Malphite Build Guide by Bigg Fuddgee

Warning! Warning! Long Guide Alert

This is an Extremely long guide as I am covering every aspect and angle that Malphite can be played. I will organize to the best of my ability so that you(the reader) can pick out which section you actually want to look at. Now on to the multiple readings :D

Pros & Cons

Pros:
-Anti-poke passive shield
-Arguably the best Initiation.
-Arguably the best slow in the game b/c of damage, slow, + MS.
-Versatile Champion that can be built to fit any position

Cons:
-In lane he is bit of a Mana Thirsty Bastard or as I call it, MTB
-Highly Ap built teams make it hard for him to build damage on his E
-Banned most the time

Abilities

Granite Shield Every 10 seconds of not being hit Malphite gets a shield of 10% of his maximum health.

Tips and Tricks
- Granite Shield doesn't only scale of maximum health but off armor and MR as it will reduce the damage the shield will take.
-In the Early game Granite Shield will Protect from harassment and minion damage.


Seismic Shard Damage, Slow, Movement speed. Like I've said possibly one of the best abilities in the game.

Tips and Tricks
-Seismic shard steals a % of a target's movement speed meaning if you target a high movement champion Malphite in return will get more movement speed. I.e. Singed w/ Ghost, Boots of Swiftness, and Insanity Potion Malphite will move at a much higher speed.

Brutal Strike Passive is Tiamat's passive of splash. Active is a steroid to Attack Damage and Armor.

Tips and Tricks
-Use this ability before Ground Slam to increase damage proportionally
-The Attack damage aspect of this ability is often ignored, but it does increase damage by 40% while doing splash of 62% So who says he isn't viable bruiser or ADC?


Ground Slam AoE damage, Massive AS slow.

Tips and Tricks
-Scales off Armor and AP


Unstoppable Force Damage + Gap closer + Knock up = Unstoppable

Tips And Tricks
-Knock up isn't reduced with tenacity
-Can be used over walls
-Undeniably the best initiation in the game.

Needs to know about Runes, Items, and Masteries.

Runes

Malphite is very simple to buy Runes for as you can build him anyway with the majority same Runes!

For instance all of my builds have Greater Seal of Armor because it's good for defenses and stacking his E.

For all of my builds but one I have Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist even on the APC build it would work, But i prefer scaling AP glyphs.

Items

Malphite is a well rounded champion because he can litterally build to fit any position.

Seismic Shard, Ground Slam, & Unstoppable Force make him viable AP caster as those have incredible burst. Those + Granite Shield make him a viable support as he has a MS slow, an AS slow, a knock up, and an anti poke shield.

Everyone of course knows he is a viable tank, Derp!

But why ADC or bruiser?

Brutal Strikes got their name for a reason...they are brutal. It increases Attack damage by 40% and causes his attacks to do 62% splash. If malphite can land Unstoppable Force on the carries he can kill them mid-air before they hit the ground

Masteries

Being able to build any way gives you a wide variety of options, but what should you pick?

Key goals for Malphite:

-Movement Speed
-Armor
-Flat AD(for bruiser/adc only)
-Magic pen or armor pen accordingly.

**Rocking the Jungle**

As will be explained there are meta styles of playing Malphite and Alternate styles of playing Malphite (my favorite because you win mentally by Mind-****ing the opponent).

Jungle Routes:

Bottom half or Blue

Traditional:

Wolves ---> Blue Golem ---> Wraiths ---> Red Lizard ---> Gank and repeat.

Genuinely you skip the golems because they are not worth the time.

Alternate:

Wraiths ---> Red Lizard ---> Gank bot or mid ---> Blue Golem ---> Wolves

---

> Gank mid ---> Wraiths ---> Gank bot ---> Wolves ---> Gank top ---> Repeat

This route is unusual and not predicted by lanes so they will be thrown off guard. This also allows more gank opportunities at the cost of farm in the jungle. I would only do the alternate route if you are going Bruiser Malphite. Another note about the alternate route, you have to Take E then take Q thereafter.

