Malphite Build Guide by AP WormMaW Mid

Introduction

So, my name is AP WormMaW Mid and I am AP Kogmaw main since season 3. I was Master tier season 4 and season 5 in soloQ, ending up in Challenger in 5v5 bracket during these seasons as well. Last season I ended up in Diamond 1 on EUW and Master tier 160LP on EUNE.

My main account profiles can be found here: EUNE, EUW

Even though, my main role is midlane, there were times, when top was my main role instead and I still do actively play it, keeping my ability to play it close to my ability to play midlane.

My main motivation for creation of this guide is, that I feel like Malphite is really strong situational soloQ pick, that is not too hard to play, while being efficient for climbing in soloQ. Even though, he might not be hardest champion to play, I found out that many players don't really know, how to proceed with itemization on this champion, so hopefully I will be able to share my point of view and possibly show you strengths, that you can use during your games.

Preseason experiment

During preseason, I managed to pull off experiment, where I created new account, that I leveled up and I started to play from unranked and climb as much as possible just by playing Malphite and Dr. Mundo. Since I leveled up this account myself, it was guaranteed, that it didn't have any history. You can see results from this experiment below.

Account that I used for this experiment can be found here.

For commentary, I wasn't able to get latest data from op.gg, because they removed all preseason data one day before season started, which I didn't really expect, so I didn't really get winrates and KDAs from there, but I kept one screenshot, that I took during process (for such cases). You can see final results taken from lolskill.net (last screenshot).

As you can see, at first I was able to keep up quite decent winrate, while it started to drop later on snowly. I am sure that there would be people, who can make even better winrate, since I am not really toplane main and I didn't play toplane for quite a while + I am not perfect player either. But still, I think that I managed to get quite decent KDAs and winratios with mentioned champions.

I was playing Dr. Mundo way more, because he is harder to counter and because it was my go-for pick, when I didn't know my opponent, which might lead in harder matchups sometimes, while I tried to keep Malphite mostly for matchups, where I knew my opponent, so it was basically easier to keep up decent winrate and KDA ratios.

My final elo was Plat 2, I was nearly in promo and I was getting around +25 for win and -15 for loss, which means that my MMR was somewhere around Diamond 5.

In case that you had some doubts about these champions, then I hope that I provided you with at least some valuable information, in case that you would be deciding if you want to pick some of these champions, in order to add them to your champion pool.

Pros / Cons

Pros + Great initiation + Heavy counter for certain champions + Really tanky against certain teams + Great teamfighting potential + Ability to stop most of splitpushers

Cons - Weak when getting hardcountered - Inefficient against AP sustaining champions - Tricky to play, without followup - Difficult decision making engage-wise

To wrap up points, said above, Malphite is really great situational champion, that can really destroy certain toplane champions and he is definitelly strong teamfighter. But at same time, he has quite obvious weaknesses like being inefficient against heavy AP teams. Last important thing is, that if you play Malphite, you are mostly responsible for fight initiation, which means that either way you do it properly and everyone will love you, or you engage in a wrong way, it doesn't work out and everyone will point his finger on you, which might be annoying.

Except for that, I think that Malphite is definitelly not hard champion to play and I am certainly sure, that he is worth keeping in champion pool, expecially if you want to counter some champions (mostly AD-based).

When should I proceed with this pick?

As you probably know, Malphite is excellent pick against heavy-AD team compositions, while being weak against mages (especially those, that are good for melting tanks). His another great advantage is, that you have quite reliable initiation/catching potential with your ultimate.

For that reason, you should mainly aim for this pick if you either way see, that you are playing against heavy-AD comp or if you want to counter certain champion(s). Nice example might be picking it into stuff like Fiora, Camille or Tryndamere, to have tool to stop their splitpush.

Another situation, where it's good is, when you want to stop some strong adc like Twitch, Jinx, etc. You need to count with the fact, that you need followup as well, but in case of Twitch, it's really great that you might give your team chance to react, if you are fast enough and you ult him instantly after he gets out of stealth.

Another situation, where I find Malphite quite decent is when you are facing AD assasin on midlane like Zed or Talon, because not only that you are able to deal with these guys in lane. You should be as well able to follow them without worrying about their assasination potential too much. Obviously early on, they might still beat you with their all-in if you are not careful at all, but generally you have tool to deny them during laning phase and then possibly even deny their burst on your carries, by using your ultimate.

Tank vs Full-AP Malphite?

Recently I have seen quite many AP Malphite players in my games, running stuff like Luden's Echo, Liandry's Torment etc, but generally they went pretty much full-AP build. That thing caught my attention and my guess is, that it's happening only because Riot increased AP ratios on Ground Slam.

