[Champion] Malphite

Tadzio

3340 Posts

June 23 2011 00:48 GMT

Malphite, Shard of the Monolith

V1.0.0.123:
Brutal Strikes: mana cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70 from 55/60/65/70/75.
Ground Slam:
Mana cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70 from 60/65/70/75/80.
Radius of AoE increased to 400 from 350.
Fixed a bug where Unstoppable Force sometimes failed to pass through Crystallize, Pillar of Filth, and Cataclysm.
V1.0.0.118:
Granite Shield: recharge rate reduced to 10 seconds from 12.
V1.0.0.113:
Granite Shield reactivation timer upon taking damage increased to 12 seconds from 8.
Ground Slam armor scaling decreased to 50% from 70%.
V1.0.0.107:
Seismic Shard:
Slow and haste changed to 14/17/20/23/26% from 10/15/20/25/30%.
Cast range reduced to 625 from 700.
Ground Slam mana cost increased to 60/65/70/75/80 from 60.
V1.0.0.106:
Seismic Shard damage reduced to 70/120/170/220/270 from 80/135/190/245/300.
V1.0.0.105:
Fixed a bug with Ground Slam where it broke through Spell Shields and still affected the target.
V1.0.0.104:
Magic resistance per level increased to 1.25 from 0.
Fixed a bug where Ground Slam would go through spell shields.
Unstoppable Force:
Fixed a bug where the stun wouldn’t last long enough.
Now stuns for 1.5 seconds up from 1 second at all ranks.
V1.0.0.103:
Seismic Shard cooldown reduced to 8 from 10.
Unstoppable Force cooldown reduced to 130/115/100 from 140/125/110.
Fixed a bug with Ground Slam causing it to look like it had shorter range than it actually did.
V1.0.0.100:
Unstoppable Force can no longer be cast while rooted.
V1.0.0.99:
Seismic Shard:
Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 12 seconds.
Duration of the slow reduced to 4 seconds from 5 seconds.
Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/90/100/110/120.
Brutal Strikes:
Changed the active effect to increase Malphite's armor and damage by 20/25/30/35/40% instead of increasing his damage by 30/40/50/60/70%.
Cooldown reduced to 16 seconds from 20 seconds.
Fixed a bug where the cleave percent would take double the amount of bonus attack damage.
Passive cleave percent increased to 30/38/46/54/62% from 30/35/40/45/50%.
The cleave passive will no longer proc while hitting towers.
Ground Slam:
Mana cost reduced to 60 at all ranks from 60/70/80/90/100.
Updated the tooltip to display how much bonus damage Ground Slam gains from armor.
Unstoppable Force is now unstoppable and cannot be interrupted by disables.
Granite Shield:
The shield now recharges after 8 seconds instead of 10 seconds.
The shield will now automatically restore to full after 8 seconds of not being hit. Previously it would not replenish until a new shield activated.
Fixed a bug where the shield particle would not appear for a second after the shield activated.
Fixed a bug where the shield strength would not update after buying a health item until a new shield activated.
Updated recommended items.
V1.0.0.85:
Stats:
Attack range increased to 125 from 100.
Base movement speed increased to 310 from 300.
Fixed a bug with Unstoppable Force where it was sometimes uncastable while Malphite was at low health.
V1.0.0.79:
Updated recommended items to better account for his passive.
V1.0.0.72:
Unstoppable Force animation improved.
V1.0.0.70:
Unstoppable Force no longer affects Baron Nashor.
V1.0.0.63:
Base armor increased to 16 from 7.
Removed cast animation for Brutal Strikes.
V1.0.0.61:
Stats:
Base Armor reduced to 7 from 20.
Armor per Level increased to 3.75 from 3.
Ground Slam:
Mana cost increased to 60/70/80/90/100 from 60/65/70/75/80.
Attack speed reduction modified to 30/35/40/45/50% from 20/30/40/50/60%.
V1.0.0.52:
Seismic Shard now steals the amount of movement speed that the target has lost instead of increasing Malphite’s movement speed by the equivalent percentage lost.
Unstoppable Force:
Stun duration reduced to 1.5/1.75/2 from 1.5/2/2.5.
Cooldown increased to 140/120/100 from 120/100/80.
V0.9.25.34:
Updated secondary / critical strike animations.
V0.9.25.21:
Changed Malphite's Ability Hotkeys.
Seismic Shard Range reduced to 700 from 790.
Obduracy Cooldown Increased to 20 from 16.
Unstoppable Force:
Updated Area of Effect to sync up with indicator.
Cooldown increased to 120/100/80 from 105/90/75.
Range reduced to 1000 from 1300.
Land Slide Armor to Damage Ratio increased to 70% from 50%.
V0.9.22.16: Added
Ground Slam: Malphite slams the ground sending out a shockwave that deals damage based on his armor and reduces the attack speed of enemies for 4 seconds.
Seismic Shard: Using his primal elemental magic, Malphite sends a shard of earth through the ground at his foe, dealing damage and stealing movement speed for 6 seconds.
Brutal Strikes: Active: Malphite's damage is increased by a large %. Passive: Malphite's attacks deal damage to units around his target.
Unstoppable Force (Ultimate): Malphite ferociously charges to a location, damage enemies and knocking them into the air when he reaches that location.
Granite Shield (Innate): Malphite summons a shield of rock that absorbs 10% of his maximum health. If Malphite has not been hit, this effect will recharge after 10 seconds.

