Hello,

I am Fakezz and recently with inspiration by the one-shotting of Gambit's Alex Ich on Fnatic's Rekkles I've learned a new way to play Malphite: Midphite.

The guide is being updated.

Changelog
18-01-2014 Creation of the guide!
19-01-2014 Corrected skilling order

Midphite? Yes, Midphite!

It is not a very popular pick but I still think it is strong and very useful depending on team comps. Midphite brings a couple of things that others don't. First of all once he has a couple of items he has an incredible high burst, enough to instantly delete squishy targets (e.g. ADC). What makes Midphite different from other assassins is once played right, his ult engages (one of the best) while at the same time deleting their carry from the teamfight. All at the same time he is being tanky and soaking up damage for your teammates.

In short he is a niche pick and brings a lot to teamfights with his burst and ult knock-up.

+Tanky

-Not very meta

+High burst

-Low sustained damage

+Passive helps to win trades

-Needs a bit of snowballing

+High presence Ult

-Slow like a rock

+Still useful if falling off

Offensive: 9

Key here are Sorcery and Expose Weakness . You need the CDR as it is one of your key components and Expose Weakness works great with your ult. The rest are just generic extra AP masteries.

Defensive: 21

These are your generic defensive masteries. Though itemisation and runes are more towards magic resist it is needed to choose armour over magic resist here. By running a 21 defensive tree it makes you even more tanky than your natural tankiness.

Other options

It is possible to trade some points in from the offensive or defensive tree to the utility tree to get extra movement speed or mana regen depending on your runes and playing style.

Marks

I choose magic penetration, alternatively you could opt for AP but you want to hurt in the early game so magic penetration is the best choice here.

Seals

I choose mana regen runes since I like to spam my skills early game and taking into account your natural tankiness, armour seals are not as important as on other standard mids. It is possible to mix or change them all for armour seals if you can manage the lower mana regen or compensate it by means of masteries for example.

Glyphs

These are you generic magic resist glyphs, possibly scaling magic resist but standard are fine.

Quints

AP quints all the way nothing else.

In short, you want to bully the enemy with your Q early game (which hits harder than you would expect). Your passive gives your armour if untouched for 10 seconds so winning trades is fairly easy especially since your Q is not a skillshot. These runes are focused towards the early game with the mana regen and magic penetration.

The general rule on Midphite is the same as most AP mids. Flash and Ignite are sufficient for pretty much all the situations. You might consider to pick up Teleport or Ghost but I recommend sticking to the standard.

Passive - Granite Shield

It is honestly a very good passive for the laning phase. Every 10 seconds you don't receive damage you get a small shield. This allows you to go slightly more offensive every time and win trades.

Q - Seismic Shard

This will be your main skill together with your ult. It is a ranged skill and the best part is you can't miss it. It is a great harass tool with not too high cooldown. It hits surprisingly hard if you build AP (and magic pen), 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+ 60% AP).

I am not even mentioning the second best part. Not only does it slow your enemy but it also gives you a speed boost. It is a great way to get to your enemy or escape your enemy.

W - Brutal Strikes

It is handy but the lowest priority since it doesn't do any AP damage. It's passive gives you AoE damage on your auto-attacks but that is your lowest priority on an AP Malphite. It's active is handy for the late-game since it gives you extra percentage armour. Your items are towards magic resist so you won't get countered by AD with this skill.

E - Ground Slam

It is an AoE skill which lowers your enemy's attack speed. It is very good to be used right after your ult to maximize AoE damage. It is one of your 3 skills with an AP scaling.

R - Unstoppable Force

Your main skill. You charge towards a location and knock everyone up within a pretty big radius. It is probably the perfect engage and in my opinion Yasuo has no better synergy with anything else than this skill. It does good damage especially when combined with Deathfire Grasp, 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 100% AP). The good thing about Midphite is that when you lose your lane this skill is always useful even if it doesn't do as much damage as you want. It is possible, with the right timing, to use your Deathfire Grasp active while in mid-air.

Generally you just want to harass with Q and run away. If up-close go for W>Q>E.

Your burst combo is DFG>R>E>Q (>W) and if you have enough items DFG>R>Q should be enough to finish off any squishy targets.

Early Game

You usually start with the generic Doran's Ring Health Potion as you need the mana regen and the trading potential.

Your boots will most of the time be Sorcerer's Shoes with the Enchantment: Alacrity upgrade. The magic penetration helps early game as it boosts your Q-damage which is the main point during the laning phase. Most of the time Enchantment: Alacrity is used as Malphite is very slow and you might need it to get in range to hit either your Seismic Shard Deathfire Grasp or Unstoppable Force.

Alternatively you could opt for Mobility Boots or Boots of Swiftness when you really need the movement speed or Ionian Boots of Lucidity which I do not recommend since with the standard build you get 35% CDR with can get to 40% by either blue buff or Elixir of Brilliance. You could or should use Enchantment: Homeguard if you are pushed heavily.

Core Items

Your three main items are Athene's Unholy Grail Deathfire Grasp and Rabadon's Deathcap. These three provide you with the necessary mana and burst potential. Though with only these items you are not as tanky as you want to be so it has to be completed.

End Game

You want to finish your build with Void Staff Abyssal Mask to give you the necessary magic penetration but also the extra magic resist to give you the extra tankiness. Alternatively you can switch one out for Zhonya's Hourglass if the enemy team is heavy AD. Rod of Ages is for the extra tankiness but generally it is not needed. Liandry's Torment is very situational and if you do buy it, buy it in early game to help your Q-harass, it is not in line with the rest of the build though. This build is aimed towards deleting their carries by means of a super high burst and not slowly harassing them.

Early Game

In the early game you want to focus on farming. When you can hit a Q. Watch your passive timer and make use of it since it is an incredible help for trades. If you need 1 second before it resets, don't go in. Just wait one more second. Get your Chalice of Harmony when you can so mana isn't so important anymore. {Dis)engage with your Q when the jungler comes for a gank.

Mid Game

You want to be in teamfights as you are made for it. Try to help to get as many objectives as you can. A Malphite with you in a fight or not is a huge factor in the success rate. By this time you should have Deathfire Grasp and you can start bursting carries. You might not be able to fully one-shot them yet so do not go man-mode every time. Keep an eye out on your jungle as you have great tools to help chase people.

Late Game

By now you should have your necessary items to delete squishies. In teamfights try to look for good opportunity to delete their carry, preferably when they are all together for your ult. Do not hesitate though if their carry is out of position and you can delete him before the other enemies can react. Making it a 5v4 is always good.