League of Legends - Malphite Guide

Malphite is a powerful tank, that can also dish out a lot of damage. Malphite excels at the laning phase thanks to his Granite Shield passive that prevents harassment. Malphite is also armed with a powerful slow and a great initiating ultimate.

This Malphite guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Malphite, it is recommended for people just starting to use Malphite.

Abilities

• 
  Granite Shield (Passive) Malphite's passive is great at preventing lane harassment and also gives him a slight boost to his tanking ability throughout the game.
• 
  Seismic Shard An amazing lane harassment tool that packs a strong slowing aspect (that also gives Malphite a move speed boost).
• 
  Brutal Strikes A powerful defensive boost to Malphite, which in turn ends up being more damage on Malphite's Ground Slam. This skill also helps Malphite farm minion waves and destroy towers.
• 
  Ground Slam A very powerful area of effect skill that is great against physical opponents as it also lowers attack speed of enemies. It works very well after using Malphite's ultimate for some added damage. Ground Slam scales with armor, so it synergises well with Brutal Strikes.
• 
  Unstoppable Force (Ultimate) Malphite's ultimate is an amazing initiation skill, disabling numerous enemies at once. This skill works great when combined with other ally area of effects.

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Generally the best way to level your abilities is:
Unstoppable Force (Ult) > Seismic Shard > Ground Slam > Brutal Strikes

Malphite's Seismic Shard is extremely powerful early game and during the laning phase which is why its maxed first. Ground Slam allows Malphite to farm heavily and dish out some strong area of effect damage through mid-late game and is your best option to max second. Brutal Strikes is taken last, level 1 provides you with a 20% boost to armor and damage which is still a strong enough until you place more points into it.

Runes

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Mana Regeneration // Dodge
Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance
Purple (Quintessences) - Flat Health

Magic Penetration on Marks will ensure Malphite's harassment through his Seismic Shard hurts even more, it also allows his other skills to hit harder. Mana regeneration per level on Seals gives you plenty of mana to harass your enemy although these can be run as Dodge. Glyphs gives you some magic resistance to counter magical damage. Flat Health Quintessences add to Malphite's early game survivability and also give him a small boost to his passive.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Ghost
-Teleport

Ghost and Teleport are two great default summoner spells for Malphite, Ghost allows you to chase down enemies to hit them with Seismic Shard allowing your team to catch up for a kill. Teleport is great if you are taking a solo top lane, as a safeguard if you die it will ensure the tower doesn't fall or take significant damage, its also great to help you reach your allies quickly when needed.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Ignite
-Exhaust

If your team lacks a particular summoner spell than Malphite is great at picking it up for the team. Ignite is a great counter for Mundo and Vladimir, while also boosting your lanes early game damage output possibly leading to some early game kills. Exhaust is also a great counter to physical based damage dealers and is a strong summoner spell choice if your team lacks it.

Masteries

Malphite works as a 9/21/0, boosting his defences early game (as the rune setup used does not boost his defences) and also boosting his damage output slightly through the offensive tree.

The offensive tree provides improved exhaust (if you take it as a summoner), some ability power, cooldown reduction and the all important 15% spell penetration, making your early game harassment hurt.

The defensive tree offers increased resistances, dodge, reduced minion damage, starting health and an overall decrease in damage received

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Mercury's Treads
-Sunfire Cape
-Banshee's Veil
-Frozen Heart
-Force of Nature
-Randuin's Omen

Steps/Reasoning:
-Doran's Shield is your best starting item on Malphite, the added health boosts his passive slightly while also providing an armor boost to reduce harassment as well as some health regeneration to keep you in lane longer.
-On your first trip back you want to be grabbing your boots which will be Mercury's Treads for most games, if the team is physical heavy then grab Ninja Tabi.
-Next you'll want to build a Sunfire Cape, this will help you farm and boost your damage on Ground Slam.
-Now you want to build yourself a Banshee's Veil, these core items provide a nice mix of resistances, a strong amount of health along with some mana.
-If the game continues further you will want to look at items like Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart and Force of Nature, depending on which defence you need more to counter the enemy team.

Alternatives:
-Guardian Angel (Provides a decent amount of both resistances)
-Thornmail (Good against physical heavy teams)
-Abyssal Scepter (If you need more magic resistance, also gives you a good team aura)
-Aegis of the Legion (A strong team item if nobody else builds it)

General Malphite Tips

• Always be looking for ultimate opportunities, trying to catch a minimum of 2-3 people.
• Consider enemy team setup before planning your item build, also take into account who does well early (or who is generally stronger early game).
• Take summoner spells that your team lacks, you are very flexible in options.
• Activating Brutal Strikes before Ground Slam will increase its damage.
• Malphite's ultimate is great offensively and defensively. It can be used to initiate or counter initiate the enemy, either saving your allies or turning around and killing the enemy.

Early Game (1-6)

• Harass the enemy or enemies in your lane with your Seismic Shard, the movement speed debuff will also allow a ranged laning partner to land some harass.
• Pay attention to who on the enemy team is doing well with kills and minion farming, this should effect your first item choice.
• Your passive is great at preventing harassment, if it goes down back off alittle and let it refresh, overtime it ends up being alot of effectively free health.
• You can use your passive to play aggressively in lane, waiting until it comes back up before harassing the enemy again.

Mid Game (7-12)

• If you've kept your enemy low through your Seismic Shard harassment you are likely to score a kill when you unlock your ultimate, co-ordinate this with your lane partner.
• Use Brutal Strikes and Ground Slam to dish heavy damage to your enemies when in close range, you can also use this combo to farm minion waves.
• Malphite is a powerful ganker with his Seismic Shard and his ultimate if necessary, if a particular enemy champion is starting to snowball target them in particular.

Late Game (13-18)

• Focus on correctly initiating with your ultimate, try to get 2-3 enemies with it, preferably the high damage dealers or champions with lots of hard crowd control (stuns/suppression).
• Always have a ward in your inventory and ward key locations for your team, these locations include dragon, the enemy buffs, the river and baron.
• Initiating with your ultimate and then using Brutal Strikes and Ground Slam along with the Randuin's Omen active is very powerful, de-buffing the enemies movement and attack speed heavily.
• If your team is getting destroyed by a channeled ultimate (Fiddlesticks or Katarina), save your ultimate to stop thier ultimate, it can drastically turn the fight around. 

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