Even with increased AP ratios, I feel like full-AP Malphite is just inferior for multiple reasons. First one is, that he becomes way too squishy, so you might be very good in terms of harassing and picking people, but once when you come into teamfight (and unless you hit their entire team at same time), you will just die instantly right after doing your combo. I have seen this happening too many times, that our Malphite got strong, with many kills, but then he became useless, because he was dying way too fast.

Another problem comes, when you start having problems one****ting people. Basically even assasins or ADCs are building some sort of health/MR, if they see real threats against them. For that reason, you might not be able to burst down people anymore.

Another problem comes, when people start buying stuff like Banshee's Veil, which doesn't only offer protection against your magic damage in terms of MR, but it as well makes it really hard for you to make real engage on enemy team and pull off your combo. And if people are smart - especially on higher elo, be sure that they will buy such items, just to deny you.

Next thing, that is worth to mention is, that Malphite has enough damage in his kit and his strength is, that he is able to spam his abilities quite often and attack. As tank, you survive in fight way longer, which means more used abilities, which means more damage in general. As you all know, you don't deal damage if you are dead, so keep that in mind.

This is probably going to be the last thing. There is obviously possibility to run some sort of hybrid between AP and tank, when buying some hybrid items like Rod of Ages etc. that offer you both health and AP. Problem with these builds is, that once enemy team builds MR, your AP out of these items will basically become worthless, only making you more squishy without any real added value. Yes, if people on lower elo don't understand how to protect themselves or rest of your team is AD, you might consider buying that. But in general, my preference is to just build full-tank Malphite, that will offer team reliable initiation with possibility to become that brick wall in front of your team, because remember - your carries can be as much fed as they want to, but if you don't allow them to deal damage, they won't do it. For that reason, if you keep attention of your enemies and force them to attack you, rest of your team will have free hand to do whatever they want (usually win teamfight).

Runes

In this part, I will explain rune choices and I will try to make certain comparisons and bring arguments, why did I decide in this way. Please note, that I am not including explanations for all possibilities, in case that I don't find these possibilities any interesting, which would just lead in unnecessary text.

Here, I will start with Grasp of the Undying, which would force you to go Resolve tree. Another benefit, that you would get from Resolve tree is most likely additional tenacity from Unflinching or tower damage from Demolish. At first, these aren't really too impressive runes, since you aren't really best splitpusher and you will mostly stick with the team and additional tenacity isn't really too beneficial, since you have pretty good tools how to stick with your target. More importantly though, Grasp of the Undying has pretty bad utilization in lane, since you would have to go for face-to-face trade, which mostly leads you into sitation, where you lose unnecessary amount of health. This is as well closely connected to my personal playstyle, where I prefer to poke a lot with my Seismic Shard. Basically whenever I tried it, it just felt like a waste.

Since I decided, to not go for Resolve tree, next obvious possibility is Sorcery as a main rune tree. Arcane Comet is probably first possible choice, that you can think about. When you think about it, whenever you use Seismic Shard, you slow target, which makes it hard for it to dodge Arcane Comet. That increases your harass potential in lane quite a lot. Problem is it's cooldown and general utilization, because until you only poke, then it is fine, but when you go for all-in, which mostly leads into some chasing and face-to-face fighting, Arcane Comet has quite high cooldown and it doesn't proc too many times in these fights, which in my opinion makes it a bit worse than Summon Aery.

After all, Summon Aery is in my opinion best choice for Malphite. Even though it's damage is not that impressive, the main reason, why I consider it as best is it's utilization. You can proc it from every single Seismic Shard that you throw at your opponent. Second thing, it's utilization depends on range, that you keep from your opponent, so when you are going for face-to-face trade, there is pretty much no travel time, except for short delay, when it sticks to the target. But still, whenever you are fighting, it is just travelling back and forth, increasing your damage in quite decent way. Additional benefit is, that you can proc it from autoattacks and not just abilities, which makes it even better, because Arcane Comet needs ability, to proc it.

The Ultimate Hat is first viable possibility for Malphite, since it provides cooldown reduction for your ult, which might be in certain situations huge, since you are mostly trying to play around your ult, whenever you try to force fight or attempt to catch one of your opponents. Reason, why I don't prefer it in my build is though, that Malphite is quite mana hungry in lane, if you use your abilities often.

As a follow-up for my previous statement, this is an answer for Malphite's biggest issue in lane, which is his mana. Manaflow Band greatly increases your mana cappabilities in lane, allowing you to freely spam your abilities, expecially if you build up some mana pool, while building Iceborn Gauntlet. This was mostly biggest issue, that I saw in build of most people in soloQ. Mostly they were rushing Sunfire Cape, running around in lane without any mana and ending up losing lane due to it, because Malphite is basically useless, once when he runs out of mana.

