Malphite General Guide by BodyShot Bill

Pros / Cons

Pros Granite Shield very useful in lane. Very good against AD teams. Scales with armor. Attack speed debuff with Ground Slam. Strong initiator Unstoppable Force.

Cons Almost no kill potential untill lvl 6. Bad against AP teams or laner. Mana hungry. Ultimate Unstoppable Force dodgable. Weak lane sustain.

Runes

Against AD Top (10% CDR)

If you plan on not reaching 40% CDR only with your items.

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed as it will scale with Brutal Strikes, it will also help with farming and overall optimize the Grasp of the Undying procs.
• Greater Quintessence of Armor and Greater Seal of Scaling Armor because armor scales so well on Malphite, you'll be dealing the maximum damage with your Ground Slam and you will need armor to resist against an AD laner.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction to reach 40% CDR at lvl 18 with your items.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist best option when laning against an AD laner as you won't be needing the early magic resist.

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Against AD Top

If you plan on reaching 40% CDR only with your items.

• Same rune setup as the last one except you drop the Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction as you want need them for Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist which are the best alternative.

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Against AP Top (10% CDR)

If you plan on not reaching 40% CDR only with your items.

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed as it will scale with Brutal Strikes, it will also help with farming and overall optimize the Grasp of the Undying procs.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction to reach 40% CDR at lvl 18 with your items.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist and Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist although it doesn't scale well on Malphite, it will help you resist against AP laners.
• Greater Quintessence of Health to improve your effective health and your early game survivability, health, although not being as good as armor on Malphite, overall scales well with the Granite Shield.
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health AP laners being hard lanes against Malphite, grabbing HP per level instead of armor are the safe option.

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Against AP Top

If you plan on reaching 40% CDR only with your items.

• Same runes setup as the last one except you only grab Greater Glyph of Magic Resist as blue runes you're not neading the Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction. The resistance provided by the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist are enough to resist AP laners so you can grab Greater Quintessence of Ability Power as you'll be maxing your Seismic Shard against AP lane and it scales very well with AP.

Masteries

• Classic 0/12/18 tank utility masteries, with the Secret Stash mastery as you will be starting Corrupting Potion, you might want to replace Tough Skin by Explorer against an easy enemy laner not auto attack reliant. I don't think investing 8 points in the ferocity tree instead of the cunning tree is better since you don't really want to do damage but mainly to survive during the laning phase.

Summoner Spells

Flash

Flash should be taken on every champion as a primary spell, it is a very useful gap closer that can be used offensively and defensively, it help you secure kills or get out of dangerous situations like ganks. It is very good on Malphite because, combined with your Unstoppable Force, you can cover a lot of distance in a very short amount of time, this is useful when engaging teamfights.

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Teleport

Teleport is the spell that you should take, most of the time, as Malphite as a secondary spell. It will mainly be used, in the early game, to help you go back to base without loosing to many XP and gold, in the mid game, to help other lanes skirmishes, in the late game, to split push.

Ignite

Ignite is also a viable option on Malphite as it gives more lane pressure and kill potential but be aware you sacrifice a lot of presence on lane so if you fall behind. You should take this spell against an easy laner or a self-healing based champion like Dr. Mundo since this spell applies healing reduction.

Skill Sequence

Against AD Top

• Maxing your Ground Slam will make the attack speed debuff very powerful against AD champs, this spell scales with armor and since we will be buying a lot of it this will be our main source of damage. I next max my Brutal Strikes for the armor buff it gives.

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Against AP Top

• Maxing your Seismic Shard is the best option you have since the Ground Slam attack speed debuff and the Brutal Strikes armor buff are useless against AP. I then max my Ground Slam for the damages it gives.

Items

Starting Items

Malphite being very weak and mana hungry, Corrupting Potionis the safest start to optimize your early lane sustain and help you take trades without having to immediately back. It will also get boosted and get more gold value with the The Dark Seal and the Secret Stash mastery.

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First Backs

Back when you have around 700 gold grab these items and TP back to lane, they will mainly help your mana sustain and utility stats.


Grab The Dark Seal and the Boots of Speed in priority and if you have an extra 400 gold (from first blood, for example, if you got it) buy a Doran's Ring. Also try to back with enough gold to buy a Vision Ward for safety. The Dark Seal is very strong on mana reliant tank who scale with AP as you will almost never die as a tank and keep your stacks.

