Passive

Malphite grants himself a shield for 9% of his maximum health. The shield lasts until it is broken, and refreshes after a few seconds of not taking damage. Your passive is one of your only forms of lane sustain. Look to trade with enemies when you have your passive shield up to soak the trade damage. The shield in conjunction with the Shield Bash rune makes your trades really strong. The cooldown on the shield generation stops and reset anytime you take damage, regardless if it’s from creeps or champions, so make sure not to take any damage during this time.

Q

Malphite sends a shard to the target enemy that deals magic damage and slows them for 3 seconds. Malphite also gains bonus movement speed equal to the raw amount the target lost from the slow for the duration. This will be your main poking tool. Taking Arcane Comet along with a Q max will make your poke sting, this is a good set up against ranged champions, or champions you can’t fight head on and have to rely on poke to slowly chunk them down. Maxing this first will also give you a pretty big movement speed buff, while also slowing down the target.

W

PASSIVE: Malphite gains bonus armor, tripled while Granite Shield is active. ACTIVE: Malphite empowers his next basic attack within 6 seconds to gain 50 bonus range and deal bonus physical damage on-hit. Additionally, Malphite's basic attacks on-hit for the next 5 seconds are empowered to trigger a cone in the direction of the target that deals physical damage to enemies hit. This ability is an auto attack reset. Maxing this ability first is the most optimal due to the ability's armor scaling passive, and armor multiplier when you have your Granite Shield up. The ability also scales off of armor, so this ability is a gigantic slap in the face towards AD champions since you build armor to lessen their damage, and now the resistances will also double as damage stats with your W. tl;dr- this is both an offensive and defensive ability and makes Malphite a menace to AD champions.

E

Malphite slams the ground beneath him, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies and crippling them for 3 seconds. This ability scales off of both AP and Armor. Crippling a champion causes them to lose attack speed. This ability counters high attack speed auto attacking champions. This ability alone is an amazing counter to ADCs, especially melee ADCs who are always in range for your Ground Slam like Yasuo, Yone and Tryndamere, because not only do they rely on auto attacks for damage, which gets countered by the attack speed slow, they are melee so you are sure to hit your E Ground Slam on them. This Ability in conjunction with Frozen Heart slows the attack speed of nearby enemies by up to 70%.

R

Malphite dashes with displacement immunity to the target location. Upon arrival, he deals magic damage to nearby enemies and knocks them up for 1.5 seconds. You can extend the range of this ability by buffering it with Flash. This ability has one of the longest knock up duration in the game. This ability is what makes Malphite such a threat, especially in teamfights

Q max first is good for the Arcane Comet set up for really strong poke, or if you need more movement speed from Seismic Shard. W max second for the additional armor on the passive. Max E last. Max R whenever possible. Do this ability leveling sequence if your laner is ranged/mobile, or if you’re running Arcane Comet.

W max first is good for the Grasp of the Undying set up. You will want to take this into melee matchups. This is the most optimal setup for malphite due to the W offering both offensive and defensive properties, and it also gives the most value per leveling up as it decreases the cooldown of the ability, unlike the other two basic abilities. Max Q second for the slow and movement speed buff to better stick to enemies. Max R whenever possible, and max E last.

A variation of the ability leveling sequence above. We're maxing E second if you don't need the movement speed slow, and would much rather have the attack speed slow. This is good if you're against something like a Tryndamere top and Viego jungle, or if you're up against 2 or more high attack speed champions. This is also a supportive alternative to the sequencing above, as slowing the enemy’s attack speed can also lessen their damage output towards your team.

An E max priority ability leveling sequence. I’m not a big fan of this sequence since I frequently build Frozen Heart early, but I can see some games where this leveling sequence would be good, such as if you have an immobile squishy carry who’s fed and an equally fed auto attacking enemy Yone or Tryndamere who can dive said immobile carries, or if you need really fast waveclear. This is more of a supportive leveling sequence, since it lowers the enemy’s damage output instead of just reducing the damage you receive with the W max. Max W second, due to the armor amplification also giving your E more damage, though you can put 3 points into Q before maxing W if you need more movement speed.

Basic W Thunderclap auto attack reset. A quick short trade combo. Use this combo when your Grasp of the Undying is ready to proc for a quick chunk of the enemy’s health.

