you are extremely tanky so it's not like you will instantly explode when you try to do this.

You also need to watch out for Edge of Night and Banshee's Veil. These items will give the enemy a spellshield that needs to be popped first before you can drop your ult on them. This means that someone from your team needs to pop those first, but there is an item that can allow you to pop them easily, which is Hextech Rocketbelt. The active of this item gives you a small dash and deals a bit of damage, and the damage that this item does will pop down the spellshields, ensuring you can use your ultimate right after the Rocketbelt active.
LATE GAME
The late game is basically the same as the mid game for Malphite, except you are not as tanky. By this point the enemy carries will have items like Lord Dominik's Regards, Void Staff, Mortal Reminder and other % pen items. All of these items will allow them to do a lot of damage to you. You will still have a decent amount of tankiness, but it's nothing compared to how unkillable you were in the mid game. You still look to start fights with your ultimate ] or get some kind of pick for your team, but there's a chance you need to peel one of your own carries.

If the enemy has a dive champion like Zed, Talon, Zac, Jarvan IV, etc. that wants to look to get onto your main carry quickly and kill them or give his team an angle to engage, you might need to save your ultimate to save that carry instead of using it to engage. When everyone is full build or close to full build, Malphite can take on the role of a more supportive tank that saves his ultimate to save one of his allies. This actually happens more often than you'd think. It is very important to not tunnel vision on their main carry if yours needs help to survive the enemy's engage.
ABILITY TIPS AND TRICKS

GRANITE SHIELD (P)




There's not much to say here, it just allows you to short trade better. You can go in, have your passive block some damage while press your spells, and then you walk away, let your passive regenerate, and then go back in. The one thing that is sort of worth to note here is that your W passive gives you more armor when your passive is on.

SEISMIC SHARD (Q)




This is the main poke tool that Malphite has in lane. It allows you to chunk the enemy while not really putting yourself in danger. It is worth noting that this ability burns a lot of mana early on, so make sure you don't spam it too much in the early game. The rank 1 Q damage is very low, so don't spam the spell until you put at least 2 or 3 points into it. If you don't do this, the damage will be way too low for how much mana you use.

This ability also steals Movement Speed from the enemy, but you can steal even more speed if you wait for the enemy to activate something that speeds them up first. For example, you can wait for a champion like Rammus to activate his Q and then you can use your Q to steal even more speed .

THUNDERCLAP (W)




This ability amps up Malphite's tankiness by a significant amount. Malphite gains a good amount of extra armor from this spell, which is good because the ability itself scales with armor and his E also has an armor scaling. Malphite gains even more armor when his passive is up, allowing him to do more damage and tank up more. This ability also resets Malphite's auto attack timer, allowing you do to an attack and then you can quickly activate W to do another.

When this spell is up do not be afraid to fight champions in melee range. You will deal a surprising amount of damage, especially if you end up maxing this spell first.

GROUND SLAM (E)




This is the spell you use to clear out waves most often. The damage on it is actually pretty good, and the fact that you slow down the Attack Speed of whatever is hit by this is pretty good too. In a teamfight you can use R and then instantly use your E after to do a good amount of damage and to lower the Attack Speed of anyone caught in your ultimate .

UNSTOPPABLE FORCE (R)




This ultimate is an extremely strong spell. The amount of power this gives you is absolutely nuts. You don't need to do anything to set this spell up, this spell IS the setup for almost any other spell. You just press it, and the enemy either reacts to it quickly with a mobility spell or Flash, or they will most likely die. The cast range is very good, and you can use it whenever you want. If you see an isolated target on mid lane, you can use it to catch them very easily.

Most of the time the enemy will be forced to Flash away to survive it, but that's always a good trade for you as the cooldown of your ultimate is much lower than the cooldown of their Flash. Some enemies might even need to buy specific items like Edge of Night or Banshee's so that you need to pop the spellshield first to get the damage+knockup off. You can solo win a teamfight or the game for your team with this one spell if you use it corretly.
ALL FINAL ITEMS EXPLAINED
Thornmail: This is a very good item for Malphite. He will buy a lot of armor and he gets even more armor from his W , so the reflect damage of Thornmail will be very high and he can deal a lot of damage when he gets auto attacked, and this does not even take into account the fact that the item applies a heal cut debuff on the enemy.

