Deep impact, that’s the only way I can describe this. Your abilities will reach deep underneath your opponents pores, and much more.

Awaken the giant, pull him from his slumber and ruin his home. The positive of this passive mountain is he’s not here to hurt you, but worsen your current state of affairs. Malphite will be felt on the map, literally, impacting it and morphing it in several ways.

DANGER ZONE

Please give this guy a read, I couldn’t figure out any ability names without him. https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/7h4zpq/malphite_rework_idea/

The last ability is a quote from The Iron Giant.

My thoughts on feelings A heavy impact on every single one of Malphite's abilities. If I was going to dare take away from that prized ult of his, I had to reassure the satisfaction is still there and doubled from any of his old abilities. This one hits closer to home, or should I say inspired from his lore. I wanted to welcome Malphite as the humble giant to Runeterra, while his passive side keeps him tanky, I wanted to show what “awaken the giant” really feels like once he becomes provoked. It won’t look like anyone is falling off a cliff, when Malphite brings the entire cliff and the mountain it’s attached to. It might seem OP to give Malphite a double sided tank passive, one without damaging, and one without being damaged at all, but I feel like this really expresses the definition I now give to Malphite; an absolute tank mage — mobile-less tank mage who will remain sleepless until the giant awakes, until then you will see monolithic abilities reach you from where man can’t fly. Against old familiarities My route in going for penetration resistances over the old flat armor stacking. I felt as though Malphite not only needed to keep a former identity of who he was tanking, why he was tanking (he’s a bloody rock), but I needed to reassure there was something to scale with for Malphite. I need to generally force Malphite to not be considered a support, doing this I figure when penetration stats come later in the game (armor pen/magic penetration), now that Malphite can deal with one of the two, Malphite will still be considered well off without his old armor bonuses, but instead ignores penetration, and will not become a support after a rework. I know this removes an old linear playstyle and item optimization for Malphite, it’s one of the more rarer item paths that compliment a champions kit. However Malphite will still keep the same item optimization but in different ways; Malphite will benefit more from flat resistances because of his new passive, as well if he does decide for the tank path, he will deal a lot more damage if he can proc additional Seismic Shards to nearby champions. If he doesn’t decide to go tank, he will be equally as strong in an AP carry role and more-so in ways better than what his old abilities limited him to. As for the rest of the abilities entirely changed, specifically W, E, Ultimate. What has happened is his old ultimate Unstoppable Force has been deconstructed for several reasons, one of which he will keep his potential knockup, strong teamfight ult, with semi-reliable ult initiation if he can land it, and has the same skill expression in landing the skillshot portion of it. However that’s not the full of it, Malphite will be balanced towards someone who can not close a gap or essentially dive into his opponents anymore, doing so I enjoy these reasons: If Malphite did keep the diver identity he would have to be reworked towards a tank, due to never gaining an additional dash to leave an engage, he had to stay tanky to live in a fight. By removing Malphites big initiation, we can front load Malphite's damage for AP Malphite users, and most importantly, give Malphite a fitting role in his niche as a really big mountain. Because he is very immobile, not only did we give him more damage, but conditional tankiness to survive getting caught out. Gameplay Snippets Laning verse Melee Laning verse Ranged Teamfights Roam

strong weak strong weak Malphite will be strong toplane versus melee and weak verse range, he should be neutral against range in mid with a weak roam, but any favorable fight Malphite does roam to; he will be more influential than his former self. Gameplay Skits — A laner’s perspective Malphite tends to be a counter-initiator, a heavy disrupter when provoked. The 1v1 pre-6 Considering that this will be the earliest time Malphite will choose to aggress on his opponent. Malphite would send a Q for a champion that can not escape, or use an E when a champion is ‘animation-locked’. Verse the Q combo, Malphite would create a boulder from his E as he walks up, when the boulder lands on himself and his previous Q, the opponent still being knocked up, Malphite destroys any Seismic Shards on impact, and the boulder splinters into debris reducing attack speed of his nearby opponents. Finally Malphite punctures the spot in where his opponent still stands with a W, as the earth starts to rip with shockwaves that will only slow enemies away from where Malphite manually drills into the ground. An opposite combo in opening against a ranged opponent. Would start with an E falling from the sky, if the slow lands Malphite can more reliably walk up and land his Q knockup depending on the distance, then has to choose to continue with a W, which can proc on an individual seismic shard if the distance is too great; or fully push off all aggression from the opponent. The 1v1 post-6 Let’s assume Malphite is top lane and is in a lull against his opponent. Malphite will presumably remain in this lull indefinitely until his opponent opens up a mistake or weak point in their maneuver. Malphite’s passive now scaling from this point onwards. Let’s continue with a melee matchup, Malphite waits to be provoked then can open in order with Q/knockup, R/stun, W for increased damage over time, execute or escape with an E. Otherwise due to each ability coming with some form of CC, it’s possible to open with E; R, follow with W, Q, then wait for E cast. For escape its easy to Q; R; E; or R, escape, re-engage from fog of war, Q or W, finish with a Q into E combo or Q; W; E. Otherwise a burst combo can rely on a fast cast of R; E; Q knocking up before E falls from the sky. Also optional that W leaves a long duration slow if enemies continually stay in its range for its last tick. And that its damage comes off as territorial. The 5v5 Malphite’s prime cut with his team is how he teamfights. Given Malphite’s insane crowd control, he is also pressured to land his ult. I feel as though Malphite’s teamfights will not stress out the Malphite player and will come out slow and methodical. He will become uninterrupted into a slow channel depending on who he W’s. He has to consider the max range of his Q, and how many potential knockups it can have. He can also consider which direction the flow of the teamfight ends up so he can strategically leave Seismic Shards on the ground. Malphite relies greatly not in himself, but his teammates. Malphite’s teammates must contribute extra CC to a full W channel locked onto an enemy to drastically lower their HP. Also Malphite's ultimate would be incredibly easy to dodge unless you were caught in a panic or a disco in the jungle. All in all, Malphite contributes great AP scaling, CC, and most importantly disengage, with a slather of poke on top.

A diabolical take on Malphite — Welcome the new wave of Malphite

Balancing

The best parts were kept, and only buffed. I wanted to also keep similar weaknesses that held back the former Malphite. Not only is Malphite's initiation potential still there, but he now threatens major disengage. With all that in mind, he is also
an AP mage with good scaling and freedom to land his abilities on priority targets. So not only that but he is also a little bit tank.

Where Malphite can feel like he has freedom; his E is a skillshot area of effect, his ultimate can not be compared to the original. Also the ultimate contains a strong fog of war mechanic. Despite not being two reliable spells as they used to be, Malphite scales a lot stronger from ability power than he used to be. An option for tank Malphite players has to be relied on proccing more complicated Seismic Shards still left on the ground. Where Malphite is lacking, he lacks movement speed,
complete initiation, only he can disrupt an engage and lead to further initiation. Malphite also currently lacks the freedom in choosing who he can W or Q as those abilities rely solely on his opponent getting out of them. I made up for both of these unique flaws; so that Malphite can still proc the damage leftover from his Q, and has two set choices on his W that is in combination with his Q and any other lock-down abilities.

How will he be playable

Top Lane?

The things I look for in a top laner, he can choose his fights carefully, he knows what he can get away with, and can disrupt the economy and tempo of an enemy jungler/top duo.

Malphite acts almost like a support, he scales, and CC has become increasingly valued. It's not that Malphite is in itself a support, but different from a usual fighter he is loaded with crowd control. This can pair well with often most champions. And by that Malphite is not a support but more of an asset. Malphite's new passive now uniquely attacks penetration shields, protecting him for lethality and the sorc boots. And usually stopping both early and late game scaling monsters. Malphite's not great at chasing, but he certainly is at escaping. Hopefully when your Malphite gets ganked he has either his ultimate or Q off cooldown and he can knockup/disengage to safety. Also by this hopefully the Malphite is encouraging enough to disrupt the flow of his enemies and can get in their face more often with his ways to escape. In regards to Malphite's lane opponent, it will rely entirely on Malphite's skill, depending on his ranged or melee matchup. Malphite top really should remain as a comfort pick and can compliment more what his team needs and less to get the ball rolling.

How will he be playable

Mid Lane?

And what I look for in a mid laner: A mid-laner is somebody that can manipulate the flow of a fight nearing a dragon pit or objective, one where the mid-laner has a free ease of escape and can also position himself on this escape to find the most optimal spot to abuse the enemies positioning.
Mid laners tend to have some form of waveclear, roam potential, big ultimates catered towards teamfighting, and usually are AP. With now special cases of assassins designed to attack the mid laner specifically.
Malphite will get outpushed and roamed as usual verse these sort of opponents, but we look at the usual AP mid laner as a mage who scales into teamfighting with their damaging combos and burst. A reason why he is getting outpushed is he loses his AOE from his old kit, and his new kit would more often than not have punishable cooldowns early game.