A longer variation of the combo above.

Full basic ability rotation combo. You want to open with a Q Seismic Shard for the movement speed to stick on to the enemies and better kite into them with your autos and the rest of your abilities.

Maximum damage ultimate combo. Make sure to weave in auto attacks in between each ability for the maximum damage and for the spellblade passive procs on items. It is better to use Q Seismic Shard at the end of the combo to maximize the cc duration of the knock up of your ultimate and the slow from your Q Seismic Shard. Do not stack CC on top of each other.

Catch enemies by surprise with the Flash range extension on your ultimate. You can pull this off by buffering your ult with flash. Press R then Flash immediately afterwards.

You can buffer the cast time on your E Ground Slam with Flash. Press E then Flash immediately afterwards.

Malphite’s most optimal build. Grants a lot of tankiness, survivability and sustained damage. Malphite has armor scaling on his W Thunderclap and E Ground Slam, making armor the most valuable stat on him.




This build is the most optimal for Malphite. Full armor, this is amazing against an AD team comp, and you will literally not die from them with the amount of armor this build grants. You will also deal a lot of damage from your W Thunderclap and E Ground Slam due to their damage scaling off of armor.


You can replace Iceborn Gauntlet with Jak'Sho, The Protean/ Radiant Virtue if you're up against either a mage, or the enemy's comp has 2 or more magic dealing champions.


Replace Sunfire Aegis/ Frozen Heart with Force of Nature/ Abyssal Mask if the enemy has 2 or more magic dealing champions, or if their mages are fed. You can also rush Force of Nature first item if you're struggling aginst a mage lane.


If the enemy only has 1 magic dealing champion, or if they have 1 extremely fed carry, then buy Anathema's Chains to deal with them. Buying Anathema's Chains against a single mage over a dedicated magic resist is better in my opinion, due to the large amount of health the item provides, and the 30% damage reduction is big enough to forego magic resist items. The anti-tenacity also helps you lock down on the target.

If Anathema's Chains is not enough, then Gargoyle Stoneplate should be the final nail in the coffin for sole mages in the late game, as you'd have 30% damage reduction, and 60 magic resist to help you deal with them, as well as the shield active.

Malphite has a very traditional tank role in a teamfight, except that you deal quite a lot of damage, even as a tank, after you have a few armor items equipped. You are very anti-attack damage. Malphite’s key ability is his ultimate Unstoppable Force, which can single handedly win teamfights with a proper engage on a cluster of enemies. But Malphite isn’t limited to being just an engage bot, as he can also peel for his fed carries if the enemy has a big threat that can easily dive and burst down your team’s carries, though this entails sacrificing your engage tool to protect.



Early teamfights are often chaotic small skirmishes. You need to keep in mind that these fights begin even without having the entire team on the same page, regardless of who wants to fight or not, since this is solo queue.
You need to consider a few things first before deciding to join a fight such as how far you are from the fight, your impact on the fight, how fast you’ll respond and arrive to the fight, the pathing towards the fight, who’s currently stronger, etc…. Before a fight even begins, you should consider all the possibilities and variables in a fight. Once in a teamfight your main goal is to get on top of as many enemies as possible and beat them down with CC, soak damage, and cause disruption and help your allies dish out their abilities and damage while also trying to protect them when the enemies are getting too close. Later on when everyone starts to get a few item components, a numbers advantage becomes even greater, meaning that once a team is fighting with 1 player less in a teamfight, they will most likely lose if they’re not gigafed. Use your Q Seismic shard for the movement speed steal, as this will be your main CC ability in the early game pre-6. Do not be afraid to trade flashes with an enemy carry, especially the immobile squishies, as their flash is worth more than yours.

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Mid game team fights are more coordinated, both teams will be focusing on fighting and contesting objectives. Make sure to place wards and provide vision for your team. Do not tunnel vision for an engage on 5 people at once, as you need to take you and your team’s positioning into consideration as you would need them to follow up on your engage. You might also get caught out in an awkward position and die. You also need to assess the enemy team’s threats, and be ready to protect your ADC and other squishy carries. Again, in a teamfight your main goal is to get on top of as many enemies as possible and beat them down with CC, soak damage, and cause disruption and help your allies dish out their abilities and damage while also trying to protect them when the enemies are getting too close.