Iceborn Gauntlet: This item can be decent to take if you want to duel people more because of the extra Sheen damage you will deal. The slow field also allows you to stick to people even better and slap them in melee range.

Sunfire Cape: This is a decent armor item that you can take but it's honestly nothing special. The burn damage is fine but it's not super high, can be taken if you want more dueling power and a bit more waveclear.

Frozen Heart: The Attack Speed slow this item gives feels great if you combine it with the E Attack Speed slow. It will greatly reduce the amount of auto attacks someone can throw out before dying. You can also rush this item and not worry about going out of mana as much.

Unending Despair: The healing from this item can be decent for Malphite, but you won't get a huge as much health as a Sion or Cho'Gath to heal for an absurd amount, but it can still be fine to take if you want to fight more often.

Randuin's Omen: You take this item vs champions that have a lot of crit such as Yasuo, Tryndamere, Yone etc.

Bandlepipes: This item is only taken if you have very little gold and you're behind but you still want to help out your team in some way, so you can buff them up by giving them more Attack Speed.

Knight's Vow: This item can be taken later on into the game if you wish to peel for a carry of yours by buffing up their tankiness by a bit. It's not a huge increase in tankiness but it can help.

Zeke's Convergence: This item feels very good to take. Every single stat that the item gives is amazing for Malphite, on top of the effect that gets triggered when you use your ultimate and the ultimate Ability Haste that the item gives.

Locket of the Iron Solari: You will only take this item if you wish to give your team a bit of extra tankiness with that Locket shield. It can be especially good vs team comps that have a lot of area of effect damage where the shield can block a ton of damage.

Protoplasm Harness: This can be an incredible item to take later on into the game. The healing you gain increases the more bonus armor and magic resist you have, and Malphite loves buying a huge amount of armor on top of having his W give him even more armor. Your tankiness can spike really hard if you take this as a final item or second to last item.

Dead Man's Plate: The main reason you want to take this item is for the Movement Speed and the slow resist. Both of these stats are very good and it can be taken way more than you think. It is especially good because it allows you to run around the map quicker, and Malphite isn't the fastest character out there.

Jak'Sho, The Protean: This item can allow you to amp up your tankiness quite hard. You can take it as early as your second or third item and it will be pretty good. Malphite will buy a lot of armor so the Jak'Sho passive will get even more value due to it, on top of having his W give him even more armor which will further amp up the power of the item passive.

Kaenic Rookern: This is the best magic resist item in the entire game. If you want to take very little damage from your lane opponent you can rush this item and deny a huge amount of their damage. Malphite also has his passive shield, so if you combine it with the Kaenic shield, a champion like Aurora can use her full combo and barely pop both shields.

Abyssal Mask: This item can be taken to amp up your own damage as well as the magic damage that your team does by a significant amount. This item also has some magic resist, but if you want a bunch of tankiness there are better items for that.

Force of Nature: This item can be pretty good at allowing you to tank up against magic damage dealing enemies, but the real value of the item is the Movement Speed you gain once you fully stack it. The amount of magic resist you get once the item is fully stacked is also good, but if you want an item that just blocks a bunch of magic damage and don't really care about the Movement Speed, then Kaenic Rookern is always better.

Spirit Visage: The item passive increases your passive shield and it can also increase the shield from Kaenic Rookern and the healing from Protoplasm Harness if you take those, but you will only really buy this when you have other enchanters on your team, such as a Soraka, Sona, Karma etc.

Hollow Radiance: This can be a very good item if you want to explode waves extremely quickly when you max your E . You can walk in the middle of the wave, press your E , and then after that almost the entire wave instantly explodes because of the passive of the item. This can ensure the enemy can never get close enough to hit your tower if they are perma split pushing unless it's a cannon minion wave and they have the item Hullbreaker.

