Hello mentlegen, I am Nivenna from the NA server. I am a top/jungle main that is currently floating around Sliver 3. I have been playing League of Legends for over a year now and have decided to make a guide on one of my favorite champions, Malphite! My rating may be low, but I know everything there is to know about Malphite. Malphite is a great champion because of his game changing ultimate and great ability to peel for carries while doing damage. I am hoping that you will be rock solid after reading this guide. Enjoy!

Pros



+ Tanky
+ Granite Shield gives massive shield late game
+ One of the best initiations in the game
+ Seismic Shard lets you stick to targets/makes you fast
+ Easy to last hit with
+ Mostly AoE spells
+ Good at 1v2 lanes
+ Can do almost every role/lane
+ Is a rock
+ Counters most auto-attack reliant top laners with Ground Slam

Cons



- No sustain in lane
- Gets bullied by ranged AP characters
- Fairly susecptable to ganks pre-6
- Can't farm from a distance very well
- Needs certain items to be effective

Runes

These are the runes I use when playing malphite. Some people will say "B-B-But Malphite isn't an AD champion, why do you get AD runes? lolxD n00b." Well I like AD runes for multiple reasons.
1. Malphite has low AP ratios on his ablilities.
2. AD runes make last hitting and pushing very easy thanks to Brutal Strikes passive.
3. During trades with your lane opponent, your autos will hit like a truck.
Then take MR Glyphs and Armor Seals for the extra beef.

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Masteries

I like to go 9/21/0 in my masteries. Putting 9 into offensive is very helpful in trades and last hitting. As I said earlier, AP on Malphite is strictly not as good as AD. 21 into defense is pretty straight forward. MORE BEEF FOR THE BEEF GOD!

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Skill Sequence

Most people that first start playing Malphite assume you should max q first, however this is quite the contrary. Maxing e is the better option over all because of the extra attack speed slow that it brings to the table. Max your skills in this order (listed by priority): R-E-Q-W

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Malphite is an EXTREMELY versatile builder. There are so many different build paths you can take, but I am only going to show you the tank one for now.

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Core

I almost always get these boots on Malphite. The tenacity is too good not to have.

This item is great for malphite because it allows him to splitpush very quickly due to the AoE magic damage that this item gives. The stats on this item are also very good against most teamcomps.

When I first started playing Malphite, I did not like this item at all on him. I have changed my mind about this item for one reason, cooldown reduction. The cdr that this item gives is so helpful to malphite because all of his skills don't get shorter cooldowns as you level them up, making this item ridiculously good.

This item is very fun to get on malphite. Now I could explain to you all the reasons that it is good, but
Wickd has already done that for me.

Banshee's Veil holds a special place in my heart these days. With pokey characters like Nidalee, Jinx, and Ziggs being very popular right now, this item is FABULOUS. It also helps out against annoying supports such as Annie and Thresh.

This is an item I usually get 3rd or 4th because thats when teamfights start happening. Your Ult-E-Randuin's combo is outright broken because the enemy will be slowed after they have been knocked up, not to mention that the squishy targets will have less than half health after the combo.

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Other Items

I like to sometimes get this item if the enemy team has 3 or more AD champions that are in carry positions. This item is an excellent substitute for Trinity Force because of the slow on auto attacks and the AoE wave clear.

If you want to build AD Malphite, then this item is good if you build it with Warmog's Armor and Trinity Force.

I generally only get this if I am playing AD Malphite. Not a bad item, but I like other items more.

This item is really good on Malphite for the same reason that Randuin's Omen is good, it has an AoE active that slows people. The differences between the two is that Frozen Heart slows attackspeed instead of movespeed. Now that's good and all, but you already have an attackspeed slow with your e so I usually go with Randuin's.

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AD Malphite: THE REAL METAGOLEM

Standard boots on Malphite. Really not much to say here baby girl.

This AD Malphite's bread and butter item. See above.

Very good item on Malphite for many reasons, mainly for it's cost effectiveness and synergy with Warmog's and Triforce. Big Critz n' Armor, whats not to love?