Transcendence might look like available option, but it's biggest problem is that it takes time, until it starts giving you actual benefit, which makes it pretty weird choice. Most of games are being played around early game, which means, that you should try to get as much addvantage as possible there, instead of trying to get some ultra lategame.

Since Malphite has to chase a lot, Celerity looks like pretty decent option, expecially when it scales with your Seismic Shard. Problem here is though, that as with previous example, it lacks early game potential and the extra movespeed benefit is actually not that valuable as it might seem to be, because if you are going for fight, you are mostly waiting for your Unstoppable Force to be available, which will get you where you want, even though this might give you a bit of benefit, when you start chasing and try to clean-up.

Absolute Focus is my prefered rune to pick-up. It gives you pretty good advantage even during early game, when you try to constantly poke your opponent with Seismic Shard. Another thing is, that you can utilize this benefit, if you keep yourself on higher health, by utilizing your Granite Shield. Generally it increases your laning potential a lot and with right playstyle, you can create a lot of pressure on your lane and deny your opponent, making quite big advantage to your team.

Scorch is pretty much must-have rune here, since it increases your poke potential during early game even further. Compared to other options, that you might choose it's simply best to get extra damage, while trying to poke with your Seismic Shard.

Many people feel like this rune is really great, because it increases your lategame potential. Problem is, that you need to get there somehow. Expecially now when games are fast-paced a lot and people tend to surrender at 20 minutes mark, you pretty much end your game by getting pretty much no advantage out of that rune.

In this part, I will just explain, why did I get Conditioning and Overgrowth, since I think, that these choices are pretty straightforward, instead of making some complicated comparisons, resulting in wall of text, that is mostly pretty pointless for majority of people.

This rune compared to other choices gives you both armor and MR flat in addition to % bonus, which is really beneficial once when you start scaling up. Expecially as Malphite who mostly has a lot of armor, it is crucial to be able to increase this value as much as possible, but since you are mostly not facing only AD opponents, it's great to have MR bonus as well. This is first must-have rune in this tree.

Overgrowth increases your health even further by % amount. It is great, that you get this bonus, depending on amount of minions that die around you, instead of that you kill. For that reason, whenever you are sieging, you keep getting more and more out of this rune, expecially once when you build up your Warmog's Armor. It is pretty much mandatory rune for nearly every tank, that is aiming for high amounts of health.

Prefered items

Recenty I started to build up Corrupting Potion as starting shop, while omitting Doran's Ring completely. Even though I do that, I don't feel like Doran's Ring is that far behind in terms of what it provides you, so basically try it out and you will find out what fits you the best. In terms of dark seal, it gives a bit of additional mana, another "firepower" in form of AP and sustain from potions. It is great to combine The Dark Seal with Doran's Ring, because you receive really nice amount of AP, to increase your harass potential with Seismic Shard, even though as I already mentioned, it's possible to completely omit Doran's Ring and go for Iceborn Gauntlet straight up.

I mostly build Corrupting Potion for stable mana sustain, to be able to consistently poke my opponent. Another thing is, that it provides you health sustain, which is increased even further, when you have The Dark Seal, which increases value of this potion. Last thing is, that you can turn on this potion whenever you are going for trade, increasing your damage output by quite decent amount, which definitelly shouldn't be ignored.

This is pretty much my only choice, when I go for boots. Reason for that is, that I tend to pick Malphite into AD champions, which is why I mostly aim just for Ninja Tabi to make you more durable expecially against autoattack champions.

This is second possibility in terms of boots. If you are facing a lot of magic damage dealers, you can go for these, even though the fact, that you are playing Malphite into many AP champions means, that you did something wrong during champion selection, even though it can be sometimes beneficial to play him even into a bit heavier AP items, since Malphite provides great initiation, which might be great against variety of poke champions like Xerath, Vel'Koz and so on.

This is one of core items, that you should aim for during early game. First reason for that is, that it provides you required mana sustain and initial armor, that will allow you to pretty much use your abilities all the time, without worrying too much about mana, because there is nothing worse than running out of mana in the middle of trade. Second thing is, that it provides sheen effect, that will increase your damage quite a lot, considering that you are able to constantly spam your abilities. Third big reason is it's AoE effect. Since it's size scales with armor and you are the biggest armor beast, you are going to see really huge "blue slowing circles", that will be more than annoying for your opponents. For that reason, it will be way easier to chase your opponents, increasing your uptime on target quite a lot, expecially during windows, when you don't have your Seismic Shard available.

