Hey everyone!!! This is my first guide and most likely the only contribution I'll have on this site. In this guide I'd simply like to share my play style with Malphite with you guys, although I got no match histories with him, I am rather confident with my thoughts and play style surrounding Malphite.

As meantioned this is a guide, I'm simply trying stating things I believe are true with Malphite and what you could possibly add to your own Malphite but don't take everything as God's words just simply try add them to your own play style as well.

On a final note, I'd really love to hear your feedback or simply a question on anything you may disagree with, thanks!

Like all champions except for Morgana, Malphite comes with good qualities and bad qualities. So walking into a fight it's good to know what to do in a fight in order to avoid the weaknesses or build items to cover those weaknesses.

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Pros - Very durable all game thanks to his Granite Shield - Easy to pick up, not hard to learn - Has an easy gap closer - Great at shutting down ad champions - His ultimate is a strong shut down - Strong iniates - Is a rock

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Cons - Has a hard time early game - Has a hard time against ranged (eg. Teemo) - Needs to be in the middle of everything to be most effective - Is a rock _ _ QWERTY

With these masteries, I've gone 9/21/0. As I've mentioned, I play Malphite as a full tank, with the 9 in offensive, gives you a small boost in your damage output and the rest in 21 defensive mastery is to fulfill Malphite's duty as a tank. There is also the possibility of 0/21/9 if you're are either jungle or prefer the movement speed over magic penetration. If you do jungle it'd be a good idea to grab Tough Skin , Bladed Armor , Runic Affinity and max out Hardiness instead of splitting it with Resistance .

Marks

Greater Mark of Attack Damage - I wouldn't recommend these unless you believe the hardest thing about LoL is to last hit

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - The other alternative if last hitting is just too easy for you, and probably the only other Mark rune that I would recommend as to how all of Malphite's skills are magic damage

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Seals

Greater Seal of Scaling Health - If you think that you don't have enough health, then these are your runes, works really well with your Granite Shield as well

Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration - If you play really aggressive with Malphite, then I'd recommend these as it would provide a great amount of mana regen for Malphite early game.

Greater Seal of Armor - Flat armor runes, great for trading hits early game and a small bonus for your Ground Slam

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Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Simple, provides a nice boost in Magic Resist that Malphite needs late game

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - CDR for Malphite if you think the timer between casting spells is too long.

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Quintessence

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Magic Resist - Provides a nice amount of MR needed late game.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Also a great choice on Malphite, since all of his skills now scale with AP as well.

Greater Quintessence of Health - Really great quintessence on Malphite, boosting his sustain early game along with the extra hp on Granite Shield

This passive is really awesome throughout the game, works well for tanking harass. Use this to your advantage, you can safely walk up to a minion and last hit while enduring a few hits from your enemy champion and wait for it to recharge. If you decide to jungle Malphite a good thing to do is wait for the shield to recharge before starting on the next neutral camp.

Probably one of the most effective slows, despite it being a single target, it's not just a slow, it's a steal, meaning you gain speed the amount of speed that you had reduced from your enemy. With this said, it closes gaps between you and your enemy fast. As you've seen above I choose to max this skill 2nd, imo using this as a poke burns your mana real fast.

Brutal Strikes real use is for it's splash and later into the game for the bonus armor it provides. In the jungle this skill provides Malphite decent jungling speed if his blue has expired and needs to be more conservative with his mana and the small armor bonus helps as well, so put 1 on Brutal Strikes at level 2 if jungling.
I love this skill, many people underestimate this skill, I would land a clean Ground Slam on a Teemo and he would continue auto attacking me not knowing that I'm attacking faster than him. If you have a Frozen Heart and a Randuin's Omen and slam "e", their ad carry attack speed will be heavily crippled.