I don't really buy this item unless I buy Atma's, which I almost do on AD Malphite. I like to get it on AD almost every game because it gives you supa hot stacks on your Atma's Impaler.

I get a lot of flak for building this item, but I don't think a lot of the people playing this game understand the role of AD Malphite. AD Malph is supposed to be an AD off-tank, meaning that he is not going to be able to soak damage as he normally would. That being said, you can melt carries very quickly if you are in range of them. That is where PD comes in. You will be smackin' *****es in the face at the speed of sound.

Standard item for splitting and pushing lanes. This item can be swapped out with any other tank item such as Banshee's Veil, Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart, or Spirit Visage.

My main reason for picking Malphite in solo queue is because of his uncanny ability to surge your team into victory. Most people don't need to smell what The Rock is cooking because it's pretty obvious when you want to go in or not. Just to be safe, tell your team that you are charging in with pings.

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SECRET SWAG MOVE XD.GG #YOLO

Malphite is not the best character to play in ranked because your teammates must know when you are deciding to go in or not. Most of the time it will not be a big problem though because most people will help you with the engage.

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This is the sections where I will discuss lane opponents. I have gone up against almost every champion as Malphite and will try and shed some light on which lanes are the hardest.

3/5 He will out sustain you, but you will win fights with him thanks to Ground Slam. You will want to be very careful about getting ganked. Aatrox is a very easy champion to gank for, so if you see him winding up Dark Flight that usually means you are getting ganked.

1/5 Very easy lane, pre-6 and post-6 you will destroy her.

5/5 out sustains and outtrades. Gets tanky quickly and pushes fast. The problem with Cho'Gath is that he can fight you and farm AT THE SAME TIME due to his e. His passive is also excellent for sustaining himself in lane. More often than not, you will be forced to farm with Seismic Shard, making you run out of mana very quickly. Ask your jungler for a gank or lane swap.

3/5 This lane can go either way, but I have been informed that Darius' Apprehend gives armor pen so I think that Darius will win the lane. Try to bait his q on the minion wave and then start fighting him this will let you win the trade. Never underestimate Noxian Guillotine for you can be killed very quickly at low hp.

3/5 You do more damage than him pre-6 but once he does hit 6 you will not be able to 1v1 him unless you took ignite. If you get a gank from your jungler you can usually kill him even if he ults.

1/5 You win, no contest. She is useless because of your attack speed slow in fights, so be careful not to waste Ground Slam on minion waves because she could use that as an opportunity to kill you.

1/5 Most Gangplanks will play very passively and farm from a safe distance with Parrrley. Just farm up and tp bot for kills. If they do decide to fight you, just e because then he can't really trade back. Remove Scurvy does not cleanse off knock ups, it only allows him to auto attack and use skills whilst in said knock up. Although, he can cleanse off the slow from Seismic Shard.

3.5/5 If you die early you are screwed. Can kill him on your own but he has a lot of sustain due to his passive, so poke him with q to stop his hp regen once and a while. It is very easy to tell when a Garen is trying to engage on you. He will usually activate his q and run at you like the idiot he is. If they do that just q him and run away. You will be building a lot of armor so he will be less of a problem to you the farther you get into the game.

666/5 f*ck this champion. Get jungler to gank him as soon as you have Unstoppable Force. Heimerdinger will zone you like crazy, preventing you from getting the majority of the farm. Expect him to have %50 more farm than you. Make good use of Teleport and get kills around the map and create pressure.

3.5/5 She has a ton of sustain and will beat you in fights because of Hiten Style's true damage auto attacks. If she rushes BoTRK then she will do EVEN more damage to you even if you are stacking armor. Also add on the fact that she can dash out of Ground Slam so if you miss it you are going to lose the trade BIG TIME.

1/5 Ground Slam makes him basically useless. This is arguably one of the easiest lanes for Malphite. There is nothing he can do against you.

2.5/5 Don't fight him in isolation and you should be fine, but he is really squishy so you can kill him really fast with q-r-e. He will probably go into the bushes a lot to get his passive up again. Be very cautious when going against a Kha'Zix because he is very easy to gank for and has a very large burst at early levels. I almost never lose to Kha in lane but that being said, he is rarely picked for toplane and will mainly be seen in the jungle.