+ Show Spoiler [Stats] +

Damage 56.3 (+3.375 / per level)
Health 423 (+82 / per level)
Mana 215 (+40 / per level)
Move Speed 310
Armor 13 (+3.75 / per level)
Spell Block 30 (+1.25 / per level)
Health Regen 1.49 (+0.11 / per level)
Mana Regen 1.28 (+0.11 / per level)

First Impressions
Malphite is a confused sort of champ. Riot claims that he's a "fighter" and not a "tank" but he's a wonky fighter. In my experience he lacks the DPS potential of Garen, Jax, Olaf, etc. He lacks the AP scaling of Cho'Gath, Mordekaiser, Vladmir, etc. And his skills don't have the ability to isolate threats like Blitzcrank, Poppy, Singed, etc. Indeed, despite Riot's classification, I'm convinced that Malphite is a tank -- except he cannot heal his teammates or reduce incoming damage to teammates, or taunt.... like all the other tanks can. As a result, Malphite makes a wanting tank. Don't expect a low health AD hero to stick around and kill your opponents, since you can do very little to protect them. About the only things Malphite does well is initiate, harass, and chase. Because Malphite's role most closely resembles some bastard union of Alistar and Warwick, and because his most recent nerfs have limited his lane presence, Malphite has fallen out of favor. Until he's buffed again, we must make due with what we have.

Abilities
Granite Shield (Passive): Malphite is shielded by a layer of rock which absorbs damage up to 10% of his maximum Health. If Malphite has not been hit for 10 seconds, this effect recharges.
Malphite's passive is the core reason he can lane at all. Although it scales with HP, and therefore gets better towards the lategame, the time it's most useful is during the early and mid game, while you're still laning. Still, the extra 10% health is always welcome and keeps you from being a favored target of poke damage.

Seismic Shard (Q):Using his primal elemental magic, Malphite sends a shard of the earth through the ground at his foe, dealing damage upon impact and stealing movement speed for 4 seconds.
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Range: 625
This is Malphite's nuke and should be used to poke your opponents in lane. Since it simultaneously slows your opponent and speeds you up it's quite easy to cast and run away. It can potentially build into a zoning tool if your target doesn't have health regen and you're relentless with it. Beyond the laning phase of the game, it'll be relegated to a chasing and escaping aide.