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Late game team fights are much riskier but more rewarding. In this state of the game, everyone deals way more damage and deaths and losing fights are punished way more harshly, while getting kills and winning fights are rewarded more greatly. As such, there is a lot of weight on your shoulders as an engage champion, because people will sing songs of praises for you if you can get a good engage and win the fight and even possibly the game, but curse you if you do a bad engage and lose the fight and possibly the game. So I suggest playing it slowly and not moving hastily. Be patient and look for safer angles to win fights. Play around objective timers, and don’t just mindlessly start a coinflip teamfight with not much to gain. When the enemy has assassin and your team doesn’t have any peel champions, then you’d better focus on protecting your carries. Prioritize protecting your team in the late game rather than engaging if you're the only one who can protect.

Deciding who to use your ultimate on is a very important decision making skill when playing Malphite.


Knowing when, who, or how to use your ultimate is crucial. Malphite’s ultimate Unstoppable Force is a game changing team fighting ability.


But ultimately(pun intended) it comes down to who’s fed on both teams. If your team’s ADC is ahead, and the enemy has a strong assassin who can easily burst them down, then you should prioritize protecting your team.


But if it’s your bruiser jungle who’s really fed and is mostly self-reliant like Viego or Bel'Veth, then you should adjust accordingly and play for engages using your ultimate Unstoppable Force.

Jungle Camps Counter jungle as much as you can by the mid-game if possible, such as when the enemy jungler/top or both are dead, your super ahead, or if your jungler is looking to invade, as this not only gives you or your jungler additional farm, but also denies the enemy jungler resources. Malphite can clear camps pretty fast once you have a bit of armor and also due to his AoE abilities, so look to clear enemy topside camps once you fully shoved the minion wave up to their tier 2 tower, though beware that doing this is a lot riskier if you’re behind, but nevertheless still possible if you can sense when and where they’ll collapse on you(if at all). Take an Oracle Lens to clear wards to make sure they don’t see you taking camps. You can also take your jungler’s blue buff if neither your jungler or midlaner needs it, as Malphite can utilize the cooldown reduction and mana regen very well from the buff. When you or your team killed 3 or more of the enemy in at the same time, or emerged victorious in a teamfight and there are no other objectives to take, look to shove all the waves then decide to either counter jungle or take towers depending your team’s tower taking speed and the enemy’s respawn timer.

Rift Scuttler Rift scuttler is a very important objective early on, and as a toplaner, you should look to help your jungler contest and secure scuttle at around 3:30 if both junglers are pathing topside and will end up in a fight against scuttle. Look to set up a slow push if you can, to force the enemy toplaner to choose between helping contest scuttle and lose a ton of minions, or stay in lane and give the enemy the numbers advantage. If either one or both of the junglers are pathing bot, then there is no need to contest scuttle, simply cheater recall instead. This objective not only helps in the sense that you’re helping your jungler gain gold and exp, but it also gives vision(!!!) and a small aoe movement speed buff which benefits everyone. Later on in the game if your jungler isn’t taking the scuttle crab, take it yourself, as it is additional vision for your entire team which becomes all the more impactful the later the game goes on.

Towers Taking towers isn't really Malphite's specialty as his split pushing and tower taking speed isn't all that amazing. But still, you and your team should look to take towers whenever you can, as this gives you gold and opens up the map to your team's side, allowing for better counter-jungling, deeper minion wave crashes, and more sidelane pressure.

Inhibitors Destroy this structure to make super minions spawn which can provide pressure to an enemy's lane without you being there. Try not to take inhibitors down very early if you can't end the game or secure baron to end the game, since if the enemies have good wave clearing abilities, they can farm the super minions which provide more gold than regular minions, allowing them to possibly make a comeback.

Dragon Dragon is usually gonna be the first objective that both teams are gonna fight and contest over, as fights for rift scuttler happens way less due to the scuttle crab nerfs, splitting it into 2 small crabs in the early game instead of 1 regular sized scuttle. Dragons give a permanent buff to you and your team, up to a maximum of 4 dragons secured, in which you gain the power of Dragon soul which gives a way stronger permanent buff, and gives your team periodic effects.