3/5 He can dash your ult with ease but cant kill you without jungle help. Play safe until level 4-ish because his early levels can be quite troublesome.

1/5 Easy lane, no contest. I would say this is the easiest lane for Malphite other than Fiora or Jax. If he Alpha Strikes towards you, just e him and then q him and keep hitting him with autos until he gets away from the minion wave. Although be wary because a good player will wait to use his q until you have burned your e. This is hard to do but sometimes the opponent will try to dodge your ult with Alpha Strike. On the off chance that they successfully dodge your ult, you may be forced to retreat from the fight depending on how much health the yi has relative to your own.

4/5 He will destroy you if he gets ahead. If he uses Wither, just q him and back off. You cannot kill him at almost any stage of the game thanks to his massive sustain and his ridiculous ult. Luckily, this lane will mostly be him trying to get his Siphoning Strike stacked as much as possible. This creates a weird tension in the lane because you can't really kill him with ease and if he wants to try and trade with you he is going to lose stacks. So in the end it is a very strange lane that I hate playing.

pre-6 2/5 post-6 3/5 Have only played this once, so I don't know much about it. Avoid spears and it's an easy lane. Her cougar form isn't that bad because of Ground Slam, but still does a fair amount of damage since she is basically a melee caster in cougar form. AD Nidalee would be a much more annoying lane opponent, and although I haven't played against it, I have played a fair amount of AD Nidalee top. The AD Nid will auto-attack you almost as much as she possible can while getting the cs before you hit 6. After you both hit 6 she will be nearly impossible to catch but her autos will not hit very hard at all. After 6 she will mainly be farming but will wait for an opportunity to pounce on you while you have your guard down.

3.5/5 Not as bad as Nasus, but still a huge pain in the neck. Play safe early get jungle to gank for you. DO NOT let him kill you pre-6. I cannot stress this enough because he is very tanky and does an insane amount of damage at levels 3-5. If he takes Ignite (which he most certainly will) avoid him during the almost all stages of the laning phase. This is because he could kill you at almost any moment with the help of the jungler or even by himself. After he hits 6 he will either
A. Try and dive you with enemy jungler
or
B. try and dive by himself
Try and have your jungler stay nearby once he hits 6 because they almsot always will try and dive you.

3/5 Ferocity stacks, avoid him when he has them. If its one of "those" rengar players, then be careful of his aggressive play. Play this lane very passive unless if he is an aggressive player because he most likely will be on your *** all lane. It's not that you can't win trades with him, but if he has good management of his Ferocity then he will be a pain.

4/5 Ground Slam does't help you in this situation because all her damage comes from skills. She will try to level 2 all in you, don't fall for it. I don't think she is as strong as she used to be because of her shield and damage nerfs, but she is still very strong.

5/5 Does everything that counters you. Lane swap or you will lose lane miserably. I can't really tell you anything other than the fact the he hard counters you.

3.5/5 does a lot of damage and is hard to fight because of her annoying hybrid damage. Never fight her if she has Burnout available. This will do magic damage and speeds her up. If she is chasing you, Seismic Shard her while she is using Burnout so you steal her movement speed. She is going to be a pain in the *** as she gets more items. Did I mention the fact that she doesn't have to build tanky and still be quite beefy? If she gets the advantage she will be impossible to kill in teamfights and even harder to kill by yourself. The Doran's Sheild nerfs hurt Shyvana AND Malphite, so there is no difference in the match-up in that sense. If you manage your mana well and know when Burnout is on cooldown, feel free to trade with her because you will win.

3/5 Ah yes, the Swift Scout. Teemo is a very pesky champion to go against. His blind is probably the most detrimental thing possible to you in lane. He is very easy to kill with the help of the jungler so just get a little help.

4/5 HUGE sustain. farms safely and pokes you into submission.

2/5 he has sustain but is very auto attack reliant so Ground Slam makes him less threatening than a AD Karthus.

4/5 *cringe* this lane is hell. The poke will be very annoying and he will never run out of health. If he runs out of mana then he is not a threat whatsoever and you can kill him with no problems.