Brutal Strikes (W) (Passive): Malphite's attacks splash, dealing a percentage of his attack damage to nearby enemies.
Splash radius from target: 250 (estimate)
Splash Damage: 30 / 38 / 46 / 54 / 62 %
(Active): Increases Malphite's armor and attack damage for 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Were it not for this ability's synergy with ground slam, I'd consider it more a hindrance than a help. If you have this skill and you're attacking a tower with creep help (ignoring your opponent) there's the potential that the splash will hit the enemy champ and suddenly the tower is targeting you. Which is fucking dumb. You can't turn off the splash, either. It's active is good enough, though, that you shouldn't put this ability off entirely.

Ground Slam (E):Malphite slams the ground, sending out a shock wave around him that deals magic damage based on his armor and reduces the attack speed of enemies for 4 seconds.
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Radius of AoE: 400
This is your best teamfight and farming skill and it synergizes with Malphite's ultimate as well as any armor he is wearing.

Unstoppable Force (R): Malphite ferociously charges to a location, damaging enemies in a small range, knocking them into the air, and stunning them for 1.5 seconds. Malphite cannot be interrupted during his charge.
Cost: 100 mana
Range: 1,000
This is Malphite's initiation skill. The damage isn't bad, but neither is it exceptional. It has an impressive AP gain (1.0), but in my experience Malphite doesn't have room for enough AP items to make this matter. Unstoppable Force, thankfully, has a pretty short cooldown so you can use it in situations other than teamfights and it'll usually be back up in time to use it when you need it.

Masteries
9/0/21.

Runes
Thanks to NeoIllusions & Mogwai
Quints -No more than 1x Magic Penetration and any combination of Flat HP, Movespeed, Armor and MRes
Mark -Magic Penetration
Seals -Flat Armor -or- Flat Mp5
Glyphs -Magic Resist per LvL

With 1 Magic Pen. Quint and Sorc Shoes, Malphite's abilities will do true damage to any Mage or AD carry that hasn't specced Mres or bought MR items. Mogwai councils that Flat HP Quints are the failsafe option.

Summoner Spells
Flash and Ignite/Teleport. You will likely run out of mana if you're forced to spam Q. Doran's ring kinda-sorta covers your mp regen needs in a comfortable lane. Bluepill&Teleport for fountain regen, or moderate your use of Q until level 5 (the latter is preferred). Clarity is an unconventional option depending on your mana needs.

Ability Order
In general: Q, E, Q, E, Q, R, -R>Q>E>W. However, if you're in a 1v2 lane or a 2v2 lane versus a stronger champ combo, pump E rather than Q so that you can protect your tower. If you're getting crushed in lane you won't need Q, anyway. Get W when you need it. It's perfectly safe to wait until level 13, but it is part of your initiation combo (W->R->E->Q) and if you're superstitious, it's unlucky. When trying to decide when to get W, ask yourself if the utility of the active is more useful than another level of E or Q.

Items
Start:
Doran's Ring --I've tried multiple mp regen options (including Clarity) and Ring is the bare minimum you can get away with. Your Q spam frequency will determine what you'll need. If you really want to cast Q every cooldown, running Clarity and Doran's Shield is a potential option that I've used with success, tho it's not a popular option.

Mogwai advises: "Dring is good but not the only option. You can opt for regen pendant and back for an early philosopher's stone to handle mana in lane. You can also opt for sapphire crystal + 2 pots and build into catalyst ASAP before progressing to boots + sunfire. Also, and I know I'll get flamed for this, Chalice of Harmony is probably really underrated as an early game option on Malphite (yes, I went there). I think it's worth trying Meki -> Chalice out a few times to see how an early chalice affects your lane presence, especially vs. Mages where the 30 MR counts for a lot."

Core:
Mercury Treads/Sorcerers Boots, Sunfire Cape. --Sorc Boots for more burst damage. Merc Treads are sometimes unavoidable. Sunfire Cape is to assist in farming, and the health and armor synergize with Malphite's skills. Build Sunfire and Sorc Boots according to need.. You're dominating lane? Sorc for continual damage. Giant's Belt first if you need the HP. Chain Vest first if you're facing an AD hero.