Rift Herald Rift Herald is a very strong sieging objective. Once you or your team secured herald, try to have it placed on the lane who benefits most from an open tower for easier roam set ups for them. This usually goes to mid lane, but placing it in Malphite’s lane in top lane isn’t bad either, as Malphite can roam more frequently with an early open tier 1 tower brought by the Rift Herald. Having the eye of the herald also gives you an empowered recall cutting down the recall time in half, so you might not want to drop Herald immediately so you can utilize this empowered recall. Whenever you're dropping Herald to take towers and tower plates are still up, look to use it when the tower has 2 and 1/4 plates to ensure that the Herald crash can take the tower out, making her go to the next tower for another crash.

Dragon Soul Provides a strong permanent buff to your team after securing 4 dragons. The buffs you receive are stronger than the regular dragons and depending on which dragon soul, may provide healing, movement speed, resistances and shields, damage, or slows.

Elder Dragon The win-teamfight buff. Try forcing teamfights once you have this buff, due to the massive advantage in fights you gain after securing this dragon, as it grants true damage burn and 20% HP execute.

Baron Nashor All around team buff. Securing Baron Nashor grants your team AD/AP, empowered recall and buffs your minions. The buffs are mostly used to help siege and take down towers and inhibitors with the help of the Baron-buffed minions. Try to group and force your way through towers as a team when you have Baron buff and are healthy enough to fight.

Nexus This is your end goal. Destroy this and win the game. K/D/A doesn't matter if you're not closing out games and ending, resulting in -24LP. If you're playing to win, play to take objectives, with the Nexus being the highest objective of them all.

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Aatrox the Darkin Blade Overall difficulty: 3.5/5 Suggested runes: Grasp of the Undying/ Phase Rush Suggested items: Plated Steelcaps/ Boots of Swiftness, Thornmail, Iceborn Gauntlet, Frozen Heart, Sunfire Aegis Key Abilities and combos to beware of: Q3, E-Q3, W-Q3, W-Q2-Q3 This is a pretty difficult matchup for Malphite. You usually wouldn’t be able to solo kill him without Grasp of the Undying and anti-heal, though you are able to win short trades if you can space well and sidestep his abilities properly, especially his Q sweet spots. Aatrox will be stronger than Malphite throughout the entire game, with Malphite only having the advantage against Aatrox in teamfighting power. Aatrox has good lane sustain through his passive Deathbringer Stance and omnivamp through his E Umbral Dash passive, which makes him able to stay in lane for quite some time. Aatrox’s W Infernal Chains can get blocked by minions, so try to stand behind your minions when he has it up. When trading against Aatrox, you basically want to bait his abilities out, then punish him and trade during its cooldown. I would recommend maxing W Thunderclap first for the armor amplification, and also since he would just most likely sustain through your Q Seismic Shard poke if you max it first, and he doesn’t rely on auto attacks a lot/have a lot of attack speed, so E Ground Slam max is also not that good. Most of the time I would recommend taking Phase Rush against Aatrox, since this is a more forgiving rune and you can proc it fast to avoid eating his entire combo, since getting hit by one of his abilities would usually lead to a chain of his abilities hitting you in succession, thus Phase Rush allows you to get out and run with a quick E Ground Slam-AA-W Thunderclap, but you can take Grasp of the Undying if you are good in dodging Aatrox’s abilities, although it is a riskier rune. Aatrox’s popular items also counter Malphite pretty hard such as Eclipse, Black Cleaver, and Serylda’s Grudge. Buy an early Bramble Vest on your first back. Try to freeze your lane and create an angle for your jungler or mid laner to gank you, Malphite has good gank set up, so a visit by your jungler should result in a kill or a flash. Later on, Aatrox might be looking to split push, which is bad news for you because he is better in the solo sidelanes later on in the game, and your team would be losing more value than his team because you are way better in teamfights than Aatrox and him pressuring you to respond to him would weaken your team’s teamfighting power if no one else in your team matches his sidelane, forcing you to deal with him. Look to play for your team in this matchup. You can take Ignite in this matchup instead of Teleport if you went Grasp of the Undying and are looking for solo kill angles.