This item gives you decent durability against magic-damage dealers, while increasing magic damage of your team by certain amount. It is really great to have if you are having a lot of AP champions on your team, creating pretty nice damage increasing aura in teamfights, which should be up for most of time, considering that you are the one being in the frontline. We shouldn't as well forget additional mana, that it gives, even though after you have your Iceborn Gauntlet, it's not that beneficial anymore.

This is second possibility, when it comes to items, that provide MR. You should prioritize this item, whenever you are facing champions, that are using same abilities with really high frequency (they spam it at least once per 4 seconds). Example of such champions might be Cassiopeia, Kog'Maw, Malzahar and so on.

Many people might not consider this item too great for Malphite, but main thing is, that even if you have really great Armor/MR, you still need high health pool, to increase your amount of effective health. Except for it's high amount of health, second big benefit is, that you can simply tank several tower shots during siege, then backing off, getting health back and proceeding again with full health. Even in teamfights, sometimes it's possible that if you get on low health, you can just walk around for a bit of time, letting it give you some health, while waiting for your Granite Shield and then returning back into teamfight, being able to eat additional damage.

Randuin's Omen is one of my most favorite armor items against crit champions. It gives you a lot of health, armor and it decreases damage output of those autoattack champions, that build up crit by huge amount. You should never build it against champions like Ezreal though, generally if enemy team has no champions, that would be able to crit often. Except for that, it provides really nice slow, that can be used after your engage with Unstoppable Force.

You should take this item primarily against targets, that are having huge sustain. Nice examples are Fiora, Tryndamere or any AD-carry that is building a lot of lifesteal. To some extent, it can sometimes deny even champion like Vladimir, but for that reason, he needs to be autoattacking you, depending on his own inability to understand the game properly or simply by doing mistake, so don't really build it into things like that, because you will simply rely on their own mistakes. Except for healing reduction, it provides really nice damage, that is going back to targets, that are autoattacking you, expecially when you have so much armor.

Sunfire Cape is mostly core, first buy item for majority of playerbase. Even though I understand benefits, I feel like it simply doesn't fit my playstyle too much. You can use it against heavy-AD teams, but I feel like it doesn't really fit to build in any other situations, because you simply don't have space for that item. Main reason why I don't like to build this item as first one is, that you are going to be out of mana for most of time. Every time I see someone playing Malphite, while building this as a first item, he mostly ends up dancing under his own tower with 5% of mana and there is really nothing worse as Malphite than running out of mana.

This item is great option, when you are pretty much the only frontline and you expect a lot of damage from your opponents. In that case, you should build up this, to be able to use it right after your engage, trying to survive for as long as possible and let squishies on your team to do their part. It as well gives you great combination of Armor/MR, in case that enemy team has pretty balanced team in terms of Magic/Physical damage. The only problem that I see with this item is, that it provides no HP and since you already have Iceborn Gauntlet, then it would already be your second item, that gives no health.

Are you serious? Support item here? Oh, yes! Reason, why I put it here as an option is, that it works in similar way, like Gargoyle Stoneplate, it helps you to mitigate damage in teamfights and it again gives you combination of Armor/MR. Difference is, that your damage doesn't really get reduced, which is great and second thing is, that you can use this to peel for your carries. Imagine stuff like Zed, ulting your Twitch. You might just ult Zed straight away if you have it available, but it might not always be enough, so for that reason, you can use your Locket of the Iron Solari to peel for him even further, or generally for people in that teamfight.

Spell-maxing priority

Seismic Shard is ability, that I max as first one. Reason for that is, that it allows you to poke your opponent from relatively safe distance, without being forced to go into face-to-face trade, since it gives you movespeed buff, while reducing movespeed of your opponent, so even if someone attempts to trade, you can just move away from him. Second benefit is, that you don't have to push, while harassing, compared to Ground Slam. Pushing like that on toplane is mostly dangerous and leads to you getting caught by enemy jungler and then complaining about yours. Last thing is, that it has pretty decent AP ratio, so after you build up your Doran's Ring + The Dark Seal (unless you omit Doran's Ring), you end up having around 60-70 AP, increasing efficiency of this ability even further. There is one important note to mention in here - I don't exactly remember at which patch was it introduced, but Riot basically added mechanic, that enemy minions will start attacking you after using single target point click spell, which includes Seismic Shard. For that reason, whenever you are going for poke, after using this ability, make sure that you start running backwards to lose aggro of minions. In addition - always keep in mind that ranged minions may attack you, possibly resetting cooldown on your Granite Shield. So generally speaking - keep this in mind and always think about moments, when you want to go for poke and when you just want to give it up.