Winter's Approach: This can be taken if you start with Tear of the Goddess or buy it early, but you can also just sit on the Tear and not upgrade it and fix a lot of your mana issues.

Mejai's Soulstealer: You can buy this if you play full AP Malphite or you can take it as tank Malphite if you buy an early Dark Seal and get a bunch of early kills.

Zhonya's Hourglass: This can be taken both on AP and tank Malphite. You can use the stasis after you use your ultimate to buy a bit more time for your team to back you up or dodge certain abilities like Karthus ultimate .

Rabadon's Deathcap: This item is only taken if you play full AP Malphite to get a huge amount of extra damage in the mid to late game.

Malignance: This is actually a pretty good item for Malphite. The only real drawback is that it makes you pretty squishy, but the actual passive effect of the item is really good for him, plus having that ultimate Ability Haste feels really nice as well. However, I'd say that if you don't want raw damage but still want ultimate haste , then you can take Zeke's Convergence as a nice alternative.

Void Staff: This item is only taken as full AP Malphite to amp up your damage.

Cryptbloom: This can be taken instead of Void Staff as full AP Malphite to give your team a bit of extra sustain in a fight due to the heal.

Shadowflame: This item is only taken as full AP Malphite and not much else really.

Stormsurge: This item is only taken as AP Malphite and it can do some decent AOE damage in a teamfight if you qucikly kill the person with the Squall effect.

Hextech Rocketbelt: This can be taken both on tank and AP Malphite and you will use it to proc down enemy spellshields. For example, if someone has Edge of Night, you can use the active to damage them and that will proc down the spellshield, allowing you to use your ultimate on them safely, ensuring you don't need to wait for someone else to pop down the spellshield before being able to engage onto someone.

Morellonomicon: This item is taken for the heal reduction effect. Tank Malphite can actually go for this if he needs to apply heal reduction through his damage. If the enemy team has a Vladimir, he won't ever auto attack Malphite to get his healing reduced if Malphite has a Thornmail, so instead he can buy Morellonomicon and ensure that the Vladimir will always have the heal debuff applied.

Banshee's Veil: Solid for the spellshield effect, most of the time you will just buy Verdant Barrier and upgrade it into the full item later on, as you get the spellshield effect just from that component.

Serpent's Fang: This item is only ever taken if there's no one else on your team who can buy shield cut and you absolutely need it to shut down the enemy comp. For example, if the enemy support is Karma and the jungler is Ivern, you will need to buy shield cut if you want to win teamfights. Malphite can actually proc it rather easily because of his R and can also use his E after going in to apply it on people that weren't hit by his ult but were pretty close to where he landed.

Terminus: This one needs some explaining. Malphite's W makes his auto attacks deal bonus physical damage for the duration of the ability. On top of that, when he actually uses his W he can reset his auto attack timer, which allows him to get 2 stacks of the Terminus passive pretty quickly. The actual passive of this item gives him both armor and magic pen, and he can use both damage types, especially because his W damage scales with his armor, so he can end up doing a lot of extra damage when he auto attacks. There is also the fact that the item passive gives him more armor and magic resist, which makes him even tankier and boosts up his damage by a little bit as well. There are some matchups where I actually go for Lethal Tempo, and if I have that keystone rune while taking Terminus as an item, I can get to the max stacks even quicker and attack way more so I end up dealing even more damage. This is a super situational item that you can take, but it is honestly pretty good when you can take it.



Tier 2 boot upgrades:


Boots of Swiftness: These boots can be taken if the enemy team has a lot of slows and you really need that slow resist plus a bit of extra speed , not much else to it really.

Plated Steelcaps: These are the boots you will take most often. There's a lot of AD champions up in the top lane and this item is pretty good vs them. On top of that, Malphite loves to buy a ton of armor so this fits into his build very nicely.

