This build is mainly for fun, but unlike a lot of other fun builds, it's also capable of completely smashing the game! Rock Solid! I got the build ideas from the statistics for Malphite support here.

Apparently it's statistically a bit better to build tanky and take Stoneborn Pact and Relic Shield on Malphite support, but tanking for your team is LAME and killing people is FUN! Nobody expects the insane burst and heavy poke once you get a few levels and items under your (proto)belt.

I've only tested this build a couple of times in some pretty low Elo games, but I absolutely smashed all three games in a row, getting S and S+ scores in all three, and only dying twice. So be careful if you're trying this build out in Diamond, Challenger, and maybe even Plat, but for the rest of us, it should be totally fine to Unstoppably Force yourself onto anyone with low health until they surrender at 15 minutes.

Your job is to get you and your AD Carry fed with your ult combo. Ignite could be that little bit of extra damage that starts the snowball, or just barely finishes off the enemy jungler before they can smite your Baron away.

Exhaust is your other option. There could be a situation for this too, especially if you decide you are going tank, since if you can't kill your enemies instantly, it might be nice for them to do less damage.

Starting Items

Most people go Relic Shield on Malphite support, and it's statistically the better option. But you better not plan on doing any damage at all before level 6, since you will run out of mana incredibly fast and have no way to get it back.

Ancient Coin gives you a percent of your missing mana back, meaning you now have a large enough mana pool to actually kill people without your ult. You still want to avoid doing much before putting a couple of points into your Q, but I was actually able to get a kill level 5 with the help of the mana from Ancient Coin. A very subtle benefit to Ancient Coin is that once you complete the "quest" for the item, your teammates get extra movement speed moving toward you. So if you ult onto an important target, your teammates can follow you up faster.

Also, 3 Health Potions is a bit better than Refillable Potion for surviving the lane early. But if you anticipate that you won't need all 3 before your first back, refillable is the better starting potion.

And take Stealth Ward, of course.

Early Purchases

Upgrading to Nomad's Medallion gives you more CDR, more mana, and more gold. This is the best thing you can get for 500 gold.

Sightstone is situationally important early. If you are snowballing hard and have a ton of lane dominance, you can probably afford to keep and defend some Control Wards rather than going straight for sightstone, and use the extra gold for more damage and utility. But if you're vs an early ganking jungler, you're feeling vulnerable, or laning phase is over and you want to catch some enemies out of position, get sightstone as fast as you possibly can.

Boots can help you get in and out to poke with your Q and take less damage back. It can also help you chase someone down and get into ult range.

Control Wards are super important. They are very versatile, and are prefect for setting up jungler ganks and securing objectives.

Boots and Components

I put the control ward and the sweepers in this category because they're important! Deny the enemy vision so you can jump on them out of nowhere.

Dark Seal is great if you're doing well. It's like a tiny mejai's with less risk, and helps out your potions too. If you've got 350 gold early it's often a worthwhile purchase.

Sorcerer's Shoes are probably the best early damage item, since you have high base damages and mostly low scalings on your abilities. They're also the cheapest The other items are all good, and the amount of gold you back with is probably the primary factor in deciding which to get, since they all build into fine damage items. If you can afford it, a Haunting Guise is probably the best early purchase, since more Magic Pen = more damage to squishy targets like the enemy ADC. If you're having a tough time or vs multiple AD threats, Seeker's Armguard is super efficient, since you get damage for both the armor and the AP portions of the item.

Full Items

Maybe get Talisman of Ascension instead of the Eye item if you've got a super fed teammate you need to get into the fight, but you will want to start with Eye of the Oasis almost all of the time because it is so efficient.

Probably the best items to notice are the Hextech Rocketbelt and the Liandry's Torment. You're getting the Liandry's mainly for the magic pen from Haunting Guise, but the poke is nice too. It would be especially good vs tankier supports for the %health burn. Protobelt gives you an extra AP ratio on the active, but it's fine to leave it at the hextech revolver for a while if you want.

Get Void Staff pronto if you see your priority targets start to build Magic Resist. It's actually a decent item without the MR penetration passive, but the penetration is super important vs targets with MR.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is good, not so much for the slow, since your Q slow is better, but for the health and the AP. It's just a nice, efficient purchase if you need some extra health. Luden's Tempest and Rabadon's Deathcap are somewhat interchangeable. If you buy a Needlessly Large Rod, you've gotta build one of the two eventually.