What can I say? Love using Unstoppable Force, the range on this thing is huge and the AoE is pretty decent, not too big, not too small. The knockup for this can turn teamfights around towards your favor, and the damage on it packs quite a punch. Another thing to take note is that when you use Unstoppable Force and your target location, it works similar to Olaf's Ragnarok, so if you're on your last few pixels of health and that little Veigar surrounds you with Event Horizon, you can simply Unstoppable Force straight through it and also Unstoppable Force can go through trees/walls but sometimes I click from within the blue circle range with the location marker properly on the other side of the wall, I sometimes don't get through? So play abit safe and walk upto the wall, carefully time it and make sure you make the distance as far as possible. Some people may think that because this is an ultimate you shouldn't really be using it to escape, but trust me it's ok with roughly 30% cooldown reduction your Unstoppable Force cooldown is shaved off quite alot. For those who're yet to start ranked, the reason for Malphite being a commonn ban is because of his Unstoppable Force being able to catch enemy team out of position or off guard because of it's range, so abuse this if you get your hands on Malphite.

This is the skill order that I thought were most effective for Malphite. Making Ground Slam my first priority, because of the following reasons:

• Can be used to farm
• More mana efficient than Seismic Shard
• Good harass with Seismic Shard being a good gap closer

But if you're not comfortable with maxing Ground Slam you can max Seismic Shard. I would only recommend maxing Seismic Shard only if your opponent is ranged ( Teemo). Using Seismic Shard continuously isn't going to be as effective as Ground Slam because of how high the mana cost is compared to Ground Slam, you could easily hit the enemy if you use Seismic Shard first and follow up with a Ground Slam. Why don't I put 1 into Brutal Strikes in the earlier levels? Imo I think you should only put 1 in the earlier levels if you are being pushed back pretty hard but if you're farming at even pace with your lane having Brutal Strikes at level 4 would eventually freeze the lane for your enemy laner but if you're jungling, then put it in at level 2.

Flash Well, Flash works well on many champions, and turns out it also works well with Malphite as well *gasp* :O Works really well if you wanted to surprise the team with Flash and Unstoppable Force or simply getting away. Flash is easily one of the most flexible summoner spells. w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w a Ignite Ignite works well with anyone, and is basically used with anyone who runs off with low hp dies, assures the kill. The other important function that is really helpful is the reduction with heal effects and hp regen, if used on Swain or Dr. Mundo they'll regret walking into the fight.

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Teleport Teleport is great on Malphite, as how Malphite is a solo top champion you can Teleport to another lane to assist or a surprise gank if the enemy has overextended in that lane, before they even notice the Teleport marker or even pop out of a warded bush they're gonna get smacked by an Unstoppable Force. Helps alot since most of the time you're at top and bot is about to break out an 4v4 with both junglers and mid there. Exhaust The slow is good on Malphite, but if you want just the slow then it's probably not worth it, since Seismic Shard is a good gap closer already. Imo there would only be one reason to grab Exhaust and that's support Malphite. a

The items that are provided below are what I personally believe to be possible items for Malphite. I've also provided possible builds for Malphite but remember that you should also adapt to the enemy team and change things around to suit your game style

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Mercury's Treads Probably the best boots in the game, obviously highly recommended for a tank, in this case for Malphite, giving the CC reduction and magic resist which is what Malphite needs.

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Ninja Tabi I would only recommend these boots if your laning opponent mainly focuses on physical damage, a tiny extra damage on your Ground Slam is probably not worth it.

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Sunfire Cape A great item on Malphite, provides him with armor and a decent amount of health along with it's useful passive since you'll be in the middle of team fights most of the time and works really well for pushing if you've also picked up an Abyssal Mask.

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Frozen heart Works very well on Malphite, providing a huge amount of CDR, mana, armor and an attack speed reduction aura. If you think Malphite doesn't need the CDR, mana and the aura, then it's cool to replace this with a Thornmail.

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Thornmail Provides the most armor in the game, and has a very nice passive. Nuff said. __________________________________________________________________

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Randuin's Omen Provides a large amount of armor and hp. Very nice item to help peel people off your carry and at the same time crippling towards the enemy team.