Runes & Masteries for Meta Jungle

Riot Kept malphite in mind for the new jungle. You can now pick up good ole Ninja Tabi and get Spirit of the Ancient Golem. But wait they also added Tenacious and Relentless . Sadly they took HoG from him to spite him. Malphite doesn't need points in utility, Why? The Movement isn't that great (your Q is much better) and you do not need the spell CDR, and Malphite gives his 2nd blue and on away, so why Runic Affinity . Just go 0/30/0 for faster clear and more tankiness in jungle, you will thank me for the changes it'll make to your jungle

For Runes I pick up:
Greater Mark of Attack Speed I pick up because of the nerf on magic pen and As Is better for clearing the new jungle than magic pen but they can be replaced with Greater Mark of Armor.
Greater Seal of Armor for damage reduction in Jungle and E scaling
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist Most people will tell you to pick up flat MR, but lets be honest. You aren't taking Magic damage in the jungle and when you gank mid most of the squishy mages won't turn to fight a 2v1.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed For the ganks of course.

Items for Meta Jungle

Core Items:

Spirit of the Ancient Golem This Item is bloody brilliant on Malphite. Tanky health and armor, Sustain of a philo-stone, increased damage to monsters, and Tenacity so Malphtie can hit up that all so amazing Ninja Tabi.

Runic Bulwark & Aegis of the Legion now provide health regeneration, it's begging to be a jungle item now, more sustain.

Frozen Heart & Randuin's Omen Armor + health + auras that counter the ADC.

I get Guardian Angel because the stats are a nice mixture.

Strong Options:

Ohmwrecker I haven't seen this item much, but I see potential in ganking if you rush this early and use it in lanes.

Ruby Sightstone This item I do see an extreme use for in junglers. Although the stats are horrible ward coverage for your team's lanes or in enemy jungle for countering.

Runes and Masteries for Bruiser Jungle

For Masteries I get anything that has damage while avoiding Lethality & Frenzy because 15% crit chance is nothing to waste a few points on. Instead I take points in Summoner's Wrath & Butcher for armor reduction and a continuous slow between exhaust + Seismic Shard. Butcher for faster clear, It procs on the splash damage.

Runes are the exact same as the meta jungle, so you don't even have to pay for new ones to add a little extra AD to the team.

Items for Bruiser Jungle

Core Items:

Ravenous Hydra Absolutely marvelous item. With Brutal Strikes Malphite does 122% of his physical damage in splash. Grants Life steal and damage. But the active is when it becomes extremely good. Malphite will do 100% of his damage in a splash.

Here is some math:
Unstoppable Force (400)
+ Ground Slam (280)
+ Brutal Strikes to make your final AD 330 roughly
+ Ravenous Hydra (330)
+ one auto attack (330)
= Mixed damage all splash. (1,340)

Note: The above damage is not calculated in game, just by mobafire numbers. It does not include critical strikes and does not calculate armor/Mr.

Frozen Heart This item got a +10 damage buff, not much but with Brutal Strikes it's more like 44 damage + health + an amazing slow from this item.

Alternate Build option.
You can trade Atma's Impaler for Maw of Malmortius.
Then trade Wit's End for Phantom Dancer
Then trade Summoner's Wrath & Butcher for lethality & Frenzy
In the end you are trading tankiness for damage.

**A Rock Solid Support**

There has been a lot of discussion on malphite's ability to support rather than tank. What I have to say to those people is that they really should look at the versitility of champions rather than 1 role they can play. Malphite has a good support set and with the build he is still naturally tanky...he is a freaking rock i'd hope he'd have the natural raw talent to tank in all positions.

Lets take a look:
Granite Shield In lane this makes it incredibly hard for the enemy adc to harass you, they might get one hit off to take the shield away, but in return they will lose a good chunk of health from Seismic Shard and even more if your adc takes advantage of the slow.

Seismic Shard Excellent spell for many situations such as: Escape, Ganking potential, chasing, and harass.

Brutal Strikes I will admit this isn't the most ideal for support as it is a self-buff but increases armor for diving potential or anti harass, and using it to take towers is nice for a bit extra damage.

Ground Slam Good as support as well because: damage that scales off armor, and 50% attack speed reduction which is 30% more than Frozen Heart

Unstoppable Force This is what makes support malphite good in the end, knock up and initiation where as many other supports have no initiation at all. Of course you can use this in any position but I'm clarifying that it works the same in support and he hold the same position of tanky initiator but now he also takes on the role of support.

Warding, To come soon!

I'll get on this fast, I'm still new to getting pics and bb coding up and such.