Optional items I've found useful:
Randuin's Omen-- It's synergies with your initiation combo are undeniable.
Frozen Heart-- Entirely viable alternative to Randuin's Omen, with a lot more CDR and Mana.
Aegis of the Legion-- It's aura will make you a bit more useful to your team after you use your initiation combo.
Force of Nature-- Most AP lineups will demand you buy this before Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart. Banshee's Veil may be a better option.
Banshee Veil-- If you built a catalyst earlygame, this is an alternative to Force of Nature.
Abyssal Scepter-- Because of its MR and its synergies with Sunfire and Sorc boots, this probably represents the best option for Malphite when building AP.

Playstyle by NeoIllusions
Play Malphite as a early lane dominator. If you spec mana regen runes, you can spam Q more often. If Flat Armor, you'll need to conserve mana until levels 3-5 where Q can actually do more damage. Zone while your Shield is up, step into the brush when it's down, and of course last-hit as often as possible.

At level 6, you should be able to kill if you have been harassing with your Q from levels 3-5. If the enemy is half life or less, open Q first. If enemy Flashes, you respond likewise. R, E and Q again, finish with Ignite. You have to be aware of enemy summoner spells at all times. Having an enemy Flash out of your ulti is devastating to your lane dominance. This is why you open with Q, instead of straight ulti.

Clarity is unorthodox but I say it's acceptable. I mean more Q's during laning phase. However, understand that you'll end up forcing the enemy to back to base more often and this reduces your chance at killing the enemy at level 6.

TL;DR
Flash/Ignite

9/0/21 for Sorcery and Intelligence. 9/21/0 for Sorcery and better tanking.

Red -Magic Penetration
Blue -Magic Resist per LvL
Yellow -Flat Armor -or- Flat Mp5
Quint - Flat HP

Q, E, Q, E, Q, R,
R > Q > E > W

Doran's Ring, Merctreads/Sorcboots, Sunfire Cape -> whatever.

+ Show Spoiler [changelog] +

Aug. 9 2011 -- Updated guide to reflect recent patch.

WaveofShadow

Canada31494 Posts

June 23 2011 01:01 GMT

No to Clarity, Doran's Ring should be opener, not shield for dat Q spam.
Also he does not need swiftness due to MS increase from Q.

Goshawk.

United Kingdom5338 Posts

June 23 2011 01:07 GMT

Clarity is terrible on any champ ever, so definitely don't run it. I haven't played malph in ages so not sure how is mana regen is, mp5 yellows are definitely an option. Run flash+exhaust/tele/ignite instead.

I don't think there's any point of getting an early level of W either in lane, it just reduces your early game burst. I'd probably open regrowth->philo into pure tank items for passive lanes or doran's ring when you think you can get an early kill. Boots for malph depend on the other team, mercs if you need the tenacity, sorc shoes if you don't and want more burst. Core is sunfire+boots into mresist or more armour items.

I used to play a lot of malph, but haven't touched him in ages as he offers very little to a team. He's basically a burst hero who tanks some damage after, but you are just better off with an ap hero or a tanky dps instead. Also, he has a really hard time solo laning against a lot of heroes now.

De4ngus

United States6533 Posts

June 23 2011 01:24 GMT

Malphite nerfed so bad now D: hes pretty shitty compared to like every solo top laner now. You can jungle him I guess but hes super reliant on blue and there are so many better junglers....

Tadzio

3340 Posts

June 23 2011 01:46 GMT

Thanks for the fast criticisms. Some discussion: I don't use clarity on any other hero but I find it needed on Malphite unless I want to buy mana regen, which doesn't benefit on his lategame role. Exhaust doubles up his Q's role. Tele is nice utility, if philostone opener turns out to be the smart way to play Malphite I'd happily replace Clarity with it. Ignite... meh.

Doran's ring won't help Q spam. You could use it occasionally, but spam? Doran's ring on its own makes you passive. Mp5 yellows is the same as giving yourself -13 armor, but if it makes Philostone opening ok, mmmm... I dunno. You don't really need the hp regen on philostone, right? Are there other cheap mp regen items I'm not thinking of? How about Mana Manipulator? You could turn it into Soul Shroud later on.