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Guardian Angel Provides a nice amount of both armor and MR, and the passive allows you to return and haunt the enemy a second time, but just remember it's got a VERY long cooldown. If you hit end game and you got overflowing amount of gold which elixirs and Oracle's Elixir can't burn then, you can sell it when it's on cooldown and buy something else and buy it again in another 5 minutes. Although nice stats, the passive stands out and most of the time, it diverts the enemy attention away from you, not such a great item on Malphite.

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Abyssal Scepter Works really well on Malphite as it provides alot of MR and also provides AP. So it improves his tanking ability and his damage output and the aura assists you and your team out.

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Warmog's Armor Provides a crazy amount of health and regen, Grab one of these if you think you have enough armor and MR for tanking.

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Iceborn Gauntlet An item that was introduced with Season 3, it provides Malphite with alot of useful stats making him more tank, gives him more mana, damage and utility. It's passive also provides an Aoe damage and slow on each auto attack which procs every 2 seconds, which can be proc'd often thanks to his [Ground slam].

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Runic Bulwark A very nice item introduced in in season 3, despite in season 2 Aegis of the Legion being a very nice cheap item on tanks already. Tested myself that your aura and an allies aura still stacks, so if your support were to grab one the item itself would provide upto a massive 90 MR, a nice and better replacement after the removal of Force of Nature

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Shurelya's Reverie Great item on Malphite, cheap and provides decent tanky stats. The active could be used before iniating or throwing out your Unstoppable Force to help the team keep up..

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Spirit of the Ancient Golem Really great item and probably compulsory if you're jungling with Malphite, so instead of grabbing Mercury's Treads you'd grab Ninja Tabi instead.

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The following are alternate possible builds for Malphite that are based on the enemy team. If anyone disagrees then gtfo. JJUST KIDDINGGGGG, don't stop reading ): But honestly guys if you disagree with any of the builds below, comment and tell me why and I'll reconsider and I'll also add a note on why it's there from whom if i do, thanks!

HEAVY AD TEAM

HEAVY AP TEAM

NICE AND BALANCED

I didn't know where to put it so I made a completely new section for this!

I simply wanted to point out something about Malphite quickly:



As you can see his attributes point to his "spells" more than the others. So treat him as a mage, try not to auto attack too often unless you're confident you won't lose your target. So for example, Seismic Shard your opponent and chase Ground Slam and continue following, don't auto attack him as he's still running unless your Seismic Shard is still in effect and basically kite. The only time you should attack late game is when you have Brutal Strikes active and in the middle of everything.

Ward's are a good little stick that gives you vision on an area around where you've placed the ward. Why is it so important? It helps you see ganks ahead of time allowing you to avoid it unless you are too dopey to see the enemy jungler approach (like me). It is no one else's job to ward your lane, your jungler has his own jungle to ward and other lanes their own. If you're not confident in your map awareness then ward the very tip of the bush, but if you have some confidence then place it outside of the bush abit further down allowing you to see enemy jungler from a further distance for the more dangerous gankers ( Rammus). Also get into the habit of buying 1 ward every time you recall it's not just the supports job, it's only 75 gold don't be stingy, wards are very important to winning games.

When to buy:

• Sight ward - Buy these when you are doing well or overextending your lane to see the enemy jungler ahead of time.
• Vision Ward - Buy these when you're in need of a gank.

Oracle's are very important not just for hunting rats but for hunting wards! It's highly recommended you pick it up early if you're jungling as Malphite to clear out enemy wards allowing easier ganks and wasting the enemy's team gold and if you're not jungling, pick it up late game if you're building hardout rock Malphite to clear out the baron and dragon wards.

As Malphite, imo, he shines the most in top solo lane but can also be a jungler if prefer him in there. Firstly, I'll cover laning and jungling later.

To be able to top lane, the requirements are at least one of 3 things (imo).