Mercury's Treads: These boots are only taken when you need the tenacity provided by them. The actual magic resist given is really low and it's not worth to buy them just for that.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: These boots can be good if you need a bit of extra Ability Haste and you want to use your ultimate more often. The summoner spell haste is also good but it's nothing special here unless you combine it with the rune Cosmic Insight. Once you do that you can feel the reduction in summoner spell cooldowns.

Sorcerer's Shoes: You can actually take these boots on both tank and full AP Malphite. They are especially good to rush if you want to max Q and constantly poke down an enemy that can't do a whole lot in the early game against you like a Kayle.
ALL POSSIBLE RUNES
KEYSTONE RUNES:

Grasp of the Undying: This is the most standard keystone rune that Malphite has. It gives him a bit more power in the short trades and if you proc it enough times you can get some decent health out of it in the mid to late game.

Arcane Comet: This is the keystone rune you will take if you want to poke out your enemy in lane. When you take this keystone you will most likely max your Q first to make sure you chip them down as quickly as possible and gain a lead that way.

Unsealed Spellbook: You will take this keystone rune if no other keystone rune does much for the matchup at hand. It sounds kind of silly, but it's the best way I can put it. To give you an example, the only real keystone you can take into a champion like Varus is Spellbook , and this is entirely because no other keystone does anything into him. It's just the best option by far because you can at least swap some summoner spells in the mid to late game and gain good value from that.

Lethal Tempo: This seems like a strange keystone to take on Malphite, but it is actually very good in some matchups where you max W first. Malphite W is an auto attack reset, which can allow you to get to the maximum stacks of the rune a bit quicker. On top of that, Malphite's W makes him deal bonus physical damage for a period of time, and this damage is actually significant. You can sit in the melee range of a champion like Tryndamere and completely statcheck him. Tryndamere is already an easy matchup for Malphite, but it can make it to where he straight up dies under his own tower because you attack so much. People will never expect your DPS with this rune.

First Strike: This is a super specific keystone rune I take into matchups where you can hit the enemy, but doing so won't really give you an advantage. If you lane vs a Dr. Mundo he will be able to tank through all of your poke and scale freely so taking Arcane Comet or Grasp won't give you that much. If you want to you can go for Unsealed Spellbook and get some value out of the summoner spell swap, but in this lane you can proc the First Strike effect on cooldown and slowly generate a gold lead. You can also take Cash Back to increase that gold lead even more.



RUNE SLOTS:




Triumph: Very consistent rune that you can take.


Presence of Mind: You can run this to get a bit of extra mana in lane.


Legend: Alacrity: You take this legend rune when you have Lethal Tempo as your keystone.


Legend: Haste: This is generally good to take for the basic Ability Haste you gain, it's not bad.


Cut Down: This keystone can be taken to deal a bit of extra damage when opponents are at higher health totals. It's good if you use your ultimate to start a fight when people are healthier.


Last Stand: This is a rune that can be taken on this tree, but honestly all 3 aren't that great for Malphite.







Taste of Blood: The only real take on that particular tree slot.


Deep Ward: Best one from its respective space generally.


Ultimate Hunter: Malphite loves to have his ultimate up as much as possible and this feels very good to have on him. You can also take Malignance and Zeke's Convergence and have your ultimate up way more.







Axiom Arcanist: This is actually a very good rune for Malphite as he loves to use his ultimate a lot, but the issue is that in this specific slot you can choose between this rune or Manaflow Band, and that rune is extremely important as it makes sure you don't run out of mana as fast.


Manaflow Band: The mana this rune gives is really good as it can allow you to spam your spells way more. It is especially good if you max your Q to make sure you don't run out of mana as fast.


Transcendence: Can be done to get some extra ability haste as you go into the mid and late game.


Celerity: This rune has solid synergy with the Q speedup to give even more speed and make him even quicker.


Scorch: This rune can be taken to do a bit of extra chip damage in lane. It's good if you max your Q first, but there's some lanes where the small chip damage won't really matter, but it can be especially good vs enemies that have lower health regen.


