Welcome to Arcane's - Malphite, Shard of the Monolith. Malphite is a champion that I have found to win the top lane easily against many champions commonly used within the current Meta. A tank adept to poking and initiating team-fights, he is a valuable asset to any team's arsenal of champions. He has a relatively low learning curve which makes him almost a more "pick up and play" champion at the non-ranked level so feel free to just look at the build to get an idea of what you're doing before queuing a match. However I would ask that you read the entire guide before voting.



~I'd like to give a shout out to PsiGuard who's Malphite guide got me interested in this champion in the first place.

~Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

(I didn't have time to make my guide from scratch so I just edited her template)

~Also feel free to check out my Leona Guide

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Pros + Epic poking and kiting + Plenty of survivability to stay in your lane + Great initiation with Unstoppable Force + Good at ganking with his movement speed steal + Awesome passive to absorb poke and turret shots + Basic attacks splash damage with Brutal Strikes

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Cons - Ultimate is his only escape mechanic in kit - Stealth cripples his poking - Weak to true damage - Often suffers from lack of Mana (early on especially) - CC hurts his game quite a bit - Gap closers are very annoying . . .

The thinking process behind the masteries isn't terribly extensive. Basically what we're looking for here is:
1. Survivability - To stay in our lane
2. Mana and Mana Regeneration - To dampen our Mana problems
3. Less time spent dead - To get back to our lane if we die
4. Improve Flash and Teleport - Faster cooldowns and casting times could make all the difference

Our masteries cover everything on the list and should supplement us throughout the game.

• Greater Quintessence of Revival: This combined with our Good Hands mastery should minimize our time spent dead so we can get back to our lane.
  
• Greater Mark of Armor: Extra Armor for survivability against attack damage, the other runes don't cover this so we'll through it in here.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Magic Resistance is important if we want to survive against Ability Power champions, this should do it.
  
• greater seal of Vitality: Excellent survivability in the extra health it gives, tanking damage in the late game is vital.

Flash: Great versatility as an escape mechanic as well as a chasing/initiation tool. Don't just go casting it whenever you feel like it though, it's Malphite's best way to escape a sticky situation.

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Teleport: Use this Summoner Spell to quickly get back to your lane if you need to purchase something/heal. This can also be used aggressively to traverse the map quickly to wards or turrets.

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Ignite: You can take this instead of Teleport to finish off enemies and counter Heal or healing abilities.

• Granite Shield: Malphite is shielded by a layer of rock which absorbs damage up to 10% of his maximum Health. If Malphite has not been hit for 10 seconds, this effect recharges.
  
  ~Absorbs poke and turret shots nicely, good for keeping absorbing damage to keep your health up.
  
• Seismic Shard (Q): Using his primal elemental magic, Malphite sends a shard of the earth through the ground at his foe, dealing damage upon impact and stealing movement speed for 4 seconds.
  Deals 70/120/170/220/270 (+0.6) magic damage and steals 14/17/20/23/26% Movement Speed from the target for 4 seconds.
  
  Cost
  70/75/80/85/90 Mana
  Range
  625
  
  ~ This is going to be your poking ability, notice it steals some of your targets movement speed.
  
• Brutal Strikes (W): Malphite starts to hit with such force that his attacks deal damage to all units in front of him. Activating Brutal Strikes greatly increases his Armor and Attack Damage for a short amount of time.
  Passive: Malphite's basic attacks hit units near his target for 30/38/46/54/62% of his Attack Damage.
  
  Active: Malphite's Armor and Attack Damage increase by 20/25/30/35/40% for 6 seconds.
  
  Cost
  50/55/60/65/70 Mana
  Range
  0
  
  ~ The passive is awesome for farming while the active is great for taking down turrets and finishing a kill if needed.
  
• Ground Slam (E): Malphite slams the ground sending out a shockwave that deals base damage plus half his armor as damage and reduces the attack speed of enemies for 4 seconds.
  Malphite slams the ground dealing 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.3) (+0.2) magic damage to surrounding enemies, reducing their Attack Speed by 30/35/40/45/50% for 3 seconds.
  
  This ability gains damage equal to 30% of Armor.
  
  Cost
  50/55/60/65/70 Mana
  Range
  400
  
  ~ It's a good damage source especially for AoE damage.
  
• ABILITY FOUR (R): Malphite ferociously charges to a location, damaging enemies and knocking them into the air.
  Malphite charges toward the target area, dealing 200/300/400 (+1) magic damage and knocking enemies into the air for 1.5 seconds.
  Cost
  100 Mana
  Range
  1000
  
  ~Probably one of, if not the single best initiations in the game.

• : Minimizing damage in Solo Top is very important and Ninja Tabi will be suitable the majority of the time. Alternate options are Mercury Treads if your up against an AP Champion, or Boots of Swiftness for juking and general mobility.
  
• : If you haven't noticed already Malphite is very mana hungry to keep his poke coming. Frozen Heart will provide you with extra mana and armor to help you stay in the lane longer so you won't lose any of your precious towers.
  
• : Just more survivability to make you unstoppable.
  
• : You can choose between this and Banshee's Veil but Force of Nature has more general magic resistance and health regeneration. You can also switch around this and Frozen Heart but you'll probably have mana problems.
  
• : What can I say? Even more survivability but with the addition of 20 attack damage and a slow. If you want this would be good to switch around with Warmog's Armor for more early damage.
  
• : How could Malphite get more tanky you ask? Simple, we throw on this baby to add magic resistance, armor, and an awesome unique passive to keep us alive throughout the fight.

Farming is relatively simple and doesn't require too much thinking. Just try to last hit the enemy minions and keep it going until you want to push or have to break off to poke or commit to a fight. To make farming quicker your Brutal Strikes will splash damage onto other enemies; you can also activate it and use Ground Slam to push the lane.

As for jungling I don't really recommend it for Malphite as there are far better options. However if your dead set on jungling with him there are other guides for it.

Considering we basically just built survivability it shouldn't come to you as a surprise that Malphite's job is to tank. He should almost always be the first one to enter the fight and try to get some damage done on the enemy ad carry early while absorbing a lot of abilities. I can't stress enough how important your Unstoppable Force is in teamfights though, it could literally be the difference between winning and losing. Just make sure your team is right behind you or the advantage is pretty much lost and your probably dead.

Well, there isn't really anything more to talk about so I guess that's by guide to Malphite, Shard or the Monolith. I wish you all success =].

~The Arcane One

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

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