Malphite General Guide by FireRealms

Introduction

Hi, I'm FireRealms and I welcome you to my Malphite guide, I've been playing League Of Legends since April 2011 if I am correct, I've lvld up with few premades till we all reached lvl 30 playing normal games having some fun

I didn't see any AP Malphite guide here so I decided to make it since I quite hate the meta of the tank Malphite, AP Malphite can be so dangerous his ult can break necks in team fights also with the high AP ratio of his ultimate can just instant kill the ADC if combined with deathfire grasp and Q as I usually do

Pros / Cons

Pros:
~ Shield helps early game AND Late game
~ Your W will give you some easy farming
~ Sweet early damage
~ Doesn't usually die with this build
~ Instant kills ADC late game
Cons :
~ Could be mana hungry if not played correctly
~ Only have one skill to harass with
~ Melee, so can be poked hard
~ Not as tanky as full tank Malphite
~ High cool downs

Summoner's Spells

Flash...Flash is the greatest summoner spell in the whole game, combined with your Unstoppable Force makes you a wild Malphite simply because you surprise the enemy with this combo then they can't avoid it
helps alot finishing off people running with low hp when you're out of mana, would help you in an early 1v1 and it also makes u more aggressive and more fed
Can be used if you're solo topping as a tank Malphite which doesn't follow this build, but it's actually a good choice if you want to run solo top tank Malphite exhaust would help you for sure

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Gives you a nice early boost to help you with harassing your Seismic Shard to do better damage
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Helps you breaking their magic resistance to do more damage
  
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power: also gives you nice early damage to harass with
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Yes..Armor, That what u need to be more tanky in late team fights

Masteries

Offense
Tier #1 : Sorcery gives u 4 percent CDR which you need since you have high cool downs, however 4 percent is considered as nothing
Butcher helps you at last hitting
Tier #2 : Blast gives you 1 AP per level , Destruction helps you destroying mid turret faster so u can roam/gank
Tier #3 : Arcane Knowledge is good since it ignores 8 percent of the enemy's magic resistance
Tier #4 : Mental Force gives u sweet 6 AP , Spellsword gives u bonus magical damage on your basic attack about 5 percent of your ability power
Tier #5 : Archmage increases your AP by 5 percent
Utility
Tier #1 : Summoner's Insight Reduces the cool down of your flash by 15 seconds which really helps in some hard moments , Meditation gives u very needed mana regan and finally the Improved Recall to reduce the time of casting the recall spell by 1 second
Tier #2 : Mastermind reduces the cool down of ur summoner spells by 15 percent which also needed so u can use ur flash and ignite more often
Tier #3 : Runic Affinity which is needed for increasing the buff duration incase u're taking the blue buff to dominate mid lane harder
The reason I prefer 21-0-9 over 9-21-0 is I like to be more aggressive with Malphite but if want to go defensive so you can run 9-21-0

Items

Boots of Speed

Health Potion

Crystalline Flask

Health Potion

Early Game
I usually get a CATALYST THE PROTECTOR on my first back and also upgrading my boots to Sorcerer's Shoes incase I've started with the Boots of Speed and if not I just get Boots of Speed for now

Mid Game

By now u should have a good creep score and few kills hopefully so you can upgrade your CATALYST THE PROTECTOR to a Rod of Ages which provides you with more utility and also a Needlessly Large Rod completing it into a Rabadon's Deathcap so your Unstoppable Force will hit like a firetruck

Late Game

I'm trying to get a Deathfire Grasp at this point since the team fights will be done more than before so the Deathfire Grasp will provide me with nice CDR so i can cast more spells to do more damage and also it's active which i can use on the ADC combined with Unstoppable Force and Seismic Shard to finish him off
Also a Warmog's Armor which works very well with your passive to make your shield abit better and also to be more tanky and last more in the team fights
For finishing my build i prefer to have a Zhonya's Hourglass for the nice 100 AP , the armor to make you more tanky and finally it's passive which can really save your life <3

Late Game Itemization Options

1- Abyssal Mask
Malphite is one of the AP Mids that Abyssal Mask is still great on even after the aura range nerf to it. Whenever you go in to use DFG and combo an enemy, you will always be close enough to your enemy to receive the benefits from the Abyssal Mask's Aura and the fact that you are melee encourages this close quarters combat style game play whenever you are 1 vs 1.
2- Athene's Unholy Grail
Athene's Unholy Grail is a great item in general but a very situational buy on Malphite. You already have CDR from Deathfire Grasp but if you need MR, Abyssal Mask is a better choice in my opinion. With just Deathfire Grasp
3- Lich Bane
This item goes really well with Malphite harass. Since you will be using Seismic Shard in fights, you can simply Seismic Shard into an auto attack and the Lich Bane proc will hurt them...a lot. You also get MRes from this item, which certainly doesn't hurt. The AP, mana, and movespeed help a lot too, for obvious reasons like chasing or solving the problem of the fact that you're mana hungry. A nice late game pick for Malphite. I consider getting this item last because it isn't as core as the other items in the build, but adds some nice, helpful stats and a little more punch to your combos, a perfect item to finish off with if you're well fed and wanna finish people off.
4- Void Staff
This item is used primarily to eat through the massive amount of resistances to magical damage that some champions will purchase. But it still greatly boosts your damage output in many situations.
5- Randuin's Omen
This thing is perfect for when you have one goal in mind; decimate the enemy carry! It completely demolishes their attack speed and movement speed as well as providing Cho'Gath with enough durability to get his job done with ease.