Ability Usage Edit

• Due to Malphite's  Granite Shield,  Ground Slam and  Unstoppable Force, he is extremely well-suited to a tanking and initiating role.
  •  Unstoppable Force is one of the best initiating abilities in the game, as it transports Malphite to the target location and knocks up all nearby enemies. Malphite is also immune to disables during the dash.
  • Remember to allow  Granite Shield to recharge if a team fight is about to start.
•  Seismic Shard is a strong ability with several utilities:
  • It can be used for harassment and poking in lane, with some mana regen.
  • In a teamfight,  Seismic Shard help Malphite stick to the enemy's carries.
  • When escaping or chasing,  Seismic Shard will simultaneously slow them while hasting yourself.
  •  Seismic Shard can also be used on minions to gain the speed bonus to catch up to someone out of range.
• Using  Brutal Strikes will cause  Ground Slam to deal more damage due to the increased armor.
• Malphite's standard combo is first activating  Brutal Strikes, slowing an enemy with  Seismic Shard, charging in with  Unstoppable Force, then ending with  Ground Slam. With a high amount of armor, this combo can shut down multiple enemies at once, especially if they're melee-DPS.
• Malphite excels at being an anti-carry, designed to stop carries in their tracks with his  Ground Slam and then destroy them with his high damage output.
• Malphite can make a strong counter to certain solo top champions, such as Tryndamere, Irelia, or Jax that have few ranged options and need to auto-attack to secure lane control. Use  Seismic Shard to harass and  Ground Slam to interfere with last hits, giving you free reign to farm yourself.
• If your enemy is on low health and they are behind a wall,  Unstoppable Force can go through walls and you can pick up a kill easily.
• Conversely, if you are low on health and are at great risk of dying, Malphite's  Unstoppable Force can be used to escape.
• Malphite's  Unstoppable Force combined with other champions' abilities like  Curse of the Sad Mummy can incapacitate most or all of the enemy team members for several seconds.
• Jungling works especially well on Malphite as his  Ground Slam can negate most of the Ancient Golem's damage at level one along with  Granite Shield, meaning that Malphite can kill the Ancient Golem on an offensive or defensive combination of starting items and potions. After acquiring  Seismic Shard and the buff from the Lizard Elder, Malphite can gank lanes to moderate effect, but can do so to the greatest effect against weak, autoattack-dependent AD champions like Ashe or top lane Sion.

Build usage Edit

• It is difficult to build items that give Malphite all or even most of what he needs. Health, armor and magic resistance, attack damage, ability power, and cooldown reduction is hard to fit into six items, five items if you include boots. Items that provide any combination of these stats are useful and should be prioritized.
  • It should be noted, however, that his passive,  Granite Shield, scales with maximum health, so planning on building a health item first, even if you are unsure what your endgame build will be, is a wise choice. This will also grant you some early game tankiness and survivability to help you through laning phase.
• Malphite is typically built for a tank role but can be built with ability power, trading off late game utility for damage.
  • Abyssal Scepter is a possible build option, boosting his magic resistance and lowering the enemies'. Since most of Malphite's abilities deal magical damage this item can increase his damage output significantly.
  • Zhonya's Hourglass is a good but highly situational item on Malphite, as it increases armor for  Ground Slam and AP for  Unstoppable Force and  Seismic Shard. The active effect also allows  Granite Shield (as well as all of his other abilities) more time to reactivate.
• Consider purchasing a Frozen Heart or Randuin's Omen to support the effect of his  Ground Slam.
• Most of Malphite's items should give you at least a small amount of armor.  Ground Slam gains some damage from armor, and  Brutal Strikes increases the damage even further, based on armor.
  •  Ground Slam will often be your primary damage ability, so buying items like Frozen Heart that give you armor and cooldown reduction or Thornmail will help tremendously. Building DPS/Tank gear and he becomes a deadly initiator and anti-carry.
• Although Malphite specializes in tanking physical damage due to his heavy focus on armor and reducing attack speed, be sure to get at least a moderate amount of magic resistance with items like Aegis of the Legion or  Guardian Angel when facing multiple AP opponents. Your armor will have very little effect against casters like Ryze or Annie.
• Building health can be useful in addition to buying items for resistances: Warmog's Armor, Sunfire Cape, and Randuin's Omen are all good items, as they increase the shield from  Granite Shield.
• Malphite usually doesn't have the damage to sustain himself in a fight with spell vamp or lifesteal. Building Warmog's Armor can give him valuable health regeneration.
  • Note that the health regeneration is pathetically small during the actual teamfight. It will get you at most +120 health for a fifteen second teamfight. Health Regeneration is much better during the laning phase, and drops off significantly in usefulness during teamfight situations.
  • The movement speed slow of a Phage or Frozen Mallet can help Malphite stick to enemies with the movement speed buff of his  Seismic Shard.
• Malphite can build a little attack damage with the splash damage passive and attack damage steroid active from  Brutal Strikes. The Bloodthirster or Atma's Impaler are good choices in that situation.
• Buying cooldown reduction is a priority for Malphite as the cooldowns on his abilities persist longer than his abilities' effects.

Recommended builds Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting				2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting	2		2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Jungling Edit

• Starting items Cloth Armor, Health Potion x5 OR Hunter's Machete, Health Potion x5
• Skill Progression:  Ground Slam --  Brutal Strikes --  Ground Slam --  Seismic Shard
• Jungling Order: Wolves—Blue Golem (Smite) -- Wraiths—Small Golems—Red Lizard—Wraith—Fountain—Wolves—Gank!

Countering Edit

• Try to destroy Malphite's  Granite Shield before using your nukes to ensure it deals full damage.
  • In the lane, try to harass Malphite to break his  Granite Shield and prevent its regeneration.
• When chasing or being chased, it may be a good idea to hold on to any movement speed increasing buffs you may have until after he has used  Seismic Shard as your speed increase will also increase the amount of movement speed he steals.
• Wait until the effect of his  Brutal Strikes wears off before continuing to attack Malphite as it gives him armor.
• If you are using a champion whose primary damage source is from auto-attacks, try to stay out of range of  Ground Slam, as this will reduce your damage significantly.
• Malphite will usually build armor to make the effect of his  Ground Slam more useful. Consider getting a Last Whisper to counter this.
  • Since Malphite is more likely to build armor than health, he will be very susceptible to high burst from magic damage. Consider this when picking champions to counter him.
• Avoid grouping together with your allies to decrease the impact of an  Unstoppable Force.
• Malphite can be effectively countered by going double AP, as opposed to the usual bruiser meta.