Some people are actually wondering about this one - why do I max Brutal Strikes over Ground Slam even against champions like Tryndamere or Jax? First reason for my decision is that if you max Brutal Strikes, you receive additional damage for your autoattacks, that together should do generally more damage than maxed Ground Slam. Another benefit is, that it increases your armor value a lot, expecially if you have your Granite Shield up. Trading 20% additional Armor for 20% of extra attack speed reduction (these are values, that you receive after you max up either way Brutal Strikes or Ground Slam), where these 20% of armor become actual 60% with your Granite Shield. That is actually a lot of armor, and we have to remember, that these armor bonuses have 100% uptime (20% bonus armor does), while attack speed reduction only applies for 3 seconds, with 7 seconds cooldown on ability (without cooldown reduction). Even with 40% CDR, you will not get 100% uptime. Another situation is, when you are getting hit from various directions - expecially from distance. In that case Armor applies on all of that damage, while Ground Slam attack speed slow applies only on those, that are next to you. Last and probably most hidden reason is, that if you get additional Armor, it doesn't only increase your defenses, it increases your offensive potential as well. With Brutal Strikes having additional 15% of total Armor scaling and Ground Slam having additional 40% of total Armor scaling, if you max out Brutal Strikes, you actually get benefit for both of these abilities together, beating benefit of maxed out Ground Slam.

Since I gave my main explanation above, I will try to keep this description short. For above reasons, this should be your last ability, that you max, since the only thing, that you get is a bit of damage and extra attack speed reduction (20%), which is not that insanely great. Another thing is, that Ground Slam has way bigger radius, forcing you to push, while trading near minions and exposing you to ganks.

This ability is probably most important reason, why you would possibly want to play Malphite. It offers you great initiation tool for either way engaging fights, catching your opponents or even finnishing up someone, who is trying to run away. You can as well use this ability as escape tool, even though it mostly feels awkward, but it's still better than dying.

Playstyle

Since people mostly don't realise this fact, I am going to mention it here. Build should always be connected with specific playstyle. People think quite often, that they grab specific build that some successful player uses, yet they fail with it. This is why I personally prefer to create build myself, to simply build it around my specific playstyle. This is why I will try to share my playstyle, pretty much as required part of the build.

Let's start off with early game. During early levels, you are going to struggle with your mana, since you don't have sufficient mana sustain yet. For that purpose, you need to choose whether you want to poke since level one or not. If you are able to farm with autoattacks, always try to poke down your opponent, while if you know, that you are going to get punished for every single cs, try to rather save your abilities to last hit otherwise unreachable minions.

Always utilize your Granite Shield, because that is the reason, why you are able to stay in lane for such a long time. If you use it properly and sometimes even give up some minion, you will be able to survive your opponent and create pressure through your poke, being able to freeze wave on your side of lane, while denying your opponent even further. Don't forget, that you are using Absolute Focus in this build, which gives this utilization of Granite Shield even bigger importance.

Don't try to trade your opponent face-to-face. This build is being made around poke with your Seismic Shard. If you go for autoattacks, you mostly lose that trade, since you aren't so strong early on. In addition to that, you will lose benefit of your Absolute Focus. You can start doing these trades, after you scale up a bit, but early on it's pointless and you should try to play on the field, where you are strong.

After harassing your opponent to lower amount of health, don't get greedy. Just freeze wave and last hit freely while zoning your opponent from it. He is mostly low and scared of your all-in with Unstoppable Force, but remember, that his jungler might be waiting somewhere nearby, so be careful. Remember - when your opponent doesn't get any farm, he won't do much later on - he is the one, being forced to come, not the other way around. Just wait until you have idea where is enemy jungler and then proceed to all-in with your entire combo. Always watch out, whether you approximately have enough damage and more importantly, if you have enough mana to pull it off.





After you reach 2 items, you are mostly strong enough to do whatever you want in lane, unless you are facing some counterpick or unless you are incredibly behind compared to your opponent.

If you are behind, try to go for some picks with your Unstoppable Force and if you don't have it, keep farming on your side-lane to scale up. You can even do it generally, if your team does well, but you should always look around the map to use your Unstoppable Force.

If you are ahead, you have pretty similar choices. You can ask your team to group, to siege and possibly go for some dive, if you find right situation for it. Otherwise, you can as well pressure certain side lane and generally splitpushing, if you are able to destroy enemy laner, that you countered (or simply destroyed). In that case, always keep in mind, that you need to create yourself a vision around enemy jungle, to see incoming threat.





Late game as Malphite is mostly really difficult. Yes, you are strong with your Unstoppable Force, but with great powers, comes great responsibility. In late game, any lost teamfight might mean, that you lose game. For that reason, it's crucial to understand when to engage and when not to engage, it's simply double-edged blade.