I mentioned that W can be delayed as long as you like.

Boots of swiftness makes Malphite as fast as Master Yi w/ Boots2 (no ult) which helps him catch up enough to most champ so you can land a Seismic Shard. I guess I could get better at popping out of the fog of war.... How much do Sorc shoes help his burst exactly? Can you explain?

Thanks again guys.

Ryuu314

United States12679 Posts

June 23 2011 02:01 GMT

Sorc shoes give magic pen which is awesome when combined with the 9 in offensive masteries. It makes your Q hurt like a mofo to any non-tanky champ in lane. I love opening Dring 'cause the bonus AP makes Q hurt more and the mp/5 is pretty good and lets you be more aggressive with Q harass. I never go mp/5 seals. A Dring should be enough. If not, get a philo.

Personally, I never get W until there's nothing else. The reason is because a faster maxed E means you can start farming like a boss much earlier. Also, even just 1 level in W will make you push lanes, which you don't want. If the lane is pushed to your favor, you have a much easier time zoning them with Q harass.

Malphite used to be OP 'cause of his Q and sometimes Q-E harass and his passive and his ult. With his passive nerf, he's much less powerful because champs can actually retaliate and tanks are on the way out. His harass is still pretty painful tho.

Tadzio

3340 Posts

June 23 2011 03:31 GMT

Just tried Doran's ring/sorc boots/sunfirecape with Flash/Teleport. Tried to play the same way I did with clarity and had to fountain for mana twice per teleport (for those math majors out there, that's one time too many, lol). Also didn't get W til level 9 and that felt right (edited OP to reflect). Was 1v1 top vs Xin Zhao and zoned him while I had mana but was useless without mana. Game ended in a 20 minute surrender (yay victory) with me 3-0-3 but I felt cramped for mana. I'll try spamming less and see how comfortable it feels. If anyone leaves advice on builds or playstyle tonight I'll try and test it and update OP when things click.

Edit: Game 2 with ring/sorc flash/tele = Was 1v1 mid (teammates picked bad mids) vs a truly horrible ashe with doran's blade. Walked all over her, and since she wasn't regenning like Xin I felt no need to spam to zone her so all was well. 16-3-15 40 minute game where I got to buy Wit's end and Hextech Gunblade after I finished my Randuins. I really can't tell if I'm cool with Ring's regen with 2 rolfstomps as my evidence, but seems like the majority of folk in this thread approve of Ring, so changing the build.

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

June 23 2011 03:36 GMT

I actually have no problem with going fast cata like maokai. There is a very good chance you will be building a bv anyway, and cata is just a really good laning item.

TL Blazeraid

566 Posts

June 23 2011 04:01 GMT

fotm from like February still works fine. saph crystal->cata->sorcs->sunfire/banshees flash+ignite solo lane q>e>w qeqeqr

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

June 23 2011 04:10 GMT

#10

Open Ring!
Sorc Boots

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

June 23 2011 05:44 GMT

#11

Ho kay, so excuse my shit post previously but Tadzio made an excellent thread for a champion we didn't have up yet so I want to help a bro out a bit.

A few patches ago, Bryden7 brought Malphite into the limelight. This was the patch where Gragas (as well as Irelia to a degree) was utterly godly with Locket. Gragas and Malphite were common ranked bans then. After the following patch where Locket was removed, Gragas fell into oblivion until Shushei brought him back to FotM status once again after DH. Malphite on the other hand hasn't changed. He's simply fell out of favor on the NA server.

While WW is a superior laner up top due to his life steal, Malphite is still an excellent solo laner due to his passive. You simply have to lane a bit more passively whenever your shield is down.