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Against AP laner

Laning against an AP top laner as Malphite isn't easy as Malphite has trouble scaling with magic resist. Grabbing an early spectre

Boots

At this point of the game you'll need boots to move faster. Thiw will help you escape ganks, dodge skillshots and secure kills.

The Ninja Tabi are extremely good for tanking against AD champions because they give armor and an awesome passive which reduces the damage from auto attacks (10%).

The Mercury's Treads are one of the only magic resist item that is very good on malphite because it gives nothing else than magic resist. It also has an awesome passive that will increase your tenacity (35%), it is very useful for tanking because the enemy will be using his CC on you.

Sorcerer's Shoes are another boots options on Malphite as they give magic penetration which is a very good offensive stat on him, but you sacrifice some tankiness by buying them, buy them if you are ahead form your opponents.

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Mid game items

At this point you need to buy a good tanking item, the sunfire cape furfills this role perfectly and the enchantment on the boots give you more map presence.


The Sunfire Cape is an awesome item on Malphite, it gives him armor and health to tank bit more magical and physical damage and has a great passive that will allow you to win more trades. Be careful because the passive pushes minion waves very quickly.


This enchantment is the best for you since you have Teleport and Flash, it allows you to gank bot more often, to get to your lane faster or to help your teammates with dragon fights.

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CDR Items

Buy two of these four items to have 30% CDR and more tankiness.


You will almost always take the Frozen Heart on Malphite because it gives a lot of armor, mana and CDR which is exactly what you need on him but it also has a great passive that reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies (15%) (range: 1000 units). This passive works perfectly with your Ground Slam that also has an attack speed debuff (50% at lvl 5).


Buy this item instead of the Frozen Heart only if you were facing an AP top earlier and you don't want to sell the Chalice of Harmony and if they have heavy AP, or else the Frozen Heart is a better option. This item gives poor magic resist (20) a bit of AP to increase your damage (60), a lot of mana regen (10, 1% for every 1% missing and 15% maximum mana on kill) and a lot of CDR (20%).


You should buy the Locket of the Iron Solari when the other team has at least one AP champion. This item has very good stats for tanking against magical opponents (magic resist and health). It also has a good passive and a not so bad active that, if you remember to use, can give you a small advantage in fights. If your jungler or support is already building this item, replace it by a Spirit Visage.


You have to replace this item by the Locket of the Iron Solari if you are facing full AD teams because the magic resist won't help you, or you can buy the Iceborn Gauntlet if you a far ahead from your opponents instead of the Frozen Heart, it will make you deal more damage but you will sacrifice a lot of tanking stats for this item. This item give poor tanking stats (60 armor) but it gives a lot of offensive stats that will really increase your damage (60 AP and a very powerful passive).

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Defensive items

Buy one of these three items depending on the type of damage delt from the enemy team.


This is the best choice if the enemy has a balanced team. It gives very good tanking stats (70 armor 500 health) that allow to survive much longer against AD champs as well as against AP champs. It also has an awesome active that slows all the enemies in ranges after using it and that scales with armor, you shoud using right after engaging.


You should buy this item if you feel like you need more magic resist after buying the Locket of the Iron Solari. This item also gives a lot of tanking stats (55 magic resist 450 health) that will allow you to survive much longer against, mostly, AP champs. It also has a not so bad passive that blocks a spell if you haven't been taking damage fora while, it isn't very useful for tanking but can help you sometimes because it blocks not only a spell but also the CC effect if it has one.

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Offensive Items

Buy one of these three items depending of what you previously bought and also to increase your damage dealt.


This is the item that you will, most of the time buy, buy it if you just bought a Randuin's Omen. This item gives good magic resist (45) but not a lot of other defensive stats. It also gives some good AP (70) that will help you deal more damage and also has a passive that will increase your spell damage but also the Sunfire Cape's damage.


This item must be bought if they have a fed AD carry. The item itself doesn't gives good tanking stats (100 armor). But it has an awesome passive that reflects (30%) the base damage that you take from auto attacks.


Buy this item if the enemy team doesn't have big AD threats and if you think you don't need more magic resist. This item doesn't give a lot of tanking stats (60 armor) but it gives a lot of offensive stats that will really increase your damage (60 AP and a very powerful passive).