Malphite/Strategy

Ability Usage

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

Build usage

 * It is difficult to build items that give 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.
 * is typically built for a tank role but can be built with ability power, trading off late game utility for damage.
 * is a possible build option, boosting his magic resistance and lowering the enemies'. Since most of abilities deal magical damage this item can increase his damage output significantly.
 * is a good but highly situational item on, as it increases armor for and AP for  and . The active effect also allows  (as well as all of his other abilities) more time to reactivate.
 * Consider purchasing a or  to support the effect of his.
 * Most of 's items should give you at least a small amount of armor. gains a massive amount of damage from armor, and  increases the damage even further, based on armor.
 * will often be your primary damage ability, so buying items like that give you armor and cooldown reduction or  will help tremendously. Building DPS/Tank gear and he becomes a deadly initiator and anti-carry.
 * Although 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, , or even  when facing multiple AP opponents. Your armor will have very little effect against casters like  or.
 * Building health can be useful in addition to buying items for resistances:, , and are all good items, as they increase the shield from.
 * usually doesn't have the damage to sustain himself in a fight with spell vamp or lifesteal. Building and  can give him valuable health regeneration.
 * Note that the health regeneration is pathetically small during the actual teamfight (Warmog's and Force of Nature are both +8 health per second), which will get you +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 or  can help  stick to enemies with the movement speed buff of his.
 * can build a little attack damage with the splash damage passive and attack damage steroid active from . or  are good choices in that situation.
 * Buying cooldown reduction is a priority for as the cooldowns on his abilities persist longer than his abilities' effects.

Jungling

 * Starting items and 5x or, if you can have a little pull,  and 1x . This way, you can jungle more and get,  and one or two wards at first recall.
 * Skill Progression: --  --  --
 * Jungling Order: Wolves -- Blue Golem (Smite) -- Wraiths -- Small Golems -- Red Lizard -- Wraith -- Fountain -- Wolves -- Gank!

Countering

 * Try to destroy before using your nukes to ensure it deals full damage.
 * In the lane, try to harass to break his  and prevent its regeneration.
 * passive can completely shut down regrowth.
 * 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 as your speed increase will also increase the amount of movement speed he steals.
 * Wait until the effect of his wears off before continuing to attack  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, as this will reduce your damage significantly.
 * will usually build armor to make the effect of his more useful. Consider getting a  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.
 * can be effectively countered by going double AP, as opposed to the usual bruiser meta.