Masteries 9/21/0
Summoner Skills Flash/Ignite
Runes Magic Pen, Flat Armor or Mp5/L, Scaling MR, Magic Pen Quints (HP also acceptable).
Skills QEQEQR, R > Q > E > W

Open Ring, Boots, Sunfire <=> Sorc Boots (build Sunfire and Sorc Boots accordingly. You're dominating lane? Sorc for continual damage. Belt first if you need the HP. Chain Vest if you're facing a DPS).
From there, build defensively based on the enemy team. Build Armor item as a preference since your E does scale off Armor. Sunfire and Frozen Heart is an excellent combo. You have two of the highest Armor items, HP, Mana, CDR and a sick aura that will affect the enemy DPS for sure.

If you need MR, your choice of Banshee, FoN or both.

AP items isn't a bad choice but select wisely. Rylai's feels like overkill since Q is already an excellent slow. RoA or Void Staff are decent choices for mid/late game.

Play Malphite early as a lane dominator. If you spec mana regen runes, you can spam Q more often. Flat Armor, you'll need to conserve mana until levels 3-5 where Q can actually do more damage. Zone while your Shield is up, step into the brush when it's down and of course late hit as often as possible.

At level 6, you should be able to kill if you have been harassing with your Q from levels 3-5. If the enemy is half life or less, open Q first. If enemy Flashes, you respond likewise. Ulti, E Q again, finish with Ignite. You have to be aware of enemy summoners at all time. Having an enemy flash out of your ulti is devastating to your lane dominance. This is why you open with Q, instead of straight ulti.

Clarity is unorthodox but I say it's acceptable. I mean more Q's during laning phase. However, understand that you'll end up forcing the enemy to back to base more often and this reduces your chance at killing the enemy at level 6.

gtrsrs

United States9109 Posts

June 23 2011 06:18 GMT

#12

Tadzio, you'll find you won't be mana starved if you don't start your Q-harass-spam until level 5, where it becomes mana-cost-efficient. if you use Q at levels 1-4 more than once or twice or to escape a gank, you'll be short on mana. but once you get rank 3 Q, you'll be doing ample damage for your mana and it will only take 3-5 Qs to get someone low enough to ult-E-ignite for the kill

sorc boots are great on champs that have magic damage but don't scale well with AP or don't build AP. malphite falls into the latter.

Tadzio

3340 Posts

June 23 2011 06:26 GMT

#13

OP updated with Neo's advice. Thanks for the explanation on when Sorc boots are useful, gtrsrs :D

NightWalks

Latvia252 Posts

June 23 2011 08:08 GMT

#14

I used to enjoy Malph until discowered Cow. Cow's W/Flash + Q mimics Malph's R , but on way less CD. Meanwhile Cow can still build AP and stay alive with R , while even with good scaling on malphs R (1:1) he canot exactly afford to build Ap to perform as teams tank/initiator.

Same story when compare Malph to Mumu ... IMO mumu has way more utility in teamfight while building full tank.

Sumary : Malph is decent/fun character , but suffers from same problem many LOL characters have - there are always some other characters who are just better overall.
PS: Picked up Malph again (since hes 50% off 4eva thnx to Riot) just to have fun with his R dives

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

June 23 2011 17:33 GMT

#15

On June 23 2011 17:08 NightWalks wrote:
Sumary : Malph is decent/fun character , but suffers from same problem many LOL characters have - there are always some other characters who are just better overall.

Malph is fantastic as an anti-ranged DPS (or to an extent tanky DPS too, most tankies don't use ASPD). His issue is (was?) that ranged DPS is relatively rare these days.

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

June 23 2011 19:31 GMT

#16

ok, so I'm just gonna run down some things I disagree with in the guide, do with it what you will.

Skills: W only at level 13. Never delay your burst for it IMHO. Whole point of early -> midgame malphite is to blow people up, it's pretty analogous to advocating Annie grabbing her E before level 13... yes it provides some minor utility, but it sets back your effectiveness at doing your real job and thus is a decision that should only be made when you REALLY need that extra bit of utility.

Quints: MPen Quints come at a high opportunity cost and don't give you a whole hell of a lot. If you're OCD about stuff, you can run 1 MPen quint so that you can hit 30 MPen with Sorc Shoes to deal true damage vs. ranged/mage opponents without any MRes specced, but you honestly probably will do better to run some combination of Flat HP, Movespeed, Armor and MRes. Due to his passive shield, you kinda can't go wrong with just sticking to Flat HP, but those other options all have their merits.