If you make some fancy catch on some important target and you win game due to that, everyone is going to love you. If you attempt to catch someone and it somehow doesn't work, everyone will blame you and try to report you for whatever reason. This is probably most frustrating part about playing Malphite - you rely on too many aspects, where biggest part is your team's awareness. You might do some interesting engage, but if your team reacts way too late, they will blame you for it anyways, so be careful.

Another thing, that might be valuable to do (expecially against enemy assasins like Talon, Kayn and so on), is to hold your ult and wait with it, until someone tries to oneshot one of your carries. In that moment, you basically ult that target, peeling for your carry and mostly destroying one of their important targets, but that just depends on teamcomp and situation. Just remember, that whenever you go in and you don't know where is their entire team, you risk, that you leave your carries behind, leaving them wide-open to flank by some dangerous target.

Matchups

I won't be adding all possible matchups here. Though, I will try to mention those, that are either way really good for Malphite or possibly really bad.

No matter what, even if you are not forced to play against him in lane, it is really obnoxious to face this champion at all. There is always risk, that he gets fed and since you are simply unable to stop him, unless your team has enough damage to shut him down, this guy is such a huge headache. It's even worse though, to face him in lane, since he has incredible amount of sustain and he will most likely outharass you. What you can try to do though, is to buy mana sustain ( The Dark Seal + Sapphire Crystal) and initial MR (like Negatron Cloak) and try to poke him down with your Seismic Shard. If he is smart and buys some magic resistance, you should just focus on farming from distance and give your team chance to do stuff. A lot of Vladimir players are not that smart though and they don't really build any MR. In that case, you can try to poke him down and after, when he is quite low, you can try to go all-in with your Unstoppable Force. But mostly in lategame, he will simply outscale you and you will be just where you started. Generally speaking, try to avoid this matchup whenever you can.

Swain is simillar to Vladimir. He has a lot of sustain in lane and his magic damage will be more than annoying for you. What you can do here is pretty much same as against Vladimir. Try to get some mana sustain and magic resistance and constantly try to poke him down with Seismic Shard. If he is good, he will build up some MR against you as well, which will pretty much deny your strategy, so you will be forced to eat harass and farm safely. A lot of times, players are underestimating you, while playing counter, so in case that you drop Swain to certain amount of health, you can try to make some all-in and finnish him off. Asking for ganks works too, since he has problem to escape it, expecially when you have Unstoppable Force up. Once when he gets to midgame though, you will never be able to deal with him, due to his sustain and damage over time magic damage. Against him, make sure to build up your Adaptive Helm, in order to at least reduce that damage, since most of Swain players are building Liandry's Torment, which can be partially countered by that item as well.

You don't really get to play against this champion a lot nowdays on toplane, but if you get to that, you are pretty much doomed unless you get some ganks, otherwise you will just get kited to oblivion. Except for that, even if you don't get Cassiopeia in toplane, it's generally not that great to play Malphite in games where she is. Great thing is, that you can engage on her and since she is immobile, there is not much what she can do against it, but if you don't really have follow-up, you will pretty much have headache fighting against that. Just make sure, that you build up Adaptive Helm, because that is probably the best item to counter her.

Ornn is painfull to deal with nearly as any tanky toplaner. Main reason for that is, that he is able to pull off quite a lot of % damage and he is way too much tanky at same time. When playing Malphite, you should just try to poke him until he makes some MR, but after that you should just farm all day long and wait for ganks. Problem is, that even though you might make transition to midgame against him without dying, he is going to be strong even in teamfights and if your team doesn't have any tank-melters, you will have hard time dealing with him.

This bad boy is probably the worst thing that you can face (or he is close to it). Main reason for that is, that he is able to block all your poke with his Scrap Shield, which makes you unable to trade him at all. Another problem is that whenever you come for last hit, he will get at least through your Granite Shield and probably chunk your health even more than that, when chasing you. After he builds up Liandry's Torment, it will be hard for you to even keep up Granite Shield at all, due to continuous DoT effect of it's passive part. What you can do here is simply rush Adaptive Helm after getting some initial mana sustain and cry out for ganks, otherwise you are doomed. Though, with your Unstoppable Force up, he is quite easy to kill, since he is forced to push, due to his kit. But as we all know, it's not really best to rely on our jungler in soloQ, since he might have different plans compared to you.