Gathering Storm: You can take this if you want to get some more damage in the mid to late game when you don't really care about the extra chip damage Scorch gives you in lane.







Demolish: Solid rune if you want to take tower plates or split push more, the only issue is that as a Malphite you want to teamfight way more than you want to side lane.


Shield Bash: You can take this to have a bit more trading power in lane.


Conditioning: You can take this for more scaling as you get into the mid game if you don't need Second Wind for lane sustain. The armor given is especially good for Malphite due to the synergy he has with that stat.


Second Wind: Best rune in its respective space for sustaining in the lane.


Bone Plating: Works best against combo based champions such as Sett, Riven or Renekton, but into those I usually just end up going Conditioning anyway because of how good the rune is for Malphite.


Overgrowth: This is a pretty good rune that you can take to get a bit more health in the mid to late game.


Unflinching: This is actually what I normally take as Malphite in this specific rune slot. The armor and magic resist procs up from ANY type of crowd control, and there's a lot of champions that have a slow of some kind or some hard crowd control, and the stats given feel pretty good, but Malphite's W makes it even better. This is because the W gives him more armor, which means that when he gets the Unflinching armor, it will get increased as well due to the W passive.







Magical Footwear: Can feel pretty good to just get free boots, but not groundbreaking. The extra 10 Movement Speed is actually quite good for you because Malphite isn't the quickest champion out there.


Cash Back: I love to take this rune when I go for First Strike as my keystone rune to get even more gold and gain items quicker.


Triple Tonic: This is an okay rune that you can take. The level 3 and 6 potions are fine but the level 9 one is especially good if you put 3 points into your W early and then max your E .


Biscuit Delivery: You can take this if you want to have a bit more lane sustain. It's pretty good if you combine it with Second Wind to get a lot of extra healing in lane.


Cosmic Insight: Generally good rune, the reduction on summoner spells feels pretty good, but you can also combine it with Ionian Boots of Lucidity to gain even more summoner spell haste .


Approach Velocity: I actually really like this rune on Malphite. It feels pretty good to gain that extra speed whenever you run towards someone that you slowed with your Q . It becomes even better to have when you take the item Iceborn Gauntlet because the slow from that item also activates this rune.
PROS
+Really strong against team comps that are full AD or almost full AD
+Can destroy and shut down certain champions in lane and never let them recover
+One of the best ultimates in the entire game, absolutely insane engage tool
+Super tanky in the mid game
+Even when he falls behind he can still be useful to him team due to his kit
+Amazing dive setup
+Very good roam and pick potential
+Powerful short trading if you play around your passive cooldown and don't overforce fights
+Can hold his own in and out of lane against magic damage champions most of the time, just rush Kaenic Rookern
CONS
-His tankiness falls off pretty hard the moment people start getting % armor and magic pen
-Has some HORRIBLE COUNTERS that are impossible for him to beat or outscale
-Cannot hard carry by himself, he needs a team to back him up unless he goes full AP and even then he will still struggle
-Very ultimate reliant in teamfights, he can be ok in them without it but he will be much weaker
-It's tough to surprise your opponents because the champion is rather straight forward
OTHER GUIDES
If you liked this guide, perhaps you would like to check out some of my other ones as well. As I make more guides for more champions this list will be updated to contain all of them. Simply click on the words below the champion portrait and it will take you to the respective guide.


Volibear Top Guide




Mordekaiser Top Guide




Darius Top Guide




Olaf Top Guide




Dr. Mundo Top Guide




Garen top guide




Udyr Top Guide




Warwick Top Guide

UPDATE LOG
Here there will be a list of all the significant changes I am going to make going forward on the guide, so you can look here to see what the newest updates are, or old ones:

Update Log


Season 16

Patch 26.9
6th May 2026:
- removed Phase Rush as a possible rune to take
Patch 26.7
9th April 2026:
- the publish date of the guide
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League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide