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Spells:
Ignite
Flash
Ability Order
Granite Shield (PASSIVE)
Malphite Passive Ability
Introduction
Hello, Crimmage here, and to those super-conservatives who take offense at my build name, well... let's try to look past that? sorry :( and I'm interested in bringing you a guide to



I start my marks off with
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration because all of Malphite's damage is magical, other then his auto attacks. Not much to say here.
For my seals, I generally like
Greater Seal of Armor for the early game
Ground Slam damage and survivability in the lane. Other choices include
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration, Greater Seal of Defense, Greater Seal of Vitality,
Greater Seal of Evasion, and
Greater Seal of Health. It's really up to you.
Glyphs are also fairly flexible. While I prefer
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist because I like to be durable to mages and help balance my MR and Armor out, other options include
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power,
Greater Glyph of Ability Power, and
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.
Quints I generally like to use
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for the early game and all-around game effectiveness of your abilities, but you can substitute a lot of things such as
Greater Quintessence of Health for early game survivability,
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration because spell pen is just a really great option for
Malphite, or even
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. It's really mostly up to you.

For my seals, I generally like





Glyphs are also fairly flexible. While I prefer




Quints I generally like to use





My masteries focus on obtaining the
Archaic Knowledge
for more spell penetration, as well as grabbing the defensive tree because you are going to be putting yourself in a lot of dangerous situations. An option you can look for also is putting more into the utility tree for mana regen and a lower cooldowns, although mana shouldn't be too much of a problem if you know when to conserve it and not putting any points into the defensive tree can leave for a squishier
Malphite.



Flash is a great all around spell, useful for almost any champion. It does have a high cooldown. I find it especially good on Malphite because there are times after you use your


Now this spell you might be questioning me a little about. However, I assure you that it can be invaluable, particularly when you are in the laning phase but outside it still shines.

These are the two spells that I use, although there are other great options.









Your first skill is debatable. I typically grab
Seismic Shard for the slow, but the AoE damage from
Ground Slam along with the 30% attack speed debuff can be invaluable if you decide to go for a level 1 fight. So
Seismic Shard is great for singling out a target,
Ground Slam better in multi-enemy fights.
We also level up our
Seismic Shard and prioritize is up to level 7, leveling our
Ground Slam when we can't. The reason that we level up
Seismic Shard first is that it allows great harrassment ability, scaling with a better base damage and being able to use it at range. I personally don't take
Brutal Strikes until much later because it lowers the damage you are capable of doing because the base damage that
Ground Slam does outweighs the 20% bonus you get from 1 rank. Another factor is that using
Brutal Strikes before
Ground Slam is that it can really take a toll on your mana early game. Needless to say, level up
Unstoppable Force whenever possible.




We also level up our









This passive is great. In short, your base HP is increased by 10%, and any HP items that you buy have their effectiveness increased by 10%. Amazing during the laning phase as any harrassment that the enemy attempts will often have the damage minimized by this. We'll talk more later.

This is an amazing skill in the lane. It gives you movement speed steal. That's a fairly unique ability as far as I'm aware. It slows your enemy and then gives you that speed, making you an amazing chaser, as well as allowing you to harass your enemies as well as closing the distance to further harass with your


This is a pretty great skill as well, the only part I'm not a fan of is it's extremely long cooldown. I level this skill up last because I like to maximize my burst damage output as soon as possible. Later in the game, though, this really ramps up the damage as I obtain more armor.

Another great skill. Lowers attack speed by 50% at max rank, combined with a


This may be one of my favorite skills. While it is a skillshot, the main requirement is the timing in which you use it. It also pops the enemy up into the air for a while, acting like a stun. It does have a very high cooldown compared to other ultimates, but if it were any lower,

Now for the part that's been anticipated. We'll start off like a game starts. There are 3 ways I will say that you can start this build off. The first way is to start off with a simple
Ruby Crystal. The pros of this are that the HP you get from it scales your
Granite Shield passive, providing the obvious capacity to take more harrassment damage. Another way is to start off with a
Sapphire Crystal and 2
Health Potion which will give you about 400 health to heal. My favorite starting path is to start with a
Sapphire Crystal, 1
Health Potion, and 1
Mana Potion. This allows you to use your abilities more often then the first 2 as well as providing that health pot to recover on anything that went further then harassment against your shield.
Your next item that you should be looking for is:
Catalyst the Protector
This is probably the best item you can get for the lane, mainly due to it's passive. The level up will inevitably wear your enemy down while you harass with the constantly increasing mana, as well as healing you and regenerating your mana back up. Not much else to say. Grab
Boots after this. And then you'll want to invest in
An amazing item for
Malphite. It gives you a solid amount of tankiness with the HP gain, a solid amount of AP for your
Seismic Shard to be even more effective, and a huge mana pool. Don't be afraid to spam skills now. Now that you have this working for you, you'll probably want
The best boots for a character such as
Malphite, although other close contenders include Sorcerer's Boots. Not much to say. Our next item is
TBH, this is one of my favorite tanky items, and it works even BETTER on
Malphite. CDR, MORE mana to compensate for the spamminess of the CDR, and armor which scales with your
Ground Slam. Not bad for the 1525 gold price, eh?
Now look, some of you may want to build straight into the
Frozen Heart now, but it's time to take a look at your enemy team's composition. Typically, a team will have magic damagers, and without a hefty amount of MR, you are probably going to be eaten up pretty quickly. So if your game does have some hefty magic dealers, you'll want to grab a
Negatron Cloak before anything else. If they ARE mostly or all AD, though..
Heh. What's not to like? More CDR, more armor, therefore more damage on top of a 20% speed malus to all of your enemy team's auto attackers which will stack with your
Ground Slam.
Now we had to put that
Negatron Cloak to use, didn't we? What could be better then this item? Not only does it give you a ton of MR and AP, but it reduces the enemy team's MR by 20, increasing the damage of not only your
Seismic Shard with the AP, but also your
Ground Slam. What could be better?
This item used to be an optional item, but I found myself grabbing it in almost every game that lasted long enough for me to do so. It really has no downside to it in my opinion. It puts your MR right up there next to your armor if you went with
Mercury's Treads instead of
Sorcerer's Shoes. Increases your damage output by dabbing in auto attacks every now and then, also adding a physical damage variable in case your enemies were building MR.
Most of the games that I have played with
Malphite are over before I buy anything past the
Abyssal Mask. But this is only 4 items, isn't it? Oh no!
Other items which may be situationally more appealing include:
Thornmail - This is actually a really good item on
Malphite. More damage for your
Ground Slam, and a recoil effect from any auto attackers. The recoil effect isn't really too useful on our big rock buddy though, because with a
Frozen Heart and
Ground Slam, the enemy's attack speed generally won't be too high.
Force of Nature - Not a bad item, but you're already fairly tanky. I would get this if there's an absurd amount of AP on the enemy team though.
Abyssal Mask - Wait, but isn't this item already in our inventory? Well, yes. While you won't benefit from the passive, the AP and MR is something to be feared. An item both tanky and offensive. That's what our Malphite is, right? I generally go for
Lich Bane instead and that's usually enough.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Another great item for Malphite. Makes your
Seismic Shard do even more slowing, gives you solid HP [Which you might want more of], and more offensive capabilities.
Zhonya's Hourglass - Solid item. Armor and AP increase your overall damage as well as giving you 2 seconds of immunity. The active is not my favorite part of the item, as you being focused is generally much better then your squishies being focused. Still really useful! :)
Sunfire Aegis - Really, this item is probably the MOST useful on
Malphite then it is on other champs. More HP, more damage from your
Ground Slam and a passive AoE damage that can really add up. Definitely a high priority choice if your game is still going on.
Void Staff - An extremely offensive item, situational but can yield deadly results. You'll be destroying even their tanks with your combos, as well as being extremely hard to kill yourself.
Glacial Shroud - Wait, but didn't we grab a
Frozen Heart earlier? Well, yes. But these are two different items. While your
Frozen Heart provided Armor, Mana, and CDR, this item's CDR and armor will STACK with your
Frozen Heart's. Ingenious, no? Never a bad choice if you don't know what to buy.
Sorcerer's Shoes - A good substitute for the
Mercury's Treads and perhaps ideal for when you need some extra oomph in your spells. Spell pen will increase the damage of all your spells, making it sometimes more valuable then AP or Armor for
Malphite.







Your next item that you should be looking for is:
Catalyst the Protector
This is probably the best item you can get for the lane, mainly due to it's passive. The level up will inevitably wear your enemy down while you harass with the constantly increasing mana, as well as healing you and regenerating your mana back up. Not much else to say. Grab


An amazing item for



The best boots for a character such as


TBH, this is one of my favorite tanky items, and it works even BETTER on


Now look, some of you may want to build straight into the



Heh. What's not to like? More CDR, more armor, therefore more damage on top of a 20% speed malus to all of your enemy team's auto attackers which will stack with your


Now we had to put that




This item used to be an optional item, but I found myself grabbing it in almost every game that lasted long enough for me to do so. It really has no downside to it in my opinion. It puts your MR right up there next to your armor if you went with


Most of the games that I have played with


Other items which may be situationally more appealing include:






















Many people classify
Malphite as a straight-up tank. I tend to disagree, though. Tanks are supposed to consistently keep the rest of their team protected, often through the use of CC.
Malphite DOES have a great CC with
Unstoppable Force although it is on a 100-140 sec CD without CDR factored in. Sure, don't be shy to protect your team with your ulti, it can win you team fights! But be aware that after you use it, you won't be able to protect them from the other team anymore. Do, however, focus down those enemy carries bringing your carries down. Slowing their attack speed, movement speed, and hell, even doing significant damage to them is amazing. I build
Malphite tanky because he needs to be. With his ulti and getting right into the middle of things he needs to be able to get out of alive. But he also does significant damage. Take out the carry.
In short: Yes. You are a tank. You are a tank up to the point that the enemies fall back onto the ground after you use your
Unstoppable Force. Then you have a change of roles. You must attack whoever is either A) killing your team the fastert B) whoever is squishy C)
Seismic Shard/Focus down whoever your team is trying to focus down.
Know that all games are different though and you must adjust to any and all.




In short: Yes. You are a tank. You are a tank up to the point that the enemies fall back onto the ground after you use your


Know that all games are different though and you must adjust to any and all.
Early Game
At level 1, you'll generally not want to engage the enemy too much. Your damage output is fairly low and you aren't too difficult to kill. When you get your second point in
Seismic Shard the harassment can really begin. You'll want to single out the target that doesn't have great health regen or a lot of potions, although you can commit. When you hit level 6, if you've been harassing enough then you should be able to wreck someone and get a kill, although generally if you have a competent lane partner (
Malphite is a great solo as well) you have a good possibility of getting a kill earlier. If you are being harassed dangerously, then you should B like always and when you have enough money for your Catalyst the Protector then you should go grab that, as well as speed boots if you don't have enough for your Catalyst.
Mid Game
You should be a wrecking ball, with the enemy team's squishies fearing you to death. Grab blue buff whenever possible, as spamming your Q and E will deal significant damage. You really shine here and pretty much anywhere. You should be very difficult to kill if you play smartly.
Late Game
You should still be destroying squishies and casters. Anyone that looks at you funny should feel your wrath. There's not a whole lot of difference to how you should be playing
Malphite between mid and late game, it's just often a change of who to focus down.
At level 1, you'll generally not want to engage the enemy too much. Your damage output is fairly low and you aren't too difficult to kill. When you get your second point in


Mid Game
You should be a wrecking ball, with the enemy team's squishies fearing you to death. Grab blue buff whenever possible, as spamming your Q and E will deal significant damage. You really shine here and pretty much anywhere. You should be very difficult to kill if you play smartly.
Late Game
You should still be destroying squishies and casters. Anyone that looks at you funny should feel your wrath. There's not a whole lot of difference to how you should be playing

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