Despite him being AD champion, it's very hard to deal with this guy, due to the fact, that you can't really poke him down, since he has both Way of the Wanderer and Wind Wall. Another thing, that is annoying about him is that he has Last Breath, that he can easily use to shred through your defense, especially if he combines it with Conqueror rune. But don't be mistaken, you can win lane against him or go even. The problem comes, when he starts scaling up and at some point he manages to buy Frozen Mallet, which will make it impossible for you to face him 1v1. In that case, you can just try to stop him from splitpushing, because he can't still dive you, but fighting him in open space will be nearly impossible (unless he is really bad player).

In terms of the terror of the void, you have to keep in mind, that he will basically outscale you in a way, that you won't be ever able to face him in any way. Early on, you will be able to land some poke on him, but if he is smart enough, he will rush MR and deny that. Then you can try to purchase Sheen in order to deal extra physical damage using your autoattacks, but this won't last too long either. In the end, it's up to your jungler, where he puts his priority and whether he wants to stop this insane beast, because once he starts scaling up, you won't be able to touch him anymore.

Darius is juggernaut, that is causing problems to most of melee champions, including Malphite. Main problem is, that whenever he hits you, his Hemorrhage will make sure, that you can't really refresh your Granite Shield for quite while. Another thing is, that he can sustain himself using Decimate and he has his Noxian Guillotine to finnish you off using true damage. The best thing, that you could possibly do is to keep poking him with Seismic Shard and retreat whenever he tries to go for you, because you should never pick up longer trades against him. Always keep an eye on his Hemorrhage stacks on you, because if you would let him refresh those, it just delays the time, when you are without Granite Shield + it allows him to go all-in. It is very beneficial to juke his Apprehend, because then, he can't really get on you in any way, and you have free time to throw few Seismic Shard on him. In the end though, it all comes down to fact, how your opponent plays it and how is he building his items (whether he gets some MR against you or not etc). What you should try to do here in general - don't feed him too much and play it safe. Try to mainly wait for jungle ganks, because those will be really decimating for him, whenever you have Unstoppable Force. From mid to lategame it all comes down to your and enemy team compositions, which will show, who is able to actually do better.

Even though, it's not one of the hardest matchups, I feel like it's still worth mentioning, because once you play it wrong, it might cause you a huge headache. So first off - you should never ever try to fight him face to face (unless you are really ahead). So respect his damage and run away from him whenever he tries to get on your face. Another important thing is, that you should keep your Unstoppable Force, until he dismounts. If you wouldn't do it that way, there is quite decent chance, that he manages to mount up again before you finnish him off, because he can build up his energy really fast using both autoattacks and his gun. For that reason, play it smart - wait until he dismounts, maybe even poke him a bit more with Seismic Shard and then make sure, that you can oneshot him, when you go all in, to not give him chance to recuperate.

Aatrox pre-rework was quite easy to beat, but this one is way harder. Main reason for that is, that he will be insanely frustrating, until you get some armor to actually negate whatever damage he does to you. At first, he will constantly use his The Darkin Blade to harass you, whenever you try to go for minion, which will cause tons of problems in terms of farming. Another annoying thing is, that he has built-in sustain, that will partially negate your early game harass. Generally, I didn't play this matchup too many times so far and I don't know exact limits of this champion, but I found out, that if you survive laning phase and rush armor, you should be able to beat him face to face. Another valuable information might be, that if you max out Seismic Shard, you should be able to outrun his Infernal Chains and get away before you get pulled back in. But considering, that this is AD champion, dealing physical damage, he is really really annoying to deal with. I feel like Malphite is not ideal solution here, even though you can outscale.

This is probably one of easiest matchups for Malphite, if you play it right. Most importantly, you have to rush Iceborn Gauntlet as first item, to have enough mana to harass her. Then just spam Seismic Shard until you drop her to low health and then after you force her Riposte and then finnish her with Unstoppable Force. Whenever she uses her Grand Challenge, don't freak out. It's enough to just use a single Seismic Shard, which will allow you to outrun it's entire effect without using anything else. After you build up your Iceborn Gauntlet and Ninja Tabi, you should be ready to destroy her in pretty much any trade for rest of the game. What is valuable to mention as well, make sure you build up at least Bramble Vest after you finnish up your Iceborn Gauntlet, because all Fiora players just love to build up that lifesteal build consisted of Ravenous Hydra and The Bloodthirster or even Death's Dance. Another thing is, that when she gets her Grand Challenge off, you don't need to run anymore, if you have your Bramble Vest in place, because she is not going to get too much of healing out of that effect and even if she would try to stop attack you, to get healed, you will most likely tear her appart with your Iceborn Gauntlet enhanced attacks. You are one of her biggest hardcounters, so make sure to use it!