• Sustain - Dr. Mundo
• Mobility - Teemo
• Hard snowballs - Riven

In this case, Malphite would be able to fit mainly into the "sustain" group and just a hint of snowballing.

Starting Items

The most common start to every lane except support and sometimes jungle. If you take these to top, this means you are confident you can last really well avoiding harass from your laning opponent. Recommend taking these if you are against champions that require a skill shot ( Olaf).


This is for the champions that deal primarily ad damage such as Riven, a good thing to always know who you're against.

Laning

Soo when you are at top lane, it's a good thing to start off simply by giving your jungler at least a guard from invaders and if you're kewl, you may help him out by Ground Slam when red/blue buff attacks him to reduce the attack speed saving him a few hits and sprint back to your lane. During laning phase you are to farm. Duh. Farm means to last hit, not to attack as much as possible within the shortest amount of time. You may also use Ground Slam to farm if you wish and play it Morgana and push people against towers so you can Teleport to back up another lane while your lane is abit safe or to cause your lane opponent to lose farm but you'd be overextended and be vulnerable to their jungler and low on mana most of the time. If you wanna go aggressive then poke him, your harass combo would be Seismic Shard then Ground Slam. You may want to practice because sometimes using your Ground Slam too early may cause you to miss them because of it's cast time, and you'll feel like a noob and cry. ): I've mentioned before that try not to put gas on your mana bar and light it up, you don't wanna get ganked and have no mana for your Seismic Shard.

To jungle more efficiently you would need your skills in this order instead, similar to top lane, just a little different skill order for the first few levels.


Jungling Malphite has only one choice of starting item:

• Hunter's Machete and Health Potion

With the start of season 3, I've tested Malphite in the new jungle and it is the only starting item as jungle Malphite can only take with the removal of Regrowth Pendant. You can also start with Cloth Armor but with a Hunter's Machete you'll have a slightly higher % of health if you need to gank in between but have a slower clear speed. With this new item, I recommend you turning it into a Spirit of the Ancient Golem replacing Randuin's Omen with it and grabbing a Ninja Tabi instead of Mercury's Treads.

Jungling Malphite, as I've mentioned before Malphite can jungle but shines best at top. Similar to top lane, there are pre-requisites that need to be filled in order to be a successful jungler:

• Speed of jungling ( Shyvana)
• Sustain in jungle ( Warwick)
• Ganks ( Nocturne)

Out of those three, Malphite fits into speed and sustain because as mentioned Malphite's ganks aren't the most reliable. So choosing Malphite as a jungler would mean that you are confident that your team has a strong laning phase ( Riven) and won't require many ganks. Another thing I'd also take into consideration is whether your mid lane needs blue buff or not, for example: if your mid lane champion is Xerath then I wouldn't recommend picking Malphite as a jungling but if your mid lane champion is Katarina then it's cool to pick Malphite. Why? Malphite may be able to jungle without blue buff because he can just auto attack with his Brutal Strikes passive, but that wouldn't allow Malphite to jungle at his maximum speed and make up for his inability to gank well.

When jungling there is only one route that you may take, and it's the most common:

• Wolves
• Blue buff
• Wraiths
• Golems
• Red buff

The most common route for many junglers, and a red buff start is now no longer an option. Why? Even if you skip wraiths and do red only, Malphite's ganking ability is so weak and the new jungle is real harsh, leaving Malphite very low on hp making it real risky for an early gank and even if you don't start with Boots most likely the lane you're ganking will be able to outrun you on sight.

Important!

Although I'm not the most expert in the jungle, ALWAYS check each lane, in between killing each camp. For example:

• Kill wolves
• Quick look at mini map and champion health bars
• Kill Wraiths
• Quick look at mini map and champion health bars
• Etc.

