Overview
Need a rock solid alibi? Tell the police you were playing Malphite top lane and don’t ever leave your house and thus couldn’t be the culprit. Malphite is a great pick for new players or players filling in top lane especially. If you need a tank who can make sure the enemy AD players don’t have a good time, then this is the pick for you. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Malphite
Just because you see a big clump of champions doesn't mean you have to press R. If you don't catch any carries or if no one on your team can follow up, it might end up being a waste of a key ability.
Against split pushers, you should aim to clear minion waves (sometimes before they even reach your tower if you can tank the enemy split pusher). If you can clear the wave under the turret and also hit the enemy with your R, it's one way you can win a 1v1.
Strengths
He’s got a pretty high floor in terms of learning curve, which means pretty much anyone can pick up Malphite and provide value over the course of the game. You can fall behind in lane and it doesn’t matter that much as long as you don’t feed too hard, and then come team fights there are few top laners who can add as much immediate impact as you thanks to Unstoppable Force [R]. You just press one button and as long as you land it on a good clump of enemy champions, you will have a big chance of winning the fight.
Weaknesses
He can be pretty easy to bully out in lane phase, and trading back with Seismic Shard [Q] can be very expensive. You’ll often run out of mana before the enemy if you’re forced into constant trades, and you also struggle to fight back with auto-attacks. And while it doesn’t matter that much if you fall behind because of the utility you provide in fights, come late game, you will sometimes feel like another minion when a true split-pushing champion comes along. All they have to do is ignore you and hit the turret and you can be hard pressed to do anything about it.
Game Plan
Early Game: Focus mostly on farming. You can find yourself in a lot of trouble if you allow the enemy to freeze your lane, so you’ll want to try to keep the wave pushing at you instead of vice versa. You can trade back with Q if your shield is up, otherwise you should just wait for Level 6 before making plays with your jungler or by roaming elsewhere.
Mid Game: You want to group and fight as much as possible when you don’t have to manage a wave. You’re typically not going to be the one split-pushing so much as you are managing side waves before looking to group to use your ultimate.
Late Game: You’ll generally need help to win fights against split pushers but as long as someone with good damage comes along, it’s very easy to set up kills thanks to Unstoppable Force [R]. Otherwise look for team fights -- your main goal is to ultimate onto the enemy ADC and sit on them for the duration of the fight.