Mejai's Soulstealer if you're insanely fed and not gonna die. Banshee's Veil and Zhonya's Hourglass if you're the one getting popped.

Lich Bane and Morellonomicon both have a very low win rate statistically. I am not totally sure why, but my guess is that they are both too expensive for the standard support build and/or their components are not useful enough. I will have to do some more testing with these items.

Example Full Build

The example build is just one look at how you could build AP Malphite support in a 6 item game (which is unlikely to happen, but does from time to time). Vary your build based on the game, your teammates and opponents, and how much gold you back with. Getting a strong powerspike from an early buy can make or break the next teamfight and then your build gets changed after that.

Tank Items

The Tank playstyle is somewhat different from the AP Playstyle, but here are some of the best items for it in case you want to try it out. Tank Malphite is focused on enabling and peeling for his team, and needs followup from his teammates to be super effective. However, Tank Malphite still does plenty of damage, and has amazing utility with his ultimate. It's also the statistically superior playstyle, which means it's more consistent in mediocre or bad games.

The list is mostly in chronological order of when the items are purchased, so you can follow it as a vague item guide as well if you're falling behind and need your teammates to carry you.

You always max Q ( Seismic Shard) first, since it's your skill with the most damage and utility besides your ultimate, and it's your main skill to trade with in lane.

In lane, look to walk up when your passive is available and drop a Q on the enemy ADC when they are going for a last hit.

Don't really use this unless you have to until you are level 3 or 5, since damage from the first few levels is not worth the mana cost and you will run OOM quickly.

I'm actually not sure between maxing W ( Brutal Strikes) or E ( Ground Slam) second. According to the stats, W second is the best, and in an extended fight it definitely is. But E max is better burst. The W max is probably mainly for the tanky malphite that can afford to stand on top of the enemy carry and auto them.

Bond of Stone is the optimal mastery on Malphite support, especially pre-level 6, but you know what Bond of Stone does not do? Damage.

So we're going with the second best option, Thunderlord's Decree , to give us a bit of extra burst when we're trying to 100-0 people mid and late game.

We're going with some points in the mana mastery ( Meditation ), because mana is a problem, Bandit , because it's not actually that important if you stay alive after you've already killed someone with your ult so extra money is better. And Bounty Hunter because you're the fed carry in the bot lane and you will be getting a lot of kills. Also, Intelligence because deleting people faster with more ults is more important than doing a bit of extra damage when you get to ult. It's gamechanging enough to make a 2 percentage point difference in the outcome of Malphite support games, so we're taking it.

Any combination of AP, Tankiness, and Magic Penetration is perfectly fine, but I recommended a full Magic Penetration rune page with a bit of health for defense. Because with lowish AP ratios, Magic Penetration on Malphite = kills.

Early game, you need to survive the first couple of levels until your Q starts to deal damage. After that trade with your Q when passive is up and once they get low enough, ult them, press all of your buttons, and kill them. After that, any time you are in lane, you repeat this exact same pattern. Wait for passive, trade with Q, back off. Repeat until they are dead.

Mid/Late game, you need to identify who the threats are on the enemy team and take them out of the fight. If you can't reach them, the second best thing you can do is hit as many people as possible with your ult to do the maximum damage you can before dying, and then hope your team can turn that advantage into a victory.

Strategically, playing AP Malphite is all about knowing when to lead the charge and engage and when to back out and wait. It's not always a good time to ult. You want your ults and kills to lead to enemy objectives taken and eventually a victory in the game.

Another strategic note: Your roams with ultimate are deadly. If you can get to any other lane and ult them, they are almost always totally dead.

Lastly, what is the counter to this strategy? The carries have to buy MR. If you see this happening, buy Void Staff and play more safely. You've actually done your job, forcing the enemy team to spend gold on something that only helps them vs you and maybe your mid laner, giving your ADC and other AD threats an easier time to carry.

Have fun, and blow some squishies up!

So far, I have only updated the runes section for patch 8.10. I'll be working through the rest later.