An interesting thing to note is Malphite counters the same assassins that counter mages mid, but ranged mages mid counters a slow melee champion like Malphite.

• Further

  Notes

  and what it means to be a Malphite player.

1 The ultimate, 3x9 monolith dimensions. Champions should never escape flashing backwards when close to Malphite but can always flash sideways. If they flash sideways however they are still close to Malphite's team.

2 Q can't knockup the same opponent more than once every 8 seconds. And this ability will still cost a lot of mana to spam.

3 Malphite's other abilities cost a lot of resources to poke his enemies. But not his E.

4 W gains rapid armor increase as he goes unstoppable. The only ability to gain armor bonuses.

5 His passive comes online as soon as the enemy builds sorc boots.

6 Malphite finds an easy fit against early assassins and early stacking of lethality. Due to this you’d find easy complaints from assassin players or those individuals who choose to permaban their counter.

7 If a champion flashes away from Malphite’s Q, they have to be careful and not flash in a linear line as the traveling Q has potential to land on further ally champions in its path.

8 Malphite’s ultimate would be a very big rectangle. It stands out straight for a second and creates a perception of fog of war then shortly falls in a gracious motion.

9 Low skill players should have trouble escaping Malphite’s knockup but the Malphite player might have difficulty landing the rest of his skills. High skill players will find ease in dodging Malphite’s Q, but are at an inconvenience of terrain being littered with Seismic Shards. Otherwise a more skilled Malphite will have less trouble landing his crucial skillshots, balanced by the opponents individual skill.

10 To focus a tank champion with lots of CC in not becoming a support, I want Malphite to have scaling options. Different from Kayle, Malphite should come online a lot sooner because of that CC.

11 His Q actually is in close relation both to Daisy and Braum’s ultimate. As well as Nautilus'

12 Malphite can choose to either use W on a champion or seismic shard.

13 His R really has those turn your head moments. It is an ability that never commits Malphite to the fight, but it does have a lot more impact to say the least. Plus I find the fog of war an interesting addition.

14 Despite weakness in tough to hit abilities that always reach short of max potential damage output, I consider Sion a balanced champion of this. In an example of Sion, however with more leverage to Malphite when AP scales better into the late game.

15 Malphite is inherently more defensive than offensive, which is what I like to look at in a champion like him. Consider twice when laying siege against a Malphite and all of a sudden you see a huge wall fall on you.

16 Yes Malphite can still counter a full AD team, not only that, but he can even counter a full AP team.

17 Remember, Q is a knockup effective in short range, threatening future damage with altered terrain. W is an unstoppable auto attack for several seconds punishing players standing still. E is no longer a punch but a mage’s skillshot. R would become an iconic figure from Malphite’s lore. Passive is natural tankiness relevant to Malphite’s personality.

Summary

To finish up on quick word. Malphite is more layered, and no longer feels like Homer Simpson in a nuclear factory.* Consider Malphite to be a calculated mage. A think-tank.

*Ultimate broke into 3 parts, moved to Q, E, and R; current R is initiation/disengage (disengage new), with fog of war (new) and a 5 man stun (kept but surface area increased with longer cast windup). Ult skillshot moved to E, no initiation required, same attack speed debuff only slightly conditional, no armor damage scaling. W keeps old ultimate’s name, regards to how you fight, single target or mass disruption. Q is the same with major buffs and a varying weakness, can now multi-man knock up, and leaves a trail that can proc for increased damage, leaving tank damage output viable; will no longer travel boundlessly but must stop traveling after a certain distance, can flash out every time(unless sideways). Passive nerfed against one side of the spectrum — Armor; old shield stays the same with now morphing Malphite’s old passive from W into the current passive, so realistically, it is an HP shield with an added bonus adaptive shield to Penetration damage, not flat armor or magic resist, but armor and magic resistances to items and abilities that ignores current MR and Armor. New passive nerfed early game but buffed lategame, and still punishes teams which sway too heavy into one damage source.

Thank you for reading summoner. That concludes this series of Reimagin-ings, there won't be any more "guides" from me for some time now.