Against camille, you are not doing anything special. Just rush your Iceborn Gauntlet and make sure that you spam poke on her with your Seismic Shard. Once she gets low, you have free shot to go all-in and finnish her off. Make sure that you don't let her juke your Unstoppable Force with her Hextech Ultimatum. One additional important mention is, that trading her in lategame might not be as easy, but generally laning phase against her is not too hard and you should be able to dominate her in lane, expecially if you get some ganks. Don't play too aggressive though, because such strategy might easily backfire, when you get babysat by enemy jungler. In that case, Camille would have free lane and you wouldn't be able to beat her pretty much for rest of the game.

This lane is just one huge poke fiesta. Whenever you are going for your Seismic Shard, he uses his Parrrley. Another thing is that he will try to outheal that damage with his Remove Scurvy, but sadly for him, it won't really be sufficient. For that reason, you will pretty much dominate him, if you utilize your Granite Shield and obviously if you rush your Iceborn Gauntlet to have enough mana, in order to win those poke-fights. Main thing is, that if you run out of mana here, before poking him down enough, he will start harassing you back and you are pretty much unable to do anything about it. Except for that, you are one of biggest Gangplank's counters and once when you build up some armor, you can destroy him whenever you face him, including some tower dives once when you scale up. Be careful, in lategame it's a bit tricky because good Gangplank players will always attempt to kite you around, since they will always spam Remove Scurvy whenever you try to slow him with Seismic Shard, but still it's quite easy lane against him, if you don't do any major mistakes.

After recent rework, Irelia isn't so easy to deal with as she used to be before, because she has more tools to get on you and then disengage. But even through this fact, you should still be able to deal with her quite easily. Just make sure that you are not trying to get long trades against her and just poke her, until she gets low enough, so you can finnish her off with your ultimate. The main thing, that you should try to avoid is her Flawless Duet, which is probably the only moment, when she is able to deal damage to you without reasonable punishment.

Jax is another example of really easy matchup that you can simply deal with by poking him down and building some early mana sustain. Since he has no sustain, until he makes Blade of the Ruined King or Hextech Gunblade, he doesn't really have chance to protect himself from your Seismic Shard spam. Just be careful about his Counter Strike and you should be generally fine. Except for that, fighting Jax as Malphite should be quite straightforward in any phase of game, since you can reduce his attack speed with Ground Slam like against any attack speed champion. It's just about not getting behind too much in early phase, when enemy jungler has ability to create that lane difference.

This is not really toplane matchup, but it might happen from time to time. Why do I mention it though is, that I am usually playing my Malphite even on mid, just to counter this champion. Main thing is, that Zed has no way to deal with your insane armor in combination with Granite Shield, which will force him to target someone else in teamfights, but during that, you can simply use Unstoppable Force to peel for that teammate and deny his entire burst. Except for that, since he has no sustain, he can't really do much against your Seismic Shard poke. The only thing that smart Zed would do, is to stay behind and farm with his Razor Shuriken and build up Hexdrinker as first item. Then he should probably roam a lot to get some lead somewhere else. But if he doesn't get any huge lead, you will be able to destroy him anytime during game, expecially when he attempts to splitpush.

Pantheon is annoying matchup against many toplaners, expecially when they have no sustain or any other way how to protect themselves against his harass and generally damage output. That doesn't apply for you though. As Malphite it's just important to not fall for his all-in early on, simply build up mana sustain, because then you will outpoke him whenever you want. Last important thing is, to let your Granite Shield kick-in between his harass phases, because that is pretty much your main form of sustain in lane. If you play it patiently, it's pretty much free lane and enemy team will have to fight 4v5, because when Pantheon falls behind, he is pretty much useless for rest of game, since he is quite squishy, while not dealing that much damage, if he doesn't get his items.

We all know this annoying guy, who is just splitpushing all game long, to win games because of his pretty bad teamfighting potential, where he mostly gets kited. Well, Malphite is one of the best answers for this guy. Due to attack speed slow from your Ground Slam and high amounts of armor, you are basically brick wall, that he won't be able to pass in any game phase. It's just important to be patient during early game until you get some tankyness. But even then, if you build up some mana sustain and constantly poke him with Seismic Shard, you shouldn't really have any problem to deal with him, because he will constantly use his rage that provides him crit to heal himself. In that moment, he won't be able to do much against you, except for farming and defending himself. Problem here might be though, that if rest of your team will be losing, you might be forced to group with them, leaving him alone and let him do what he knows best - splitpushing.

Is this the end?

I consider main part of this guide as done. What I wrote here, is what I consider as most important, even though there might be some other parts being added in a future. So simply said - whenever I feel like I have something new, that I would like to share with you guys, I will make sure to add it in here!!

But except for that...

Other guides

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