Seals: If you're getting mana regen, get flat. You only really spam in lane, where you need the early regen more than the late regen, so go flat rather than scaling if you're doing that.

9/21/0 is fine, but there's a lot of merit to speccing your masteries like a caster with 9/0/21. In your discussion, you point to sorcery being the big draw of early offensive tree, but Archaeic Mastery is actually the main draw, as 0.75% CDR/mastery point isn't terribly efficient on it's own (see: Intelligence in the utility tree at 2% CDR/mastery point). Utility gives you a lot, mana regen, movespeed, CDR, gold/10, summoner spell CDR, it's all very useful on Malphite, and I think I would recommend 9/0/21 over 9/21/0 for the most part.

Items: Dring is good but not the only option. You can opt for regen pendant and back for an early philosopher's stone to handle mana in lane. You can also opt for sapphire crystal + 2 pots and build into catalyst ASAP before progressing to boots + sunfire (this was the bryden7 build btw). Also, and I know I'll get flamed for this, Chalice of Harmony is probably really underrated as an early game option on Malphite (yes, I went there). I think it's worth trying Meki -> Chalice out a few times to see how an early chalice affects your lane presence, especially vs. Mages where the 30 MR counts for a lot.

From there, you basically got the core right with sunfire + appropriate boots. Throw a heart of gold in pre-sunfire if you're not feeling pressured to rush Sunfire for it's power and think you'll want a Randuin's later. If you went cata, aim for banshee's when needed. IMO abyssal scepter is the #1 AP option on Malphite. It synergizes with sunfire + sorc shoes to cover opponents speccing low non-zero amounts of MRes (Mercs only or an ally with Aegis for example) for enhancing your damage output while also providing hefty MR. Frozen Heart and Randuin's are both very good, as is Aegis. Force of Nature is situationally good, but I wouldn't think of using it regularly on Malphite. I would never consider thornmail, and QSS would be super duper rare on Malphite since it's rare that you'll be a worthwhile target for anything useful that it cleanses. Rylai's is an awful idea that is straight up out performed by RoA on Malphite, and I consider RoA a worse use of Catalyst than Banshee's Veil in roughly 95% of situations. Void staff is alright if everyone's stacking MRes, but I usually just care about blowing squishies up, so unless their carries are also sitting at over 100 MRes, I'll usually opt for Abyssal.

So I guess:
Core: Sunfire
Good Options: Aegis, Randuin's, Banshee's, Frozen Heart (feel free sit on just Glacial for awhile if appropriate), Abyssal Scepter
Sometimes Options: FoN, Void Staff
Super Rare Options: QSS, RoA
Never Options: Everything else

I've also seen random crap when a Malphite gets super fed where he'll grab a Triforce or a Bloodrazor to put more sustained offensive pressure out in teamfights but this is only something to do when you keep accidentally getting a ton of kills instead of your teammates and you need to pick up DPS slack.

Summoner's: Flash/Ignite 99% of the time. Flash needed to Initiate as well as possible, Ignite needed to wtfbbqburst rape someone in lane.

That's what I got on Malphite.

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

June 24 2011 17:29 GMT

#17

Malphite's W is not comparable to Annie's E because Annie's E is very good for stun fakes and setting up more stun procs during combat. Meanwhile Malph's W gives you basically nothing in lane (as opposed to jungle where it's quite necessary).

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

June 24 2011 17:31 GMT

#18

I still cringe whenever I see an Annie popping her molten shield at level 8 -_-.

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

June 24 2011 17:33 GMT

#19

On June 25 2011 02:29 Southlight wrote:
Malphite's W is not comparable to Annie's E because Annie's E is very good for stun fakes and setting up more stun procs during combat. Meanwhile Malph's W gives you basically nothing in lane (as opposed to jungle where it's quite necessary).

dunt lie, E sux. QWQWQ all the way. ;p