Don't get too caught onto just farming, this applies to all junglers, despite Malphite having the inability to gank you must show your presence when you notice one of the lane isn't doing so well. Why? If you sit on a lane, it'll allow:

• That lane member to feel safe when farming
• The enemy laner to be more cautious backing off the easily edible ally

But dude I'll fall behind in gold. As bad as it may sound, you may build an early philosopher's stone so you'll still be in the game, you won't fall behind, pretty much thanks to philospher's stone you can gank without falling too far behind and mainly because the jungle provides a lower income compared to a lane. So if a team mate is telling you off because he's behind, it might just be your fault.

Your role is a tank. How I've built him. And as a tank there are 2 roles. A tank or a wall, I'll explain these eventually.

Laning

When you're against your laning opponent and your jungling buddy comes to gank, most likely they'd expect you to initiate. To initiate, where I'm from, is to purposely "punch on" with your opponent. Most likely, cripple him in some way to make it easier for your jungler to gank because of Malphite's Seismic Shard and Unstoppable Force. Another good thing to know is who is your jungler, this is to decide who gets the kill, if it's someone that could possibly carry a game Darius then give him the kill, but if it's Maokai you're probably better off with the kill.

Jungling

When you're jungling as Malphite, you will need to slow the enemy champion at the very moment you run in to gank, as it will give time for your Seismic Shard to come off cooldown again if you need to use it again. If you're level 6, initiating with your Unstoppable Force would be better, and slow the enemy when they land. And as mentioned above, think about who gets the kill before jumping in.

Teamfights

When 2 teams are standing off and your Nidalee is making it rain spears and the enemy Dr. Mundo is making it rain cleavers, and you think the enemy team is low enough for your team to kill, there are 2 ways to initiate:

• The enemy team is out of position and clump up and aren't too far from your team, as I've just stated don't throw them up just because they're all clumped up and Flash and Unstoppable Force, most of the time the range on your Unstoppable Force should be long enough gap closer for your team to start throwing out the big guns, but if it's a Flash and Unstoppable Force you could place yourself out of position and your team unable to make up the distance. If the enemy team are all of these then go Unstoppable Force, your goal is to hit as many as possible, not just the carry. The more you knockup, the less team contribution the enemy can do.
• The enemy team is too spread out for you to do the first option, but the enemy team is low to the point where you think they're going to all back off and heal up, then you sprint at them and if they decide to fight, use your Brutal Strikes. During the fight keep an eye out for people that clump up together, aim for a minimum of 3 people. After you've used your Unstoppable Force, there is once again 2 more choices. You play either aggressive sprinting at the carry and force him to attack you or you play wall and making it hard for the other team to get to your carry, it's probably smarter to look at both team's carry and see which is more worth it.

Well this guide has been sitting here for a long time now and I recently stumbled across it again and decided to finish it since I've got so much time to spare these days. Hope this helps any Malphite players out there, but even after publishing it I feel as if I've forgotten to add something but I'm sure it'll come to me someday. If there's any errors you guys may spot, please report them to me and if there's any question about my guide, build, grammar, anything! Then just say it, I don't bite. And thanks for giving up time to read my guide if you did!

Would like to thank jhoijhoi for her "how to make a guide" guide.
I would also like to thank "totallynotn00b" Lb's guide which I took a similar format to his skill chapter which I think he changed and I don't know who's Rumble guide which I took the items format from and used it for my summoner spells!

26/11/12 - Looked over and changed a few of the texts. Also changed the "items" format because I didn't like how it first looked. Completely removed: Banshee's Veil, Quicksilver Sash, completely removed AD and AP Malphite choices. Added a note in "Jungling".

7/12/2012 - Not too long after season 3, it's still too early to say so another change will come soon. Chapters changed are jungle and masteries, soon to come are items. Too tired right now.

8/12/2012 - Quick update to the rune name changes.

14/12/2012 - Finally all up to date with season 3! Changed the recommended items, changed the sample builds, small update to the wards section.

01/03/2013 - Did a quick check on everything, fixed the little errors and changed some wording along with some outdated info, minor item updates and all the images should be up and running.